identifier stringlengths 1 43 | dataset stringclasses 3 values | question stringclasses 4 values | rank int64 0 99 | url stringlengths 14 1.88k | read_more_link stringclasses 1 value | language stringclasses 1 value | title stringlengths 0 200 | top_image stringlengths 0 125k | meta_img stringlengths 0 125k | images listlengths 0 18.2k | movies listlengths 0 484 | keywords listlengths 0 0 | meta_keywords listlengths 1 48.5k | tags null | authors listlengths 0 10 | publish_date stringlengths 19 32 ⌀ | summary stringclasses 1 value | meta_description stringlengths 0 258k | meta_lang stringclasses 68 values | meta_favicon stringlengths 0 20.2k | meta_site_name stringlengths 0 641 | canonical_link stringlengths 9 1.88k ⌀ | text stringlengths 0 100k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 73 | https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2010/09/16/steve-smith-country-pop-and-classic-rock-2/ | en | STEVE SMITH: Country, pop and classic rock | [
"https://www.whittierdailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/whittier_daily_news_black-509x71.svg",
"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/51905208a9b0e0806fac76c8b326e598?s=85&d=mm&r=g",
"https://www.whittierdailynews.com/wp-content/plugins/dfm-trust-indicators/static/images/Trust-Logo-Horizontal.svg",
"https:... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Steve Smith"
] | 2010-09-16T00:00:00 | BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD TO REUNITE Buffalo Springfield, one of the most influential country-rock bands in music history, will reunite Oct. 23-24 when they headline both star-studded nights of Neil Young’s 24 th annual Bridge School benefit at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, near San Francisco, according to the Oakland Tribune. The three living Springfield members, Young, […] | en | Whittier Daily News | https://www.whittierdailynews.com/general-news/20100916/steve-smith-country-pop-and-classic-rock/ | BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD TO REUNITE Buffalo Springfield, one of the most influential country-rock bands in music history, will reunite Oct. 23-24 when they headline both star-studded nights of Neil Young’s 24 th annual Bridge School benefit at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, near San Francisco, according to the Oakland Tribune. The three living Springfield members, Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, will play acoustic sets, which fits the established format for these benefits. The two other original members, bass player Bruce Palmer, died in 2004, and drummer Dewey Martin, passed away last year. Jim Messina, who replaced Palmer for The Springfield’s final album and tours several years before teaming with Kenny Loggins, is unconfirmed for the upcoming concerts. The Springfield last played live in public 42 years ago (they played privately in 1986). The group was together only three years, 1966-68, but they released an LP each year. Stills’ solemn 1967 ballad, “For What It’s Worth,” which concerns the teenage riots on the Sunset Strip in 1966, came to symbolize the turbulence and “Generation Gap” confrontations of the times, especially the Vietnam War. The song was ranked #63 in Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The Buffalo Springfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Also of interest at the Bridge School concerts is an all-star contingent, T-Bone Burnette’s Speaking Clock Revue that includes Elton John, Leon Russell, 83-year old bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Elvis Costello, Neko Case and Oscar-winning actor-singer Jeff Bridges. Pearl Jam, Modest Mouse, Lucinda Williams, Billy Idol, the surviving Highwaymen duo of Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, and Jackson Browne with David Lindley will also appear.
KENNEDY CENTER HONORS FOR McCARTNEY & HAGGARD The list of the 33 rd Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC includes Paul McCartney (who just finished producing an EP mini-album for his son James), 68, and country music legend Merle Haggard, 73. Other honorees include Oprah Winfrey, music theatre dancer-choreographer-director Bill T. Jones, and Broadway composer and lyricist Jerry Herman (“Hello Dolly,” “Mame,” “La Cage aux Folles”). The gala will be televised on CBS at a later date. President and Mrs. Obama will host the honorees at the White House prior to attending the event, which features well-known guest performing artists honoring the recipients in performance onstage.
KINKS RAY DAVIES COLLABORATES Ray Davies, 66, has been re-recording a bunch of his Kinks songs for an upcoming album with a number of guests, according to New Musical Express (NME). Bruce Springsteen joined Davies on a new version of the 1981 hit, “Better Things,” while Jon Bon Jovi sings with him on The Kinks’ 1972 classic, “Celluloid Heroes.” Others who have recorded with Davies for this project include Lucinda Williams, The Pixies’ Frank Black, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Spoon, and the late Alex Chilton of The Box Tops and Big Star. The as-yet-untitled CD is expected to be released before the end of they year.
RONSTADT REMEMBERS KENNY EDWARDS Linda Ronstadt remembered fellow Stone Poneys member Kenny Edwards, who died on Aug. 19 at age 64. “He had excellent creative ideas, and didn’t always get the credit the others did,” she told the L.A.
Times. The Stone Poneys hit the charts for their one and only time in 1967 with “Different Drum,” a song written by Mike Nesmith of The Monkees. They disbanded shortly thereafter. Guitarist-singer Edwards then teamed with singer-songwriters Wendy Waldman, Bonoff and Andrew Gold in group, Bryndle. He then teamed again with Ronstadt in 1974 on her multi-platinum album, “Heart Like a Wheel.” Ronstadt added, “He was always a beacon to me, and his opinion always counted a lot for me. The great thing about watching what he’s been doing in recent years is how much he enjoyed it. He dreamed good dreams and he lived them out.”
MUSIC STARS FIGHT ILLNESSES Pop and rock stars lent their support at two recently televised benefits whose purposes were to fight catastrophic diseases, the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon and Stand Up For Cancer. Lewis brought out the likes of Barry Manilow, Michael Feinstein, Maureen McGovern (1972′ “The Morning After”), Enrique Iglesias, “American Idol” contestant David Archuleta, Lynyrd Skynyrd, WAR, Beatles tribute band The Fab Four and Charro, while raising almost $59 million. Stand Up For Cancer featured Neil Diamond with Herbie Hancock, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Kris Kristofferson, Martina McBride, U2 guitarist The Edge, former Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, Aaron Neville and Stevie Wonder. That special, which aired on all three major networks, raised in the vicinity of $100 million.
DEBBIE DOES AUCTIONS
Singing and dancing actress Debbie Reynolds found everlasting fame with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the 1951 classic, “Singin’ in the Rain.” As a pop singer, she took the theme song from her film, “Tammy,” to #1 and a gold record in 1957. Reynolds, 78, owns one of Hollywood’s greatest collections of memorabilia, which she’s amassed over her lifetime and that has an estimated value of $50 million. Her son Todd Fisher, told AP that the collection will be auctioned off before next June. Included in the sale are the ruby red slippers and lightly colored checkered dress worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in 1939’s “Wizard of Oz”; the fur coat worn in “Citizen Kane” by Orson Welles as super-wealthy Charles Foster Kane in 1941; and the dress Marilyn Monroe wore in the iconic blast of underground air from the subway scene in the 1955 comedy , “The Seven Year Itch.” Thousands of other costumes and items will also be sold. Reynolds begins an 11-night run at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood on September 23. She’s also booked for a concert at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano next January 11.
DALE BOZZIO NO MISSING PERSON Missing Persons blond bombshell singer Dale Bozzio was among the most popular singers of the ’80 s. Her high-pitched chirpy staccato singing is said to have heavily influenced Gwen Stefani of Orange County’s No Doubt; and her inventive, risqu? clothes and overall style have drawn comparisons to Lady Gaga. Electric Blue Records, a subsidiary of Blue Pie Records announced that it has signed Bozzio to a recording contract. Additional details have not yet been announced.
KING COLEMAN DIES
Carlton “King” Coleman, an R & B pioneer best known for his lead vocal on the 1960 dance hit, “(Do The) Mashed Potatoes” died of heart failure in Miami at ager 78, according to his son, reports AP. The record was actually recorded by James Brown’s band, The Famous Flames, but a legal spat arose that prevented Brown from singing on the record, so Coleman handled it. Brown played piano on the track while shouting the song’s title in the background. Again, because of contractual problems, the record was released under the group name Nat Kendrick and The Swans, after Brown’s drummer. The single hit #8 on Billboard’s R & B chart in 1960. Coleman later worked with B.B King and Jackie Wilson and became a popular DJ in Miami.
ANOTHER DOOBIE FOR WILLIE On Sept. 28, The Doobie Brothers will release “World Gone Crazy,” its first CD of new music in more than a decade. For the song, “I Know We Won,” original members Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons got some songwriting and vocal help from Willie Nelson, according to the Boot. “I’d been talking to Willie for ages (about collaborating),” says Simmons, who adds that Nelson “perfectly captured the sentiment” of the song. The new record also features former Doobie Brother’s singer Michael McDonald on “Don’t Say Goodbye.” In other McDonald news, the 58-year-old soul belter will release a new holiday DVD next week, “Michael McDonald – This Christmas Live In Chicago,” that features a dozen holiday classics and not-so familiar Christmas songs, two of his hits as a solo artist, three Doobies hits and a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
HAL KETCHUM ON THE DL
Illness has forced country singer Hal Ketchum, 57, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, to cancel his upcoming tours of the U.S. and the U.K., according to a statement on his website. No further details were given. Ketchum’s 1991 album, “Past the Point of Rescue,” went Top 10 on the country chart and was certified gold. He has a dozen Top 40 country singles beginning with 1991’s “Small Town Saturday Night,” that hit #2.
DREAM THEATER FOUNDER QUITS Drummer Mike Portnoy has amicably left Dream Theater, the progressive metal band he formed in Massachusetts in 1985, to pursue other interests, according to Pollstar. The group has proven far more popular over the years in Europe and Japan than in the U.S. Its most recent CD, last year’s “Black Clouds & Silver Linings,” was the group’s tenth studio record and was far and away its most popular domestic work, peaking at #6 on the Billboard album chart. It is the group’s only stateside Top 10 album.
BIG COUNTRY IS BACK
Scottish group Big Country, who hit it big in the 80 s, has reunited. In 1983, the band took the Highland fling-infused single, “In a Big Country,” to #3 in the U.S. The song went platinum in both Canada and the U.K. The band is returning for the first time since group leader Stuart Adamson committed suicide in Hawaii in 2001. Replacing Adamson is Mike Peters, lead singer for the Welch band, The Alarm, which had the late-’80 s KROQ smashes, “68 Guns,” and “Sold Me Down the River.” Big Country is taking its reunion slow at first, beginning its comeback with only four shows in England next January.
WYNTON MARSALIS TO CUBA State Department authorities have approved a brief tour of Cuba by NYC’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and its bandleader, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. The orchestra will perform several concerts there between Oct. 5-9.
Funding of the tour was provided by the Mellon, Ford and Rockefeller non-profit foundations.
GEORGE MICHAEL GETS 8 WEEKS A judge at England’s Highbury Corner Magistrates Court sentenced pop singer George Michael to eight weeks in jail after Michael pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and possession of marijuana, according to London’s Daily Mail. This is the latest of several incidents involving Michael driving under the influence. Michael was also fined $1,930 and his driver’s license was suspended for five years.
VINCE NEIL’S NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Motley Crue singer Vince Neil’s autobiography, “Tattoos & Tequila,” will be released on Sept. 23. Among the numerous juicy bits in the book, Neil waxes unsparingly of his dislike of Ozzy Osbourne’s manager-wife, Sharon, writing, “This is the most evil woman I’ve ever met in my life. She would have you (expletive) killed if it was to her advantage,” according to the New York Post. In other news, Neil was accused of assaulting a woman in an elevator at the Las Vegas Hilton on Sept. 5. However, TMZ says that no charges were filed after Hilton surveillance cameras showed no evidence of an assault. Neil is still scheduled to be arraigned in a Las Vegas court on Sept. 27 th on DUI and speeding charges stemming from a June 27 incident. Neil lives in Vegas and owns several businesses there, including tattoo parlors, a cantina in the Hilton and a private jet charter service.
COUNTRY HALL OF FAME BENEFIT Keith Urban’s 2 nd “All For The Hall” Country Hall of Fame benefit concert, set for Oct. 5 features a lineup of performers that includes Hall members Dolly Parton, Charley Pride and Vince Gill as well as Alan Jackson, Alison Kraus (fresh off her two-year Grammy-winning collaboration with former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant), Martina McBride and John Mayer. In other Country Hall of Fame news, Booker T & The MG’s guitarist Steve Cropper (whose latest CD is a collaborations with The Rascals’ singer-organist Felix Cavaliere), 19 th-century composer Stephen Foster, songwriter Pat Alger and the late singer Paul Davis (“I Go Crazy”) will be inducted on Oct. 17, according to its website.
SPRINGSTEEN REVISITS THE EDGE OF TOWN Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s 1978 album, “Darkness on the Edge of Town” is considered an American rock music classic and is listed at #151 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The record contains the fan favorites “Badlands,” “The Promised Land,” and “Prove It All Night.” A new documentary, “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town,” was premiered this week at the Toronto Film Festival. Next stop is HOB, where the doc will begin airing Oct. 7. Then on Nov. 16, Columbia Records releases a 3-CD, 3-DVD box set of the album containing 21 previously unreleased songs as well as the documentary.
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL
Aussie songstress Olivia Newton-John, still a beauty at 61, attended the premiere of her new independent film, “Score, A Hockey Musical,” at the Toronto Film Festival, according to the Daily Mail. The star of the smash 1978 musical, “Grease,” has continued to act in films and television steadily through the years. In “Score,” she and Canadian songwriter Marc Jordan are the parents of a teenage hockey player who achieves greatness on the ice. She and Jordon also co-wrote and performed a song at the movie’s end over the credits.
MOOGFEST MoogFest is a three-day festival that pays homage to Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, the keyboard instrument that revolutionized modern music. The event is held Oct. 29-31 in Asheville, NC, and among the two dozen performers will be Devo (who will receive the festival’s Moog Innovation Award) and Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks. Moog’s first musical invention was the theremin that makes a high-pitched warbly, whistly sound. He invented this instrument in 1949 when he was only 14 years old. The Beach Boys used a theremin on the 1966 classic, “Good Vibrations” and Jimmy Page used it during the extended musical break on Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The musical inventor developed his first Moog Synthesizer in 1964. Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer was the first musician to use a Moog live in concert in the late ’60 s when he was a member of his pre-ELP group, The Nice. Moog died of brain cancer in Asheville in 2005 at age 71.
AMY & QUINCY RECORD TOGETHER Troubled five-time Grammy winner Amy Winehouse will add her distinctive jazzy R & B vocals to a track on 77-year-old composer-conductor-producer Quincy Jones’ upcoming CD, “Q: Soul Bossa Nostra,” a cover album of Jones’ past hits, reports AP. The 27-year old British singer hasn’t released any new music since her second CD, “Back to Black,” made her an international star in 2006. In England, producer Mark Ronson, who guided “Back to Black,” recorded Winehouse’s take on “It’s My Party,” a Jones-produced smash for a discovery of his, Leslie Gore, in 1963. Of Winehouse, who said her next album will be out in January, Jones said in a statement, “I am astounded not only by her voice but by her tremendous knowledge of and respect for music and its history. I absolutely love what they (Winehouse and Ronson) did to make the song their own.” Other participants on Jones’ new CD include Jamie Foxx, Mary J. Blige, Jennifer Hudson and Usher.
JERMAINE JACKSON IN VEGAS Jermaine Jackson says his upcoming Oct. 2 concert at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, “40 Years of Jackson Family Music,” will be loaded with Jackson 5 hits. Backed by an 11-piece group, three backup singers and six dancers, the 55-year-old who hit the Top 10 in 1973 with “Daddy’s Home” and again six years later with “Let’s Get Serious,” will also feature a tribute to his brother Michael that will include his own versions of “Man in the Mirror,” “Beat It,” and other hits.
PERRY AIRS ON AEROSMITH Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry voiced his disdain to the Calgary Herald for “American Idol,” whose newest judge may be his group’s singer, Steven Tyler. “It’s a reality show designed to – sell advertising. It’s one step above (the Teenage) Mutant Ninja Turtles,” he says. The 59-year old axe-man says he’s not going to waste time doing nothing while Tyler does his thing on TV. The rest of the band isn’t “going to sit around for two years waiting for him to come back. You’ve got four guys that are great together, and if you find the right singer, there is no reason you can’t go out and entertain people.”
KANSAS IN KANSAS Classic rockers Kansas, which formed in Topeka, KS, in 1970, are celebrating 40 years together by playing a series of benefit concerts at colleges and universities this month, “The Kansas Collegiate Symphony Tour,” according to a release on its website. For the shows, the band that still counts original singer Steve Walsh, drummer Phil Ehart, and guitarist Rich Williams among its members, the album-oriented rockers will be joined by each school’s orchestras. The concerts will raise money for each school’s music programs. The tour includes stops at colleges in Alabama, Texas, Missouri and of course, Kansas.
NO STONES WHILE THEY’RE HAVING FUN The Rolling Stones 69-year-old drummer Charlie Watts tells Le Parisien that there won’t be any Stones activity, either in the studio or on the road, until “Mick (Jagger) and Keith (Richards) get bored-(and) at the moment they’re having a good time.” Watts, who joined the band in January 1963 after nearly a year of constant coercion from Jagger, Richards, guitarist Brian Jones, piano player Ian Stewart and bassist Dick Taylor, who would soon leave to become guitarist for The Pretty Things. Watts, who also leads a jazz band, and who has been married to wife Shirley for 45 years, says of a Stones farewell tour, “We’re discussing it at the moment. If we do something, it will be next year or the year after. We’ve reached an age where you can’t look too far into the future.” In other Stones news, a digitally remastered version of “Ladies and Gentlemen- The Rolling Stones,” the 1973 rockumentary of its 1972 American “Exile on Main St.” tour premiered in London last week with 73-year-old former bassist Bill Wyman, who retired from the band in 1992, in attendance. For the new version of the film, the 67-year-old Jagger taped a brief interview in London several weeks ago. The movie will be released on Blue-ray and DVD next month. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 26 | https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/speakers/2024-speakers/ | en | 2024 Speakers – Lake Nona Impact Forum | [
"https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/wp-content/themes/lnif/img/lnif_logo.svg",
"https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/wp-content/themes/lnif/img/lnif_logo.svg",
"https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/carmona_richard_2024.jpg 500w, https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/carmona_ri... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | https://lakenonaimpactforum.org/speakers/2024-speakers/ | Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS
17th Surgeon General of the United States; Chief of Health Innovations, Canyon Ranch; Distinguished Laureate Professor, University of Arizona; Chairman, Lake Nona Impact Forum, Advisory Board
Michelle Williams, ScD
Joan and Julius Jacobson Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Co-Chair, Lake Nona Impact Forum, Advisory Board
Carme Artigas
Co-Chair, UN AI Advisory Body; Former State Secretary for Digitization & AI, Government of Spain
Alex Azar
24th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Dan Buettner
National Geographic Fellow, NYT Best Selling Author & Founder of the Blue Zones
Kenneth Cole
Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Kenneth Cole Productions; Founder & Chairman of the Board, The Mental Health Coalition
Sanjay Gupta, MD
Multiple Emmy®-award winning Chief Medical Correspondent, CNN; Founder & Co Host, LIFE ITSELF; Emory, Associate Chief of Neurosurgery | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 24 | http://musiciansolympus.blogspot.com/2010/08/kennyedwards-bass.html | en | The Musicians' Olympus: Kenny Edwards (vocals | [
"http://sstatic1.histats.com/0.gif?1075954&101",
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPs8uh2yGaZY0dghscWlbnbq6IGFrB5m_drh4y2EUF_KVrB-9Ob3LixwJDbEG6Z4L3uJ8YXfVPrTWcE-PCN0UZIHJQ253LMDCQxX-sqcEB4AWs-nAHPdNAlmYYag4YtdJKsYV5XkdiIq9z/s800/KennyEdwards-photo1.jpg",
"https://blogger.googleuserco... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | BANDS: Canned Heat [1966] The Stone Poneys [1966-1968] Bryndle Rangers Linda Ronstadt Band [1974-?] Andrew Gold Band [1976-1977] Br... | http://musiciansolympus.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | http://musiciansolympus.blogspot.com/2010/08/kennyedwards-bass.html | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 87 | https://bakerfuneralhomepound.com/obituaries | en | Obituaries | https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/stock/106586 | https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/stock/106586 | [
"https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/ddb1d60c-fe10-4c13-b358-ea4eb6467449/1000008404.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:12.5%25,w:75%25,h:100%25/rs=w:388,h:517.3333333333334,cg:true",
"https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/ddb1d60c-fe10-4c13-b358-ea4eb6467449/1000008277.jpg/:/cr=t:2.69%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:94.62%25/rs=w:388,h:517.3333333... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Baker Funeral Home"
] | null | en | //img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/static/pwa-app/logo-default.png/:/rs=w:57,h:57,m | Baker Funeral Home | https://bakerfuneralhomepound.com/obituaries | POUND, VA – Charlotte Sue Meade, 59, entered into eternal rest Sunday August 11, 2024 from her residence, after a long
battle with cancer. Her loving family was at her side.
Charlotte was of the Baptist faith. She was a loving mother, sister, aunt and friend. She enjoyed coloring, watching television
especially The Golden Girls and the TLC Channel. But being with her family was what brought her the greatest moments of her life. Her family was everything to her.
Charlotte was preceded in death by her parents Albert and Christine (Tucker) Mullins; her husband Monroe Meade; a sister, Becky Mullins and her sister-in-law, Wilma Mullins.
Survivors include her daughters, Alice Marie Meade (Spencer Salyers)- Pound, VA, Lindsay Brooke Meade Dingus (William)-
Pound, VA; sisters, Linda Mullins- Pound, VA, Melissa Martin -Dodge City, KS; brothers, Larry Mullins- Pound, VA and Barry Mullins (Amanda)- Pound, VA., several nieces,
nephews and cousins and a host of friends and loved ones.
Special thank you to all the hospice nurses for their kindness and compassion.
There will be a celebration of life service at a later date.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Charlotte Sue Meade.
CLINTWOOD, VA – Logan Jess Stanley was born December 3, 1988 to the late Randy and Rachelle Stanley.
Logan passed away from his earthly body at his home in Clintwood on July 28, 2024.
Logan was preceded in death by his father Randy Stanley; hismaternal grandparents Bill and Irene (Hall) Allen and paternal grandfather Jessie Stanley.
Survivors include his loving mother Rachelle (Allen) Stanley-Clintwood, VA; sister Tiffany Mullins and brother-in-law Justin-Coeburn, VA; three precious nephews Braden Lee Stanley,
Braxton Lee Mullins and Ryker Lee Mullins; his paternal grand-mother Shirley (Edwarda) Stanley; several aunts, uncles and cousins; and host of friends and loved ones.
Logan will be missed more than words can say, but with our hope, faith and unconditional love we will see each other again.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Friday August 2, 2024, in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Kelly Fleming officiating. The family will receive friends from 12 Noon until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Saturday August 3, 2024, at the Stanley/Moore Cemetery on John Dane Lane in Clintwood, VA where Justin Mullins, Braden Stanley, Andrew Tucker, Jordan Slone, Brent Mullins, and Jarvie
Robinson will serve as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will be Braxton Mullins and Ryker Mullins. Family and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 11:30 am for a final
viewing and to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
The staff at Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is in charge of arrangements and extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Logan Jess Stanley.
POUND, VA - Kevin Dewayne Mullins, was born on June 2, 1966
and passed away at Bristol Regional Medical Center on July 27, 2024,
after a long fought battle of illness.
Kevin worked many years in the construction industry, primarily in
concrete, with his brothers. In his spare time he loved to fish and hang
out with his many close friends. He was a member of Lost Creek
Ministries in Norton, VA. He loved to visit and help the homeless under the bridge with his church family. He had the kindest heart of anyone you could ever meet, and he will be missed by anyone who knew him. He is rejoicing in Heaven, with his mother and daddy, and no longer in pain.
Kevin is preceded in death by his mother and father Alvin and Anna
Faye Mullins, brother Shannon Mullins of Coeburn, VA and brothers-in-laws Donald Kennedy of Coeburn, VA, Mitchell Chester- Pound, VA
and David Gent- Pound, VA, nephew Hunter Lassiter of Pound, VA.
Kevin is survived by brothers Stevie (Deidra) Mullins, Ricky Mullins,
Randy Mullins (Dora), Timmy Mullins and Jimmy Mullins, all of Pound, VA;sisters Tonia Kennedy of Wise, VA, Thresia Mullins and Cindy Gent of Coeburn, VA, Rhonda Adams and (James Bentley), Lisa (Scott) Rasnic
and Kimberly Mullins, all of Wise, VA, Robin (Greg) Mullins of Norton,
VA and Kristy Mullins of Wise, VA, and a host of nieces, nephews,
cousins and friends.
Kevin is also survived by special friends Les Falin, Chuck Branham
and Kimberly Willis, all of Pound, VA; special great niece Abigail and
God daughter Audrey Browning of Wise, VA.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Tuesday July 30, 2024,
in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Jeff Reynolds officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00pm until the time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Wednesday July 31,
2024, at the Eli Mullins Cemetery on Sock Hollow Road in Pound, VA
where Devin Rasnick, Justin Gent, Trevan Vanover, William Meade,
Tyler Craddock, Les Falin, Chuck Branham and Joshua Mullins will
serve as pallbearers. Payton (Doodle) McGraw and Chandler Mullins
will be honorary pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet
at the funeral home by 12:00 Noon to prepare to go in procession to
the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Kevin
Dewayne Mullins.
WISE, VA – Vicky Lynn Phillips, 64, entered into rest Friday July 19, 2024 from Roanoke Memorial Hospital after an extended
illness. Her beloved family was by her side.
Vicky was a born again Christian and attended Pyles Memorial Chapel. She was born October 10, 1959 to her parents Trent and Wilma (Dotson) Mullins of Pound, VA. and was a1978 graduate of Pound, High School. She was a licensed cosmetologist and worked for several years as a bank teller. Vicky had a warm heart and a fantastic smile, she could make everyone feel better. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend. She enjoyed going to church, traveling and shopping and loved the beach. Vicky maintained a close relationship with
both her parents their entire lives.
Vicky was preceded in death by her parents Trent and Wilma (Dotson) Mullins, an infant brother Scotty Von Mullins; and her father and mother-in-law Charles and Anna Phillips.
Vicky is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 28 years Thea Phillips-Wise, VA; her daughters Nakisha Robinson-Clintwood,
VA, Amber Coomer and husband Roger-Kingsport, TN and Heather Nidiffer and husband Matthew-Danville, VA; her grandchildren Trenton “Dub” Robinson and wife Brynna, Nick Robinson, Ella Coomer, Noah Coomer, Liam Coomer, Jude Coomer, Camden Nidiffer and Avery Nidiffer: her brother Rob Mullins and wife Missy Pound, VA; several aunts , uncles, nephews, nieces, and cousins; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Tuesday July 23, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy
Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Private graveside services will be held at a later date.
The staff at Baker Funeral Home extends our deepest sympathy to the family of Vicky Lynn Phillips.
Arrangements are under the direction of Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thine ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5, 6
ABINGDON, VA- Glenda Lee Burnham,87, went home to be with Jesus Saturday July 13, 2024 from her residence, surrounded by her loving family.
Glenda was born in Rosco Nebraska on February 9, 1937 to the late Harry and Mary Belle (Armstrong) Most. Glenda graduated from North Platte High School and attended
Briercrest Bible Institute in Saskatchewan, Canada. She then married Lee Burnham in 1956 and they moved to Southwest Virginia in 1957 where they have spent almost all their lives. She was well known in Pound, Wise and Norton area as a piano teacher and played the piano or organ for weddings and as well has aided her husband in his pastorates of local churches. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great- grand mother, sister, aunt and friends. Her greatest joy was the time she spent with her family and praising her Lord
In addition to her parents, Harry and Mary Belle (Armstrong) Most, Glenda is also preceded in death by her sister Darlene
Most; her brother, Harry J. Most; and a granddaughter, Stefani Lynne Snyder.
Survivors include her loving and devoted husband of nearly 68 years, Norman Lee Burnham- Abingdon, VA; a daughter,
Mari Lynne Snyder and husband Brian- New Jersey; sons, Timothy Lee Burnham and wife Pat- Wytheville, VA, Steve Burnham and wife Jeannie- Wytheville, VA, Nate Burnham
and wife JoAnn- Abingdon, VA; grandchildren, Kincey Hess (Clay), Josh Burnham (Brandi), Brittany Marshall (Charlie), B.J. Snyder (Michel), Melani Davis (Zach), Rich Snyder (Tracy), Scott Burnham (Megan), Shannon Grondzik (Ben), Hadassah LaFollette (Scott), Tahan Burnham (Hannah)
and Nekoda Burnham (Kayla); 22 great grandchildren; her sister, Sharron Watt- Colorado; several nieces, nephews and cousins and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2:00 pm Tuesday July 16, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Cliff Cauthorne officiating. The family will receive friends from 12 Noon until time of services.
Burial and committal services will follow in the Crouse Cemetery-Pound, VA where family members will serve as pallbearers.
The staff at Baker Funeral Home extends our deepest sympathy to the family of Glenda Burnham. Arrangements are under the direction of Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA.
SEPTEMBER 2, 1931 – JULY 10, 2024
POUND, VA – Joyce Ann Adams Varner Reed passed away Wednesday at her home
after a period of declining health. She was preceded in death by her parents, Malcolm
Adams and Mary Jeanette Mullins Adams; brothers James Eual Adams and Wayburn
Adams; sisters Evelyn Sartain and Johnnie Ruth Maggard; her first husband Billy R.
Varner; daughter Donna Joyce Varner; and her second husband, Jesse Reed.
She is survived by her two sons, Gary Varner and his wife Geneva, and Bill Varner
and his wife Marla; daughter Sandy Hubbard; grandchildren, Susanna Taylor and her husband Robert, Jessica Reeves, Melody Cantrell and her husband Larry, Jennifer Clevinger and her husband Johnathan, and Donna Litton and her husband Chris; and great-grandchildren Taylor Sanders, Jordan Sanders, Jillian Taylor, Gray Cantrell, Marshall Cantrell, Averie Reeves, Sydney Reeves, Austin Clevinger and Logan Clevinger.
Joyce graduated from Christopher Gist High School in 1950. She loved sharing stories
about her childhood in Pound, especially her time at her grandparents John Henry and
Belle Adams Hayes’s home. She reminisced about playing in the apple orchard above
their two-story house downtown. Joyce also spent part of her childhood and young
adult years in Chicago, where she fondly remembered dancing, riding the train daily,
and walking several blocks to her job at the telephone company.
After marrying and starting a family, Joyce and her family moved to Manassas,
Virginia, until the late 1960s, eventually settling back in Pound. Following the death
of her first husband, she remarried and lived in Payne Gap, Kentucky until her second
husband passed away, after which she returned to downtown Pound.
Joyce enjoyed cooking for her family, visiting the gym in Norton three times a week, and dining at her favorite restaurants. She especially loved the Pound Christmas parade, where the family would gather at her apartment on Main Street to watch the festivities.
In accordance with her wishes, Joyce will be cremated, and a private service will be
held at a later date. The family extend their heartfelt thanks to the Pound Rescue Squad
and Baker Funeral Home for their dedicated service.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks the donations be made to the Pound Rescue Squad at: P O Box 711, Pound, VA 24279.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Joyce Varner Reed.
FALL BRANCH, TN- Estilee “Sissy” Adkins Conley, 82, formerly of Pound, VA peacefully passed away Thursday June 27, 2024, at Holston Valley Medical Center after a lengthy illness. Her family was by her side.
Sissy was born December 18, 1941, to Everette and Rousia (Maggard) Adkins in Jenkins, KY. Being the oldest girl of eight children, Sissy was a caretaker from the beginning. Going on to selflessly care for children and loved ones, while putting aside all her need and wants. Yet grateful for the opportunity to be of service to others. Being a wife and mother was her calling in life.
Sissy had two children, Lashell Rena and David Allen that were her world. She worked tirelessly to make sure she was able to give them everything she could. She was a wonderful loving mother. She raised
her children to know God and taught their Sunday School class every week. And brought many children the word of God.
In May of 1983 Sissy was married to Dallas Conley in Front Royal, VA. He preached the word of God at several churches along the way.
In 1989 Sissy and Dallas retired to Pound, VA where they became longstanding members of Hubbard Chapel Church. Their faith in Christ was an example to many.
Sissy’s favorite past times were cooking, sewing, crafts, crosswords, playing cards and talking with friends and family on Facebook. And of course spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
To them she was known as “Nonnie”
Sissy was preceded in death by her loving husband, Reverend Dallas Conley which she missed so much after his passing; stepsons Dallas Conley Jr; and Carlos Conley and wife Nancy and her parents, Everette and Rousia (Maggard) Adkins; brothers Kenny Adkins and Allen Adkins.
Survivors include her daughter, Lashell Joyner and husband Mark- Fall Branch, TN; her son David Chaney and wife Donna- Kingsport, TN; grand-children, Rickey Bradley (Michelle), Melissa Leonard (Freddy),
Amanda Shively (Ben), Shannon Hann (Richard), Derek Chaney (Brandie), Monica Kidd (Alan), Dalton Chaney, Dillion Chaney, C Chevy Chaney, Kesha Smith and Justin Ball; great-grandchildren; Addyson Bradley, Tristen Bradley, Trinity Leonard, Serenity Leonard, Gage Leonard, Hannah Cook, Jackson Shively, Ella Shively, Ryker Hann, Reid Hann, Zanna Chaney, Zayne Chaney, Bentley Kidd, Donnie Bradford, Bobby Jeffers, Cavin Jeffers and a great grandson due in August; sisters, Roberta “Bertie” Meade, and Delores Mullins (James), Wilma Bryant, (Bill), sister-in-law Janet Adkins; brothers, Kendall “Moe” Adkins and Dennis Adkins; several nieces, nephews and cousins; and a host of friends and
loved ones
Funeral service will be conducted at 1:00 pm Monday July 1, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Billy Hibbitts and Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 11:00 am until time of services
Graveside committal services will follow at the Arvil Mullins Cemetery- Pound, Va where Richard Hann, Ryker Hann, Reid Hann, Dalton Chaney, Dillion Chaney, Chevy Chaney and Ricky Cantrell will serve as pallbearers.
Baker Funeral Home- Pound, VA is serving the family of Estilee “Sissy” Adkins Conley.
POUND, VA- Patricia Ann “Patsy” Adams, 71, went home to be with her heavenly father Thursday June 27, 2024 from Norton Community Hospital- Norton, VA. Her loving family at her bedside.
Patsy was a Christian and a fifty-plus years member of Martha’s Chapel Church and always sharing her love of God and all her blessings. Patsy loved going to church, cooking, gardening, talking to friends and making memories with family. Her family was her life, she enjoyed spending every second she could with them. Sunday dinner was always ready and waiting for them She loved everyone and never saw a stranger,
but those grandbabies had a special place in her heart… bragging and sharing her love for her grandbabies was no problem for her. Patsy’s laughter and smile touched us all.
Gone to be with her loved ones and Jesus, but forever here in our hearts. Her presence was a ray of sunshine every day. Her presence was a ray of sunshine, she would light up every room she walked in with her sweet, contagious and beautiful smile.
Patsy was preceded in death by her parents, Junior Keith and Charmie Victoria (Phillips) Church; brother, Paul James Church
and sister, Helen “Suzie” Collier.
Survivors include her husband of nearly 49 years, Bobby Wayne Adams-Pound, VA; her daughter, Misty Dawn Adams Strouth and husband Bobby- Pound, VA; grandchildren, Chase Dalton Strouth and fiancé Briana Triplet, Kayleigh Elizabeth and companion Andrew Burton; Trinity Cheyan Strouth, Braelynn Chenoa Strouth, Keanan Scott Strouth, Hayden Rayne Strouth;
great-grandson, Luca Bennett Burton (her little bubby); a sister, Geneva Evelon Rutherford and husband Donnie-Live Oak, FL; brothers, Ronnie Keith Church and Randall Martin Church both of Pound, VA; several nieces, nephews and cousins and many friends that loved her dearly.
Funeral services will be conducted at 6:00 pm Saturday June 29, 2024 in the Baker Funeral home Chapel with Reverend Ray
Yeary officiating. The family will receive friends from 4:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11:00 am Sunday June 30, 2024 in the Adams Cemetery-Eolia, KY where family and friends will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 10:00 am to prepare to go in procession
to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Patricia Ann “Patsy” Adams.
DAMASCUS, VA- William Kyle Boggs, 89, passed from this life into his eternal reward Wednesday June 26, 2024from his residence. He was surrounded by his loving family.
Kyle was born in Pound, VA on September 6, 1934 to the late Arnold and Rebecca (Morgan) Boggs. He was of the Christian faith and was a member of the Damascus Road Baptist Church. Kyle was a Korean War Veteran having served in the United States Army. He retired from the United States
Postal Service as a letter carrier with over 28 years of service. Kyle loved working, either at his job, on his farm, with his cattle or doing something for his church. He loved his God,
his family and his country. He enjoyed fishing and spending time with his grandkids, but his passion in life was doting
after and caring for his beloved wife Margaret since their marriage on January 18,1958.
Along with his parents, he is preceded in death by his son, John Wesley Boggs; and several other siblings and family
members.
Survivors include his devoted and loving wife of 66 years, Margaret (Stidham) Boggs-Damascus, VA; a grandson, Wesley Brian Boggs and wife Tori; great grandchildren, Haley Elizabeth Boggs and William Gabriel Boggs and Mason Arnold Boggs; several loving siblings; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins; a host of friends and loved ones; and his beloved 4 legged companion
Diesel.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Saturday June 29, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Caleb Holman officiating. The family will receive friends from 12 Noon until time
of services. Military rites by Whitesburg KY VFW Post 5829 will follow.
Graveside committal services will be conducted at Boggs Cemetery-on Metro Meadow Branch Road-Pound, VA. where Wesley Brian Boggs, Gabrielle Boggs, Richard Wilkins, Johnny “Bear” Crouse; Rodney Bolling and Andrew Mullins will serve as pallbearers.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to be the Damascus VFW Post 9830, 23489 Mountain City Rd, Damascus, VA 24236
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of William Kyle Boggs.
POUND, VA – Mrs. Mima Jean Sturgill, 81, was born July 20, 1942 and entered the Kingdom of Heaven on June 9, 2024, from the The Laurels in Norton, VA. She was surrounded by her
loving family.
Mima was a born again Christian and a true child of God. She was a member of Martha’s Chapel for 44 years and loved to tell
people how good her Lord and Savior was to her. She loved her God and her family. Mima was a dedicated homemaker and caregiver. She believed in raising her family with the Lord’s
guidance. Her life revolved around her family, especially her grandkids and great grandkids in her later years. Mima was a homebody, when she did go places, like the flea market, yard
sales or out to eat she wanted to be home by dark. She also enjoyed court TV shows and gameshows and loved birds.Her greatest joy was the time she spent with her family.
Mima was preceded in death by her mother Gertrude Powers; her husband Estle Sturgill; her daughter Sandra Sturgill Wells; and her daughter-in-law Ruby Sturgill.
Mima is survived by her sons Franklin Sturgill-Harrodsburg, KY, Larry Sturgill and wife Trish-Pound. VA, and Scott Sturgill and wife Sheila-Kingsport, TN; her grandchildren Jason Sturgill and wife Leigh-Ann-Big Stone Gap, VA, Jennifer Culbertson and husband Danny-Norton, VA; Joshua Sturgill and wife Alison-St. Paul, VA; Matthew Sturgill-Pound, VA, Amber Wells and partner Wayne Gilliam-Wise, VA and Nathan Brickey-Kingsport, TN; great-grandchildren Bryan Culbertson, Kaylee Culbertson, Penelope Sturgill, Elijah Sturgill, Zoey Gilliam and Isaiah Sturgill; her church family; and a host of friends and loved
ones to cherish her memory.
Private services will be conducted Tuesday June 11, 2024, in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel.
Graveside committal services will follow in the Powers Cemetery on George Riner Road in Pound, VA where Jason
Sturgill, Joshua Sturgill, Matt Sturgill, Nathan Brickey, Bryan Culbertson and Sherman Collins will serve as pallbearers.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Mrs. Mima Jean Sturgill.
POUND, VA- Guy Stephen “Wibble” Akers, 46 passed away on Tuesday June 4, 2024, from the Dickenson Community Hospital- Clintwood, VA.
Wibble was of the Christian faith. He was devoted to his family and his work. At work he liked to paint, putting up drywall, fixing floors and most any type of construction work. He died doing what he loved. Even though he never showed his emotions, you always knew he loved you. Battling with Becky and the girls he was outnumbered. Wibble was surrounded by female hormones that made his life very complicated at times and never knowing at any giving moment… who would throw the first punch. He would always be the laughter in his family’s house. He was a good man and a great father and loved his girls unconditionally. He loved making his family happy. Wibble was a lifelong avid cock-fighter and enjoyed rabbit hunting with his beagles.
Wibble was preceded in death by his mother, Lisa (Tompkins) Akers; maternal grandparents, Donnie and Rosalie Tompkins; paternal grandparents, Clifford and Connie Akers; uncles, Chris Tompkins and Randall Akers and an aunt, Tammy Stallard.
Survivors include his soulmate for 24 years, Becky Shortt- Pound, VA; daughters, Mady Steffey, Chloe Akers and Macie Akers all of Pound, VA; his father, Guy Akers and companion Colleen Stanley-Pound, VA; brother, Brandon Akers and wife Amanda-Clarksville, TN; aunts, Linda Greene-Pound, VA and Noveda Davis-Maryland; special nephews, Nicholas and Brian Buchanan and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Thursday June 6, 2024, in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11:00 am Friday June 7, 2024, at the Arvil Mullins Cemetery-Pound, VA where
Matt Hall, Jason Boatwright, Derek Ratliff, Mikey Paul Large, Tristan Hall and John Hall will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 10:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to Baker Funeral Home to help with funeral expenses.
Baker Funeral Home- Pound, VA will be serving the family of Guy Stephen “Wibble” Akers.
POUND, VA – Heather Nicole Hollyfield Dotson, 40, entered into eternity Tuesday May 21, 2024, from Norton Community Hospital-Norton, VA after an extended illness.
Heather was of the Freewill Baptist faith. She was a loving mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend. Heather had a smile that would light up a room and a personality you loved to be around. But if you ever messed with someone she loved…well lets just say you wouldn’t want to go there. She also enjoyed listening to music (especially gospel and country), and would dance and sing as she listened, she loved to
travel, playing practical jokes on everyone, and just being outside with the sunshine beaming on her face or sit around campfire at night with family and friends.
Heather was preceded in death by her son, Austin Drake Dotson.
Survivors include her daughter, Isabell Hope Richardson and husband Brandon-Fort Liberty, NC; her son, Owen Dale Dotson-Pound, VA; a granddaughter, Remington Grace Dotson; her parents, Mickey and Robin (Vanover) Hollyfield- Pound, VA; brothers, Mickey “Gillet” Hollyfield Jr
and Jason Hollyfield both of Pound, VA; special niece AshLanna Hollyfield; special friend, Amy Fleenor- Pound, VA; father of her children, Joshua Dotson-Pound, VA; her pit bull fur baby, Kiana; numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Sunday May 26, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Greg Cyphers and Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 12 noon Monday May 27, 2024 at Eli Mullins Cemetery on Sock Road-Pound, VA where Brandon Richardson, Lucas Holbrook, Grayson Perry, Shean Perry, Jason Hollyfield, Wesley Stanley and Brandon Gilliam will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends
are asked to meet at the funeral home by 11:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to Baker Funeral Home to help with funeral expenses.
Baker Funeral Home- Pound, VA is serving the family of Heather Nicole
Hollyfield Dotson.
James Preston Collier Sr., born May 27,1945 in Pound, Virginia went to be with the Lord on April 28, 2024.
James, also known as “J.P.”, was a Railroad Carman for 34 years at Amtrak before retiring and working part time as a Railroad Composite Mechanic at Virginia Rail Express during which time James received many awards for his service from both companies.
James loved his motorcycles and was a former member of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association, Manassas, Virginia Chapter. James enjoyed working with his hands and everyone knew him as a man who could fix or repair anything. He would constantly receive calls from family, neighbors, and friends to help advise them how to fix something. He was always available and ready to help.
James was known in the Westgate area of Manassas as the “Mayor of Westgate” because James and his dog “Buddy” would walk the Westgate area making friends with everyone they met.
James is preceded in death by his daughter, Denise Louise Collier, parents, John and Lou
Vernie Gardner Collier, Siblings, Dallas Collier, Eunice Vinogradov, Brenda Boggs, and Mary Hernan and his loving companion “Buddy.”
He is survived by his wife, Carolyn Collier, two children, Littia D. Collier of Manassas and James Preston Collier, Jr. and his wife Deana, of Richmond, Virginia and three
grandchildren, John Collier-Tanchak of Manassas, VA, and Meredith and Alana Collier of Richmond, VA and three sisters, Juvada Stratton and her husband Homer, Norton, Va, Patricia Collier and her significant other, Stuart Boyer, Vero Beach, FL, and Janice Oliver and her husband Gene, Pound, VA and many nieces and nephews.
A private family service will be held at a future date.
The family requests, that instead of flowers, donations be made to the Dementia Society of America.
POUND, VA- Janice Catherine Hensley, 77, passed away Tuesday April 23, 2024 from Johnson City Medical Center with her loving family at her bedside.
Janice was of the Baptist faith. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. Janice enjoyed gaming on her IPad, was an excellent cook and housekeeper and a very experienced shopper… according to her family.
But her love for her family and grandchildren (and she loved spoiling those grandchildren) was what she cherished the
most, she devoted her life to loving and taking such good care of all those around her.
Janice was preceded in death by her son, C.J. Hensley; her parents, Stanley J. and Johanna F. (Kenny) Mayeski.
Survivors include her husband of 56 years, Claude Hensley-Pound, VA; daughters, Loretta Gemmill (Bobby)- Baltimore,
MD and Jaime Mann (David)- Baltimore, MD; grandchildren, Sean Owens, Lauryn Owens, Madison Gemmill, Austin Gemmill, Jillian Hensley Diehl (Wayne), and Kendra Hensley; a sister, Barbara J. Heath- Baltimore, MD; several nieces, nephews and cousins and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Friday April 26, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Elder Stacy Potter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
A visitation for Janice’s family and friends in Maryland will be held Sunday April 28, 2024 from 12 Noon until 2:00 pm at Duda Ruck Funeral Home (7922 Wise Ave-Dundalk, MD 21222)
Graveside services will be conducted at 12 noon Tuesday April 30, 2024 at the Boggs Family Cemetery-Pound, VA where family
members will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 11:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Janice Catherine Hensley.
POUND, VA – Kimberlee Sue Craft, 56, was born April 22, 1967, left this earth suddenly on Friday April 19, 2024, from Norton Community Hospital. She was surrounded by her loving family.
Kim was of the Baptist faith. She was a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister and friend to many. She
enjoyed camping, fishing and kayaking. But most of all she enjoyed being with her family and especially her grandkids. She was employed at Food City in Clintwood and loved her job.
Kim was preceded in death by her father Earlon Mullins.
Survivors include her loving husband of 25 years, Dean Craft-Pound, VA; her three daughters Katie Reece and husband Richie-
Pound, VA and Cassie Dotson and husband Dustin -Wise, VA and Amy Craft-Fredericksburg, VA; one son, Anthony Craft-
Pound, VA; grandchildren, Dane Reece, Amillia Reece, Sophie Reece, Robbie Reece, Baby Parker, Alex Dotson, Keegan Dotson,
Allie Dotson, Kaylee Garnett and Austin Chadwick; her mother Barbara Mullins-Pound, VA; her sisters Kristal Bowers and husband Steve-Pound, VA, Kelly Branham and husband Donald- Pound, VA and Karla Lovell and husband Brian-Troutville, VA; her brother Kristopher Mullins and wife Teresa-Pound, VA; several nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles; and a host of friends and
loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Tuesday April 23, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy
Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 12:00 noon Wednesday April 24, 2024 at the Gilmer Mullins Cemetery on Greely Gilmer
Road-Pound, VA where Richie Reece, Dustin Dotson, Alex Dotson, Donald Branham, Kristopher Mullins and Steve Bowers will serve as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearer will be Cpl. Jacob Singleton.
Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 11:00 am for the final viewing and to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Kimberlee Sue Craft.
WISE, VA – Randall Elmer Williams, 66, entered into eternity Wednesday April 10, 2024, from the Select Specialty Hospital at Bristol Regional Medical Center after a courageous battle with cancer.
Randall was of the Christian faith. He was born July 3, 1957, in Paulding, OH He graduated from Fairbanks High School in Sherwood Township, OH in 1975. He was a veteran of the United States Air Force and a retired bookkeeper.
Randall was jack-of-all trades. He was always working, there was not a lazy bone in his body. He was always tinkering on something whether it was carpentry,
plumbing, electricity or whatever needed to be fixed. Randall loved traveling and had visited all the lower 48 states with his brother Lonnie. He had a great sense of
humor and loved to aggravate people. He enjoyed watching television and enjoyed
watching Two and a Half Men, Seinfeld, Cheers, Sons of Anarchy, Rifleman and
Civil War documentaries. He loved fishing and going to the flea market. Family
was crucial to him and he always kept in contact with his family. Randall especially
loved his grandbabies Ray and Mackenzie, they affectionately knew him as “Poppy”.
Randall was preceded in death by his parents Cecil and Virginia (McCowan)
Williams; a sister Barbara Woodring; and a brother Larry Williams.
Survivors include his constant companion of 13 years Rhonda Carole Cox-Wise, VA; his special daughter Heather Cox-Wise, VA; his special grandchildren Ray Lane and Mackenzie Lane; a sister Wanda Denise Brown and husband Jerry-Sherwood,
OH; his brothers Lonnie Williams and wife Mary-Cecil, OH and Carter Williams-
Clintwood, VA; several nieces, nephews and cousins; a host of friends and loved ones; and his beloved yorkie Heidi.
As per Randall’s wishes, he will be cremated and a gathering of family and friends to celebrate is life will be held at a later date.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Randal Elmer Williams.
JENKINS, KY – Belva Ann (Rose) Mullins, 72, entered peacefully into eternity Thursday March 14, 2024 from the Pikeville Medical Center after a long and courageous battle
with cancer. She was surrounded by her loving family.
Belva was of the Christian faith and attended Burdine Freewill Baptist Church when she was able. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. She was known as “Boo Boo” to her grandchildren and many other children. She had such a way with babies that she got the
nickname “The Baby Whisperer”. She loved kids and kids loved her. Belva enjoyed traveling, going to yard sales, listening to gospel music and visiting with friends and family. She was an excellent housekeeper, she loved canning things from the garden and was a fantastic cook. Everyone loved
her home cooked meals. She was an avid reader and enjoyed all kinds of books.
Belva was preceded in death by her parents, Acie and Edna (Johnson) Rose; sisters, Nancy Louise Vance, Norma Jean
Duncil and Martha Lavada Wright; brothers, Larry Acie Rose and Tommy Rose; and brother-in-law Tom Lockwood.
Belva is survived by her husband of 51 years David Mullins-Jenkins, KY; her sons, David Dwayne Mullins and wife Melanie-
Bean Station, TN and Robert Acie Mullins and wife Melissa- Payne Gap, KY; grandchildren, Sam Mullins, Andrew Mullins,
Bryan Epperson, Katelyn Mathers and husband Mason, Robert Dwayne Mullins and Hunter Acie Mullins; sisters, Dorothy Mae
Vernatter (Ronald)-Somerset, KY, Joyce Adkins (Doug) Columbus, IN, Alice Lockwood- Payne Gap, KY, Rebecca Jo Brown- Jenkins, KY, Vanessa Dale Rose- Jenkins, KY and Freda Rogers (Phillip)- Pikeville, KY; brothers, Walter Rose (Jeanie)- Morristown, TN, Gary Don Rose (Lois)- Payne Gap, KY, Wendell Rose (Lois)- Jenkins, KY and Gerald Rose (Terri)- Pikeville, KY; sisters-in-law Margaret Rose and Nina Rose; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins; and a host of close friends and loved ones
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Monday March 18, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Hollis Bevins officiating. The family will receive
friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 12 Noon Tuesday March 19, 2024 at the Mullins Family Cemetery in the Payne Gap section
of Jenkins where David Carl Mullins, Robert Acie Mullins, David Dwayne Mullins, Andrew Mullins, Robert Dwayne Mullins, Bryan Epperson and Hunter Mullins will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 11:00 am for the final
viewing and to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Belva Ann Mullins.
POUND, VA- Faye Bolling Mullins, 74, went home to be with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Saturday March 9that her residence after a difficult battle with cancer. She was surrounded by her loving family.
Faye was a devoted Christian and a member of Living Waters Independent Baptist Church. She was a kind, loving, and caring wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. Faye was known for being an excellent seamstress, having worked for and retired from Buster Brown. She could make anything anyone asked, including custom outfits and numerous kids’ costumes. In addition to her passion for sewing, she loved to decorate and create floral arrangements. People would often say that her decorations were as great and magnificent as celebrity designers’. Faye also loved to take pictures. Her photography skills were unlike any other, better quality than some professionals. She was nicknamed “paparazzi” by Brooke’s travel softball team because everywhere you looked, Faye was there capturing important moments. Some of her other hobbies included quilting, gardening, reading books, watching crime and investigation shows, researching family histories and ancestries, traveling, spending time with family, and most importantly, spoiling her grandkids. Mamaw Faye often stated, “God placed me on Earth to be a grandmother,” which she fulfilled to her greatest potential, and will be most remembered by how much she loved her grandkids.
Faye was preceded in death by her parents Bennie Allen Bolling and Marie (Fleming) Meade; brother Kyle Bolling; and sister Greta Bolling. Survivors include her loving husband of 45 years Frank Mullins; son Allen Thompson (Pound, VA); daughters Kim Stidham and husband Jeff (Pound, VA), and Tina Mullins (Wise, VA); grandson Scott Stidham and wife Brittany (Pound, VA); granddaughter Dr. Brooke Mullins and husband Dr. Ricky Dale Mullins Jr. (Coeburn, VA); grandson Michael Clark (Wise, VA); great-grandkids Kimber Stidham, Kimbree Stidham, Silas Mullins, and Baby Mullins #2 (on the way); brother Ricky Bolling and wife Susie (Pound, VA); sister Darlene Boggs and husband Jeff (Pound, VA); several nieces, nephews, and cousins; and a host of close friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Monday March 11, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Dr. Ricky Dale Mullins Jr. officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Tuesday March 12, 2024 at the Bolling Flat Gap Cemetery Pound, VA where Kimber Stidham, Scott Stidham, Michael Clark, Corey Bolling, Ricky Mullins Sr., Eric Blankenship, Jason Ingles, and Kenneth Kelly will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 12 Noon for the final viewing and to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
A meal for the family will be held at Living Waters Independent Baptist Church Wise, VA Tuesday March 12, 2024 at 3:00 pm after graveside services.
Baker Funeral Home- Pound, VA is serving the family of Faye Bolling Mullins.
POUND, VA – Woodard Allen “Woody” Hollon, 85, entered into his eternal reward Monday February 26, 2024 from Norton
Community Hospital.
Woody was a born again Christian. He loved his Lord and lived daily to serve him. He was quick to witness to anyone about how the Lord saved him and would do the same for you. Woody was a veteran of the United States Army and served with Elvis Presley. Woody was a retired coal truck driver with over 50 years experience. He was well known in the trucking community as “Bubba”. He also was known to disguise
his voice and talk to the truckers as “Sweet Apple”. He loved to pull pranks on his co-workers. Woody also worked for 10 years in the mines. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend.
Woody was preceded in death by his wife Christine (Sturgill) Hollon; his parents Clifford and Elizabeth (Tackett) Hollon; and
his brothers Billy Ray, Charles Edward , Horace Greely and Clifford Hollon, Jr.
Survivors include his son Gregory Hollon-Pound, VA: grandchildren Sabrina Rose (Stephen) -Tuscaloosa, AL, Christy Adams-
Eolia, KY, Tonja-Leigh Mullins (Joseph)-Wise, VA and Shamber Schenck (Tyler) Appalachia, VA; great-grandchildren Samantha
Beams (Colton), Julie Rose, Gracie Adams, Jasmine “Cricket” Adams, Aurora-Ray Mullins and Annabelle Mullins, and Leland
Schenck; great-great-grandchildren Danny Beams, Benjamin Beams and Owen Ryder ”Peanut”; the mother of his grandchildren Ona Hollon; several niece, nephews and cousins; his trucking buddies; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 12 noon Saturday March 2, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel; with Reverend Mark Stallard and Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends
from 10 am until time of services.
Burial will follow in the Dewey Memorial Cemetery-Pound, VA where Woody will be laid to rest beside his wife Christine. Tyler
Schenk, Joey Mullins, Colton Beams, Bobby Smith, Stephen Rose and Bo McArthur will serve as pallbearers.
Baker funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Woodard
Allen Hollon.
POUND, VA – Deborah Jean Hampton, 66, entered peacefully into eternity Sunday February 25, 2024 from her residence. She
was surrounded by her loving family.
Debbie was a Christian of the Baptist faith, she attended Pyles Memorial Chapel. She was cosmetologist for many years, having
owned her own shop in Pound and Clintwood and then working at the Smart Style Shop at Walmart. Debbie was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. She had a magnificent smile …that made you want to smile when you were with her. She was always willing to help anyone she could. She enjoyed traveling and was always ready for a road trip, listening to country music, line dancing at the Country Cabin, crocheting, drawing, raising flowers,
and bird watching, she was an avid animal lover. But Debbie’s most treasured moments were those spent with her family…especially
her grand babies and great- grand babies, she loved them all with all her heart and soul.
Debbie was preceded in death by her mother Effie Dean Baker and father Jim Baker. Survivors include her husband of 47 years Ricky Hampton-Pound, VA; her sons, Ricky Dean Hampton and wife Randi- Dover, FL. and Kevin Hampton and wife Rebekah-Evarts, KY; grandchildren, Tessa Hampton, Kenny Hampton, Josh Hampton, Brent Graham, Rylee Hicks, Kaley Stidham (Zack) Austin Reynolds (Megan) Jake Hampton,
Blake Short and Jaxon Short; great grandchildren, Jayden Stidham, Maverick Reynolds, Deklyn Gilliam, Zariah Arthur and Adley Funk ; her sisters, Ruth Barnes and husband Don- Clintwood, VA, Polly Phipps
and husband Leon- Lynn Haven, FL and Lucille Mullins- Panama City, FL her brother James Ray Baker and wife Mona-Pound, VA; best friends, Doris Reed and Sherry Browning; several nieces, nephews and cousins
and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Wednesday February 28, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Troy Belcher, Reverend Randy Carter and Reverend Junior Belcher officiating. The
family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11:00 am Thursday February 29, 2024 at the Baker/Cox Cemetery on Osborne Gap Road-Clintwood, VA where her grandsons will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends
are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 10:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Debora Jean Hampton.
CLINCHCO VA – Bobby Ray Grubb, 85, passed away Saturday February 24, 2024 from the Bristol Regional Medical Center.
Bobby was of the Baptist faith. He was a retired coal truck driver with 62+ years of experience. He had an unbelievable work ethic, and a strong belief in providing for his family. He mowed and weedeated until last fall. Bobby was very mechanically inclined, he loved to tinker with and work on almost anything. He was a jack of all trades, there wasn’t much he couldn’t fix or fabricate. Bobby also enjoyed gardening, reading western books and watching westerns.
He also liked hunting and fishing earlier in his life.
Bobby was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Anna Lucille (Sawyer) Grubb; sisters and brothers -in-law Shirley and Theo Newsome and Faye and Johnny Kelly; mother and father-in-law Charlie and Maxie Mullins; brother-in-law Jack Wood; and sisters-in-law Sheila Mullins and Linda Reynolds.
Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Sharon (Mullins) Grubb-Clinchco, VA; his daughters Jennifer McMillan and husband Ricky-Clinchco, VA and Darlene Blagg and husband Dennis-Big Stone Gap, VA; his son Derek Grubb and wife Lynne- Canton, GA; grandchildren, Stephanie Hernandez and husband Christopher, Jessica O’Quinn and
husband Jared Christian Grubb and wife Kim, Dustin Grubb and fiance’ Pearl, Meagan Blagg and Isabella Blagg; great grandchildren Aviree Moore and Griffin Moore; a sister Darlis Wood-Charlotte, NC; brothers-in-law Larry Mullins and wife Viola and Gary Mullins and wife Teresa Mullins; several nieces, nephews and cousins; special friend Woody Hollon; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Monday February 26, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Rob Kneppe officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11:00 am Tuesday February 27, 2024 at Dewey Memorial Cemetery-Pound, VA where family members and friends will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 10:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Bobby Ray Grubb.
On February 15, 2024, at the age of 72, Scotty Moore, finished his race, entered into eternity, and saw his Savior face to face.
Scotty’s faith, like all true believers, was in Christ and in Christ alone for salvation. Scotty served his savior at both First Baptist Church in Belfry, KY and West End Baptist Church in Big Stone Gap, VA. He was a loving father, papaw, uncle and friend.
He was an avid fisherman who enjoyed teaching his grandchildren about the hobby he loved. He made many fishing trips with friends Dave King and Steve Mullins and loved to tell big tales when reminiscing about these trips.He had other special friends, including Gary Layne, Lloyd Carroll and Terry Maynard who meant a great deal to him.
Scotty never met a stranger and was kind to everyone he knew. He was a great neighbor and friend, taking care of many that lived on his block. Some of his most special neighbors were Rudolph and Pauline Layne.
Another of his hobbies included woodworking. He was very good at this and loved making things for people. His children’s homes are full of his creations.
He loved the game of basketball and could always be found in the stands cheering for his children and grandchildren as well as doing his best refereeing from the stands with his buddy, Robbie Sturgill. You knew he was in the gym because he would always be yelling for a player to make a bounce pass or he would be correcting a referee on the call that he just made. And don’t forget no one ever meant to foul. The Kentucky Wildcats were his favorite team. He raised his children to bleed blue. But nothing ever topped the love he had for his grandchildren’s teams and how supportive he was of them.
He loved Fox News, fudge rounds, and diet Coke on ice. And no one could scout out a better hotdog than he could. One of his favorite pastimes was to visit Dairy Queen for breakfast and have conversations about politics with his friends that gathered there
each morning.
He loved his family more than anything and would do anything for them. He was a great man, and an even better father and grandfather.
Scotty was preceded in death by his grandparents , Lester and Edna Cather, his mother Margaret Moore, his uncle Bill Cather, who was more like a father to him, his uncle Pickle Cather, and his precious grandson Nate Jordan.
Survivors include his wife Cookie Moore, his children Courtney Jordan (Donnie), and Zack Moore, his grandchildren, Annie Jordan, Noal Jordan, Abigail Jordan, Aubrey Moore and Drake Moore, his sister Michelle Thorn, a special cousin, Chip Cather, and numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom he loved dearly.
Funeral services will be conducted on Monday, February 19, at Baker Funeral Home in Pound, VA, with Pastor Josh Tompkins and Johnny Boggs officiating. The family will receive friends from 6:00 pm until time of services at 7:00 pm.
POUND, VA – Evans Leon Meade, 91 peacefully entered into heaven Tuesday February 13, 2024 at his home surrounded by his family.
Leon was a proud veteran of the United States Navy, having served during the Korean War. Leon was a mechanic and one of the best. He worked at Virginia Concrete in Northern Va for many years and after moving back to Pound in 1976, he retired as Chief Mechanic with19 years of outstanding service from Wise County Public Schools as Chief School Bus Mechanic.
Leon was a man of great faith and never waivered even in the deepness of dementia, he would often call out to his Lord and Savior in praise. He and his precious wife, Anna Lee attended Hamilton Chapel in Pound as long as their health would allow. Leon loved his Lord, his family and his country.
Leon was proceeded in death by his loving devoted wife of 60 years, Anna Lee Robinson Meade; infant daughter Mary Lee Meade; son Jeffery Leon Meade; his parents Ottis and Daphne Meade (known to everyone as Daddy and Mommy Meade); brothers Clyde, Hurcell, Sammie, Ottis J.R.; Jimmy; and Freddie Lyal Meade. Sisters Inez Wilson, Cleo Stallard, Emma Paskall and Ruth Ann Meade; mother and father-in-law Flara and Hobart Robinson and Furbaby Kadence Grace.
Survivors include daughter Angela Barnette (Donald Baldwin), of Pound VA ; daughter-in-law Rhonda Faye Meade of Ruther Glen, VA; Grandchildren Joshua Meade (Kathleen) and Brandon Meade (Jessica) both of Stafford, VA and Angelica Grace Barnette (Austin Dellorso) of Bristol, TN; Great-grandchildren Hunter, Mason, Connor, Julia, Colton, and Jameson Meade. Sister Janet Bell, Lancaster, OH. Furbabies Octavia Grace and Melody Grace; many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends to mourn his passing.
Funeral services for Leon will be Saturday, February 17, 2024 with a visitation from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm. Funeral services will be at 1:00 pm following the visitation in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel, Pound, VA with Rev. Greg Cyphers, Rev. Burns Robinson and Rev. Randy Carter officiating.
Military services will be performed by the Whitesburg VFW Post 5829 in the funeral home parking lot.
Graveside services will follow at the Ottis & Daphne Meade Family Cemetery on Victory Hill in Pound, VA. Where pallbearers will be Angelica Barnette (Austi Dellorso); Joshua Meade (Kathleen); Brandon Meade (Jessica); Angela Barnette (Donald Baldwin); Adam Hughes; Dean Vanover; Bo McArthur; and Randy Carter.
Honorary pallbearers will be great-grandchildren Hunter, Mason, Connor, Julia, Colton, and Jameson Meade; Dr. Christopher Basham; Russell Varner; Greg Cyphers; Burns Robinson; and Kristine Wongchow.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to the Ottis & Daphne Meade Family Cemetery Fund, 11529 Meade Fork Rd, Pound, VA 24279.
Baker Funeral Home is proudly serving the Evans Leon Meade family.
WISE, VA – Mrs. Alberta R. Buchanan, 95, entered peacefully into eternity Saturday February 10, 2024 from the Norton
Community Hospital.
Alberta was of the Baptist faith, she was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. Alberta
lived a long and graceful life, she believed in the old ways of doing things. Whether it was planting the garden or preserving your harvest, there were certain ways of doing things. Planting and canning by the signs, making soap or stirring off apple butter. Alberta loved quilting sewing and crocheting, she had made many beautiful pieces. She was known for her detailed work. She loved cooking and feeding her family and friends. It was just one of the many ways she showed her love for them. She loved her family more than life itself. Alberta was the family historian, she could accurately recall all types of information…names, dates, how people were related or how to do things. She was a living encyclopedia of knowledge. She was the last survivor of her generation.
Alberta was preceded in death by her husband William Alexander Buchanan, Sr.; her son Michael Buchanan; her parents Jarvey Robinson and Darki Sylvania (Stanley) Robinson; her sisters Earlie, Missouri, Dine
Avie, Artie and Olive; and her brothers Ernie Adam, John, Jimmy, Kenneth and Bepo.
Survivors include her son Willam A. Buchanan, Jr.-Wise, VA; her granddaughter Savanna Buchanan-Wise, Va; her great-granddaughter Allison Short; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins; special friend
Wilma Stanley-Wise, VA; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Tuesday, February 13, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Kelly Fleming officiating. The family will receive friends from 11:00 am until time of
services.
Burial will follow in the Hutchinson Cemetery on Duncan Gap Road-Wise, VA where family members and friends will serve as pallbearers.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Alberta R.
Buchanan.
DANVILLE, WV- Randy “Boot” Mullins, 65, went home to be with the Lord on Sunday January 29, 2024, peacefully at his home.
Randy was born November 16, 1958 in Norton , VA to Curtis and Shirley Mullins. He was raised in Pound, VA and attended Pound High School where played football, golf and baseball. It was there that he met the love of his life Tammy Mullins, whom he married in 1983. During their 41 years of marriage they were blessed with a beautiful daughter
Kirsten Mullins and four grandchildren Alessandra, Erik, Anastasia and Randy “Lukas-James”.
Boot worked in the coal industry for over 40 years in many capacities, from a heavy equipment operator to a mine manager. He was an avid reader, especially history. Hunting for arrowheads and other artifacts
were a passion of his. He was never ending with his knowledge and abilities- whether it was building a closet, bandaging a boo boo, or knowing every location on a map or obscure historical fact. The only thing to constantly elude him was the capability to hit one button at a time on his phone or remote.
However his greatest love was his family. He loved going to concerts with Tammy, riding his corvette with Alli while blasting oldies rock music with the top down, fishing with Ana on the boat or riverbank, he loved
golfing behind their home with Kirsten. They had an ongoing competition to see who could hit the most ducks. He loved watching his girls play sports and supported them in all their endeavors. He also loved his
grandson and looked forward to all the things he was going to teach him. Traveling together, watching scary movies, fine dining, and going on ghost tours throughout the country were some of his favorite activities.
He was always ready for the next adventure.
Boot was preceded in death by his parents Curtis and Shirley Mullins; his in-laws Goldie and Richard Mullins; and his grandson
Erik Winfree.
He is survived by his wife Tammy Mullins-Danville, WV; his daughter Kirsten Winfree-Charleston, WV; his grandchildren
Alessandra Mullins, Anastasie Winfree and Randy “Lukas James”; his brother and sister-in-law Donnie and Janie Mullins-Wise, VA;
his nephews David and Brad Mullins; and a host of loved ones.
Memorial services will be conducted at 6:00 pm Friday February 9, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donation be made to the American Heart Association.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Randy “Boot” Mullins.
JENKINS, KY- Doris Evelyn (Holbrook) Hall, 90, passed away on Tuesday January 30, 2024 at Letcher Manor-Whitesburg,
KY. her loving daughter was at her side. It was only 12 days after her beloved husband Kenneth had passed away.
Doris was a loving wife, mother,
grandmother and great-grandmother. She was a Christian and a member of Hemphill
Freewill Baptist Church- Jackhorn, KY. She loved going to church. Doris was an avid reader, especially medical books,
she enjoyed reading about natural and holistic alternatives to conventional medicines. Doris enjoyed cooking and sewing, she taught herself how to embroider. Doris was always ready
for a road trip, short or long, and to go shopping…but her greatest joy was spending time with her children and her grandchildren.
Doris was preceded in death by her devoted husband of 55 years Kenneth Hall; her parents, Sherman and Malvery (Phillips)
Holbrook; a daughter Karen Kiser; a grandson, Michael Wayne Hayes; a sister, Janice Hall; brothers, Gene Holbrook, Martin
Holbrook, Charles Holbrook, Johnny Holbrook and Larry Holbrook; and a son-in-law, Marty Carter.
Survivors include her daughters, Kenna Webb and husband Jeff-Jenkins, KY and Denita Carter-Burdine, KY; grandchildren,
Shequenna Fleming, Shannon Collins and husband Adam, Keanna Kincaid and Amanda Carter; 10 great grandchildren; sisters, Linda Holbrook- Murfreesboro, TN and Katherine Davis and husband Doug- Haymond, KY; a brother Verlis Holbrook and fiance' Doreen McCoy-Haymond, KY; several nieces, nephews and cousins; her church family; and a host of friends and loved ones to mourn her passing and cherish her memory.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 PM Saturday February 3, 2024 at the Hemphill Freewill Baptist Church-Jackhorn, KY with Pastor Danny Hurst officiating. The family will receive friends from 11:00 AM
until time of services.
Burial will follow in the Holbrook Cemetery-Neon, KY where family
and friends will serve as pallbearers.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Doris Evelyn Hall and extends our deepest sympathy to the family.
NORTON, VA – Paul Craig Reynolds, 69, passed away Monday January 22, 2024 at Holston Valley Medical Center. His family was by his side.
Paul was of the Christian faith. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio and moved to southwest Virginia during his senior year of high school
where he graduated from Ervinton High School. He earned an Associates Degree from Mountain Empire Community College and worked for a while as a forest ranger at Natural Tunnell State Park before going back to MECC and graduating from the heating and air program. Paul was a master HVAC technician, having worked in the field for over 40 years. He was the owner/operator of HVAC Services and a jack of all trades. He could repair almost anything. Paul was
dedicated to his customers and made service calls at all hours of the day and night. He loved playing chess, reading and taking pictures. He also like to take walks through the mountains and just enjoy the natural beauty. Paul loved fishing and raising flowers and a variety of plants. He loved traveling, and enjoyed riding in the big trucks with his sons and their drivers. Paul was an avid Ohio State fan and adored his grandkids. He also loved his border collie Dakota.
Paul was preceded in death by his parents Paul and Shirley (Runyons); and a brother Regan Reynolds.
Survivors include his sons Chris Reynolds and wife Carey-Norton, VA and Jason Reynolds and wife Brandi-Norton, VA; his grandchildren Elizabeth Reynolds, Brayden Reynolds, Jacob Reynolds, Bryana Reynolds and fiance’ Caden Addington and Molly Reynolds; his great-grandchild Oaklyn Jean Addington, his companion Kim Baker-Norton, VA; his bonus son Brice Mullins -Wise, VA; his bonus grandson Derek
Mullins; his sister Paula Reynolds-Norton, VA ; his former wife and the mother of his children Anita Reynolds-Norton, VA; his nieces, nephews and cousins; his beloved border collie Dakota; and a host of
friends, neighbors and customers.
The family would like to extend a special thank you to Paul's caretakers Shiela, Morgan, Amanda and Chelsea and April and the in center staff at Fresenius Dialysis Center in Norton, VA.
Celebration of life services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Friday January 26, 2024 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend
Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Paul Craig Reynolds
POUND, VA- Daisy (Johnson) Mullins, on Sunday January 14, 2024, we said our last good-bye to our beloved mother,
grandmother, great grandmother and great-great grandmother.
Daisy Johnson Mullins was born on April 24,1924 on Three Mile Road near Dorton, KY to Ben H. Johnson and Martha Braham
Johnson. Making her stay here 99 years, 8 months and 22 days.
In 1944 she married the love of her life, Sid Mullins and to this union was born nine children. Leroy, Juanita Carol, John Paul,
George, Deborah, Betty, Barbara, Redonna and Shelby
In 1967 mom joined the Old Regular Baptist Church and was a member of the Caney Fork Church. In 1975 dad was ordained a deacon and later ordained minister. For years mom made the
communion bread and wine.
She loved to make things for her family and was a prolific quilter and loved to crochet. She was known best as “Miss Daisy’
who made fried apple pies for churches, hospital employees,
Friendship Home Health employees, and many community members. Mom’s younger friends called her “their mother”
and mom was “grandma” to many little children.
Preceding her in death are her husband, Sid Mullins; her son George Harry Mullins; her parents, Ben and Martha (Branham)
Johnson; a granddaughter, Stephane Ann; two great granddaughter, Nakisha Dawn and Aubrey Lynn; sisters, Fanny France,
Lottie Marion and Dixie Mercer; brothers, Buster Johnson, Harry Johnson, George Johnson and Luther Johnson; daughter -in-
laws, Jenny Poteet-Mullins and Sherry Browning-Mullins; and son -in-law, David Rutherford.
Surviving are eight children, Leroy Mullins- Big Stone Gap, VA, Juanita Carol Rutherford, John Paul Mullins, Deborah Ann Mullins of Wise, VA, Betty Jo Tucker (Don)-El Paso, TX, Barbara Gail Hilton (Larry), Redonna Syd Bowman (Lynville) and Shelby Jean Roberts (Greg) of Wise, VA; 25 grandchildren; 48 great-grandchildren; 15 great-great- grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, lots of friends and her church family. Her special granddaughters, Sarah
and Leslye who were her caregivers whom she loved very much and her fur baby Chipper Jones who was her constant companion. She will be missed by her family, but we know she believed in the hope that she would be with dad in glory.
Funeral services will be conducted at 6:00 pm Thursday January 18, 2024, in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Elder Jerry
Newsome , Elder Steve Lyall and Reverend Bill Craft officiating. The family will receive friends from 4:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 12 noon Friday January 19, 2024, at the Laurel Grove Cemetery- Norton, VA. where grandson will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 11:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home- Pound, VA is serving the family of Daisy (Johnson) Mullins.
POUND, VA – Charles Kevin Mullins, 58, entered his eternal reward
Monday January 8, 2024 from the UVA Hospital in Charlottesville, VA
after a long and courageous battle with cancer. His loving and devoted
family was at his side.
Kevin was a Christian of the Baptist faith and had attended the Flat Gap Missionary Baptist Church. He was a 1983 graduate of Pound, High School. He retired from Mulligan Lumber as a sawman with approximately 27 years of service. Kevin believed in working to provide for his family and received a perfect attendance award nearly every year.
Kevin was married to the love of his life Kelly (Maggard) Mullins, for 36 ½ years. They were constant companions and had been since they were high school sweethearts. Kevin loved watching his son Tyler play ball and coach later. He himself coached little league baseball and football and helped many young athletes learn about the importance of a team effort, win or lose. He enjoyed playing golf and video games and collecting baseball cards. Kevin liked a variety of music and was a big time animal lover, especially his dachshund Molly. He loved the beach, but he loved Molly more and would often stay home with her while the rest of the family traveled. He was an avid Kansas City Chief and Michigan Wolverine fan.
Kevin was a loyal friend, always the first to step in and help when someone needed it, even without them asking. He was quiet till he had something to say, then he was quick witted and had some awesome one liners. Kevin liked a lot of simple things in life, a coca cola and a cheeseburger, ribs or catfish and he especially loved his Mom’s home cooking. He thought there were some things people shouldn’t take for granted, some of the most important to him were being a good son, a good husband, a good dad and a good friend.
All of which he did exceptionally well.
Kevin was preceded in death by his sister Bethany Renee Hamilton.
Kevin is survived by his wife Kelly Mullins-Pound, VA; his son Tyler
Mullins and wife Rachael-Pound, VA; his parents Larry and Liz (Dingus)
Mullins-Pound, VA; his niece Zoe Mullins and fiancé Charlie Rasnic-
Pound, VA; his brother-in-law Michael Hamilton-Pound, VA, several
nieces, nephews and cousins; a host of close friends and loved ones and his beloved dachshund Molly.
The family would like to thank everyone for the prayers, support and
love they have received during Kevin’s journey.
As per Kevin’s wishes, he will be cremated and there will be no public
services. There will be a celebration of life gathering at a later date.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Charles Kevin
Mullins.
NEON, KY- Barbara Jean (Garrett) Holland, 87, made her Heavenly journey home on December 16, 2023, from the Whitesburg ARH- Whitesburg, KY.
Barbara was born May 9, 1936, in Haymond, Kentucky to Archie and Mattie (Hall) Garrett. On July 5,1957 she married the love of her life and her high school sweetheart John K. Holland. They became the blessed parents of four children. She was a member of Haymond Freewill Baptist
Church for over 40 years where she taught Sunday school. Barbara was also a volunteer at God’s Country Closet for nine years, a member of Fleming Neon City Council for 12 years and had the honor to be a Kentucky Colonel. She enjoyed reading and doing cross word puzzles. but she hated to cook!
Durning John’s military career, she lived in many places, different states and countries…but none compares to where she is now. Barbara is resting now in Heaven where there are no more worries or aggravations. All is peace for ever more. She is in the arms of Jesus.
Barbara was preceded in death by her loving husband, John K. Holland; two daughters, Tracey Holland and Sherry Jo Holland; a son, John Holland Jr; her parents, Archie and Mattie (Hall) Garrett; a sister, Delores Mullins; and two brothers Archie Garrett Jr. and Larry Garrett.
Survivors include her son, Brett Holland and wife Tina- Neon, KY; grandsons, Nick Holland and companion Maria- Neon, KY and Cody Holland-Neon, KY; brothers, Jeff Garrett and wife Dana-Bristol, TN and Jack Garrett and wife Carol- Bristol, TN; good friends, Janice Banks, Sharon Little, Rita
Jones, Wendell and Dorcas Austin, Billy and Delores “P-Jib” Johnson; several nieces, nephews and cousins; grandogs, Dixie and Marley; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Tuesday December 19, 2023, at the Haymond Freewill Baptist Church-
Haymond, KY with Reverend Danny Mullins, Reverend Wendell Austin and Reverend Jimmy Johnson officiating.
Burial will follow in the Hall Cemetery-Fleming, KY with Nick Holland, Cody Holland, Chantz Little, Ricky Burke, John-Michael Collins, Frank Short Jr., Ben Sparks and Chester Johnson will serve as pallbearers. Emory “Fudge” Mullins is an honorary pallbearer.
Visitation will begin at 6:00 pm Monday December 18, 2023, at the Haymond Freewill Baptist Church-Haymond, KY. There will be a 7:00 pm evening service.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Barbara Jean Holland
COEBURN, VA – Fitzhugh Lee Short, 81, entered into eternity Sunday December 10, 2023 from his residence. His loving family was at his side.
Fitzhugh spent most of his life in Pound, VA, he and Marglo recently moved to Coeburn, VA to be with their children. He was a member of the Worldwide Church of God. Fitzhugh was a retired miner and a member of the United Mine Workers of America. He had 23 years of service with Westmoreland Coal as a surface miner and heavy equipment operator. Fitzhugh was also a Veteran of the United States Army.
Fitzhugh loved playing softball and coached for many years in the Pound Little League and Senior League. He enjoyed fishing and walking in the mountains with his dogs. He enjoyed reading especially the Bible and Louis L’Amour western novels. He liked western movies and old TV shows like Andy Griffith. Fitzhugh loved joking and pulling pranks on people. But his greatest joy was the time he spent with his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.
Fitzhugh was preceded in death by his parents Harry and Mildred (Peak) Short; a brother Micah Andrew Short; and a stepson Joseph Cecil Oris, Jr.
Survivors include his loving wife of 58 years Marglo (Davis) Short-Coeburn , VA; his daughters Kimberly Diane Lunsford and husband Mark-Coeburn, VA, Rebecca Benton and husband Brent-Wallace MS, and Cynthia Suzette Short-Bristol, TN; his son Fitzhugh Lee Short, Jr.-Coeburn, VA; his stepson Jackie Oris-Crofton, KY; grandchildren Forrest Lunsford, Hunter Lunsford. Courtney Blanton, Josh Short, Brittany Phelps, Chase Benton and Landon Benton; great-grandchildren Everlee Lunsford, Hazel Lunsford, Ayden Gilbert, Vjorn Traylor, Jaden Short, Bryleigh Short and Camden Chisenhall; his sisters Carolyn Short -Knoxville, TN and June Mullins and husband James-Pound, VA; his brothers Irvin Short and wife Joan-Pound, VA and Lewis Short and wife Mary-Pound, VA; several nieces and nephews and cousins; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Friday December 15, 2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Elder Irvin Short officiating. The family will receive friends from 11:00 am until time of services.
Whitesburg VFW Post 5829 will perform military services in the funeral home parking lot prior to leaving for the cemetery.
Burial will follow in the Laurel Grove Cemetery in the Ramsey section of Norton, VA.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Fitzhugh Lee Short.
Ronnie Lee “Shorty” Hensley, 78, entered eternity on December 5, 2023, with his loved ones by his side.
Ronnie was born in Scott County on August 4, 1945. He was a proud and loving husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, son, brother, and friend to many. Ronnie was a retired coal miner with 20 years of experience. He enjoyed the simple things in life like being in nature, woodworking, a good cup of coffee, and being in the company of those he loved.
Ronnie was well known for his expertise in making moonshine that he mostly gave away and would enjoy a good chew of tobacco at times.
Ronnie was married to Cassalee for 58 years and together they raised three children who have gone on to give them five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Ronnie leaves behind a legacy of a life well-lived having instilled the values of honesty, hard-work, and kindness in each generation after him.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Walter and Mary Rose (Jarrett) Hensley, brothers, Walter “Buster” Hensley, Larry Hensley and Gary Hensley; sisters, Lois Hubbard, Debbie Hensley, Betty Cable and Annabelle Ayers.
Survivors include his loving wife, Cassalee, and their three children Ronnie Hensley (Ruth), Abby Jessee (Michael), and Amy Mullins (Jonathan “Rabbit”); grandchildren Kacie Salomonsky (Reid), Christian Jessee (Clarissa), Marshall Hensley (Haylee), Samantha Webb (Patrick), and Jacob Mullins; great-grandchildren Nolan, Norah, Kylee, Laniey, Josey, Tatum, and Callie; his sisters, Mary Jo Hubbard, Claudia McGrevey (Russell), Sue Edwards, Lynda Justice, Margaret Mendez (Antonio) and Bea Vanhuss; a brother Bobby Hensley; numerous nieces and nephews; and a host of friends that he considered family.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Thursday December 7, 2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Carrol Childress officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 2:00 pm Friday December 8, 2023 at the John Hop Mullins Cemetery in Pound, VA where Ronnie Hensley Jr, Marshall Hensley, Christian Jessee, Jonathan Mullins, James Frances Hubbard, Arron Mullins, Michael Jessee, and Rondall Mullins will serve as pallbearers.
Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 1:00 pm to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Ronnie Lee "Shorty" Hensley.
POUND, VA – Flaudean Bolling, 96, entered peacefully into eternity Thursday November 30, 2023 from Tazewell Heritage Hall. Her loving family was at her side.
Flaudean was a Christian and a 20 year member of the Pound Presbyterian Church.She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend. Flaudean was an avid reader, it was her way of
relaxing. She loved to drive and travel, she was always ready for a road trip with her friends or family. She also loved to dance. Flaudean had an adventurous personality, she loved to laugh and have a good time. She truly wanted to make people happy. She
cherished the time she spent with her beloved family. She was very patriotic and loved her country. Flaudean was quick to tell
everyone “ I have had a good life”.
Flaudean was preceded in death by her parents John S. and Anna (Jessee) Beverly; her husband Carlos “Bull” Bolling, a
grandson Joshua Baker; a brother Kyle Beverly; a sister Audrey Doan; a niece Nancy Munal; and a special friend Mildred Odell.
Survivors include her daughter Paige Greene and husband Micheal -Columbia, SC; her son Randy Bolling and wife Cathy-Cedar Bluff, VA; grandchildren Joelle Bolling, Sarah Wright, Lucas Jones and Marissa Jones; great-grandchildren Mackenzie Bolling, Gracie Bolling, Emily Wright, Anna Wright, Foster Wright, Kiera Jones and Ziah Baker; several nieces, nephews and cousins; special friends Jeanette Cantrell and Darlene Bowman; and a host of friends and loved ones.
There will be a gathering of family and friends from 3:00 pm till 5:00 pm Monday December 4, 2023 in the Baker Funeral
Home Chapel. As per Flaudean’s wishes everyone is asked to dress casually.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Pound Rescue Squad, the Pound Presbyterian Church or a charity of your
choice.
Private entombment services will be held at a later date.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Flaudean Bolling.
EOLIA, KY – Delbert Clay Sturgill, 73, passed away peacefully
Friday November 10, 2023 at his home. He was surrounded by his loving
family. Clay was of the Baptist faith and worked as a loader operator for
many years at North Fork Mining in Partridge, KY. He enjoyed fishing,
long rides on his four wheeler, working on cars and watching a good
western on TV or reading a good western book. But what Clay loved
the most was the time he spent with his family, and seeing his little
Caroline would always brighten his day. He was a veteran of the
United States Army having served during the Vietnam War. Clay was preceded in death by his parents Denver and Lola Bell
(Hubbard) Sturgill and a sister Anna Maggard
Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Linda (Huges) Sturgill
of the home; his daughters, Lisa Renee Sturgill-Missouri, Tiffany
Sturgill-Eolia, KY and Kim Seals-Eolia, KY; sons Darin Sturgill-
Colorado, Mickael Sturgill and wife Josette-Pound, VA, John Bush-
Eolia, KY. Jamie Bush- Eolia, KY, William Bush- Eolia, KY and Jimmy
Govreu-Missouri: grandchildren, Elijah, Ethan, Timmy, Caroline,
Jaxson, Denver, Elizabeth, Travis, Anthony, Abby, Gavin, Payton, Dusty,
Garrett, Josette and Angelique; sisters, Norma Adams and husband
Ted-Eolia, KY, Linda Short and husband Darrell-Eolia, KY, Louise Boggs
and husband Paul-Pound, VA and Jeanette Back and husband David-
Eolia, KY; brothers Ray Sturgill and wife Liz-Indiana, Harold Sturgill
and wife Debbie-Pound, VA, Raymond Sturgill and wife Mary-Pound,
VA, Darrell Sturgill and wife Eileen -Wise, VA and Jimmy Sturgill-Pound, VA;
several nieces, nephews and cousins; and host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 6:00 pm Sunday November 12,
2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy Carter
officiating. The family will receive friends from 4:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 12 noon Monday November
13, 2023 at the Mullins/Sturgill Cemetery on Bear Fork Road-Pound,
VA where family members and friends will serve as pallbearers.
Family members and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral
Home by 11:00 am to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Whitesburg VFW Post 5829 will perform military honors on the funeral
home parking lot prior to leaving for the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Delbert
Clay Sturgill.
POUND, VA – Lilly Belle Brace blessed this world with her presence for 10 months and 12 days before passing away in the arms of her Mommy and Daddy on Sunday November 5, 2023 at the Niswonger Children’s Hospital. She was surrounded by
her immediate family.
Lilly was born December 24, 2022 at Pikeville Medical Center during a snow and ice storm. And although she was born with some special issues, she was a fighter from day one. She far exceeded all the expectations of her original medical prognosis. Everything was done on “Lilly Time”, she was a “Spicy Jalapeno” who would raise her eyebrows before belting out a cry. She eventually loved having her family running their fingers through her hair and having her feet kissed. Lilly was a “Pinky Up Proper Girl” with her precious little
pinkies often standing up, just one of the physical side effects she endured. She loved music, especially her special music box designed by Mae Robertson with its soothing melodies and sounds. Lilly loved her light up Linkimals with their beautiful colors and sounds, as well as her kitty cats and her boxer Daisy. She truly was one of the most beautiful little girls ever.
Through all these trying times Lilly’s family was able to see some of the truly kind acts that people who were complete strangers do for others. And although they were too many to list the family would like to extend as special thank you to the Pikeville Medical Center, the Pound Rescue Squad, the Niswonger Children’s Hospital, Hospice and Palliative Care of Virginia, the Yellow Door
Foundation of Charlottesville, VA, and the Guardian Riders of Bristol, TN.
Lilly Belle was preceded in death by her paternal great-grandmother Shirley Trent; and her maternal great-grandparents Harrison and Mary Easter (Muncy) Maggard.
Survivors include her parents Destiny Parrigan and Jeffrey Brace-Pound, VA, her sister Lana Jane Brace-Pound, VA ; her maternal grandparents Mary Bond-Pound, VA and Shane Ratliff-Florida; her paternal grandparents Jeff and Christy Brace-Pound, VA; special uncle Josh Bond-Pound, VA; special aunt and uncle Kerri “Sissy”
Brace and Aaron “Unkie” Brace-Pound, VA; special aunts Amy Alexander-Wise, VA, and Anna Salyers-Coeburn, VA; bonus aunt
Tara Fraley-Coeburn, VA; several aunts, uncles and cousins; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Celebration of life services will be held at 7:00 pm Wednesday November 8, 2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with
Reverend Mark Stallard and Reverend Randy Carter officiating.
The family will receive friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Lilly Belle will be laid to rest Thursday November 9, 2023 at the Brace Family Cemetery on South Fork Road-Pound, VA
where the Guardian Riders will serve as honorary pallbearers.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Lilly Belle Brace.
Sheila Anderson Ulmer, 83, of Bourbon, IN, passed away on Tuesday, October 31, 2023 in her home.
On October 25, 1940, Sheila Maxine Anderson was born near Pound, VA, up Laurel Fork near a beautiful pear tree. She was born to Moscoe and Clara (Adams) Anderson, the third daughter in a big ole mess of kids. Sheila ran those hills and hollers until the age of 15, when she moved to northern Indiana. She graduated from Atwood High School in 1959. She was a hairdresser and owned her own beauty shop. She was a member of the Etna Green United Methodist Church. Sheila lived for her children, her grandchildren, and her devoted husband, Jerry whom she married in March of 2005. There were many passions in Sheila’s life, which included master gardening, quilting, reading, attending her grandchildren’s sports events, growing beautiful hostas, ferns, daylilies, irises, and numerous perennials. She planted a forest of trees of many different varieties.
Sheila is preceded in death by her parents; her sisters: Garnell Anderson; Lena Keith; her brother, Duran Anderson; her stepson, Rod Ulmer; and her granddaughter, Katie Kosins.
Sheila is survived by her husband, Jerry; her brothers: Gerald Anderson; Charles (Sandy) Anderson; Michael Rose; Jeffery Rose; and her sisters: Peggy Shepherd; and Phyllis (Emil) Slone; her daughters: Bobbi (Eric) Kosins; Traci (Ken) McDavitt; and Ashley (Joe) Doll; her stepchildren: Jerry (Jan) Ulmer; Kim (Ed) Hickman; her grandchildren: Aaron (Michelle) Kosins; Corey (Katie) Kosins; Jordan Kosins; Schuyler (Julie) Stutzman; Lindsay (Devin) Shively; Savannah (Trevor) Gappa; Madeline Doll; Lena Doll; Clara Doll; and Hayden Doll; as well as nine great-grandchildren.
A visitation will be held on Saturday, November 4, 2023 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Etna Green Methodist Church (131 W Broadway St, Etna Green, IN 46524).
A funeral service will follow at 1:00 p.m. with Pastor Kenneth Cooke officiating.
Graveside services will be held at 11:00 am Monday November 6, 2023 at Dewey Memorial Cemetery (Pound, VA) with Baker Funeral Home of Pound VA assisting. Family and friends are asked to meet at the cemetery by 10:45 am.
Memorial donations may be made to Triton Trojans Sports Network (MCCF/TTSN Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 716, 2680 Miller Drive, Suite 120, Plymouth, IN 46563).
Deaton-Clemens Funeral Home-Bourbon, IN is serving the family of Sheila Anderson Ulmer.
WISE, VA – Sherry Genell Branham, 70, went to be with her Lord Tuesday October 31, 2023 from the Bristol Regional Medical Center. She was surrounded by her loved ones.
Sherry was of the Baptist faith, she had a warm and pleasant personality. She enjoyed people and never met a stranger. “ Sissy
Sherry” as she was known to her family, was a wonderful cook. She made a career out of her joy of feeding people and spent many years offering this skill at some of the best restaurants in the area.You probably had some of her delicious food at Dari Barn or the Coal Bucket in past years. This carried over into her love of feeding her family and making the best home-made banana
pudding you ever tasted. She was also a lover of thrillers, scary movies and telling ghost stories. She liked to talk on the CB radio where her handle was "Super Blonde". Sherry enjoyed spending time with her family sharing laughs and tales of times past. She could make anyone laugh until they cried. She spent the last several years living side by side with her beloved sister Mam who managed to get her into all sorts of shenanigans during their time together. It is only fitting that in death they shall rest side
by side so they can continue their funny antics.
Sherry was preceded in death by her parents Delmar and Leona (Mullins) Meade; brothers Jess Meade, General Meade, Newman Meade, Jerry Meade and Tommy Meade; and sisters Myrtle Hollyfield, Zelma South, Carzella Osborne and Glenda Rachel
“Mam” Fleming.
Survivors include her son Stuart Branham-Wise, VA; special nieces Melinda Stanley, Becky Short and Lea Adkins; special
great-nieces Eavan Muncy and Sidney Cress; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 7:00 pm Friday November 3, 2023, in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive
friends from 5:00 pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11:00 am Saturday November 4, 2023, at the Arvil Mullins Cemetery on Meade Fork Road in Pound, VA where pallbearers will be Paul Meade, Billy Stanley, Jeffrey Osborne, Ryan Adkins, Aidan England
and Stuart Branham.
Family and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 10:00 am for the final viewing and to prepare to go in
procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Sherry Genell Branham.
WISE, VA- ‘Sitting on the porch with his new companion Snoopy, watching the deer, feeling the heat of the warm sunshine and enjoying the beautiful world God had created, the Lord Jesus told our dad it was
time to come Home to be with Him for eternity.”
On Wednesday October 25, 2023 Dallas Bruce Shell went home to be with his Lord that he loved to talk about and had served and been faithful to for so many years. He loved to attend his family church, Mountain View Freewill Baptist Church on Pole Bridge Road in Wise, VA. When he was able, he was an avid fisherman, carpenter and
woodworker. As he and Carma Lee lived their lives they taught their children many useful life lessons, but the most precious lesson of all was the importance of giving
their life to and serving the Lord.
Bruce was born to Jasper and Mary Belle (Green) Shell on July 9, 1930. He was skilled carpenter and later taught carpentry at the Manpower Training Center at Wise County Technical School for 21 years until his
retirement. He was a veteran of the United States Army having served during the Korean Conflict. He was a member of the Korean War Veterans and Pound, VFW Post 9600, where he previously served as Post Commander.
Bruce was preceded in death by his beloved wife Carma Lee Shell; daughter Regina Sue Shell Davis; parents Jasper and Mary Bell Shell; daughter-in-law Pamela Shell; brother Raymond Shell; and sisters Fannie Collier, Georgie Cooper and Roxie Hubbard.
Surviving are his sons Michael Shell and wife Sheila, Stephen Shell and wife Lola and Thomas Shell and wife Velma; brother Henry Shell and wife Beulah; grandchildren Steve Shell Jr. and wife Jamie, Jessica Maiden and husband Bobby, Miranda McDonald and husband Tony, Portia Martinez and husband Michael, Abby Mullins and Brian Davis and
wife Jenny; great-grandchildren Derek Mullins, Ty McDonald, Elijah McDonald, Levi Davis, Lillie Davis, Luke Davis, Hudson Maiden, Jonah Maiden and Gavin Densmore; several nieces and nephews; and a host of friends and loved ones.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2:30 pm Sunday October 29, 2023 at the Mountain View Freewill Baptist Church with his son Reverend Tommy Shell, Elder Stacy
Potter and Reverend Mike Jordan officiating.
The family will receive friends from 1:00 pm until time of services.
Military graveside services will follow in the Mountian View Cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Dallas Bruce Shell.
HAYSI, VA – Laura Lynn Shiina, 54, entered into eternity Tuesday October 24, 2023 from Norton Community Hospital. Her loving family was at her side.
Laura was of the Christian faith. She was born December 20, 1968 in Detroit , MI to her parents Thomas Cichy and Sandra
(Franks) Cichy. Laura was always artistically talented and mechanically gifted. She graduated college with a bachelors
degree in computer automated design and was a veteran of the United States Navy where she served as an aircraft mechanic.
Laura had also worked as an automotive and diesel mechanic. She was an incredible artist and could draw anything. She loved
arts and crafts. Laura enjoyed caring for others, always putting their needs ahead of her own. She was always cleaning and
straightening things up, she loved cooking, especially making everyones favorite dish for them. Laura was always the center of the social circle, she loved gossiping, telling and listening to stories. She loved to run the roads, always looking for a good deal or finding something unique or just seeing somewhere new. She was always just fun to be around. She loved all kinds of music, classic rock, motown and country. She
enjoyed a good movie, a couple of her favorites were Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Good Fellas. Laura loved her dogs, Apollo the Boxer and Sissy the Pitbull were two of her favorites before they passed away.
Laura was preceded in death by her parents Thomas and Sandra Lou (Franks) Cichy; and her wife Angela Michaels.
Survivors include her daughters Paige Hollis and companion Don Mullins-Clinchco, VA and Melissa Garrett-Clintwood, VA; her sons Anthony Shiina and companion Lexi Powers-Norton, VA, Jeff Shiina and wife Bethany-Haysi, VA and Justin Michaels-Florida; her grandchildren Emi Lynn Shiina, Matthew Michaels, Bailey Ann Lucas, Colton Andrew Garrett, Priscilla Louise Garrett and one on the way Rain Laura Dawn Shiina; her sister Lisa Cichy-Florida; her brother Todd Cichy-Michigan; mother-in-law Dale Hernandez Holland-Florida; brother-in-law Michael Lee Hollis;
special friends Marnie Lucas-Grand Rapids MI, Sammy Coppola-California and Jessica Compton; several other relatives and loved
ones; and her dear old dog Marley the Chihuahua.
Celebration of life services will be held at
2:00 pm Sunday October 29, 2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Laura Lynn Shiina.
POUND, VA- Audie Wayne Collier, 67, passed away Peacefully into eternity Tuesday October 24,2023 from Pikeville Medical Center- Pikeville, KY after a long illness.
Audie was Christian of the Baptist faith and attended Martha’s Chapel Church when his health would allow him. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle
and friend. Audie worked in the coal industry for over 20 years as a drill operator and retired due to health reasons from A&G Coal Company at the age of 52. He was an avid
UK basketball fan, enjoyed watching old western on tv, going to drag races and dirt track racing. Audie had a kind soul and would do anything he could for someone. He will be deeply missed by his friends and family. Audie remained heartbroken the last three years since the death of his wife
Susie.
Audie was preceded in death by his wife, Helen Marie “Susie Church” Collier; his son Shawn Keith Collier; his parents, Arlie
Collier Sr. and Arlene Anderson Collier; a brother, Arlie Collier Jr and a special friend, Eddie Bevins.
Survivors include granddaughter, Sarah Collier Bloomer and husband Brian - Pennington Gap, VA; a sister, Audrey Slemp
and husband Jimmy -Pound, VA; sister-in-law, Vivian Collier- Pound, VA; nieces, Jessee Mullins and Jeremy, Patti Owens and
Ethan, Kristi Rasnick and Travis, Heather Franklin and Brian and Holly Collier ; nephews, Greg Slemp and Christy, David
Slemp and Courney and several great nieces and nephews along with a host of cousins and friends and loved ones.
Graveside services will be conducted at 1:00 pm Thursday October 26, 2023 at the Dewey Cemetery- Pound, VA with Reverend Jimmy Slemp and Reverend David Slemp officiating.
Where family members will serve as pallbearers. Family and friends are asked to meet at the funeral home by 12 noon to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
A special thank you to the staff at Pikeville Medical Center for their excellent care of Audie and to the in-home nurses who
came weekly to care for him., also to Lifecare Ambulance Service for their continued support over the past 5 years.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to :Pound Rescue Squad - PO Box 711 Pound, VA 24279.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Audie Wayne Collier.
BLUEFIELD, WV – Robert “Bobby” Edward Harris Messer, 81, went home to be with the Lord Sunday, October 22, 2023 from his home. He was surrounded by his loving family.
Bobby was preceded in death by parents Anderson and Arlene Messer; his adoptive parents James and Irene Maggard Harris; his
brothers Harold, Wade, Wayne, David, Donald and Paul Messer; his first wife and mother of his children Nancy Obenshain Messer; his adopted brothers Charles and Roger Harris and sisters Patricia Phillips and Betty Sue Peters.
Survivors include his loving wife of 24 years Diane (Hampton) Messer-Bluefield, WV; his four children Tamara and James Cawthon-Manassas, VA, Adam and Kerry Messer-Williamsburg, VA, Tony Messer-Manassas,
VA and Andy and Mireille Messer-Winston-Salem NC; two stepsons Tim and Jessica Hampton-Bluefield, VA and Brad Sergeant-Bluefield, WV; 14 grandchildren; sisters Linda Vanover and companion Bill Mullins-Pound, VA and Carol Riley and husband John-Pound, VA; brothers Ronnie Ratliff and wife Lavern-Pound, VA and Greg Harris-Pound, VA; special friends, Butch and Sandy Coleman- Rocky Gap, VA and Wanda Green-Bluefield, VA; several nieces, nephews and cousins;
and a host of friends and loved ones.
Bobby’s mother passed away when he 3 years old and he was raised by his uncle James and Irene Harris. He attended school in Pound, VA and went to work in Manassas, VA where he married Nancy Obenshain
and they raised their four children. Bobby was a licensed plumber and worked for a construction company, then later had his own business. In the 90’s he moved back to Pound, VA and met his wife Diane. Diane’s job was transferred to Bluefield, WV where they presently live. Robert, Diane and Brad attended and were active members of
Heritage Baptist Church in Bland, VA. He was an avid bowler, he also enjoyed watching old tv shows, Andy Griffith and Gunsmoke being
two of his favorites and he loved his dogs and his cat.
In the past few months Diane’s sister Wanda Green and Bobby’s stepson Brad lovingly helped care for him.
Funeral services will be conducted 1:00 pm Friday October 27, 2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Greg
Cyphers and Reverend Travis Price officiating. The family will receive friends from 11:00 am until time of services.
Burial will follow at Mt. Zion Cemetery-Pound, VA where Tony VanHuss, Jonas Riley, Marcus Riley, Jackie Phillips, Haskel Phillips,
Donnie Harris, Ricky Dean Hampton, Tim Hampton and James Sergeant will serve as pallbearers.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Robert Edward Harris Messer.
WISE, VA - Bertha Ellen Smith, born April 1, 1941, passed away Friday October 20, 2023 at her home. She was surrounded by her
loving family.
Bertha was of the Christian faith. She was a homemaker and a caregiver who had taken care of generations of her family. If you
were sick, Bertha was the one who cared for you. One of her specialties was making a mean hot totty that could cure about
anything. She loved to cook and feed everybody. Bertha loved old country music, some of her favorite singers were Conway
Twitty, Loretta Lynn and Elvis Presley. She loved to dance andflat footing was her specialty. Bertha enjoyed watching and
fussing at the television, The Waltons, Heat of the Night and Walker Texas Ranger were some of her favorite shows. But Bertha’s greatest joy was caring for her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.
Bertha was preceded in death by her parents Carlos and Hazel Mullins; two grandchildren Kristi Smith and Jeffery Smith; five sisters Nancy Whited, Ruthie Kilgore, Naomi Sartin, Trudy Stuart and Jo Bernice Mullins; and one brother Cossie Mullins.
Bertha is survived by her four children Tammy Marcum and Johnny Ramey, Timothy Smith, Bobby Smith and Carolyn and
Chris Hughes; her grandchildren Felicia and Adam Wright, Brittany and C J Adkins, Ashley and Buck Ratliff, Robert and McKinley Smith, Josh and Adrianna Smith, Parker Smith,
Brantley Branham, Michael and Amy Smith, Jamie Smith, Caitlyn Hughes and Cesar Olguin and Joel Hughes; her great-
grandchildren Hayley, Lexi, Amelia, Ava, Isiah, Zara, Mallory, Jaxson, Alivia, Landon, Leo, Zachary, Victoria and two on the
way; her four sisters Fran Mullins, Rhonda Lewis, Carrie Ratliff and Regeania Mullins; her six brothers Merdie Mullins, Roy Mullins, Johnny Mullins, Jim Mullins, Connie Mullins and Bill Mullins, numerous nieces, nephew sand cousins, special friends Renee Wilson and April Mullins from In-Home Health and
Brianna Hutchison and all the nurses from Caris Hospice; and a host of family and friends.
Funeral services will be conducted at
7:00 pm Monday October 23, 2023 in the Baker Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Randy Carter officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00pm until time of services.
Graveside services will be conducted at 11:00 am Tuesday October 24, 2023 at the Riley Mullins Cemetery where Adam Wright, C J Adkins, Timothy Smith, Bobby Smith, Josh Smith, Robert Smith,Chris Hughes and Buck Ratliff will serve as pallbearers. Family
and friends are asked to meet at Baker Funeral Home by 10:00 amfor a final viewing and to prepare to go in procession to the cemetery.
Baker Funeral Home-Pound, VA is serving the family of Bertha Ellen Smith.
POUND, VA – Newton Arnold McCoy, 80, passed away on Thursday October 5, 2023, at the Norton Community Hospital
after several years of declining health which had left him bedridden.
Newton was born June 2,1943 on Bold Camp in Pound, VA. He was a 1961 graduate of Pound High Scholl where he played football and other sports. He later went on to further his education at Emory & Henry College and ETSU. After graduating, Newton briefly taught school at Clintwood and Coeburn before later becoming an Insurance Adjuster which would frequently take him away from home for months at a time when hurricanes or other natural disasters would strike. Some years later he would also pass the bar exam and practiced law for a time before his health deteriorated. When he was able, he attended Hamilton Chapel Church. Newton loved to read, play golf, watch football and watch his favorite television shows. While he was still able, he enjoyed taking day trips with Irene and their dogs.
Newton was preceded in death by his parents Kermit and Ada (Smith) McCoy; two daughters, Valerie Lynn McCoy and infant daughter, Casey McCoy and his son Colley Brennen McCoy.
Survivors include his wife of 42 years Irene (Paragon) McCoy-Pound VA; his son Conner McCoy and companion Heather Cox-Pound,
VA; step grandchildren Ray Lane and M | |||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 32 | https://ultimatepopculture.fandom.com/wiki/1967_in_music | en | 1967 in music | https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ucp-internal-test-starter-commons/images/a/aa/FandomFireLogo.png/revision/latest?cb=20210713142711 | https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ucp-internal-test-starter-commons/images/a/aa/FandomFireLogo.png/revision/latest?cb=20210713142711 | [
"https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ultimatepopculture/images/4/42/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/22?cb=20130704171202",
"https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ultimatepopculture/images/d/de/Flag_of_the_United_States.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/22?cb=20121210031655",
"... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Contributors to Ultimate Pop Culture Wiki"
] | 2024-08-14T13:00:00+00:00 | The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour), Small Faces ("Itchycoo Park"), Eric Burdon & The Animals (Winds of Change), The... | en | /skins-ucp/mw139/common/favicon.ico | Ultimate Pop Culture Wiki | https://ultimatepopculture.fandom.com/wiki/1967_in_music | List of years in music (table) ... 1957 . 1958 . 1959 . 1960 . 1961 . 1962 . 1963 ...
1964 1965 1966 -1967- 1968 1969 1970
... 1971 . 1972 . 1973 . 1974 . 1975 . 1976 . 1977 ... Art . Archaeology . Architecture . Literature . Music . Philosophy . Science +...
The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour), Small Faces ("Itchycoo Park"), Eric Burdon & The Animals (Winds of Change), The Doors (The Doors and Strange Days), Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow and After Bathing at Baxter's), Pink Floyd (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), Love (Forever Changes), Cream (Disraeli Gears), The Byrds (Younger Than Yesterday), The Rolling Stones (Their Satanic Majesties Request), The Who (The Who Sell Out), The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground & Nico), Procol Harum (Procol Harum), and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love).
Events[]
January 8 - Elvis Presley turns 32. His January recording session, in Nashville, is "Guitar Man" with Jerry Reed on guitar.
January 13 - Stephen Foster Memorial Day is observed for the first time in the United States (on the 103rd anniversary of the composer's death).
January 15 – The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. At Ed Sullivan's request, the band change the lyrics of "Let's Spend the Night Together" to "Let's spend some time together".
January 16 – The Monkees begin work on Headquarters, the first album to give them complete artistic and technical control over their material.
January 17 - The Daily Mail newspaper reports 4,000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire; and Guinness heir Tara Brown is killed in a car wreck. These articles inspire lyrics for The Beatles song "A Day in the Life".
January 22 – Simon & Garfunkel give live concert at Philharmonic Hall in New York City. Some of this concert is released on October 4, 1997, on their box set Old Friends, but most is not released until July 2002.
January 30 – The Beatles shoot a promotional film for their forthcoming single "Strawberry Fields Forever" at Knole Park in Sevenoaks.
February 3 – UK record producer Joe Meek murders his landlady and then commits suicide by shooting himself in the head at Holloway, North London.
February 6 – Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz of the Monkees fly into London. Dolenz sees Till Death Us Do Part on British TV and uses the term "Randy Scouse Git" from the programme for the title of The Monkees' next single release "Randy Scouse Git", not realising it is an offensive term. British censors force the title to be changed to "Alternate Title" in the UK.
February 7 – Micky Dolenz meets Paul McCartney at his home in St John's Wood, London, and they pose together for the press. His impressions of the visit feature in the lyrics of "Randy Scouse Git".
February 10 - Abbey Road Studio 2 session with Michael Nesmith in attendance as The Beatles record "A Day in the Life" with the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing an "orgasm of noise" featured twice in the song.
February 12 – British police raid 'Redlands', the Sussex home of Keith Richards in the early hours of the morning following a tip-off about a party from the News of the World; although no arrests are made at the time, Richards, Mick Jagger and art dealer Robert Fraser are subsequently charged with possession of drugs.
February 14 – Aretha Franklin records "Respect" at the New York based Atlantic Studios.
February 16 – "Aretha Franklin Day" is declared in Detroit, Michigan.
February 24 – The Bee Gees sign a management contract with Robert Stigwood.
March 3 – Eric Burdon & The Animals refuse to perform a show in Ottawa, Ontario, unless they are paid in advance. The audience of 3000 riots, causing $5000 in damages to the auditorium.
March 11 – A taped appearance by The Beatles on American Bandstand includes their new music video for the songs "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever"
March 25 – The Who perform their first concert in the United States, in New York.
March 27 – John Lennon and Paul McCartney are awarded the Ivor Novello award for "Michelle", the most performed song in Britain in 1966.
March 30 – The Beatles pose with a photographic collage and wax figures from Madame Tussaud's famous museum for the cover artwork of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album at Chelsea Manor Studios in London.
March 31 – Kicking off a tour with The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck at The Astoria London, Jimi Hendrix sets fire to his guitar on stage for the first time. He is taken to hospital suffering burns to his hands. The guitar-burning act would later become a trademark of Hendrix's performances.
April 8 – The 12th Eurovision Song Contest is held in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, Vienna, Austria. The United Kingdom wins the contest for the first time with the Bill Martin/Phil Coulter song "Puppet on a String", sung by Sandie Shaw.
May – Paul McCartney reveals that all four members of the Beatles have "dropped acid".
May 1 – Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladdin, Las Vegas.
May 2 – In the United States, Capitol Records pulls the plug on the Beach Boys' mysterious Smile project. Brian Wilson, who had taken more than a year to compose and produce the album, could not bring himself to finish it.
May 12
Pink Floyd stage the first ever rock concert with quadraphonic sound at Queen Elizabeth Hall, England
The debut album of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced is released in the UK.
May 15 – Paul McCartney meets American photographer Linda Eastman at a club called "Bag O' Nails".
May 19 – Linda McCartney (her maiden name, Eastman), photographs The Beatles at the London Press Party for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band held at the Chapel Street home of Brian Epstein. Media there were perplexed by the band's fashion statements and the music itself.
May 30 – BBC Radio broadcasts "Where It's At" featuring The Beatles interviews, and John Lennon's comedy intro to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. BBC refuse to air A Day in the Life for alleged "drug references" in the lyrics.
June 1
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles is released in Mono and Stereo LPs.
Greece's military junta issues "Army decree No 13", which bans playing or listening to the music of Mikis Theodorakis.
June 4– Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Denny Laine and his Electric String Band, Procol Harum and The Chiffons, perform a two-hour "Sunday Special" at Saville Theatre in London.
June 10 – June 11 – The KFRC Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival at Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California features The Miracles, The Byrds, Wilson Pickett, The Seeds, Blues Magoos, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Country Joe and the Fish and others on the bill for a charity concert attended by 15,000; considered the first rock festival in some histories, but eclipsed in attendance and stature by the Monterey Pop Festival the following week.
June 16 – Barbra Streisand performs live concert "A Happening in Central Park" in New York's Central Park.
June 16 – June 18 – The Monterey Pop Festival, the world's first large scale outdoor rock music festival, is held in Monterey, California. Stars include the Who, Simon and Garfunkel, Eric Burdon & The Animals, The Byrds, The Association, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and The Holding Company with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Otis and the MG's take the stage at 1:00 am after Jefferson Airplane and bring down the house; 55,000 are in attendance. Ravi Shankar is among the performers at the festival.
June 19 – During his stay in California on a houseboat in Sausalito, while listening to the Beatles' Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, Otis Redding is inspired to compose "Sitting On the Dock of the Bay".
June 25 – The Beatles perform "All You Need Is Love" for the Our World television special, the first worldwide television broadcast. Backing singers include Eric Clapton, members of The Rolling Stones and The Who.
June 28
The Supremes perform for the first time as Diana Ross & the Supremes at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Florence Ballard is fired from the group after the first night, and on-hand stand-in Cindy Birdsong permanently takes Ballard's place in the group.
The Monkees fly in to London at the start of their concerts at the Empire Pool, Wembley.
June 29 – Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sentenced to jail for drug possession. They later appeal successfully against the sentences.
June/July - Shortly after the end of the Six-Day War, conductor Leonard Bernstein leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour to the Sinai desert, the site of fighting only days before.
July 1 – William Rees-Mogg, editor of The Times, uses the phrase "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" in his editorial criticizing the prison sentences given to Mick Jagger and Keith Richard two days earlier.
July 2 – Jeff Beck and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers perform a two hour "Sunday Special" at Saville Theatre in London.
July 3 – The Beatles host a party at the Speakeasy Club for The Monkees on the completion of their concerts in London.
July 18 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience is thrown off a tour of The Monkees after complaints from the conservative Daughters of the American Revolution. (Hendrix's manager Chas Chandler later admitted it was a publicity stunt.)
July 29 – Motown Records releases "Reflections," the first single by the group's new billing, "Diana Ross & The Supremes" and after firing founding member Florence Ballard; Ballard, nevertheless, sings on the record and appears on the vinyl's cover alongside group members Ross and Wilson because the song was recorded before her dismissal.
August 14 – The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act becomes law in the United Kingdom, and most offshore radio stations (including Wonderful Radio London) have already closed down. Only Radio Caroline North & South on 259 would continue. As Radio Caroline International.
August 21 - Mikis Theodorakis is arrested by the Greek military authorities and jailed for five months.
August 23 – Brian Epstein's last visit to a Beatles' recording session, at the Chappell Recording Studios on Maddox Street, London. The last new Beatles song he lived to hear was "Your Mother Should Know".[1]
August 27 – The Beatles, in Bangor, Wales, with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, are informed of the death of their manager Brian Epstein, and they return to London at once.
August 31 - Paul McCartney calls a band meeting to discuss his TV movie idea about a psychedelic bus ride.
September 7 – Eric Burdon marries Angie King.
September 16 - Too ill to conduct, after undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer, Sir Malcolm Sargent makes a valedictory appearance at the Last Night of the Proms.[2]
September 17
The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and perform "Light My Fire". Despite having agreed to Sullivan's request that the line "Girl we couldn't get much higher" be changed for the show, Jim Morrison performs it the way it was written and The Doors are banned from the show.
The Who destroy their instruments during a performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Keith Moon's exploding drum kit injures Pete Townshend.[3]
September 30 – The BBC replaces the Light Programme with two new radio stations: a pop music channel, Radio 1, and the more MOR-orientated Radio 2. The Third Programme is renamed Radio 3, and the Home Service becomes Radio 4.
October 14 – Tammi Terrell faints and collapses into duet partner Marvin Gaye's arms onstage during a performance at the Hampton University homecoming in Virginia. She was later diagnosed with a brain tumor, and would die from brain cancer in 1970 at the age of 24.
October 18 – The first issue of Rolling Stone rolls off the press at about 5:30pm,[4] with a cover dated November 9 and featuring a photo of John Lennon in the film How I Won the War. The original inspiration for the magazine was "Bomp!" Magazine based in California, which preceded the existence of Rolling Stone.
October 27 - Sir Malcolm Sargent's memorial service is attended by 3,000 people including Princess Marina of Kent, Bridget D'Oyly Carte, Pierre Boulez, Larry Adler, Douglas Fairbanks Junior, Léon Goossens, Sir Arthur Bliss, and representatives of the London orchestras and of the Promenaders. Colin Davis and the BBC Chorus and Symphony Orchestra performed the music.[5]
November – Oricon is founded by Sōkō Koike and begins publishing a singles chart.
November 22 – Otis Redding records "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay".
December – George Harrison begins recording tracks for Wonderwall Music, his first solo album, in London; he continues the recording in Mumbai.
December 5 – The Beatles open the Apple Boutique in London. Party guests include Eric Clapton and movie director Richard Lester.
December 8 – Otis and the Bar-Kays play at a popular nightclub, Leo's Casino. This was to be Otis's last performance. Two days later he and four of the six Bar-Kays die in a plane crash in Lake Monona (Madison, Wisconsin). One of the worst air tragedies in entertainment history, and the worst since the Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper air crash, 8 years earlier, in 1959.
December 26 – First telecast of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour on BBC1. Shown in black & white upsets McCartney because it ruined the intended psychedelic color effects.
Pickwick Records releases LP collection of ten 1950s A- and B-sides of singles by Simon & Garfunkel, recorded under their pseudonym Tom & Jerry, and tries to pass it off as current material by the duo. Simon and Garfunkel file a legal challenge, and the record is swiftly withdrawn from the market.
Toots & the Maytals releases "54-46 That's My Number", one of the first reggae songs
The Savonlinna Opera Festival is re-launched in Savonlinna, Finland, after a gap of fifty years.
The first LP recording of traditional Estonian music, Eesti rahvalaule ja pillilugusid, is released.
The International Society of Bassists is founded by Gary Karr.
Narsaloo Ramaya becomes leader of the Naya Zamana.
Ali Akbar Khan founds a school of music in California.
Musical groups formed[]
See Category:Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups disbanded[]
The Crystals
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
The Rooftop Singers
The Tornados
The Trashmen
Albums released[]
January[]
Day Album Artist Notes 4 The Doors The Doors - 9 More of the Monkees The Monkees - 13 Soul of Mann Manfred Mann - 20 Between the Buttons The Rolling Stones - 23 The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland The Supremes - - Colour My World Petula Clark - Miles Smiles Miles Davis - More Than a New Discovery Laura Nyro - Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson Roy Orbison - Sugar Nancy Sinatra -
February[]
Day Album Artist Notes 6 Younger Than Yesterday The Byrds - 10 Trogglodynamite The Troggs - 12 Hello, I'm Dolly Dolly Parton - 17 A Hard Road John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - 20 How Great Thou Art Elvis Presley Gospel - And We Were Lovers Shirley Bassey - The Mamas and the Papas Deliver The Mamas & the Papas - Mellow Yellow Donovan - Surrealistic Pillow Jefferson Airplane - There's a Kind of Hush All Over the World Herman's Hermits -
March[]
Day Album Artist Notes 3 Images The Walker Brothers - 4 I'm a Lonesome Fugitive Merle Haggard - 6 Temptations Live! The Temptations Live 10 I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You Aretha Franklin - Matthew and Son Cat Stevens - 12 The Velvet Underground & Nico The Velvet Underground, Nico - 13 Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits Patsy Cline Compilation 16 King & Queen Otis Redding & Carla Thomas - 17 The Grateful Dead Grateful Dead - 18 Album 1700 Peter, Paul & Mary - 27 Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Bob Dylan Compilation 30 Club Meeting Billy Preston - - Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim - Green, Green Grass of Home Tom Jones Decca album James Brown Sings Raw Soul James Brown - Johnny Mathis Sings Johnny Mathis - On Stage and in the Movies Dionne Warwick - Thoroughly Modern Millie Various Artists Soundtrack
April[]
Day Album Artist Notes 1 Don't Stop Me Now! Cliff Richard - - Casino Royale Burt Bacharach Soundtrack Chuck Berry's Golden Decade Chuck Berry - Electric Music for the Mind and Body Country Joe and the Fish - The Electric Prunes The Electric Prunes - Extra Special! Peggy Lee Compilation Feelin' Groovy Harper's Bizarre - Happy Together The Turtles - I Think We're Alone Now Tommy James and the Shondells - Make Way for Willie Nelson Willie Nelson - Nina Simone Sings the Blues Nina Simone - The Way I Feel Gordon Lightfoot - Tim Hardin 2 Tim Hardin - West Side Soul Magic Sam -
May[]
Day Album Artist Notes 2 Happiness Is Dean Martin Dean Martin - 12 Are You Experienced The Jimi Hendrix Experience - 22 Headquarters The Monkees - The Supremes Sing Rodgers & Hart The Supremes - 26 Absolutely Free The Mothers of Invention - - Canciones Folklóricas de América Víctor Jara - Live at the Garden James Brown Live Reflections Terry Knight and the Pack - Release Me Engelbert Humperdinck - Sounds Like... Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass - Super Psychedelics The Ventures - Up, Up and Away The 5th Dimension - You're a Big Boy Now The Lovin' Spoonful Soundtrack The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds -
June[]
Day Album Artist Notes 1 David Bowie David Bowie - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles - 2 From the Beginning Small Faces Compilation 26 Flowers The Rolling Stones Compilation - Big Swing Face Buddy Rich - Double Trouble Elvis Presley Soundtrack Evolution The Hollies - The Fastest Guitar Alive Roy Orbison motion picture soundtrack Hip Hug-Her Booker T & the M.G.'s - James Brown Plays the Real Thing James Brown - Moby Grape Moby Grape - Ode to Billie Joe Bobbie Gentry - Side Trips Kaleidoscope US band Small Faces Small Faces - This Is My Song Ray Conniff - Tom Jones Live! Tom Jones -
July[]
Day Album Artist Notes 10 Jigsaw The Shadows - Live in Europe Otis Redding Live 14 Bee Gees 1st Bee Gees - 17 The Temptations with a Lot o' Soul The Temptations - 24 Best of The Beach Boys Vol. 2 The Beach Boys Compilation Little Games The Yardbirds - - The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion The Incredible String Band - The Everly Brothers Sing The Everly Brothers - Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 Johnny Cash Compilation Reach Out Four Tops - The Sound of Wilson Pickett Wilson Pickett - Triangle The Beau Brummels - Vanilla Fudge Vanilla Fudge -
August[]
Day Album Artist Notes 4 Aretha Arrives Aretha Franklin - 5 The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Pink Floyd - 7 The Byrds' Greatest Hits The Byrds Compilation Lumpy Gravy Frank Zappa Original release; subsequently reedited and reissued in 1968 12 Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company - 27 I Was Made to Love Her Stevie Wonder - 28 Branded Man Merle Haggard - 29 Greatest Hits Diana Ross & the Supremes Compilation United Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell - 31 The Windows of the World Dionne Warwick - - Brighten the Corner Ella Fitzgerald - Born Under a Bad Sign Albert King - Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter Johnny Cash and June Carter - Chuck Berry in Memphis Chuck Berry - Cold Sweat James Brown - Goodbye and Hello Tim Buckley - Joan Joan Baez - Lush Life Nancy Wilson - Make It Happen Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - These Are My Songs Petula Clark - Underground The Electric Prunes - The World We Knew Frank Sinatra -
September[]
Day Album Artist Notes 11 Smiley Smile The Beach Boys - 15 Something Else by The Kinks The Kinks - 16 Just for You Neil Diamond - Scott Scott Walker - 25 Strange Days The Doors - - Blowin' Your Mind! Van Morrison - Crusade John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - Everybody Needs Love Gladys Knight & the Pips - Insight Out The Association - It Must Be Him Vikki Carr - Live at Fillmore Auditorium Chuck Berry - Martha and the Vandellas Live! Martha and the Vandellas Live Procol Harum Procol Harum - Safe as Milk Captain Beefheart - Winds of Change Eric Burdon & The Animals -
October[]
Day Album Artist Notes 10 Clambake Elvis Presley Soundtrack 27 Ten Years After Ten Years After - Where Am I Going? Dusty Springfield - 30 Buffalo Springfield Again Buffalo Springfield - 31 Pleasures of the Harbor Phil Ochs - - Alice's Restaurant Arlo Guthrie - Butterfly The Hollies - Chelsea Girl Nico - A Christmas Album Barbra Streisand Christmas Cry Softly Lonely One Roy Orbison - The Don Heckman-Ed Summerlin Improvisational Jazz Workshop Don Heckman and Ed Summerlin - Gorilla Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - One Nation Underground Pearls Before Swine - Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings the Complete 'Dr. Dolittle' Sammy Davis, Jr. - Silk & Soul Nina Simone - Simply Streisand Barbra Streisand - Wildflowers Judy Collins -
November[]
Day Album Artist Notes 2 Disraeli Gears Cream - 6 Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. The Monkees - 11 Days of Future Passed The Moody Blues - 24 Tangerine Dream Kaleidoscope UK band 27 Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles Soundtrack Someday at Christmas Stevie Wonder Christmas The Temptations in a Mellow Mood The Temptations - 30 After Bathing at Baxter's Jefferson Airplane - - The Amboy Dukes The Amboy Dukes - Easter Everywhere 13th Floor Elevators - Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas Ella Fitzgerald Christmas Forever Changes Love - I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Country Joe and the Fish - The First Edition The First Edition -
December[]
Day Album Artist Notes 1 Axis: Bold as Love The Jimi Hendrix Experience UK 8 Their Satanic Majesties Request The Rolling Stones - 11 Wild Honey The Beach Boys - 15 The Who Sell Out The Who - 27 John Wesley Harding Bob Dylan - Songs of Leonard Cohen Leonard Cohen - - A Gift from a Flower to a Garden Donovan - The Look of Love Dusty Springfield - 13 Smash Hits Tom Jones - The Magic Garden The 5th Dimension - Mr. Fantasy Traffic - Pandemonium Shadow Show Harry Nilsson - The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw Paul Butterfield Blues Band -
[]
Page Template:Div col/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "wikitext").
Biggest hit singles[]
The following songs achieved the highest chart positions[6] in the charts of 1967.
# Artist Title Year Country Chart Entries 1 Procol Harum "A Whiter Shade of Pale" 1967 UK 1 – May 1967, Canada 1 – Jun 1967, Netherlands 1 – Jun 1967, France 1 – May 1972, Germany 1 – Jul 1967, Éire 1 – Jun 1967, Australia 1 for 3 weeks Nov 1967, Australia Goset 1 – Jun 1967, Norway 3 – Jun 1967, Europe 4 of the 1960s, US BB 5 – Jul 1967, RYM 5 of 1967, DDD 6 of 1967, Global 7 (10 M sold) – 1967, Italy 10 of 1967, South Africa 19 of 1967, TOTP 36, US BB 38 of 1967, POP 38 of 1967, US CashBox 47 of 1967, Rolling Stone 57, WXPN 60, Scrobulate 62 of oldies, Poland 69 of all time, Belgium 75 of all time, Acclaimed 100, OzNet 131, Germany 144 of the 1960s 2 The Monkees "I'm a Believer" 1967 UK 1 – Jan 1967, US BB 1 – Dec 1966, Canada 1 – Nov 1966, Netherlands 1 – Jan 1967, Norway 1 – Jan 1967, Germany 1 – Feb 1967, Éire 1 – Jan 1967, Australia 1 for 1 weeks Apr 1967, US BB 2 of 1966, Australia Goset 2 – Jan 1967, South Africa 2 of 1967, POP 2 of 1966, US CashBox 8 of 1967, Australia 9 of 1967, DDD 12 of 1966, RYM 26 of 1966, Global 33 (5 M sold) – 1966, OzNet 34, 38 in 2FM list, Scrobulate 49 of 60s, Germany 67 of the 1960s, Italy 85 of 1967, Acclaimed 503 3 The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" 1967 UK 1 – Jul 1967, US BB 1 – Jul 1967, Canada 1 – Jul 1967, Netherlands 1 – Jul 1967, Norway 1 – Jul 1967, Germany 1 – Aug 1967, Éire 1 – Aug 1967, Australia 1 for 4 weeks Dec 1967, Australia Goset 1 – Jul 1967, Europe 26 of the 1960s, RYM 26 of 1967, US CashBox 43 of 1967, Scrobulate 50 of classic rock, DDD 52 of 1967, Italy 60 of 1967, Germany 118 of the 1960s, Party 130 of 2007, Rolling Stone 362, WXPN 491, OzNet 869, Acclaimed 1488 4 The Doors "Light My Fire" 1967 US BB 1 – Jun 1967, France 1 – Jul 1971, Éire 1 – Jun 1991, US CashBox 2 of 1967, Canada 2 – Jun 1967, DDD 2 of 1967, UK 7 – Jun 1991, Europe 9 of the 1960s, US BB 15 of 1967, POP 15 of 1967, Australia Goset 16 – Sep 1967, RYM 19 of 1967, 20 in 2FM list, Acclaimed 23, Scrobulate 24 of classic rock, Netherlands 25 – Aug 1967, Belgium 31 of all time, Rolling Stone 35, RIAA 52, Poland 65 of all time, Virgin 71, TheQ 137, WXPN 161, OzNet 194 5 The Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever" 1967 Canada 1 – Feb 1967, Netherlands 1 – Feb 1967, Norway 1 – Feb 1967, Australia 1 for 3 weeks Jul 1967, Australia Goset 1 – Mar 1967, RYM 1 of 1967, UK 2 – Feb 1967, France 4 – Apr 1976, US BB 8 – Mar 1967, DDD 9 of 1967, 11 in 2FM list, Acclaimed 12, Australia 16 of 1967, Europe 17 of the 1960s, Scrobulate 52 of classic rock, WXPN 75, Rolling Stone 76, OzNet 185, Belgium 235 of all time
Top American hits on record[]
British number one hits not included above[]
"Puppet on a String" – Sandie Shaw
"Silence Is Golden" – The Tremeloes
"The Last Waltz" – Engelbert Humperdinck
"Massachusetts" – Bee Gees
"Baby Now That I've Found You" – The Foundations
"Let the Heartaches Begin" – Long John Baldry
Other significant singles[]
"7-Rooms of Gloom" – Four Tops
"At the Zoo" – Simon & Garfunkel
"Darling Be Home Soon" – Lovin' Spoonful
"The Day I Met Marie" – Cliff Richard
"Death of a Clown" – Dave Davies
"Different Drum" – Stone Poneys (featuring Linda Ronstadt)
"Equestrian Statue" – Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
"Even The Bad Times Are Good" – The Tremeloes
"Fakin' It" – Simon & Garfunkel
"Flowers in the Rain" – The Move
"Friday on My Mind" – The Easybeats
"From Head to Toe" - Chris Clark
"From the Underworld" – The Herd
"Gloria" - Them
"Good Times" – Eric Burdon & The Animals
"Excerpt from 'A Teenage Opera'" – Keith West
"Happy Jack" – The Who
"Here Comes My Baby" – The Tremeloes
"Heroes and Villains" – The Beach Boys
"Hole in My Shoe" – Traffic
"Holiday" – Bee Gees
"Holly" - Andy Williams
"Homburg" – Procol Harum
"Honey Chile" – Martha and the Vandellas (w.m. Richard Morris)
"I Feel Love Comin' On" – Felice Taylor
"(I Wanna) Testify" – The Parliaments
"I'll Come Running" – Cliff Richard
"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" – The Monkees
"I'm Wondering" – Stevie Wonder
"Indescribably Blue" – Elvis Presley
"It's All Over" – Cliff Richard
"It Takes Two" – Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston
"Itchycoo Park" – Small Faces
"It's Wonderful" – The Young Rascals
"Knock on Wood" – Otis Redding and Carla Thomas
"La balsa" – Los Gatos (Founding song of the "Rock en español" movement)
"Let's Go To San Francisco" – The Flower Pot Men
"The Look of Love" – Dusty Springfield (m. Burt Bacharach w. Hal David)
"Maroc 7" – The Shadows
"Matthew and Son" – Cat Stevens
"Monterey" – Eric Burdon & the Animals
"More and More" - Andy Williams
"More Love" – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
"Music to Watch Girls By" - Andy Williams
"My Back Pages" – The Byrds
"New York Mining Disaster 1941" – Bee Gees
"Night of Fear" – The Move
"Nights In White Satin – The Moody Blues
"No Milk Today" – Herman's Hermits (w.m. Graham Gouldman)
"On a Carousel" – The Hollies
"Pay You Back With Interest" – The Hollies
"People Are Strange" – The Doors
"Pictures of Lily" – The Who
"Pretty Ballerina" – Left Banke
"Alternate Title" ("Randy Scouse Git" in the US) – The Monkees
"Seven Drunken Nights" – The Dubliners
"She's a Rainbow" – The Rolling Stones
"So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" – The Byrds
"Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" – Janis Ian (w.m. Janis Ian)
"Soul Finger" – The Bar-Kays
"Susan" – The Buckinghams
"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" - Georgie Fame
"There Is a Mountain" – Donovan
"To Love Somebody" – Bee Gees
"Tramp" – Otis Redding and Carla Thomas
"Try a Little Tenderness" – Otis Redding
"Twelve Thirty" – The Mamas & the Papas
"Waterloo Sunset" – The Kinks
"We Love You"/"Dandelion" – The Rolling Stones
"Wear Your Love Like Heaven" – Donovan
"When I Was Young" – Eric Burdon & The Animals
"Words" – The Monkees (w.m. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) #11 Billboard; B-side to "Pleasant Valley Sunday"
"Zabadak!" – Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
Published popular music[]
w. = words, m. = music
"At the Crossroads" w.m. Leslie Bricusse, from the film Doctor Dolittle
"The Bare Necessities" w.m. Terry Gilkyson from the film The Jungle Book
"Blowing Away" w.m. Laura Nyro
"Bonnie and Clyde" w.m. Charles Strouse
"Both Sides, Now" w.m. Joni Mitchell
"By the Time I Get to Phoenix" w.m. Jimmy Webb
"Colour My World" w.m. Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" w. Hal David m. Burt Bacharach
"Even The Bad Times Are Good" w. Peter Callander m. Mitch Murray
"The Eyes Of Love" w. Bob Russell m. Quincy Jones
"Fortuosity" w.m. Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, introduced by Tommy Steele in the film The Happiest Millionaire
"Gentle On My Mind" w.m. John Hartford
"Happiness" w.m. Clark Gesner from the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
"Hare Krishna" w. Gerome Ragni & James Rado m. Galt MacDermot
"I Wanna Be Like You" w.m. Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, from the film The Jungle Book
"I've Gotta Be Me" w.m. Walter Marks
"In the Heat of the Night" w. Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman m. Quincy Jones. Theme song from the film of the same name, performed by Ray Charles
"The Look of Love" w. Hal David m. Burt Bacharach from the film Casino Royale, sung by Dusty Springfield
"Mrs. Robinson" w.m. Paul Simon from the film The Graduate
"My Friend, The Doctor" w.m. Leslie Bricusse from the film Doctor Dolittle
"One Less Bell To Answer" w. Hal David m. Burt Bacharach
"Springtime for Hitler" w.m. Mel Brooks, from the film The Producers
"Puppet on a String" w.m. Bill Martin & Phil Coulter
"Talk to the Animals" w.m. Leslie Bricusse. Introduced by Rex Harrison in the film Doctor Dolittle
"The Tapioca" w. Sammy Cahn m. Jimmy Van Heusen Introduced by Jim Bryant dubbing for James Fox in the film Thoroughly Modern Millie
"Thoroughly Modern Millie" w. Sammy Cahn m. Jimmy Van Heusen Introduced by Julie Andrews in the film Thoroughly Modern Millie
"To Sir, with Love" w.m. Don Black & Mark London. Introduced by Lulu in the 1967 film To Sir, with Love
"What a Wonderful World" w.m. Bob Thiele & George David Weiss
"You Only Live Twice" w. Leslie Bricusse m. John Barry
Other notable songs[]
"Alegria, Alegria" w.m. Caetano Veloso
"Comme d'habitude" w. Claude François and Gilles Thibaut m. Claude François and Jacques Revaux
"Déshabillez-moi" w. Robert Nyel m. Gaby Verlor
"Nezhnost'" w. Nikolay Dobronravov and Sergey Grebennikov m. Alexandra Pakhmutova
Classical music[]
Jean Absil – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2
George Crumb – Echoes of Time and the River (Echoes II) for orchestra
Gottfried von Einem – Violin Concerto
Benjamin Frankel – Viola Concerto
Philip Glass – 600 Lines
Paul Lansky – String Quartet No. 1
György Ligeti – Lontano
Witold Lutosławski – Symphony No. 2
Steve Reich – "Piano Phase"
Karlheinz Stockhausen –
Hymnen
Mixtur, version for small orchestra
Prozession
Toru Takemitsu – November Steps
Opera[]
Yasushi Akutagawa – Orpheus of Hiroshima
Richard Rodney Bennett – A Penny for a Song
Cromwell Everson – Klutaimnestra (eng:Clytemnestra)
Elizabeth Maconchy – The Three Strangers
William Walton – The Bear
Musical theater[]
The Boy Friend (Sandy Wilson) – London revival opened at the Comedy Theatre on November 29 and ran for 365 performances
By Jupiter (Music: Richard Rodgers Lyrics: Lorenz Hart Book: Rodgers and Hart). Off-Broadway revival opened at Theatre Four on January 19 and ran for 118 performances.
Curley McDimple (Music & Lyrics: Robert Dahdah Book: Mary Boylan and Robert Dahdah). Off-Broadway production opened at the Bert Wheeler Theatre on November 22 and ran for 931 performances
Fiddler on the Roof (Music: Jerry Bock Lyrics: Sheldon Harnick Book: Joseph Stein). London production opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on February 16 and ran for 2030 performances.
The Four Musketeers, (Music: Laurie Johnson Lyrics: Herbert Kretzmer Book: Michael Pertwee). London production opened at the Drury Lane Theatre on December 5 and ran for 462 performances
Hallelujah, Baby! – Broadway production
Henry, Sweet Henry – Broadway production
How Now, Dow Jones – Broadway production
Oliver! (Music, Lyrics & Book: Lionel Bart) – London revival opened at the Piccadilly Theatre on April 26 and ran for 331 performances
Sweet Charity (Music: Cy Coleman Lyrics: Dorothy Fields Book: Neil Simon). London production opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on October 11 and ran for 476 performances.
Musical films[]
Anna
Camelot
Doctor Dolittle starring Rex Harrison, Samantha Eggar and Anthony Newley. Directed by Richard Fleischer
Half a Sixpence starring Tommy Steele
The Happiest Millionaire
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort
The Mikado
Thoroughly Modern Millie starring Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore.
Magical Mystery Tour
Births[]
January 2 – Tia Carrere, actress and singer
January 4 – Benjamin Darvill (Crash Test Dummies)
January 7 – Mark Lamarr, presenter of radio and TV music programmes
January 9 – Dave Matthews, singer, songwriter and guitarist
January 14 – Steve Bowman (Counting Crows)
January 25 – Voltaire, musician
January 31
Fat Mike (Michael Burkett), American rock singer and musician
Chad Channing, American rock drummer (Nirvana)
February 6 – Izumi Sakai (Zard) (d.2007)
February 11 – Clay Crosse, American Christian musician
February 12 – Chitravina N. Ravikiran, Indian composer and musician
February 17 – Chanté Moore, American singer
February 19 – Sven Erik Kristiansen Norwegian Black metal and hardcore punk singer (Maniac)
February 20 – Kurt Cobain, singer and songwriter (Nirvana) (d. 1994)
March 4 – Evan Dando (The Lemonheads)
March 7
Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
Ruthie Henshall, star of stage musicals
March 11 – John Barrowman, actor and singer
March 17 – Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins)
March 18 – Miki Berenyi, British rock lead singer
March 21 – Jonas Berggren (Ace of Base)
March 29 – John Popper (Blues Traveler)
April 12 – Sarah Cracknell (Saint Etienne)
April 14 – Barrett Martin, American drummer and composer
April 15 – Frankie Poullain, British rock bassist (The Darkness)
April 17 – Liz Phair, American singer and songwriter
April 20 – Mike Portnoy, American rock drummer (Dream Theater)
April 28 – Kari Wührer, American actress and singer
May 1 – Tim McGraw, American country singer
May 6 – Mark Bryan (Hootie & the Blowfish)
May 11 - Apache Indian (real name Steven Kapur), reggae singer and DJ
May 13
Chuck Schuldiner, American singer and guitarist (d. 2001)
Melanie Thornton, American singer (d. 2001)
May 18 – Rob Base, American rapper
May 22 – MC Eiht, American rapper
May 23 – Phil Selway (Radiohead)
May 24 – Heavy D, rapper (d. 2011)
May 29 – Noel Gallagher, songwriter (Oasis)
June 7 – Dave Navarro, guitarist (Jane's Addiction & Red Hot Chili Peppers)
June 8 – Jasmin Tabatabai, German/Iranian actress and musician
June 9 – Dean Felber, Hootie & the Blowfish
June 24 – Richard Kruspe-Bernstein (Rammstein)
June 29
Murray Foster, Canadian rock bassist (Moxy Früvous)
Melora Hardin, American actress and singer
July 7 – Jackie Neal, American blues singer (d. 2005)
July 12 – John Petrucci, American virtuoso guitarist
July 19 – Stuart Howe, Canadian operatic tenor
July 22 – Pat Badger (Extreme)
July 27 – Juliana Hatfield, singer-songwriter
July 28 – Taka Hirose, Japanese musician (Feeder)
August 18 - Blas Elias, American drummer (Slaughter)
August 21 – Serj Tankian (System of a Down)
August 22
Yukiko Okada, Japanese pop singer (d. 1986)
Layne Staley, American rock singer (Alice in Chains) (d. 2002)
August 25 – Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
August 29 – Anton Newcombe, American rock musician (The Brian Jonestown Massacre)
September 2 – Dino Cazares, American rock guitarist (Divine Heresy', Fear Factory)
September 9 – Chris Caffery, American guitarist and singer
September 11 – Harry Connick, Jr., jazz singer and pianist
September 18 – Ricky Bell, New Edition, Bell Biv DeVoe
September 20
Gunnar Nelson, American singer
Matthew Nelson, American singer
September 21
Faith Hill, country singer
Glen Benton, American rock singer/bassist (Deicide)
September 26 – Shannon Hoon, American singer (Blind Melon) (d. 1995)
September 28 – Moon Unit Zappa, American actress and musician
September 29 – Brett Anderson, Suede
October 2 – Bud Gaugh (Sublime)
October 4 – Ekin Cheng, Hong Kong actor and singer
October 5 – Johnny Gioeli, American power metal singer
October 7 – Toni Braxton, American R&B singer
October 8 – Teddy Riley, American R&B and hip hop singer
October 10 – Mike Malinin (Goo Goo Dolls)
October 17 – René Dif (Aqua)
October 19 – Trouble T Roy, back-up singer for Heavy D & the Boyz
October 22 – Salvatore Di Vittorio, Italian composer & conductor
October 26 – Keith Urban, country music singer
October 27 – Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots)
October 29 – Péter Kun, Hungarian guitarist (d. 1993)
October 31 – Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne)
November 1
Sophie B. Hawkins, American singer and songwriter
Tina Arena, Australian singer and songwriter
November 3 – Steven Wilson, English musician
November 7
Steve DiGiorgio, American musician (bassist)
Sharleen Spiteri, singer (Texas)
November 14
Letitia Dean, actress and singer
Nina Gordon, American singer
November 15 – E-40, American rapper
November 16 – Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition, Bell Biv DeVoe)
November 20 – Teoman, Turkish rock singer and song-writer
November 24 – Melanie Thornton, singer (d.2001)
December 5 – Gary Allan, American country musician
December 6 – Hacken Lee, Hong Kong singer and actor
December 9 – Joshua Bell, violinist
December 17 – Gigi D'Agostino, DJ
December 25 – Jason Thirsk, Pennywise
Date unknown - Gábor Tarján, composer
Deaths[]
January 1 – Moon Mullican, country singer, 57 (heart attack)
January 3 – Mary Garden, operatic soprano, 93
January 7 – Carl Schuricht, conductor, 86
January 15 – Albert Szirmai, composer, 86
January 27 – Luigi Tenco, singer-songwriter and actor, 28 (suicide by gunshot)
January 31 – Geoffrey O'Hara, composer, 84
February 12 – Muggsy Spanier, jazz cornettist, 60
February 15 – Li Jinhui, composer and songwriter, 75
February 16 – Smiley Burnette, singer and songwriter, 55 (leukaemia)
February 24 – Franz Waxman, composer, 60
February 25 – Fats Pichon, jazz pianist, bandleader, 60
March 6
Zoltán Kodály, composer, 84
Nelson Eddy, US singer and actor, 65
March 7 – Willie Smith, alto saxophonist, 56 (cancer)
March 11 – Geraldine Farrar, operatic soprano, 85
March 22 - Luigi Piazza, operatic baritone, 82
March 23 – Pete Johnson, jazz pianist, 62
March 29 – Cheo Marquetti, singer-songwriter, 57
April 5 – Mischa Elman, violinist, 76
April 12 – Buster Bailey, jazz musician, 64
April 15 – Totò, songwriter, 69
April 17 – Red Allen, jazz trumpeter
April 20 - Anna Fitziu, operatic soprano, 80
April 29 – J. B. Lenoir, blues musician, 38 (heart attack)
April 30 – Jef Le Penven, composer, 47
May 9 – Philippa Schuyler, pianist and child prodigy
May 10 - Arthur Carron, operatic tenor, 66
May 17 – John Wesley Work III, composer, 65
May 21 – Ilona Eibenschütz, pianist, 95
May 31 – Billy Strayhorn, composer and pianist, 51 (esophageal cancer)
June 3 – André Cluytens, conductor, 62
June 24 – Lionel Belasco, pianist and bandleader, about 85
June 26 - Françoise Dorléac, actress and singer, 25 (car accident)
June 29 – Jayne Mansfield, actress, violinist and sometime singer, 34 (car accident)
July 17 – John Coltrane, jazz musician, 40 (liver cancer)
July 26 – Matthijs Vermeulen, composer, 79
July 30 – Marios Varvoglis, composer, 81
August 5 - Evelyn Scotney, coloratura soprano, 71
August 8 – Jaromír Weinberger, composer, 71
August 27 – Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, 32
September 15 – Hans Haug, primitivist composer, 67
September 25 – Stuff Smith, jazz violinist, 58
October 3
Woody Guthrie singer, songwriter, 55(Huntingtons Disease)
Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor, 72
November 10 – Ida Cox, blues singer, 71
November 13 – Harriet Cohen, pianist, 71
November 16 – Roshan, Bollywood composer, 50 (heart attack)
November 22 – Edvin Kallstenius, composer, 86
November 23 – Otto Erich Deutsch, musicologist, 84
November 24 – Raúl Borges, guitarist and composer, 85
November 25 – Dawid Engela, broadcaster, composer and musicologist, 36 (road accident)
November 30 – Heinz Tietjen, conductor, 86
December – Roger Penzabene, Motown songwriter (suicide)
December 4 – Bert Lahr, vaudeville performer, 72
December 6 – Lillian Evanti, operatic soprano, 77
December 10 (in plane crash):
Otis Redding, soul singer, 26
Four of six members of soul group The Bar-Kays :
Ronnie Caldwell, 18
Phalon Jones, 18
Jimmy King, 18
Carl Cunningham, 18
December 11 – Victor de Sabata, conductor and composer, 75
December 19 - Carmen Melis, operatic soprano, 82
December 28 - Maria Nemeth, operatic soprano, 70
December 29 – Paul Whiteman, bandleader, 77
date unknown
Stanley R. Avery, composer
Texas Gladden, folk singer
Knud Harder, composer
Barsegh Kanachyan, composer of the Armenian national anthem
Nino Marcelli, conductor and composer
Awards[]
Grammy Awards[]
Grammy Awards of 1967
Eurovision Song Contest[]
Eurovision Song Contest 1967
Other[]
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Hindustani music - Amir Khan
See also[]
Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1967 | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 91 | https://hueylewisandthenews.com/askhuey | en | Question of the Week – Official Huey Lewis and the News Website | [
"https://hueylewisandthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/HLNhomepageLOGO1.png",
"https://hueylewisandthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/081224BillHeafeyTHUMB.jpg"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | https://hueylewisandthenews.com/askhuey | Welcome to the “Ask Huey” Question of the Week page where Huey will select and answer one fan question per week to answer here on the site. Please submit your question to qow@hueylewisandthenews.com.
AUTOGRAPH REQUESTS: Due to the increased number of autograph inquiries and items being sold on the internet, we are unable to accommodate such requests at this time.
August 12, 2024
Question:
I loved the song, “Is It Me.” Why was it not released as a hit?
Don Salice
Answer:
I don’t know. That was a record company decision.
August 5, 2024Question:
Have you (either alone or with the News) ever thought of recording with a female artist?
Which female artists do you prefer?
What made you decide to move out to Montana?
Baci from Italy!Phyllis Cindolo
Answer:
We cut I’M NOT IN LOVE YET with Wynona Judd.
Bonnie Raitt, Susan Tedesco, and many more.
More cheese, less rats.
July 29, 2024
Question:
I just watched the Da Bois Podcast interview with you from last December. The podcaster hit on something that I have noticed for quite some time. Your music is all upbeat, positive, and happy, which is a large part of the reason why I love listening to HLN and watching your videos. Was this a conscious decision by you and the band, or is it just a natural outcome of the types of music that you love?
Janet
Answer:
The latter. Interestingly, the happiest music comes from the people who have little. Blues music is meant to help us lose The Blues … to celebrate in the face of adversity. And, that’s just the music I’ve always gravitated to.
July 22, 2022
Question:
All your albums are absolutely great but some have been recognized for their greatness more than others, obviously like Sports and Fore. I happen to think the Plan B is a great album that doesn’t get talked about enough. What album do you feel doesn’t get the love it deserves?
Todd B
Answer:
Our latest, WEATHER. I really think it’s our best work.
July 15, 2024
Question:
What are your five favorite records of all time? The ones you would take with you to a desert island.
Marco Galvagni – Rovereto, Italy
Answer:
Live at the Sands (Frank Sinatra with Count Basie)
Satch plays Fats (Louis Armstrong plays the music of Fats Waller)
Ella Fitzgerald, the Early Years (with Chick Web)
The Best of Little Walter
The Real Folk Blues Sonny Boy Williamson
But, if you ask me again, I’d probably change my mind.
July 8, 2024
Question:
I know former newsman Mario once said in an interview he auditioned for Foreigner before you guys formed. Did you or any other News members audition for other known bands as well?
Eric Senise
Answer:
I auditioned for Manfred Mann, in 1977, and a couple college bands before that. I’m pretty sure the other guys have auditioned for others. Johnny was with Sly Stone for a few years.
July 1, 2024
Question:
You enjoy both flyfishing and reading. I’m wondering if you have read Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It” about fly fishing, along with two short stories in the same volume. All three stories are set in your neck of the woods.
Best regards,
Janet R.
Answer:
Of course, and I recommend them to everyone. Thanks for mentioning them.
June 24, 2024
Question:
What was the first song that you sang that you heard on the radio, and where were you when it came on? Were you elated and did your heart rate increase?
John Melvin Parnell
Answer:
We all gathered at my house in Marin for a listening when KFRC added our record and then announce that they were going to play it that afternoon. It was surreal to hear it. I remember it almost sounded like someone else (I attribute that to the compression those powerful top forty stations used), and it sounded like a hit!
June 17, 2024
Question:
Which song have you felt most emotionally attached to, and the reason behind that particular song?
Maria Campbell – Healesville, Vic, Australia
Answer:
Maybe “Walkin’ with the Kid” cause I wrote it about my son, but also Power of Love for the same reason.
June 10, 2024
Question:
Did you ever think your “Cruising” duet with Gwyneth Paltrow would turn out so good? And who would you have liked to have done a duet with? I’m a DJ on a local radio station in the UK and I play at least one of your tracks every day.
John Bailey
Answer:
Good question, and no, I didn’t. But, having said that, the record was produced by Larry Klein, and he’s very talented and gets a lot of the credit for a very modern arrangement.
June 3, 2024
Question:
I recently found an old copy of Videowest featuring a version of “Sooner or Later” that is different than the album mix (btw, this was my first intro to HLN!). Was there something about that mix (and the video) you didn’t like resulting in an audio and video re-recording for the first album?
Greg Argendeli
Answer:
Wow. That’s very interesting. We’d love to see that or maybe get a copy. That would have to be our demo which we rerecorded for our first album. We’d love to hear that. Maybe Michelle can communicate with Nina?
* note: Original demo version of “Sooner or Later” (later titled “Some Of My Lies Are True (Sooner or Later)” was used for the first version of Videowest’s video (filmed at Ocean Beach, San Francisco) and can be seen here.
May 27, 2024
Question:
Being a Marin brat myself, I often wonder whatever came of Uncle Charlie’s and the woman (Jeanie?) who pulled the levers? Shortly after I graduated from college, I was hired to work the front door. You and a smattering of band members would frequent the establishment. I’d be honored for you to share a couple memories of what Uncle Charlie’s meant to you (and the band?)
Mark B.
Answer:
Good question. I think I heard Jeannie and her husband moved to Florida, or maybe just southern Cal. Uncle Charlie’s was our workshop, and I remember it fondly even though there wasn’t much there. We wrote a lot of our songs and debuted them there.
May 20, 2024
Question:
Is there a particular song that you loved that didn’t do as well in the charts as you thought it would?
Kathy Schwabenlender – Charlotte, NC
Answer
“But It’s Alright” from our album “4Chords and Several Years Ago” showed great early promise but sputtered when the record company collapsed and everyone got fired.
May 13, 2023
Question:
I recently revisited your complete discography with The News and not too long after, watched the film “American Psycho” for the first time in several years. When I paid more close attention to Patrick Bateman’s monologue about the band’s career, it appeared to me to be an accurate take on your music. Would you agree with that assessment and what are your feelings on being represented in such an iconic film and book? Thank you ever so much.
Nicholas Malfitano – Philadelphia, PA
Answer:
Yeah, he clearly had listened more than a little. But what he couldnt have known is that our best album would be our latest “Weather”!!!
May 6, 2024
Question:
How was it working with Roger Daltrey and Niko Mastorakis in .com for Murder? And how did you come across that role for the film?
Harry Acton
Answer:
I never saw them. I did that as a favor.
April 29, 2024
Question:
I love the video, “If This Is It” and I love how the guys allowed themselves to be buried in the sand, which I’m sure was miserable for them after while. How long were the guys buried in the sand for the shoot of that sequence, and did they beg to get dug up? Is there a funny story behind this?
Liz Landes
Johnny: As I’m sure Sean and Bill will attest, the heat and sand wasn’t so bad (we were actually in a pit, not buried!) but the black flies and sand gnats were intolerable!!!!! The moment we finished a take, a whole crew would charge in with towels and fans, smith the sand, and charge back out for another take. How many takes? I must have blocked that part out!!!
Bill: I recall it was pretty toasty. We sat on wooden boxes in a big hole dug in the sand, with plywood covering the hole and cutouts around our necks.
I remember it being hot, and between every take the makeup folks had to come in and blot the sweat away and fix some of the guy’s makeup. Not really any funny stories about it , but the finished video was proof positive that the gag worked!
April 22, 2024
Question:
I grew up in San Francisco during the 80s. My dad (who lived in Sausalito during the 70s) would often tell me you can be found having drinks at The 2AM Club, Mill Valley. I’ve never been to The 2AM Club and don’t know if he was being funny or being serious. I wanted to ask… were you a regular at The 2AM Club?
Tyler
Answer:
I’ve been there enough over the years to be thought of as a regular, but in truth we also hung out at a bar across the street called The Brothers.
April 15, 2024
Question:
I saw Clover at the Hammersmith Odeon. You were the support band. But for which headliner?
PS. I also saw you there with the News & I sneaked in my camera. I have some great pics of you taken from the balcony.
Alan
Answer:
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
April 8, 2024
Question:
I’ve always wondered. Was Mario’s mister cool and chilled image with the cigarette always hanging out of his mouth the genuine man or was it a caricature?
Surely no one can be that hip!
Jeremy
Answer:
Ha ha. You’ll never know, and that’s the beauty of it right? That’s up to Mario. I’m not sure myself.. but, Mario was always very hip.
April 1, 2024
Question:
I’m a 42 year old lifelong fan and music fanatic in general and I still prefer listening to entire albums/LPs when I consume music much of the time. I’m woefully undereducated when it comes to blues, but recently checked out James Cotton after hearing your drop his name in a podcast and was blown away. Can you recommend some albums in that vein (or any other you think should be mentioned) for me to start down the rabbit hole?
Thanks and best wishes, Andrew Jenco
Answer:
Sure. Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Big Walter Horton are the big 3 for me. All harmonica players like James Cotton who was mentored by Sonny Boy.
March 25, 2024
Question:
I’m going to see Tower Of Power live this summer! What’s your favorite song or memory with them?
Janelle
Answer:
So many great memories … London, Paris, Oakland Coliseum 4 nights etc.
Also, hard to pick one song. I’ve always loved THIS TIME ITS REAL.
March 18, 2024
Question:
During one of your concerts you mentioned we would hear from your roommate, Billy Gibson – did you always room with Billy when you were on the road? Or, did you fellows change it up & room with someone different every time you were on tour? Ok, tell the truth, did Billy snore?
Kim
Atlanta, Ga
Answer:
Yes, Billy and I always roomed together, and he never snored, or at least I never heard him!
March 11, 2024
Question:
Did you guys ever cover a Christmas song like some artists do?
Tom
Answer:
We recorded an accapela version of Winter Wonderland, and sent a Xmas cassette to some of our newsliner fans years ago, but that’s the only Xmas song we ever recorded. Thought about doing a Xmas album, but couldn’t find a way to make it special.
March 4, 2024
Question:
Along the lines of the “They All Come to Suzie” question, what about “Running with the Crowd” also from 1980? The sax solo’s great, and it sounds very much like Huey Lewis and the News. Was that your song? Could it/should it have gone on an album, in hindsight?
Cheers from London, Matt
Answer:
Yes, it was our song, and perhaps should have been on an album. I’m not sure why we never released it.
February 26, 2024
Question:
Just watched the Netfix Documentary you posted on your site “The Greatest Night in Pop”. I have 2 questions on it. Your band was the only full band that was there, did you make that happen, or were The News the only full band to get an invite? And was your line done in only 2 takes as it was shown? That looked like a brutal recording session!
Eric Senise
Answer:
Actually the Jacksons were also there (Jackson 5), but our manager Bob Brown convinced them to do that.
February 19, 2024
Question:
I have been a huge fan for many years and saw you in concert in Grand Rapids, Mi. I recently purchased an album by Southern Pacific and you play harmonica on a couple of songs. That was during your peak years with the News. How did you find time to do that and how did that come about?
Jim Leonardo
Answer:
John McFee, who was a founding member of South Pacific asked me. He was a fellow band member in Clover before that, and was instrumental in helping me get in the business to begin with.
February 12, 2024
Question:
I just finished watching the Greatest Night in Pop on Netflix. I noticed everybody at one point getting each other’s autographs on the sheet music. Did you get one? Do you still have it? What an incredible experience. Would you say that was one of the best / most thrilling nights of your life?
Michelle
Answer:
Yes, I have a script, but only got a couple autographs. Was too intimidated. Definitely one of the most thrilling nights of my life, yes.
Question:
Who would you say were you most intimidated by?
Answer:
Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
February 5, 2024
QuestionDo you remember back about or around 1979 in Hawaii (Honolulu) being out on a raft all day and meeting some guy. We talked all day and you invited to meet you in the lobby. We took the bus to the concert. I had a great time. Do you remember this at all.
Jeff
Answer:
Unfortunately, no. But, then, I don’t remember much about yesterday. I’m sure it happened.
January 29, 2024
Question:
Your music is the soundtrack of my life. My daddy was in the navy and he’d go away on deployment but when he would come back we got to listen to Huey tapes again. We’d sit in our Astro van, in the San Francisco Traffic, and make my dad start Heart of Rock N Roll and we would giggle hysterically when the music finally really hit after the crescendo of the heart beat. I was five years old. My dad is six months older than you, and you both helped raise me in your own ways. Im a singer and public school music teacher now. Thank you for the memories.
My question: What is a specific song that brings back that special type of memory for you?
Sam
Answer:
Cool story. Thanks for your kind words. Early James Taylor songs like “Fire and Rain” bring back big memories for me, as do a couple big band jazz standards my father used to love, like “Alright, Ok, You Win” from Count Basie
January 22, 2024
Question:
I have noticed that Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of “I Want A New Drug” being “I Want A New Duck.” I personally find it funny, but I’m curious if you were ever hesitant to allow it. And what your opinion is on the song?Jacob
Answer:
I also thought it was funny.
January 15, 2024
Question:
I saw many of your shows. Amazing fun! One of my favorites was at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park when you guys were touring incognito as “The Sports Section.” Whose idea was this and how did you get everyone to agree to it? Brilliant.
Jim Alexander
Answer:
The idea was to road test some new songs in a small venue before we recorded them. It was also fun playing such an iconic venue.
January 8, 2024
Question:
I’m going to see Tower Of Power live this summer! What’s your favorite song or memory with them?
Janelle Tubbs
Answer:
Tough question. There are so many. I’m going to go with “This Time It’s Real” as my favorite song. There are too many good memories to mention. We worked with the horn section for more than 2 years. Touring Europe was especially great. Enjoy their show … they still sound great.
January 2, 2024
Question:
First off … huge fan … still have my Sony cassette with Auto Reverse that I repeatedly played Sports on! I wanna know what harmonica you played. I know it was a Dannecker …. But 10 or 12 hole? The 12 hole is for Jazz … so I could see you going that way as well as the 10 hole for blues , rock , country, and folk. Think you did the 10 hole. Trying to get my hands on a Dannecker … not much luck … lol.
Gary Carroll
Answer:
10 hole diatonic Dannecker. I played chromatic harp on a couple things, but the diatonic harp is much more expressive, and the beauty of it is the ability to “bend” notes.
December 18, 2023
Question:
What did you think when Weird Al asked to do a parody of I Want a New Drug?
Michael Gross
Answer:
I was flattered.
December 11, 2023
Question:
One of my favourite HLN albums is “Four Chords And Several Years Ago”, as I love your interpretation of those classics (and got introduced to some songs I didn’t know before). I remember there was also a video released, and I was wondering if that might see a re-release on DVD (at least). I missed out on that tape, though I do have all your albums. Kind regards and all the best from Germany.
Juern
Answer:
Yes, that was a video of a live performance at the Public Broadcasting Service in Chicago. I believe we own that video, and I will now endeavor to find where you may be able to see it.
December 4, 2023
Question:
I was recently introduced to the music of Little Feat through my husband and became a fan myself. After seeing them live last year, they reminded me so much of your shows. (I’m a sucker for a good horn section.) Other than both bands using the Tower of Power horns in the past, is there any other connection?
Marcie – Las Vegas, NV
Answer:
I’m flattered by the comparison. They are one of my favorite bands. We worked together a few times and got to know them a little … great guys, and great players.
November 27, 2023
Question:
Are there any albums you would go back and change or do something different for them?
Sarah
Answer:
Yes. All of them! Mostly just little things, but when making a record, you never really finish, you just run out of time!
November 20, 2023
Question:
Hello, I’ve been a huge fan of yours since the mid-eighties and never tire of listening to the entire back catalogue of your music. I was wondering if you could explain the reasoning for not including ‘They all come to Suzie’ on any of your albums? I personally think it’s a banger of a song, and it’s one of my long term favourites of yours.
Scott Webster
Answer:
It was a mistake … should have put it on one of our records.
November 13, 2023
Question:
My husband and I recently had the pleasure of sharing a Scottish breakfast with Warner E Hodges. I was wearing a Huey Lewis and the News t-shirt, which he complimented. He told us you’d given him the best piece of career advice he’d ever been given……..his band had supported you at a very early stage of their career and he said their set one night ‘truly sucked!’ He was gutted, but you came to see him and told him sometimes you’re shit, but keep going because the next time you won’t be!! So my question for you is this…What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career, and who gave it to you?
Trish – Northern Ireland
Answer:
Elvis Costello’s manager, Jake Riviera, articulated a strategy for how to deal with record companies; “Infiltrate, and then double cross”. It’s a funny line, but the upshot is, listen to everyone, but trust your own instincts finally.
November 6, 2023
Question:
I’m a 42 year old lifelong fan and music fanatic in general and I still prefer listening to entire albums/LPs when I consume music much of the time. I’m woefully under-educated when it comes to blues, but recently checked out James Cotton after hearing your drop his name in a podcast and was blown away. Can you recommend some albums in that vein (or any other you think should be mentioned) for me to start down the rabbit hole?
Thanks and best wishes, Andrew Jenco
Answer:
Sure. Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Walter Horton invented blues harmonica (Cotton learned originally from Sonny Boy) and all their records are good. James Cotton, Junior Wells, Paul Butterfield, Charlie Musselwhite are probably the best known 2nd generation harp players, and there are a number of modern guys who are great … and that’s just harmonica players. Enjoy.
October 30, 2023
Question:
I’ve enjoyed building up my HLN vinyl record collection and now have most of the albums. I only can’t seem to find Plan B though. Was it ever released as a vinyl?
Thank you
Suraj Maraj
Answer:
I have no idea, but I think so … Universal Music?
October 16, 2023
Question:
Did you ever consider making a double LP? And if so, do you think it would have been a concept album? “Small World” is slightly something like that, as most of the songs are touching a “living together, at best in harmony” topic.
Niklas Nowak
Answer:
Not really. Ten original tunes is enough of a challenge.
October 9, 2023
Question:
When you were in Europe playing your harmonica, how many different countries did you travel to, and were you stuck eating rubbish food?.
Scott Fowkes
Answer:
All the countries of Western Europe. The food was excellent.
October 2, 2023
Question:
Some of my favorite tracks were on Time Flies. Will you ever release digital version of 100 Years from Now, Til the Day after and When the Time has Come?
Glen
Answer:
I agree. And, I love some of that. I wasn’t aware that digital versions weren’t available. I’ll try to check. Thanks.
September 18, 2023
Question:
Have you ever been to Graceland? If so, what’d you think? Are you an Elvis fan?
Janis Rudolph – New Milford, NJ
Answer:
Yes. I thought it was a little weird, although I am a huge Elvis fan.
September 11, 2023
Question:
I have always loved your music. What song did you do a video that had a scene in a weight room? My brother was in the scene and I would love to show it to his nieces and nephews, my children, but I cannot remember which song/video it was. I would greatly appreciate you answering my question.
Anonymous
Hey, Anonymous … I have no ideas.
(note: I believe the video you are referring to is “Couple Days Off.” – Michelle)
September 4, 2023
Question:
Hi there. I’m obsessed – none of us can remember who was the headliner at Oakland Coliseum, late 70s, when Huey & American Express opened. We were blown away. Enough that we’re not sure who you opened for. Bob Seger? Doobies? Boston?
Cheerio, and thanks.
Anne
Answer:
Never played Oakland Coliseum in the 70’s that I can recall. We spend for Kenny Loggins at the Greek Theater in the late 70’s.
August 28, 2023
Question:
A question from a Scottish fan.
I saw you & the band at a gig in Glasgow, Scotland many years ago. Fab!
I know you’ve also been to Scotland in your youth/younger days.
Have you ever been called “Shug” or “Shuggie”? This is quite a common derivation of “Hugh” here.
June
Answer:
Absolutely. All the guys in Thin Lizzy called me “wee Shug”, or “wee shuggie.”
August 21, 2023
Question:
I was born in 1974 and I have been a HUGE fan since Sports. Needless to say, when Back to the Future came out, it was instantly my favorite movie and I have held both the movie and the band closely as my favorites of all-time. My question to you is, what is your favorite movie and band? Thanks for being there my whole life when I need a pickup.
Don Warling
SFC, US Army Retired
Answer:
Impossible question cause I like so many, but I loved “The Last Picture Show”, “Wag the Dog”, and a small independent film called “Into the West”, and so many others. As for bands; Tower of Power, Little Feat, Tedeshci Trucks Band, Neville Brothers and others.
August 14, 2023
Question:
I’m a huge fan of Reba. Loved the video for “Is there life out there.” What was it like working with her?
Diana Hudson
She was terrific. During the breaks, we sang, and I played harmonica … had a ball.
July 31, 2023
Question:
Perfect World video…Just curious where that video was filmed. Looks like the landfill in Granda Hills area.
Anonymous
Answer:
Landfill in Novato, California, the owner of which lived across the street from our manager. I love that video.
July 24, 2023
Question:
One of my all time favourite news tracks is “It Hit Me Like A Hammer.” That song was co-written with Mutt Lange and I’ve always been curious, is that an idea/hook you had been working on for a while and you took to him for help finishing or did Mutt Lange bring the idea to you? While the song was a solid hit, hitting Top 25 on the Hot 100 and Top Ten on A/C, I honestly think had it come out in ‘89 instead of ‘91, it would have been another monster hit for you guys. Such a perfect catchy summer tune and is quite possibly the most underrated single from the whole News catalogue.
Alex
Answer:
The song was all Mutt. I think I rewrote some of the lyrics.
July 17, 2023
Question:
I have always enjoyed the songs where the 49ers were singing backup vocals. What is the story behind that? Did the 49ers approach you, or did you reach out to them? In addition to “I Know What I Like” and “Hip to be Square” – were any other tracks considered?
Bret Ellsworth – Saratoga Springs, Utah
Answer:
We met Joe and Dwight at a Bay Area Music award show, and Joe jokingly offered to let me take some “snaps” if I would let them sing on a song. We took him up on it, although I never got the snaps.
July 10, 2023
Question:
What was the most fun video you guys ever did?
Ray Begin
Answer:
Probably, Stuck with You cause we had 4 days in the Bahamas, but we had a lot of laughs doing “Heart and Soul”.
July 3, 2023
Question:
I remember the Sports album having the same popularity of a “Frampton Comes Alive” with what seemed like everyone had a copy of it. “If This Is It” is my all-time favorite HLN song.
When the album was finished and ready to be released, did you and the band have an inkling of the success it would have?
Johnnie Parnell
Answer:
No idea. Although record promoter and soon to be Michael Jackson’s manager, Frank DeLeo told me at a listening party we had in New York; “Don’t worry … you’re gonna be ok”.
June 26, 2023
Question:
What was your take on 1980s MTV? Did you watch any of it back then? Did the band create your music videos with MTV in mind? Do you think MTV contributed to your band’s success?
Peter Skiera
Answer:
MTV was huge in the early 80’s. Of course we all had to suddenly make videos for the singles. We tried to have fun, be funny, and avoid a literal translation of the song … to, sort of, stay out of the tune’s way, if you know what I mean. And, yes, MTV was important to our success. I like to think that we’d have done well anyway, but MTV certainly helped break us.
June 19, 2023
Question:
The video of Perfect World is very unique as there very few bands shooting a video in a garbage dump except Kiss’ “Lick it Up” and The Police “Synchronicity II”. Where did the concept come from? It is a shame that Small World was not better received. I think by this point, your fans were with you regardless.
Roger Zeidman
Answer:
I confess the idea was mine. I still think it’s one of our best videos, and I agree that it’s a shame Small World wasn’t better received. Stan Getz’s solo on Small World still makes my hair stand on end.
June 12, 2023
Question:
Working with Thin Lizzy, what was one of your favourite memories of working with Phil and the lads?
Richard
Answer:
I have so many great memories of Phil. I think my favorite ones are from the studios in Compass Point in Nassau, and the Record Plant in Sausalito where we endeavored to cut new songs with him just before he passed. He was a mentor to me, and I learned everything I know about being a “rock star” from him.
June 5, 2023
Question:
“Change of Heart” is a special song to me, as it in my opinion, illustrates what was about to come for you and your band: It’s rocky and powerful, yet it’s also catchy and revolves around the topic of love, which is so essential in the bulk of your songs. Do you remember how the song and the lyrics emerged?
Niklas Nowak
Chris and I wrote that song together. I think he had the progression, I wrote the lyric and we collaborated on the melody. I really like that song also. We opened our live show with that tune for a long time.
May 29, 2023
Question:
I love how you were an early advocate for Stevie Ray Vaughan’s enormous talent. Is there any footage (audio or video) of him playing “Bad is Bad” with HLN on that tour that might see the light of day?
Shawn Streifel
Answer:
I don’t know, but I’m thinking there must be somewhere although that was a little before sophisticated cell phones.
May 22, 2023
Question:
Did you ever sing “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Elvin Bishop? To me, the song has a HL&TN vibe.
Thanks,
John Parnell
Answer:
No, but I agree that it has an R&B vibe like many of our songs. Micky Thomas sang that song well. He’s a really good guy.
May 15, 2023
Question:
I’ve heard you say in a few interviews that at some point before you released your first record, the record label wanted you to replace your drummer (Bill Gibson). Why did they want to replace Bill? After all, Bill is a really good drummer and a good guy so I don’t get it.
Mike Karwisch
Answer:
I didn’t get it either. Bill is as good as they come.
May 8, 2023
Question:
Nick Faldo said on the Dan Patrick show that he would be fly fishing with you. Who are the other celebrities that you have gone fly fishing with?
John Stimson, California
Answer:
Jimmy Kimmel, Kevin Costner, Joe Montana
May 1, 2023
Question:
I’m a 19 year old guy from Chico planning on moving to San Francisco for school and you seem pretty knowledgeable about the city. Are there any good spots you liked to hang out at when you were my age?
Ryan Stanley
Answer:
Yes, but they‘ve all changed in the last 53 years! You’ll find plenty of good food, music, and entertainment. San Francisco is still a good town.
April 24, 2023
Question:
Hi Huey, here a long time fan from Argentina. In the early 80’s we lived during a military dictatorship. Like any totalitarian regime, they applied censorship and modified some song titles, softening them. When Sports arrived, I want a new drug was printed on LPs and Cassettes as I want a new drug (called love), a line that is neither in the song nor in the title of the American edition. I saw it happen in other countries as well. What did you think of this modification and did you participate in the decision or was it entirely up to the companies?
Jorge Drot de Gourville
Answer:
Actually, CBS did the same thing in America on the single. (I Want A New Drug (called love)
April 10, 2023
Question:
Huey, on your famous sunglasses that were in your iconic videos and a multitude of promo shots and posters, what brand were they? They don’t look like Ray Bans. I know you lost a pair on the boat filming I Want A New Drug video!
Eric S.
Answer:
Vuarnet
April 3, 2023
Question:
Forest for the Trees is one of my favorite deep cuts from the studio albums of the 80s/90s. I’ve always wanted to know the background on this tune and what the intention was with it. It’s too good to be “filler” but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a single. Can you give some background on the genesis of this tune and what you remember about recording it?
Chris Jones
Answer:
“Forest” was written by Kenny Loggins and myself. The lyric was inspired by a letter I received from a confused young fan who contemplating his demise, but, was dissuaded and helped by our music.
March 27, 2023
Question:
I heard that you were going to do a solo album in the early 90s but the project was scrapped. Any reason why? I know some songs like “100 Years From Now” and the first release of “So Little Kindness” were written for the album but were there any more songs that were never released?
Ricky
Answer:
The truth is, no one was really knocked out by the results. Most of the songs were written by Chris Hayes and myself, and attempted to show some more serious and sophisticated material, and people don’t expect that from me. That said, we have used 3 or 4 of the ideas from that record and rewritten some.
March 20, 2023
Question:
I’m a Canadian fan in New Brunswick, over on the east coast. In high school we used to have lip synch “shows” where students would impersonate their favorite (then ‘80s) group in the auditorium, a theatre-style setting. That’s one of my great memories and your group was among those portrayed (Walking on a Thin Line). My question is about your great vocals, I wondered if you ever had lessons or is it natural ability, when you belt out those big powerful notes like in “Sometimes, bad is bad” and “Hip to be square”? Take care Huey.
Jeff Kelly
Answer:
Thanks for your kind words, Jeff. It’s all just natural with me. I did go to a vocal coach early in my time with Clover (we all did), but I only attended one session.
March 13, 2023
Question:
Huey, your father encouraged you to take a year off before starting college to do some traveling. You found your way and passion thru your travels playing the harmonica. Do you think you would’ve found your path as a serious musician if you went straight to college?
Ellen Lang
Answer:
I suspect not. Of course we’ll never know, but the year off was a enlightening, and showed me a new path.
March 6, 2023
Question:
What impact did Bill Schnee have on the band and can you share a behind the scenes story involving Schnee’s work with the News?
David Marks
Answer:
Bill produced our first album, and helped produce Hard at Play. He was introduced to us by our manager Bob Brown who had employed him to produce Pablo Cruise. Unfortunately we never enjoyed much success together although we remain good friends.
February 27, 2023
Question:
One of my favorite shows was Hot In Cleveland. You were a highlight in the series. How was it playing your character, Johnny Revere, and working with the great ladies, Wendie Malick, Betty White, Valerie Bertinelli and Jane Leeves?
Regards and best wishes, Alba
Answer:
It was really fun. They are all great ladies, and the show was very well written. I got to act in the very last episode (a double episode), and had a dressing room next to Bob Newhart. Got to act and hang out with Bob and Betty White for 2 weeks.
February 20, 2023
Question:
Hello. I like the production on your albums (for instance, the rhythm guitar sounds on Picture This) and admire that you produced so many of them. Did any of you have specific production influences or favorite producers, whether they were producing themselves or others? And do you have an opinion of the trend in the Eighties of engineers increasingly becoming producers (at least in certain genres)?
Jeff Falk
Answer:
We were more a fan of certain records, rather than the producers, but certainly recognized great producers. I worked with Mutt Lange in my previous band (Clover), and he might be the most successful producer of the last 30 years. I learned a lot from him, and we’re still friends today.
The trend of engineers becoming producers makes sense when you consider the technological advances and who is most apt to take advantage of them. Today pro-toolers are the most important and most in demand.
February 13, 2023Question:
I am a longtime fan and have seen you several times in concert. There is nothing better than seeing you and The News perform your music live. I have had the opportunity to meet you once and I cannot begin to tell you the positive impact that you have had in the most difficult times in my life. Thank you for that. How did the advancements in technology change your approach to writing music over the years if at all? Did you approach your debut album differently than you did your latest release Weather?
Keith Tozlian
Answer:
Yes. Our debut album was simply “captured” in the studio. Our Sports album was cut with more technology (some drum machine and synthesizers), as was Weather.
February 6, 2023
Question:
I read where you describe music as sounding like a “cacaphony” in your head now. My question is: Does that apply only to music where there are several instruments playing at once and, if so, could you still sing those wonderful multi-part harmonies acapella?
Donnita
Answer:
I can sing by myself, but I can’t hear pitch well enough to sing TO anything. So, no, I couldn’t sing with the boys acapella.
January 30, 2023
Question:
Huey, do/did you know anyone from Van Halen personally?
Greg – New Fairfield, CT
Answer:
No, but I opened for them in my previous band (Clover), and of course, I admired them a lot.
January 23, 2023Question:
Hey Huey! I’m a 15yo boy that for some odd reason loves your era of music. What music did you enjoy as a youngster?Archie, NSW Australia
Answer:
I was an R&B snob until I joined my first college band and had to play more commercial stuff. That taught me that although I preferred to listen to certain types of music (R&B), all music was fun to play!
January 16, 2023
Question:
In your song, “Thank You #19,” you make reference to a song by Marvin Gaye. What specific song are you referencing. Oh, and by the way, what a GREAT song! My boyfriend played it for me and, well, I melted!
Shanna Smith
Answer:
No specific song … I referenced his live album called “Thanks.”
January 9, 2023 Question: Hi! I’m 24 years old, you are one of my favorite artists. I’m finding this age at this time to be so strange. What was being 24 like for you? If you could talk to younger Huey, is there anything you would tell him? Have your priorities changed over time with perspective? Margaux
Answer:
Great question. At 24, I was playing music 6 nights a week in clubs. I was laser focused on trying to make a living playing music. If I could have told a young Huey anything, it would be to relax and enjoy the journey because it work out.
January 2, 2023 Question: So I always wondered which music video was your favorite to film. Kristen Helkowski
Answer:
Probably the 2 we did before we got signed to a record contract. That would be “Some of MyLies are True”, and “Don’t Ever Tell Me That You Love Me”. Also 2 of my favorite songs.
December 19, 2022
Question: Hi Huey, l saw you played harmonica and backing vocals on Jimmy Barnes’ song ‘l wanna get started with you’. How did you happen to play on that one song?
Charles Coates
Answer:
He asked me. I met him in Australia when we toured there. Great guy.
December 12, 2022
Question:
I understand that you had to change the name of your band from Huey Lewis and the American Express to Huey Lewis and the News. My question though is why the News? What does the News have to do with anything that you’re doing?
Allen Martin
Answer:
In order to confuse people as to why we were called The News?
December 5, 2022
Question:
Does anyone in your camp still have access to the recordings of “Heart of Rock and Roll” where you give a shout out to other cities? Specifically I’d love to hear the St. Louis one.
Mike Sieli
Answer:
We don’t, and never have. The record label (Chrysalis, then) would, but who knows where they’d be, and, since they are analog, even if they would play without being baked or treated someway. I suspect that there’s some 2-tracks of them somewhere in the Universal Music Vault.
November 28, 2022
Question:
Is that you playing an uncredited role in Rock n’ Roll High School (as well as “Who Cares” appearing in the film)? How did you get connected with the Ramones and how was that final scene with the concert/ explosion? Mike S.
Answer:
Unfortunately, I think you have me mixed up with someone else. I would have welcomed the opportunity.
November 21, 2022
Question:
You were my first concert in NJ when I was five at the PNC Arts Center and am still thankful you played before Chicago, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to stay up so late back then. Is there a genre of music that you like to listen to that most people wouldn’t have guessed? How about any up-and-coming artists that interest you? Brandon Lutz
Answer:
Unfortunately, I can’t hear music anymore. Since I lost my hearing 4 1/2 years ago, I can’t enjoy music. It’s cacophony. But, I used to love to listen to jazz. Straight ahead jazz. From Old Big Band, to Bop.
November 14, 2022
Question:
Love the emotion of the song “Tell Me a Little Lie.” Was it based on a real relationship/break up?
Sal Montalbano
Answer:
Uh … no … made it all up, I’m afraid. But, I have felt that way, so I guess there’s that.
November 7, 2022
Question:
Duets was such a cool movie, think you might act again? Would love to see you on the big screen. Will never forget seeing you at the mid-state fair in the 80s; small venue, fantastic music!
Helen Bowers
Answer:
Only if they ask me! Seriously, I find acting very rewarding if the material is good. Duh.
October 31, 2022
Question:
Just read Dave Grohl’s book and he mentioned a time when you hung out with him in Japan and you played a toy harmonica with the Foo Fighters. Can you elaborate on that that night? How fun was that for you?
Chris, Nashville, TN
Answer:
It was a really fun night. We were already fans, but to get to know them a little was a treat. We all wentout to dinner together after the show. Dave Grohl is a huge talent who wears it exceptionally well.
October 24, 2022
Question:
I’ve been a fan forever ! It was awesome to catch you fishing on tv. I’ve been a fisherman in Florida for 30 plus years and love to sight fish. What’s your favorite fish to fish for and type of fishing? Jason – Ormond Beach, FL
Answer:
I love to fly fish for trout, Bonefish, Tarpon, Permit, Snook and Redfish. I grew up fishing for trout, so I suppose that might be my favorite, but I love salt water fishing as well, and am looking forward to doing a lot more.
October 17, 2022
Question: How did you get into acting? Growing up did you imagine acting in your future?
Lisa Hoogervorst – Phoenix, AZ
Answer:
No. I met an agent who was a fan and told me he thought I’d be a great actor. He got me my first role in “Shortcuts” the Robert Altman picture. Working with Altman was like acting school.
October 10, 2022
Question:
Huey, Bill, and co.,
I’m a writer and author near Washington, DC, and am working on a major biography about Creedence Clearwater Revival to be published by Hachette Books next year. In my interviews with the band, I was told that they used to play football with Clover in SF in 1972–and that Huey broke his collarbone in one of these games. Can someone confirm this detail? It’d be a good one to include if it’s accurate. Thank you!
John Lingan
Answer:
All true. I was trying to cover Doug Clifford on a pass play.
October 3, 2022
Question:
What is your favorite leisure activity ie. Golf, Fishing, Hunting, Hiking, Horseback riding, Travel or ?
Curious in Kiawah
Answer:Fly Fishing, Golf, Horseback riding.
September 26 2022 Question:
What’s your favorite acting role or acting moment? Did you ever plan to go into acting, or did it sort of happen unexpectedly because of Back to the Future?
Lisa Hoogervorst – Phoenix
Answer:
Unfortunately, my favorite acting moments ended up on the cutting floor. Gwenyth Paltrow and I had 4 or 5 scenes cut from the film “Duets” because it was too long, and 2 of them were my favorite.
September 19, 2022 Question:
Hey Huey, I’ll tread lightly here with this question. You said you didn’t want to do music for Ghostbusters and you didn’t. What was it about Back to the Future that you liked enough to provide two songs for?
Sam Bennett
Answer:
It was all about timing. The Ghostbuster song was proposed right in the middle of our Sports album’s long run. We were busy on the road, and they wanted the song to be called “Ghostbusters” which I wasn’t fond of. BTTF wanted any original song with no parameters, and the timing was perfect for us. It was between albums, and bought us some time to write.
September 12, 2022Question:
Jumping off of the drum riser platform at the start and having the Tower Of Power Horns made it even more exciting! You also created a version of the song with Garth Brooks. Is there anyone else you’d like to collaborate with on this song or any other?
Matt Zeugin – Valley Springs, CA
Answer:
Well, it’s a mute point now that I’ve lost my hearing. But I’m a big fan of George Strait, and I have a couple countryish songs that I’d love to hear him sing.
September 5, 2022
Question:
Relatively new fan here aged 24, And I just can’t stop sharing your music with Friends and Family right now, So much so that I have just bought a Harmonica and am about to begin ‘THAT’ journey for myself…Just hoping for a few pointers or suggestions if possible as to how best get a start in playing the Harp – I have gone for the Standard C Diatonic and would love to know a few things from your good-self as to how best approach starting.
Cheers, Sam Willis
Answer:
Congratulations …. You’ll never be a loner now! Honestly, I’d suggest taking a few lessons to get started, and listen to Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Walter Horton, and Charlie McCoy.
August 29, 2022
Question:
After the smash success of Sports, I was mind blown with Fore back in the day. Outside of the rock numbers, “Whole Lotta Lovin’” and “Naturally” remain personal faves. 😉 Will Fore ever be given the deluxe remaster treatment like Sports was, and would there be any unreleased tracks or live material from that period that us fans may not have yet heard?
Thanks and cheers from Down Under,
Wardy
Answer:
It’s possible that Fore will get remastered at some point … I always wished we could remix it … it’s one of our only records not mixed by Bob Clearmountain and I’d love to hear his version.
August 8, 2022 Question:
Hi Huey. I recently bought a few of your albums on vinyl including the first album. I know it wasn’t a huge hit, but I quite like the album. Especially ‘Don’t Make Me Do It’. I would like to know which song on the album you’re most proud of. Just curious where that video was filmed. Looks like the landfill in Granda Hills area. Thank you. You’re my hero by the way.
Unknown
Answer:
I’m not allowed to play favorites since I produced the record, but I quite like “Some of My Lies”, “Don’t Ever Tell Me That You Love Me”, and “Hearts.” “Some Of My Lies” video was shot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, and “Don’t Ever Tell Me” was filmed at the Mountain Amphitheater on Mt. Tamalpais.
August 1, 2022
Question:
Hi, Huey, i love your songs, your voice, your sense of humor. Lately i found out your Mother was Polish. I would like to ask if you’ ve ever been to Poland and speak a little bit polish. Malgorzata from Poland
Answer:
No, although my mother was born in Poland, I’ve never been there, and I speak no Polish. But,
I am smart, artistic, funny and loyal, like all Polish people!
July 18, 2022Question:
What was your favorite song to play live during your tours in the 1980s? I saw you guys multiple times during that amazing decade and it was always obvious that you and the band were having the time of your lives together on stage. But if you had to pick one song that you and the band most enjoyed performing live in those days, what was it?
Answer:
Jon, I’ll bet you’re a nice guy, and, you live in a gorgeous place, but that’s an impossible question.
Honestly, asking the band their favorite song on even one night might elicit 6 different answers.
July 11, 2022
Question:
You often say that a big part of the band’s longevity is how much you and the guys enjoy each other’s company. So, who’s the funniest guy in the News? I’m gonna guess Sean after seeing the Doing it all for my baby video.
Answer:
Really? I say that often? The funniest; Me. No, actually it’s a toss up between Sean and John Pierce.
July 5, 2022
Which album do you feel was your best. Why?
David Hooker – DeLand, Florida
Answer:
Our latest “Weather”. But, I always think of our most recent work as the best. It really is among our bestwork, however. Of that I’m sure.
June 27, 2022What band or musician do you contribute your inspirations in writing of songs? And have any of your children ever been interested in following some aspects of the industry of music?Anne
Answer:
Not sure I understand the first question, but neither of my children work in the music industry per say, but they both are keen music lovers, and my son is a pretty good guitar player.
June 20, 2022
Question:
I was thrilled and still flattered that my suggestion for doing “A Little Bit of Soap” a capella was done in your shows. (Thanks Sean!) Did the band ever take any other fan suggestions for a cappella and do it on stage?Vic Dubrow – Indianapolis, IN
Answer:
The honest answer is, I don’t know, especially since I never knew that it was your idea to do “A Little Bit of Soap.”
June 13, 2022
Question:Hi Huey, when are you going to be on tv again? I saw you on the Blacklist show. You were very good and funny.
Linda Shaskas
Answer:
No telling, but I am in show business, which means I’ll do anything for attention or money! Hahaha.
June 6, 2022
Question:
I know most of the News came from Clover and Sound hole, but how did you guys meet Chris Hayes?
Chad Elzy
Answer:
I was introduced to him by a mutual friend called Donald Maus. Don was a jazz bass player and he had played a lot with Chris.
May 31, 2022Question:
What is your impressions of the mashup of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Hip To Be Square’ ?
Maxwell
Answer:
I don’t like the fact that anyone can take “content” that has been conceived, accomplished (filmed and paid for), and then use it however they want without even consent, let alone compensation. I have nothing against Metallica, and, in fact, know and like both James and Lars, but I think the whole exercise is ridiculous.
May 16, 2022
Question:I’m a long time fan from Jamaica. I think my chin hit the floor when I heard you guys play give a nod to my little island and played reggae on Bobo Tempo 🙂 I just never understood what the song was about, apparently it’s a California thing. Can you explain and also what got you into reggae?
Greg – Guatemala City, Guatemala
Answer:
The movie “The Harder They Come” with Jimmy Cliff was a huge influence, and got me/us into reggae. The song is about a town called Bolinas which all locals refer to as Bobo.
May 9, 2022
Question:
Hello Huey, I’m 13 years old and I was wondering how you or the band members came up with “The News” as your name. Do you know who chose that name?
Sears
Answer:
I did. We were calling ourselves Huey Lewis and American Express, and just before the release of our first album, the record label got worried we’d be sued over the name. We had literally 24 hours to come up with a name, and The News was as good as we could do.o.
May 2, 2022
Question:
Did you play at the 1973 Tam High Prom on a Ferry Boat that left from Tiburon? If you did, was that Clover? The music grabbed me and I had to dance which I had never done before. If that was you, take credit for getting an introvert to break out and boogie. Haven’t stopped. (I am the guy who was in your brother’s class at Richardson Bay and at Tam. I think he sent you the picture of us on our teacher’s sailboat on SF Bay in 1965-66.)
David Healy
Answer:
I’m not sure. I know HLN did a very early gig on the Ferry Boat, and, I do vaguely recall an earlier ferry gig with Clover, but thetruth is, I can’t remember…
April 25, 2022
Question:
Besides the News, what group/artist do you like listening to most from the 80s?
Answer:
I can’t listen to music anymore because of my hearing. I literally can’t tell one song from another. It’s been a bitter pill to swallow. I must remind myself that there are so many others worse off than I, and I’m still a lucky guy.
April 18, 2022
Question:
Where is your good spot to fly fish in the Caribbean?
Tracy Pitts
Answer:
A smart fisherman never gives away his secret spots! There are innumerable good spots in the Caribbean. My advice is always to hire a guide, at least til you learn the lay of the land.
April 11, 2022
Question:
My wife and I have a 24 y/o daughter with Cerebral Palsy. She loves the cartoons on Disney Jr, especially T.O.T.S. and Puppy Dog Pals. We love you as Bullworth, and I’m really curious as to how you became involved with the show. Did they reach out to you, or did your representative contact them.
Dennis, Lauren, and of course, K
Answer:
They reached out to me, and I love doing it. It’s fun.
April 4, 2022
Question:
Was the band ever close to performing during halftime at a Super Bowl? What was the biggest sporting event at which the band sang the National Anthem?
Derek Hayden
Answer:
We never did a Super Bowl halftime. Did anthems for lots of football and baseball playoff games (NFC Championship,NLCS etc.), and baseball and basketball All Star games.
March 28, 2022
Question:
I’ve been loving your ‘80’s radio show on Apple Music! I’m also thrilled to know you’re a fellow Stevie Wonder fan. Do you have any favorite Stevie albums? (I know it’s hard to choose…)
Maggie Frantz – Alameda, CA
Answer:
It’s too hard to choose. I think Stevie Wonder is far and away the most important musical artist of our generation. And, I’m getting ready to do another season of Huey’s 80’s Radio on Apple Music. I’m going to have some very cool guests.
March 21, 2022
Question:
I heard you mention that you’ve been reading a lot during the pandemic. Any book recommendations?
Mary Wacker
Answer:
I just finished “Wrecking Crew” about LA session musicians. It’s fabulous, and a page turner. “The Overstory” by Richard Powers is smart and informative.
March 14, 2022Question:
I saw your recent post on Facebook regarding your dad’s love for jazz music and was curious who he liked to listen to. My dad played trombone with Woody Herman for several years, among others. Do you have any jazz favorites?
Marcie Collins
Answer:
I love Chick Webb, and old Count Basie. My Dad loved Woody Herman, and took me to see him a couple times … I wonder if your dad was on the bandstand.
March 7, 2022
Question:
How involved are you and the band choosing each album’s singles? Would you deliver an album to the label and they’d go “Heart & Soul” is first, “Drug” second, or “Small World” instead of “Old Antone’s,” or whatever, or did you have any (or all) say?
James Kenney
Answer:
A little. Usually the label picks the singles, but it’s sometimes fairly obvious. It’s a strategy, of course, and sometimes they get it right (Sports), and sometimes get it wrong (Picture This, where “Workin’” should have been the 2nd single).
February 28, 2022
Question:
What I really liked about your concerts many years ago were your support groups.
I can remember Bruce Hornsby and the Range and Melissa Etheridge. Just wonderful.
Question: Did you choose these artists or was your management doing it?
Can you give me 2-3 others Singer/Bands names that impressed you?
Greetings from Swiss-Italian region.
Mauro Londero
Answer:
We did. We also took Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Neville Brothers on national tours. Very proud of that.
February 21, 2022
Question:
Your talent and energy has affected and influenced so many people. I am in a Huey tribute and wondered why you don’t continue to pursue your harp playing during your battle with Meniere’s disease? You are truly one of the best harp players I have ever listened to. Also, been trying for some time to purchase a few harmonicas from Anthony Dannecker and his website just says, “coming soon.” Any advice on an alternative choice to Dannecker harmonicas?
Brian – Temecula, CA
Answer:
My hearing is so bad, I can’t find pitch … therefore, I can’t bend notes in tune. Harmonica is not like a piano. You need an ear to be in tune. Also, it’s a struggle … definitely no fun. Cacophony.
February 14, 2022
Question:
What year did you open for the Doobie Brothers at the Oakland Colosseum Arena?
Lee Prevost
Answer:
Huey: I think it was 1980, but Bill has a much better memory than I.
Bill: 1980
January 31, 2022
Question:
I was listening to a live show from 1988 in Birmingham, England where you mention to the crowd that you were recording the show. My questions are what kind of live archive does HLN have and will we ever be able to hear these complete classic shows? The live cuts on the Sports 30th Anniversary bonus disc sound great and I think a lot of people would love to have access to complete shows from throughout your history available!
Chris Burke
Answer:
We have some stuff. Most is still in analog form, but Johnny is baking the tapes, and transferring it to the digital domain. Once we get that done, we can begin to assess what we have. I’m sure something will be available sometime. (Sorry if that’s a little vague.)
January 24, 2022
Question:
A few years back, I heard HLN in Raleigh, and that night Huey gave a ‘Tip of The Hat’ to beach music, which is sort of an R&B/Soul sub-genre that’s popular almost exclusively in the southeast. You guys do quite a few covers that would be considered in that genre (But It’s Alright, Never Found A Girl, It’s Alright, Green Grass and others). Being a west coast band, how did you discover Beach Music, and what can you add to the Beach Music story? That flavor of music certainly is a natural fit for the blue-eyed soul HLN is known for!
John Hackney – Wilson, NC
Answer:
I went to Prep School in New Jersey, and had a lot of southern guys as classmates. I always liked soul music, and after all, that’s what Beach music is. I still love the Tams, General Johnson, Clifford Curry, and all those great beach music bands.
January 17, 2022
Question:
I’ve heard Billy Joel mention on a few occasions that as a great piano player, he still wishes he could play the ivories…like his hero…Jazz Great…Oscar Peterson. As a great Harmonica Player, is there any harp player that you wish you could play more like?
Ben Kent
Answer:
Several. My hero was always James Cotton, but Howard Levy is probably the most accomplished harp (diatonic harmonica) player I’ve ever heard.
January 10, 2022
Question:
I was in university when “Sports” exploded. Did you know after recording the album how popular many of the songs would become?
Rob Christian
Answer:
I wish I had. I would have relaxed a little bit!
January 3, 2022
Question:
Performing a capella songs and being in amazing polyphonic sync, just like on “Naturally” or “Bad Is Bad”, has always been one of your greatest merits. I especially like your rendition of “So Much In Love” from the early 80s. What’s your favorite a capella song?
Niklas Nowak – Germany
Answer:
Not sure. I like “So in Love’ a lot, and always thought that “This is dedicated … to the one I love” would’ve been great acapella, but we never got around to working it up.
December 27, 2021
Question:
Hello! I’m in a debate with my mom right now about my first concert (you) and when it was. You guys played a free concert at Camp Pendleton with Sheila E. We conflict on what year that was (89 or 91). Do you happen to remember? You’ll settle a mother/daughter bet and we will forever be grateful (and fans). Thanks!
Julie Suarez
Answer:
You have to be kidding me. Julie, I’m much too old to remember that far back. Bill Gibson is the only guy I can think of who might be able to settle your argument. Sorry. – Huey
I couldn’t be certain . Lol Halsey could probably tell you. – Bill
I’d have to look in my basement as my computer only goes back to 1993. – Lol
December 20, 2021
Question:
My question is, as, unfortunately you currently aren’t singing. Have you consider collating some live releases from over the years to put out, either, preferably as a physical product?
Derek
Answer:
Quite possibly. We’re only now sorting through all that we have. We’ll see. Thanks for the impetus.
December 13, 2021
Question:
My daughter loves music and is interested in playing the harmonica. I figured I ask the best harmonica player I know, what harmonica would you recommend for her to start with? Also, I know that your Meniere’s Disease has severely limited your music capabilities, but are you able to still play the harmonica? BTW, love, love Weather!
Answer:
I play Dannecker harmonicas. I think they are by far the best commercial harmonica, but they are expensive. A Hohner Marine Band or Special 20 is a good harp to start with.
December 6, 2021
Question:
First I like to tell you I love your music I bought your new album Weather and absolutely love it. My most favorite song on the album is “Her Love Is Killing Me.” I was thinking why did you name the album Weather? Just wondering and sorry about your hearing loss hope your hearing gets better.
Andrew Stahl
Answer:
Huey Lewis and the NEWS … SPORTS … WEATHER.
November 29, 2021
Question:
I’ve noticed that starting from 2005 or so, you guys started performing Hip as “(Too) Hip to be Square.” Was there any reason for the name change?
Randy K.
Answer:
Good question. I originally wrote the song in the third person; “He used to be a renegade …etc.”, but thought it would be funnier (or more ironic) if I told it on myself. Some people took it as a kind of anthem for square people, and so I began to fool with the title.
November 22, 2021
Question:
In a few of your recent interviews, you had mentioned how “One of the Boys” is a song that describes your life, but I noticed that “Finally Found a Home” also seems to do the same. Is this the case?
Matt Zeugin – Valley Springs, CA
Answer:
Yes.
November 15, 2021
Question:
As a child of the 80s, I’ve always been a fan of the live “Trouble In Paradise” that appeared on the USA For Africa album. It’s a great song, a terrific performance, and the message is fantastic. The problem is, I’ve never figured out the final verse. “Five long years since I wrote this song, many people dying, so many gone.” What’s the next line after that? The lyrics I found online don’t make any sense, so I thought I’d go straight to the source.
George
Answer:
I was never happy with that line, and I would change it when we played it live. I tried a number of phrasing ideas, but, something like “I’ve said it before but it’s still good advice” …
November 8, 2021
Question:
I have heard the live versions of “Free Love” that were kicking around in 89 or so…what led you to bring in Nick Lowe and change up the song a bit? Did he mostly work on lyrics with you? Is the “Do You Love Me, or What?” line his?
James Kenney
Answer:
Nick had nothing to do with that tune. I can barely remember it! “Do you love me or what?” was my convoluted idea. I now look upon that tune as a good try!
October 25, 2021
Question:
Am I imagining this memory, or did baseball great George Brett sit in with the horn section at a show in the 1980s? Also, did you know Darrell Evans when he played for the giants?
Gabe – San Rafael, CA
Answer:
Yes, George “sat in” with the horn section pretending to play horn. We had a very late night that night (baseball was on strike), and then heard that baseball strike had just been settled about 1:00 AM. George got up earliesh the following day and went 5 for 8 in a double header.
\October 18, 2021
Question:
I was watching some clips of you guys singing the National Anthem, and it’s amazing how you all sang a fantastic acapella arrangement (especially your high notes!) in such a different environment from your shows. Was performing the anthem for a huge sporting event in a huge stadium a completely different experience than singing for a regular live show, or would you say it’s around the same?
Randy K – Sunnyvale, CA
Answer:
Similar, but different in that the song (Anthem) isn’t very “groovy”, and is therefore difficult, and the venue (stadium) is not the easiest to negotiate sound wise. But, it only lasts 2 minutes and we get great seats to the game!
October 11, 2021
Question:
I recently saw the cover for the 1965 Paul Butterfield Blues Band album and it reminded me of the Fore album cover. Was your photo a subtle reference to that influential album?
Jason Tresser
Answer:
No, it was a complete rip off. Good call.
October 4, 2021
Question:
I’d like to know if Huey and the band remembers appearing at an evening concert in a club in Chappaqua NY, next to the railroad tracks? I was still living in NY, so it had to be in 1980, since that’s when they started using the name Huey Lewis and the News. I had never heard of the band, but I went and stayed for the whole show. Six years later, I was at Camp Lejeune with the Marines, and would walk to the mall along the railroad tracks with Huey and the news on my walk-man cassette player giving me such positive vibes and a beat to walk by. I hear their tunes now, and it takes me right back, THANKS!
Paul Martinello – Somers, CT
Answer:
I almost remember that club gig. Meaning, I don’t really remember it specifically, but I do remember a small club near the railroad tracks from our Workin’ for a Living Tour in ‘82.
September 27, 2021
Question:
Who was better to jam with? Umphrey’s, Foo Fighters, or Grateful Dead?
Sean – Morton Grove, IL
Answer:
Silly question. Three great bands, wildly different, and all big fun to sit in with.
September 20, 2021
Question:
Huge fan since ‘Picture This’ came out. Wondering how you feel about tribute band’s performing your music?
Roger Langdon
Answer:
I’m flattered, and love to see the music live on, especially since I can’t hear well enough to sing anymore.
September 13, 2021
Question:
I found it interesting you list Newport as one of your favorite courses, mine too. It is interesting that when they were awarded the US Am that Tiger won they were told not to put in irrigation or they would lose the event. Have you ever played Fishers Island or played in Ireland? I was a teacher for 35 years and used “The Heart…” to introduce US Geography. Thanks for making my life happier.
James Doherty
Answer:
I have never played Fisher’s Island, although I know all about it. And, I’ve never played in Ireland, I’m embarrassed to admit, although I’ve had some fabulous times there.
September 6, 2021
Question:
In the summer of 1982, I stood inline behind Huey at JC Penny’s in Corte Madera Shopping Center. I approached Huey after his purchase and said “You’re Huey Lewis.” You were more surprised I knew you than I was at knowing who you were. Had a nice 5 minute conversation after which a lady came up to me and asked “Huey Newton and the who?” I told her Huey Lewis. Picture This had come out and you were just hitting it big. In our short conversation, I thought you mentioned a photo shoot for an album cover in which you and the News were “News Broadcasters”. Standing in front green screen, at the sports desk, etc. Was there ever such a shoot?
John Quinn
Answer:
It seems like there must have been, right? I mean, it’s an obvious idea. I do remember a shoot at Channel 7 in San Francisco, but it wasn’t for an album cover. I can’t remember what it was for, but it was around that time, so maybe that’s it.
*note: This photo can be found in the photo gallery “Early News” in the Photos section of this website.
August 30, 2021
Question:
I watched your interview on Jimmy Kimmel and enjoyed your stories so much! What I loved most was how music really served as an international language for you as you hitchhiked across Europe. Wondering, if you would consider writing a memoir?
Karen George
Answer:
I have, but it’s a lot of work, and I guess I’m lazy. Maybe one day.
August 23, 2021
Question:
Kudos to your band mate Bill for the recent heartfelt tribute to late drummer Neil Peart of Rush.
Rush also has a song titled ‘Jacob’s Ladder’. Have you heard it?
Darren
Answer:
I have not, unfortunately. And I won’t be able to until my hearing changes.
August 16, 2021
Question:
Did the 60’s band The Rascals have an influence on you? I would love to hear you cover “Groovin’” or “It’s A Beautiful Morning.”
Robert Wright
Answer:
Not really, but I loved them. I love Felix’s voice … great singer.
August 9, 2021
Question:
I enjoyed the Weather album, one of the real standouts is “Remind Me Why I Love You Again,” which is a real R&B funk jam. I’ve heard you guys touch on funk with “Attitude” and “Do You Love Me or What?” from Hard at Play, and Clover had “Chicken Funk.” Who are your funk influences?
Greg, Guatemala City
Answer:
It all started with James Brown and Sly Stone for me.
August 2, 2021
Question:
The song “Heart and Soul” starts out with the lyric “Two o’clock this morning”, my question is was this line inspired by the 2AM Club where the cover photo for Sports was taken?
Ryan Gray
Answer:
Unfortunately no. That tune was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn.
July 26, 2021
Question:
I often was the ball boy when my father would umpire at Lawrenceville, and when I played at Notre Dame later would tell them you were the same guy that was the clutch player at L’ville. My father was a birddog for 2 or 3 scouts, SO the question is what happened at Cornell that you stopped playing and went to Europe…. baseball was who you were at Lawrenceville and you were looked at by plenty of teams.
Bruce Brown
Answer:
My father insisted I take a year off between high school and college and “bum around Europe” (his words). I was already playing harmonica, and after a year was determined to pursue music, so I never even went out for the team at Cornell.
View Page
July 19, 2021
Question:
How did you get from San Francisco to the Lawrenceville School? And then to Cornell— do feel you missed out on growing up in the Bay Area during the late 1960s by being on the east coast? Which circle house were you in at Lville?
John Henderson
Answer:
My father convinced me it was a good idea. I was in Hamill House. I didn’t miss much about the Bay Area as I was there all summer and vacations.
July 12, 2021
Question:
Huey, I have been a fan since when I was 7 years old. I’m now 13. My dad constantly had your cassette tapes in the car and we would listen to them. At school, I kept on banging the pencils against the table and they would break… (mainly your songs). I eventually got my first drum set (which was a kid’s set) on Christmas of 2014. I can remember using the drum set to mainly play your songs. Two questions: Why is the single version of NOW HERE’S YOU sound different than the one on the album and did you ever play IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME YOU’LL LET ME in concert?
Gregory – New Fairfield, CT
Answer:
I have no idea why the single sounds different than the album version. I’m guessing Bill Schnee who produced our first record did a remix for the single. And, yes, I believe we played IYRLYL live but only a time or two.
July 5, 2021
Do you remember those times when HLN performed at The Bodega Club in Campbell, CA (no longer exists) and another favorite, The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA, and when you guys would sing a capella at an after party in Carmel… “Under the Boardwalk”? A lot of years since those days have gone by but those are all good times and memories .
Julie – San Jose, CA
Answer:
Yes. Of course, I don’t remember any of those gigs as much as I once did, hahaha, but they were good times.
June 28, 2021
My all-time favorite film is “Back To The Future”. How long did it take in wardrobe and makeup to disguise yourself for your role as the band audition judge? It must have been a wonderful experience to work with that cast and crew. From a fan who will never think you’re “too darn loud”, thank you so much.
Nicholas Malfitano
Answer:
Not long. The scene was shot at night because Michael J Fox was working on a network show during the day, and BTTF had to be shot at night. Bob Zemekis, and Bob Gale were so great to work with, and Michael was and is a prince.
June 21, 2021
Question:
What can you say about the Small World recording sessions? Do you plan to make a deluxe version? It’s one of my favourite LPs from Huey Lewis & The News! And not only because you said some french word on a song on it!
Arnaud – Paris, France
Answer:
So glad to hear you like that record. I do too. I also think Stan Getz’s solo on “Small World Part 2” is brilliant. It was so great to work with him. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have split the song up into 2 parts. There is a single edit somewhere that we did, which is, I think, the definitive version of the song. BTW, “Small World” was awarded “worst album of the year” by Rolling Stone.
June 14, 2021
Question:
My question is why was the song “So Little Kindness” included on both “Time Flies” and “Plan B”? Was it re-recorded for “Plan B” and if so, why?
Jen Bosley – Philadelphia, PA
Answer:
We weren’t real happy with the Time Flies collection, and felt like “So Little Kindness” was lost on that record, and belonged on the Plan B record, so we re-recorded it. We own that master record (Plan B), and wanted SLK to be included.
May 31, 2021
Question:
Hi Huey, I am a great fan, and also a great fan of Phil Lynott. I know you guys recorded stuff together and have just istened to your version of The Boys are Back in Town (a great version by the way). My question is are there any plans to release the recordings that you and Phil did. Given the resurgence in all thigs Lizzy it would be a shame if they were not released for us all to enjoy?
Geoff Thompson
Answer:
Unfortunately, I don’t think so … the tunes were never finished … Phillip was hoping to return to finish up the vocals.
May 24, 2021
Question:
1) How did you get from San Francisco to the Lawrenceville School? 2) And then to Cornell— do feel youmissed out on growing up in the Bay Area during the late 1960s by being on the east coast? 3) Which circle house were you in at Lville?
John Henderson
Answer:
1) By airplane. 2) I was home summers, and I graduated Lawrenceville in 1967, and took a year off before college, so I got to experience plenty of west coast. 3) You mean there isn’t a plaque? Hamill.
May 17, 2021
Question:
Just heard “Back In Time” on the radio and I was wondering at what point in the film production process did you write the song. It clearly has direct reference to the story line of the film.
Pete West
Answer:
“Back in Time” was written after I saw a rough cut of the film. “Power of Love” was written before the film was shot.
May 10, 2021
Question:
“Give Me the Keys (And I’ll Drive You Crazy)” is one of my favorite songs from you and your band and my pick for most underrated. I adore the frenetic pace!! Was there any sort of inspiration or influence for writing the song? Was a music video ever made for the song
JL
Answer:
That phrase was coined by our assistant manager Steve Lewis (no relation), who unfortunately, is no longer with us. We did the rest, and yes, there was a goofy video done for the song.
May 3, 2021
Question:
One of my favourite songs released as a single is ‘World to Me’. I know it wasn’t one of the groups best selling releases and I was wondering why a video was never made for this song.
Jeremy Keane
Answer:
I’m not sure it was released as a single, but I agree with you, Jeremy. It’s one of my favorite tunes as well. It’s featured beautifully in our new musical “The Heart of Rock and Roll” which we hope to present on Broadway soon.
April 26, 2021
Question:
I have seen numerous concerts of yours, dating back to the 80’s when you toured with Tower of Power. That show was in Weedsport, NY, an outdoor venue at a dirt race track. One of my favorite concerts ever! I think my favorite part of all of the concerts was when you would do an a cappella song. What is your favorite song that you and the band did a cappella?
Jennifer in Alaska
Answer:
I suppose I’d have to say “They Say It’s Alright”, only because it was released on a Curtis Mayfield tribute album, was the single and was an adult contemporary hit.
April 19, 2021
Question:
With the announcement of the 7-song WEATHER, I was wondering about lost songs that have either been mentioned or appeared in the past. Whatever happened to the rest of the Back in Blue session songs, as well as songs like “Sell Out” “Just an Hour in Memphis” “You Hurt Me” (am I getting that title correct? From around 2008) “I’m Only In It For The Money” and any other lost songs? A b-sides and rarities release would be ideal for such treasures.
Jeff M – Asheville, NC
Answer:
Good question. I suppose most of them aren’t as good as we remember them, or as they should be, or they would have appeared on one of our albums, but it might be interesting to reconsider. I’ll give it a think. Thanks.
April 12, 2021
Question:
I was wondering: Did you give a lot of thought to the cover images of your LPs or was it usually a spontaneous endeavor? I am a big fan of “Picture This” (both the cover image AND the music, haha), maybe you could elaborate on the cover image of this one.
Niklas – Germany
Answer:
Nothing much to elaborate on. The record company wanted a close up of me for the cover, and I thought it would be cool if it was an enlarged shot of me as part of a group shot on the back, and the idea flowed from there.
April 5, 2021
Question:
I’ve been a fan for over 30 years and I’ve been to see you on nearly every UK tour. I briefly met you and the band a couple of times and those are special memories. I look on YouTube now and then to see if there is any footage of you and the band that I have not see before. Last week I found a clip of you and Phil Lynott on the UK TV show ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’, you were playing harmonica on one of his songs. I know that you were both great friends. What puzzled me though is that you were introduced on that show with a totally different name, not even your real name. I think the clip is from 1979. Were you going incognito, or was it some kind of inside joke?
Sally Hickling
Answer:
Probably trying to dodge the work permit thing. That was all Phillip and his manager’s doing.
March 29, 2021
Question:
With the exception of your bandmates, whom have you performed with that gave you a ‘My life is now complete’ moment?
Colleen Young
Answer:
Stevie Wonder, and half of the folks on We Are the World.
March 22, 2021
Question:
Hi Huey! Who is your all time favorite San Francisco Giant?
Mark Sarley
Answer:
Not even close. Willie Mays.
March 15, 2021
Question:
I miss the music and the tours and continue to pray for a recovery and comeback. But in the meantime. Have you considered doing more voice work in animation? I know you have done puppy dogs pals. And that’s an Easter egg for parents I hope. No one can mistake that voice and the value attached. But I do hope that, in leiu of recording music, that you will lend your voice to more animated projects or just acting in general.
Cory
Answer:
From your lips to Disney/Pixar’s ears.
March 8, 2021
Question:
I’m trying to be a singer just like you I know how to sing all your songs and some other bands as well I was wondering if you could tell me what is your favorite song to play live ?
Jesse Caceres
Answer:
I’m going to say the new song is always our favorite … that is, whichever songs are the most recently written and performed. I know it kind of dodges the question, but it’s true.
March 1, 2021
Question:
What is your current handicap index?
Russell T. Ries
Answer:
9.2
February 22, 2021
Question:
I’ve enjoyed the times I’ve seen you acting. Do you have any upcoming plans to do any acting?
John K.
Answer:
I’m open to it if it’s creative. I enjoy acting.
*editors note: Last week, Huey appeared in an episode of NBC’s The Blacklist.
February 15, 2021
Question:
Thank you for all the joy you have brought in to the world! I first saw you live at the House of Blues in New Orleans in Feb (it was the first week of Mardi Gras) sometime in the mid 90’s I can’t remember exactly. The show was professionally filmed (big boom cameras, the works). It was a magical evening, one of the greatest shows I have ever seen! I have never been able to find it anywhere. Is it out there somewhere?
Tom Outwater
PS- Praying your hearing improves so we can have you back singing!!
Answer:
I think that may have been an in-house video that they had set up there, but it’s an interesting question. Perhaps they have it somewhere? Not sure.
February 8, 2021
Question:
Thanks for helping me grow up in the ‘80s! “Sports” was my fav album in middle school and I still listen to your 80s albums a lot. My question is about “We Are the World”. Were you in awe of anyone in the room? Either by reputation or maybe someone whose voice just knocked your socks off during the recording?
Mike Burman – Appleton, WI
Answer:
Ray Charles … I was so nervous, I couldn’t summon the courage to introduce myself to him. I just sort of shadowed him, just to be near the great man.
February 1, 2021
Question:
I’m a great fan of yours and I had the chance to enjoy your fantastic concert here in Rome in 1988. Don’t you know that you have lots of fans in Italy? What do you remember from that experience in 1988? How many times did you come to Italy and especially in Rome?
Fabrizio Galassi
Answer:
I remember everything about that show and the days before and after, because I have relatives in Rome who wined and dined me the whole time I was there. It was a wonderful trip only dampened by the sound in that huge stone dome. We’ve played Italy since, but not Rome. Go figure. I love Rome.
January 25, 2021
Question:
Can you talk about how you ended up working with the legendary San Francisco punk band Crime? It’s such an unlikely pairing, and I’d love to know how it came about.
Nate K.
Answer:
Patty Gleason, who managed Different Fur Recording where we had made our demos, suggested me to produce that record. It was fun. They were great guys and way more with the “scene” than I was … I actually learned a lot.
January 18, 2021
Question:
Hi!! Huge fan for more years than I care to admit because that would give away my middle aged status. I know you have a ranch in Montana and wondering what animals you have there? Are there livestock you prefer to raise and what breeds of horses do you like?
Jennifer Serling – Tucson AZ
Answer:
We fall graze a few black Angus cattle, and we have 4 horses at the moment, 3 quarter horses and a warm blood that we inherited. But mainly we nurture the wildlife. Deer, Elk, ducks, geese, birds etc.
January 11, 2021
Question:
Would you ever attend a comic con with fellow BTTF cast members to meet fans and sign autographs?
Matt – Nottingham, P
Answer:
Sure, I mean after all, I am in show business, meaning I’ll do anything for attention or money, (usually in that order). But seriously, I’ve done a few BTTF reunions on TV and in Hollywood theaters, and it’s always fun. Michael J. Fox is a great and a very funny guy.
January 4, 2021
Question:
I have been a die hard fan since “Do You Believe in Love” came out back in 1982. You have had some awesome collaborations over the years with Tower of Power and a great duet with Gwyneth Paltrow. Do you have a bucket list of artists that you want to work with and who are they?
Ann Fisher
Answer:
I lost my hearing almost 3 years ago and haven’t sung with the band since …. I’m hoping I can one day regain enough hearing to sing with the band again.
December 28, 2020
Question:
I’ve been a fan for pretty much my whole life (and I’m 52). So first of all, thanks for creating such great music that has been the backdrop for some really amazing times in my life. My question is actually about golf. I was watching your shot from the 2019 Pebble Beach Pro-Am where you put it in from the greenside bunker, and I was curious what you consider the strongest part of your game is?
Bill Courtney
Answer:
Unfortunately, the word “strong” or “strongest”, and my game, have no reason to be in the same sentence. The best part of my game is my equipment.
December 21, 2020
Question:
Hi Huey! Did you ever have a percussionists by the name of Dave Rozelle on one of your tours in the 1980s. He became my drum teacher in 1992 and said he toured with you. Is this true?
Nate
Answer:
Huey: I don’t recall him, but then, nowadays I don’t recall much (!#!#). Bill would know.
Bill: We never had a Dave Rozelle play percussion with us but he may have been in a band that opened up for us ? Pete Esovedo is the only percussionist we ever had on tour. Cheers.
December 14, 2020
Question:
Starting with the tremendous success of Sports and the next couple releases, did you find that ‘making it’ added pressure to follow up with something just as successful, or did it give you more motivation to explore new creative territory that you might not have previously?
Mike Grzybowski – Phoenix, AZ
Answer:
Great question, and the answer is; both.
December 7, 2020
Question:
Huey, I’ve always been a fan of your music in movies. However, one in particular has always stood out to me; that being the part of “Hip to be Square” in American Psycho. I know how you originally did not like the use of it, but as time has gone on, have your thoughts changed at all? Personally for me it’s one of the things that got me listening to you in the first place!
Jack Skrump
Answer:
I had, and have no problem with the use of HTBS in the film. My outrage was a publicity stunt by the movie studio to get the film attention. The publicity department issued a press release on the eve of the release of the film that stated that I had seen the film, judged it too violent and pulled my song from the soundtrack … all made up. So, I boycotted the film and have still not seen it. I saw the musical (American Psycho) on Broadway, and loved it.
November 23, 2020
Question:
I read that you like to cook. What are your favorite dishes to make ? What’s your signature dish ??
Answer:
I do a pretty good jambalaya.
November 16, 2020
Question:
I am a college student with a major in music education. I love classic rock, and your music is very soulful and relaxing for me. My “Ask Huey” question is meant to address the arc of your career: How did the musical style of The News evolve over the years with the changes to rock/pop music? Were you looking to stand out from others?
Ryan Lueschen – Lakeville, MN
Answer:
Yes, we were looking to stand out from the others, but also making music based on the music we love … more R&B based. If our style has changed it’s because of creative decisions, not commercial ones.
November 9, 2020
Question:
I remember seeing you play at the Fresno Fair back in the early 90’s, and right in the middle of your set a bunch of pre-planned fireworks went off for about 3 or 4 minutes (ironically right during “Bad is Bad”). This made me wonder what was the most irritating or distracting thing that ever interrupted or happened during one of your concerts?
Bret Ellsworth – Saratoga Springs, UT
Answer:
Outdoor concerts with festival seating in 110 degree weather where I’m singing to the crowd and the medical people are pulling unconscious people over the fence … and, I’m singing a love song like “Do You Believe” … distracting.
November 2, 2020
Question:
Hi my name is Jesse and was wondering if you could say something about the song “Free” on the Soulsville album. I really love that song and can’t find the original singer.
Answer:
The original singer is Johnnie Taylor. He might be my favorite soul singer.
October 26, 2020
Question:
I just finished watching “The Big Interview with Dan Rather.” Very good interview. But it didn’t cover how and/or why you started playing harmonica. Do tell.
Clarice
Answer:
My mother rented a room to a folksinger named Billy Roberts (who wrote “Hey Joe” by the way), and he gave me a bunch of his old harps. My mother gave me a Bob Dylan record, and when I discovered Paul Butterfield, I was hooked.
October 19, 2020
Question:
I have always loved the energy at your shows! Thinking back specifically to seeing you live in the eighties and nineties, you jumped off of a lot of tall speakers and high platforms on the stage, and Chris used to run around like the energizer bunny…were there ever any mid-stage collisions or injuries associated with these antics? You guys always made it look seamless and fun, but I still don’t know how you could drop to your knees so quickly without popping a kneecap!
Anne Scheetz
Answer:
Yes there were some accidents. I broke my wrist when I fell off a stage in Northern California, and we used to bang into things (and one another) now and again. We were adhering to the advice of my mentor Phil Lynott concerning stage direction; “Move!”
October 12, 2020
Question:
My name is Sarah. I am 15 years old, I love your band, and I am probably your youngest fan. I have a few questions for you: Which music video were you in, that was the most fun to film? Did you travel to different places to film the music videos? If so, where are some places you have traveled to?
Sarah
Answer:
I have a 2 1/2 year old granddaughter who is a fan, so maybe you’re my 2nd youngest. My favorite video to film was probably “If This is It” cause we laughed the whole time. We’ve shot videos mostly in the Bay Area, but we did “Stuck with You” in the Bahamas, and a few in New York and LA.
October 5, 2020
Question:
Do you ever regret pulling out of Live Aid?
Jason – London, England
Answer:
No. I still think it was the right thing to do. Very little of the food or money from “We Are the World” got to the starving people and I think it was irresponsible to raise even more money with that as a back drop. Also, I argued with Bob Geldof who insisted that the concert would be “conscience raising”. I made the point that it would only be such if someone on stage kept the focus on the famine, which I think Bob did fairly well in London, but in Philadelphia, it was just a large rock concert.
September 28, 2020
Question:
With all your musical experience, knowledge and success in the business have you ever run across a musical talent that couldn’t catch a break but impressed you enough to help them get to the next level? If so, who was it?
Rob Harvey
Answer:
I’ve certainly championed many of the under appreciated artists like Bruce Hornsby, Mike Duke, Alex Call, Paul Thorn, and others. Several of them have gone on to big things, but I must honestly say very little of their success was my doing.
September 21, 2020
Question:
Do you know if it’s possible to find the radio-version of “The Heart of Rock and Roll” where you added Minneapolis and Milwaukee (after Detroit)? The old radio station the used to play it, WKTI, isn’t around anymore.
Tom from Tucson
Answer:
Good question, but unfortunately I have no idea … if so, it would probably be a cassette.
September 14, 2020
Question:
Can you clear up something for me – did you stay at White Horse Inn, Balmedie, Aberdeenshire in late 1970’s, get friendly (i.e. have a pint or two) with the chefs Keith, Larry, Peter – I recall being introduced to ‘Hughie from America’ one evening in the kitchens and remember saying when you first appeared with ‘The News’ on UK TV, that “I know him” – my friends say I’m batty, but . . . . .This has all come back to me again as just stumbled over and listening to Frankie Miller’s ‘Double Take’ album on Spotify!!
Sandra
Answer:
Probably. It was a long time ago, but my group CLOVER performed there so it’s extremely possible.
September 7, 2020
Question:
One of your answers to another fan question was, “I’ll tell you in my book.” My question is, are you really writing a book or was that a roundabout way to say, “I’ll tell you later?”
Cindy McNeal, Denver
Answer:
I’m not writing a book…yet. I’ve thought about it, but it’s a lot of work, and I’m still making and collecting stories I hope.
August 31, 2020
Question:
Your music has always been permeated by a great horn section. Therefore I was wondering: Have you been influenced by the music of Chicago (the band, not the city)? And if so, have you met some of the guys from the band and do you have a favorite Chicago song?
Niklas – Augsburg, Bavaria
Answer:
Not really, although I very much like them and have worked with them. We were more influenced by Tower of Power who were from the Bay Area as we were. Chicago has so many great tunes, it’s hard to pick one, but I’ll say “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is” because when we toured with them they let me sing it every night.
August 24, 2020
Question:
Will there be an album release from the musical ‘The Heart of rock n’ Roll’?
I’ve read some great reviews of this theatre show.
Jeremy
Answer:
I hope so, and expect so, but first we have to get it to Broadway which is very challenging amidst this pandemic.
August 17, 2020
Question:
I wanted to ask if you still had horses and how many you have? And anything else you would like to share about them.
Margaret Lyons – VA
Answer:
Yes, I have three. We lost my favorite quarter horse MOX last year (he was very old), and I will probably get another one this summer. I really enjoy them and they are the best way to travel here in Montana.
August 10, 2020
Question:
Is there a song from any album that you wish had been a single or that you were particularly proud of (for whatever reason) that never made it out as a single and/or was overlooked by fans? If so, what’s the song and why is it so special for you?
Ernest Sewell – Latham, NY
Answer:
Not really any that I wish were a single. There are a few that are kind of personal favorites that never got a lot of attention, like WORLD TO ME, WALKING WITH THE KID, and SMALL WORLD part 2.
August 3, 2020
Question:
Good to enjoy your new songs again. I just heard your Seville story back in 1968 when you played together with Nuevos Tiempos (which was the origins of an awesome rock musical movement in Spain called “rock andaluz”.). Did you continue your “North African-Spanish connection” after that or you just went back to USA and forget it?
Diez Guerra
Answer:
I’m embarrassed to admit that I just went back to USA and forgot it. I went to college and joined my first organized band.
July 27, 2020
Question:
I’ve noticed that you’ve always liked soul music. Your favorites such us Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, etc… also sing Gospel music. Are you also a fan of Gospel music?
Aaron Armendariz
Answer:
I am. Have always loved Gospel music, and yes, many of my favorite singers started out singing the gospel.
July 20, 2020
Question:
First saw you when you were in Clover and playing harmonica with Thin Lizzy at the Hammersmith Odeon. How did that harmonica contribution that ended up on Live and Dangerous come about?
Raymond Hill
Answer:
Phillip (Lynott) asked me to jam on that tune for that whole tour (Live and Dangerous), and we recorded it at Hammersmith.
July 13, 2020
Question:
One artist dead or alive that you would want to work with on a song or album who would it be and why?
Brian Pirtle – Atlantic Beach, Florida
Answer:
Ray Charles because he was always my favorite singer.
June 22, 2020
Question:
Why did the band decide to leave “Your Love Is Killing Me” off of Plan B?
Sal Montalbano, Kansas City
Answer:
We rewrote it, and have rerecorded it for our new album, Weather.
June 15, 2020
Question:
I’m a 28 year old female and I’ve been told that I was singing Huey Lewis & The News in my car seat at age 2. What is your most memorable encounter with a young fan?
Lindsay Lee
Birmingham, AL
Answer:
Obviously, you were born with excellent musical taste! I can’t think of a particularly memorable encounter with a young fan, but I can remember meeting many.
June 8, 2020
Question:
How did it come about doing a cover of Bruce Hornsby’s Jacob’s Ladder?
Roger Quehl
Answer:
When I produced tracks for Bruce’s first record, I had our version of Jacob’s ladder in mind … Bruce didn’t like the arrangement for his band but suggested we (The News) do it that way.
May 25, 2020
Question:
As a big Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy fan, Phil made his last recordings with you. They are all out there on the internet. Why have they never been properly released? They are great songs .Who holds the rights? I met Phil many times, he was a great guy to talk to. A TRUE Legend!!
Paul Williams
Answer:
I have no idea why those things are or aren’t released, or on the internet … I only know we hadn’t finished them when Phil passed, unfortunately … and yes, he was a legend.
May 18, 2020
Question:
Have been a fan since age 12 or 13 when I heard Do You Believe In Love on WLS AM in Chicago when I woke up for school one morning back in the 80s. Have been to 12 or 13 of your shows around the Midwest over the years. The new live version of Jacob’s Ladder with the harmonica at the beginning and the long guitar solo is my all-time favorite. I finally heard it live at the Hammond, Ind., show earlier this year. Any chance of a studio or live version of the current Jacob’s Ladder being released in the near future?
Mike Miazga
Answer:
No plans for a live recording as yet, but you never know.
May 11, 2020
Question:
Hi Huey. I’m probably your biggest fan, at least under 10. My favorite song is “Back In Time” from Back to the Future. Here’s my question: Were you reluctant in agreeing to be the nerdy music teacher in Back to the Future?
Derek Fricke
Answer:
Actually, I enjoyed it. The idea was for me to be almost unrecognizable, and uncredited as a kind of inside joke.
Question:
On the Showtime special for the Sports tour, you are shown warming up backstage. What was the song? Some of the lyrics were, “Ain’t nothing stopping us now. Oh no. Ain’t nothing gonna stop us no how.” Is there a full version of that song available?
P McCormick
Answer:
“Ain’t Nothing” is a Tower of Power tune, available on one of their albums.
April 27, 2020
Question:
Hi Huey. I actually met you at SF Giants Game this past season. I work on the Giants TV Crew. Your car was parked next to the TV trucks. Anyway I can’t believe I did not ask you about the Great Phil Lynott. I know you played on one of my favorite albums of all time. Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous! Your were credited as the bluesy Huey Lewis. What an honor. How was Phil as a person were you friends with him? I remember when Phil passed in 1986. I was deeply saddened.
Steven Benjamin – Walnut Creek, CA
Answer:
Philip was a good friend, a mentor, and one of the best performers I’ve ever seen. I learned more from him than anyone else I’ve ever known. He was a great artist with a huge heart. I loved Philip, and still think of him often.
April 20, 2020
Question:
I am so thankful for having grown up on your music, I’m a life long fan! It not only takes me back but it’s just as relevant today with the exception of all you can eat prices for $1.99, lol. You’ve really inspired me to start playing the harmonica, you are an amazing musician! What type/tuning/brand of harps do you play/prefer? What brought you to the harp and how did you come to learn it? Praying for your hearing!!!
John Street – Pleasant View, Tennessee
Answer:
When I was about 11, my mother rented a room to a boarder who was a folk singer, and played harmonica. He gave me several of his old harmonicas, and my mother gave me a Bob Dylan album telling me the poets all loved this guy. That was the beginning for me.
April 13, 2020
Question:
I was listening to the radio recently and heard the song “How Late, How Long” by The Sheepdogs. Their opening riff sounds a lot like your riff in “I Want a New Drug”. I was wondering if they had to contact you or your people for permission to use it? To me their song sounds an awful lot like yours and with the recent copy right infringement law suits out there, it makes me wonder.
Keith – Notre Dame du Nord, QC. Canada
Answer:
No one ever got in touch with us, and I’ve never heard the song … but I will listen to it.
April 6, 2020
Question:
I remember listening to the album Fore in my old 1972 Vega. What is your favorite song on that album as mine is “Forest for the Trees.”
Don Salice
Answer:
Interes | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 29 | https://www.wilderness.org/about-us/our-team/our-governing-council | en | Our Governing Council | [
"https://www.wilderness.org/themes/wilderness/logo.svg",
"https://www.wilderness.org/themes/wilderness/logo.svg",
"https://www.wilderness.org/themes/wilderness/assets/images/tws-logo-symbol.svg"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | /themes/wilderness/assets/images/meta/apple-touch-icon.png | The Wilderness Society | https://www.wilderness.org/about-us/our-team/our-governing-council | The Governing Council is the policy-making and governing body for The Wilderness Society, guiding us as the premiere organization protecting America’s wildest lands.
The Governing Council oversees the priorities, programs, and finances of The Wilderness Society and serves as the final authority on organizational policies. It helps ensure that our resources are used wisely and effectively so we can best protect America’s wild places.
Governing Council Chair
MICHAEL A. MANTELL Chair (2008)
Michael Mantell founded the Resources Law Group to help design and administer initiatives for philanthropic foundations and individuals, landowners, and government agencies that result in significant conservation achievements. He also helped to create the strategically aligned but independent Resources Legacy Fund. Since the late 1990s, he has designed and participated in programs and projects that broadened the leadership and constituency for natural resources protection and achieved extensive conservation outcomes for land, water, and ocean resources and on renewable energy. Previously, he served as Undersecretary for Natural Resources for the State of California, was General Counsel for the World Wildlife Fund and a Deputy City Attorney in Los Angeles.
Michael helped lead the 2010 political campaign that prevented a rollback of California’s landmark climate change legislation. In the past decade, he has chaired two campaigns resulting in voters approving $7 billion of investments in water, land, and ocean conservation. Michael is author and co-author of several books and articles, the recipient of several national conservation awards, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Monterey Bay Aquarium as well as on the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society.
Governing Council Officers
DAVID BONDERMAN, At Large (1993)
David is a founding partner of TPG. TPG generally makes significant investments in operating companies through acquisitions and restructurings across a broad range of industries throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
TPG and its affiliates have approximately $48 billion of capital under management. Portfolio companies controlled by TPG have combined revenues of over $85 billion, operate in more than 130 countries, and employ approximately 600,000 people. Among the portfolio companies of TPG are: PETCO; IMS Health; Avaya; Caesars Entertainment Corporation; Neiman Marcus; SunGard and Univision.
Prior to forming TPG in 1992, David was Chief Operating Officer of the Robert M. Bass Group, Inc. (now doing business as Keystone Group, L.P.) in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to joining RMBG in 1983, David was a partner in the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in corporate, securities, bankruptcy, and antitrust litigation. From 1969 to 1970, David was a Fellow in Foreign and Comparative Law in conjunction with Harvard University, and from 1968 to 1969, he was Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division. From 1967 to 1968, David was Assistant Professor at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans.
David graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1966. He was a member of the Harvard Law Review and a Sheldon Fellow. He is a 1963 graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle.
David serves on the Boards of the following public companies: CoStar Group, Inc., General Motors Company, and Ryanair Holdings, plc, of which he is Chairman. He also serves on the Supervisory Board for VTB Bank. In addition, he serves on the boards of The Wilderness Society, the Grand Canyon Trust, The University of Washington Foundation, and the American Himalayan Foundation.
WILLIAM J. CRONON, Ph.D., Vice Chair (1995)
Bill is the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on American environmental history and the history of the American West and frontier. Prior to this, Bill was a Professor of History at Yale University.
Bill holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, and a D.Phil. from Oxford University in England.
RUE MAPP Vice-Chair (2018)
Rue Mapp is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, a social community reconnecting African Americans with natural spaces through outdoor recreational activities.
Originally beginning Outdoor Afro in 2009 as a blog, Rue has since captured the attention and imagination of millions through a multi-media approach, grounded in personal connections and community organizing. From its grassroots beginning, now Outdoor Afro enjoys national sponsorship and is recognized by major organizations for the importance of diversity in the outdoors. In 2010, Mapp was invited to the White House to participate in the America’s Great Outdoors Conference, and subsequently to take part in a think-tank to inform the launch of the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative. She was appointed program officer for the Stewardship Council’s Foundation for Youth Investment to oversee its grant-making program from 2010 to 2012. Since that time, Mapp’s work has been featured in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Backpacker Magazine, Ebony Magazine and Sunset Magazine and many others.
Rue’s ongoing work has been recognized with numerous awards and distinctions: The Root 100 as one of the most influential African Americans in the country; Outdoor Industry Inspiration Award, 2014; National Wildlife Federation Communication award (received alongside President Bill Clinton) and in May 2015, Family Circle Magazine selected Rue as one of America’s 20 Most Influential Moms. Mapp remains in high demand to speak around the country and in Canada about her innovative approach that has successfully connected thousands, especially from the African American community, to nature and the benefits of spending more time outdoors. She has delivered the keynote address at Bay Nature's 2018 Local Hero Awards, the Land Trust Alliance’s Rally 2015, the US Play Coalition’s Play Conference 2016, the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education’s 2017 conference, and the EcoCareers Conference 2018, among others. Most recently, Rue was appointed to the California State Parks Commission by Governor Jerry Brown.
A graduate of UC Berkeley (with a degree in art history), Rue’s skills and background make her a unique voice via the programs she has instituted through OA and enlightened a diverse community to the wonders and benefits of the outdoors. Rue lives in Oakland CA and is the proud mother of three active teenage children.
MOLLY McUSIC, Vice-Chair (2001)
Molly McUsic is President of the Wyss Foundation, a private charitable foundation dedicated to protecting land and biodiversity throughout the world.
Previously as Counselor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Molly oversaw the designation of National Monuments under the Antiquities Act, the principal vehicle used by President Clinton to protect more land in the lower forty-eight states than any President since Teddy Roosevelt. She also was the lead negotiator on the largest state-federal land exchange in U.S. history.
Molly was a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina Law School, and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. She is a high honors graduate of the University of Notre Dame and magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. She also clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Harry A. Blackmun.
CATHY DOUGLAS STONE, Secretary (1999)
Cathy currently serves as Special Assistant for Environmental Services to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
She sits on the board of directors of The Island Alliance of Boston and is vice-chair of the partnership legislated to plan and implement preservation of the Boston Harbor Islands as a national park. Cathy also serves as a board member of The American Conservation Association. She is the former Chief of Environmental Services for the City of Boston and a former partner of Foley, Hoag and Eliot of Boston.
Cathy holds a L.L.M. from Georgetown University, and a J.D. and B.A. from American University.
HANSJÖRG WYSS, At Large (1993)
Hansjörg is Chairman Emeritus of Synthes, Inc. as well as co-founder and trustee of AO/ASIF Foundation, Chur, Switzerland.
He is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland.
Besides his business interests, Hansjörg is involved in a number of environmental activities. He presently serves as Chairman of the Wyss Foundation and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and the Grand Canyon Trust.
Governing Council Members
AUGUST M. BALL (2022)
August M. Ball is the founder and CEO of Wisconsin’s first Black-owned certified B corps Cream City Conservation, a two-prong environmental consultancy that provides solutions for ecologically focused organizations interested in building the foundation necessary for cultivating and retaining a strong, equitable, and dynamic workforce to best meet their land stewardship needs. August has been empowering and engaging the Milwaukee community in green jobs and hands-on service to public lands for the past 14 years and has focused her work on creating equitable pipelines and policies that promote diversity, inclusion and retention of people of color in the environmental field. Through profits from the consulting firm and community partnerships, August models this work via the Cream City Conservation Corps, which provides paid training to young adults 15-24 for careers in green infrastructure and conservation. August and her company have received countless accolades and appointments, namely Wisconsin Governor Ever’s Task Force on Climate Change, United Way's Philanthropic 5 and the Chicago Field Museum’s Parker Gentry Award.
THOMAS A. BARRON (1984)
Tom is an author, and formerly a venture capital investor, who lives in Boulder, Colorado. A Rhodes Scholar, he is the author of numerous essays on wilderness and other environmental issues, as well as nature books, novels, and children’s books. His books (published under the name T. A. Barron) include To Walk in Wilderness, The Ancient One, Tree Girl and The Lost Years of Merlin series, and The Great Tree of Avalon trilogy.
Tom is a trustee of Princeton University and is a co-founder of the Princeton Environmental Institute. In 1997, The Wilderness Society honored him with the Robert Marshall Award.
FAITH E. BRIGGS (2022)
Faith E. Briggs is a documentary director, creative producer and podcast host passionate about sharing contemporary stories that widen the spectrum of representation and help us all see our own possibilities. Her favorite feelings are a tie between sun on skin and warm mud oozing between bare toes. She is grateful for the life changing knowledge of literary grandmothers such as Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Cade Bambara and many more. Her previous work includes Brotherhood of Skiing (REI, 2018), This Land (Merrell, 2019), Camp Yoshi (REI, 2021), Ascend: Reframing Disability in the Outdoors (The North Face, 2021) and the 4-part series Who Is A Runner (Brooks, 2021.) She is the co-host of The Trail Ahead podcast, a 2021 Grist 50! Fixer, a Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow, and a Western Conservation Hub William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Grant Recipient.
INGRID C. "INDY" BURKE, Ph.D. (2023)
Dr. Burke is an ecosystem ecologist whose research has focused on carbon and nitrogen cycling in dryland ecosystems. Her work with graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and colleagues has addressed how drylands of the world are influenced by land use management, climatic variability, and regional variability, and has been published in over 170 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and books chapters. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, and received the Presidential Faculty Fellows award at the White House as a young faculty member, in addition to other awards. Burke teaches in the fields of environmental science, ecosystem ecology, and biogeochemistry.
Dean Burke received her B.S. in Biology from Middlebury College and her Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Wyoming. She was a professor at Colorado State University and Professor and Dean at the University of Wyoming, before she joined the faculty of Yale in 2016 as the Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, recently renamed the Yale School of the Environment.
Burke has served on numerous committees and boards for the national and international environmental science organizations, including the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science Advisory Board, UNESCO SCOPE, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the Dahlem Conference, and many others. She has served the national conservation community through service on numerous boards.
A respected educator and intellectual leader in the U.S. and internationally, Dean Burke is particularly interested in fostering interdisciplinary scholarship, and promoting science-based and equitable, community-engaged conservation of working landscapes.
MATTHEW CAMPBELL (2023)
Matthew joined the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) as a staff attorney in March of 2013 and became the Deputy Director in 2022. Prior to joining NARF, Matthew was an attorney with Cuddy & McCarthy, LLP, in New Mexico, and clerked for the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, with now retired Judge Patrick Irvine in 2008.
Matthew received his J.D. from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in 2008, and his B.A. from Fort Lewis College. Matthew is an enrolled member of the Native Village of Gambell on the Saint Lawrence Island in Alaska.
NORM CHRISTENSEN, Ph.D. (2014)
Dr. Christensen is a Research Professor of Ecology and the Founding Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in biology at California State University, Fresno and his Doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Christensen’s research focuses on Community Ecology, specifically Sustainable Forest and Forest Fire Management. He has a strong interest in the application of basic science and scalable solutions to forest fire management.
Dr. Christensen has earned a myriad of awards and honors including the Distinguished Scholar and Distinguished Alumnus award from California State University, was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served as the president of the Ecological Society of America. He is a former member of the Environmental Defense Fund Board of Trustees and was the Chair of the Sustainable Forestry Board for the U.S. National Forest Service Fire Research Review.
Dr. Christensen is a gifted teacher who taught environmental science for 15 years at Duke, winning a Distinguished Teaching Award. He is the author of The Environment and You, a college-level textbook providing students a reliable science foundation as well as inspiring them to connect to the course through the choices they make as citizens. Dr. Christensen places an emphasis on problem-solving and realistic solutions, advocating for his students to be agents of change towards a more sustainable environment.
DAVID CHURCHILL (2013)
David is a partner in Morrison & Foerster’s Washington, DC office. He is co-chair of the firm’s government contracts practice. He is a past president of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims Bar Association and a former chair of the public contract law section of the American Bar Association.
As a lawyer in private practice, David has handled pro bono matters for The Wilderness Society and for The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. He is a Board member and former Chair of The Murie Center in Moose, WY.
DANIEL CORDALIS (2022)
Daniel has more than a decade of experience working on natural resource and complex water and land management issues on behalf of Tribal governments and conservation groups. Daniel most recently served as Deputy Solicitor, Water for the Department of the Interior. He previously worked in private practice and was an attorney with Earthjustice, the Yurok Tribe, and clerked for the Colorado Supreme Court and the Native American Rights Fund. After graduating from Rice University, Daniel received a M.A. focused on hydrology and a J.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Raised in southwest Colorado, Daniel is a Navajo Tribal member.
CHRISTOPHER J. ELLIMAN (1989)
Kim serves as President and CEO of the Open Space Institute, a land conservation organization that has protected and/or financed close to 2 million acres and created over 50 new parks or protected areas in the eastern United States. Kim has also worked in the finance sector as CEO of Overhills Group and partner of Elmrock Partners, private equity concerns, and as President of Gray, Seifert, an investment company.
He has served on numerous corporate boards, including Chairman of Piggly Wiggly Southern. Kim chairs the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Overhills Foundation has chaired The Wilderness Society and the Adirondack Council and has served as vice-chairman of the Environmental Defense Fund. He has served on numerous non-profit and philanthropic boards, principally in conservation and cultural institutions.
Kim received his B.A. from Yale and now serves on Yale University’s Forestry and Environmental Leadership Council.
JIM ENOTE (2021)
Jim Enote is a Zuni tribal member and CEO of the Colorado Plateau Foundation, which invests in Native-led organizations on the Colorado Plateau. As a counselor to the philanthropic community, he connects, engages, and leverages funding to support regional issues. Enote's service over the past 45 years includes natural resources, cultural resources, philanthropic, and art assignments for many domestic and international organizations. He serves on the Trust for Mutual Understanding Board and as Chair of the Board at the Grand Canyon Trust. He is a Carnegie Foundation Senior Fellow and National Geographic Society Explorer. He lives in his work-in-progress home at Zuni, New Mexico, where he is also a lifelong traditional farmer.
CARL FERENBACH (2013)
Carl Ferenbach is Chairman & co-founder of High Meadows Foundation, High Meadows Fund, and High Meadows Institute. He also serves on the following boards:
Chairman, Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Defense Fund Europe., an international environmental advocacy NGO
Member, Advisory Board of Princeton Environmental Institute; Co-chair, Nassau Hall Society; and a retired two-term trustee
Member of the Council of The Wilderness Society
Director, Climate Central
Member of the Board of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets & Ethics in Oxford, England
Trustee, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Chairman, Woodrow Wilson Graduate School of Teaching & Learning
Chairman, Cantillon & Mann LLC publishers of the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance
Director, Independent Energy Standards
Member, Advisory Board of Private Capital Research Institute
Director, Telluride Foundation
Mr. Ferenbach was a co-founder of Berkshire Partners LLC, a private equity investment firm based in Boston, MA. He was previously a Managing Director, now serving as a Senior Advisor. He retired from Berkshire in 2012 to focus on the work of High Meadows. Berkshire manages nine private equity funds with more than $16.0 billion in capital. They also manage a marketable securities fund, Stockbridge Investors with over $2.5 billion of capital. Mr. Ferenbach served as Chairman of the Board of English Welsh and Scottish Railway Ltd., US Can Corporation, and Crown Castle International Corporation. He served as a director of other Berkshire portfolio companies.
Mr. Ferenbach received an AB from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He served in the US Marine Corps Reserve.
He and his wife, Judy, own High Meadows Associates, Inc. which owns and operates farmland in Southern Vermont producing maple sugar products.
DAVID J. FIELD (1996)
David Field is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Entercom Communications Corp. (NYSE: ETM), a leading American media and entertainment company that reaches and engages over 100 million people each week across the nation’s top 50 markets through its premier collection of highly-rated radio stations, digital platforms, and live events. Philadelphia-based Entercom is one of the country’s two largest radio broadcasters and the nation’s unrivaled leader in news and sports radio.
Field has served as Entercom’s CEO since 2002 and its President since 1998. Under his leadership, Entercom has grown from 15 stations with $35 million in revenues to over 235 stations with $1.6 billion in revenues and the nation’s #1 creator of live, original, local audio content.
Prior to becoming Entercom’s President, Field served in a number of positions with the company, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Before joining Entercom, he was an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York.
In addition to chairing the Entercom board, Field serves on the boards of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the National Constitution Center, and The Wilderness Society, and on the Madison Council at the Library of Congress. Between 2005 and 2007, Field was chairman of the radio board of the NAB. He is a former trustee of the Philadelphia Zoo and the Ad Council.
Field has received numerous civic and professional awards, including the National Association of Broadcasters’ National Radio Award in 2017. He is a three-time recipient of Institutional Investor Magazine’s “Best CEOs in America” and a two-time recipient of Radio Ink Magazine’s Radio Executive of the Year Award. In 2017, he was honored as a “Giant in Broadcasting” by the International Radio & Television Society.
Field holds a B.A. in economics from Amherst College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
CAROLINE M. GETTY (1993)
Caroline is a conservationist who lives in California. She currently serves on the boards of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
MARTINIQUE GRIGG (2015)
BEN JEALOUS (2021)
Ben Jealous serves as president of the Sierra Club.
Jealous has decades of experience as a leader, coalition builder, campaigner for social justice and seasoned nonprofit executive. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. During his tenure, he doubled the organization’s budget, grew its online activist base by hundreds of thousands and increased its number of donors eightfold, from 16,000 to 132,000. He also positioned the organization at the forefront of critical social justice issues such as the Trayvon Martin case, the fight against voter ID laws and major protests over the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policies. He pushed for the organization to fight more aggressively for marriage equality, led efforts to register 374, 000 voters and mobilize 1.2 million new voters to the polls, and worked to pass key legislative accomplishments during President Obama’s first term, most notably the Affordable Care Act.
In 2013, the Baltimore Sun named Jealous Marylander of the Year for his work on marriage equality, abolishing the death penalty and passing the DREAM Act. Jealous was the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, and most recently served as a partner at Kapor Capital. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.
LISA KEITH (2020)
Lisa is a conservationist, based in Connecticut. She is a retired development executive who spent her career raising resources for conservation and climate organizations. She worked at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) for almost thirty years, leading multiple capital campaigns and working with leadership donors. She is active with numerous nonprofit organizations in the conservation and poverty alleviation sectors. She also serves as a Trustee of Environmental Defense Fund, and on the Advisory Board of the Appalachian Mountain Club. She is a former board member of the Chocorua Lake Conservancy. Lisa received a B.A. from Middlebury College.
KEVIN LUZAK, (2007)
Kevin is the President of Archer Holdings LLC, which manages a portfolio of privately-held investments. Between 2007 and 2013, Kevin was the CEO of one of the largest private forest products companies in the United States and had formerly filled senior management roles in hedge, private equity, and timberland funds.
Kevin has been a member of corporate boards in the forest products, aerospace, electronics, marketing, outdoor advertising, storage technology, and contract manufacturing industries, among others. He is also a director of the Medical University of South Carolina and the University of Virginia Art Museum and is the chair of the Squash Doubles Association Pro Tour.
JACQUELINE BADGER MARS (2017)
Mrs. Mars retired as Vice President of Mars, Inc. in 2000. She was responsible for development of new food products and the marketing strategy. She serves on the board of The Mars Foundation, the Mars Remuneration Committee, and is retired from The Mars Board of Directors.
Mrs. Mars is the owner of a working farm that specializes in organic farming and equine training and breeding. The O'Connors (David and Karen), Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalists in the Three-day Eventing oversee the training of her competition horses at two locations in The Plains, Virginia, and Ocala, Florida. A separate facility has been developed to focus on the breeding of event horses.
Mrs. Mars is a strong supporter of the Piedmont Environmental Council and other conservation groups concerning land use and the environment. She is a stalwart supporter of historic preservation efforts through Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Civil War Trust, Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the Montpelier Foundation and others. She is a strong advocate and supporter of women's education and their employment in the business community.
Mrs. Mars also serves on the boards of: American Prairie Reserve; Bryn Mawr College (Trustee Emeritus); Miss Hall’s School (Trustee Emeritus); Washington National Opera (Chairman, Board of Trustees); National Sporting Library and Museums (Vice Chairman); Orange County Hounds (President, Board of Stewards); Smithsonian National Board; National Archives Foundation; United States Equestrian Team Foundation; The Wilderness Society; Finance Committee of The United States Equestrian Federation, and Young Event Horse Task Force.
JUAN D. MARTINEZ (2015)
Juan D. Martinez-Pineda is a co-founder of Fresh Tracks, now a part of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions. Fresh Tracks is a cross-cultural revolution, rooted in the healing power of the outdoors. In addition, he is supporting the Tribal and Indigenous community of practice for the Opportunity Youth Forum.
Juan was named to The Explorers Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World the World Needs to Know About in 2021 for his work to engage the rising generation of youth to the healing power of the outdoors, and was named a National Geographic Explorer in 2011.
He serves on The Wilderness Society’s Governing Council, The Andrus Family Fund's Advisory Council, is a TED Speaker, Senior Advisor to the Children & Nature Network, and children’s book author.
He is dedicated to bringing the power of equity and justice to life through youth and community-driven solutions. Juan is a proud product of South-Central Los Angeles and a descendant of the Zapotec ( Be'ena'Za "The Cloud People”) Indigenous peoples of Oaxaca, MX. He now resides in Texas with his wife, Vanessa.
DAVE MATTHEWS (2009)
Dave Matthews is the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). Winner of two Grammys, Dave Matthews Band’s first public performance occurred at the 1991 Earth Day Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Since then, DMB has done benefit concerts for numerous other causes, such as environmental protection, disaster aid relief, cancer, and education. Dave Matthews is a Farm Aid board member and a principal of ATO Records. A founding member of the Green Music Group, Dave Matthews Band is offsetting 100 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions from their touring activities since 1991.
JEFFREY RHODES (2019)
Jeffrey Rhodes is a Partner of TPG in the San Francisco office, where he co-leads the healthcare group and the firm's investment activities in the healthcare services, pharmaceutical, and medical device sectors.
Jeff serves on the boards of Beaver-Visitec International, Immucor, Kindred at Home, Kindred Healthcare, and WellSky. He previously served on the Boards of Biomet, EnvisionRx, IMS Health, Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Surgical Care Affiliates, Zimmer Biomet and as a founding Board member of the Healthcare Private Equity Association.
He is active in community and conservation organizations.
Jeff received his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He earned his BA in economics from Williams College.
REBECCA L. ROM (1996)
Becky Rom is the National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, a national coalition of 400+ conservation and hunting & fishing organizations and businesses united to permanently protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the greater Quetico-Superior ecosystem from proposals for sulfide-ore copper mines. The Wilderness Society and Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness are leaders of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters coalition. Becky is a long-serving member of the board of directors for Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness (NMW) and The Wilderness Society. NMW is headquartered in Ely, Minnesota, a gateway community for the Boundary Waters, and is the largest conservation organization in Minnesota advocating for the protection and preservation of the Quetico-Superior canoe country. The Wilderness Society is the nation’s leading public lands conservation organization.
Becky also served on the boards of the Alaska Wilderness League, Climate Generation, Milkweed Editions, YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, Boundary Waters Action Fund, Boundary Waters PAC, the Friends of the Boundary Waters, and the Boundary Waters Wilderness Foundation. She is the founder of the Sigurd Olson Lecture Series, the Alaska Coalition of Minnesota, and Kids for Alaska.
Becky was a partner with a real estate and environmental law practice at Minneapolis-based Faegre & Benson (now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP). At Faegre, Becky was a long-time chair of the Community Service Committee, which oversaw the firm’s pro bono legal services. After retirement from Faegre, Becky was the founding president of the Twin Cities Community Land Bank, a public-private partnership to revitalize communities in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul region.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT IV (1998)
Ted is a Managing Director in Investment Banking at Barclays Capital, based in New York. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the firm’s Clean Tech Initiative. He joined Barclays Capital when it acquired the North American assets of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. He started work with Lehman in 1972 as a general banker in domestic corporate finance. In 1977, following Lehman Brothers’ merger with Kuhn Loeb, Ted was assigned to the International Department and also worked in the Firm’s Government Advisory Group. He joined the Short and Medium Term Corporate Finance Department in 1982 and was appointed manager of the department in 1985. He was named a Managing Director in 1984, and, in January 1991 he was asked to focus on the development of the Firm’s international business. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lehman Brothers Financial Products Inc. in 1994, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lehman Brothers Derivative Products Inc. in 1998. In February 2007, he was appointed Chairman of Lehman Brothers’ Council on Climate Change.
Ted received his A.B. from Harvard in 1965. Immediately following, he joined the Navy as an officer in Underwater Demolition Team Eleven. Following his active duty, he joined the Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. In 1972, Ted received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Ted is Board Chair of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), a Co-Vice Chair of The Climate Reality Project, a member of the Governing Council of the Wilderness Society, and a Trustee for the American Museum of Natural History and The World Resources Institute. He is also Counselor, China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development and served as a board member of the League of Conservation Voters for nine years; three of which, he served as the Chairman. Ted is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Economic Club of New York, and a Governor of the Foreign Policy Association.
At the Republican Convention in 2000, Ted gave the speech on the environment. He gave the keynote speech at the National Governor's Association Annual Meeting in 2001 as well as the keynote address at the Governor’s Conference on Climate Change in April 2008 sponsored by Yale University. He spoke at the Conference of Parties Climate Summit in December of 2009 in Copenhagen, sponsored by the European Union Parliament. Most recently in May of 2010, Ted gave a keynote speech at the International Cooperative Conference on Green Economy and Climate in Beijing organized by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology and National Energy Administration. He is also a frequent lecturer on history and economics at New York University. He and his wife live in Brooklyn Heights.
JENNIFER PERKINS SPEERS (2014)
Jennifer is the President of the Palladium Foundation, which purchases conservation land in Utah. Founded in 2004, Palladium’s officers are Jennifer Speers and Randolph C. Speers of Salt Lake City and Moab, UT and Scott Johnston of Moab.
Jennifer is the sole surviving child of George Walbridge Perkins, IV. (1925 - 2008), the granddaughter of George Walbridge Perkins III and a great-granddaughter of George Walbridge Perkins II, who with the help of the Rockefellers and Herrimans, among others, saved the Palisades in New York and New Jersey. George was the first President of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission.
Jennifer came to Utah to attend the University of Utah and to ski and has remained ever since. She became involved with The Nature Conservancy of Utah (TNC-UT) to protect the wetlands on the Great Salt Lake. Jennifer joined its board (which she now chairs) and served on the committees for the Campaign for a Sustainable Planet and that helped design the visitors’ center.
In addition to The Nature Conservancy, Jennifer serves on the boards of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Conservation Lands Foundation, and the Grand Canyon Trust. She is a trustee of the Dutchess Day School, Miss Hall's School and a vice chair of the Glynwood Center of Cold Spring, NY, which supports farm communities and regional food systems. She is a director of Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center on estate once owned by her great-grandfather and deeded to the City of New York in 1960. Jennifer also chairs the board of ArtSpace, which provides affordable living and working spaces for artists, cultural organizations, non-profits and others in Salt Lake City. She is married to fellow Palladium director, Randy Speers.
MARK WAN (2023)
Mr. Wan has over 30 years of private equity and venture investment experience. Mr. Wan co-founded Causeway, an investment fund focused on sports, fitness and related industries. Prior to forming Causeway, he was a co-founding partner of Three Arch Partners, a healthcare-focused investment firm. Prior to Three Arch Partners, Mr. Wan was a general partner at Brentwood Associates, a private equity firm headquartered in Los Angeles. Mr. Wan has served on numerous public and private company boards. Mr. Wan received his BS in electrical engineering from Yale University and his MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
AARON WERNHAM, M.D., M.S. (2020)
Dr. Aaron Wernham is a family physician and chief executive officer of the Montana Healthcare Foundation, where brings experience in both public health and medical practice to the job of providing strategic direction for the Foundation. In this position, he works with the MHCF Board of Trustees to develop and implement the Foundation’s strategic priorities, programming, and partnerships. Over more than a decade in clinical practice, Aaron worked in underserved communities in urban California and rural Alaska, where he also served as a policy advisor for Alaska Native tribes. In his work on health policy at the national level, Aaron developed and led the Health Impact Project, a major national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; he has served on several National Academy of Sciences committees and authored a number of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and public health reports. Aaron received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 1 | https://www.tiktok.com/%40mama.rocks.13/video/7243470746826083590 | en | Make Your Day | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | null | ||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 3 | https://petesounds.home.blog/2020/05/24/different-drum-the-adventures-of-a-song/ | en | Different Drum: the adventures of a song | [
"https://petesounds.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ovubmnmwokewheiihsutv9r2ap3tumrn2ikkvpyvtfq.jpg?w=1568",
"https://petesounds.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ovubmnmwokewheiihsutv9r2ap3tumrn2ikkvpyvtfq.jpg?w=1024",
"https://petesounds.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/r-1239306-1284568538.jpeg.j... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDgF-A_kGVg?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent",
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/1eHq7ZUkO1k?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent",
"https://www.youtube.com/emb... | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2020-05-24T00:00:00 | In 2016 my book The Monkees, Head and the 60s was published by Jawbone Books. It's been a great success, which pleases me no end. It's long enough, but as is my wont, I wrote at least twice as much material as ended up in the final version. So every now and then I will… | en | Pete Sounds | https://petesounds.home.blog/2020/05/24/different-drum-the-adventures-of-a-song/ | In 2016 my book The Monkees, Head and the 60s was published by Jawbone Books. It’s been a great success, which pleases me no end. It’s long enough, but as is my wont, I wrote at least twice as much material as ended up in the final version. So every now and then I will put extracts from the unpublished material on this blog. This little investigation into the life of Michael Nesmith’s ‘Different Drum’ is one such piece, for your pleasure and interest.
If you like it, check my book out here: http://jawbonepress.com/the-monkees-head-and-the-60s/
The Beat of a ‘Different Drum’
In episode 15 of The Monkees TV show ‘Too Many Girls’, struggling aspiring song writer Mike Nesmith gets his chance to shine on an ‘amateur hour’ show on TV station KXIU-TV as part of a production line of auditions. Under the guise of ‘folk singer, Billy Roy Hodstetter’ he and his cream suit scramble through a speedy 45 second version of part of a song. The host ‘Mr. Hack’ played by Jeff DeBenning moves from encouraging optimism to mild confusion to welcoming the times-up moment, but – typically – Mike decides when the tune is over, not waiting to be dismissed from the stage. The performance is part of a plot by Mike, Micky and Peter to sabotage the chances of Davy and Fern – that episode’s girlfriend – winning the contest. Fern’s mother is A Manipulative Baddie who wishes to launch her daughter’s career by teaming her up with Davy, thus splitting him away from his gang. Only the most attentive viewer/listener in December 1966 would have noticed the lyrics to Mike’s song, or that there was even a real song there at all. If you can catch the rapid, mumbled delivery, the opening line is ‘You and I travel to the beat of a different drum’. The performance is brief, deliberately cack-handed and goofy but the song is, indeed, ‘Different Drum’.
Yet this wasn’t the song’s debut in public – in Nesmith’s previous life as stalwart of the folk scene’s Hootenanies after his arrival in LA in early July 1964 he had recorded and performed live and on TV shows not a million miles away from this imaginary amateur hour, but had also had his songs lodged with a publisher, Randy Sparks, who evidently had some success placing the songs. It was through this route that the first version of ‘Different Drum’ emerged blinking into the sunshine – folk quartet The Greenbriars recorded it for their 1966 album Better Late Than Never issued on the renowned Vanguard label – the group had several illustrious alumni, including mandolin player Ralph Rinzler who left the band to work at the Smithsonian Folk Institute, Eric Weissberg who played half of the banjo duet famed in the movie Deliverance, and the legendary mandolin player Frank Wakefield. The band could pick and choose their material and to have his song covered by such an established roots outfit would certainly have been a feather in the young songwriter’s cap – that they chose the song also shows how close to the tap root of American music Nesmith’s abilities as a writer could take him.
Better Late Than Never proved a rich resource for an LA based country pop group, The Stone Poneys, as they covered two of the dozen tunes on there the following year. The plaintive, even pleading catch-in-the-throat vocal tone of John Herald, a real high plainsman country voice, really connects the song to the tradition from which it sprang, and the image of the reins being pulled in on someone suddenly makes perfect Cowboy-sense. The lyric still feels quirky and young – ‘it’s not that I knock it’ – but the maturity and sage-like reason in relation to matters of the heart is particularly notable here too. Herald’s vocal is clearly the model for Linda Ronstadt’s take the following year. In comparing the two versions we sense how the pop field which had already absorbed Nesmith was also drawing in the way pop music could, or needed to sound – the back beat, the bright melody line foregrounded, the neat transitions from verse to chorus – and how for the foreseeable future acts like the Greenbriar Boys would have to give way to the music that would both shape and come to represent the era.
Only 20 seconds longer than the Stone Poneys version but taken at about two thirds of the pace, it feels like a much older, backwoodsy tune, and – sung by a young man – seems a much more typical voice – the young coltish male trying to be kind as he heads out on the road. Its female counterpoint might be something like Joni Mitchell’s ‘Urge For Going’, with the ‘gal’ left at home while the boy seeks adventure beyond the blue horizon.
All this is spun on its head, of course, when sung by a girl, and especially one as striking and talented as Linda Ronstadt – here, in every sense, was a new voice for changed times. The earlier version has none of the melodic hooks with which the Stone Poneys’ version bristles. Initially Ronstadt worked with her bandmates Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards on a version of the song that was closer kin to the Greenbriar Boys take on it: in this live clip, we hear their original arrangement of of the tune.
In her 2013 memoir Simple Dreams Linda Ronstadt recalled how the hit version of the song came to be.
“I found a song called “Different Drum” on a bluegrass record sung by John Herald of the Greenbriar Boys and written by Mike Nesmith before he joined The Monkees. I told [manager Nik] Venet I thought it was a hit. We went into the studio and recorded an arrangement for acoustic instruments, with Kenny playing mandolin. Venet wasn’t happy with it and said he wanted to hire and outside arranger, Jimmy Bond, and recut it.”
In scenes which feel similar to those experienced in the Monkees’ tale the singer turned up for another session to be met with a curious sight:
“A few days later I walked into the studio and was surprised to see it filled with musicians I had never met. They were all good players: Don Randi on harpsichord, Jimmy Gordon on the drums , and [arranger Jimmy] Bond playing bass. There was an acoustic guitar and some strings. the arrangement was completely different from the way I had rehearsed it. I tried as hard as I could to sing it, but we went through it only twice, and I hadn’t had time to learn the new arrangement . I told Venet I didn’t think we could use it because it was so different from the way I imagined it. Also it didn’t include Bobby or Ken. He ignored me. It was a hit.”
Linda aside, the Stone Poneys had been cut out of their own hit record. Unsurprisingly, as she notes of the success of ‘Different Drum’, ‘it was the beginning of the end for the Stone Poneys’.
A hit it was, making a lucky 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, on January 27th 1968 but the song proved to be very much a mixed blessing for the group. They didn’t really survive its success , substantially because not having played on the record they had difficulty recreating the song live – further evidence that the great ‘crime’ of The Monkees (session players workng on hit records) was in fact standard practise in the industry – and Ronstadt’s musical gifts and considerable charms were winning her the right to try and fly alone. Her first backing band included Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey and Don Henley who, of course, later founded the Eagles.
The success may have spelled doom for the band but it has left us with a timelessly enjoyable pop record of the highest sort. The curlicues of acoustic guitar, the zeitgeisty harpsichord and the barefoot, dark-eyed flower child singer all making a challenge to the rules of the Boy’s World right at the dawning of the Summer of Love. It has it all going on. The gorgeous riff on the acoustic spirals down to silence yet feels like it just keeps spinning on, forever, beyond the fade. It reminds me of what, say, Manfred Mann did with loose Dylan tunes like ‘The Mighty Quinn’, pulling elements as yet unheard out of the way the notes in the melody speak to each other in order to remake the song into a tight, bright pop artefact, something that sounds like a dream on a car radio or a jukebox. Ronstadt’s assured yet pleading vocal adds just the right touch of vulnerability to the certitudes of the lyric.
The Stone Poneys’ hit not only became a staple of the new pop radio but spread the song far beyond its natural constituency, entering the canon of authenticating pop tunes – it has been returned to many times by a number of artists wishing to tip their hats to the enduring cult status of the tune but also to the spirit of the times that allowed such a curious little tune to climb the hit parade so nimbly.
Perhaps the most bizarre performance was given by none other than Raquel Welch, flown into Vietnam in 1967 to entertain a massed gathering of troops there. Pure Apocalypse Now – if Francis Ford Coppola hadn’t seen this clip and taken inspiration from it for the Playboy Bunny/Suzie Q concert sequence scene in the 1979 movie, well he should have done. Ms. Welch looked fabulous and sounded terrible but it’s unlikely anyone cared about the latter.
The song’s composer Michael Nesmith took his time to return to the song, eventually turning in a concise and urbane version on the sardonically titled 1973 album And The Hits Just Keep On Comin’. It’s a performance as neat as his outfit on the album’s gatefold, where he sits having raised his eyes to the camera from the copy of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, Dee Brown’s alternative history of the American West, which rests on his lap. Four beautiful and elegant women, all of whom look as if they are suffering to a greater or a lesser degree from the grand ennui detailed so well on Nevada Fighter, surround him. Two of them look as if they are about to attend to his hair. It’s a strange, strong and enigmatic image which has always intrigued me ; it’s like a portrait of a Renaissance prince. This was the first version of ‘Different Drum’ that I heard, as the Stone Poneys 45 had not been a UK hit and it would be some years before oldies radio made it a familiar tune to a younger generation in the UK.
Nesmith performs it on acoustic guitar in the vocal style he favoured at that time – narratorial, resisting untrammelled pop melodicism in the delivery, and with a clipped, even professorial tone to the voice, typified by his habit of pronouncing the definite article as ‘thee‘ regardless of context. He is accompanied on the track – as he is throughout 11 of the album’s 12 tracks – by his constant comrade in the post-Monkees years, pedal steel player Orville OJ ‘Red’ Rhodes, who gets a namecheck (‘Oh, go Red’) before his solo. His vocal is very direct and conversational, best heard on the line ‘settle down with him and I know that you’ll be happy’. It is a much more reflective and personal piece in this form, designed to travel a short distance from one person’s mind to another’s heart – a conversation piece. It restores the gender dynamic upturned by the Stone Poneys version – the boy tells the girl that he’s not saying she ain’t pretty – and the irresistible logic of the lyric is given a quieter and more focussed setting, an atmosphere as calm yet as troubling as the album’s curio of a gatefold sleeve picture.
The song is revealed as Dylanesque in its lyrical flow and its musical progressions, and also connects up with something Nesmith said much later about ‘St Matthew’, a song that lay unissued for many years, recorded in late 1967 and again in 1968. He commented that the song was an attempt to write like Dylan and it pulls the gender reversal trick that was working nicely for the Stone Poneys version of ‘Different Drum’ at exactly that time – late ‘67 going into ‘68. Coincidence? Probably, but an instructive and intriguing one – ‘she calls herself St Matthew and she is on the run’. The female , masquerading as male, is helping herself to the freedoms afforded to the man and this echoes the shock of hearing the doe-eyed Ronstadt say she is out of the door – ‘so goodbye, I’m a-leavin’ ‘. It’s a song for a man brought to life by a woman.
Live, Nesmith has tended to retain the Hits solo arrangement, solo sans the pedal steel. However we have a souvenir of a late blossoming of the relationship between Nesmith and Rhodes on the beautifully recorded appearance at the Britt Festival, Jacksonville, Oregon on the 19th of June 1992. The show eventually emerged on double CD and DVD in 1999 and 2001 respectively. This was his last in concert performance with Red Rhodes who passed away in August 1995 aged 64. Ironically Rhodes did not play on the version of ‘Different Drum’ which provided the evening’s closing song, but Nesmith acknowledged the debt to Ms Ronstadt, tipping his hat to her by saying ‘With apologies and special thanks to Linda, and a fond goodnight to y’all’ .
The song was not given a concert airing again until his 2012 UK tour debuted a rather fetching Parisienne-street cafe style arrangement, 3/4 time and an accordion-style keyboard part. This is the arrangement you can hear on his 2014 live album Movies Of The Mind . Sitting in the third row at the show at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester on October 29th 2012, it was clear that this version exercised his attention – carefully coaxing the chords from his acoustic 12-string, concentratedly focussed on the lyric, the vocal line observing the beat of a different rhythm now. The wistful melancholy of the song is somehow foregrounded ; it may be something we hear in the singer’s voice, or the fin-de-siecle arrangement, but the couple in the movie of the mind this version shoots somehow feel much older.
As is often the case nowadays, someone filmed this very show and put it on the internet. So now you can sit next to me, all those years ago, and hear what I heard, see what I saw.
Covers? Well now.
The song went underground for some years after Nesmith’s version appeared until the generation of younger musicians who had heard the hit version as children started to take to the stage and draw upon the influential songs of their youth – so we had indie darlings like The Lemonheads turning in a sterling 1990 cover, cranked up really high and deliberately scorching the edges but keeping the Stone Poneys structure and country-pop heart intact, to the extent of slyly keeping the song addressed to a boy.
In 2006 Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs of The Bangles brought the song some Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra action in their guise as ‘Sid ‘n’ Susie’ on the first of their series of Under The Covers albums, bespoke collections of their covers of classic pop songs – by then ‘Different Drum’ really had joined the canon, undoubtedly thanks to Ronstadt’s performance in 1967, one which the song’s composer said in 2013 “infused it with a new level of passion and sensuality”.
Finally, when Linda Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2014 the citation came courtesy of her old guitar player Glenn Frey but she was ‘sung in’ by Carrie Underwood who sang ‘Different Drum’, note for plangent note. She was welcomed in not via the easy rhythms of her famous and era-defining 70’s material for Asylum. No; it was to the beat of that old different drum. Nesmith was right to tip his hat at the Britt Festival; it’s her song now. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 92 | https://countrymusichalloffame.org/exhibit/dylan-cash-and-the-nashville-cats-a-new-music-city/beyond-the-nashville-skyline/ | en | Country Music Hall of Fame | [
"https://cmhof.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/04/11072205/cmhof-logo-round.png",
"https://cmhof.imgix.net/content/uploads/2020/11/09201823/The-byrds.jpg?fit=crop&crop=center&q=70&auto=format&or=0&fm=jpeg&w=1920",
"https://cmhof.imgix.net/content/uploads/2020/11/03102026/scroll-down-record.png?q=70",
"https://... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2020-11-11T04:56:01+00:00 | en | Country Music Hall of Fame | https://countrymusichalloffame.org/exhibit/dylan-cash-and-the-nashville-cats-a-new-music-city/beyond-the-nashville-skyline/ | From New York
Numerous acts from New York’s folk scene were interacting with Nashville musicians by the late 1960s. Many of the singers met Bob Dylan early in his career in Greenwich Village, and arrived in Nashville in the wake of his success there. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel—Simon & Garfunkel—came to Nashville to work with producer Bob Johnston and local musicians at Columbia’s studio. Nashville session guitarist Fred Carter Jr. became an important part of Simon & Garfunkel’s sound, joining them for many of their New York sessions as well.
Two of Dylan’s early influences from New York eventually followed him to Nashville to record with Johnston. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott arrived in 1969 to make Bull Durham Sacks and Railroad Tracks, which included five Dylan songs. In 1971 Pete Seeger recorded Rainbow Race. Both albums featured musicians who had played on Dylan’s Nashville recordings, and both artists appeared on Johnny Cash’s TV show.
Vanguard Records and Nashville
Maynard Solomon, founder of New York-based Vanguard Records, sent the label’s folk artists to Nashville to record in the 1960s and 1970s. Vanguard was a small classical label when Solomon and his brother Seymour signed Joan Baez in 1960, early in the folk boom.
Baez’s commercial success allowed Vanguard to add other urban folk acts to its roster, including Ian & Sylvia, Eric Andersen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Jerry Jeff Walker. When Bob Dylan recorded in Nashville with good results, Solomon had his Vanguard artists follow suit.
Overseeing many of the sessions himself, Solomon often used traditional country instrumentation, including dobro, steel guitar, and fiddle—the latter often played by Buddy Spicher. Singing style and repertoire reflected the artists’ urban folk sensibilities. The Nashville musicians were adept at providing relaxed, country-leaning accompaniment, which created unique musical hybrids.
Among the albums reflecting this dynamic was Driftin’ Way of Life by Jerry Jeff Walker. While many of the songs espoused countercultural values, the music was pure country. The 1969 album recorded in Nashville set the tone for Walker’s role as a key member of the “cosmic cowboy” scene of the 1970s in Austin, Texas.
Joan Baez
Joan Baez, the most popular act on New York-based Vanguard Records, recorded a number of successful albums in Nashville. She praised the city’s musicians, and her example drew other performers to Nashville.
Baez came to Nashville first in 1968. Working with veteran guitarist Grady Martin as her session leader, she was prolific, capturing enough material for multiple albums. Guitar virtuoso Jerry Reed is featured prominently on the recordings, adding to their country flavor. Baez was well known for her activism in the anti-war and Civil Rights movements. She was a highly polarizing figure, and heightened security was present at her Nashville sessions.
“I probably wouldn’t agree with her on her politics,” fiddler Buddy Spicher said, “[but] it was such a joy to back up somebody that had chops like she did.”
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
For her 1971 album, Blessed Are…, Baez enlisted bassist Norbert Putnam, a veteran of her earlier Nashville sessions, as producer. She trusted that he could make her music more appealing to pop audiences. They recorded at Quadraphonic Studios, owned by Putnam, pianist David Briggs, and producer Elliot Mazer.
Blessed Are … became the biggest seller of Baez’s career, its success driven by a major pop hit, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” First recorded by the Band, the song was written by the group’s guitarist Robbie Robertson.
Other artists followed Baez to Quadraphonic Studios, and Putnam emerged as a popular producer for folk acts, with clients such as Buffy Sainte-Marie and Eric Andersen. Later, Putnam used a similar folk-pop style with artists such as Dan Fogelberg and Jimmy Buffett.
Ian & Sylvia
In the early 1960s, Toronto’s folk music scene resembled that of New York’s Greenwich Village. The city’s coffeehouse culture made it a bohemian magnet for Canadian musicians.
Toronto native Sylvia Fricker and Ian Tyson, from Vancouver Island, formed a duo in the late 1950s to play local coffeehouses. They married a few years later. As Ian & Sylvia, they established themselves in New York in 1961.
On Vanguard Records the duo became one of the most successful acts in folk music. Inspired by Dylan’s songwriting, Ian composed “Four Strong Winds,” which became a folk standard and a country hit for Bobby Bare in 1964.
Ian & Sylvia turned to Nashville for invigoration as the folk circuit that supported the duo started to fade. Working with producer Elliot Mazer and a wide cross-section of the city’s best pickers, the Tysons recorded the albums Nashville and Full Circle there in 1968. Ian & Sylvia returned to Nashville in 1971 to record their self-titled album for Columbia.
Gordon Lightfoot
Orillia, Ontario, native Gordon Lightfoot settled in Toronto as a solo performer before making albums in Nashville that helped define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and ’70s.
Taking inspiration from country music and from Bob Dylan’s songwriting, Lightfoot had written songs by the early 1960s that would become standards. Ian & Sylvia and Peter, Paul and Mary made popular recordings of his “Early Morning Rain” and “For Loving Me.” In country music, Marty Robbins scored a #1 hit with Lightfoot’s “Ribbon of Darkness” in 1965.
After Dylan made his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde, in Nashville, manager Albert Grossman suggested to Lightfoot that he record his second album there with musicians Kenny Buttrey and Charlie McCoy. Lightfoot’s The Way I Feel, released in 1967, helped inspire the more stripped-down sound of Dylan’s next album, John Wesley Harding.
Feeling a natural fit with country players, Lightfoot returned to Nashville in 1968 to make Back Here on Earth with producer Elliot Mazer at Bradley’s Barn. Lightfoot moved to Woodland Sound Studios in East Nashville to record Summer Side of Life in 1970 and ’71.
Leonard Cohen
Montreal native Leonard Cohen’s journey from promising young Canadian poet to fascinating and influential songwriter began in the 1950s. He found the urban folk music scene receptive to the surrealistic, dark songs he was beginning to write in the 1960s, such as “Suzanne” and “Dress Rehearsal Rag.” His debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, released on Columbia Records in 1967, was a major critical success. Eager to record Cohen in Nashville, producer Bob Johnston persuaded him to move south, to the quiet hamlet of Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. There Cohen rented a cabin from songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
In 1968, working with Johnston at Columbia’s Music Row studios, Cohen recorded Songs from a Room, featuring the classic “Bird on a Wire.” Ron Cornelius, Charlie Daniels, and Elkin “Bubba” Fowler provided backing. So comfortable was Cohen with the players that he toured far and wide with Johnston, Daniels, Cornelius, and Fowler in his band.
In 1971 Cohen recorded in Nashville again, working with his seasoned road band. Songs of Love and Hate included Cohen classics such as “Famous Blue Raincoat” and “Joan of Arc.”
Beau Brummels
The Beau Brummels anticipated the sound of folk-rock with its 1965 hits “Laugh, Laugh” and “Just a Little.” By 1968, the group’s two principal members, Sal Valentino and Ron Elliott, were looking for a new musical direction. They made their next album, Bradley’s Barn, at producer Owen Bradley’s studio in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, in 1968. “Sal and I were both immersed in Nashville, especially with Dylan’s experiments down there,” said the group’s producer, Lenny Waronker.
The Beau Brummels hired the cream of the city’s young studio players and enlisted top guitarists Harold Bradley, Wayne Moss, Jerry Reed, and Billy Sanford.
The Steve Miller Band
Guitarist Steve Miller moved from Texas to San Francisco to form a band in 1967. The group found immediate success, signing with Capitol Records and becoming a staple on the city’s popular ballroom circuit.
In 1970 the Steve Miller Band—supplemented by Nashville musicians—recorded its album Number 5 at Wayne Moss’s Cinderella Sound Studio in Madison, Tennessee. Charlie McCoy’s harmonica and Buddy Spicher’s fiddle are prominent on “Going to the Country,” which received heavy airplay on rock radio.
Miller invited McCoy, guitarist Moss, and banjo player Bobby Thompson to join the band on another song, “Tokin’s,” and was amazed by the results. “They learned the song in seven minutes and sat down and recorded it,” Miller recalled. “When it was done, it sounded better than anything else on the record, and we said, ‘Well, that’s how pros do it!’”
Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald recorded in Nashville in 1969, soon after performing anti-Vietnam War song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” at the Woodstock festival. McDonald fronted Country Joe & the Fish, a band that had great success in the late 1960s blending the radical left politics of their hometown, Berkeley, with the psychedelic flavors of San Francisco.
McDonald made his first solo albums, Thinking of Woody Guthrie and Tonight I’m Singing Just for You, at Bradley’s Barn in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Nashville A-team guitarist Grady Martin led the sessions.
Tracy Nelson and Mother Earth
Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, Tracy Nelson listened to rhythm & blues on WLAC, from far away Nashville, one of the only radio stations reaching Middle America with black music.
Nelson released an album of acoustic folk blues in 1965, before moving to San Francisco, where she formed blues-rock band Mother Earth. The band performed at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium and shared bills with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix.
Mother Earth toured in support of their 1968 debut album, Living with Animals, ending with a show in Nashville. They stayed in Tennessee, rented a farmhouse in Mt. Juliet, and recorded their next album, Make a Joyful Noise, at Bradley’s Barn.
Nashville steel guitarist Pete Drake introduced Nelson to Elvis Presley’s pioneering guitarist, Scotty Moore, and other local players. She was so taken by Nashville that she decided to relocate to the area.
“The musical community that Pete introduced me to was far and away more reasonable, and nicer to be around, than in San Francisco,” Nelson said.
In 1969 Drake encouraged Nelson to record a solo country album, Mother Earth Presents Tracy Nelson Country, for which Nelson sang direct, strong versions of songs written by Hank Williams, Don Gibson, and Tammy Wynette. Nelson made the album at Moore’s Music City Recorders, accompanied by Moore, Drake, D.J. Fontana, Ben Keith, Johnny Gimble, Shorty Lavender, the Jordanaires, and other local stalwarts.
The Byrds
The Byrds were among the first successful purveyors of folk-rock. The group’s arrangement of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which went to #1 in 1965, and their recording of Dylan’s “All I Really Want to Do,” helped introduce his songs to a broader audience.
Founding members Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, whose roots were in folk and bluegrass, began to introduce country songs and sounds onto Byrds albums. When Georgia native Gram Parsons joined the Byrds in 1967, he encouraged the group to embrace country music more fully.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Inspired by their enthusiasm for country music, the Byrds came to Nashville in March 1968 to begin work on their sixth album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The group was augmented in Columbia’s Studio A by local musicians Junior Huskey on bass, John Hartford on banjo, and Lloyd Green on pedal steel guitar.
Pedal steel guitar—played on some tracks by Lloyd Green in Nashville, and on others by Jay Dee Maness in Los Angeles—gave the record a distinctively country feel. Despite mixed reviews and modest sales, the album is now regarded as a landmark for its melding of country traditions with a rock & roll sensibility.
Neil Young
After recording country-inspired rock music with Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; and as a solo artist, Neil Young came to Nashville in 1971 to perform on Johnny Cash’s TV show. Young also booked studio time at Quadrafonic Studios, where he recorded most of his fourth album, Harvest, with producer Elliot Mazer.
Released in 1972, Harvest remains Young’s most successful album. It included “Old Man” and Young’s #1 hit, “Heart of Gold.” He met Nashville musicians Kenny Buttrey, Tim Drummond, and Ben Keith at the sessions, dubbed them the Stray Gators, and continued to employ them for many years.
Leon Russell and J.J. Cale
From Tulsa, Oklahoma, by way of Los Angeles, J.J. Cale and Leon Russell took divergent musical paths to Nashville. A former L.A. studio pianist, Russell rose to rock stardom before recording Hank Wilson’s Back, his collection of country classics, cut in Nashville in 1972. The album harkened back to the honky-tonk and rockabilly Russell performed with Cale as a teenager in Tulsa nightclubs.
J.J. Cale’s debut album, Naturally, included his biggest hit, “Crazy Mama,” featuring Mac Gayden’s innovative wah-wah slide guitar. Produced in Nashville and released in 1972 on Russell’s Shelter label, the album also featured other Cale originals, such as “After Midnight” (popularized by Eric Clapton) and “Call Me the Breeze” (made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd).
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Originating in Southern California in the 1960s, folk-rock group the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band bridged cultural and generational gaps with their landmark 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The sessions at East Nashville’s Woodland Sound Studios brought together country legends and veteran musicians, including Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, Vassar Clements, Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, and Doc Watson.
The project was notable for deliberately connecting the young artists in the Dirt Band with older country music styles and with musicians from an earlier era. Its tremendous success introduced the legends and their music to a whole new audience.
George Harrison and Ringo Starr
British acts including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were influenced by folk and rock albums made in Nashville in the late 1960s. George Harrison’s friendship with Bob Dylan and the Band helped the Beatles find their way back to a simpler sound and pointed to the distinctive sound of Harrison’s 1970 album, All Things Must Pass.
Aware of Pete Drake’s work with Dylan, Harrison flew the pedal steel guitarist to London to add Nashville flavor to All Things Must Pass. Drake was joined on the sessions by an all-star band that included Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, who told Drake of his lifelong appreciation for country music.
Persuading Starr to record in Nashville, Drake produced Ringo’s 1970 country album, Beaucoups of Blues, at guitarist Scotty Moore’s studio using local musicians and songwriters.
Wings Over Nashville
Paul McCartney spent six weeks in Nashville during the summer of 1974, rehearsing his band, Wings, for a world tour. While there he took in the sights and sounds of the city.
“I rather fancy the place,” McCartney told a Nashville Banner reporter. “It’s a musical center. I’ve just heard so much about it that I wanted to see it for myself.”
McCartney, his wife Linda, and their three daughters, as well as members of Wings and the band’s road manager, stayed on a farm near Lebanon, Tennessee, owned by Curly Putman, composer of the country and pop classic “Green, Green Grass of Home.”
McCartney cut seven songs at Buddy Killen’s Sound Shop. Two became hits. The title of “Junior’s Farm” was inspired by Putman’s home. For “Sally G,” McCartney enlisted pedal steel guitarist Lloyd Green and fiddler Johnny Gimble to give the song a country feel. | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 28 | http://countrydiscoghraphy2.blogspot.com/2014/03/linda-ronstadt.html | en | Praguefrank's Country Discography 2: Linda Ronstadt | https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t2LJQxUXPNSc7PfdP1hzTRLtznZoDWcYR1xHMpM-Ve8NTUWeI8nxB29Uvloo3k2-RCjd_BPvzgZVEUhIGhe5OkIW5lebAmRy7lHGo0ay4ESQ=w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu | https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t2LJQxUXPNSc7PfdP1hzTRLtznZoDWcYR1xHMpM-Ve8NTUWeI8nxB29Uvloo3k2-RCjd_BPvzgZVEUhIGhe5OkIW5lebAmRy7lHGo0ay4ESQ=w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu | [
"http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AoGoIn7TnQA/URUgh3bbQsI/AAAAAAAAAEU/n_LvpghHKe8/s1600/z%25C3%25A1hlav%25C3%25AD%2Bblogu.jpg",
"https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Linda Maria Ronstadt, *15-04-1946 Tucson, AR 2nd version by Michel Ruppli, Praguefrank, Thieu Van De Vorst, Lennart Gustavsson ... | en | http://countrydiscoghraphy2.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | http://countrydiscoghraphy2.blogspot.com/2014/03/linda-ronstadt.html | This is a continuation of my country discography blog with all new entries starting Saturday, February 16, 2013 Older files til February 15, 2013, are on original address http://countrydiscography.blogspot.cz | |||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 72 | https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/ | en | Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People of 2023 | [
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-27-at-4.20.14-PM.png",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Bill_Baer.jpg",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Bill_Baer.jpg",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Ste... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Washingtonian Staff",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/author/washingtonianstaff/#author"
] | 2023-04-27T00:00:00 | Here’s our list of the experts and advocates, outside the government, who are playing big roles in Washington’s policy debates. | en | https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/themes/washingtonian/favicon.ico | Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by. | https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/ | For our third annual edition of the Most Influential People Shaping Policy, we again sought out smart, innovative Washingtonians who care about issues and spend a lot of time thinking about them.
The selection process is not easy. Despite what the news says, there are a lot of people in Washington who care deeply about this country and advocate on behalf of changes and ideas they believe will make the nation better.
Our list is determined by several factors. We look for those who have deep subject-matter expertise and significant understanding of how the nation’s capital works, with the goal of getting action. We want people who understand the nuances and complexities of a particular issue area. And we focus on policy subjects we believe are of special relevance right now to our slate of elected officials.
We’ve tried to make choices across the ideological spectrum and avoid big-name “hired guns” whose influence often derives more from their communication skills and network than from their expertise in a particular area. We also didn’t include elected officials and Capitol Hill or administration staffers—the influencees, so to speak. Some people or organizations may strike you as having a harmful effect. We’re not passing judgment on whether every person’s influence is for the greater good. We want to highlight those who wield it.
Many of those selected have indeed served government in some capacity, such as Alexandra Veitch, who worked for former senator Barbara Mikulski but now helps YouTube with public policy. Or John Lettieri, a onetime GOP Hill staffer who today leads the Economic Innovation Group and pushes for better economic policies. We believe that the people we’ve highlighted possess special insight into how to get an issue elevated. We also think some of the names here are likely to land in government in the future, either because of their ambition to serve or because they’ll be tapped for their expertise.
Ultimately, every one of the influencers shares a drive to understand a policy issue and propel it forward. Washington has always been a city of thinkers. We’re confident these are among the best brains in the city.
—Catherine Merrill
Washingtonian President and CEO
To purchase a physical copy of our Influencers list, please email Samantha Simmons at SSimmons@washingtonian.com.
Antitrust
Experts who ensure that businesses are competing fairly and that mergers are in the public’s interest
Back to Top
Banking & Finance
People who advocate for stable and secure financial systems
Back to Top
Business & Labor
These advocates fight to keep our commerce strong for employers and employees
Back to Top
Civil Rights & Criminal Justice
Experts who help ensure that our country’s policies, laws, and programs are nondiscriminatory
Back to Top
Climate & Environment
From the impact of climate change to sustainable energy, these subject-matter pros advocate and promote policies that balance economic growth with our planet’s future
Back to Top
Economic Policy
Top local minds who advocate to make certain that our economic system works
Back to Top
Education
Leaders of the policy reforms shaping our country’s educational system at all levels
Back to Top
Energy
People who know the industry—from fossil fuels to renewables—better than anyone
Back to Top
Foreign Affairs
Understanding all corners of the globe, these experts help shape how America relates to the rest of the world
Back to Top
Good Government
Whether fighting for democracy or federal-employee benefits, these people care deeply about having our public system work effectively
Back to Top
Healthcare
Leading pros who know the ins and outs of healthcare policy, regulation, and access—and how those can help or hurt consumers
Back to Top
Immigration
Authorities on the legislative, legal, and administrative policies that shape our nation’s immigration system
Back to Top
Infrastructure & Transportation
Whether involving land, sea, or air, these experts fight for policies that help strengthen the backbone of our country
Back to Top
Legal Intelligentsia
Legal minds who put their brainpower behind helping our government work better
Back to Top
National Security & Defense
Leaders who help shape the policies that make our country safe and protected
Back to Top
Tech & Telecom
Beltway insiders helping advance Big Tech and telecommunications issues on Capitol Hill
Back to Top
Trade
These pros understand the details of agreements and regulations driving imports and exports, plus their impact on America
Back to Top
Voting Rights & Election Law
From redistricting to registration laws, these experts closely follow and advocate for changes to how we elect our public servants
Back to Top
Alphabetical List of Influencers
Photo Credits
Antitrust
Baer courtesy of Brookings Institution; DelBianco courtesy of NetChoice; Kovacic courtesy of George Washington University; Lynn courtesy of Open Markets; Schweppe courtesy of American Principles Project; Stoller by Sophia Lin
Banking & Finance
Baer and Childress courtesy of Bank Policy Institute; Berry courtesy of JPMC; Camper by Jeff Elkins; Giorgio and Romero Rainey courtesy of ICBA; Johnson courtesy of CBA; Klein courtesy of Brookings Institution; Nichols courtesy of ABA; Reilly courtesy of Barclays
Business & Labor
Andrews courtesy of Intel; Bahn by Farrah Skeiky; Bandla courtesy of Virgin Galactic; Bolten by Kevin Allen Photography; Bradley and Clark courtesy of U.S. Chamber Commerce; Buth courtesy of NCAA; Dodge courtesy of RILA; Duvall courtesy of AFBF; Glas by Melissa Robbins/Washington DC Headshots; Harris by Ian Wagreich; Kelley, Lamar, and Swonger by Jeff Elkins; Kelly courtesy of IAFF; Newhouse courtesy of National Association of Manufacturers; Rivkin by Gary Landsman; Rogers courtesy of AHLA; Samuel and Shuler courtesy of AFL-CIO; Stickney by Tejah Robinson; Taylor courtesy of SHRM
Civil Rights & Criminal Justice
Austin by Matt Mendelsohn; Dorothy Brown by Brent Futrell/Georgetown Law; Butler courtesy of Georgetown University; Cashin by Robyn Bishop; Chaney by Jeff Elkins; Cole by Molly Kaplan/ACLU; Johnson by Todd Franson; Katz by Scott Robinson; Pasco by Allison Shelley Photography
Climate & Environment
Friedman courtesy of New York Times; Gold courtesy of Holland/Knight; Walsh by Francis Chung/E&E News
Economic Policy
Clemente by VanRiper; MacGuineas by Kim Goldwein; Neely courtesy of American Council of Life Insurers; Owens by Laura Barisonzi; Rubin by Djenno Bacvic; Seidel by Damon Moritz/Stand Together; Spriggs courtesy of AFL-CIO staff
Education
deLaski courtesy of Education Design Lab; Hess courtesy of AEI; Kahlenberg by Bridget Badore; Pringle courtesy of National Education Association; Rees courtesy of NAPCS; Reeves courtesy of Brookings Institution; Rickard by Jessica Yurink Photography; Slover by Kimberly Goldwein Photography; Stout by Matthew Rakola; Weingarten courtesy of AFT
Energy
Andryszak by Lauren Ackil; Margheri by Scott Henrichsen/scottfoto.com; Matheson courtesy of NRECA; Wolff by Jeff Elkins
Foreign Affairs
Abramowitz by Sabine Gudath; Belcher by Laura Manariti; Brands and Schake courtesy of AEI; Brooks by Jody McKitrick; Donald courtesy of Center for American Progress; Flournoy courtesy of WestExec Advisors; Ignatius by Diana Walker; Keshap courtesy of USIBC; Rogin by Stephen Gosling; Singh by Katharine McKenny/creative director Wildwood; Wechsler courtesy of Atlantic Council
Good Government
Brian by Katie Jett Walls Photography; Liu by Liz Norwood/Norwood Photography; Ornstein courtesy of AEI; Potter by Casey Atkins/Campaign Legal Center; Richie courtesy of FairVote; Scherb by Jeff Elkins; Simon courtesy of Chelsea Bland for AFGE; Stier by Joshua Roberts
Healthcare
Dannenfelser by Victoria Stiles/EWTN; Eyles and Griffin courtesy of AHIP; Gostin courtesy of Georgetown Law; Gottlieb courtesy of AEI; Henry by Eli Turner Photography; Hoagland courtesy of Bipartisan Policy Center; Mitchell by Butch Ramsey; Parkinson courtesy of AHCA/NCAL; Patel courtesy of Brookings Institution; Rios by Patricia De La Rosa/pdelarosa.com; Schaefer courtesy of Heritage Foundation
Immigration
Adams by Timothy Devine Photography; Kelley courtesy of Furman University; Lawrence by PhotoMe Multimedia Productions; Meissner by Louis Tinsley
Infrastructure & Transportation
Adams courtesy of FedEx; Bolen courtesy of National Business Aviation Association; Burgeson and Calio courtesy of Airlines for America; Jefferies courtesy of AAR; Karol courtesy of Caterpillar; Lynch by Morgan Lewis; Vargas by DCEventPhoto
Legal Intelligentsia
Bakaj by Norwood Studio; Goss Graves courtesy of NWLC
National Security & Defense
Aguirre and Chadda courtesy of WestExec Advisors; Ben-Yehuda by Stacey Vaeth; Cordero courtesy of CNAS; De by Mayer Brown; Hoffman by Michael Lionstar; Jones, Kirk, and Lewis courtesy of CSIS; Rodman by Peter Cane; Scharre courtesy of Erin Scott; Talmadge by Claire Harvey
Tech & Telecom
Baker courtesy of CTIA; Bovard by Kama Photography; Branscome by Jen Packard; Fischer by Eli Sinkus; Huseman by Jeff Elkins; Jeffries by Dennis Drenner/Charm City Headshots; Johnson by Elliott O. Donovan; Lowe by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Redux; Manatos by Steven Purcell; Meservey courtesy of Substack; Petricone courtesy of Consumer Technology Association; Quick by Ronald Flores Photography; Quintenz courtesy of Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Rogin and Schruers courtesy of CCIA; Spalter courtesy of Broadband Association; Stegmaier by Reed Smith; Swisher by Philip Montgomery; Verdery by Ian Wagreich
Trade
Fussell courtesy of Holland Knight; Murphy courtesy of U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Perkins by D.A. Peterson; Pillsbury courtesy of Hudson Institute; Wallach courtesy of Rethink Trade | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 84 | https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/visit-and-learn/centenaries/seanad100/members-of-the-first-seanad/members-of-the-first-seanad-biographies/ | en | Seanad100 | Members of the First Seanad | [
"https://www.oireachtas.ie/_resources/themes/oireachtas/img/mobile-logo.svg",
"https://www.oireachtas.ie/_resources/themes/oireachtas/img/logo.svg",
"https://www.oireachtas.ie/_resources/themes/oireachtas/img/app-store-icons/app-store-badge.svg",
"https://www.oireachtas.ie/_resources/themes/oireachtas/img/app... | [] | [] | [
"Commemoration of the centenary of Seanad Éireann seanadóir senator"
] | null | [] | null | Commemoration of the centenary of Seanad Éireann | en | https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/visit-and-learn/centenaries/seanad100/members-of-the-first-seanad/members-of-the-first-seanad-biographies | Bagwell, John Philip
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
The only son of historian Richard Bagwell and his wife Harriet, of Marlfield, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, John Philip Bagwell was educated at Harrow and Oxford. He worked for the Midland Railway in England until 1909 before returning to Ireland as superintendent of passenger services and later general manager of the Great Northern Railway. He and his wife were wounded by crossfire during the Easter Rising. He was on the executive of the Irish Unionist Alliance and accepted a nomination to the first Seanad in 1922, serving as an Independent until abolition in 1936. During the Civil War, his family home was burned down. He was also kidnapped by anti-treaty forces but escaped after several days in captivity. He died at a rebuilt Marlfield in 1946.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Barniville, Henry
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
A surgeon and Senator, Barniville was born in Belfast in 1887. Highly educated, Barniville studied in Ireland and Germany. In 1925, he was appointed senior surgeon and secretary of the medical board in the Mater Misericordiae, Dublin, then the largest general hospital in Ireland. He held a wide range of medical roles throughout his career and was ultimately appointed an honorary life member of the International Association of Surgeons. A prolific surgeon, Barniville was known for his humanity, treating patients who could not afford a consultant's fees. During 1919 to 1921 Barniville treated the wounded IRA, concealing their identities from British forces. Barniville was an elected member of the first Seanad and held that seat through to 1936. He went on to be an elected member for NUI in the reconstituted Seanad from March 1938 to his death in 1960.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Barrington, William
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
The son of a solicitor, Barrington was born in Limerick in 1857. He trained in London as a civil engineer and went on to work for the Surveying Service of the British Admiralty. He was responsible for the construction of several light railways in Ireland built by the British Government. He was elected to the Seanad by Dáil members in 1922, spoke regularly across many topics, but had a keen interest in debates on hydro-eleectric schemes. He was re-elected in 1925 and 1928, but lost his seat at the 1931 election. He died in 1937.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Bennett, Thomas Westropp
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
A farmer and politician, Bennett was born in Limerick and was the son of Captain Thomas Westropp Bennett. Although their father was a member of the Church of Ireland, the children were brought up in the Roman Catholic faith of their mother. After completing his education in St John's College, Kilkenny, and the Queen's Service Academy, Dublin, Bennett returned to the family's extensive landholding where he concentrated on dairy farming and joined many farming organisations. Bennett was elected to the first Seanad, a seat he held until 1936. During his term, he served as a Leas-Chathaoirleach (vice-chairman) (1925–8) and Cathaoirleach (chairman) (1928–36). His prime concerns were broadening the availability of education and stemming the tide of emigration. Following the abolition of the Seanad in 1936, he did not hold public office again, but remained a prominent figure in farming and agricultural circles. His brother George Cecil Bennett (1877–1963) was Fine Gael TD for Limerick (1927–48) and a Senator (1948–51).
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Bourke, Dermot (Earl of Mayo)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Bourke became the 7th Earl of Mayo on the death of his father, the former Chief Secretary of Ireland, who was assassinated in 1872 while serving as Governor-General of Calcutta. He was educated in Eton and spent time in the army. He later travelled widely, studying political, social, and economic conditions in the countries he visited. He owned large tracts of land in Kildare, Meath and Mayo, and was active in the House of Lords on Irish issues. Bourke was a patron of the arts and became a promoter of Irish craft industries. He joined the Unionist Anti-Partition League in 1918, was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922 and was active in its proceedings until his death in 1927.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Brown, Samuel Lombard
Independent | Elected in a by-election on 12 December 1923, replacing Sir Horace Plunkett
Born in 1856, Brown was educated in Queens College, Cork and King’s Inns, Dublin. He was called to the Irish bar in 1881, became a King's Counsel in 1899 and was appointed the Regius Professor of Laws in TCD in 1934. Despite having no political affiliations he was elected to the Seanad at a by-election on 12 December 1923, replacing Sir Horace Plunkett. Although he lost the seat at the 1925 election, he was re-elected at a by-election in February 1926 to replace Lord Dunraven. In 1934, he was elected again and served until the Seanad was abolished in 1936. His knowledge of law was fully utilised by the Government, which appointed him to serve on various joint committees including those to which the Liffey Electricity Bills were referred. He was often instrumental in introducing amendments to legislation which were afterwards confirmed by the Dáil. He died in 1939.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Burgess, Henry Givens
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born near Borrisokane in Co. Tipperary, Burgess's Protestant parents farmed in an area so troubled by sectarianism and faction fighting that they preserved strict neutrality for the family by rendering first aid to all the combatants irrespective of their religious beliefs. It was an attitude that characterised much of his own dealings with his fellow countrymen. Leaving school at 14, Burgess worked administratively on the Irish and the UK railways. Commuting regularly between London and Dún Laoghaire, Burgess facilitated contact between the Irish labour leaders and the home secretary to negotiate a peace settlement in 1921 and made his home in Dún Laoghaire available for the meetings. In 1924 he supervised the formation of the Midland and Scottish railway and became close to the Royal family. King George V was known to enjoy Burgesses Tipperary accent. Burgess died in Co. Wexford in 1937 of a heart attack while engaging in his favourite pastime – salmon fishing.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Butler, Richard A.
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Dublin, Richard Andrew Butler was a prominent local farmer based in Skerries. A past President of the Irish Farmers' Union, he was elected by Dáil members to the first Seanad in 1922 but lost his seat at the 1925 Seanad election. He successfully sought re-election in a by-election in 1929. He was defeated once again at the 1931 Seanad election.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Campbell, James (Lord Glenavy)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
A lawyer and politician, Campbell was born in Dublin in 1851. It was believed by his descendants that his paternal grandfather had been a police constable in Glenavy, Co. Antrim and his humble origins, though seen as socially embarrassing, inspired his later choice of title. Campbell studied at Trinity College Dublin and the King's Inns, qualifying for the bar in 1878. A talented and ambitious advocate, Campbell threw himself into the service of the Unionist Party, campaigning in England and Ireland against home rule. In 1898 he was elected MP for the St Stephen's Green division of Dublin. From 1901 to 1905 Campbell served as solicitor general for Ireland and in 1903 was returned to Westminster as an MP for TCD, a seat he retained until 1916. A unionist spokesperson, Campbell became a hate-figure for many nationalists and was dubbed ‘Jim Crow’ – the image of the crow applied to unionists who dredged up every discreditable story about Irish affairs to relay to British audiences. With the establishment of the Irish Free State, Lord Glenavy accepted a nomination to the Seanad, serving until 1928. He died in 1931.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Costello, Eileen
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
An Irish language enthusiast, folksong collector and political activist, Eileen Costello was born Edith Drury in London. She trained as a teacher and became Head of St. Michael's Church of England school in central London. She joined the London branch of the Gaelic League at its inaugural meeting in 1896 where she learned Irish and played an active role in the organisation. She travelled to the Conradh Ard Fheis in Dublin in 1902, remaining in Ireland for a period afterwards. It is around this time she converted to Roman Catholicism, changed her name to Eibhlín, married Dr Thomas Bodkin Costello and moved to Tuam, Co. Galway. She published a compilation of traditional folk songs of Galway and Mayo, titled Amhráin Muighe Seola, in 1923. It is one of the first publications of Irish songs that included the text and the music as well as translations and notes. An active campaigner on social issues, particularly women's rights, she was elected as a Cumann na nGaedheal member to the first Seanad in 1922, remaining a Senator until her defeat in the 1934 election.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Counihan, John
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Kerry in 1879 Counihan was a farmer and livestock dealer. He moved to Co. Kildare in 1900 where he ran a large tillage farm and was well known in the cattle business. He was a member, and sometime chairman, of the Ireland Cattle Traders' and Stockowners' Association. He was elected to the Seanad in 1922 and retained his seat through to 1936. He was re-elected in 1938 on the Agricultural Panel and remained a Senator until 1951. His party affiliations changed throughout his long tenure in the Seanad--he was an Independent, Cumann na nGaedheal member and Fine Gael member. He was a member of many Government Commissions set up to examine aspects of agriculture.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Cuffe, Ellen (Countess of Desart)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born into a Jewish family in London, Ellen Bischoffsheim was the eldest daughter of a millionaire banker and was educated privately. She married novelist William Ulick O'Connor Cuffe, 4th Earl of Desart, and settled at Desart Court, Kilkenny. She supported the Gaelic League and financed schemes including the founding of the Kilkenny theatre, Kilkenny Woollen Mills Ltd and Kilkenny Woodworkers Ltd, which sold its wares from a shop in Dublin’s Nassau Street. A generous subscriber to charitable causes in Kilkenny, she built and equipped the city library, founded a recreation centre, Desart Hall, as well as Aut Even Hospital. Countess Desart was honoured with the Freedom of Kilkenny in 1910. She was Ireland’s first Jewish senator and served until her death in 1933.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Cummins, William
Labour | Elected in a by-election on 21 February 1923, replacing Eamonn Mansfield
Cummins spent 33 years as a school principal in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. He held many public roles in the county, including chairman of Newbridge Town Commissioners, vice-chairman of Kildare Co. Council and vice-chairman of Kildare Vocational Committee. He was also a member of the National Executive of the Irish Labour Party and had been the Financial Secretary. A fluent Irish speaker, Cummins was prominent in the activities of the Gaelic League. He was first elected to the Seanad at a by-election in February 1923 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward (Eamonn) Mansfield. He was re-elected for a 12-year term at the 1925 Seanad election and served until 1936. He was successful in the 1938 Seanad Éireann election on the Labour Panel. He died in 1943.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
de Loughry, Peter
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in 1883, de Loughry was an iron moulder by trade and ran a small foundry business in Kilkenny. A committed nationalist, he was a founding member of the local Sinn Féin club in 1907. He was arrested and imprisoned on several occasions, including for his role in the 1916 Rising and during the 'German plot' in 1918. In 1919 de Loughry played an integral part in the escape of Eamon de Valera from Lincoln prison; he used his metalwork skills to master a key to allow his fellow prisoners to escape. De Valera returned the key to him many years later in Dáil Éireann. He was the Mayor of Kilkenny from 1919-1925 and was elected to the Seanad in 1922. He lost his seat at the 1925 election. He was subsequently elected to Dáil Éireann in 1927 for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency. He died in 1931.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Douglas, James G.
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Brighton Square, Dublin, Douglas was the eldest of eight children of John Douglas and his wife Emily. He was educated at a local Quaker school and then boarded at Friends School in Lisburn. From 1902 he worked at his father’s drapers in Dublin, which he later ran for 30 years. He became fascinated by politics, was influenced by Arthur Griffith and joined the Dublin Liberal Association. After the 1916 Rising he promoted full Dominion status for Ireland. In 1921 set up the Irish White Cross. At the request of Michael Collins, Douglas served on the committee that drew up the Free State constitution. He was elected as an independent to the First Seanad in 1922, served until 1936 and was vice-chairman from 1922-25.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Dowdall, James Charles
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in Kent, James Dowdall was educated at Presentation College in Cork. Upon finishing school, he and his brother, Thomas, studied butter manufacture in Denmark and then joined their uncle’s creamery business. In 1905, James, Thomas and their cousin JB O’Mahoney formed Dowdall, O’Mahoney & Co, a Cork creamery and manufacturing business with branches in Manchester, London and Cardiff. He was a founder and president of the Cork Industrial Development Association and was a director of the Munster and Leinster Bank, the Irish Press Company and other businesses. He supported the Treaty and accepted a nomination to the First Seanad in 1922. He joined Fianna Fáil in 1927 and was re-elected to the Seanad in 1934, serving until its abolition in 1936.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Duffy, Michael
Labour | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, Duffy was a roads foreman and trade union official. He was a member of Meath County Council and served as the president of the Irish Trades Union Congress in 1934. A Labour Party member, he was their representative at the International Labour Conference at Geneva in 1933. He was elected to the Seanad for a term of 9 years at the 1922 election and was re-elected at the 1931 election. He served until 1936, when the Seanad was abolished.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Esmonde, Sir Thomas Henry Grattan
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
A landowner and politician, Esmonde was born in France, the eldest of seven children. After attending Oscott College in Birmingham, Esmonde, a staunch nationalist, became an MP for Dublin County South in 1885; the seat had been expected to be won by a unionist candidate. A big-game hunter, Esmonde contributed several specimens to the Natural History Museum in Dublin. A Roman Catholic, Esmonde was appointed chamberlain of the Vatican household and held this position under four popes. Esmonde's interest in Sinn Féin was signalled by his role as co-founder and financial backer of the Enniscorthy Echo, the first local paper to unequivocally endorse Sinn Féin. Esmonde's principal contribution to the Sinn Féin movement was the fundraising device of selling postage stamps which Sinn Féin supporters bought and attached to their letters in addition to those required by law. In December 1922 he was nominated to the first Seanad and remained a member until 1934 (though his attendance was infrequent because of ill health).
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Everard, Sir Nugent
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born and educated in England, Everard was the eldest son of a British Army officer. He inherited the family's Irish estate in Randlestown, Co. Meath in 1863 and moved there around 1870 whereupon he took a keen interest in agriculture and farming. An early foray into politics saw him stand as a unionist candidate in the 1892 general election but he was defeated. He was a strong supporter of the co-operative movement, becoming president of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) in 1905. In recognition of his involvement in public life he was created a baronet in 1911. He took part in the Irish Convention of 1917/18 and in the peace negotiations in 1920. In 1921 his efforts for the benefit of the public cause were recognised again when he was appointed by the lord lieutenant as a member of the newly-created senate of Southern Ireland. In December 1922 he was nominated to the first Seanad by WT Cosgrave and re-elected at a by-election in April 1929. He died 3 months later in July 1929.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Eyre, Edmund W
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in Galway, the son of a solicitor, Eyre moved to Dublin and took up a clerical position in Dublin Corporation at the age of 17. In 1893 he was appointed City Treasurer, a role he ably performed for 28 years. Considered one of the 'ablest public officials in Ireland' he retired from the role in 1921 after 46 years' service and was subsequently nominated to the Seanad by the President of the Executive Council in 1922 for 6 years. Ill health prevented him from taking an active role in Seanad debates and he did not seek re-election in 1928. He died at his home in Dublin in 1929.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Farren, Thomas
Labour | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in 1879, the son of a stone mason, Farren followed his father into the trade. He developed an interest in trade unionism as a young man and joined the Stonecutters Union of Ireland. By 1912 he was appointed its general secretary and a member of Dublin Corporation. He played a prominent role in administering the strike fund of the 1913 Lockout and, in 1915, he became the first Irish Labour Party parliamentary candidate in the by-election that year. He adopted a strong line on women's right to vote, stressed Labour's stance on neutrality, and maintained his objections to any partition of Ireland. He was defeated. He was elected to the first Seanad in 1922 by Dáil members and retained his seat until its abolition in 1936. An active speaker in the House, he campaigned for better living conditions and social welfare for the Dublin working class.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Fitzgerald, Martin
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in Mayo in 1865, Fitzgerald moved to Dublin at an early age and made a considerable fortune as a merchant. He became the last owner of The Freeman’s Journal, the newspaper founded in 1763 that was an ally to the Irish party at Westminster. In his attempts to revive an ailing nationalist-sympathising newspaper, Fitzgerald lost a huge sum of his fortune. The difficulties he encountered were extraordinary: it was suppressed by the British military authorities for seven weeks and Fitzgerald was imprisoned in Mountjoy jail for a month in 1920 after publishing a story about army brutality. He played a significant role in the process leading to the 1921 Treaty. Once the government decided to explore settlement possibilities, Fitzgerald was able to use his standing as a newspaper proprietor to act as an intermediary between Sinn Féin and Dublin Castle. He was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922 and served until his death in 1927.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Foran, Thomas
Labour | Elected in a by-election on 28 November 1923 replacing Thomas MacPartlin
Born in 1883 in Dublin, Foran began working at a young age on Dublin's quays. He took an immediate interest in trade unions and when Jim Larkin arrived in Dublin to set up an Irish union for dock workers, Foran fully supported him. He became the first general president of the ITGWU in 1909, a position he held until his retirement in 1939. He was prominent in the 1913 lockout and was arrested and imprisoned with other union leaders. He was first elected to the Seanad at a by-election in November 1923 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas MacPartlin. He was re-elected for a 12-year term in 1925 and served until the Seanad was abolished in 1936. At the 1938 and 1943 elections, he was elected on the Labour Panel. In 1944 he was nominated by the Taoiseach. He did not contest the 1948 Seanad election. He died in March 1951 and on the day of his funeral, dock workers lined the route to the church in recognition of his work.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Forbes, Bernard (Earl of Granard)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Forbes, the 8th Earl of Granard, held many prominent administrative and military roles. He was appointed a Lord-in-waiting to Edward VII, Government Whip in the House of Lords and Assistant Postmaster-General. In 1907 he was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed Master of the Horse and the following year was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the Post Office Rifles. He later served as Vice-Admiral of Connaught, Lord Lieutenant of Longford and was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick. In 1922 he was nominated to the senate of the new Irish Free State by the President of the Executive Council until 1932.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Gogarty, Oliver St John
Cumann na nGaedheal | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in Dublin in 1878, Gogarty studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin. While there he won the vice-chancellor's prize for English poetry in 1902, 1903 and 1905. Less publicly, he found relief from the stresses of medicine in composing humorous verses, many of which circulated orally for decades. From 1907–8 he undertook further study in Vienna to qualify as an ENT surgeon. He worked in private practice in Ely Place and, from 1912, as a surgeon in the Meath Hospital. He continued his literary pursuits alongside his professional activities, writing several satirical plays for the Abbey Theatre between 1917-19. He was nominated to the first Seanad by WT Cosgrave and remained a Senator until 1936. He spoke frequently in the Chamber, a fierce supporter of the Cosgrave government. He campaigned repeatedly for slum clearance and improved preventive medicine. Over the years he became increasingly dissatisfied with de Valera's Ireland and in 1939 he settled permanently in the USA.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Goodbody, James Perry
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in 1877 in Co. Offaly to a prominent Quaker family with extensive milling businesses in Mountmellick, Clara, Tullamore and Limerick, 'Jim' Goodbody managed the Limerick milling operations. His father, also James Perry Goodbody, was president of the Irish Flour Millers Association in 1904 and a director of the Great Southern and Western Railway Company. Goodbody was one of three Quakers nominated to the Seanad in 1922 by WT Cosgrave. He served a 6-year term. He died in 1952.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Green, Alice Stopford
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Kells, Co Meath, the seventh of nine children, Alice Stopford was mostly educated at home. After moving to England in 1874 she married John Richard Green, a pioneer of social history, in 1877 and they collaborated on work until his death in 1883. A prolific historian and writer, she became a staunch Irish nationalist, moving to Dublin in 1918. Her home on St Stephen’s Green was a meeting place for leading nationalists during the War of Independence and was frequently raided by Crown forces. She supported the Treaty, joined Cumann na Saoirse and became a member of the First Seanad in 1922. As a senator, she argued for the retention of divorce and was a member of Seanad committees on Irish manuscripts and on the Garda Síochána bill. She died in 1929.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Greer, Henry
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
From a military family in Moy, Co Tyrone, Greer was educated at Wellington and the Royal Military College. During army service in India, he developed an interest in horses and when not horseracing, he played polo. In 1888 he set up a stud farm, Brownstown in Co Kildare, which he later sold to the Aga Khan. Following a successful career as a horse breeder, Greer was director of the National Stud from 1915 to 1933. Greer was nominated as an Independent to the First Seanad in 1922 and served until 1928. He was knighted in 1925 for services to bloodstock breeding and died in 1934.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Griffith, Sir John Purser
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
A civil engineer, Griffith was born in Holyhead in 1848, the son of a minister in the Moravian church. Griffith’s mother, Alice, came from a leading Welsh Moravian family and Griffith himself became a brother advocate in the Moravian church. After school in England, he studied civil engineering in Trinity College Dublin. He married his father’s lifelong friend’s daughter, Anna Benigna Purser, and the couple inherited Rathmines Castle from Anna’s brother. Griffith was appointed engineer-in-chief on the Dublin Port and Docks Board in 1899. He was knighted in 1911 primarily for his work as the Irish representative on a Royal Commission reporting on the state of the canals of the UK. He retired early in 1912 and set up an engineering consultancy firm with his two sons. He was an ardent advocate for the development of the country's water-power and peat resources for power. Known as ‘the grand old man of Irish engineering’ he became a member of Seanad Éireann in 1922 and served until 1936, He died in 1938. A portrait by his niece, Sarah Purser, RHA, hangs in the Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Guinness, Henry
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
A sheriff and director of Arthur Guinness and Bank of Ireland, Guinness was the eldest of twelve siblings. Although not a politician by profession, and despite his natural unionist leanings, he accepted the inevitability of Irish independence. He believed the Irish Free State needed the support of the business community to avoid chaos and anarchy. His views of the new state and his prominent role within the unionist-dominated business and banking establishment led to his appointment to the Seanad in 1922. After Michael Collins requested support from Bank of Ireland, Guinness supported the financing of the new Irish government as it attempted to maintain law and order - essential to the bank’s interests. Guinness married Marry Middleton Bainbridge. They had four daughters and lived in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin before he died in England in 1945.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Haughton, Benjamin
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born into a Quaker family in Cork in 1855, Haughton was an active local businessman and became chairman of the Cork Timber & Iron company. During the Irish War of Independence he was one of several liberal Southern unionists who sought conciliation with Sinn Féin in the lead-up to the 1921 truce. In 1922, he was nominated to the Seanad by the President of the Executive Council for a 6-year term.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Howard, Ralph (Earl of Wicklow)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born and educated in England, Ralph Francis Howard was the son of Cecil Howard, 6th Earl of Wicklow. He succeeded his father as Earl of Wicklow in 1891. He was admitted to Sandhurst Military College c. 1896 and saw service in South Africa during the Boer War. The family seat was in Shelton Abbey, Arklow. He was nominated to the Seanad by WT Cosgrave and served for six years until his defeat at the 1928 Seanad election. He died in 1946.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Hyde, Douglas
Independent | Elected in a by-election on 4 February 1925 replacing Sir Hutcheson Poë
The son of a Church of Ireland rector, Douglas Hyde learned Irish by speaking to country people in Roscommon where he grew up. Hyde was a Gaelic scholar who founded the Gaelic League and became the first professor of Irish at UCD. He published original poetry in Irish under his pen name ‘An Craoibhín Aoibhinn’ (‘the pleasant little branch’). Hyde was coopted to the Seanad in 1925, three years after sittings commenced, but was defeated in the nationwide Seanad election later that year, partly because of a smear campaign against Protestant Senators who had voted for a procedural motion allowing a debate on divorce. In 1937 Hyde served briefly in the reconstituted Seanad but vacated his seat on becoming first President of Ireland under the 1937 constitution.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Irwin, Cornelius
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Galway, Irwin moved to Enniscorthy in the 1890s. He was a shipowner and newspaper executive, and was one of the founders of the Enniscorthy Echo. He was associated with the Gaelic League and Sinn Féin, and was interned in both Stafford Prison and Frongoch Internment Camp after the 1916 Rising. He was elected to the first Seanad from 1922 to 1925 but was defeated at the 1925 Seanad election.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Jackson, Arthur
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in Co. Armagh in 1853, Jackson moved to Co. Sligo following his marriage to the daughter of a local merchant family, the Pollexfens. He became a prominent businessman in his own right as the managing director of the Sligo Steam Navigation Company, a director of both the Sligo Gas Company and the Great Southern Railways Company, and as a member of Sligo Harbour Board. In 1922 he was nominated to the first Seanad by the President of the Executive Council for a 6-year term. He did not seek re-election in 1928.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Jameson, Andrew
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
A distiller, banker and politician, Jameson was born in Scotland. His father, Andrew Jameson senior, was a partner in the distillery of John Jameson & Son. After completing his education in Cambridge, Jameson moved to Dublin and during his business career became chairman and managing director of John Jameson & Son Ltd from 1905 to 1941. He was a director of Bank of Ireland from 1887 to 1941 and served as the governor of Bank of Ireland from 1896 to 1898.
An influential figure, Jameson founded the Irish Unionist Anti-Partition League and during the Anglo–Irish war worked to create a peace settlement. In June 1921, he met Éamon de Valera and helped to negotiate the terms of the truce with the British government. Jameson was consulted widely by both the provisional government and the British government and often acted as an intermediary between the two. He retired from public life when the Seanad was abolished in 1936. Married twice, Jameson died in Dublin in 1941.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Keane, Sir John
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born to a landowning family at Belmont, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford, Keane was educated at Clifton College in Bristol and the Royal Military Academy. He entered the army in 1893 and saw action in the Boer War of 1899-1902. He later became a barrister and studied accountancy. Keane served on Waterford county council and aligned with the All-for-Ireland League. He saw further military service in the First World War. He was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922 and served until 1934. His family seat was burnt in the Civil War during the campaign against Senators. Taoiseach Eamon De Valera nominated him to the reconstituted Seanad in 1938 and again in 1943. He was a formidable debater and also served as a director and governor of the Bank of Ireland.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Kenny, Patrick W.
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Waterford in 1863, Kenny was a Justice of the Peace for Co. Waterford and chairman of Waterford County Council for several years. First elected to the Seanad in 1922 for a term of 9 years, he served until his death in 1931.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Linehan, Thomas
Farmers' Party | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Whitechurch, Co. Cork, Linehan was a farmer and local politician before his election to the Seanad by Dáil members in 1922. He was the secretary of the Cork Land League, a member of Cork County Council and trustee of the Irish Farmers' Union. Although originally elected as a Farmers' Party representative, he was re-elected as an independent in later elections until 1936.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Love, Joseph Clayton
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Co. Cork in 1872, Love was a fishmonger and fruit merchant in Cobh. He was elected to the Seanad in 1922 for a term of 3 years but did not retain his seat at the 1925 election.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
MacEvoy, Edward
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Laois, MacEvoy was a wholesale merchant. He was elected to the first Seanad from 1922 to 1925 for Cumann na nGaedheal but was defeated at the 1925 Seanad election.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
MacKean, James J.
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan, MacKean was elected to the Seanad by Dáil members in 1922 for a term of 9 years. He represented Cumann na nGaedheal from 1928 onwards, though he made occasional gestures of independence. He was re-elected in 1931 and served until it was abolished in 1936. He was a brother of John McKean, MP for South Monaghan from 1902-1918.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
MacLoughlin, John
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Buncrana, Co. Donegal in the 1860s to a nationalist, middle-class business family, MacLoughlin was educated in St Columb's College, Derry and UCD. Elected at the 1922 Seanad election as an independent Senator, he represented Cumann na nGaedheal from 1931 until the Seanad was abolished in 1936. He was re-elected to the Seanad in 1938 on the Industrial and Commercial Panel as a Fine Gael member and served until he lost his seat in the 1943 election. His business interests included media publishing; he was a member of a consortium of businessmen who purchased The Sligo Champion and People's Press newspapers in 1932. He died in 1943.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
MacLysaght, Edward
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Edward (Ned) MacLysaght was born into a prominent steel-making family in Bristol in 1887. He moved to Co. Clare and took up farming on his father's estate after a brief spell at Oxford. The events of Easter week 1916, and their aftermath of executions and internment, radicalised MacLysaght's political convictions. He changed his name to MacLysaght to emphasise its Gaelic origin. Although openly sympathetic to Sinn Féin, MacLysaght took no part in the armed hostilities between 1919 and 1921. He backed the 1921 treaty and in 1922 was elected as an independent to the senate of the new Irish Free State by members of the Dáil. He served one term only as he was defeated in the 1925 election.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
MacPartlin, Thomas
Labour | Elected by Dáil Éireann | Died on 20 October 1923
Born in Sligo in 1879, MacPartlin grew up in Dublin and worked as a carpenter. An active trade union member he was elected to the parliamentary committee of the Irish Trade Union Congress in 1912 (reconstituted in 1914 as the national executive) and was re-elected annually for 10 years, generally with the highest vote. Throughout this decade MacPartlin was one of the most prominent and influential leaders of the Irish trade union movement. He was a signatory of the 1914 ITUC manifesto opposing inclusion of a partition option in the draft home rule bill and asserting workers' right to arm and fight for ‘economic freedom.’ Elected to the first Seanad in 1922 by Dáil members for a 9-year term, he died prematurely, aged 44, while on a visit to Geneva in October 1923.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Mahon, Sir Bryan
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born into a land-owning family from Belleville, Co Galway, Mahon was commissioned into the British Army in 1883. He served in Sudan, Egypt, South Africa and India, rising through the ranks. Knighted in 1902 and promoted to Major-General in 1906, he commanded the 10th (Irish) Division at Gallipoli in 1915. Following the Easter Rising, General Mahon served as Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in Ireland until 1918 and retired in 1921. He was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922 by President WT Cosgrave. He was elected to the 1928 Seanad and served until his death in 1930.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Mansfield, Eamonn
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann | Resigned on 12 December 1922
Born in Co. Tipperary, Mansfield was a primary teacher. He was president of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) from 1910–11 and later its first full-time general secretary. With Labour Party support, Mansfield was elected to the 1922 Seanad for a 3-year term. Five days later, following the shooting of two pro-Treaty TDs, he resigned from the Seanad "on account of Friday's reprisal" and stated that "peace is Ireland's only hope".
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Molloy, William
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Co. Mayo in 1884, Molloy was a farmer and businessman. As a young man he emigrated to America, where he became active in Friends of Ireland, before returning to Ireland around 1920. He was elected to the first Seanad in 1922 by members of the Dáil but lost his seat in 1931. He died in 1964.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Moore, Maurice George
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Soldier and politician, Moore was born in Co. Mayo in 1854 and was the second son of George Henry Moore, MP for Mayo and leader of the tenant rights movement in the 1860s. His elder brother was the novelist, George Moore. Maurice served as a lieutenant in the Connaught Rangers during the South African Kaffir and Zulu wars, rising to the rank of major by 1883. During the second Boer war he was appalled by the military treatment of Boer civilians and published anonymous articles in The Freeman's Journal and elsewhere condemning the use of concentration camps. He retired from the army in 1906. A supporter of the Gaelic League, he taught himself Irish and supported the introduction of Irish as a compulsory subject for the National University of Ireland. In 1921 he went to South Africa on behalf of Dáil Éireann to seek Jan Christiaan Smuts's support for Irish independence. He was a member of the Seanad from its establishment in 1922 until its abolition in 1936, and again from 1937 till his death in 1939.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Moran, James
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Moran was a prominent Dublin businessman, proprietor of the well-known Moran's Hotel on Gardiner St, and sometime chairman of the Dublin Port and Docks Board and the British & Irish Steamship Company. Born in Aughrim, Co. Wicklow in 1857, he was nominated to the Seanad in 1922 by WT Cosgrave for 12 years. He died in 1938.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Nesbitt, George
Independent | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Dublin around 1870/71, Nesbitt was educated in CBS Synge St and University College Dublin. He was a manager in Kernan & Co, a mineral waters manufacturer, for many years and a director of several Irish companies during his business career. He was one of the 50 people who attended the inaugural meeting of Sinn Féin, ultimately taking up roles as treasurer of the party and director of finance for the general election in 1918. He was one of several prominent Sinn Féin members who were arrested in May 1918 for his part in the 'German Plot'. In 1920 he was arrested again and interned at Ballykinlar, the first mass internment camp established by the British authorities to put down the war of independence. He was elected by Dáil members to the first Seanad in 1922 and served until 1925. He died in 1954, aged 80.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
O'Dea, Michael
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
A successful bedding and furniture manufacturer, O'Dea was an active member of the Council of Dublin Industrial Development Association and the Council of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the Railway and Canal Commission. O’Dea was elected to the Seanad in 1922 for a term of 3 years but he was not successful in retaining his seat in the 1925 election. He died in 1932.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
O'Farrell, J.T.
Labour | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Churchborough, Co. Roscommon in 1887, and educated in Rathmines School of Commerce, O'Farrell was a trade union official. He was a member of the Railway Clerks' Association and served as the president of the Irish Trades Union Congress in 1927. O'Farrell was elected to the First Seanad for a 3-year term. He was re-elected at the 1925 Seanad election until the Free State Seanad was abolished in 1936. He was elected to the reconstituted Seanad in 1948 on the Labour Panel.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
O'Neill, John
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected in a by-election on 5 March 1925 replacing George Sigerson
John O’Neill was living in Delgany, Co. Wicklow when he became a Senator. He founded the Lucania Cycle Company and was also involved in the motor trade and other businesses. O'Neill was chair of the First Dáil's Commission of Inquiry into the Resources and Industries of Ireland. He also and served on the Economic Relations Committee established in 1921 by the Dáil's Minister for Economic Affairs, Robert Barton, to advise on the economic aspects of the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. O’Neill was elected to the Seanad in a by-election in March 1925 but was defeated later that year in the December Seanad election. He stood for election to the Seanad once more in the 1927 by-election but was unsuccessful. O’Neill was active on several industry and commerce committees.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
O'Rourke, Brian (Bernard)
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Inniskeen and educated in the local national school, O'Rourke went into his father’s milling business. O'Rourke went on to buy Belleek Potteries and co-founded Arklow potteries. He was elected to Carrickmacross District Council in 1899, and was later elected to the County Council and made a justice of the peace in 1906. For endorsing the 1916 Rising, O'Rourke was dismissed as a justice of the peace. He was imprisoned in 1916 and again in 1920. O'Rourke was a Memberof the Seanad from 1922 until it was abolished in 1936. He was then elected to the new Seanad in 1937 on the Industrial and Commercial Panel.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
O'Sullivan, William
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
Born in Kerry in 1873, William (Bill) O’Sullivan was educated at St. Brendan’s College, Killarney, Queens College, Cork and Surgeons Hall, Edinburgh. A practising GP, he was the Medical Officer for Kerry for 60 years and a county coroner for East Kerry. Strongly pro-Treaty, he was first elected by members of the Dáil to the Seanad in 1922 for 9 years and was re-elected in 1931 for 6 years. He served until the abolition of the Seanad in 1936. He died in 1953.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Parkinson, James
Cumann na nGaedheal | Elected by Dáil Éireann
From Tramore in Co. Waterford, Parkinson trained in London as a veterinary surgeon, qualifying with first class honours. He returned to Ireland and took an apprenticeship with a leading horse trainer at the Curragh in Kildare. He later established himself as a trainer at Maddenstown Lodge and went on to become the most successful trainer and owner of his era. His record of wins (as lead trainer) for 21 years remains unbeaten. He also became the foremost breeder and exporter of horses in Ireland. Parkinson was elected to the first Seanad and served until it was dissolved into 1936. He was subsequently elected to the Seanad established by the 1937 Constitution and served until he retired due to ill health in 1947, the year before his death.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Petty-Fitzmaurice, Henry (Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl of Kerry)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in 1872, Petty-Fitzmaurice was the 6th Marquess of Lansdowne and Earl of Kerry. The family's Irish estate, Luggacurran, was in Co. Laois and comprised more than 122,000 acres. He was commissioned into the British Army rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel by the end of the First World War. He was nominated by the President to the first Seanad in 1922 and continued to hold a seat until 1931. He also sat in the British House of Lords from 1927, when he succeeded his father as Marquess of Lansdowne.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Plunkett, Sir Horace
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach) | Resigned on 28 November 1923
Knighted in 1903 and celebrated internationally for his work in rural reform, Plunkett was a son of the 16th Baron Dunsany. Born in Gloucestershire, Plunkett was educated at Eton and Oxford where he read history. He opened a cooperative store for his father’s tenants in Ireland in 1878 and established his first cooperative creamery at Ballyhahill, Co. Limerick, in 1891. Elected as a unionist MP for Dublin South, he became the president of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society in 1894. He worked with unionists and nationalists to demand the Irish government establish a department focused on agricultural interests, ultimately becoming the first vice–president of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland in 1899. Although he exited politics in the 1900s, Plunkett accepted a nomination for the Seanad in 1922. After his Dublin home was bombed in 1923 he returned to England where he died in 1932.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Poë, Sir Hutcheson
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach) | Resigned on 9 December 1924
Born in Co. Down, Poë joined the Royal Marines in 1867 and saw active service in the Sudan and Egypt. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and received the Companion of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his military services before retiring in 1888. In 1891 he became High Sheriff for Queen's County, and in 1893 for County Tyrone. He was a member of the Land Conference in 1902 and in 1904 was appointed a Governor of the National Gallery. He was created a baronet in 1912. He was the Lord Lieutenant of Queen's County from 1920 to 1922 and, although a Unionist, he accepted nomination to the Seanad by the President of the Executive Council in 1922 for 12 years. He resigned in December 1924 on health grounds. He died in Sussex in 1934.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Power, Jennie Wyse
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born into a nationalist family in Wicklow, Jane (Jennie) O’Toole became politically active when she joined the Ladies’ Land League in 1881. Two years later she married fellow Parnellite and journalist, John Wyse Power. As well as raising a family, she also ran a small business, the Irish Farm Produce Company, on Dublin’s Henry St. She was a member of the Dublin Women’s Suffrage Association and Inghinidhe na hÉireann. She served on the executive of Sinn Féin and was a founder of Cumann na mBan. During the 1916 Rising she supplied meals to the rebels in the GPO. She supported the Treaty and was appointed to the executive of Cumann na nGaedheal. Nominated to the Seanad in 1922, she resigned from Cumann na nGaedheal in 1925 and continued as an Independent in the House. She was re-elected to the Seanad in 1934 for Fianna Fáil. She retired in 1936 and died in Dublin in 1941.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Sigerson, George
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach) | Died on 17 February 1925
Born in Strabane, Co Tyrone, in 1836 Sigerson was educated at Letterkenny Academy and St Joseph's College, Montrouge, France. He excelled at many subjects in school and went on to study medicine in Galway, Cork and Dublin where he also learned Irish and developed a lifelong interest in poetry and literature. Sigerson lectured in botany and was professor of biology at UCD. He was also president of the National Literary Society. He was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922 and briefly served as the first chairman before the election of Lord Glenavy. Following his death in February 1925, the Seanad paid tribute to him. The GAA’s college’s football trophy, the Sigerson Cup, is named in his honour.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Taylour, Geoffrey (Marquess of Headfort)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born Geoffrey Thomas Taylour in 1878, the only son of the 3rd Marquess of Headfort by his second marriage. He was predeceased by his elder half-brother, Thomas, and succeeded the marquessate in 1894. The family seats were Virgina Park, Co. Cavan and Headfort House in Co. Meath. As well as a career in the British Army, he was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Co. Meath. In 1922 he was nominated to the Seanad for a six-year term, but never spoke in the Chamber. He was an avid horticulturalist and was appointed a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1929 and a Fellow of the Zoological Society in 1937. He died in 1943.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Wyndham-Quin, Windham (Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl)
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born at Adare, Co. Limerick, son of the 3rd Earl of Dunraven, Wyndham-Quin was educated by tutor in Rome and Paris before attending university at Oxford. Following a short spell in the army, he became a war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and covered the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the year he inherited his father’s titles and lands. Dunraven was a keen hunter and explorer who chronicled his travels in America and Canada. In Ireland, he encouraged local industries, sought to improve Irish fisheries, ran a racehorse stud at Adare, and founded Adare Manor golf club. He believed negotiation could solve the Irish question through devolution within the Empire. He seconded ratification of the Anglo–Irish Treaty in the House of Lords and was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922, though he was inactive due to age and ill health. He died in London in 1926.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more
Yeats, W. B.
Independent | Nominated by the President of the Executive Council (Taoiseach)
Born in Sandymount, Dublin, one of six children of the painter and critic John Butler Yeats and his wife Susan, William was educated in London and Dublin. He began writing poetry and drama in 1884 and his first published works served notice of a remarkable literary talent. Yeats spent his time between London, Dublin and Sligo, and became influenced by Irish nationalism which was reflected in his poetry and drama. He was nominated to the First Seanad in 1922 for a six-year term and contributed to debates on social and cultural matters; his 1925 speech on divorce was a robust defence of personal liberty that generated considerable controversy. The first Irish writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, he died in France in 1938 and his body was later returned for burial at Drumcliffe, Sligo. His son Michael also served as a Senator from 1961-1980.
See the Senator's Oireachtas membership history
Visit the Dictionary of Irish Biography to learn more | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 70 | http://theaudioannex.com/forum/threads/what-are-you-listening-to.23/page-126 | en | What Are You Listening To? | http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c331/Dennieaa/WillieNelsonTwoMenWithTheBlues.jpg | [
"http://theaudioannex.com/forum/styles/default/xenforo/theaudioannex6.gif",
"http://theaudioannex.com/forum/styles/default/xenforo/theaudioannex6.gif",
"http://theaudioannex.com/forum/styles/default/xenforo/add_to_home.gif",
"http://theaudioannex.com/forum/data/avatars/m/0/76.jpg?1466979250",
"http://i30.ph... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Rope",
"Dennie Well-Known Member"
] | 2010-08-25T00:23:06+00:00 | Well, it seems like forever, but I am finally back up and running!
Or should I say Turning...... :happy-cheerleaderkid:
The Fall -- LP
Norah... | en | The Audio Annex | http://theaudioannex.com/forum/threads/what-are-you-listening-to.23/page-126 | Well, it seems like forever, but I am finally back up and running!
Or should I say Turning...... :happy-cheerleaderkid:
The Fall -- LP
Norah Jones
2009 Blue Note Records
Product Description
Vinyl LP pressing. 2009 release from the best-selling singer/songwriter. Norah has taken a new direction on the The Fall, experimenting with different sounds and a new set of collaborators, including Jacquire King, a noted producer and engineer who has worked with Kings of Leon, Tom Waits and Modest Mouse. Jones enlisted several songwriting collaborators, including Ryan Adams and Okkervil River's Will Sheff, as well as her frequent partners Jesse Harris and Richard Julian. Musicians include drummers Joey Waronker and James Gadson, keyboardist James Poyser and guitarists Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel. The first single lifted from the album is 'Chasing Pirates'.
1. "Chasing Pirates" Norah Jones 2:40
2. "Even Though" Jones, Jesse Harris 3:52
3. "Light As a Feather" Jones, Ryan Adams 3:52
4. "Young Blood" Jones, Mike Martin[disambiguation needed] 3:38
5. "I Wouldn't Need You" Jones 3:30
6. "Waiting" Jones 3:31
7. "It's Gonna Be" Jones 3:11
8. "You've Ruined Me" Jones 2:45
9. "Back to Manhattan" Jones 4:09
10. "Stuck" Jones, Will Sheff 5:15
11. "December" Jones 3:05
12. "Tell Yer Mama" Jones, Harris, Richard Julian 3:25
13. "Man of the Hour" Jones 2:56
Abandoned Luncheonette -- LP
Daryl Hall & John Oates
1973 Atlantic Records
1973 was an amazing year for Hall & Oates as they ushered their superstardom further with the incredible masterpiece Abandoned Luncheonette. Produced by the great Arif Mardin, this nine song album fused with classic Philly soul, rock and acoustic pop anthems delivered in a big way for the history making duo. Including the huge hit single She's Gone, as well as the celebrated title track, Abandoned Lunchonette was a watershed album which has rewarded them with non-stop success for the past 4 decades. Comes with LTD.ED.GATEFOLD Album cover & 5 Star Mastering from the original Atlantic Tapes!
1. "When The Morning Comes" (Daryl Hall) - 3:12
2. "Had I Known You Better Then" (John Oates) - 3:22
3. "Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)" (Oates) - 2:57
4. "She's Gone" (Hall, Oates) - 5:15
5. "I'm Just A Kid (Don't Make Me Feel Like A Man)" (Oates) - 3:20
6. "Abandoned Luncheonette" (Hall) - 3:55
7. "Lady Rain" (Hall, Oates) - 4:26
8. "Laughing Boy" (Hall) - 3:20
9. "Everytime I Look At You" (Hall) - 7:04
Little Feat -- LP
Little Feat
1971 Warner Bros. Records
Little Feat was the eponymous debut by the American rock band Little Feat, released in January 1971. Cobbled together from a variety of recording sessions mostly between August and September 1970, its sound can be best described as the antithesis to any of the group's classic recordings (such as 1973's Dixie Chicken and 1978's Waiting For Columbus). Featuring the Mk. 1 line-up of the group, with Roy Estrada on bass, it was the first of eight albums by the group before their initial 1979 break-up.
The blues that accented the group's later recordings were in full force on Little Feat. Utilizing slide guitar legend Ry Cooder, the group knocked off a medley of two Howlin' Wolf songs, "Forty Four Blues" and "How Many More Years." The coming together of bizarre lyrics and superb instrumentation that dominated all Little Feat albums through Lowell George's tenure as leader were debuted with the dark "Hamburger Midnight." The brilliant slices of American life that were present on each album were debuted with "Strawberry Flats" and "Willin'" (the latter destined for a reworking on Sailin' Shoes). The tender side of the group was exemplified with tracks like "Truck Stop Girl" and "I've Been The One."
The cover shows a mural in Venice, California, painted by the L. A. Fine Arts Squad in 1970 - "Venice in the Snow".
"Snakes on Everything" (Payne) – 3:04
"Strawberry Flats" (Payne, George) – 2:20
"Truck Stop Girl" (Payne, George) – 2:32
"Brides of Jesus" (Payne, George) – 3:20
"Willin'" (George) – 2:24
"Hamburger Midnight" (George, Estrada) – 2:30
"Forty-Four Blues / How Many More Years" (Roosevelt Sykes, Chester Burnett) – 6:25
"Crack in Your Door" (George) – 2:16
"I've Been the One" (George) – 2:20
"Takin' My Time" (Payne) – 3:45
"Crazy Captain Gunboat Willie" (Payne, George) – 1:55
Someone told me that there are Pigs on the cover, but I don't see them.... :romance-inlove:
Silk Purse :text-bravo: :text-bravo:
Linda Ronstadt
1970 Capitol Records
The album featured songs in a more traditional country setting. Ronstadt later remarked that Nashville Country is very different than California Country. This album was also different in style and sound from Ronstadt's previous Folk Rock work with the Stone Poneys. Silk Purse includes interpretations of Hank Williams' rendition of "Lovesick Blues" and Mel Tillis' "Mental Revenge" and a version of the bluegrass traditional song "Life Is Like A Mountain Railway." Ronstadt also included a strange remake of the Gerry Goffin and Carole King "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" that had been recorded by The Shirelles in 1962, and a harmony duet with Gary White on the Paul Siebel ballad "Louise," later covered by Bonnie Raitt. Included as well was a recording of a song White himself wrote, and Linda had to persuade her record company to get the ballad "Long, Long Time" on the album, which in due course, proved to be Linda Ronstadt's first chart single. After its recording, Capitol Records executives attempted to dissuade Ronstadt's from picking songs, like Long Long Time, which they considered too Country, even though Ronstadt had been attracted to ballads such as this and Heart Like A Wheel, which she later recorded.
"Lovesick Blues" (Cliff Friend, Irving Mills) – 2:00
"Are My Thoughts With You?" (Mickey Newbury) – 2:47
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) – 2:27
"Nobody's" (Gary White) – 2:56
"Louise" (Paul Siebel) – 3:22
"Long, Long Time" (Gary White) – 4:18
"Mental Revenge" (Mel Tillis) – 2:40
"I'm Leaving It All Up to You" (Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Dewey Terry) – 2:21
"He Darked the Sun" (Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon) – 2:40
"Life Is Like a Mountain Railway" (Traditional) – 3:23
My favorite "Barbra" album cover...... (and a really good album!)
Superman
Barbra Streisand
1977 Columbia Records
While SUPERMAN will not go down as Babs' greatest release, it is a straight-ahead delivery of material done the Streisand way, with little deviation from her signature style. It is, in a word, consistent, which still puts it above many of her contemporaries. The record contains ballads, mid-tempo tunes and rockers, with first-rate production all around. "Superman" is a ready-for-airplay lead-off track, with a big arrangement. "Don't Believe What You Read" is a faster song with a country twang, showing that Barbra can explore other territories.
"Baby Me Baby" is a slow, bluesy number with those golden vocal chords expressing heartfelt emotion. "My Heart Belongs To Me" was a number four smash and one of Barbra's greatest singles. "Love Comes From Unexpected Places" is a beautiful acoustic track. She even adds a jazz touch to Billy Joel's "New York State Of Mind." SUPERMAN will leave Streisand fans satisfied and make neophytes aware of her enormous talent.
"Superman" (Richie Snyder) - 2:47
"Don't Believe What You Read (Barbra Streisand, Ron Nagle, Scott Mathews) - 3:37
"Baby Me Baby (Roger Miller) - 4:26
"I Found You Love (Alan Gordon) - 3:50
"Answer Me" (Streisand, Paul Williams, Kenny Ascher) - 3:16
"My Heart Belongs to Me" (Alan Gordon) - 3:21
"Cabin Fever" (Ron Nagle) - 3:14
"Love Comes from Unexpected Places" (Kim Carnes, Dave Ellingson) - 4:10
"New York State of Mind" (Billy Joel) - 4:44
Here's a favorite....
Red Headed Stranger
Willie Nelson
1975 Columbia Records
Red Headed Stranger is a 1975 album by American outlaw country singer Willie Nelson. A concept album, Red Headed Stranger is about a fugitive on the run from the law after killing his wife. Sparse and jumbled, with brief, poetic lyrics, no one involved in the creation of the album thought it would sell well. In spite of its inaccessibility, Red Headed Stranger was a blockbuster among both country music and mainstream audiences, going multi-platinum and making Nelson one of the biggest stars in country. The album's title would become a lasting nickname for Nelson. The album was ranked #184 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[1] It was ranked #1 on CMT's 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music in 2006. In 2010, the album was preserved into the National Recording Registry because the album was "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or informs or reflects life in the United States."
"Time of the Preacher" (Willie Nelson) – 2:26
"I Couldn't Believe It Was True" (Eddy Arnold, Wally Fowler) – 1:32
"Time of the Preacher Theme" (Nelson) – 1:13
"Medley: Blue Rock Montana/Red Headed Stranger" (Nelson, Carl Stutz, Edith Lindeman) – 1:36
"Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" (Fred Rose) – 2:21
"Red Headed Stranger" (Carl Stutz, Edith Lindeman) – 4:00
"Time of the Preacher Theme" (Nelson) – 0:26
"Just as I Am" (Nelson) – 1:46
"Denver" (Nelson) – 0:53
"O'er the Waves" (Juventino Rosas, arranged Nelson) – 0:47
"Down Yonder" (L. Wolfe Gilbert) – 1:56
"Can I Sleep in Your Arms" (Hank Cochran) – 5:24
"Remember Me" (Scotty Wiseman) – 2:52
"Hands on the Wheel" (Bill Callery) – 4:22
"Bandera" (Nelson) – 2:19
8277
Green House
Leo Kottke
1972 Capitol Records
Amazon.com essential recording
Fingerstyle guitar legend Leo Kottke has released his share of duds over the years (virtually all of his albums with the exception of his seminal 6 & 12 String Guitar have a few throwaway tracks), but this disc is one of his most consistent efforts. Originally released in 1972, it features Kottke's trademark blend of playing--an infectious mix of New Age (still not invented at the time of this recording) and bluegrass sounds--as well as a few surprises. "Bean Time" has classic Kottke wizardry; it's a tune many proficient guitarists are still trying to figure out. "In Christ There Is No East or West" features Kottke on the 12-string, paying homage to his mentor, John Fahey. Sure, many of us could do without Kottke warbling through "Tiny Island" or "From the Cradle to the Grave," but this is still a great recording, loaded with some of the greatest playing to ever happen on acoustic guitar. --Jason Verlinde --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.
Side one
"Bean Time" – 2:32
"Tiny Island" (Al Gaylor) – 3:46
"The Song of the Swamp" – 3:00
"In Christ There is No East or West" (Traditional) – 2:12
"Last Steam Engine Train" (Sam McGee, John Fahey) – 3:00
Side two
"From the Cradle to the Grave" (Leo Kottke, Ron Nagle) – 3:23
"Louise" (Paul Siebel) – 4:02
"The Spanish Entomologist" (Traditional) – 2:24
"Owls" – 5:00
"You Don't Have to Need Me" – 4:37
"Lost John" (Traditional) – 2:15
My last one for the evening....
Two Men With The Blues -- 2 LP Set
Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis
2008 Blue Note Records
Two Men with the Blues is no more a jazz album than a blues album. It's neither jazz returning home, nor blues wandering out. What Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis have created is a compilation of jump-blues standards with arrangements that compliment both genres. While most of the album is careful not to take itself too seriously, there are a few tracks that seem to plod on for ages. The live set kicks off with the upbeat "Bright Lights, Big City," on which Marsalis' horn is crisp and full. "Ain't Nobody's Business" and "Basin Street Blues" are arranged slower than better known versions but still fit the album's context. Nelson and Marsalis's take on "Stardust" comes off as a bit too "Sinatra" for Nelson's thin vocal, while "Georgia on My Mind" just doesn't work at all. Still, the things that work, work well. "Night Life" and "Rainy Day Blues" are particular stand-outs, and "Caldonia" is a faithful homage to the Louis Jordan original--minus Jordan's screaming punch line, of course. The album ends riding high on the last song, "That's All," with its straight-out-of-a-New-Orleans-Baptist-church feel. Both Nelson and Marsalis are notorious for collaborating with other artists. Therefore, it seems only natural that they've found themselves on a project together. Overall, this set is well worth the wait. --Eric C.P. Martin
1. "Bright Lights Big City" – 5:20
2. "Night Life" – 5:44
3. "Caldonia" – 3:25
4. "Stardust" – 5:08
5. "Basin Street Blues" – 4:56
6. "Georgia On My Mind" – 4:40
7. "Rainy Day Blues" – 5:43
8. "My Bucket's Got a Hole In It" (Williams) – 4:56
9. "Ain't Nobody's Business" – 7:27
10. "That's All" (Merle Travis) – 6:08
* Willie Nelson – vocals and guitar
* Wynton Marsalis – trumpet and vocals
* Mickey Raphael – harmonica
* Walter Blanding – saxophone
* Dan Nimmer – piano
* Carlos Henriquez – bass
* Ali Jackson – drums
Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Chicago
Cannonball Adderley Quintet
1959 Mercury Records
Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago (also released as Cannonball & Coltrane) is an album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, his final release on the Mercury label, featuring performances by Adderley with John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb.[1] The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars and states "Altoist Cannonball Adderley and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane really push each other on these six selections... Coltrane's very serious sound is a striking contrast to the jubilant Adderley alto... With pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb playing up to their usual level, this gem is highly recommended".This band would record the classic album Kind of Blue (1959) with Miles Davis one month following this session.
All compositions by Julian "Cannonball" Adderley except as indicated
"Limehouse Blues" (Philip Braham, Douglas Furber) - 4:39
"Stars Fell on Alabama" (Mitchell Parish, Frank Perkins) - 6:15
"Wabash" - 5:44
"Grand Central" (John Coltrane) - 4:33
"You're a Weaver of Dreams" (Jack Elliott, Victor Young) - 5:31
"The Sleeper" (Coltrane) - 7:15
Recorded at Universal Recorders Studio B, Chicago, IL on February 3, 1959
Cannonball Adderley - alto saxophone
John Coltrane - tenor saxophone
Wynton Kelly - piano
Paul Chambers - bass
Jimmy Cobb - drums
Porgy and Bess
Lena Horne / Harry Belafonte
1959 RCA Records
Porgy and Bess is an album by Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne, released by RCA Victor in 1959. It includes songs from George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. Belafonte and Horne sing two songs together: "There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon for New York" and "Bess, You is My Woman."
All music composed by George Gershwin, lyricists indicated.
"A Woman is a Sometime Thing" (DuBose Heyward) – 2:40
"Summertime" (Heyward) – 3:11
"Oh I Got Plenty of Nothing" (Ira Gershwin, Heyward) – 3:00
"I Wants You to Stay Here" (I. Gershwin, Heyward) – 3:30
"Bess, You is My Woman" (I. Gershwin, Heyward) – 5:57
"It Ain't Necessarily So" (I. Gershwin) – 3:03
"Street Calls:" (Heyward) – 4:17
"Strawberry Woman"
"The Honey Man"
"Crab Man"
"My Man's Done Gone" – 4:05
"Bess, Oh Where's My Bess" (I. Gershwin) – 3:36
"There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon for New York" – 2:37
What am I listening too...?
Well, I'm glad you asked.......
Roses In The Snow
Emmylou Harris
1980 Warner Bros. Records
Roses in the Snow was a 1980 album by Emmylou Harris. While Harris' previous release, 1979's Blue Kentucky Girl featured traditional, straight-ahead country (as opposed to the country-rock of her prior efforts), Roses in the Snow found Harris performing Bluegrass-inspired music, with material by Flatt and Scruggs, Paul Simon, The Carter Family, and Johnny Cash. Cash, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice made guest appearances. "Wayfaring Stranger" was released as the first single in 1980 and went to #7 on the Billboard Country charts. The second single, a remake of a Simon & Garfunkel song, "The Boxer" reached #13. Backing musicians included Albert Lee and Jerry Douglas.
1. "Roses in the Snow" (Ruth Franks) – 2:32
2. "Wayfaring Stranger" (Traditional/arr. Brian Ahern) – 3:26
3. "Green Pastures" (Traditional/arr. Brian Ahern) – 3:08
4. "The Boxer" (Paul Simon) – 3:16
5. "Darkest Hour is Just Before Dawn" (Ralph Stanley) – 3:22
6. "I'll Go Stepping Too" (Tom James/Jerry Organ) – 2:16
7. "You're Learning" (Ira Louvin/Charlie Louvin) – 2:57
8. "Jordan" Traditional/arr. Brian Ahern) – 2:07
9. "Miss the Mississippi and You" (Bill Halley) – 3:40
10. "Gold Watch and Chain" (A.P. Carter) – 3:12
Greatest Hits
Neil Diamond
1968 Bang Records
Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits was the first compilation album of songs recorded by Neil Diamond. It was released in 1968 by Bang Records after Diamond left Bang for Uni Records. Bang would eventually release four Neil Diamond compilation albums on top of the two original Diamond albums which Bang issued in 1966 and 1967.[2] Ten of the twelve songs on this album are original Diamond compositions with the remaining two cover versions of oldies. After Columbia Records absorbed Bang Records, this album was replaced by a new compilation titled Classics: The Early Years which replaced the cover songs with additional Diamond originals: "I'm A Believer" (which became a hit for The Monkees) and "Shilo" which Bang initially rejected as a single but was later released as a single and became a hit in 1970 after this album was released.
Side one "Cherry, Cherry" "Oh No No" "New Orleans" (Frank Guida, Joseph Royster) "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" "Do It" "You Got to Me"
Side Two "Solitary Man" "Kentucky Woman" "Thank the Lord for the Night Time" "Red, Red Wine" "Hanky Panky" (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich) "The Boat That I Row"
Evangeline
Emmylou Harris
1981 Warner Bros. Records
Evangeline was a 1981 album by Emmylou Harris that was composed mostly of leftover material from past recording sessions and which did not fit into any of her other albums. Songs included a remake of "Mister Sandman" (from the ill-fated Trio sessions with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt), "Evangeline", which she had previously performed with The Band, Rodney Crowell's "Ashes By Now", and a cover of John Fogerty's "Bad Moon Rising". Though it received mixed reviews upon its release, the album was yet another commercial success for Harris. It was certified Gold in less than a year after its release. A single release of "Mister Sandman" (Top 10 country/Top 40 pop) did well on the charts, though neither Ronstadt's nor Parton's record companies would allow their artists' vocals to be used on the single, so Harris rerecorded the song, singing all three parts for the single release.
1. "I Don't Have to Crawl" (Rodney Crowell) – 3:46
2. "How High the Moon" (Morgan Lewis, Nancy Hamilton) – 3:21
3. "Spanish Johnny" [with Waylon Jennings] (Paul Siebel) – 3:50
4. "Bad Moon Rising" (John Fogerty) – 2:40
5. "Evangeline" (Robbie Robertson) – 3:09
6. "Hot Burrito #2" (Gram Parsons, Chris Ethridge) – 3:04
7. "Millworker" (James Taylor) – 4:03
8. "Oh Atlanta" (Bill Payne) – 2:58
9. "Mr. Sandman" [harmony by Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt] (Pat Ballard) – 2:20
10. "Ashes by Now" (Rodney Crowell) – 4:24
Ok I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I'm only now getting around to listening to this (in SACD/5.1), despite Zing posting about this some number of months ago...
Anyway, I'm not normally all that into the funk side of jazz, but this - this is good stuff! The first track that really grabbed me is #4 - The Left Bank - because of the interesting, intricate rhythmic stuff going on (some of it subtly in the background), and also because I think this is the first recording where I've noticed that they place some sounds in the center rear; most often stuff in the surrounds seems to be mostly left or right, rarely directly in the back. Maybe there are some... but this is the first time it's been obvious to me that someone's doing it purposefully in center rear.
So I'm enjoying this one a lot! Haven't even finished listening to the whole disc yet, and had to post this. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 86 | https://savingcountrymusic.com/tag/the-byrds/ | en | Saving Country Music | [
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/logo.png",
"https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/motto.png",
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/gram-parsons-1024x630-120x100.jpeg",
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/gram-parso... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Trigger"
] | 2024-01-15T12:13:59-07:00 | Tag archive page for The Byrds. | en | Saving Country Music | https://savingcountrymusic.com/tag/the-byrds/ | Upon the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of “Grievous Angel,” it’s not considered hyperbole; it’s considered an empirical truth that Grievous Angel was a generationally important work of country music.
The life of Gram Parsons came to a crashing end 50 years ago today, September 19th, 1973, in Room 8 at the Joshua Tree Inn in Joshua Tree, California. Gram had just finished up recording what would be his final album.
The Saving Country Music Top 25 Playlist is built to keep you informed on all the best songs and albums coming out right now in country music. Available on all major streaming platforms.
There’s nobody out there pushing the creativity of country music to the edges of human consciousness like Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives are doing here, even among the gaggle of young bucks fresh and hungry to make their mark.
Picking up where Marty’s last album Way Out West released in 2017 left off, Altitude will explore the foray of The Byrd’s into country music through their album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It was during Marty’s Stuart’s stint supporting surviving Byrds members and co-founders.
Nothing has ever happened on the Grand Ole Opry stage, good or bad, that tops the moment that the recently-minted Country Music Hall of Famer and the even more recently dearly departed Jerry Lee Lewis enacted when he made his Grand Ole Opry debut 50 years ago.
American folk and rock music legend David Crosby has died at the age of 81. Most famous for his roles in The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (later ‘& Young’), he was right there in the middle of the counterculture revolution of America that very much became the mainstream culture in the mid and late 60s.
There are not many sectors of bluegrass music that weren’t at one point or another touched by the work of mandolin player Roland White. The brother of fellow bluegrass legend and later country rocker Clarence White, an original member of The Kentucky Colonels…
From the hills and hollers of Kentucky as a strict traditionalist, to some of the most enterprising and innovative interpretations of the bluegrass form, from beside artists as far ranging as Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice was American string music incarnate.
It’s worth noting that Rolling Stone’s new updated version of their “500 Best Albums of All Time” significantly diminishes iconic titles from the classic country canon. Not only were some titles downgraded, some were eliminated entirely.
Chris Darrow, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, country rock pioneer and member of multiple influential bands including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Corvettes who backed up Linda Ronstadt, has passed away according to his representatives. He was 75-years-old. He was a centerpiece of country rock.
Undoubtedly, you could not tell the story of country music in the late 60’s and early 70’s without broaching the political upheaval and countercultural revolution roiling American society at the time. But the time spent on stories that were only proxies to country music bogged this episode down in stretches.
Tom Petty and a host of other cool folks have come together to collaborate on Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers alumnus Chris Hillman’s first record in over a decade called ‘Bidin’ My Time.’ The album includes a collection of songs from in and around Chris Hillman’s career, but many that fell through the cracks in one way or another.
When The Byrds played the Opry in 1968, they were heckled from the gallery of the Ryman Auditorium. Today it is a much different story. Pharrell Williams, Kiefer Sutherland, and even Chewbacca Mom have made appearances with not just the approval of the Opry management, but to ovations from the Opry crowd.
Though maybe not as recognizable of a name as many of the artists Gib shared lineups with, including Gene Parsons and Clarence White, his unique approach to music, influenced by his distinctly Cajun flavor and upbringing, made Guibeau seminal to the sound that would become West Coast country rock.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, TN has announced what will be their next major two-year exhibit to replace the current Bakersfield Sound exhibit in the museum’s largest revolving exhibit space. It will be called Dylan, Cash, & The Nashville Cats, and it will primarily focus on folk songwriting icon Bob Dylan, Country Music Hall of Famer and Legend Johnny Cash, and the “Nashville Cats.”
This initial offering from The Loudermilks finds the band ranging from the bluegrass-inspired and steel guitar-drenched opening number “Watch ‘Em Fall”, to the the nearly straightforward rock styling of “The Plan”, accomplishing all with equal ability to enrapture the audience and appeal to whichever musical leanings the listener happens to carry.
It’s been my contention for years that if genre bending pioneer Beck ever made a straight up country record, it could have a similar effect as when The Byrds, heavily influenced by Gram Parsons, released Sweetheart of the Rodeo, allowing young hip listeners outside of country’s borders to realize the virtues of the genre.”I’m hearing the Byrds, Crosby Stills and Nash, Gram Parsons, Neil Young,” says Beck.
When it comes to the preservation of the history and sound of country music, you can make the case there is nobody who does it better and with more passion and dedication than Marty Stuart. Tireless and true to his convictions, from his music, to his archive of memorabilia, to his presence on television and the Grand Ole Opry stage, and to some of the thankless things he does well out of the public eye…
Of all the country music greats, Merle’s story might be the most symbolic of the American experience: from growing up in California as the son of Okie parents during The Depression, to spending time in prison, to becoming a rags to riches story. When it comes to influencing country music itself, few this side of Hank Williams can say they’ve left a bigger footprint.
“That night in my house [was] the first time these songs were heard…” Johnny Cash went on. “Joni Mitchell sang ‘Both Sides Now,’ Graham Nash sang ‘Marrakesh Express,’ Shel Silverstein sang ‘A Boy Named Sue,’ Bob Dylan sang ‘Lay Lady Lay,’ and Kristofferson sang ‘Me & Bobby McGee.’ That was the first time any of those songs were heard.” | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 85 | https://www.westernreservenews.com/cancellations/OBITUARIES.htm | en | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | Thursday August 15, 2024 Wanda Spatz Obituary SALEM Wanda J. (Yeager) Spatz, 81, passed away on Thursday, August 15, 2024, at her Salem home. She was born in Erie, Pa. on October 7, 1942, to the late Joseph and Wanda (Gerbracht) Yeager. She married David Harold Spatz of Louisville, Ky., on December 28, 1963, and loved him until the day she died. Wanda and David had three sons, Ross (Lisa) Spatz, Robert (Wendy) Spatz, and Jeffrey (Wendy) Spatz; five grandchildren, Rachel, Bobby, Gabie, Owen and Kipton; and two great-grandchildren, Dane Carmenate and Candence Marqueza. Wanda will be remembered as a kind but feisty woman. She loved her family and cherished time with her family. She loved to bake and everyone loved her chocolate chip cookies. Wanda spent time in the field of real estate, where she enjoyed meeting new people and helping them. She was preceded in death by her husband, David; her parents; brother, James; and sister, Jean Marie. A private family service will be held at a later date. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. To view Wanda's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Thursday August 15, 2024 Dianna Rickard Obituary SALEM - Dianna Elaine Rickard, 80, passed away peacefully Tuesday, August 13, 2024. She was born June 20, 1944, in Youngstown, daughter of the late Chester David and Pearl (Myers) Rickard. Dianna graduated from Girard High School in 1962 where she played in the band, worked on the yearbook and was in the Future Teachers of America. She was an avid reader and had a passion for genealogy, puzzles and interior design. She had a love like no other for her family and friends, unless Judge Judy was on TV. Dianna loved being a teacher teaching English and Mythology at United Local Schools. She spoke of her former students often, keeping in touch with them until her passing. Her passion for helping young minds also translated into hosting five children from Belarus in her home with the Children of Chernobyl organization and organizing donations of toiletries and toys to send to Belarus through Friends from Afar. Her family and friends will miss the light and laughter she brought to them. Surviving are her furry kids, Digger and Kentucky Kitty; nephew, Gerald D. Jerry Rickard, Jr. of Cleveland, OH; niece, Sherry Rickard Kish and her husband, Robert of Galena, OH; two grandnephews, Evan Carter Rickard of Branson, MO, and Robert Vincent Kish IV of Columbus, OH; loved family without need for titles, Patricia and Jack Morgan, and her Belarussian family, Tanya, Sergey, Vladik and Slava of Gomel, Belarus. Memorial calling hours will be held from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Saturday, August 24, 2024, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home in Salem, OH. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library of Ohio at www.ohioimaginationlibrary.org or the Angels for Animals Veterinary Clinic at www.angelsforanimals.org. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view Dianna's obituary or send condolences, visit www.starkmemorial.com
Thursday August 15, 2024 Edgar Kurtz Obituary Salem - Edgar Eddie Kurtz was a caring husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. He passed away in his beloved home on August 11, 2024. Even though a failing heart took him away from this world, his loving heart for his family and his Lord will be a lasting tribute. Eddie was born on September 27, 1933, to Earl and Mollie (Lehman) Kurtz. He was a proud lifelong resident of Greenford, Ohio and a graduate of Greenford High School where he played basketball as part of the Greenford Bobcats. This is where he met and later married the love of his life, Lola Ann (Sheller) on June 12, 1955. They shared 59 glorious years in marriage before her passing in 2015. His greatest joys were his family which includes his daughters Sherri Goodwin (Dean) of Seabrook Island, S.C. and Linda Witmer (Mark) of Columbiana, Ohio. He is now reunited with his son Daniel (Priscilla) who passed away in 2020. He will be missed by his 9 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brothers Raymond and Wilbur, his sister, Anna Marie Kurtz and his great grandchild, Gloria Bagwell. Eddies livelihood was dairy farming for most of his life, later crop farming. He was a seed salesman where he enjoyed interacting with other farmers as well as taking advantage of trips offered for being a top salesman. He was a 62 year member of Greenford Ruritan where he spent many Canfield Fairs cooking BBQ chicken and also served as their Chaplain. He will be remembered by many for his touching and inspiring prayers. He lived life to the fullest through simple pleasures such as driving around to check the crops, spending many summer vacations on Kentucky Lake where the fishing wasn't as important as the conversations and time spent with family. Winters were enjoyed in Florida in his beloved motorhome while playing SkipBo, fishing and pie and coffee with friends. Eddie and Lola Ann created a wholesome life for his family where priorities included the farm chores, attending church, participating in school activities and a Friday date night together. Eddie was a lifelong member of Leetonia Mennonite Church where he served as an elder and Sunday School teacher. He handed out many Gideon bibles over the years, his heart was to share the gospel to others. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations made to Gideons International. Calling hours will be held Saturday, August 17, from 4-6 pm and the funeral held on Sunday, August 18 at 2:00 pm, both taking place at Leetonia Mennonite Church. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Woods-Rettig Funeral Home in Leetonia, Ohio. Family and friends may view this obituary and send condolences at www.familycareservices.com
Thursday August 15, 2024 Lance Steffel Obituary Lance Steffel 69, died at 6:15 PM Thursday, August 8, 2024, at Park Center Healthcare and Rehabilitation of Boardman, Ohio. He was born February 6, 1955, in Salem, Ohio, the son of the late Wayne and Marjorie (Swinehart) Steffel. Lance was a Salem High School graduate and owned and operated his own insurance agency in Salem. He is survived by his children Jeff Steffel and Kerri Steffel both of Salem, siblings Holly Anderson of Arizona and Ted Steffel of California, and his grandchildren. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brother Dan Steffel. There are no services planned. Arrangements were entrusted to the care of the Arbaugh-Pearce- Greenisen & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services of Salem.
Thursday August 15, 2024 Duane Martin Obituary Duane Robert Martin 97, of Columbiana, died at 12:26 PM on Sunday, August 11, 2024, at Blossom Nursing & Rehabilitation Center of Salem. He was born July 9, 1927, in Lisbon, Ohio, the son of the late Seth L. and Helen E. (Hephner) Martin. The will be no services at this time. Arrangements were entrusted to the care of the Greenisen family at the Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services of Salem.
Thursday August 15, 2024 Mary Byers Obituary Mary Jo (French) Byers 77, of Columbiana, died on Friday, August 9, 2024, at her home. She was born June 26, 1947, in Salem, Ohio, the daughter of the late George and Irene (Ihanger) French. Mary Jo was a school bus driver for Robert Bycroft for 35 years. She is survived by her children Teresa Holland, Firl (Angelica) Byers, and Don Byers all of Columbiana, sister Mickey (Jeremy) Schlenger of Newton Falls, as well as 7 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her siblings E. James, John, George, Sam, Hazel, and Rosalee. No services are planned at this time. Arrangements were made by the Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services of Salem.
Wednesday August 14, 2024 Betty Bowser Obituary Salem- Betty Marie Bowser, aged 96, passed away peacefully on Monday, August 12, 2024, at Auburn Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation in Salem. Born on October 29, 1927, in Huntingdon, Pa., she was the cherished daughter of Alvin Russler and Olive Carolus. Betty spent her life as a devoted homemaker, a role she embraced with love and pride. A faithful member of the First Baptist Church in Salem, Betty's commitment to her faith was evident in her everyday actions and the grace with which she lived her life. Betty's married her husband Lewis I. Bowser on March 13, 1947. Together, they built a life filled with joy, laughter, and resilience until her husband's passing on May 18, 2012. She is survived by her children, Ellsworth (Alverta) Bowser of Salem, Lewis (Judy) Bowser of Valrico, Fla., and Diane Bowser of Salem.She is also survived by 10 grandchildren, Lisa Timmann, Rebecca (Mike) Brooks, Tracey Bowser, Michelle Workman, Tina (Mike) Hutchings, April (Ryan) Ross, Matthew (Nikki) Dougherty, Jon Bowser, James Bowser, and Joshua Bowser, 23 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, her beloved husband, and her siblings Dorothy, Alvin Russler, and Donald Russler. A memorial service to honor and celebrate Betty's life will be held on Monday, August 19, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at Highland Memorial Park Chapel in Beloit. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. In lieu of flowers donations may go to Ohio Living Hospice. 6715 Tippecanoe Rd. Building E. Suite 201, Canfield, Ohio 44406. To view Betty's obituary and send condolences, please visit www.starkmemorial.com
Wednesday August 14, 2024 Herbert Nannah Obituary Herbert D. Nannah, 85, of Salem, OH, sadly left us on August 13th, 2024, peacefully in his home surrounded by his loved ones. He is preceded in death by son Douglas D. Nannah and his wife of 63 years Judith A. Nannah. He is survived by daughter Cheryl L. Stakleff and granddaughters Jessica and Rebecca Bridenthal. Herb was a graduate of Salem High School in 1957. He was a proud American who served with the U.S. Army, supported the Wounded Warrior Project, and was a member of Local 58, Local 64, and IBEW. He was a devout servant of God and enjoyed life to its fullest traveling across the country with his wife. He was passionate about his heritage and devoted much of his life to recording his genealogy. A service will be held in his honor at 2:00pm on Sunday, August 18th at Stark Memorial Funeral Home in Salem, OH.
Wednesday August 14, 2024 Herbert Nannah Obituary Herbert D. Nannah, 85, of Salem, OH, sadly left us on August 13th, 2024, peacefully in his home surrounded by his loved ones. He is preceded in death by son Douglas D. Nannah and his wife of 63 years Judith A. Nannah. He is survived by daughter Cheryl L. Stakleff and granddaughters Jessica and Rebecca Bridenthal. Herb was a graduate of Salem High School in 1957. He was a proud American who served with the U.S. Army, supported the Wounded Warrior Project, and was a member of Local 58, Local 64, and IBEW. He was a devout servant of God and enjoyed life to its fullest traveling across the country with his wife. He was passionate about his heritage and devoted much of his life to recording his genealogy. A service will be held in his honor at 2:00pm on Sunday, August 18th at Stark Memorial Funeral Home in Salem, OH.
Tuesday August 13, 2024 Tanner Barr Obituary Salem - Tanner James Barr, age 26, of Salem, went to be with his Lord on Friday, August 9, 2024, at Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital, Canton from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. He was surrounded by his family and friends as he was called home. He was born on August 2, 1998, in Salem, the son of Travis and Lisa Cook Barr. Tanner worked as a Union Carpenter for the Carpenters Local Union No. 171, attended Greenford Christian Church, and was a 2017 graduate of Leetonia High School. He served in the US Navy during the Persian Gulf war. He enjoyed riding motorcycles, listening to music, playing sports and the Cleveland Browns. Tanner was a loving, caring, hardworking, and fiercely loyal person who loved spending time with his family, particularly His Girls. Tanner is survived by his wife, the former, Emily Hupp, whom he married on March 7, 2018; three daughters, Isabella "Izzy" Barr and Alivia Barr, as well as, his daughter on the way, Lainey Barr; two sisters, Chelsea (Jake Harvey) Faloba of East Palestine, Alexis (Nick Fellure) Faloba of Lisbon; his parents of Leetonia; maternal grandmother, Sharon (Randy) Crothers of Lisbon; father in-law, Robert (Melissa) Hupp of Columbiana; many nieces, nephews, and close friends. He was preceded in death by his maternal grandfather, William Cook; paternal grandfather, Randy Barr; and paternal grandmother, Joni Barr. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, from 5:00 pm-8:00 pm and Thursday, August 15, 2024, from 10:00 am-11:00 am at the Woods-Rettig Funeral Home, Leetonia. Funeral services will be on Thursday at 11:00 am at the funeral home with Reverend Larry McKim officiating, where military honors will be accorded following the service. Burial will take place at Woodsdale Cemetery, Hanoverton. Family and friends may view this obituary and send condolences at www.familycareservices.com
Monday August 12, 2024 George Morris Jr.. Obituary SALEM - George W. Morris, Jr. passed on peacefully to his Heavenly home, in the loving arms of Jesus surrounded by his family Thursday, August 9, 2024, at Blossom Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Salem, Ohio. He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, on June 25, 1942, the son of Esther (Wilhelm) Morris and George W. Morris, Sr., who preceded him in death. He was raised in East Palestine, Ohio, and attended East Palestine High School where he played football and ran track. He attended the University of Maryland for one year and transferred to Baldwin Wallace College where he completed his football career. He was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and the Sigma Lambda Alpha, a French Honorary Fraternity. After receiving his masters degree in physical education at Bowling Green State University, he taught and coached football at Mt. Vernon Junior High, Fremont Ross High School, Columbiana High School, and Iowa Wesleyan College. George entered the insurance industry fulltime in 1970 and worked as an independent agent until he and his wife, Theresa, opened the George W. Morris, Jr. Insurance Agency which later became the Morris Financial Group when his son, George, and his wife, Coby, joined the agency. George was a member of the Ohio and National Association of Life Underwriters, on the boards of the Progress Council of Columbiana County, Elkton Prison, Kent State Salem, American Heart Association, the Salem Golf Club, Lifeline of Columbiana County, a founding board member of the Sophia Womens Center, past president of the Salem Rotary Club, and 4th Degree of the Knights of Columbus. George led a full, exciting, and adventuresome life. He had his private pilots license, played tennis, enjoyed fishing in Quebec, Canada, hunting in Montana and Wyoming, traveling throughout the world and especially western trips to visit family, friends, and national parks. He was a very generous man always willing to share his time, talents and treasures with anyone in need. He loved and was dearly loved by his wife, children, and grandchildren who were his pride and joy. He especially loved animals and loved to sing. His passion and enthusiasm were evident in every facet of his life. He enjoyed sharing stories from his childhood and later life with his family, friends, and strangers too. He married his high school sweetheart Theresa (Chick) Morris August 4, 1962. Survivors also include his children, George (Coby) Morris, III, Doug (Moon) Morris, and Denise (Bob) Grimm; sister, Bonnie (Jim) Baird; brother, Tom (Debbie) Morris; grandchildren, Zachary, Ashtyn, K. Lee, Jesse, Shelby, Dalton, and his precious cats, Milton & Vinny. The family wishes to thank his loving care giver, Kerry Englert, and the staff at Blossom. Calling hours will be held from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Friday, August 16, 2024, at Stark Memorial, 1014 East State Street, Salem, OH. The Rosary will be prayed at 6:30 p.m. A funeral Mass will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, August 17, 2024, at St. Paul Church Catholic Church, 935 East State Street, Salem. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Georges memory to the Sophia Womens Center, P.O. Box 404, Salem, OH 44460, or to St. Paul Catholic Church, 935 East Street, Salem, OH 44460. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. The arrangements for Scott's farewell are entrusted to Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. The staff is committed to providing the utmost care and respect for Scott and his family during this time. To view George's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday August 12, 2024 David Merker Obituary MINERVA - David E. Merker, aged 74, known as Dave by his friends and family, passed away peacefully on Friday, August 9, 2024, at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. He was born June 11, 1950, in Dayton, Ohio to the late Ludwig William and Oma Garnet Merker. Following his graduation from Belmont High School in 1968, he honorably served six years in the U.S. Navys nuclear missile submarine force on the U.S.S. Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634). Completing his service in 1976, he returned to Ohio and lived near Minerva, Ohio for the remainder of his long and happy life. Dave married his beloved wife, Ann of East Rochester, Ohio in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1971. He worked for 45 years in heavy industry for multiple companies, most recently as an engineering manager and consultant at East End Welding in Kent, Ohio from which he retired in 2021. Following retirement, he continued to meet his former East End co- workers and friends for golf every Wednesday, a weekly tradition that brought him great enjoyment. His most passionate hobby was collecting antique jars and bottles, and he was an active member of the Ohio Bottle Club and attended multiple shows yearly across the Northeast for 40 years. Above all, Dave was strong family-man, and he enjoyed spending time with his family most in life. He is survived by his wife, Hazel Ann (Hawk) Merker; son, Jason (Emily) Merker; daughter, MacKenzie Merker; grandson, Jonathan Merker, and granddaughter, Abigail Merker. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Gregory Merker. Family and friends are invited to the Stark Memorial Funeral Home, Salem, Ohio on Thursday, August 15, 2024, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. for calling hours and for the funeral service Friday, August 16, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. Following the service, a vehicle procession will go to the Hawk-Sanor family cemetery in East Rochester, Ohio for the burial. Dave will be dearly missed and always remembered by his many friends and loving family members. Arrangements are being entrusted to Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view David's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday August 12, 2024 David Merker Obituary MINERVA - David E. Merker, aged 74, known as Dave by his friends and family, passed away peacefully on Friday, August 9, 2024, at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. He was born June 11, 1950, in Dayton, Ohio to the late Ludwig William and Oma Garnet Merker. Following his graduation from Belmont High School in 1968, he honorably served six years in the U.S. Navys nuclear missile submarine force on the U.S.S. Stonewall Jackson (SSBN-634). Completing his service in 1976, he returned to Ohio and lived near Minerva, Ohio for the remainder of his long and happy life. Dave married his beloved wife, Ann of East Rochester, Ohio in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1971. He worked for 45 years in heavy industry for multiple companies, most recently as an engineering manager and consultant at East End Welding in Kent, Ohio from which he retired in 2021. Following retirement, he continued to meet his former East End co- workers and friends for golf every Wednesday, a weekly tradition that brought him great enjoyment. His most passionate hobby was collecting antique jars and bottles, and he was an active member of the Ohio Bottle Club and attended multiple shows yearly across the Northeast for 40 years. Above all, Dave was strong family-man, and he enjoyed spending time with his family most in life. He is survived by his wife, Hazel Ann (Hawk) Merker; son, Jason (Emily) Merker; daughter, MacKenzie Merker; grandson, Jonathan Merker, and granddaughter, Abigail Merker. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Gregory Merker. Family and friends are invited to the Stark Memorial Funeral Home, Salem, Ohio on Thursday, August 15, 2024, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. for calling hours and for the funeral service Friday, August 16, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. Following the service, a vehicle procession will go to the Hawk-Sanor family cemetery in East Rochester, Ohio for the burial. Dave will be dearly missed and always remembered by his many friends and loving family members. Arrangements are being entrusted to Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view David's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday August 12, 2024 Obituary Image Scott Swiger Obituary Scott E. Swiger, passed away peacefully on Sunday, August 11, 2024, at the age of 56. Born on August 24, 1967, in Salem, Ohio, Scott was the beloved son of Ira and Mary Ann (Lipp) Swiger. Growing up in the town where he was born, Scott attended South Range High School, where he formed friendships and memories that lasted a lifetime. After graduation, he joined forces with his brother Mike in the family lawn care business. Together, they cultivated not only the lawns they tended but also a strong sense of camaraderie and community spirit. Scott enjoyed the outdoors and found solace in the beauty of nature and the changing seasons, which he enjoyed while working outdoors. His hobbies included assembling puzzles and playing bingo, which was his absolute favorite activity. The thrill of the game and the companionship of fellow players brought him immense joy. Family was the most important thing in Scott's life. He will be remembered by his siblings: sister, Melissa Stires; brother, Mike Swiger; sister, Amy (Larry) Gentile, and brother Steve Swiger. Scott's role as an uncle was cherished deeply, and he leaves behind a legacy of love and laughter for his nephews and niece: Nathan, Cody, Christine, Kevin, and Kyle. Scott was preceded in death by his brother-in-law, Rick Stires. Visitation for Scott E. Swiger will be held on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at Stark Memorial. For those who are unable to attend the visitation in person, Stark Memorial has provided a thoughtful way to express your condolences through their "Hugs from Home" program. Details can be found on their website at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. The arrangements for Scott's farewell are entrusted to Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. The staff is committed to providing the utmost care and respect for Scott and his family during this time. To view Scott's obituary, send condolences, or for further information, please visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Sunday August 11, 2024 Kenneth Keiser Obituary Kenneth D. Keiser, age 86, of Louisville, OH passed away Sunday, August 11, 2024. He was born March 20, 1938 in Canton, OH. Ken worked for Hannon Electric for many years. His true passion was being a Farmer and helping his sons as a 4-H advisor. Ken is survived by his wife of 67 years, Beverly (Stands) Keiser; three sons, Tim (Rhonda), Todd and Brian (Heather) Keiser; five grandchildren, Lindsay, Kellie, Stephanie, Jason, Jenna and his great-granddaughter, Gianna. He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Emogene Keiser; his sister, Vivian Ramey; two brothers, Carl and Bernaun Leasure. A private, family celebration of life is being planned for a future date. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.stierisraelfuneralhome.com
Friday August 09, 2024 Lisa Panezott Obituary SALEM - Lisa Marie Panezott, aged 58, passed away on August 6, 2024. Lisa was born on November 4, 1965, to Carmen Joseph and Doris (Klink) Ferry. Her life was one of devotiondevotion to her family, her work, and her passions. She is survived by her loving husband of 36 years, James Panezott; her adoring sons, James (Gina) Panezott Jr. of Akron, Jordan Panezott of Pittsburgh, and Brady (Skyler) Panezott of Salem. Lisa's memory will also be cherished by her brothers, Gary (Janet) Crawford of North Carolina, Sam (Tracy) Ferry of Berlin Center, and Rick Ferry of Salem; and her sisters, Thelma Jean Greene of Texas and Valerie (Johnny) Rockholt of South Carolina; and her fur babies Rocket, Stella, Annie, and Frankie. She was preceded in death by her parents, leaving a legacy of love and cherished memories. A 1985 graduate from Leetonia High School, her education laid the foundation for a life of service and hard work, which she exemplified through her long-standing role as a cook for United Local Schools. Beyond her professional life, Lisa was a woman of many interests and talents. She had a profound love for trying new recipes. Her selflessness shone through her devotion to helping others. Lisa inherited her skill in crocheting from her Aunt Jensie, creating beautiful pieces that are treasured by her loved ones. Her dogs and cat were also the recipients of her boundless love and care, reflecting her compassionate and nurturing nature. Lisa found joy in canning and tending to her garden as well as riding in the side-by-side, embracing the thrill of the outdoors alongside her family and pets. Lisa's faith was an integral part of her life, and she found fulfillment by attending Revival Today Church. Friends and family will be received from 5:00-7:00 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home. A funeral service will immediately follow at 7 p.m. In lieu of flower charitable donations can be made to the United Nutritional Lunch Program, 8143 st. Rt. 9, Hanoverton, Ohio 44423 or Revival Today Church, 107 Patton Dr, Coraopolis, Pa. 15108. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view Lisa's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Friday August 09, 2024 Eva O'Donnell Obituary Eva Rose ODonnell, infant daughter of Thomas III and Jenna Proverbs ODonnell, was born still at Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital on Thursday, August 8, 2024. Along with her parents, Eva is survived by two brothers, Austin ODonnell and Trevor ODonnell, both of the home; her maternal grandparents, Tim and Beverly Proverbs of Salem; her paternal grandparents, Thomas Jr. and Rene ODonnell of Berlin Center; a maternal great grandmother, Judy Proverbs of Salem and a paternal great grandmother, Eleanor Oblinger of Berlin Center. Services for Eva will be private. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the Warrick-Kummer-Rettig Funeral Home, Columbiana. Friends may sign the register and send condolences at www.familycareservices.com
Friday August 09, 2024 Jeffrey Mayhew Obituary Struthers- Jeffrey Allen Mayhew, known affectionately as Jeff by his loved ones, passed away on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, at the age of 59, at Oasis Care Center of Rehabilitation and Healing in Mahoning, Youngstown. Born on February 28, 1965, in Youngstown, Ohio, Jeff was the son of the late Frederick Albert Mayhew and Sandra Clair Geltch. Jeffrey was a resilient and hardworking individual, a self-employed painter. His dedication to his craft was matched only by his devotion to his family and his love for the great outdoors. He found solace in nature, often spending his time camping and fishing, where he felt most at peace. He is survived by his wife, Jessica Gayle (Letson), Mayhew, whom he married recently on June 7, 2024. Jeff was a father to Jeffrey (Alison) Mayhew Sr. of Struthers and Octavia Mayhew of Youngstown. Jeff also leaves stepchildren, Cole Louallen and Melissa Louallen; grandchildren, Genavine, Audelina, Emily, Cameron, Jeffrey Mayhew Jr., and Edward, and Kai; and siblings, Jim(Denise), Traci (Lou), Chrissy, Maureen( David), Ellie, Missy and Mandy(Larry), John (Linda), Tom (Jodi) , and Buzz. Friends and family will be recieved Saturday, Aug, 17, 2024 from 12-1 PM with a Memorial Service to follow at 1 PM at Trinity Fellowship Church, located at 4749 South Ave., Youngstown, OH 44512. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view Jeffrey's obituary and send condolences, please visit the Stark Memorial website at www.starkmemorial.com.
Friday August 09, 2024 Forrest A. Barber, age 81, passed away on August 4, 2024. He was born on November 10, 1942, in Alliance, to Alden Luther and Edna Lorraine (Guynn) Barber. Forrest graduated from Mount Union College and Kent State University. He served as an officer for the Alliance City Police Department until his retirement. Forrest owned and operated Barber Airport as Chief Flight Instructor, test pilot for Taylorcraft Corporation, and an aircraft mechanic. He loved to fly and lived for everything aviation. He mentored many people in the field. Forrest was also a member of many organizations; he was a 32nd Degree Mason, a member of the VFW, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Fraternal Order of Police, American Legion, Quiet Birdmen and Civil Air Patrol. He is survived by his daughters, Mary (Dave) Barber-Cironi and Laura Gatrell; grandchildren, Daniel (Emily) Barber-Cironi, Tabitha Gatrell and Adam Gatrell; many nieces and nephews; and his former spouse, Patty Barber. He was preceded in death by his parents; sister, Scotty; and beloved grandson, Michael Paul Cironi. A private family service was held. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Judes Childrens Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Forrest A. Barber, please visit our flower store.
Wednesday August 07, 2024 Robert Haueter Obituary HANOVERTON- Robert C. Haueter, passed away on August 6, 2024, at the age of 63. Born on May 1, 1961 in Salem to Wilbur and Betty (Robb) Haueter. Robert's life was characterized by his dedication to his family, his passion for farming and mechanics, and his unwavering faith. Married to Denise (Wickersham) Haueter on April 25, 1981, Robert's life was enriched by love and partnership that stood the test of time. Together, they raised a daughter, Kayla Dean, who with her husband Gary, brought joy to Robert's life. He was a cherished brother to Tom Haueter and his wife Deanna, and he held a special place in the lives of his grandchildren, Laine Griffey (Dyneshia), Luke Dean, Wyatt Dean, Clayton Dean, and his great-grandchildren, Savannah, Elaina, and Serena. Robert was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Donald Earl Haueter. Robert was a graduate of United Local High School. Besides Robert's work ethic as evidenced by working as a farm hand, He was an avid participant in and spectator of tractor pulls, combining his love for competition and machinery. Fixing tractors was not just a skill but a passion, and his talent in woodworking showed his artistic side, creating pieces that were both functional and beautiful. His collection of toy tractors was more than a hobby; it was a representation of his life's work and joy. As a long- standing member of the Salineville Church of Christ, Robert's faith was integral to his life. Robert found his greatest happiness in the time spent surrounded by his loved ones. Robert Haueter lived a life marked by hard work, devotion to his loved ones, and a deep-rooted faith. His memory will be cherished and kept alive in the hearts of those he touched. Friends and family will be received Friday, August 9, 2024 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Stark Memorial and Saturday, August 10, 2024 at 11:30 a.m., Salineville Church of Christ with a funeral service to follow at 12:30 p.m. with Pastor Chris Mowery officiating. Burial will be at Highland Memorial Park in Beloit, OH. Memorial contributions may be made to Ohio Living Hospice, 6715 Tippecanoe Rd., Bldg. E, Ste. 1, Canfield, OH 44406. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view Robert's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Tuesday August 06, 2024 Donovan Winn Obituary SALEM Donovan W. Winn, 89, passed away Saturday, August 3, 2024, at Aultman Hospital in Canton. He was born on December 18, 1934, in Alliance to Frank and Roselia (Brantingham) Winn. A graduate of Alliance High School, class of 1952, he was a member of Damascus Friends Church and a lifetime farmer. He is survived by a sister, Anna June Chambers. Children: Phil & Sharon (Goughenour) Winn, Cindy (Winn) & Chuck Sluss, Mark & Julie (Smith) Winn, and Tim & Tanja (von Kulajta) Winn. He was a beloved grandfather to 15 grandchildren and 35 great-grandchildren. Donovan was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Marilyn (Parker) Winn, whom he married on June 26, 1955; son, Doug Winn; daughter-in- law, Robyn (French) Winn; and siblings, Harold Winn, Charles Winn, Mary Helen Krebs and Patty Ross. A celebration of life will be held on August 31, 2024, at Winona Friends Church at 11:00 a.m. with visitation one hour prior. He will be laid to rest at Woodsdale Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Damascus Friends Church, 28857 Walnut Street, Damascus, OH 44619; Winona Friends Church, 4687 Whinnery Rd., Salem, OH 44460; or Winona Fire Department, 4894 Whinnery Rd., Winona, OH 44493. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view Donovans obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit Stark Memorial Funeral Home at www.starkmemorial.com
Monday August 05, 2024 Frank Hann Obituary Frank C. Hann, age 94, of Louisville, OH was called home to be with his Lord and Savior and to join his wife Caroline, on Friday, August 2, 2024. He was born in Canton, OH to the late Franz and Cornelia Hann on November 24, 1929. He was a 1947 Canton McKinley graduate. Those that knew Frank, knew he was a trumpet player, and he was still able to play his high school fight song and alma mater until his passing. He met and married the love of his life, Caroline Kraft in 1953 soon after his discharge from the Navy and they enjoyed 68 years together. They spent their entire lives doing everything together, especially attending church, playing music, singing, and dancing. Everything Frank did he did with energy and a smile. When asked, how are you doing? he always would answer, fantastic, earning him the nickname, Fantastic Frank. He enjoyed gardening and sharing the fruits of his labor, and he loved being active whether it was golfing, bowling, softball, cornhole, pickleball or shuffleboard to name only a few. Frank served in the US Navy as an electricians mate which led him into his lifelong career as an electrician and member of the Local IBEW 540 and eventually became the Stark County Electrical Inspector. Frank was a 70- year member of the IBEW, The Gideons, the Toastmasters, Nimishillen Grange, actively served in the Stark Co. 4-H program and was a member of Christ Church of Louisville. Frank is survived by his son, David (Dee) Hann of Greenville, SC, and two daughters, Linda (Jim) Silver of Wooster, OH, and Julie (Russ) Hoff of Valdosta, GA, and daughter-in-law, Carol Hann of North Canton, OH. He also leaves 14 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren with another one on the way. Frank was preceded in death by his wife Caroline, his parents, one son, Stephen, and both of his siblings. Funeral services will be held Monday, August 12th at 11:00 a.m. with calling hours 1 hour prior to services. Frank will be laid to rest in Forest Hill Cemetery, Canton, OH. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Christ Church of Louisville, OH. Online condolences may be left at www.stierisraelfuneralhome.com. The family would like to thank the wonderful, caring staff at West View Healthy Living in Wooster, OH, and Ohio Hospice Lifecare. Stier-Israel Funeral Home
Monday August 05, 2024 Robert Beltempo Obituary Robert V. Beltempo 77, of Salem, passed away at 12:20 AM, Friday, August 2, 2024, at Circle of Care in Salem. There are no services planned at this time. Arrangements were made by the Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services, Salem.
Monday August 05, 2024 Dorla Santee Obituary SEBRING - Dorla Jean Santee, aged 94, passed away peacefully on August 3, 2024. Dorla's life was one marked by devotion to family and faith. She was the beloved wife of the late Gordon Santee, whom she married on August 14, 1948, and with whom she shared a loving partnership until his passing. Together, they raised a family that includes her children, Dwight (Karen) Santee of Beloit, Diane (Barry) Culpepper of Union Springs, Alabama, Elaine Wolfgang of Salem, and Sheila (Steve) Steer of Ashland, Massachusetts. She was a cherished grandmother to eight grandchildren and adored great-grandmother to fifteen great-grandchildren, all of whom brought immense joy and pride to her life. Additionally, Dorla is survived by her sisters, Lavina Shoffner and Charlotte Shoffner. She was preceded in death by her brother, Jack Shoffner, her parents Charles and Arveta Shoffner, and her son-in-law Wayne Wolfgang. Dorla's legacy of love and care continues through the lives of those she touched. Dorla lived her life with a sense of purpose and service. As a dedicated homemaker, she also took pride in fixing great meals for the farming community. Her commitment to her faith was evident through her active membership at East Goshen Friends Church. She was an integral part of the church community, engaging in bible study and contributing her time and efforts to the funeral committee. Her interests and talents were many and varied. Dorla enjoyed being an Avon representative, known for her warm approach and genuine interest in her customers. Her artistic side was expressed through her love of ceramics, and the beauty of her garden was a testament to her membership in the local gardening club, where she delighted in flower arranging. A master of canning, she preserved the bounty of her garden for her family to enjoy year-round. Dorla also found joy in traveling to Destin, Florida, holding a special place in her heart. Dorla's life was a tapestry of love, service, and dedication to those around her. Her memory will be cherished and kept alive through the stories shared by her family and the many lives she touched. Friends and family will be received from at 10-11 AM at Stark Memorial on Saturday, August 10th with a funeral service held at 11 AM. Burial will follow at Goshen Township Cemetery in Beloit, OH. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to: East Goshen Friends Church 16800 South Range Road, Beloit, Ohio 44609. To view Dorla's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Saturday August 03, 2024 Katheran Kelly Obituary Katheran A. Kelly, age 67, of Louisville, OH passed away unexpectedly, in her home on Friday, August 2, 2024. She was born November 17, 1956 in New Philadelphia, OH to Raymond and Janice Myers. Kathy graduated from New Philadelphia High School in 1975 and from Akron University School of nursing in 1979. She worked as a nurse for 6 years and then began a career as a Pharmaceutical Sales Rep, retiring in 2016. She enjoyed golfing, walking, jigsaw puzzles, cooking, Leopard sporting events and always being there for her family. Kathy is survived by her husband of 36 years, James Kelly; two sons, Matt Kelly and Michael (Alex) Kelly; a brother, Joe (Gayle) Myers. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Gary Myers. She will always be remembered as a loving wife and mother. Her laugh and sense of humor made her friends with everyone she met. Calling hours will 3-5pm Tuesday at Stier-Israel Funeral Home in Louisville. Funeral services will immediately follow at 5pm. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.stierisraelfuneralhome.com Stier-Israel Funeral Home
Wednesday July 31, 2024 Barbara Stout Obituary SALEM - Barbara D. Stout, affectionately known as Barb to her loved ones, passed away peacefully on July 23, 2024, in Salem Regional Medical Center after a short illness. Barb was born on April 14, 1941, in Salem, the daughter of the late Frederick and Devota (Hawn) Knutti. Barb's life was a testament to her enduring kindness and her unwavering commitment to those she loved. She was married to her husband, Henry C. Stout, on January 28, 1964. Their partnership continued until Henry's passing in 2021. Together, they raised three daughters: Terri Stout of Salem, Susan Harry and her husband James of Fairbanks, Alaska, and Brenda Gray and her husband Nicholas of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Barb's role as a mother was one she cherished deeply, and her guidance and wisdom continue to live on through her children. Her family circle extended to include her brother, William Knutti of Austintown, and her four grandchildren, Emma, Wade, Autumn, and Amber. Barb's presence was a source of joy and comfort in their lives, and she took great pride in each of their accomplishments and unique paths. A graduate of Western Reserve High School, class of 1959, Barb first became a cosmetologist and later furthered her education by earning an associate degree in nursing from the Hannah Mullens School of Practical Nursing in 1986. Her passion for caring for others led her to a career first with Canterbury Villa and then at the Auburn Care Center, where she was a valued member of the nursing staff until her retirement in 2013. Her colleagues and patients alike will remember her for her compassionate nature and her dedication to providing comfort and care to those in need. Outside of her professional life, Barb had a variety of interests that brought her joy including daytime dramas, gardening and cooking. Barb also had a soft spot for animals, especially her dogs, who were her constant companions. They were a source of comfort and happiness for her, and she took great pleasure in caring for them throughout her life. As Barb's family and friends reflect on her life, they will find comfort in the memories of the time spent with her, the lessons she taught, and the love she freely gave. Barb's journey may have come to a peaceful close in the same town where it began, but the echoes of her life's song will resonate for generations to come. Friends and family will be received from 5:00-6:00 p.m., Friday, August 2, 2024, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home. A funeral service will follow at 6:00 p.m. at the funeral home, with Pastor Peter Fowler officiating. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view Barbara's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Tuesday July 30, 2024 Myron Bazil Obituary Myron Bazil 81, of Salem, died at 9:40 AM, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, at Salem West Health Care in Salem. There are no services planned at this time. Arrangements were made by the Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services, Salem.
Tuesday July 30, 2024 Robert Wagner Obituary Robert J. Wagner, 69, passed away on Monday, July 29, after a courageous battle with melanoma. Born to Clarence and Vesta Wagner in 1954, he was the youngest of eight siblings. Graduating from Louisville High School in 1973, he spent the next 12 years working at Diebold in Canton, earning his real estate license, and entering the real estate business. During that time, he was drawn more and more to the auctioneering business. He entered the three-year Missouri Auction School program and graduated from the CAI Certified Auctioneer Institute through Indiana University. He was a member of both the Ohio and National Auctioneers Associations for more than 40 years. He served as director of the NE Ohio Auctioneers Association for four years, and as chairman of the Ohio Auctioneers Assoc. in Columbus during its winter convention for several years. For 40 years, he was Cutler Real Estates Auctioneer, selling real estate and chattels, and was very proud of his indispensable Auction Team, which included many family members. The buyers and sellers always knew they could count on us to be accurate and true, he once said. He was very proud to have Dave Gill as a partner auctioneer and close friend for many years. In 1978, he fell in love with his one and only, Michelle (Casper). They married in 1980 and had two children. Throughout his life, he was engaged in the farming business, which gave him much joy and satisfaction. Accompanied by horses, dogs, and chickens, the family enjoyed the country life. He also loved target shooting, tractor pulls, and the latest innovations in agriculture and farm equipment. Above all, he treasured and prioritized his family who survives him: wife, Michelle; son Adam (Amy) Wagner; and daughter Lindsey (Sean) Noland, along with their children Joseph and Kenley. He is also survived by a brother, Sonny Wagner of Canton, and three sisters, Vivian Johnk of Texas, Bette Talkington of Texas, and Marjorie (Jerry) Peterson of Alliance. He was preceded in death by his parents; siblings Wayne, Jack and Larry; sisters-in-law Nedra and Carol; brothers-in-law Ralph Swearns and Carol Johnk; and nephew Kevin. Special thanks go to Jamie and Deanne of Aultman Hospice & Palliative Care, and the fine care received at Woodlawn Compassionate Care Center. Calling hours will be held on Sunday, August 4, from 2-4pm at Stier-Israel Funeral Home in Louisville, Ohio. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10am on Monday, August 5, at St. Louis Catholic Church in Louisville. Bob will be laid to rest in St. Louis Parish Cemetery, Louisville, Ohio. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Louis Catholic Church in Louisville, Ohio, or St. Jude Childrens Hospital. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.stierisraelfuneralhome.com Stier-Israel Funeral Home
Tuesday July 30, 2024 Edward Hartman Obituary WESTERVILLE - Edward T. Hartman, affectionately known as Ed, passed away peacefully on July 22, 2024, in Westerville, Ohio, at the age of 72. Born on October 22, 1951, in Salem, he was the beloved son of Elmer and Ila Hartman. Ed is survived by his daughter Stephanie Hartman of Westerville, Ohio, and his son Brad Hartman of Tempe, Arizona, who will cherish his memory as a devoted father. He is also survived by a brother and sister, Les Hartman and Carolyn Cooper, both of Salem, and extended family throughout the community. Ed proudly served his country as a U.S. Navy Veteran and later as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Salem. He will be remembered for his kindness, sense of humor, love for family, and active nature. In addition to his work and family, Ed was previously a member of the American Legion Post in Sebring, where he enjoyed the camaraderie and shared the spirit of service with fellow veterans. He had a sociable and active nature, finding joy in hobbies like playing cards, golfing, playing pool, and throwing darts, activities that highlighted his competitive spirit and love for social gatherings. A Celebration of Ed's Life will be held at Noon, Saturday, August 3, 2024, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home, 1014 E. State Street, Salem, Ohio 44460. Friends and family will be received from 10:00 a.m. until the time of services Saturday at the funeral home. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view Edward's obituary or send condolennces, visit www.starkmemorial.com. The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Alzheimer's Association.
Monday July 29, 2024 Together Again- Mary Louise Blasiman Anderson, age 88, passed away peacefully on July 28, 2024 surrounded by her loving family. She was born on April 24, 1936, in Louisville, to William G. and Clara M. (Flitcraft) Blasiman. Mary was a lifetime member of Maranatha Church of God where she faithfully served however and wherever she was needed. She served as a Sunday school teacher, church secretary and head cook for many years. She would lead singing and was an integral part of the ladies ministries. Mary was a devoted wife, mother, granny and friend to all in need. She leaves behind her deep legacy of faith and service. Those left to cherish her memory are her children, Linda (Richard) Wagner, Norvel Jr. Butch (Janice) Anderson, Cora Birch, James Jim Anderson, and Kevin (Angela) Anderson; and multiple grand, great, and great-great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Norvel J. Anderson; grandchildren, Cody Joe, Jody and Joey Anderson; and four brothers, Harry, Junior, Howard, and Ronald Blasiman. A visitation will be held at Cassaday-Turkle-Christian Funeral Home on Wednesday, July 31st from 5:00-7:00 p.m. A funeral service will be held at Maranatha Church of God on Thursday, August 1st at 11:00 a.m. with Pastors Keith Frederick and Jeff Caldwell officiating. She will be laid to rest at Highland Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to Maranatha Childrens Church Ministry, 14289 Edison St. NE, Alliance, Ohio 44601.
Monday July 29, 2024 Clara Morgan, age 83, of Alliance, passed away on July 28, 2024 at Altercare of Alliance. She was born on November 30, 1940, in Cleveland, to Richard and Mary (Smith) Bruner. Those left to cherish her memory are her husband, Larry Morgan; son, Danny Hunter; daughter, Cheryl Hunter; brother, Frank (Helena) Bruner; and several grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents.
Monday July 29, 2024 Antoinette VonKanel Obituary Antoinette A. (Buccasso) VonKanel, age 89, loving mother and grandmother, of Louisville, OH passed away Sunday, July 28, 2024. She was born July 3, 1935 in Canton, OH to Vincent and Mary (Martia) Dastolfo. Antoinette was retired from Louisville City Schools after many years of service in the high school cafeteria. She had great compassion for animals and had many beloved dogs through the years. Antoinette was preceded in death by her husband, John Buccasso, in 1982; her 2nd husband, Fred VovKanel; her parents and a sister, Josephine Bigler. She is survived by her daughter, Rita Zeigler; two sons, Lou (Julie) Buccasso, John (Lyne) Buccasso; a sister, Mary Jane OBrien; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She also leaves behind her many friends and care takers at St. Joseph Care Center in Louisville. Funeral services will be 11am Wednesday at Stier-Israel Funeral Home in Louisville with Fr. James McKarns officiating. Calling hours will be 10- 11am Wednesday morning at the funeral home. Antoinette will be laid to rest in St. Louis Parish Cemetery, Louisville, OH. Memorial contributions may be made to Aultman-Woodlawn Compassionate Care or St. Joseph Care Center. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.stierisraelfuneralhome.com. Stier-Israel Funeral Home
Sunday July 28, 2024 Ronald Kochera Obituary Ronald Frank Kochera 83, of Columbiana, died at 5:30 AM Friday, July 26, 2024, at Covington Nursing and Rehab. Center in East Palestine, Ohio. There are no services planned at this time.
Thursday July 25, 2024 Mary "Mimi Eileen" Crawford Obituary BOARDMAN TWP. - Mary Eileen Crawford, known affectionately as Mimi Eileen to her friends and family, passed away peacefully at her home with her loved ones by her side Tuesday evening, July 23, 2024, at the age of 89. Eileen was born on March 4, 1935, in Salem, Ohio, to the late Wayne and Mary (Liebhart) Jackson. She was a proud graduate of Salem High School, class of 1953, and went on to build a fulfilling career with Ohio Bell (AT&T), where she dedicated 35 years of service. Eileen's work ethic and commitment to excellence were hallmarks of her professional life, earning her the respect and admiration of her colleagues. On August 19, 1987, Eileen married the love of her life, Arlan E. Crawford. Their union was one filled with shared joys and unwavering support until Arlan's passing on June 3, 2021. She leaves behind her daughters, Jill Weikart (husband Tom), of Salem, and Janelle Sylvester (husband Rob), of Poland township. Eileen's family was the center of her universe, and she cherished every moment spent with them. Eileen's legacy of love continues through her beloved sister, Wenda Ryman of Chester, WV, and her brother, Ronald Jackson (wife Shirley) of Salem. Her life was further enriched by the joys of grandparenthood, as she doted on her three grandchildren, Aadam Zocolo, Aryn Glenn, and Brad Galla, and reveled in the antics of her four great-grandchildren Ava, Adyson, Alyza & Ryan Jr. A woman of faith and music, Eileen was a long-standing member of Robbins United Methodist Church in Washingtonville, where she uplifted the congregation with her angelic voice as the choir director. She served in various other roles with grace and humility. Her passion for music extended to her involvement with the Salem Music Study Club, the Ohio Bell chorus, the Christian Women's Society of Youngstown, and the Oratorio Guild in Salem. Additionally, she enjoyed the camaraderie and activities of the Saxon Club in Youngstown, also a member and soprano singer for the Saxon Choir. Eileen's sisters, Nancy Wilson and Carol Farmer, her brother Wayne Jackson, and her daughter Jenifer Farmer, preceded her in death. They, along with her parents and husband, welcomed her with loving arms into eternal peace. One of her favorite memories in which she frequently mentioned was her many times spent with her late longtime friend Tina, with their thermos of coffee and hours of reminiscing while on the beach. Eileen's passing leaves a void that cannot be filled, yet her legacy of kindness and love will continue to live on through the countless lives she influenced. She was a cherished mother, grandmother, sister, and friend whose memory will be held close in the hearts of all who were fortunate enough to know her. A life so beautifully lived deserves to be beautifully remembered. Eileen was a treasure to her family and her community, and though she has departed from this earthly realm, her spirit will forever be a guiding light to those she loved. Friends and family will be received from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 27, 2024, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home, 1014 E. State Street, Salem, OH 44460. A funeral service will be held at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, with Rev. Matt Doerle officiating. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view Mary Eileen's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Thursday July 25, 2024 Larry Lewis Obituary Larry James Lewis, 77, of Salem, OH, passed away peacefully at University Hospital Portage Medical Center Tuesday, July 23, 2024, of neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer. He was born in Mansfield, OH, and spent his entire youth in Perrysville, OH, graduating from Loudonville High School in 1965. After graduation, he worked at the Air National Guard base in Mansfield and later joined the Air National Guard. Upon being accepted into the General Motors apprenticeship program at the Fisher Body tooling plant in Kalamazoo, MI, he moved there to become a toolmaker. After completing his apprenticeship, he moved to Salem, OH, to work at the Lordstown fabrication plant. He brought with him his wife whom he met in Kalamazoo and married in 1969. After 33 years with General Motors, he retired in 2000 to start a second career with his wife, building the trucking company Marlar Express. They both drove and managed a fleet, retiring in 2015. Mechanics was always Larrys passion. At a young age it started with coaster cars and progressed to street cars, then on to drag racing cars, trucks, show cars, ending with riding a recumbent bike on the many beautiful bike trails of Ohio. Larry was a wonderful, generous and loving family man. One of his greatest accomplishments was making life easy and fun for the family. A message taught to the family was lifes problems are just small bumps in the road. He always carried his tools with him, and he was ready to help the family with any project. Attending the grandchildrens events was something he greatly looked forward to. He is survived by his wife Marie of 54 years; daughter, Nichole (Eric) Thorne of Louisville; son, Larry (Sarah) Lewis Jr. of Milford; five granddaughters, (Grandpas A team) Aubrey, Addy, and Acy Thorne and (Grandpas Stinger Bees) Brynn and Savannah Lewis, and one brother, James Lewis of Perrysville. He was preceded in death by his parents, James and Norma; stepfather, Hank; a special Aunt Mable and Uncle Howard Myers, and one sister, Devon. There will be a family celebration of life in Perrysville, with the burial being in Greenlawn Cemetery, Perrysville, Ohio. We thank UH Portage Medical Centers facility and staff for their support and professionalism in caring for Larry. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. To view Larry's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Wednesday July 24, 2024 Michael Less, Sr. Obituary Greenford - Michael Paul Less Sr., age 75, of Greenford, died on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at his home. He was born on September 4, 1948, in Salem, son of the late Francis and Jane Sauerwein Less. Mike was an auto worker at General Motors for 30 years. After retiring he spent his time doing what he truly loved, working around the family farm. Mike enjoyed driving his Kubota around the farm and performing his daily tasks and once those were complete, he could be found watching old westerns. Farming was a passion for Mike he passed on to his son, who is well known online in the farming community as Farm Hand Mike. Mike is survived by his two sons, Michael Paul (Deborah) Less Jr. of Arcanum and Corey (Trisha) Less of Columbiana; three sisters, Lisa (John) Crider, Ann (Keith) Bossard and Susan Less-Phillips; a brother, George (Penny) Less; four grandchildren, Michael Paul (Abbey) Less III, Andrew (Lexi) Less, Alexandria Less and Ian Less and one great granddaughter, Aria Less. He was preceded in death by a son, Jeffrey Thomas Less and two brothers, Edward Less and William Less. The family will receive friends on Sunday, July 28, 2024, from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm at the Woods-Rettig Funeral Home, Leetonia and on Monday, July 29, 2024, from 10:00 am 11:00 am at the St. Jude Roman Catholic Church. A Funeral Mass will be held on Monday, July 29, 2024, at 11:00 am at the St. Jude Roman Catholic Church, Columbiana, with Father Chad Johnson officiating. Memorial donations may be made to the Green Township Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 14 Greenford OH 44422. Family and friends may view this obituary and send condolences at www.familycareservices.com
Wednesday July 24, 2024 Melanie "Mel" Lamb Obituary SALEM - Melanie Lynn Lamb, better known as Mel, passed away on July 19, 2024, in her hometown of Salem, Ohio, at the age of 56. Born on August 4, 1967, in Salem, she was the cherished daughter of the late Rowland Charles and Betty Jean (Coleman) Howells. She was a 1985 graduate of Salem High School. Mels commitment to nurturing young lives was evident through her invaluable work with Help Me Grow, where she served as a home visitor for children under three years old, guiding new mothers through the joys and challenges of early motherhood. She was involved with the Italian-American Club sharing in the legacy of her beloved husband, William, who predeceased her in 2017. Her family- oriented nature was the cornerstone of her existence, and she leaves behind a legacy of love and devotion. She is survived by her adoring son, Houston Lamb and adopted son, Andrew Conley, who will carry forward her legacy of kindness and compassion. Mel's memory will also be cherished by her brother, Charles (Vickie) Howells, John Howells and sister-in-law, Tina Howells, who will miss her deeply. Melanie was preceded in death by her loving husband, William; her sisters, Cynthia Howells-Lewandoski and Catherine Howells-Henry, as well as her brother, David Howells. Her passing leaves a void in the hearts of those who knew her, but her spirit will continue to inspire all who were touched by her generosity and warmth. Friends and family are invited to gather and celebrate Melanie's life Sunday, July 28, 2024, from 2:00-6:00 p.m. at the Italian-American Club in Salem. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. To view Mel's obituary or send condolences, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Tuesday July 23, 2024 June Bartholow Obituary June Maxine (Menough) Bartholow, 104, of Salem, passed away at 1:15 PM on Monday, July 22, 2024, at Blossom Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Salem. She was born August 8, 1919, in Salem, Ohio, the daughter of the late George M. and Pansy (Malone) Menough. June was a busy body and was always finding things to do. She loved knitting, quilting, and gardening. She was a member of the Salem First United Methodist Church. She is survived by her son John I. (Rebecca) Bartholow JR, 6 grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by her husband John I. Bartholow SR, a daughter Nancy Schram, and her siblings; Helen, Merle, Thelma, George, Dick, and Gail. A celebration of life service will be Thursday, July 25, 2024 1 PM at the Arbaugh-Pearce-Greenisen & Sons Funeral and Cremation Services in Salem, with Pastor Byron Bufkin officiating. Burial is to follow in Hope Cemetery.
Tuesday July 23, 2024 Timothy A. Fox Sr., age 56, passed away on July 21, 2024, surrounded by his family. He was born on October 23, 1967, in Elwood City, PA, to David Richard Fox, Sr. and Gloria Jean Cox. Tim graduated from West Branch High School where he served as their Warrior Chief. After high school, Tim served honorably in the United States Navy. A die hard Steelers fan, Tim was the life of the party and loved having a good time with family and friends. He was willing to help anyone and was a dad to the neighborhood kids. Those left to cherish his memory are his sons, Timothy A. Fox Jr. and Aaron D. Fox; twin brother, Todd A. Fox; nephews, Chad (Michelle), Adam and Evan Fox; and niece, Melissa (Robby) Sebille. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, David R. Fox Jr. A funeral service will be held at Cassaday-Turkle-Christian Funeral Home on Saturday, July 27th at 1:00 p.m. with a visitation one hour prior.
Tuesday July 23, 2024
Monday July 22, 2024 Colleen Masters Obituary SALEM - Colleen A. Masters, a cherished mother, friend, and dedicated nurse, passed away peacefully on Saturday, July 20, 2024, at Auburn Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation in Salem. Born on June 9, 1936, in New Wilmington, PA, Colleen was the loving daughter of Samuel D. and M. Grace (Patton) Deiger. Colleen's life was marked by her unwavering dedication to caring for others. She spent her professional career as a registered nurse at Salem Regional Medical Center, where her compassion and expertise touched the lives of countless patients and colleagues. Colleen's love for her work was only matched by her joy in exploring the world with her friends, creating memories that would last a lifetime. She is survived by her children, Janice Masters, Joan Masters, and Alan (Kathy) Masters. Colleen's love extended beyond her immediate family to her surrogate children, Tina Gilbert and Mark Pasco. Colleen was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Joseph Masters; her daughter Jodi Masters, and her sisters, Doreen and Gayleen. Friends and family are invited to gather and celebrate Colleen's life at Grandview Cemetery chapel at 2:00 p.m. Friday, July 26, 2024. For those unable to attend in person, a "Hugs from Home" program is available to express your support and share a virtual embrace with the family. Details can be found at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home, a testament to Colleen's far-reaching influence and the community's desire to honor her. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. To view Colleen's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday July 22, 2024 Joanne Grate Obituary Columbiana - Joanne Grate, age 78, of Columbiana, passed away on Saturday, July 20, 2024, at Windsor House at Parkside Health Care Center, Columbiana. She was born on May 8, 1946, in Poland, daughter of the late Charles and Nan Coalmer Wilson. Joanne had worked as a landscaper and a waitress at Eat N Park in Boardman for 30 years, she enjoyed gardening and was an excellent dancer. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ronald H. Grate, Sr., in January of 2007, her step-son Ronald H. Grate, Jr. in December of 2006, as well as her brother, Ronald Wilson in 2023. Joanne is survived by her daughter, Rochelle Cole of Columbiana; son, Douglas Cole of Miamisburg; three grandchildren, Olivia, Ethan and Kassandria and a great granddaughter, Kayleigh. A celebration of life will be held on a later date. Please check back later for more information. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Warrick-Kummer-Rettig Funeral Home, Columbiana. Family and friends may view this obituary and send condolences at www.familycareservices.com If tears could build a stairway, and memories were a lane; I would walk right up to heaven, and bring you home again!
Monday July 22, 2024 Michael Cosgrove Obituary Salem- On the morning of July 20, 2024 Michael Cosgrove was taken into the arms of his Lord, Jesus Christ, to his eternal home in Paradise. He had fought a long and strenuous battle with cancer, but the time had come for him to rest in peace. He was in the wonderful care of the University Hospital Portage Medical Center and had spent the evening before surrounded by his family. Michael was born on December 11, 1953 in Salem Ohio, the son of the late Lester J. Cosgrove Sr. and the late Mary (Petro) Cosgrove. He was a lifetime member of St. Pauls Church and former member of the Elks club. Michael was a 1972 graduate of Salem High school, where he was remembered for being a standout Basketball player. He had a strong work ethic, even as a very young boy, where he could be found selling Sunday newspapers outside of St. Pauls Church every week after mass. He also spent many years working at the Salem Car Wash, Penn Grille Pizza Shop, and Petruccis Bar and Restaurant, while putting himself through college at Kent Salem and Main Campus to earn his BS in ED degree. He was employed as a Teacher for 35 years in the Salem City Schools, teaching 1 year at McKinley in Grade 5, 31 years at the Jr. High teaching Math, and 3 years at Southeast, doing Math Inclusion in Grade 5. No matter where he went, he ran into former students who thanked him for being such a helpful teacher and making Math meaningful to them. When the school day ended or school wasnt in session, he went to his second job as the Manager of the Salem Branch of V&V Appliance Parts, which he ran for almost 40 years. He was inspired by its founder, his Father-in-Law, Victor Lazar, and was devoted to serving his customers to the best of his ability. Even after being closed for almost two years due to his health concerns, people still hoped he was going to open again. He also owned and managed several apartments in Salem. The most important mission in Michaels life was taking care of his home and his family and he was successful at both. He had enormous love and pride in his children, and was thankful to see them leading happy, purposeful lives. His greatest joy was being a Papa to his two grandchildren and they will miss him dearly. They were his motivation throughout his health battle and will miss his love and wisdom in the years to come. Above all, he was hard working, always put others before himself, and was a faithful Man of God through every season of his life. Michaels survivors include his wife of 43 years, Wendy (Lazar) Cosgrove, his daughter, Jessica (James) Mastrovito and their children, Hunter and Hadley, of Indian Trail, NC as well as a son, Joshua Cosgrove of Columbus, OH; sisters Mary Ann (Ed) Manning and Linda Cosgrove, brother Gary Cosgrove, and Sister-in-Law Connie Cosgrove, all of Salem, and many beloved nieces and nephews and their children. He was Proceeded in death by his brother, Joe Cosgrove, in addition to his parents. The family would like to thank Dr. Austin Fredrickson and his staff at Salem Regional Hospital, Dr. David Bajor and his staff at University Hospital in Cleveland, OH and the Staff at Portage University Hospital as well as every doctor, nurse, and health care worker they met along their journey for their loving and professional care. Also the Perry Township EMT and Fire Department for their excellent services. They also request that instead of flowers, please consider a donation to; The Brightside Project 483 E. Pershing St. Salem, OH 44460 or a donation of money or kindness to someone in need. Please also be sure to have a colonoscopy as recommended along with any other medical tests routinely suggested. Thank you. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Paul Catholic Church. Friends and family will be received Friday, July 26, 2024 from 4-7 p.m. at Stark Memorial. Visit www.starkmemorial.com to view obituary or send condolences.
Monday July 22, 2024 John T. Gray, 86, of Sebring passed away on Monday, July 22, 2024 at Crandall Medical Center. A Celebration of Life will be held at Bennett Chapel at Copeland Oaks on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at 2:00 PM. You may sign the guest register and view the obituary online at www.grfuneralhome.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to Gednetz-Ruzek-Brown Funeral Home, Sebring
Monday July 22, 2024 Kathryn Breckenridge Obituary LISBON - Kathryn Anne Breckenridge, a beacon of kindness and unwavering support to her family, passed away peacefully on July 13, 2024, in Salem Regional Medical Center after a short illness. Katheryn was born on May 25, 1941, in Beaver Valley County Hospital in New Brighton, Pa. Her gentle spirit and loving nature were evident from a young age. She was the cherished daughter of the late Edward and LaVerne (Jirak) Collins, who instilled in her the values of compassion and resilience. In 1963, Kathryn united in marriage with her beloved husband, James Breckenridge, embarking on a journey of love and partnership that would span 61 remarkable years. Together, they created a warm and loving home, welcoming four wonderful children into the world, Steven James Breckenridge and his wife Marcy, of Austintown, John Edward Breckenridge and his wife Nicole, of Concord, N.C., Amy Kathleen Smith and her husband Jamie, of Matthews, N.C., and Beth Anne Breckenridge of Youngstown. Kathryn's role as a mother was one she cherished deeply, and her commitment to her family's well-being was unwavering. A proud graduate of New Brighton High School, class of 1959, Kathryn's nurturing instincts found a natural outlet in her dedication to raising her children and supporting her husband. She took immense pride in managing her household and later, in the joy of helping to care for her eight grandchildren, each of whom benefited from her wisdom and tenderness. Kathryn's involvement in her community was a testament to her generous spirit. As a member of the Winona Methodist Church, she shared her musical talents by playing the hand chimes, filling the sanctuary with the sweet sound of her dedication. Her love for sewing extended beyond a hobby, as she crafted countless garments and treasures for her family and friends. Her engagement with her children's activities knew no bounds. Kathryn was an active participant in the Salem Boosters and took on the role of a Band Mom with pride. She could always be found in the stands, cheering on her children and offering encouragement to all. She also served as a Den Leader for the Boy Scouts of America. In addition to her husband, four children, and eight grandchildren, Kathryn leaves behind a legacy of love that includes her two sisters, Elizabeth Coleman of Columbia, Ky., and Susan Leo of Sebring. Her presence as a sister was a source of comfort and joy, and the bonds they shared will remain a treasured memory for all who knew them. Kathryn's life was one of quiet strength, unwavering support, and profound kindness. Those who had the privilege of knowing her were touched by her gentle demeanor and loving heart. She was the embodiment of kindness and love, always putting others before herself and nurturing those around her with a grace that was both rare and beautiful. As we bid farewell to Kathryn, we celebrate a life well-lived, a heart given freely, and a spirit that will continue to inspire kindness and love in all who were blessed to know her. Kathryn Anne Breckenridge will be dearly missed, yet her legacy of love and compassion will continue to resonate within the lives of her family and community for generations to come. Friends and family will be received from 1:00-2:00 p.m., Saturday, July 27, 2024, at Stark Memorial Funeral Home. A funeral service will follow at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, July 27, 2024, at the funeral home, with Pastor Jeung Hee Preble officiating. If unable to attend, you may show your support by joining our complimentary "Hugs from Home" program at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view Kathryn's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday July 22, 2024 Beverely Price Obituary SEBRING - Beverely Shaffer Inge Price was born on January 14, 1929, in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three sisters; the daughter of Herbert Ernest Shaffer and Amy (Caldwell) Shaffer of New Brighton. She died peacefully at Salem Regional Hospital on Saturday, July 20, 2024, following a brief illness. Beverely graduated from New Brighton High School in 1947 and attended Lake Erie College for Women in Painesville, Ohio. She graduated from The Western Pennsylvania Hospital School of Nursing and earned her R.N. in 1952. Married to Richard L. Inge in 1952, Dick, a member of the U.S. Army, was sent to the Panama Canal Zone and Beverely followed. While there, she worked at the Gorges Hospital under famous heart surgeon, Dr. Dudley White. Returning to Pittsburgh following the Korean Armistice, she and Dick lived in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania where she was a Deacon at Pleasant Hills Presbyterian Church, a member of the Pleasant Hills Womens Club and an active Nurse for the Syria Shrine of Pittsburgh. She taught Intensive Care Nursing and was Assistant Director of Nursing at West Penn Hospital. She and Dick moved to Beaver, Pa. in 1972 following her husbands purchase of Dowdells Flower Shop. Beverely found employment at The Beaver Medical Center as a nurse and was named Nurse of the Year in 1985. All told, she was an active R.N. for over 50 years. Following the death of her husband in 1994, she married Ronald J. Price of Beaver, Pa. in 2004. While living in Beaver, she was a Deacon at Park Presbyterian Church. After retirement in 2004 from the Medical Center, she and Ron moved to Delray Beach, Florida where both became active in the Delray Beach Presbyterian Church, and, where she again served as a Deacon and was involved in various non-profits and local politics. In 2013, she and Ron moved to the Copeland Oaks Retirement Village in Sebring, Ohio. Her two older sisters, Maneeta Shaffer Heckathorne of Midland, Texas and Marilyn Shaffer Duncan Smith of Dallas, Texas preceded her in death. Bev leaves five children, Amy Inge (Mick) Giglio of Hilton Head, S.C., Richard (Marianne McStay) Inge and Greg Inge of Beaver, Pa., Penny Price (Bill) Gourley of Waynesville, Ohio, and Debbie Price of Pompano Beach, Fla.; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Visitation will be from 4:00-6:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 23, 2024, and from 10:00 a.m.-Noon, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at the Salem First Presbyterian Church, 436 E. Second St. A funeral service will begin at noon Wednesday, with a reception to follow in the fellowship hall. Burial will be in the Beaver Cemetery, Beaver, Pa. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. The family asks that memorials be in the form of donations to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, P.O Box 50, Memphis, Tenn. 38101-9929; ASPCA Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 96929, Washington, D.C. 20090- 6929; or to The Shriners Children Hospital. If unable to attend, send a complimentary "Hugs from Home" at www.starkmemorial.com/hugs-from-home. To view Beverely's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday July 22, 2024 Harry Reisinger Obituary Harry Reisinger 87, died 11:30 AM Sunday, July 21, 2024, at Salem West Healthcare Center. Services will be held here in Salem but the date and time are pending, The burial will be in the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery, Rittman, Ohio
Monday July 22, 2024 Nicholas Cope November 30, 1990 July 17, 2024 Alliance Nicholas "Nick" Robert Cope, born on November 30, 1990, has peacefully departed from this world on July 17th, 2024 He joins his beloved mother, Tammi Sue Goodwin, in eternal rest. Nick leaves behind his adored son, Bralynn Cope (Leah Parker) and sister Kathryn "Katie" Goodwin of Alliance. Nick was a beacon of joy and laughter, his presence lighting up every room he entered. His infectious laughter and silly, goofy nature endeared him to all who knew him. Nick had a remarkable ability to uplift spirits with his warm smile and genuine kindness. He held great pride in being a father. He touched the lives of so many, leaving behind memories filled with laughter and love. The loss of Nick is deeply felt by his family and friends, who cherished his boundless energy and zest for life. His absence leaves a void that cannot be filled, but his memory will live on in the hearts of those who were fortunate enough to have shared in his life's journey. In this time of mourning, we find solace in remembering the joy Nick brought to our lives. His laughter echoes in our memories, a reminder of the happiness he spread so generously. A celebration of Nick's life will be held at Alliance City Cemetery chapel with burial to follow on Friday, July 26, 2024 at 12:00 pm. Family, friends, and all whose lives were touched by Nick are invited to come together to share stories and celebrate his enduring spirit. Nicholas "Nick" Robert Cope will forever remain in our hearts, a cherished son, father, and friend who brightened our lives with his laughter and love. May he rest in peace, knowing he was deeply loved and will be profoundly missed. You may sign the guest register and view the obituary online at www.grfuneralhome.com. Arrangements have been entrusted to Gednetz- Ruzek-Brown Funeral Home, Sebring,
Saturday July 20, 2024 Phyllis Ferguson Obituary SALEM - Phyllis Louise Ferguson, passed away peacefully on Wednesday July 17, 2024, at her home with her loved ones by her bedside, at the blessed age of 89. She was born on June 29, 1935, in Greenford, Ohio, to the late Howard L. and Dorothea (Cobourn) Feicht, Phyllis grew into a woman of strength and kindness, whose life was a testament to the power of love and family. Greenford was not only Phyllis's birthplace but also where she blossomed into an accomplished young woman, graduating from Greenford High School in the class of 1953. It was in this close-knit community that Phyllis met the love of her life, William J. Ferguson. The couple wed on September 30, 1956, embarking on a journey of nearly 68 years filled with shared dreams and unwavering partnership. Phyllis's nurturing spirit extended beyond the walls of her own home. She dedicated many years to caring for the little ones at Quaker Day Care, where she retired in January of 1999. Her work there was not just a job but a calling, as she poured her loving, friendly, and thoughtful nature into the lives of countless children. Her devotion to her family was unparalleled. Phyllis and William were blessed with a son, Mark William Ferguson, and his wife Cyndi, of Modesto, California; and daughters, Mary Beth Reichelderfer and her husband Jeff, of Circleville, Ohio, Janell Ann Petrucci and her husband Tony, and Janette Bowen and her husband Travis of Salem. Her 10 grandchildren, Sarah, Jamie, Kyle, Anthony, Renea, Brooke, Colton, Rachel, Brianne, and Elisha, along with her 12 great-grandchildren, Sadie, Savannah, Sophie, Riley, Lane, Marlee, Charlie, Bentley, Finleigh, Riggs, Cohen and Cali were the joy of her life. Her love for them knew no bounds, and she cherished every moment spent in their company. While Phyllis is now reunited with her beloved parents, one daughter, Janell Ann Petrucci, and siblings, Verla Ann, James, Vernon, and Bruce, who predeceased her, she leaves behind a legacy of love and compassion that will continue to resonate through her family and all who knew her. A woman of faith, Phyllis was a longstanding member of Greenford Christian Church, where she and William had exchanged their wedding vows. Her commitment to her faith was evident in her everyday actions, as she lived out her beliefs with grace and humility. Those who knew Phyllis will remember her for the love she freely gave and the smiles she brought to the faces of many. Her presence was a comfort, her laughter a melody, and her life a narrative of selfless love and service. Phyllis's life story is one of enduring love, a guiding light for us all. As we say our earthly goodbyes, we take solace in the memories she leaves behinda tapestry woven with the threads of her loving, friendly, and thoughtful nature. The family would like the thank the staff of Southern Care Hospice for all of the love and care given both Phyllis and her family during her time with them. A celebration honoring Phyllis's life will be held Monday, July 22, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. at Greenford Christian Church, with Pastor John Bush officiating. The family will receive friends from 1:00 p.m. until the time of services on Monday at the church. In remembering Phyllis Louise Ferguson, we celebrate a life well-lived, a heart well-loved, and a legacy that will forever be etched in the hearts of those she touched. Her journey on earth may have concluded, but her spirit continues to shine brightly in the lives of her family and friends. Rest in peace, dear Phyllis, until we meet again. Memorial contributions may be made to Greenford Christian Church, the Greenford Fire Department, the Silver Lining Foundation via the Hope Center in Boardman Ohio, or the Lady Braves Diamond Club (mail checks to 9579 Tarlton Road, Circleville, Ohio 43114) in Phylliss memory. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services. To view Phyllis's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Saturday July 20, 2024 Obituary for Samuel Brooks Samuel Brooks, 79, of Alliance, died on Friday, July 19, 2024 at 10:05 am at Altercare of Alliance. Samuel's obituary will be posted here once completed. Arrangements are pending at Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke Funeral Home. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Samuel Brooks please visit our Sympathy Store.
Saturday July 20, 2024 Obituary for Samuel Brooks Samuel Brooks, 79, of Alliance, died on Friday, July 19, 2024 at 10:05 am at Altercare of Alliance. Samuel's obituary will be posted here once completed. Arrangements are pending at Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke Funeral Home. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Samuel Brooks please visit our Sympathy Store.
Saturday July 20, 2024 Obituary for Samuel Brooks Samuel Brooks, 79, of Alliance, died on Friday, July 19, 2024 at 10:05 am at Altercare of Alliance. Samuel's obituary will be posted here once completed. Arrangements are pending at Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke Funeral Home. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Samuel Brooks please visit our Sympathy Store.
Saturday July 20, 2024 Obituary for Samuel Brooks Samuel Brooks, 79, of Alliance, died on Friday, July 19, 2024 at 10:05 am at Altercare of Alliance. Samuel's obituary will be posted here once completed. Arrangements are pending at Sharer-Stirling-Skivolocke Funeral Home. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Samuel Brooks please visit our Sympathy Store.
Thursday July 18, 2024 James Raneri Obituary James Raneri Jr., 82, of New Waterford, died at 3:40 AM Thursday, July 18, 2024, at Mercy Health/ St. Elizabeth Hospital, Boardman Campus. Obituary coming soon/ No services to be held
Thursday July 18, 2024 John Pushak Obituary Columbiana - John H. Pushak, age 87, of Columbiana, passed away on Thursday, July 18, 2024, at at his home with his family. He was born on May 26, 1937, in Ambridge, PA, son of the late Frank and Anna Poock Pushak. John enjoyed driving his pickup truck and working with antique tractors. In his free time, he could be found woodworking or taking care of his yard. John was a beloved husband, father and grandfather that will be dearly missed. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Thomas Pushak, whom he married on April 20, 1961; two sons, Theodore "Ted" (Janine) Pushak of Cortland and William "Bill" Pushak of Columbiana; a sister, Nancy Thomas of Aliquippa, PA; two granddaughters, Makayla (John) Hojnacki and Olivia Pushak; and his brother and Sister-in-Law, Tim and Mabel Thomas. He was preceded in death by two brothers, Mike and Frank Pushak. Per the families wishes, no services will be held at this time. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Warrick-Kummer-Rettig Funeral Home, Columbiana. Family and friends may view this obituary and send condolences at www.familycareservices.com
Thursday July 18, 2024 Shirley G. (Wells) Carpenter, age 79, passed away Monday, July 1, 2024 at 1:30 p.m. in the comfort of her home with her family by her side. She was born on February 24, 1945 in Sayre, PA to Fred and Evelyn (Fowler) Wells. Her only hobbies and passions were collecting porcelain dolls and lots of antiques. She loved her husband, children, and grandchildren very much. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Paul L. Carpenter on November 11, 2021; both of her parents; her first born daughter, Tina Rae Carpenter; four brothers, Daniel, Joseph, John and Fred Jr. Wells; four sisters, Hattie, Leona, Jackie, and Margie. She is survived by her children, Nancy (Jorge) Bravo, Pamela (Martin) Rodriguez, and Paul (Brandi) Carpenter; eighteen grandchildren; and thirty-eight great-grandchildren. She is now no longer in pain and is back in the arms of her beloved husband in heaven.
Tuesday July 16, 2024 Martland Pelletier Obituary Martland Rostron Pelletier 80, died November 3, 2003. He will be joined by his wife, Joy on August 31, 2024, 10 AM at Grandview Cemetery, Salem, Ohio for a joint burial. Joy Tillson (Chessman) Pelletier died June 11, 2024.
Tuesday July 16, 2024 Darrell Winston Obituary Darrell Wayne Winston 61, of North Lima, died on July 11, 2024. He was born on May 28, 1963, in Fairmont, West Virginia, the son of Leonard and Alice Frances (Jackson) Winston. He has lived in various locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He grew up with his sisters and later had a son of his own. There will be no services held. He will be buried in Warren, Pa.
Tuesday July 16, 2024 Juanita "Nita" Cushman Obituary Juanita Nita Cushman got her angel wings on July 12, 2024. She is an irreplaceable woman. She never knew a stranger. If you were lucky enough in this life to know her you probably loved her dearly. Despite many grueling obstacles throughout her childhood and young adult life, she chose to rise gracefully above them all. She always chose love and laughter. She was truly hilarious her quick wit was comedic gold up until her last breath and her deep dimples and belly laughter will live on in her family for generations to come. She leaned on her faith in God no matter what. She was a very generous woman, and she was an avid Browns fan since 1980. Against the odds, she and her husband of 63 years, Ronald Cushman, created a beautiful life for themselves and a beautiful family that they loved unconditionally. Juanita was born to Lawrence Sandy and Ruth Marple on February 23, 1941, at home in Salem, OH. When she was six years old, she was given up for adoption to Kate and Shike Breault who lovingly raised her right here in Salem, OH until their passing when she was only 18 years of age. Her biological family moved away but she developed relationships with some of her siblings later in life and is survived by her sister Ruth Hampson Reynolds of Georgia. Nita attended St. Paul School through 8th grade and graduated from Salem High School class of 1959. Nita was someone who left a mark on everyone she met. Children always flocked to her and up until even a week before her death she could be found on the floor playing with the littlest members of our family, cracking jokes and instilling in them her unique gifts of joy and laughter and the safety of being loved for exactly who you are. There are no words for how heartbroken her family is to lose her from this earth. She was loved beyond measure. She leaves behind her husband, Ronnie Cushman, who feels lost without her. They had three children together, their oldest son Charles Chuck Cushman died tragically in a car accident when he was only 28 years old and Juanita has longed for the day she would get to see her son again which brings the family comfort during this time. Chuck had two children, Kyle Cushman and Ian Cushman. She leaves behind her second son, Jeff Cushman of Salem, OH and his four children, Brian Cushman, Brice Cushman, Sidney Cushman, and Cade Cushman. Ron and Nita got their Christmas wish in 1965 when she gave birth to a daughter, they named Connie Sue. Juanita and Connie had the kind of relationship that is all too rare among mothers and daughters. They were best friends. They talked every single day of their lives and the love and memories they shared together will be forever cherished. Connie (58) lives in Columbia, S.C. and has three children of her own, Shea Williams, Bree Pastore, and Alex Whinnery, who all were extremely close with her as well and will do their best to carry on the legacy of resilience, laughter, and love that she built for them. Juanita leaves behind 19 beautiful great grandchildren and counting. It is said that grief is the price we pay for love. In this case, the love our family had for her is limitless and so is the deep grief we will experience in the wake of her transition to be with God. To know this kind of pain means the love was really that remarkable. Juanita leaves behind not the kind of legacy that comes from material wealth or things that can be lost or destroyed she leaves us all with an ironclad legacy of love and devotion that will live on in our hearts and lineages forever. To know her was a gift, to lose her is absolutely devastating, to be loved by her is a blessing from God that can never be taken away and for that her family is eternally grateful for every moment they had with her. In lieu of flowers or cards, the family asks that you pay your respects to Nita by loving your family and friends with all your heart. Life is short even when its long. Be kind to strangers. Take care of your neighbors. Dont let the world make you cold. Make your mark on the people you love because THAT is what truly matters in this life. THAT is what carries on long after youre gone. This is what Nita would want. As Nita wished, there will be no formal services or calling hours. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. To view Juanita's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Monday July 15, 2024 Juanita "Nita" Cushman Obituary Juanita Nita Cushman got her angel wings on July 12, 2024. She is an irreplaceable woman. She never knew a stranger. If you were lucky enough in this life to know her you probably loved her dearly. Despite many grueling obstacles throughout her childhood and young adult life, she chose to rise gracefully above them all. She always chose love and laughter. She was truly hilarious her quick wit was comedic gold up until her last breath and her deep dimples and belly laughter will live on in her family for generations to come. She leaned on her faith in God no matter what. She was a very generous woman, and she was an avid Browns fan since 1980. Against the odds, she and her husband of 63 years, Ronald Cushman, created a beautiful life for themselves and a beautiful family that they loved unconditionally. Juanita was born to Lawrence Sandy and Ruth Marple on February 23, 1941, at home in Salem, OH. When she was six years old, she was given up for adoption to Kate and Shike Breault who lovingly raised her right here in Salem, OH until their passing when she was only 18 years of age. Her biological family moved away but she developed relationships with some of her siblings later in life and is survived by her sister Ruth Hampson Reynolds of Georgia. Nita attended St. Paul School through 8th grade and graduated from Salem High School class of 1959. Nita was someone who left a mark on everyone she met. Children always flocked to her and up until even a week before her death she could be found on the floor playing with the littlest members of our family, cracking jokes and instilling in them her unique gifts of joy and laughter and the safety of being loved for exactly who you are. There are no words for how heartbroken her family is to lose her from this earth. She was loved beyond measure. She leaves behind her husband, Ronnie Cushman, who feels lost without her. They had three children together, their oldest son Charles Chuck Cushman died tragically in a car accident when he was only 28 years old and Juanita has longed for the day she would get to see her son again which brings the family comfort during this time. Chuck had two children, Kyle Cushman and Ian Cushman. She leaves behind her second son, Jeff Cushman of Salem, OH and his four children, Brian Cushman, Brice Cushman, Sidney Cushman, and Cade Cushman. Ron and Nita got their Christmas wish in 1965 when she gave birth to a daughter, they named Connie Sue. Juanita and Connie had the kind of relationship that is all too rare among mothers and daughters. They were best friends. They talked every single day of their lives and the love and memories they shared together will be forever cherished. Connie (58) lives in Columbia, S.C. and has three children of her own, Shea Williams, Bree Pastore, and Alex Whinnery, who all were extremely close with her as well and will do their best to carry on the legacy of resilience, laughter, and love that she built for them. Juanita leaves behind 19 beautiful great grandchildren and counting. It is said that grief is the price we pay for love. In this case, the love our family had for her is limitless and so is the deep grief we will experience in the wake of her transition to be with God. To know this kind of pain means the love was really that remarkable. Juanita leaves behind not the kind of legacy that comes from material wealth or things that can be lost or destroyed she leaves us all with an ironclad legacy of love and devotion that will live on in our hearts and lineages forever. To know her was a gift, to lose her is absolutely devastating, to be loved by her is a blessing from God that can never be taken away and for that her family is eternally grateful for every moment they had with her. In lieu of flowers or cards, the family asks that you pay your respects to Nita by loving your family and friends with all your heart. Life is short even when its long. Be kind to strangers. Take care of your neighbors. Dont let the world make you cold. Make your mark on the people you love because THAT is what truly matters in this life. THAT is what carries on long after youre gone. This is what Nita would want. As Nita wished, there will be no formal services or calling hours. Arrangements are being handled by Stark Memorial Funeral Home. To view Juanita's obituary, send condolences or order flowers, visit www.starkmemorial.com.
Sunday July 14, 2024 Jayne Louise Hall, age 75, passed away on Friday, July 12, 2024. She was born on November 4, 1948, in Salem, OH, to James and Olive (Lippincott) McBride. A graduate of Mount Union College and the Hannah E. Mullins School of Practical Nursing, Jayne worked for many years as a nurse at Alliance Community Hospital and Copeland Oaks. Those left to cherish her memory are her daughters, Aimee Hall and Sally (Garrett) Tupa; grandchildren, Trey, Cheyenne, Morgan, Beau, Austin and Asher; and great grandchildren, Rylee and Harper. She was preceded in death by her parents; and husband, Terry Michael Hall whom she married on June 26, 1971 and who passed away September 21, 1984. Per Jaynes wishes, no services will be held.
Saturday July 13, 2024 Fred Wolken Obituary Frederick H. Wolken, known affectionately as Fred to his friends and family, passed away peacefully on July 12th, 2024, at the age of 78. His final days were spent at Windsor House in Canfield, surrounded by the love and warmth of his family. Born on December 15, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fred was the cherished son of Henry and Helen (Ruffing) Wolken. Fred's early life in Pittsburgh set the stage for a lifetime of dedication and service. After graduating from Bethel Park High School in 1963, he proudly served his country as a member of the United States Navy for six years. His commitment to his nation was a testament to his character and his deep sense of patriotism. Following his military service, Fred pursued higher education at Duquesne University where he pursued a degree in pharmacy, and shortly thereafter, he began a new journey as a husband and father. Fred married the love of his life, Judy (Young) Wolken, on May 11, 1974, and together they welcomed their first child, Jennifer, into the world. He later established Fred's Family Pharmacy, where he served his community for many years. He was a 4th Degree Member of the Knights of Columbus and an active member of St. Paul's Catholic Church. His commitment to his faith and community w | |||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 9 | https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/uw-had-a-big-role-in-sparking-the-seattle-sound/ | en | UW had a big role in sparking the ‘Seattle sound’ | [
"https://magazine.washington.edu/columns_wordpress/wp-content/themes/columns/assets/logos/uw-magazine.svg",
"https://magazine.washington.edu/columns_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/grunge2k.jpg",
"https://magazine.washington.edu/columns_wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/mudhoney.gif",
"https://magazin... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Stories about alumni, students, staff, faculty and friends | UW Magazine — University of Washington Magazine | https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/uw-had-a-big-role-in-sparking-the-seattle-sound/ | Though my McCarty Hall antics wasn’t the first time loud, obnoxious rock ‘n’ roll blasted out on the University of Washington campus, by the time the late ’80s rolled around a decidedly different music began to spew forth from dorms and frat houses. It had elements of punk and garage rock, just like the New York Dolls records I’d used to torture my floormates with, yet it was different—a slower beat and heavier bass.
This particular version of garage punk was a hometown brew created by bands from the Northwest; some of the musicians even went to the UW. Though locals hated the name—since it only described about one-tenth of the local bands at the time—out-of-town critics dubbed it “grunge.” The term stuck, and what was simply a happenstance confluence of many divergent talents became a movement. On local independent labels like Sub Pop and C/Z, it was a sound that first took over the “U” District, the Rainbow Tavern, the HUB Ballroom, and eventually conquered the Wal-Mart.
And it even took over Terry Hall. Imagine the chagrin of the Terry/Lander R.A. who had to go tell the kid down the hall to quiet down, but found the offending dorm rat was Mark Arm, already making a name for himself as a troublemaker. Not only did Arm have the nerve to live in the dorms while he attended the UW (at least for a quarter), he went on to front both Green River and Mudhoney (pictured at top), arguably the two most “grunge” bands to ever come out of the Northwest.
Charles Peterson, ’87, who himself gained fame and international prominence as the photographer who documented the “grunge” explosion, met Arm when they both lived in Terry Hall. “Mark was in a band called Mr. Epp at the time,” remembers Peterson. “He was totally straight-edge, but he was just as cynical and as smart as ever. I also met Ed Fotheringham (The Thrown-Ups) and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) around the same time.” There must have been some great parties in Terry back then.
If only because it attracted creative types from around the Northwest who were going to college, the University of Washington ended up as a meeting ground for many of the individuals who would go on to form bands that made an impact. The UW itself didn’t really have much to do with explosion of grunge (during my tenure at least the music department never held a class on “The Appreciation of Sonic Youth”). But it happened to be the Petri dish that served as breeding ground for many of the young, idealistic rockers who populated Seattle in the ’80s. For centuries universities have played this role in society—they are the launching ground for most social and political revolutions, from bra burning to Communism to the counterculture. This time around the ideology was nothing more than a do-it-yourself rock ‘n’ roll attitude with electric guitars turned up as loud they would go.
And no one did it better than Mudhoney, with perhaps at least some of Mark Arm’s angst built up from his time in Terry Hall. But Mudhoney isn’t the only band with ties to the University of Washington. Others include Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, TAD, The Presidents of the United States of America, Mad Season, The Posies, The Screaming Trees, Skinyard, and the list goes on and on.
Though the UW might be known nationally for its research tradition or its football team, almost every major Northwest band of the last decade can be traced to the University of Washington in some form or another, with at least one member attending school at some point (graduating is another matter altogether). And the UW’s role in those who made up the scene but who weren’t musicians—the promoters, radio disc jockeys, journalists or record producers—is even larger, and more significant.
Even the history of Nirvana has a small UW chapter. The band played a show at the HUB Ball-room on Feb. 25, 1989, part of a bill that boasted “Four Bands for a Buck.” It was one of their most infamous local concerts. They not only trashed their instruments, they also destroyed the HUB’s PA system and hence were “banned for life” from the University of Washington, or so said University administrators. Kurt Cobain joked about it in interviews and the line “Banned For Life” ended up as the title of one of their most famous bootleg CDs, recorded at another Seattle show.
The UW’s musical roots stretch back far beyond grunge, though, and begin with entertainers like Stan Boreson (class of 1950) and Jimmy Oglivy of Dynamics (1964). Pre-grunge, the biggest band launched from the UW campus was the Brothers Four, who formed at the Phi Gamma Delta frat house and scored a No. 2 hit in 1960 with “Greenfields.” Like Kurt Cobain they wore sweaters, though their sound was decidedly square even in the ’60s.
Also making waves during the ’60s was Larry Coryell, who attended the UW and went on to become one of the most famous jazz guitarists ever, helping to launch the jazz fusion movement. During the psychedelic ’60s, most Seattle bands began at the UW or at least had roots to the student underground movement. The Time Machine, Chrome Syrcus, and the Daily Flash all had connections to the UW and played gigs on or around campus, usually complete with light shows.
By the time I began attending the University in 1975 (and working at The Daily), there were only a handful of local bands worth writing about, and most of them were folk or blues. I don’t know if Jim Page ever registered for classes at the UW but I’d say he qualified for an honorary degree considering how many performances he did in Red Square over the years. The Cowboys and The Heats were the big local bands during my undergraduate years, though both had ties to high schools rather than universities.
Kenny Gorelick, ’78, went to the UW during this era. It’s probably safe to say that even including grunge, the saxophonist (who goes by “Kenny G” nowadays) is the most commercially successful musician to ever attend the UW. Gorelick graduated, not as a music major, but with a B.A. in accounting.
What’s thought of as the modern Seattle music scene began in the late ’80s and even Jonathan Poneman—one of the co-founders of Sub Pop records—spent at least some time attending classes at the UW. Poneman, like many of the music fanatics in Seattle at the time, found a welcome home at KCMU, the student-run campus radio station. Also doing a show at KCMU was Bruce Pavitt (who had attended Evergreen State College), and the two formed a partnership that became Sub Pop, the most influential “indie” record label of the last three decades. Many of the bands that went on to sign with Sub Pop were first exposed to Seattle audiences through KCMU.
For several years KCMU was ground central for the Seattle music scene. It was the only area radio station that regularly supported local bands, and, if its listenership was tiny, it was influential in breaking many bands, and not just Seattle bands (KCMU also made the Legendary Pink Dots legendary by repeated airplay). At times the station had more DJs than listeners, but it’s no exaggeration to say that virtually every volunteer who had an air shift in the late ’80s ended up getting a job in the music industry or playing some role in the Seattle scene.
“KCMU helped create a really vibrant and self-aware music scene,” remembers Faith Henschel, ’88, who was music director in the early ’80s. “It gave everyone a sense of community. The time I’m speaking of was before the grunge phenomenon but KCMU was still very sympathetic to local bands.” Henschel has herself gone on to become a vice president of marketing at Capitol Records in Los Angeles.
Henschel and KCMU also had a major role in breaking one local band that eventually went on to become one of the biggest successes out of Seattle. Kim Thayil, ’84, and Hiro Yamamoto had moved to Seattle following their high school buddy Bruce Pavitt, who had come to the Northwest to go the school at Evergreen. Thayil wasn’t taken with Evergreen and ended up moving to Seattle to enroll at the UW. It was there that he won a prize on KCMU (listenership was small enough that there wasn’t a lot of competition). “I went down to pick up my prize,” Thayil later told Alternative Press, “and they said, `You’re always around anyway, how’d you like to work here full-time?’ ” Thayil ended up becoming a popular DJ on the station and he also managed to last all four years at the UW—one of the few musicians who finished. He eventually graduated with a degree in philosophy.
Thayil’s band Soundgarden soon linked up with manager Susan Silver (who had also attended classes at the UW) and the group received their first radio exposure came from KCMU. “I re-member the day we got the first Soundgarden single in and how many times we spun that,” recalls Mike Fuller, ’82, another KCMU vet. “KCMU broke that band, at least locally.” Fuller now works as a DJ with Kidstar radio in Seattle.
Thayil’s own show on KCMU is best remembered by other jocks as “eclectic” but it reflected what Henschel describes as “his personal favorites.” It was that ability to go out on a limb—a creativity only allowed at the time on college radio—that helped support a revolutionary new style of music. “When Kim and Bruce [Pavitt] played those sort of records, it helped lead to acceptance of their favorite music and eventually to acceptance of their own bands,” says Henschel.
The list of KCMU volunteers in the late ’80s (most of whom were students) reads like a who’s who of the Seattle music industry in the ’90s. Apart from musicians like Thayil and Yamamoto from Soundgarden, Steve Turner of Mudhoney also contributed, as did Jeff Smith of Mr. Epp, and Scott Vanderpool of Chemistry Set. There were the label mavens like Poneman and Pavitt, plus numerous DJs that eventually tried their hand at journalism: Veronika Kalmar, now man-aging editor of The Rocket; Jeff Gilbert, Guitar World’s Seattle beat reporter; Peter Blecha, now with The Experience Music Project; and Glen Boyd, a journalist and promoter who went on to work at both Nasty-Mix and American Recordings. At the time, the line between being a fan and being a promoter was thin, since both the audience and the stakes seemed so small.
As music director, Henschel was part chamber of commerce and part salesperson. She did something few DJs ever do: She started promoting the bands the station was playing to national labels. She put together a tape, prophetically titled “Bands That Will Make Money,” and sent it to everyone she could think of in the music industry both locally and nationally. The tape featured a collection of Seattle bands that weren’t getting attention outside of the area. “She included bands that the station was playing a lot, and that they’d carted up, but that no one else had heard of,” says Dave Rosencrans, ’88, former KCMUer. “And when she sent them out, it garnered a lot of attention.”
Rosencrans did more than just play Seattle bands on the radio—he also had a job with the ASUW Arts and Entertainment department and was responsible for booking many of the bands that played on campus. During his tenure he was the first local promoter to bring many alternative bands to Seattle including such national luminaries as Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Game Theory and The Go-Betweens. Rosencrans almost always booked local acts to open these shows and those opening spots were important in the careers of groups like Pure Joy and Chemistry Set.
“Remember these were the Reagan years,” he says, “and not many people were taking chances on underground bands. But because we were a student organization we could take a chance on some more `out there’ bands.”
The job of ASUW concert promoter was almost as important as KCMU in terms of serving as a launching ground for UW students who went on to have careers in the music industry. Rosencrans is now the International Product Manager of Sub Pop, where he promotes some of the bands that he helped get exposure back in college.
Others to hold the A&E job include John Kohl, ’81, and Mark Rose, both of whom graduated from promoting shows at the UW to promoting concerts in the real world. Rose and Kohl both work with major record labels in the high-pressure world of record promotion, but it was experience at the UW that helped them get their start. “I remember walking into the ASUW and saying I wanted to work shows, and they told me I was then the production manager,” says Rose. “I got a little badge. That’s how I got my job when I left the U.”
Kohl remembers his experience at the UW as a chance to experiment in an environment where experimentation was encouraged—a theme echoed by others. “I think the UW brought a lot of creative people into its larger community,” Kohl said. “A lot of people might have come here for the UW, but they stayed and became members of the larger music community.”
Like Rose and Kohl, Mark Gorlick, ’80, started out working behind the scenes in the music in-dustry (in record promotion) while a student at the UW. He’s gone on to make a career of it as a senior vice president of promotions with MCA Records in Los Angeles, perhaps the highest profile job any UW alumnus has within the music industry. “I first worked as a college rep for Columbia Records, and it’s a job I couldn’t have gotten if I wasn’t a student at the UW,” he says. “That opened the doors. I met a lot of people in college radio. I wrote for The Daily. I made connections. Many of those connections I made are with people I still work with 20 years later.”
Gorlick, the local record guy who brought me my first copy of an Elvis Costello album (which changed my life), was at the UW at a time when the local music scene was sleepy compared to the explosion that would occur a decade later. “I shudder to think what it would have been like if all the people I went through school with had been around when the Seattle scene was exploding,” he recalls. “When I went to the UW, the big groups were Heart, Bighorn, Child and Rail. Now we have real bands.”
The emergence of “real” bands also has changed the dynamics of the student rock ‘n’ roller. With so many successful bands in the Northwest in the past decade, more aspiring rockers think of music as an actual career. A decade ago, most of the Seattle scene bands all started off thinking they were going to have day jobs instead of music careers—and education at universities played a role in that. Today, when superstardom seems ordinary, fewer bands in the area seem to have ties to the University because many young musicians expect (sometimes wrongly) that they will be able to make a living from playing music.
Still, as rock ‘n’ roll becomes a real career path, some successful musicians are now starting to think about graduate school. Dave Dederer of The Presidents of the United States went to grad school at the UW, one of the few rockers with such lofty credentials. And drummer Barrett Martin— who has played with some of the biggest groups in the region including Mad Season, Screaming Trees and Skinyard—now says he’d like to go back to the UW for postgraduate study when his music career slows down.
“I’d love to have the time to study anthropology, or sociology, and it seems like it would be a great luxury to have the time spend your life working in that,” he says. Could Eddie Vedder be next, perhaps enrolling to study political science to better handle his fight with Ticketmaster?
The bands that have found the greatest success from the Northwest in the past couple of years no longer reflect such a singular sensibility as grunge, so even though the scene continues, it’s getting less national press. Bands like Foo Fighters, The Presidents of the United States of America, and Everclear represent the second wave of the Northwest scene and they all were played on commercial radio before KCMU.
Yet as time marches on, the history books remind us of a time when you could see Nirvana at the HUB for a buck, when Soundgarden was playing just up the street at the Rainbow Tavern, and when KCMU was the only station worth punching in on your car radio. It was an era of innocence when the measure of success was determined by playing a show at the Scoundrel’s Lair (now a pizza place, across from the Red Robin on Eastlake, and a longtime UW hangout) to 20 of your friends and fellow students.
“I remember back when Bruce Pavitt was doing his Sub Pop radio show for KCMU,” recalls Mike Fuller. “I followed one of his shifts once and when I went in there he was asleep. The record that he’d been playing was stuck with the needle in the center groove and it was going `ka-chung, kachung.’ Bruce was slumped over the control panel snoring. I don’t know how long it had been that way but it could have been hours. And the funny thing was, not a single person had called up the station to complain.” | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 93 | https://www.fraziermuseum.org/musical-kentucky | en | Musical Kentucky: A Song from each County | http://static1.squarespace.com/static/60478587fb604315e86495e3/t/64244b8e4f59c51777c3c3e3/1680100242828/Musical-Kentucky-Graphic.jpg?format=1500w | http://static1.squarespace.com/static/60478587fb604315e86495e3/t/64244b8e4f59c51777c3c3e3/1680100242828/Musical-Kentucky-Graphic.jpg?format=1500w | [
"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60478587fb604315e86495e3/049c4f68-dcaf-4bd0-a9c8-d05dd9a6e2ea/Frazier_20thAnniversary_4C-on-black-01.jpg?format=1500w",
"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60478587fb604315e86495e3/9bb14160-b1f5-47a3-a8fc-740696fae2ac/Frazier_20thAnniversary_color_HORZ.png... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | As a supplement to the Musical Kentucky section of the Frazier Museum’s Cool Kentucky exhibition, we’re curating a Spotify playlist of 120 songs: one song from each county in Kentucky. In 2023, once a month, we’ll share songs from ten counties, completing the playlist in December. | en | https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60478587fb604315e86495e3/97487d8f-c3ab-44a0-bba9-28b192c2594c/favicon.ico?format=100w | Frazier History Museum | https://www.fraziermuseum.org/musical-kentucky | As part of our 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit, which opened March 15, 2024, we’ve curated a Spotify playlist of 120 songs: one song from each county in Kentucky!
“I chose each song myself,” Frazier communications and research specialist Simon Meiners said. “The goal wasn’t to represent the county, per se; the goal was to curate a playlist of 120 songs that showcases the breadth and range of creativity and artistry in Kentucky. It’s not all country and bluegrass: you’ll hear gospel, indie, jazz, new wave, Motown, opera, techno-funk, dance pop, jug band, Latin acoustic, Irish slides, Southern rap, Appalachian folk, emo, yodeling, R&B, show tunes, “prison rock,” and more.”
Visit the Frazier History Museum, where the world meets Kentucky.
“Break the Deal” by Maggie Cox. (Released October 29, 2021.) Columbia, Adair County’s Maggie Cox began singing in church at seven, playing guitar at nine, and writing her own songs at fourteen. “A few years ago, I just sat down at the piano and started writing on my closet with a Sharpie,” the then-seventeen-year-old senior told the County Line in 2022—“and I’ve been writing songs ever since.”
“100,000 Women Can’t be Wrong” by Lattie Moore. (Released 1956.) As a teenager, Lattie Moore (1924–2010) ran the projector at the movie theater in Scottsville, Allen County. By thirty, thanks in part to his 1952 hit “Juke Joint Johnny,” he was a rockabilly playboy with a nightly gig in Indianapolis. “You don’t like my lovin’ or my turtledovin’,” he brags on a 1956 track, “but 100,000 women can’t be wrong.”
“River that Speaks” by Fred Keams and Seth Murphy. (Released April 26, 2023.) A Harrodsburg resident who lived nearly twenty years in Lawrenceburg, Anderson County, Fred Nez-Keams is a Native American flute maker born from the Red Bottom Charcoal People. “My grandfather is the One who Walks Around; my maternal grandfather is the Red Bottom Water.” He performs traditional and original compositions.
“Kentucky, 1988” by Kelsey Waldon. (Released October 3, 2019.) At twelve, Kelsey Waldon got a job stacking tobacco in the river bottoms of Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ballard County. Each evening, sun blisters dotted her ears—an experience she recounts on “Kentucky, 1988,” a tribute to her origin. “This is my DNA / I wouldn’t have it any other way / When things got rough we did not complain / Kentucky, 1988.”
“Bowling Green” by the New Lost City Ramblers and Cousin Emmy. (Recorded 1968.) Innovative hillbilly musician Cousin Emmy (1903–80) grew up in Lamb, Barren County. “Bowling Green” was originally a fiddle tune when she added floating lyrics and a chorus. In a 1966 TV appearance, she performed “You Are My Sunshine” with Pete Seeger by letting the air out of an inflated rubber glove in the key of G.
“The Sheriff of Boone County” by Kenny Price. (Released 1970.) Boone County farm boy Kenny Price (1931–87) satirizes the sheriff as a petty tyrant parked in a speed trap on I-75. “If you’re tryin’ to push your Caddy from Nashville to Cincinnati / You have to come across the Boone County line / As you’re drivin’ through you better mind your P’s and Q’s / ’Cause this here stretch of interstate, boy, is MINE!”
“Why Not Me” by the Judds. (Released September 1984.) At twelve, Wynonna Judd—an Ashland, Boyd County, native raised in LA—returned to Kentucky with her mother, Naomi. Living in rural poverty, without a phone or a TV, Wynonna turned to guitar, laying the base for country music’s greatest mother-daughter duo of all time. “Your Kentucky girl’s been waiting patiently,” she sings on “Why Not Me.”
“How Excellent is Thy Name” by Larnelle Harris. (Released 1985.) Raised at 229 Randolph Hill on Clarks Run in Danville, Boyle County, Larnelle Harris began singing in his church at six then became the president of Danville High School Choir. In February 1986, his family threw a party celebrating his two latest Grammys—including one, the Best Gospel Performance (Male), for “How Excellent is Thy Name.”
“Ol’ Dood (Part II)” by Sturgill Simpson. (Released August 20, 2021.) Jackson, Breathitt County’s Sturgill Simpson is the first male on his mother’s side not to work in a mine. Set in Eastern Kentucky in 1862, his album The Ballad of Dood and Juanita follows a homesteader named Dood—“son of a mountain miner and a Shawnee maid”—on his quest to save his love Juanita from her outlaw captor Seamus McClure.
“Curves” by the Shane Dawson Band. (Released August 6, 2021.) As a teen, Mount Washington, Bullitt County, country singer Shane Dawson played on quarter beer nights at Phoenix Hill Tavern. Then, at nineteen, to pay the bills, he started plumbing. But his day job at Louisville Plumbing Co. hasn’t stopped his music: his coworkers say he’ll finish a set at 4 a.m., crash, then arrive first to work in the morning.
“Quiet Magazine” by 00 the Rabbit. (Released August 4, 2010.) A longtime performer at Tidball’s in Bowling Green, the alternative pop act 00 the Rabbit is the project of Morgantown, Butler County, native Russell Brooks, who now does voiceovers and background music for commercials. “Quiet Magazine” is “about doing whatever you can to show your dedication,” Brooks told the Frazier.
“Can’t Put It Back” by Scout Larken. (Released September 27, 2006.) Raised on a farm in the flatland of Cunningham, Carlisle County, West Kentucky, Scout Larken is nevertheless passionate about stopping mountaintop removal in Eastern Kentucky. “They say Hey, we’re gonna put it back just like we found it!,” she sings skeptically on “Can’t Put it Back.” “They take away the beauty and they leave an open sore.”
“Sweet Tea (Bring Me Home)” by Kiana & the Sun Kings. (Released May 8, 2022.) On the ode to her mother “Sweet Tea (Bring Me Home”), Kiana Del recalls growing up in the Second Baptist Church of Carrollton, Carroll County—gospel music filling the air, her mother’s sanguine voice, the smell of a lilac bush in the summer, the symphony of galaxies within her—where, at age four, she debuted as a singer.
“Trip to Hyden” by Tom T. Hall. (Released 1971.) On December 30, 1970, thirty-nine miners died in an explosion in the Hurricane Creek mine near Hyden, Leslie County. Months later, Tick Ridge, Carter County, country singer Tom T. Hall (1936–2021) bore witness to the aftermath. “Just another country hillside with some mud holes and some junk / The mines were deadly silent like a rat hole in the wall.”
“Take Me Back” by Darrell Speck. (Recorded 1959.) In 1947, nine-year-old Albany, Clinton County, resident Darrell Speck (1938–2003) told his mother Dimple he wanted to learn guitar. So she taught him chords—and soon, he was performing everywhere, including the town square. After a stint in the Navy, Darrell went on to hold a variety of jobs: rockabilly singer, disc jockey, and Clinton County coroner.
“June Barcarolle” by Herman Chittison. (Recorded c. 1945.) In 1912–13, as a four-year-old in Flemingsburg, Fleming County, Herman Chittison (1908–67) started playing piano with one finger. By the late 1910s, he was performing hymns at Strawberry Methodist Church. On March 15, 1939, while living in Egypt, he played piano at the royal wedding of the Prince of Iran and the Princess of Egypt in Cairo.
“Tender Kind” by S.G. Goodman. (Released July 17, 2020.) Raised in Hickman, Fulton County, S.G. Goodman grew up singing in church, working in sweet corn, and gigging for gar in the Bayou de Chien behind her family’s farm. “Come June we’ll take a ride around the hidden backroads of this country town,” she sings on “Tender Kind.” “And sit in the dark of this bottom land / Oh, hand in my hand.”
“Some Little Bug is Going to Find You” by Bradley Kincaid. (Recorded September 14, 1933.) When Point Leavell, Garrard County’s Bradley Kincaid (1895–1989) read the neurotic lyrics to the 1910s black comedy ballad “Some Little Bug is Going to Find You,” he composed a melody. “Eating lobster cooked or plain is only flirting with ptomaine . . . Eating juicy sliced pineapple makes a sexton dust a chapel.”
“Steal your Dad” by Dallas Remington. (Released September 23, 2022.) A fifth-generation farm kid from Mayfield, Graves County, country musician Dallas Remington has many hobbies, like yoga, hunting, and four-wheeling. But on “Steal your Dad,” the moxy and confidence she exudes—“You stole my man so I’m’a steal your dad”—probably has more to do with the black belt she’s earned in Tae Kwon Do.
“My Boy” by Elvie Shane. (Released September 21, 2020.) Country artist Elvie Shane grew up singing in church in Caneyville, Grayson County. “This is good, hard-working, hard-nosed, blue-collar American people in this town,” he said at a Caneyville performance in 2021—“and I was raised by all of them.” As of 2024, his song about a stepfather’s love, “My Boy,” has been streamed 60 million times on Spotify.
“Future Street” by Martha Redbone. (Released 2004.) “My family . . . has been in Harlan County since the beginning of time,” Martha Redbone, a roots musician from Lynch, Harlan County, told the Lexington Herald-Leader in 2018. “Everyone has come from everywhere to feed their families in those hills and those mountains. There are Irish people, Portuguese people, [and] lots of African American people.”
“Never Swat a Fly” by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers. (Recorded April 11, 1930.) After serving in the US Army during WWI then playing drums in a circus band, Cynthiana, Harrison County, native Bill McKinney (1895–1969) led McKinney’s Cotton Pickers in the Greystone Ballroom in Detroit from the 1920s to the `40s. The comedic group became one of the first African American bands to play on national radio.
“With a Friend Like You” by Reba Rambo. (Released November 1, 1980.) In 1967, Dawson Springs, Hopkins County, tenor vocalist Reba Rambo toured Vietnam performing with her family for US troops. By 1980, she was one of the most decorated contemporary Christian soloists in gospel music. Written by Rambo and her then-husband, “With a Friend Like You” is a high-production-value pop earworm.
“Mami” by Asly Toro. (Released February 13, 2024.) Barinas, Venezuela, native Asly Toro grew up dancing salsa with her mom and singing the Bee Gees with her dad. At five, she got a singing role on the TV show ¿Cuánto Vale el Show? In 2013, she moved to Louisville, Jefferson County, where she makes Latin pop music. She also performs as the frontwoman of the 1920s jazz act Billy Goat Strut Revue.
“Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind)” by Loretta Lynn. (Released 1967.) Born to a coal miner and subsistence farmer in a one-room log cabin in Butcher Hollow near Van Lear, Johnson County, Loretta Lynn (1932–2022) is the quintessential Kentucky musician. In 1967, she released “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind),” which became her first number-one country hit.
“Yellow Peril” by Nat Myers. (Released March 2, 2023.) Korean-American blues poet Nat Myers of Covington, Kenton County, teamed up with Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach on “Yellow Peril,” a song Nat wrote just before the Stop Asian Hate movement took off. “I knew they were going to blame us yellow folks for the virus,” he said. “I’m all about Yellow Power. I want this record to raise my folks up.”
“How Long Has it Been?” by Bobby Lewis. (Released 1966.) Bobby Lewis comes from Hodgenville, LaRue County. “Bobby is the first as well as the only country music player to play a lute rather than the more familiar instruments,” a 1967 Louisiana Sun article reports. “[His wife Pat] makes all of his extremely attractive costumes, including [a] colorful red velvet design . . . studded with Persian rhinestones.”
“Phoebe the Yodeling Cowgirl” by Phoebe White ft. Riders in the Sky. (Released September 9, 2022.) Most of the vocals twelve-year-old London, Laurel County, prodigy Phoebe White recorded for her debut album were captured in single takes. On “Phoebe the Yodeling Cowgirl,” she boasts: “My yodeling swept the country epidemic that all caught us / Now everybody knows me as the Epiglottis Goddess!”
“All Your’n” by Tyler Childers. (Released June 21, 2019.) Born and raised south of Louisa in Lawrence County, Tyler Childers is the son of a coal miner and a nurse. He now lives in Estill County with “my lady of the Estill Springs,” one of several references to his Irvine-native wife, musician Senora May, on the 2019 album Country Squire. “I’ll love ya ‘til my lungs give out—I ain’t lyin / I’m all your’n you’re all mine.”
“Tom Barrett” by Ian Noe. (Released March 25, 2022.) Ian Noe’s “Tom Barrett” follows a WWII veteran who, having been thrust into violence, returns to Noe’s hometown [Beattyville, Lee County] haunted by his trauma. “On the day I turned forty-one I was crawling up a ditch in Greece / About to end a man when they stopped me at his heels / Never knew how they handled him / And don’t guess I ever will.”
“Nona” by Slut Pill. (Released January 24, 2020.) Formed in 2018 by Paulina Vazquez, Carrie Carter, and Mitchella Phipps, Slut Pill is a “contraceptive rock” band from Whitesburg, Letcher County. “Slut Pill would not be without “The Pill,”” they posted after their idol died. “Loretta Lynn walked so we could stumble and crawl in the path she laid before us. Eastern Kentuckian excellence in its purest form.”
“Sixty to One” by RISK. (Recorded 1984.) Recorded by “prison rock” quartet RISK while incarcerated in the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Lyon County, “Sixty to One” recounts how three RISK members had attempted escape—the title a reference to their odds of succeeding. “They didn’t make it over the wall,” fourth member Joe Peck told the Frazier. “But they definitely did give it their best shot.”
“Kiss You All Over” by Exile. (Recorded 1977–78.) Originally formed as a high school band in Richmond, Madison County, in the mid-1960s, the Lexington-based pop group Exile rose to fame in 1978 with the Billboard chart–topping “Kiss You All Over.” Guitarist and vocalist J.P. Pennington is the son of bluegrass singer Glenn Pennington and banjoist Lily May Ledford, whose dress is on display at the Frazier Museum.
“Sporting Bachelors” by Buell Kazee. (Recorded c. 1929.) Born at Mash Fork, Magoffin County, Buell Kazee (1900–76), who studied ancient languages at Georgetown College, had a repertoire of folk songs. During a 1926 show at a UK gym, he said funny songs like “Sporting Bachelors”—about a cuckold’s despair—were traditionally danced to the fiddle after an apple cutting, a log rolling, or even a wedding.
“Good Morning” by Nimrod Workman. (Recorded 1982.) Named for his grandfather, a Cherokee who fought in the Civil War and taught him old ballads from the British Isles, coal miner Nimrod Workman (1895–1994) of Inez, Martin County, spreads love on the tongue twister “Good Morning.” “There never was people . . . who loved you and your people like me and my people love you and your people.”
“Sisters” by Rosemary and Betty Clooney. (Released 1954.) Recorded for the musical White Christmas, “Sisters” was written by Irving Berlin and performed by Maysville, Mason County, natives: the film’s female lead Rosemary Clooney (1928–2002) and her sister Betty (1931–76). “Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister / And Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!”
“Sweet Sue” by Scotty Anderson. (Recorded May–June 2000.) As a boy, Merle Travis–style guitar picker Scotty Anderson moved to Whitley City, McCreary County. The title of his album Triple Stop refers to a technique he developed. “You can use two fingers together like they’re glued, simultaneously hitting down and up,” he told the Cincinnati Post in 2001. “Now you’re flowing with it as a unit back and forth.”
“Lonesome Roads” by Colt Graves. (Released May 11, 2022.) When Calhoun, McLean County, musician Colt Graves brought his two boys and his girlfriend to ride the trails at Wranglers Campground at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky, nature didn’t cooperate: it rained. So he pulled out his guitar and wrote a song. “Lonesome roads are all I know / There ain’t no sunshine or blue skies around me.”
“Leave her Be” by Army of Life. (Released September 29, 2023.) Inspired by 1970s artists Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and B.B. King, Brandenburg, Meade County, band Army of Life consist of four teens. They’ve performed at local venues such as Dore’s Corner Tavern in Payneville and Derby City Pizza in Orell. They recorded their nine-song demo in Elizabethtown when three of the members were still in high school.
“Blackberry Boogie” by Delbert Barker. (Released 1952.) A resident of a farm in Frenchburg, Menifee County, from his birth in 1932 to 1943, Delbert Barker recorded covers of popular rockabilly songs in the mid-1950s. In 1952, he put out a rendition of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s ode to the state fruit of Kentucky, “Blackberry Boogie.” In 1960, he left the music business and became a law enforcement officer in Ohio.
“Hot Beer” by Dillon Carmichael. (Released May 14, 2021.) A baritone from Burgin, Mercer County, Dillon Carmichael has a toxic ex who wants to reconcile. His response? “I’d rather drink a hot beer, build a fire in the pouring rain / Burn all of my fishing gear, set sail in a hurricane / Go hunting with an empty gun, see a once-in-a-lifetime deer / Work a Saturday just for fun, then come home and drink a hot beer.”
“State Line” by Larah Helayne. (Released May 13, 2022.) Larah Helayne of Mt. Sterling, Montgomery County, is a Queer, Appalachian banjoist and singer. As a rebound from their “first big gay breakup” in southeastern Kentucky, their heart led them to a Virginian. “I’m driving up the Clinch from the Kentucky side,” they sing, referencing Clinch Mountain. “I’ll meet you at the state line if I can see you tonight.”
“Sixteen Tons” by Merle Travis. (Released June 9, 1947.) “You load sixteen tons—what do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt,” country western picker Merle Travis (1917–83) of Rosewood, Muhlenberg County, croons on his 1947 folk song about a miner of the western Kentucky coalfields caught in debt bondage. “St. Peter don’t you call `cause I can’t go / I owe my soul to the company store!”
“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” by Patty Loveless. (Released June 11, 2001.) In 1997, Darrell Scott wrote a now-iconic song about the plight of Harlan County coal miners. In 2001, Pikeville, Pike County’s Patty Loveless recorded a rendition. “In the deep dark hills of Eastern Kentucky / That’s the place where I trace my bloodline / And it’s there I read on a hillside gravestone / “You’ll never leave Harlan alive.””
“How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?” by the Coon Creek Girls. (Released January 1982.) On June 8, 1939, the all-women string band the Coon Creek Girls, fronted by fiddler Lily May Ledford (1917–85) from the Red River Gorge area in Powell County, performed “How Many Biscuits Can You Eat?” at the White House for the Roosevelts and their special guests, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England.
“Better Parts” by Tiny Tiny. (Released July 29, 2016.) Somerset, Pulaski County, indie pop act Tiny Tiny consists of Boone Williams and “a rotating cast of friends, family, and other weirdos” in south central Kentucky. “What I would tell young artists in the area is find your people,” he told the Commonwealth Journal in 2022. “Don’t let anyone else define for you what it is to be an artist in Somerset, Kentucky.”
“I Miss Kentucky” by Kelley Ray King. (Released January 14, 2016.) At seven, Kelley Ray King listened to the country music his mother played on the radio in their kitchen in Mount Olivet, Robertson County, while she did housework. He picked up saxophone and guitar at his Germantown grade school. The day after his high school graduation in 1986, his family left Kentucky. He is now an electrician in Wyoming.
“Young Edward” by Dora Mae Wagers. (Released 1999.) Born in Hazel Patch, Dora Mae Wagers (1927–98), the only child of a factory worker and a seamstress, grew up hearing music at square dances, barn raisings, and corn shuckings. Having been taught banjo by her grandmother, she performed at Renfro Valley Barn Dance for forty years. In 1998, she died at her home in Livingston, Rockcastle County.
“Dead Horses” by the Local Honeys. (Released July 15, 2022.) On “Dead Horses,” the Local Honeys, who met at Morehead State in Rowan County, explore a tragedy Kentucky farmers have been experiencing since the 1700s. “I never got used to watching horses die / They die badly, it has kept me up at night / I never got used to watching horses die / Count my pretty ponies when I greet the morning light.”
“Old Souls” by Jen Tackett. (Released June 3, 2022.) A self-proclaimed “wife, mother, musician, loud laugher, [and] nerd,” Jen Tackett grew up on a farm in Georgetown, Scott County, that inspired her love of both music and agriculture. She sings “he always takes the old roads even though the new ones will get him where he needs to go”—a line inspired by her love for driving down Georgetown’s Main Street.
“Denver” by Jack Harlow. (Released April 28, 2023.) Louisville ambassador Jack Harlow was partly raised in Shelbyville, Shelby County. “I find myself wondering if the people that write about me are right about me / I wonder if my exes are oversharing `cause they know a lot about me,” he raps on “Denver.” “I’m a long way from Shelby County / I been through some local tension, heard talks of a healthy bounty.”
“Nocturne I: C Major” by Our Transient Lives. (Released October 1, 2021.) “There’s something sacred to me about being alone in an old, redbrick house in the center of my town left alone with a piano for fifteen minutes,” Franklin, Simpson County’s Jared Rosdeutscher writes of his ambient solo piano album Nocturnes I. “Even though the piano may be old and out of tune, it still has a special sound to it.”
“Project” by Chase McDaniel. (Released May 27, 2022.) Native to Greensburg, Green County, pop country singer Chase McDaniel also calls Campbellsville, Taylor County, home. After graduating U of L, he moved to Nashville to pursue a music career. But early in the pandemic, jobless and down to $12, he almost turned back. His fortunes changed, though, and his 2022 song “Project” topped several charts.
“Best Mistake” by JamisonParker. (Released July 12, 2005.) Jamison Covington grew up in Guthrie, Todd County, and worked at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket. In 2002, he moved to California, where he and Parker Case formed JamisonParker. Around 2003, Covington temporarily moved back to Kentucky, where he exchanged music tapes with Case via mail. In 2005, the emo duo released their first album.
“Yakety Sax” by Boots Randolph. (Released 1963.) Hailing from Cadiz, Trigg County, tenor saxophone player Boots Randolph co-wrote and performed a song that has since become associated worldwide with slapstick. From the 1960s on, “Yakety Sax” was used frequently in the UK’s Benny Hill Show, played over time-lapse footage of whacky pursuits, car chases, and other sketch comedy shenanigans.
“Washington Quadrille” by Jimmie Johnson String Band. (Recorded 1931.) Trimble County fiddler Les Smitha (pronounced “Smitty”) recorded two cuts with Jimmie Johnson String Band. Later, after losing half of his right hand’s index finger in a well digging accident, he used his stub as a bar. Then, he lost his right arm at the elbow, but made a device that allowed him to hold the bow so he could keep fiddling.
“The Soul of Me” by Dottie Rambo. (Released 1968.) Singer and guitarist Dottie Rambo (1934–2008) was raised with ten siblings near Morganfield, Union County. At twelve, she left home. She became a gospel sensation, recording seventy records and touring as far as Greenland, Vietnam, and beyond the Iron Curtain. Her 1968 song “The Soul of Me” won the Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Performance.
“Ladies Old Time Band” by Sue Massek. (Released December 30, 2010.) In 1994, Sue Massek, who’d hitchhiked to Kentucky in 1976, moved to Willisburg, Washington County. She plays banjo in the Reel World String Band—“Kentucky’s feminist hillbilly band.” She wrote “Ladies Old Time Band” after a city councilman remarked that he’d book Reel World for a gig if his colleagues weren’t “old fuddy-duddies.”
“Ladies on the Steamboat” by Burnett & Rutherford. (Recorded November 3, 1927.) Born in Elk Spring Valley in Monticello, Wayne County, traveling banjoist Dick Burnett (1883–1977) was blind most of his life. Around 1914, Leonard Rutherford (1900–54) of Somerset became his sighted companion. In return, Burnett helped the young fiddler master his craft as they toured from Cincinnati to Chattanooga.
“Becky’s Bible” by Chris Knight. (Released 2001.) Accused of cheating in a card game, Slaughters, Webster County, singer Chris Knight shoots his accuser, flees, and hides in the swamps of the Green River bottoms, praying that no homicide occurred: this is the plot of “Becky’s Bible.” ““I wonder if Becky’s Bible is still in the glove box,” he sings. “`Cause I’m sure gonna need it if that boy died.”
“Palomino Princess” by Tyler Booth. (January 8, 2021.) Born and raised in a musical family in Campton, Wolfe County, Tyler Booth often sat in on the rehearsals for his dad’s rock band. He later enrolled in Morehead State University’s Traditional Music Studies program and got connected with a Nashville producer. As of 2024, his song “Palomino Princess” has been streamed over 16 million times on Spotify. | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 2 | https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis.htm | en | Linda Ronstadt | [
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis1.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis2.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis3.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis4.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis5.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artdis6.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | Linda Ronstadt is beautiful. She is also articulate, gracious, and a singer of overwhelming power. While success has come upon her swiftly, and she is still sorting out her impressions, there's no doubt about the impression she makes on audiences. Under her dark brunette bangs flash the eyes of the gypsy girl we'd all like to run away with. But in the middle of that round moon face is a nose that crinkles when she laughs, telling you she's really somebody's kid sister from down the block.
In performance she commits herself totally, something that just cannot be felt on recordings. Each number in the set builds until, in a finale of evangelical proportions, she sings Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released." It ends the set because nothing could possible follow it. She calls it the first hymn that Dylan ever wrote. The description fits. And, like Linda herself, the song resonates with the joy and pain of the people we meet in life who are lucky enough to be real.
Her band is not the original Stone Poneys, but a new group of young professionals she has gathered together, and they are a joy to watch. They really get on it in working with each other. There's John Forsha, guitar; John Ware, drummer; John Keski, bass; Herb Steiner, steel guitar; Bill Martin, piano. Steiner is a Jewish pixie and Martin is the wit of the group, combining Peter Sellers zaniness with an Orson Welles touch for the dramatic.
Let's start with some of the things that influenced you and brought you, musically speaking, to the point where you are now.
Well, geographically I'm from the Southwest. . . Tuscon, Arizona to be specific. My family has a musical background... my father plays the guitar. There's a lot of country music in the clubs and on the radio there, and I got to hear a lot of Mexican music... the ranchero music, which is like Mexican bluegrass... my favorite singer is a Mexican woman named Lora Belle Turan . . . it's very exciting, romantic music.
Where did the name Stone Poneys come from?
It's from an old blues recording, called "Stone Poney Blues," by Charlie Patton.
Where else do you find your material, or what other performers do you admire?
Edith Piaf, who was a great French cabaret singer, and Billie Holiday, probably the greatest blues singer of all. I think Janis Joplin is one of the greatest blues singers around right now. Like Billie, she has great phrasing. And Bob Dylan is such a beautiful performer ... his phrasing is unbelievable... he's such a real person too... you just know from his songs that he knows what suffering means. . . "Blonde On Blonde" was about the height of his being up tight with himself, but instead of getting destroyed he turned around, did "John Wesley Harding" which is so full of spiritual things ... it's honest because he commits himself ... and for an artist of that calibre, with that much power to commit himself, well, he's committing a huge percentage of the world too, because they will follow him ... that album was such a gentle trend setter in just that way. . . "I Shall Be Released" is about my favorite song right now ... I learned it from The Band on the "Big Pink" album, which is the band Dylan has been using at his concerts ... I like Jerry Lee Lewis, too ... I'm doing one of his songs from his new country album, "Break My Mind." And Randy Newman ... his songs are so beautiful and he hurts so much ... I just want to send him a big jar of aspirin ... Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison" album was so beautiful it made me cry ... it's so real to hear him up there singing that song to those prisoners ...
You've done quite a few of Tim Buckley's songs, too.
Tim used to live in a house that I lived in too, and we both used to move in and out ... that is, we stayed there alternately. It was the house he wrote about in "Morning Glory," which I call "The Hobo." That was the "fleeting house."
There's a lot of country influence in your repertory now.
That's partly because of my Southwestern background... but the pop music scene was freaked out for so long... and now it's like it's coming home again... country music is very real and groovy... and it's exerting so much influence on pop that even the Beatles' "Revolution" has a country sound to it... I learned a lot from Kitty Wells and other country singers... and you can't get any better than Hank Williams... he's still an important part of the country music scene, and you can hear his influence in Bob Dylan's last album. "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" is going to be on our next album. It's my other favorite song right now.
What's your philosophy?
I believe in astrological things, and reincarnation, that people who get hung up sooner or later have to turn around and wade through all that wrong stuff they've done, if not in this life then in the next one, and after they pay their dues then they should be ok... because there's always another chance... What it's all about is trying your best... I sometimes get things like hay fever if I'm not working well, and I think stuff like that comes from just not trying your hardest, because if you're doing your thing it doesn't matter how hard you're working, you just feel good about it... That's why this is a dangerous business... you get up there and expose yourself, and if people don't like you it really hurts... when you're really hurting like that there's no cop-out... you can't put the audience down and say they don't know from art... you just have to be honest and say well, I didn't do very well that time...
Have you had much criticism now that you're working with a folk-rock band, as opposed to a pair of folk guitarists?
Well, that kind of criticism, which usually comes from smug little magazines, is pure, intellectual bull... musicians don't really worry about anything like that... the important thing in musicianship is how much you communicate... it can be either Procol Harum or Hank Williams... it doesn't matter... once you get over the sublime line... there are plenty of super-technicians around but they don't really communicate... the Beatles have a line in "Nowhere Man" which says "just like you and me" which is a real kind of honesty... and Bob Dylan's most powerful line is "let us not speak falsely now, the hour is growing late" and it's true... the only way to get straight is to tell the truth... that's the only way. | ||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 32 | https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/contactus.htm | en | Contact Us (U.S. National Park Service) | [
"https://www.nps.gov/theme/assets/dist/images/branding/logo.png",
"https://www.nps.gov/common/commonspot/templates/assets/images/branding/nps_logo-bw.gif",
"https://www.nps.gov/common/commonspot/templates/assets/images/app-promo/footer-app-promo.png",
"https://www.nps.gov/common/commonspot/templates/assets/im... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | /common/commonspot/templates/images/icons/favicon.ico | https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/contactus.htm | Parks
For information about a specific park (or to report an error on a park webpage), type the park's name into the search box below to get the park's contact information. If you have a park-specific question, it's best to communicate directly with that park. | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 49 | https://ket.org/tv-schedules/2024-08-07 | en | TV Schedules > KET | [
"https://portal.ketcloud.ket.org/20230925085106/KentuckyEdition_970x200-1.jpg",
"https://portal.ketcloud.ket.org/20230925085045/KentuckyEdition_2000x3000-1-450x675.jpg",
"https://portal.ketcloud.ket.org/20230403101500/Visions_970x200.jpg",
"https://portal.ketcloud.ket.org/20230403101443/Visions_2000x3000-450x... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2024-08-07T00:00:00 | Check the schedule to find out when programs are airing on KET, KET2, KETKY and KETKIDS. | en | https://ket.org/wp-content/themes/portal-theme/\favicons\ket_favicon.ico | KET | https://ket.org/tv-schedules/2024-08-07/ | Inside Louisville
Rooting for Robert: Fighting Rare Diseases
Meet the Vice family, whose son, Robert, suffers from a rare disease named Morquio syndrome. The treatment Robert receives today was made possible by another Louisville family who was told their son wouldn't live past the age of 10 because of a similar condition. Mark Dant details his family's fight to find a treatment, leading to their son thriving at the age of 35. A 2024 KET production.
Nature Cat
Onward and Songward/Why Did the Turtle Cross the Road?
Nature Cat, Hal, and Squeeks are excited to make up their own nature songs for Woodstock-Chella-Palooza. Nature Cat and his crew help the soon-to-be turtle moms cross a busy road to get to the forest.
Kentucky Tonight
National Conference of State Legislatures 2024 Summit
Renee Shaw hosts a conversation about the National Conference of State Legislatures 2024 Summit held in Louisville. Guests: State Senator Robert Stivers (R- Manchester), Kentucky Senate President; State Representative David Osborne (R-Prospect), Kentucky Speaker of the House; Representative Brian Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, Speaker Pro Tempore and President of the National Conference of State Legislatures; State Representative Cherlynn Stevenson (D-Lexington), Kentucky House Minority Caucus Chair; Mick Bullock, director of public affairs, broadcasting and outreach for the National Conference of State Legislatures; Bob Babbage, founder of Babbage Cofounder; and Amy Wickliffe, partner with McCarthy Strategic Solutions. A 2024 KET production. (Pre-recorded)
Arthur
D.W.'s Blankie/Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble
D.W. and an embarrassed Arthur search all over town for her missing security blanket. Will she have to spend a night without it? Mr. Ratburn's younger sister substitutes for him one day, and suddenly he doesn't look so bad anymore.
Odd Squad
Welcome to Odd Squad
Little O is asked to record a new training video for kids interested in becoming Odd Squad agents, but a Sandbeast is causing oddness all over town making things difficult.
Gods of Tennis
Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe
Crowds flock to see two tennis superstars face off against each other in the 1981 Wimbledon men's final. The rivalry between sex symbol Bjorn Borg and tabloid bad boy John McEnroe is the fiercest the men's game has ever seen.
Molly of Denali
Art from the Heart/Gold Strikeout
Molly and Tooey realize drawing is harder than it looks when they help Randall come up with a Northwest Coast design for Aunt Mema and Uncle Jack's anniversary. Molly, Tooey and Trini strike gold.
bookclub@ket
Home and Beyond
Host Bill Goodman and a panel of readers discuss a collection of short stories by Kentucky authors compiled and edited by Morris Grubbs. Tales by Bobbie Ann Mason, Barbara Kingsolver, Jesse Stuart, Wendell Berry, Robert Penn Warren, Guy Davenport, and others explore the tension between the longing to leave home to explore what is beyond the familiar and the yearning to return to those comforting roots. A 2002 KET production.
Molly of Denali
Grandpa's Drum/Have Canoe, Will Paddle
Molly goes on a mission to find Grandpa's drum and return his songs to him. Connie teaches Molly, Tooey, and Trini to canoe, but her coaching techniques are unusual.
Hero Elementary
Where's Fur Blur? / The Blob
The Sparks' Crew uses their five senses to track Fur Blur throughout the school. The crew investigates a giant, mysterious blob is that is invading the school and causing chaos.
Cyberchase
A Fungus Among Us
Hacker steals all the mushrooms from the Southern Frontier to accomplish his mission to glow in the dark, which harms the cybersite's meeting tree.
Connections
Devine Carama; Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton
Host Renee Shaw speaks with hip hop artist and activist Devine Carama about his social justice and charity work. Then, Renee speaks with artist Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton about renewed interest in the I Was Here project that pays tribute to Blacks bought and sold at a Lexington slave auction block.
Clifford the Big Red Dog
The Wild Wolf Pack/Putt-ing It Together
Clifford decides to start his own wolf pack after Emily Elizabeth reads him a story about wolves. Emily Elizabeth sets out to create a mini golf course in her backyard.
Molly of Denali
Tusk, Tusk, and More Tusk/The Jokulhlaup Is On Us
Molly, Tooey and Trini find an enormous tusk while playing by the river. A glacial outburst flood threatens to wash away Auntie Cecilia's old fishing cabin.
Pinkalicious & Peterrific
Peter's Portrait/Pink Peepers
Pinkalicious sets out to draw Peter's Portrait but quickly discovers this is no easy task. Pinkalicious is enchanted by the singing of the Pink Peepers and invites them to move in with her.
Mecha Builders
Can't Stop the Martians/The Best Nest Test
The Martians come to Pretty Big City but find themselves in need of help when they are unable to land their spaceship. Zee needs to communicate with Sif in outer space but is not able to because a bird has made its home on top of the satellite dish.
Sesame Street
Fans of the Fan Dance
Ji-Young invites her friends Elmo, Zoe, Gabrielle, Charlie and Tamir to join her Korean fan dance class; together they learn how to use the fans and thank Ji-Young for sharing a dance special to her and her family.
Curious George
The Elephant Upstairs/Being Hundley
When he hears loud thumping coming from the ceiling of the apartment, George becomes convinced that the new upstairs neighbor has an elephant for a pet. Tired of being a monkey, George experiments with being a cat and a pigeon, but decides that the best life of all would be to be a dog like Hundley.
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
Prince Wednesday Goes to the Potty/Daniel Goes To The Potty
Prince Wednesday learns how important it is to stop playing and go to the potty. Daniel needs to use the bathroom at Music Man Stan's Shop, but thinks he will have to wait until he gets home.
Work It Out Wombats!
JunJun's Wake-Up Call/Stack 'em Up
Zadie comes up with a plan to make sure sleepy-head, JunJun makes it to Ice Cream for breakfast. Can Zeke really clean Super's big, messy closet all by his little self?
Kentucky Life
Pioneer Playhouse; Mountain Sports Hall of Fame - Wayland Gym; Saints of Louisville; Plant-Based Lexington
Pioneer Playhouse in Danville is a unique outdoor theater that has been open for seven decades; restoration efforts of the old Wayland gym in Floyd County will house a museum honoring the region's high school athletes; St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Louisville houses the skeleton remains of two 2000-year-old Roman Martyrs; a duo of plant-based restaurants in Lexington is challenging the notion that vegan foods are bland and boring. A 2023 KET Production.
Rick Steves' Europe
Oslo
The proud spirit of the Norwegian people shines in every dimension of their capital city - from its once-fearsome Viking ships to its sleek new Opera House, from tales of World War II heroism to the constant festival of its thriving harborfront. Connecting with the culture, Rick enjoys art - from Vigeland's statues to Monch's scream - and caps things off by joining local friends for a sail on their fjord.
Downstream
Georgetown, KY: Elkhorn Creek, Bourbon Blending and Local Feeding
Weave through the streets of Georgetown to find some 'royal' liquid history and learn how one man quenched our thirsts in more ways than one. Featuring: Floating around on the Elkhorn Creek, bourbon blending, Local Feed cuisine, and paddling around with a country boy who can catch a fish. A 2018 Production.
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
Daniel and Miss Elaina's Obstacle Course/Daniel and O's Magic Show
Miss Elaina and Daniel find a way to play in her obstacle course on their own. Daniel and O put on a magic show.
Curious George
Monkey Clean, Monkey Do; A River Runs Through It
The Man with the Yellow Hat wants everything to be perfect for his tuba solo. George digs a trench from a nearby stream so water will flow to his new gourd garden.
Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
I Am Kate Warne/I Am Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Brad gives up on hide-and-seek until Kate Warne helps him figure out how to play the game better. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle helps Xavier decide what to get the new girl in class for her birthday.
Connections
Devine Carama; Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton
Host Renee Shaw speaks with hip hop artist and activist Devine Carama about his social justice and charity work. Then, Renee speaks with artist Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton about renewed interest in the I Was Here project that pays tribute to Blacks bought and sold at a Lexington slave auction block.
Curious George
Window Dressing/The Great Treehouse Hoist
George discovers a recreated room set in the window of a department store and has ideas for improvements he can make. George and Allie invent some creative systems for getting supplies up to the treehouse.
Donkey Hodie
Thankful Donkey/The Penguin Diner-rama
Donkey makes Grampy a special card but she gets into a few sticky situations when she tries to deliver it to him. The pals help Harriett with her new invention for penguins.
Moveable Feast
Asian Cuisine in San Diego
In San Diego, celebrate the Asian communities that call this city home. At the Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center, the table is set for a bright and bold Asian-inspired feast.
Donkey Hodie
The Yodel Birds Are Coming; A Lot of Hot
The pals want to hear the Yodel Birds sing, but they must build them a rest nest first. Donkey and Duck Duck want to cool everyone off with lemonade.
Elinor Wonders Why
Elinor's Fishy Friend/Do the Crane Dance
Elinor finds what she thinks is a fish in the pond, but she and her friends realize it's a tadpole turning into a frog. Elinor, Ari and Olive make up a dance.
Rosie's Rules
Lights Out Rosie/Rosie Goes Camping
Rosie and Javi learn how people did things before there was electricity after a storm causes a power outage. Rosie learns to use tools from nature during a family camping trip.
Odd Squad
Mid-Day in the Garden of Good and Odd/Failure to Lunch
When things in town get covered in jam, the agents turn to Odd Todd for help. When the agents go to lunch, they struggle to relax and ignore the oddness.
Downstream
Georgetown, KY: Elkhorn Creek, Bourbon Blending and Local Feeding
Weave through the streets of Georgetown to find some 'royal' liquid history and learn how one man quenched our thirsts in more ways than one. Featuring: Floating around on the Elkhorn Creek, bourbon blending, Local Feed cuisine, and paddling around with a country boy who can catch a fish. A 2018 Production.
Arthur
D.W.'s Name Game/Finders Key-pers
The name-calling contest between Arthur and D.W. improves their vocabularies, but gets a little out of control. Arthur, Brain, and Binky find a mysterious key and argue over who gets to keep whatever it goes to-even though they don't know what that is.
Kentucky Life
Pioneer Playhouse; Mountain Sports Hall of Fame - Wayland Gym; Saints of Louisville; Plant-Based Lexington
Pioneer Playhouse in Danville is a unique outdoor theater that has been open for seven decades; restoration efforts of the old Wayland gym in Floyd County will house a museum honoring the region's high school athletes; St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Louisville houses the skeleton remains of two 2000-year-old Roman Martyrs; a duo of plant-based restaurants in Lexington is challenging the notion that vegan foods are bland and boring. A 2023 KET Production.
Connections
Devine Carama; Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton
Host Renee Shaw speaks with hip hop artist and activist Devine Carama about his social justice and charity work. Then, Renee speaks with artist Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton about renewed interest in the I Was Here project that pays tribute to Blacks bought and sold at a Lexington slave auction block.
Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
I Am Alvin Ailey / I Am Lucy Maud Montgomery
Alvin Ailey shows Yadina that music and dance can help bring people together. Xavier learns that his imagination can keep him company when he feels lonely.
Rick Steves' Europe
Oslo
The proud spirit of the Norwegian people shines in every dimension of their capital city - from its once-fearsome Viking ships to its sleek new Opera House, from tales of World War II heroism to the constant festival of its thriving harborfront. Connecting with the culture, Rick enjoys art - from Vigeland's statues to Monch's scream - and caps things off by joining local friends for a sail on their fjord.
This Old House
Roxbury Project (Part 2)
Major engineering challenges, the work of Nuestra Comunidad in Roxbury, the foundation walls for the new rear addition have been poured and backfilled, and a framing crew arrives to start raising the walls for the new addition.
Great Estates of Scotland
Dumfries
The Dumfries House boasts one of the largest collections of Chippendale furniture in the world. This once-neglected mansion was dramatically brought back to life and saved for the nation by HRH The Prince of Wales.
Radical Restoration
1965 Oldsmobile & Ford
A restored 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire Convertible; a family's decision to sell their 1965 Ford Galaxy; touring of some of the cars in the shop as they go through the restoration process.
Kentucky Life
Julia Perry; Morehead Space Science; Quilts of Valor; Hickory & Oak; Raceland
Learning about composer Julia Perry's life and work with the Lexington Philharmonic; NASA's Lunar IceCube satellite was developed and built at Morehead State University; honoring military veterans with handmade quilts; bringing Appalachian-inspired dishes to Bowling Green; remembering a Kentucky racetrack nearly 100 years later. A 2022 KET Production.
Nature Cat
Secrets of the Old Prairie/A Sticky Sweet Tree Treat
Nature Cat and his friends explore the six secrets of the prairie. The gang learns how to turn sap into syrup for the Pancake Party Picnic.
Connections
Devine Carama; Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton
Host Renee Shaw speaks with hip hop artist and activist Devine Carama about his social justice and charity work. Then, Renee speaks with artist Marjorie Guyon and Barry Darnell Burton about renewed interest in the I Was Here project that pays tribute to Blacks bought and sold at a Lexington slave auction block.
Odd Squad
Not So Splash/By the Book
Olive and Otto must figure out why parts of the town are turning snowy and cold during summer. Olive and Otto interrogate two suspects to figure out which one is innocent and which one is guilty.
Wild Kratts
Elephant in the Room
The brothers come across a lone baby elephant and bring him back to the Tortuga HQ for safety until they can find his mom.
Molly of Denali
The Story of the Story Knife/Raven Saves the Birthday Party
Molly tries to help an exchange student after she loses her prized story knife. Oscar works on remembering the old stories of his elders.
Hotel Portofino
Season 3, Episode Two: Proposals
Bella is shocked when Marco proposes and finally tells her family about her divorce. Constance tells Vito about Tommy and Alice is hurt when Carlo rejects her. Meanwhile, Lucian and Billy return to Portofino with a visitor.
Kentucky Life
Julia Perry; Morehead Space Science; Quilts of Valor; Hickory & Oak; Raceland
Learning about composer Julia Perry's life and work with the Lexington Philharmonic; NASA's Lunar IceCube satellite was developed and built at Morehead State University; honoring military veterans with handmade quilts; bringing Appalachian-inspired dishes to Bowling Green; remembering a Kentucky racetrack nearly 100 years later. A 2022 KET Production.
Molly of Denali
Berry Itchy Day/Herring Eggs Or Bust
Molly and her family go berry-picking, but their trip is cut short by a swarm of pesky mosquitos. Molly is thrilled when her cousin Randall calls from Sitka to say he's harvesting herring eggs - her absolute favorite food.
Hero Elementary
Toadal Confusion / Hero Hideaway
When toads take over a new skate park, Sparks' Crew has to help them get to their natural habitat. AJ tries to make a hero clubhouse out of cardboard boxes, but it keeps falling.
bookclub@ket
Home and Beyond
Host Bill Goodman and a panel of readers discuss a collection of short stories by Kentucky authors compiled and edited by Morris Grubbs. Tales by Bobbie Ann Mason, Barbara Kingsolver, Jesse Stuart, Wendell Berry, Robert Penn Warren, Guy Davenport, and others explore the tension between the longing to leave home to explore what is beyond the familiar and the yearning to return to those comforting roots. A 2002 KET production.
Nova
Kilauea: Hawaii on Fire
Journey to Hawai'i's Kilauea volcano, which sent rivers of lava through communities and into the sea when it erupted in 2018. Join a group of scientists and locals investigating the spike in volcano activity that turned paradise into an inferno.
Masterpiece
Grantchester - Season 9, Episode Eight
When a reclusive man is found dead on the streets of Cambridge, Alphy and Geordie unravel a series of clues that lead them to a shocking revelation.
Sea Change: The Gulf of Maine, a NOVA Special Presentation
Survival
Now at a crossroads for the future of the Gulf of Maine and our oceans, Indigenous peoples and scholars practice climate resilience and adaptation, scientists track the latest developments and entrepreneurs find new ways to make a living from the sea.
Agatha Christie's England
Retrace the beloved author's footsteps to see the real places that inspired her literary universe. Learn how Christie drew on her surroundings throughout her life, immortalizing the people and locations she encountered in her extraordinary work.
Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
I Am Alvin Ailey / I Am Lucy Maud Montgomery
Alvin Ailey shows Yadina that music and dance can help bring people together. Xavier learns that his imagination can keep him company when he feels lonely.
History Detectives
Jackie Robinson All-Stars, Modoc Basket, Special Agent Five
Does the roster on a Jackie Robinson All-Stars scorecard signal early steps toward integration of major league baseball? Then, see the name 'Toby' worked into the weave of a basket. Could it be Toby Riddle, the woman congress honored as a heroine of the Indian Wars of the American West? And, why did J. Edgar Hoover endorse a radio script, a crime suspense drama based on an FBI case? | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 50 | https://www.boston.com/culture/music/2021/08/24/rolling-stones-drummer-charlie-watts-dies-at-age-80/ | en | Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts dies at age 80 | [
"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=989222871864976&ev=PageView&noscript=1",
"https://www.boston.com/wp-content/themes/bdc-2020/dist/images/boston-com-logo.png",
"https://bdc2020.o0bc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/https___arcmigration-prdweb.bostonglobe.com_r_Boston_2011-2020_2012_10_21_BostonGlobe.com_Arts_Images... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Associated Press"
] | 2021-08-24T00:00:00 | Charlie Watts, the drummer who provided the backbone of the Rolling Stones’ songs for more than half a century, has died, his publicist said. He was 80. | en | Boston.com | https://www.boston.com/culture/music/2021/08/24/rolling-stones-drummer-charlie-watts-dies-at-age-80/ | LONDON (AP) — Charlie Watts, the self-effacing and unshakeable Rolling Stones drummer who helped anchor one of rock’s greatest rhythm sections and used his “day job” to support his enduring love of jazz, has died, according to his publicist. He was 80.
Bernard Doherty said Tuesday that Watts “passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.”
“Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also as a member of The Rolling Stones one of the greatest drummers of his generation,” Doherty said.
Watts had announced he would not tour with the Stones in 2021 because of an undefined health issue.
The quiet, elegantly dressed Watts was often ranked with Keith Moon, Ginger Baker and a handful of others as a premier rock drummer, respected worldwide for his muscular, swinging style as the Stones rose from their scruffy beginnings to international superstardom. He joined the band early in 1963 and remained over the next 60 years, ranked just behind Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as the group’s longest-lasting and most essential member.
Watts stayed on, and largely held himself apart, through the drug abuse, creative clashes and ego wars that helped kill founding member Brian Jones, drove bassist Bill Wyman and Jones’ replacement Mick Taylor to quit and otherwise made being in the Stones the most exhausting of jobs.
A classic Stones song like “Brown Sugar” and “Start Me Up” often began with a hard guitar riff from Richards, with Watts following closely behind, and Wyman, as the bassist liked to say, “fattening the sound.” Watts’ speed, power and time keeping were never better showcased than during the concert documentary, “Shine a Light,” when director Martin Scorsese filmed “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” from where he drummed toward the back of the stage.
The Stones began, Watts said, “as white blokes from England playing Black American music” but quickly evolved their own distinctive sound. Watts was a jazz drummer in his early years and never lost his affinity for the music he first loved, heading his own jazz band and taking on numerous other side projects.
He had his eccentricities — Watts liked to collect cars even though he didn’t drive and would simply sit in them in his garage. But he was a steadying influence on stage and off as the Stones defied all expectations by rocking well into their 70s, decades longer than their old rivals the Beatles.
Watts didn’t care for flashy solos or attention of any kind, but with Wyman and Richards forged some of rock’s deepest grooves on “Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar” and other songs. The drummer adapted well to everything from the disco of “Miss You” to the jazzy “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and the dreamy ballad “Moonlight Mile.”
Jagger and Richards at times seemed to agree on little else besides their admiration of Watts, both as a man and a musician. Richards called Watts “the key” and often joked that their affinity was so strong that on stage he’d sometimes try to rattle Watts by suddenly changing the beat — only to have Watts change it right back.
Jagger and Richards could only envy his indifference to stardom and relative contentment in his private life, when he was as happy tending to the horses on his estate in rural Devon, England, as he ever was on stage at a sold-out stadium.
Watts did on occasion have an impact beyond drumming. He worked with Jagger on the ever more spectacular stage designs for the group’s tours. He also provided illustrations for the back cover of the acclaimed 1967 album “Between the Buttons” and inadvertently gave the record its title. When he asked Stones manager Andrew Oldham what the album would be called, Oldham responded “Between the buttons,” meaning undecided. Watts thought that “Between the Buttons” was the actual name and included it in his artwork.
To the world, he was a rock star. But Watts often said that the actual experience was draining and unpleasant, and even frightening. “Girls chasing you down the street, screaming…horrible!… I hated it,” he told The Guardian newspaper in an interview. In another interview, he described the drumming life as a “cross between being an athlete and a total nervous wreck.”
Author Philip Norman, who has written extensively about the Rolling Stones, said Watts lived “in constant hope of being allowed to catch the next plane home.” On tour, he made a point of drawing each hotel room he stayed in, a way of marking time until he could return to his family. He said little about playing the same songs for more than 40 years as the Stones recycled their classics. But he did branch out far beyond “Satisfaction” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by assembling and performing with jazz bands in the second half of his career.
Charles Robert Watts, son of a lorry driver and a housewife, was born in Neasden, London, on June 2, 1941. From childhood, he was passionate about music — jazz in particular. He fell in love with the drums after hearing Chico Hamilton and taught himself to play by listening to records by Johnny Dodds, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and other jazz giants.
He worked for a London advertising firm after he attended Harrow Art College and played drums in his spare time. London was home to a blues and jazz revival in the early 1960s, with Jagger, Richards and Eric Clapton among the future superstars getting their start. Watts’ career took off after he played with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, for whom Jagger also performed, and was encouraged by Korner to join the Stones.
Watts wasn’t a rock music fan at first and remembered being guided by Richards and Brian Jones as he absorbed blues and rock records, notably the music of bluesman Jimmy Reed. He said the band could trace its roots to a brief period when he had lost his job and shared an apartment with Jagger and Richards because he could live there rent-free.
“Keith Richards taught me rock and roll,” Watts said. “We’d have nothing to do all day and we’d play these records over and over again. I learned to love Muddy Waters. Keith turned me on to how good Elvis Presley was, and I’d always hated Elvis up ’til then.”
Watts was the final man to join the Stones; the band had searched for months to find a permanent drummer and feared Watts was too accomplished for them. Richards would recall the band wanting him so badly to join that members cut down on expenses so they could afford to pay Watts a proper salary. Watts said he believed at first the band would be lucky to last a year.
“Every band I’d ever been in had lasted a week,” he said. “I always thought the Stones would last a week, then a fortnight, and then suddenly, it’s 30 years.”
____
Former Associated Press Writers Greg Katz and Janelle Stecklein compiled biographical material for this story. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 11 | https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/ | en | Mahwah Public Library | https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/favicon-16.ico | https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/favicon-16.ico | [
"https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MPL-275x60-1.png",
"https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MPL-275x60-1.png",
"https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/M-44x44-1.png",
"https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/M-44x44-1.png",
"https... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2020-01-30T09:28:55-05:00 | The Mahwah Public Library provides access to hundreds of thousands of items, connects residents with online resources, and offers programs events for all ages. | en | https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/favicon-16.ico | Mahwah Public Library | https://www.mahwahlibrary.org/ | Thursday August 1 1
Friday August 2 2
Saturday August 3 3
Sunday August 4 4
Monday August 5 5
Tuesday August 6 6
Wednesday August 7 7
Thursday August 8 8
Friday August 9 9
Saturday August 10 10
Sunday August 11 11
Monday August 12 12
Tuesday August 13 13
Wednesday August 14 14
4
10:00 am – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
11:00 am – 2:00 pm League of Women Voters Get Out the Vote Teen Postcard Party
The League of Women Voters High School Interns Post Card Party - participants will work on postcards to get out the vote for the upcoming November 5th general election. This event is open to high school students to write post cards and meet other civic minded students. Light refreshments will…
The League of Women Voters High School Interns Post Card Party – participants will work on postcards to get out the vote for the upcoming November 5th general election. This event is open to high school students to write post cards and meet other civic minded students. Light refreshments will be served.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Live Snake Show
Meet and interact with snakes from around the country and around the world, including Banana Peel, a 12-foot Albino Burmese python. For ages 5 and up. Please only one guardian per child/children. Registration is for ages 5 to 13, so the number of seats is reserved mainly for them. Crowd…
Meet and interact with snakes from around the country and around the world, including Banana Peel, a 12-foot Albino Burmese python. For ages 5 and up.
Please only one guardian per child/children. Registration is for ages 5 to 13, so the number of seats is reserved mainly for them. Crowd control is important in any event, but especially with live animals! Please be considerate of this request so the room doesn’t become too crowded and everyone who is registered can enjoy the show.
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Money Mentoring: Retirement
Get better prepared for retirement by joining us for an informative chat with M&T Bank professionals as they discuss retirement and different account options.
Get better prepared for retirement by joining us for an informative chat with M&T Bank professionals as they discuss retirement and different account options.
+1 more events
Thursday August 15 15
5
10:30 am – 11:00 am Summer Preschool Storytime
Preschool storytime is a great time for children and their caregivers to enjoy stories, meet new friends, sing songs, learn, and have fun!
Preschool storytime is a great time for children and their caregivers to enjoy stories, meet new friends, sing songs, learn, and have fun!
1:30 pm – 8:30 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm The Golden Ticket to College Admissions Is Not What You Think: Redefining Success for Parents of Teens with Irena Smith, PhD
Another college application season is around the corner, and stress is already beginning to ratchet up for teens and their parents. You’re invited to join us for this must-watch talk by Irena Smith, PhD. You will hear about constructive and healthy ways to approach the college application process, preserve your…
Another college application season is around the corner, and stress is already beginning to ratchet up for teens and their parents. You’re invited to join us for this must-watch talk by Irena Smith, PhD. You will hear about constructive and healthy ways to approach the college application process, preserve your relationship with your teen, and help them define success on their terms instead of chasing the elusive “golden ticket.”
Irena is a former Stanford Admissions Officer who has spent 18 years advising accomplished, tightly-wound students in Palo Alto and around the world. She saw firsthand the extreme measures parents took to help their children gain admission to highly selective colleges and the toll it took on the children as well as on their parents.
At the same time, Irena’s own children struggled with developmental delays, learning differences, severe depression, and anxiety. She kept her double life—successful college counselor at work, anxious mom at home—tightly under wraps for years until a stunning realization: she was exactly like the anxious parents of the students she worked with, all of whom were equally terrified about their children’s future. Irena’s memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays, which candidly explores her personal as well as professional life, was published in 2023, and she has since devoted her time to speaking out about hard things: the heavy burden of generational expectations, teen and young adult mental health, and the importance of embracing a broader, more generous vision of what it means to succeed. To learn more about Irena’s personal experience as a parent, professional experience as a college admissions officer, and leave with tips on how to help your child approach the application process in practical, healthy ways–register now!
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday Movie Matinee: Ghostbusters-Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire-Adventure/Comedy- Runtime 1 hr 55 min/ Rated Pg-13 for supernatural action/violence, and language In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started - the iconic New York City firehouse - to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to…
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire-Adventure/Comedy- Runtime 1 hr 55 min/ Rated Pg-13 for supernatural action/violence, and language
In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an army of ghosts that casts a death chill upon the city, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Octagon Book Club: Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Are you looking to explore new literary landscapes and engage in thought-provoking discussions? Welcome to the Octagon Drop-In Book Club, where we invite you to explore the world of literature through diverse and engaging discussions. Our club offers a welcoming space for book lovers of all backgrounds to connect, share…
Are you looking to explore new literary landscapes and engage in thought-provoking discussions? Welcome to the Octagon Drop-In Book Club, where we invite you to explore the world of literature through diverse and engaging discussions. Our club offers a welcoming space for book lovers of all backgrounds to connect, share insights, and broaden their literary horizons.
Pineapple Street
Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be.
+2 more events
Friday August 16 16
2
10:00 am – 4:30 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Rescheduled: LEGO Robotics
In this starter robotics class, you will learn how to build and code a moving robot out of LEGOs!
In this starter robotics class, you will learn how to build and code a moving robot out of LEGOs!
Saturday August 17 17
2
10:30 am – 11:15 am Saturday Jiggly Wiggly
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly - all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly – all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Spoon Man Show
Come and get SPOONED! The Spoon Man is a published author who offers a hilarious interactive comedy program for all ages. He gives a real stirring performance. Everyone will really eat him up. No bibs required. It’s a spoonful of family fun. The “Spoon Man” has been playing the spoons…
Come and get SPOONED! The Spoon Man is a published author who offers a hilarious interactive comedy program for all ages. He gives a real stirring performance. Everyone will really eat him up. No bibs required. It’s a spoonful of family fun.
The “Spoon Man” has been playing the spoons for nearly 35 years and professionally for 23 years. His program contains several outrageous impressions, an audience sing-a-long competition, and a Mountain Band made out of members of the audience. You may also see him play forks and knives. In addition, if that is still not enough, everyone has an opportunity to get SPOONED.
Sunday August 18 18
1
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm The 1950's Experience with Kevin Grace
Audiences have been raving about Kevin Grace's one-man show The 1950's Experience. With his amazing and stylistically spot-on vocals, highly professional musical skills, and visual presentation highly accurate to the era, Kevin is sure to transport you right back to that golden era of Doo-Wop harmonies and Rock and Roll…
Audiences have been raving about Kevin Grace’s one-man show The 1950’s Experience. With his amazing and stylistically spot-on vocals, highly professional musical skills, and visual presentation highly accurate to the era, Kevin is sure to transport you right back to that golden era of Doo-Wop harmonies and Rock and Roll hits!
Monday August 19 19
2
10:00 am – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Kurt Gallagher Adventure Concert
Join us for a musical adventure with Kurt Gallagher! This is an interactive concert with fun for all ages.
Join us for a musical adventure with Kurt Gallagher! This is an interactive concert with fun for all ages.
Tuesday August 20 20
4
10:00 am – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Music Adventure with Miss Jolie!
Join Miss Jolie for music and dancing along to fun songs!
Join Miss Jolie for music and dancing along to fun songs!
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Mahwah Library Writers' Collective
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Meditation with Leena and Nirmal
+1 more events
Wednesday August 21 21
5
10:00 am – 1:00 pm 567 Workshops Taxes and Retirement
Educational Seminar on Taxes in Retirement.
Educational Seminar on Taxes in Retirement.
10:00 am – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Campfire Movie Theater
Join us for an indoor campfire movie experience - all the fun, none of the mosquitos! Bring your own blanket to spread out and enjoy a movie on the big screen as a family. We will serve a small snack and juice for everyone to enjoy. If your child has…
Join us for an indoor campfire movie experience – all the fun, none of the mosquitos! Bring your own blanket to spread out and enjoy a movie on the big screen as a family. We will serve a small snack and juice for everyone to enjoy.
If your child has any snack allergies, please let us know ahead of time!
Featuring: Rio (2011), an animated family adventure comedy about a lonely macaw who goes on an international journey to find others of his kind, joining up with other feathered friends along the way to stop a group of smugglers and finally learn how to fly.
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Make Your Own Wreck This Journal
Calling all teens! Inspired by Keri Smith's 'Wreck This Journal', come create your own journal to wreck and take home. Decorate and fill your notebooks with wild prompts encouraging you to scribble, tear, and WRECK this book! Register and stop in anytime from 4:00-5:30 PM to work on your journal.
Calling all teens! Inspired by Keri Smith’s ‘Wreck This Journal’, come create your own journal to wreck and take home. Decorate and fill your notebooks with wild prompts encouraging you to scribble, tear, and WRECK this book!
Register and stop in anytime from 4:00-5:30 PM to work on your journal.
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm An Exploration of Friendship, Reckoning, and Hope with novelist Shelby Van Pelt
We invite you to join us as we chat with the amazing New York Times bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt about her beloved novel Remarkably Bright Creatures. You don’t want to miss this deep-dive exploration of friendship, reckoning, hope, and so much more! Remarkably Bright Creatures is a luminous debut novel about a widow’s…
We invite you to join us as we chat with the amazing New York Times bestselling author Shelby Van Pelt about her beloved novel Remarkably Bright Creatures. You don’t want to miss this deep-dive exploration of friendship, reckoning, hope, and so much more!
Remarkably Bright Creatures is a luminous debut novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium—and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago.
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in the Puget Sound over 30 years ago.
As she works, Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine, but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight tentacles for his human captors—until he forms an unlikely friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. As his affection for Tova grows, Marcellus must use every trick his old, invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.
Charming, compulsively readable, and full of wit, Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a beautiful exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope–a reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible. Register now for a conversation you just don’t want to miss!
+2 more events
Thursday August 22 22
3
1:30 pm – 8:30 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday Movie Matinee: The Long Game
The Long Game- Drama- Runtime 1hr 45 min/ Rated PG Based on a true story.In a segregated Texas, five Mexican-American teenage caddies were prohibited from playing at the country club where they worked. Against all odds, they formed their own team, built a one-hole course in the fields, and won…
The Long Game- Drama- Runtime 1hr 45 min/ Rated PG
Based on a true story.In a segregated Texas, five Mexican-American teenage caddies were prohibited from playing at the country club where they worked. Against all odds, they formed their own team, built a one-hole course in the fields, and won the 1957 Texas State championship.
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Center for Aquatic Sciences
Join the Center for Aquatic Science for a learning adventure about sea creatures and other ocean life. This is an interactive event for a middle grade audience. Image credit: Center for Aquatic Science
Join the Center for Aquatic Science for a learning adventure about sea creatures and other ocean life. This is an interactive event for a middle grade audience.
Image credit: Center for Aquatic Science
Friday August 23 23
Saturday August 24 24
3
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Digital SAT Practice Test
For the class of 2025, the College Board is transitioning the PSAT and SAT from pencil-and-paper format to digital format. Becoming familiar with the new digital-format tests will be key for students to feel confident as they head into their official PSAT in October of junior year. The Revolution Prep…
For the class of 2025, the College Board is transitioning the PSAT and SAT from pencil-and-paper format to digital format. Becoming familiar with the new digital-format tests will be key for students to feel confident as they head into their official PSAT in October of junior year.
The Revolution Prep team is offering a free digital SAT experience for students in grades 9 – 10, that most accurately reflects the official College Board test in format, user experience, adaptivity, and content. Students will learn how to navigate the new digital testing format and practice using the exact tools available to them on the real test, such as the graphing calculator, digital annotations, answer elimination, and much more!
*Registration is required.
To register visit: https://www.revolutionprep.com/partners/137937/
10:30 am – 11:15 am Saturday Jiggly Wiggly
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly - all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly – all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Graphic Novel Book Club
Get together with graphic novel lovers this summer and find some new favorites! The club will meet twice in July and August on the fourth Saturday of the month from 1-2pm. The first meeting will focus on fantasy titles while the second meeting will focus on contemporary fiction and biographies.…
Get together with graphic novel lovers this summer and find some new favorites! The club will meet twice in July and August on the fourth Saturday of the month from 1-2pm. The first meeting will focus on fantasy titles while the second meeting will focus on contemporary fiction and biographies.
Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi
Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
Play Like a Girl by Misty Wilson
Mexikid by Pedro Martin
Please email Jules @ jdelisi@mahwahlibrary.org to let us know if you would like us to place holds on copies of the books we will be discussing so your child arrives ready to discuss what they have read.
Sunday August 25 25
1
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm The Green Planet Band
The Green Planet band is a family band comprised of Kylee, Tyler, and Anna, along with Mama Lisa. They do music by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Journey, Talking Heads, Neil Diamond, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Costello, ABBA, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and others. Constantly adding songs to their set…
The Green Planet band is a family band comprised of Kylee, Tyler, and Anna, along with Mama Lisa. They do music by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Journey, Talking Heads, Neil Diamond, Buddy Holly, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis Costello, ABBA, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and others. Constantly adding songs to their set list, The Green Planet has a diverse selection of music for different events.
Registration is required, priority given to Mahwah residents with a Mahwah Library card. Mahwah residents may register starting 4 weeks prior to the event; non-Mahwah residents may register starting 2 weeks prior to the event.
Monday August 26 26
Tuesday August 27 27
2
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Mahwah Library Writers' Collective
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Meditation with Leena and Nirmal
Wednesday August 28 28
2
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Art with Julie
Make a fun art project with Miss Julie!
Make a fun art project with Miss Julie!
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Adult Crafts: Creative Canvas- Autumn Birch Forest
Grab a friend and join us for some fun adult time while you paint the evening away! Guided by experienced art teacher Robin Johnson, let your creativity flow while recreating this colorful image. All materials are included… all that’s needed is YOU! No painting experience needed. **Please bring a box larger…
Grab a friend and join us for some fun adult time while you paint the evening away! Guided by experienced art teacher Robin Johnson, let your creativity flow while recreating this colorful image.
All materials are included… all that’s needed is YOU! No painting experience needed.
**Please bring a box larger than 11×14 to carry wet painting home!!
Thursday August 29 29
Friday August 30 30
Saturday August 31 31
1
12:00 am Library Closed - Labor Weekend
The Library is closed for Labor Weekend - enjoy the holiday!
The Library is closed for Labor Weekend – enjoy the holiday!
Sunday September 1 1
1
12:00 am Library Closed - Labor Weekend
The Library is closed for Labor Weekend - enjoy the holiday!
The Library is closed for Labor Weekend – enjoy the holiday!
Monday September 2 2
1
12:00 am Library Closed - Labor Day
The Library is closed for Labor Day - enjoy the holiday!
The Library is closed for Labor Day – enjoy the holiday!
Tuesday September 3 3
2
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Mahwah Library Writers' Collective
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Meditation with Leena and Nirmal
Wednesday September 4 4
2
10:30 am – 11:30 am PreK Art Poem
This PreK craft will guide your child through writing a short poem. Then, they will learn how to draw an art piece that matches the theme of the poem!
This PreK craft will guide your child through writing a short poem. Then, they will learn how to draw an art piece that matches the theme of the poem!
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm After the Harvest with Anthony Bracco
This year, aim to expand your gardening efforts to ensure a surplus of fresh vegetables for later use. Strategize in advance by cultivating varieties that are conducive to canning and freezing, such as cucumbers for pickling, tomatoes, and green beans. When selecting what to grow, consider your family's preferences, identify…
This year, aim to expand your gardening efforts to ensure a surplus of fresh vegetables for later use. Strategize in advance by cultivating varieties that are conducive to canning and freezing, such as cucumbers for pickling, tomatoes, and green beans. When selecting what to grow, consider your family’s preferences, identify costly grocery items, and pinpoint produce you typically purchase that can be efficiently grown and preserved at home.
This program is offered both in person and will be streamed live on Facebook. To view live on Facebook all you would need to do is go to https://www.facebook.com/MahwahPublicLibrary/, Select the X in the upper right corner when it asks you to log in, (you can also log in if you have an account) and it will be the first post. We are now also streaming live to Youtube! Simply click the link https://www.youtube.com/@mahwahpubliclibrary
Thursday September 5 5
4
10:00 am – 12:30 pm Vitamins vs. Memory Loss
Unlock Your Memory Potential with your Vitamin Screening Event! Don't let memory loss hold you back! Take charge of your brain health today. Discover the key to sharper memory and cognitive vitality! Did you know certain vitamins could be the missing link in preventing memory loss? Join us for a groundbreaking…
Unlock Your Memory Potential with your Vitamin Screening Event! Don’t let memory loss hold you back! Take charge of your brain health today.
Discover the key to sharper memory and cognitive vitality! Did you know certain vitamins could be the missing link in preventing memory loss? Join us for a groundbreaking vitamin screening event led by a memory care expert.
Learn how vitamins like B12 and Omega-3 can transform your memory and get screened for vitamin deficiencies in a confidential setting. Receive personalized reports and recommendations and explore easy diet changes.
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday Movie Matinee-Fall Guy
Fall Guy- Action/ Comedy- Runtime 2 Hrs 6 min/ Rated PG-13 for action, drug content, strong language and violence After leaving the business one year earlier, battle-scarred stuntman Colt Seavers springs back into action when the star of a big studio movie suddenly disappears. As the mystery surrounding the missing…
Fall Guy- Action/ Comedy- Runtime 2 Hrs 6 min/ Rated PG-13 for action, drug content, strong language and violence
After leaving the business one year earlier, battle-scarred stuntman Colt Seavers springs back into action when the star of a big studio movie suddenly disappears. As the mystery surrounding the missing actor deepens, Colt soon finds himself ensnared in a sinister plot that pushes him to the edge of a fall more dangerous than any stunt
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Build an Art Bot
Learn how to create a small robot that can draw in this fun STEAM class! Grades 4-8.
Learn how to create a small robot that can draw in this fun STEAM class! Grades 4-8.
+1 more events
Friday September 6 6
4
10:00 am – 12:00 pm Adult Game Day!
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there's something for everyone. Let's play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at…
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there’s something for everyone. Let’s play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at the library!
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Baby Play Time
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development. This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development.
This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
2:30 pm – 4:45 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Unique Creatures
Come and see some scaly, slimy, and furry friends. Larry brings an assortment of animals for this show, letting you get up-close and personal to them while you learn what makes them unique!
Come and see some scaly, slimy, and furry friends. Larry brings an assortment of animals for this show, letting you get up-close and personal to them while you learn what makes them unique!
+1 more events
Saturday September 7 7
3
10:30 am – 11:15 am Saturday Jiggly Wiggly
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly - all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly – all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm Dungeons & Dragons: One-Shot Game (Grades 6-8)
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 6-8. Dice will be…
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 6-8. Dice will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you have them!
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm Dungeons & Dragons: One-Shot Game (Grades 9-12)
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 9-12. Dice will be provided,…
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 9-12. Dice will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you have them!
Sunday September 8 8
1
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Tony Bennett & Bill Evans-The Legendary Recordings
This timely program is based on the dialogues between Joel Zelnik and Tony Corrao, a 7-time Grammy Award Winner, at the “Village Gate” in NYC, during the mid-1960’s. Joel had the great fortune of playing at the Top of the Gate in NYC alternating sets with Evans. Highlighted is the…
This timely program is based on the dialogues between Joel Zelnik and Tony Corrao, a 7-time Grammy Award Winner, at the “Village Gate” in NYC, during the mid-1960’s. Joel had the great fortune of playing at the Top of the Gate in NYC alternating sets with Evans. Highlighted is the collaboration of Bill Evans & Tony Bennett during 1975 and ‘77, yielding some of the best recordings in the history of jazz. Vocalist Tony Corrao reprises these great songs.
Joel also served as a Councilman in Closter, NJ and as the Library Liaison, helped to include a concert/meeting room during the library renovation. He was a member of the Closter Historic Preservation Commission, established the Closter Hall of Fame, which is on permanent display at the Closter Public Library, and includes Bill Evans, who was a resident during the mid 1970’s.
Monday September 9 9
6
10:00 am – 1:00 pm Embroiderers Guild of America - Bergen County Chapter
Monthly meeting
Monthly meeting
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Tai Chi & Qi Gong with Lisa Russell
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways…
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways to practice these healing arts for good physical and mental health. She is a 3rd degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, 2013 USA Martial Art Hall of Fame Inductee and has recently won “Best Tai Chi classes” in the Best of Hudson Valley.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Locker Magnet Craft
Teens in grades 4 and up will use magnets, marbles, and paper, to create a cool magnet to put in their locker!
Teens in grades 4 and up will use magnets, marbles, and paper, to create a cool magnet to put in their locker!
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm WHAT'S IT WORTH? ANTIQUES ROAD SHOW
Author, Auctioneer, Appraiser and Radio show Host Mike Ivankovich will introduce you to “What Determines Value…and reveal what your Antiques, Collectibles, and Personal Treasures are really worth today. Each attendee, in person only, is invited to bring in 1 item for Mike to appraise. PROGRAM AGENDA: There will be three parts to this program. Mike…
Author, Auctioneer, Appraiser and Radio show Host Mike Ivankovich will introduce you to “What Determines Value…and reveal what your Antiques, Collectibles, and Personal Treasures are really worth today. Each attendee, in person only, is invited to bring in 1 item for Mike to appraise.
PROGRAM AGENDA: There will be three parts to this program.
Mike will begin with a 20-minute discussion on “10 Factors That Will Always Impact the Value of Your Treasures”.
He will then immediately transition to the appraisal portion of the program, evaluating each attendee’s treasures, one-by-one.
And throughout the program Mike will be sharing many Buying & Selling Tips & Strategies.
MIKE’s BIO: Mike Ivankovich has been involved in some phase of the Antiques & Collectibles business for more than 40 years. He is a frequent lecturer and spoken before groups too numerous to list. He has authored more than 20 books and eBooks in his areas of specialty and has written articles and columns for most major national trade papers.
This program is both in person in the library and live streaming via Zoom. Registration is necessary on mahwahlibrary.org events calendar to receive the Zoom Link (Don’t forget to give us your email address).
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Cooks Club
Whether you want to master basics, tackle advanced dishes, explore new cuisines, or share mealtime duties, Cooks Club helps you appreciate cooking, enjoy good company, and savor the results. It's about experimenting and learning, not perfection—embrace mistakes as part of the fun. Attendees must register each month to access information…
Whether you want to master basics, tackle advanced dishes, explore new cuisines, or share mealtime duties, Cooks Club helps you appreciate cooking, enjoy good company, and savor the results. It’s about experimenting and learning, not perfection—embrace mistakes as part of the fun.
Attendees must register each month to access information about the seasonal ingredients they will use for cooking that month
+3 more events
Tuesday September 10 10
6
10:30 am – 11:15 am Move & Groove with Miss Jolie!
Move & Groove with Miss Jolie in this fun movement and music event! Dance to a ukulele, guitar, and harmonica with various props provided.
Move & Groove with Miss Jolie in this fun movement and music event! Dance to a ukulele, guitar, and harmonica with various props provided.
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Capturing the Human Drama Through History with Garrett Graff
Don’t forget to register for this incredibly moving virtual chat with New York Times bestselling author Garrett Graff! An expert at capturing the human drama, Graff will speak about his body of work with particular focus on his oral histories, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 and When the Sea…
Don’t forget to register for this incredibly moving virtual chat with New York Times bestselling author Garrett Graff! An expert at capturing the human drama, Graff will speak about his body of work with particular focus on his oral histories, The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 and When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day.
Much has been written and said about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the profound impact they had on America and the world. But those names, stories, and memories have never before been collected in one place to tell the full, 360-degree story of what happened that day, and in the days after. In The Only Plane in the Sky, award-winning journalist Garrett Graff draws on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, and original interviews and stories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members to paint the most comprehensive, minute-by-minute account of the September 11 attacks yet, all told in the words of those who experienced that dramatic and tragic day.
In his most recent work, When the Sea Came Alive, Graff explores the full impact of a world changing event: D-Day, one of history’s greatest and most unbelievable military and human triumphs. Though the full campaign lasted just over a month, the surprise landing of over 150,000 Allied troops on the morning of June 6, 1944, is understood to be the moment that turned the tide for the Allied forces and ultimately led to the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II. This book dives deep into the complexities—from the secret creation of landing plans by top government and military officials and organization of troops, to the moment the boat doors opened to reveal the beach where men fought for their lives and the future of the free world.
Graff’s work, filled with impressive detail, captures a human drama and history like no other. Register today!
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Lucky Wish Bracelets
Do you have a special wish for the new school year? This craft will help you! Braid your bracelet together with a few beads. Once you like the way your creation looks, tie it all together and make your wish. The bracelet will eventually break but that is when your…
Do you have a special wish for the new school year?
This craft will help you! Braid your bracelet together with a few beads. Once you like the way your creation looks, tie it all together and make your wish. The bracelet will eventually break but that is when your wish will come true!
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Mahwah Library Writers' Collective
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Meditation with Leena and Nirmal
+3 more events
Wednesday September 11 11
7
10:00 am – 10:30 am Jiggly Wiggly for Babies
10:30 am – 11:00 am Baby Storytime
10:45 am – 11:30 am Jiggly Wiggly for Toddlers
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Toddler Storytime
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:15 pm Fall Into STEM: Exploring Autumn Through a STEM Lens
This Fall, we're diving deep into the Autumn season with a STEM twist. From experimenting with back to school materials, to uncovering the mysteries of nocturnal animals, to unraveling the science behind skeletons, it's a dynamic journey you won't want to miss! Session Breakdown September: Back to School Science October: Nocturnal…
This Fall, we’re diving deep into the Autumn season with a STEM twist. From experimenting with back to school materials, to uncovering the mysteries of nocturnal animals, to unraveling the science behind skeletons, it’s a dynamic journey you won’t want to miss!
Session Breakdown
September: Back to School Science
October: Nocturnal Animals
November: The Science of Skeletons
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Pathway to Parenthood with Valley Health
If you are part of the LGBTQ+ community and you are thinking about parenthood, this overview of family building will start you on your path. Preparing for your first fertility consultation, testing, options, donors, and other considerations for creating your family will be reviewed. Keri Greenseid, MD, Reproductive Endocrinologist and…
If you are part of the LGBTQ+ community and you are thinking about parenthood, this overview of family building will start you on your path. Preparing for your first fertility consultation, testing, options, donors, and other considerations for creating your family will be reviewed.
Keri Greenseid, MD, Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist
Registration is by calling 1-800-VALLEY 1 (1-800-825-5391) or online by going to https://www.valleyhealth.com/events If after you register, you need to cancel please email us at CommunityHealth@ValleyHealth.com.
The Valley Hospital will use Zoom to hold this seminar virtually. You will receive a reminder e-mail the day before the event with the link to join the virtual meeting as well as step-by-step instructions on how to join.
+4 more events
Thursday September 12 12
4
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday Movie Matinee Staff Pick- A Beautiful Mind
Adult Services Staff Pick: Melissa- Theme: New Jersey Movies- A Beautiful Mind- Drama- Runtime 2 Hrs and 15 Min/ Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, sexual content, and violence Based on the true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr, who seemed to be guaranteed a promising future when…
Adult Services Staff Pick: Melissa- Theme: New Jersey Movies- A Beautiful Mind- Drama- Runtime 2 Hrs and 15 Min/ Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, sexual content, and violence
Based on the true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr, who seemed to be guaranteed a promising future when he won international acclaim as a result of his pioneering work in the field. After he is recruited to assist the military with top-secret code-breaking duties, the high-pressure job takes its toll on him, and he begins to develop a mental illness.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Planetarium Night
Learn about the sky and space in this Planetarium experience! Sit inside the inflatable planetarium and watch as the space lights up with stars, planets, and constellations.
Learn about the sky and space in this Planetarium experience! Sit inside the inflatable planetarium and watch as the space lights up with stars, planets, and constellations.
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Orange County’s Dairies and Their Milk Bottles with Alex Prizgintas
Uncover Orange County, NY's role in the American consumer use of fluid milk. While many may speculate that these dairy products were solely popular due to the region’s superior agricultural landscape, history has instead shown that Orange County stood at the forefront of transporting and marketing fluid milk in the…
Uncover Orange County, NY’s role in the American consumer use of fluid milk. While many may speculate that these dairy products were solely popular due to the region’s superior agricultural landscape, history has instead shown that Orange County stood at the forefront of transporting and marketing fluid milk in the nineteenth century.
Three individuals, situated in or closely tied to Orange County, were especially instrumental in this creamy saga: Erie Railroad station agent Thaddeus Selleck who first shipped milk by rail in 1842, milk can pioneer, Jacob Vail, and the early milk bottle user Alexander Campbell. The results of their efforts gave birth to the golden age of Orange County’s agriculture–one that fueled over 4,000 farms of all kinds by 1884 and kept dairy farms prospering into the mid-twentieth century.
This program is offered both in person and will be streamed live on Facebook. To view live on Facebook all you would need to do is go to https://www.facebook.com/MahwahPublicLibrary/, Select the X in the upper right corner when it asks you to log in, (you can also log in if you have an account) and it will be the first post. We are now also streaming live to Youtube! Simply click the link https://www.youtube.com/@mahwahpubliclibrary
+1 more events
Friday September 13 13
4
10:00 am – 12:00 pm Adult Game Day!
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there's something for everyone. Let's play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at…
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there’s something for everyone. Let’s play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at the library!
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Baby Play Time
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development. This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development.
This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
2:30 pm – 4:45 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Books and Bites: Fantasy
Teens in grades 7 - 10, can join us and enjoy some refreshing drinks and snacks as we chat as a group, about any Fantasy title that they've been reading! *Refreshments will be prepared from 3 - 3:15 PM. The discussion will begin at 3:15 PM.
Teens in grades 7 – 10, can join us and enjoy some refreshing drinks and snacks as we chat as a group, about any Fantasy title that they’ve been reading!
*Refreshments will be prepared from 3 – 3:15 PM. The discussion will begin at 3:15 PM.
+1 more events
Saturday September 14 14
2
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Digital SAT Practice Test
For the class of 2025, the College Board is transitioning the PSAT and SAT from pencil-and-paper format to digital format. Becoming familiar with the new digital-format tests will be key for students to feel confident as they head into their official PSAT in October of junior year. The Revolution Prep…
For the class of 2025, the College Board is transitioning the PSAT and SAT from pencil-and-paper format to digital format. Becoming familiar with the new digital-format tests will be key for students to feel confident as they head into their official PSAT in October of junior year.
The Revolution Prep team is offering a free digital SAT experience for students in grades 9 – 10, that most accurately reflects the official College Board test in format, user experience, adaptivity, and content. Students will learn how to navigate the new digital testing format and practice using the exact tools available to them on the real test, such as the graphing calculator, digital annotations, answer elimination, and much more!
*Registration is required.
To register visit: https://www.revolutionprep.com/partners/137937/
10:30 am – 11:15 am Saturday Jiggly Wiggly
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly - all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly – all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
Sunday September 15 15
1
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm A Gershwin Celebration with The Modernistics Trio
“Absolutely joyous, virtuosic and wonderful!” (Concerts at the Crane) The Modernistics Trio (Ted Powers, vocals, tap-dance and guitar; Peter H. Bloom, flute; and Dave Zox on double-bass) captivates audiences with vibrant shows from The Great American Songbook – festive music from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and beyond. Their Gershwin show features songs,…
“Absolutely joyous, virtuosic and wonderful!” (Concerts at the Crane)
The Modernistics Trio (Ted Powers, vocals, tap-dance and guitar; Peter H. Bloom, flute; and Dave Zox on double-bass) captivates audiences with vibrant shows from The Great American Songbook – festive music from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and beyond. Their Gershwin show features songs, tap-dance numbers, and jazz instrumentals like Slap that Bass, I Got Rhythm, Nice Work If You Can Get It, I’ve Got a Crush on You, A Foggy Day, Stairway to Paradise, and other classics by George and Ira Gershwin.
Monday September 16 16
5
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Tai Chi & Qi Gong with Lisa Russell
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways…
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways to practice these healing arts for good physical and mental health. She is a 3rd degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, 2013 USA Martial Art Hall of Fame Inductee and has recently won “Best Tai Chi classes” in the Best of Hudson Valley.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Zoophoria Animal Art
Animals are nature's work of art. For this program, teens will be guided through an art project featuring the animals brought. Not only will they learn and interact with animals, they can let their creative juices flow as we use natural materials to recreate mother nature's masterpieces!
Animals are nature’s work of art. For this program, teens will be guided through an art project featuring the animals brought. Not only will they learn and interact with animals, they can let their creative juices flow as we use natural materials to recreate mother nature’s masterpieces!
5:45 pm – 6:30 pm Strike a Pose! Kids' Yoga with Ms. Debbie
Stretch your body, mind, and imagination with certified yoga teacher Ms. Debbie! We'll practice yoga poses based on a book that we will read, play games, and learn different ways to breathe. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring water. Yoga mats provided or you can bring your own.
Stretch your body, mind, and imagination with certified yoga teacher Ms. Debbie! We’ll practice yoga poses based on a book that we will read, play games, and learn different ways to breathe. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring water. Yoga mats provided or you can bring your own.
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm The Chain that Saved The Colonies with Doc Bayne
To thwart the British invasion of the New England colonies during the American Revolution, Peter Townsend played a pivotal role by overseeing the manufacturing of a strategic asset: the Great Chain. Crafted within the confines of Sterling Forge, situated in Sterling Forest, Townsend's creation was deployed across the Hudson River…
To thwart the British invasion of the New England colonies during the American Revolution, Peter Townsend played a pivotal role by overseeing the manufacturing of a strategic asset: the Great Chain. Crafted within the confines of Sterling Forge, situated in Sterling Forest, Townsend’s creation was deployed across the Hudson River at West Point.
Join Doc Bayne for an enlightening presentation delving into his journey of uncovering the historical significance of the Forge. Doc will delve into the iron industry’s inception in 1736 at Sterling Forest, providing insights into how the Sterling Forge contributed to the creation of the Great Chain, a crucial defense mechanism deployed at West Point
+2 more events
Tuesday September 17 17
6
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:00 pm – 8:00 pm National Voter Registration Day - Registration Drive
Join us at Mahwah Public Library in partnership with the League of Women Voters on 9/17 to help celebrate democracy by getting every eligible American registered & #VoteReady for 2024! What is National Voter Registration Day? National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) is a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating our ability to…
Join us at Mahwah Public Library in partnership with the League of Women Voters on 9/17 to help celebrate democracy by getting every eligible American registered & #VoteReady for 2024!
What is National Voter Registration Day?
National Voter Registration Day (NVRD) is a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating our ability to vote. If you’ve recently moved, turned 18, or changed your name, you may not be #VoteReady! As many as 1 in 4 eligible Americans are not registered to vote. Be part of the solution and ensure you are registered on NVRD!
Who are the League of Women Voters?
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. For more information, check out their website: https://www.lwv.org/
We will have volunteers available to help you register to vote, check that your voter registration is up to date, and provide other information about voting. We will also have free stickers and candy for everyone who stops by.
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm Wow, That Jewelry ROCKS!
Make a piece of rock jewelry to wear or share. We will be using wire and tools to wrap and shape our creations. All supplies provided; bring your curiosity and your imagination. Guaranteed to be one-of-a kind!
Make a piece of rock jewelry to wear or share. We will be using wire and tools to wrap and shape our creations. All supplies provided; bring your curiosity and your imagination. Guaranteed to be one-of-a kind!
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Mahwah Library Writers' Collective
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Library Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
The Mahwah Public Library Board of Trustees regular monthly meeting. Library Board meetings are open to the public.
The Mahwah Public Library Board of Trustees regular monthly meeting.
Library Board meetings are open to the public.
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Meditation with Leena and Nirmal
+3 more events
Wednesday September 18 18
8
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Paper Plate Hedgehog
Little hands will be kept busy with all the sticking, gluing, cutting and painting involved, working on their fine motor skills while having fun – making this a great woodland themed animal craft within a preschool and early years setting. Image Credit: Arty Crafty Kids
Little hands will be kept busy with all the sticking, gluing, cutting and painting involved, working on their fine motor skills while having fun – making this a great woodland themed animal craft within a preschool and early years setting.
Image Credit: Arty Crafty Kids
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World–with Nate Klemp, PhD
Join us as New York Times bestselling author and philosopher Nate Klemp helps us explore pathways back to openminded living when he talks to us about the core tenets in his new book Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World. With the avalanche of information we get every day, closing…
Join us as New York Times bestselling author and philosopher Nate Klemp helps us explore pathways back to openminded living when he talks to us about the core tenets in his new book Open: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World.
With the avalanche of information we get every day, closing down our minds and hearts seems to be the only way to survive. We close off to ourselves by compulsively checking our devices. We close to each other by getting caught in echo chambers of outrage. But what if there’s another way? In this climate of distraction and division, Nate Klemp’s Open offers a path back to a way of living that is expansive, creative, and filled with wonder.
Drawing on personal stories, scientific findings, and traditional wisdom, Klemp explores why we close down when faced with stressors or threats―then reveals why training ourselves to fully engage even with discomfort, pain, and sadness leads to greater well-being in the long run.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Between the Pages Book Chat
Drop in after school to chat about great books and earn a small snack! Participants can read and chat about whatever books they like.
Drop in after school to chat about great books and earn a small snack! Participants can read and chat about whatever books they like.
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm Speed Puzzle Competition
Welcome to the world of speed puzzling—a thrilling revolution that combines the joy of puzzle solving with an adrenaline-fueled race against the clock. Speed puzzling is an exciting twist on traditional jigsaw puzzles, where the focus is not only on completing the puzzle, but also on doing it as quickly…
Welcome to the world of speed puzzling—a thrilling revolution that combines the joy of puzzle solving with an adrenaline-fueled race against the clock.
Speed puzzling is an exciting twist on traditional jigsaw puzzles, where the focus is not only on completing the puzzle, but also on doing it as quickly as possible! Puzzle enthusiasts from all walks of life are embracing this trend, competing against friends, family, or even the clock itself to see who can assemble the puzzle in the shortest time.
Grab a friend and come sign up at the Library to take part in our first ever Jigsaw Puzzle Speed Competition!
Sign ups are in person and are set up for pairs to complete against other pairs- If you sign up as a single you will be at a disadvantage, but more than welcome to compete.
You will be competing to complete a 100-piece puzzle.
And did I mention prizes!?!
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Crafting with Julie
Miss Julie will guide you each session through how to use a different craft material to make fun things! From crocheting, weaving, to felting, Julie can teach you a variety of skills starting with the basics.
Miss Julie will guide you each session through how to use a different craft material to make fun things! From crocheting, weaving, to felting, Julie can teach you a variety of skills starting with the basics.
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Financial Literacy - Reaching Your Financial Goals
Financial workshop to educate residents and patrons on various financial topics.
Financial workshop to educate residents and patrons on various financial topics.
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm Speed Puzzle Competition
Welcome to the world of speed puzzling—a thrilling revolution that combines the joy of puzzle solving with an adrenaline-fueled race against the clock. Speed puzzling is an exciting twist on traditional jigsaw puzzles, where the focus is not only on completing the puzzle, but also on doing it as quickly…
Welcome to the world of speed puzzling—a thrilling revolution that combines the joy of puzzle solving with an adrenaline-fueled race against the clock.
Speed puzzling is an exciting twist on traditional jigsaw puzzles, where the focus is not only on completing the puzzle, but also on doing it as quickly as possible! Puzzle enthusiasts from all walks of life are embracing this trend, competing against friends, family, or even the clock itself to see who can assemble the puzzle in the shortest time.
Grab a friend and come sign up at the Library to take part in our first ever Jigsaw Puzzle Speed Competition!
Sign ups are in person ( Reference Desk) and are set up for pairs to complete against other pairs- If you sign up as a single you will be at a disadvantage, but more than welcome to compete.
You will be competing to complete a 100-piece puzzle.
And did I mention prizes!?!
+5 more events
Thursday September 19 19
5
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday Movie Matinee-Civil War (2024)
Civil War - Dystopia Thriller- Runtime 1 Hr 49 Min/ Rated R for Strong violent content, disturbing images, and strong language through out In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
Civil War – Dystopia Thriller- Runtime 1 Hr 49 Min/ Rated R for Strong violent content, disturbing images, and strong language through out
In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:45 pm – 4:45 pm STEM: Prosthetic Hand Prototype
In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we will use principles of Biomedical Engineering to design prosthetic hand/arm prototypes that can be worn to perform everyday tasks. Household materials will be used during the workshop.
In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, we will use principles of Biomedical Engineering to design prosthetic hand/arm prototypes that can be worn to perform everyday tasks. Household materials will be used during the workshop.
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Your Children Don’t Want It. What Can You Do?
We hear it every day. “My Children Don’t Want It. What Can I Do?”. And it’s happening all over America. In this session Mike will give you 15 Tips & Strategies designed not only to help you deal with your “Stuff”, but hopefully help you make some good money when selling it. This program is both in person in the library and live streaming via Zoom. …
We hear it every day. “My Children Don’t Want It. What Can I Do?”. And it’s happening all over America. In this session Mike will give you 15 Tips & Strategies designed not only to help you deal with your “Stuff”, but hopefully help you make some good money when selling it.
This program is both in person in the library and live streaming via Zoom. Registration is necessary on mahwahlibrary.org events calendar to receive the Zoom Link (Don’t forget to give us your email address).
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Octagon Book Club: The Storyteller's Secret by Sejal Badani
Are you looking to explore new literary landscapes and engage in thought-provoking discussions? Welcome to the Octagon Drop-In Book Club, where we invite you to explore the world of literature through diverse and engaging discussions. Our club offers a welcoming space for book lovers of all backgrounds to connect, share…
Are you looking to explore new literary landscapes and engage in thought-provoking discussions? Welcome to the Octagon Drop-In Book Club, where we invite you to explore the world of literature through diverse and engaging discussions. Our club offers a welcoming space for book lovers of all backgrounds to connect, share insights, and broaden their literary horizons.
The Story Teller’s Secret
Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past.
Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi―her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant―who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation. Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.
+2 more events
Friday September 20 20
4
10:00 am – 12:00 pm Adult Game Day!
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there's something for everyone. Let's play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at…
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there’s something for everyone. Let’s play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at the library!
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Baby Play Time
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development. This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development.
This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
2:30 pm – 4:45 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Make Your Own Dry Erase Board!
Do you have a hard time remembering things? Maybe you want to have a positive quote to look at every day? Teens in grades 4 and up will use basic materials to make their own dry erase board! *Image courtesy of DIY Candy.
Do you have a hard time remembering things? Maybe you want to have a positive quote to look at every day? Teens in grades 4 and up will use basic materials to make their own dry erase board!
*Image courtesy of DIY Candy.
+1 more events
Saturday September 21 21
5
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Virtual ACT Practice Test
Students in grades 9 - 12 can take the test online with a live proctor through Revolution Prep, and get a baseline score. Prior to the test, Revolution Prep will send an email with details on how to access the testing materials, scoring app, and online testing room. After the…
Students in grades 9 – 12 can take the test online with a live proctor through Revolution Prep, and get a baseline score. Prior to the test, Revolution Prep will send an email with details on how to access the testing materials, scoring app, and online testing room. After the test scores are received immediately via the Revolution Prep scoring app and you’re invited to review your student’s scores, for free, with our dedicated Academic Advisor at a time convenient for you. During the session, they will breakdown your child’s score to understand areas of strength and weakness and develop a custom preparation plan.
*Registration is required.
To register visit: https://www.revolutionprep.com/partners/137937/
10:30 am – 11:15 am Move & Groove with Miss Jolie!
Move & Groove with Miss Jolie in this fun movement and music event! Dance to a ukulele, guitar, and harmonica with various props provided.
Move & Groove with Miss Jolie in this fun movement and music event! Dance to a ukulele, guitar, and harmonica with various props provided.
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm Dungeons & Dragons: One-Shot Game (Grades 6-8)
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 6-8. Dice will be provided,…
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 6-8. Dice will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you have them!
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm Dungeons & Dragons: One-Shot Game (Grades 9-12)
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 9-12. Dice will be provided,…
Join us for an intro to Dungeons & Dragons session with Dungeon Master Dan! This game will be a one-shot story, not a full campaign, so you can learn the basics of D&D while having a fun, immersive experience. This session is for players in grades 9-12. Dice will be provided, but feel free to bring your own if you have them!
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm A Deep Dive in Character Development with Global Sensation Liane Moriarty
If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate? If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny? Join us as we chat with mega-bestselling author Liane Moriarty about her…
If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate? If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny? Join us as we chat with mega-bestselling author Liane Moriarty about her newest novel Here One Moment. Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world.
In Here One Moment, aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.
How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.” Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.
A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.
A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel. Be sure to register now!
+2 more events
Sunday September 22 22
1
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Bach to Rock with Alex Prizgintas
Experience the magic of classical music meeting contemporary as Alex Prizgintas blends the elegance of the cello with the spirit of rock. Feel the fascinating connections between classical masterpieces and modern hits, from Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale to Paul McCartney's Blackbird. Join us for an immersive journey that…
Experience the magic of classical music meeting contemporary as Alex Prizgintas blends the elegance of the cello with the spirit of rock. Feel the fascinating connections between classical masterpieces and modern hits, from Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale to Paul McCartney’s Blackbird. Join us for an immersive journey that intertwines history, harmony, and unforgettable music!
Monday September 23 23
5
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Tai Chi & Qi Gong with Lisa Russell
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways…
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways to practice these healing arts for good physical and mental health. She is a 3rd degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, 2013 USA Martial Art Hall of Fame Inductee and has recently won “Best Tai Chi classes” in the Best of Hudson Valley.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:15 pm – 4:45 pm Game Design with Python
Instructor Yaoqing will walk you through the steps of learning how to code for video game design using Python. We will provide 10 laptops with preinstalled programs so you will be given everything you need. This course is split into two 5 week long sessions, and is recommended that you…
Instructor Yaoqing will walk you through the steps of learning how to code for video game design using Python. We will provide 10 laptops with preinstalled programs so you will be given everything you need.
This course is split into two 5 week long sessions, and is recommended that you attend all 5 weeks once you register. Please see the list below for all the dates to decide which session works better for you!
Session 1: Mondays: 9/23, 9/30 | Tuesdays: 10/8, 10/15, 10/22 @ 3:15 PM
Session 2: Mondays: 11/4, 11/11, 11/18, 11/25 | Tuesday: 12/3 @ 3:15 PM
Note: Two breaks occur. There is no class on October 1 or October 29!
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Dino/Fairy Gardens
Come join us and make your own whimsical Fairy or Dinosaur garden! Plant beautiful flowers and add fun surprises for a fairy-tale or pre-historic environment.
Come join us and make your own whimsical Fairy or Dinosaur garden! Plant beautiful flowers and add fun surprises for a fairy-tale or pre-historic environment.
5:45 pm – 6:30 pm Strike a Pose! Kids' Yoga with Ms. Debbie
Stretch your body, mind, and imagination with certified yoga teacher Ms. Debbie! We'll practice yoga poses based on a book that we will read, play games, and learn different ways to breathe. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring water. Yoga mats provided or you can bring your own.
Stretch your body, mind, and imagination with certified yoga teacher Ms. Debbie! We’ll practice yoga poses based on a book that we will read, play games, and learn different ways to breathe. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring water. Yoga mats provided or you can bring your own.
+2 more events
Tuesday September 24 24
7
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm Teen Team Trivia: Are You in Kahoots?
IT'S BAAAACK! Teen Team Trivia, bigger and better than ever. Form teams, play solo on your phone, answer as many questions as you can, as quickly as you can, and win prizes!! Questions will be formatted through Kahoot (TM) on the big screen in the InBetween. Join your buds, make…
IT’S BAAAACK! Teen Team Trivia, bigger and better than ever. Form teams, play solo on your phone, answer as many questions as you can, as quickly as you can, and win prizes!! Questions will be formatted through Kahoot (TM) on the big screen in the InBetween. Join your buds, make new friends, and have FUN!
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm Habitat for Humanity - Homework Club
Hey kids and teens in grades K - 12! Do you need help getting motivated to do your homework? Do you need help understanding how to do your homework? We can help! Join us on Tuesdays at the Mahwah Public Library for the Habitat for Humanity Homework Club! You will…
Hey kids and teens in grades K – 12! Do you need help getting motivated to do your homework? Do you need help understanding how to do your homework? We can help! Join us on Tuesdays at the Mahwah Public Library for the Habitat for Humanity Homework Club!
You will be guided by dedicated teen Habitat for Humanity Club members and a certified high school math teacher. Drop in, no sign-up needed!
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Mahwah Library Writers' Collective
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Go to College, Not Into Debt: Solutions for an Affordable Education
This workshop explores the complex world of need-based and merit based financial aid. Parents and students will learn about how to lower costs under the new FAFSA rules, the newly formed Student Aid Index (SAI), and tips for optimizing college admissions and scholarships. This webinar is recommended for parents of…
This workshop explores the complex world of need-based and merit based financial aid. Parents and students will learn about how to lower costs under the new FAFSA rules, the newly formed Student Aid Index (SAI), and tips for optimizing college admissions and scholarships.
This webinar is recommended for parents of middle school and/or high school students.
ZOOM LINK TO REGISTER IN ADVANCE:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P5N6Zw6jQMqd8CYqYHAKfw
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Ouch! My Shoulder Hurts with Valley Health
Are you having some issues with your shoulders and wondering if you should see a doctor? Learn about the latest non-surgical and surgical treatments for shoulder orthopedic issues, treatment and management from an expert! Umer Dasti, MD, Orthopedic Surgeon Registration is by calling 1-800-VALLEY 1 (1-800-825-5391) or online by going to https://www.valleyhealth.com/events If after you register, you need…
Are you having some issues with your shoulders and wondering if you should see a doctor? Learn about the latest non-surgical and surgical treatments for shoulder orthopedic issues, treatment and management from an expert!
Umer Dasti, MD, Orthopedic Surgeon
Registration is by calling 1-800-VALLEY 1 (1-800-825-5391) or online by going to https://www.valleyhealth.com/events If after you register, you need to cancel please email us at CommunityHealth@ValleyHealth.com.
The Valley Hospital will use Zoom to hold this seminar virtually. You will receive a reminder e-mail the day before the event with the link to join the virtual meeting as well as step-by-step instructions on how to join.
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Meditation with Leena and Nirmal
+4 more events
Wednesday September 25 25
7
10:00 am – 10:30 am Jiggly Wiggly for Babies
10:30 am – 11:00 am Baby Storytime
10:45 am – 11:30 am Jiggly Wiggly for Toddlers
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Toddler Storytime
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Battle Chefs - Teen Class
Teens will work in teams to create a fun edible display, using a seasonal theme.
Teens will work in teams to create a fun edible display, using a seasonal theme.
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Battle Chefs - Kid Class
Children in grades K-3 will work in teams to create a fun edible display, using a seasonal theme.
Children in grades K-3 will work in teams to create a fun edible display, using a seasonal theme.
+4 more events
Thursday September 26 26
3
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm Thursday Classic Movie Matinee- The Red Shoes
Classic Movie Week: Red Shoes- Classic/ Drama- Runtime 2Hrs 15 Min/ Not Rated In this timeless drama, aspiring ballerina Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) finds herself caught in a whirlwind of ambition and affection. Her demanding mentor, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), insists that ballet must be her sole focus, while her…
Classic Movie Week: Red Shoes- Classic/ Drama- Runtime 2Hrs 15 Min/ Not Rated
In this timeless drama, aspiring ballerina Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) finds herself caught in a whirlwind of ambition and affection. Her demanding mentor, Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), insists that ballet must be her sole focus, while her heart is drawn to the captivating composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring). As Vicky grapples with her conflicting desires, she is forced to make a heart-wrenching choice between her passion for dance and the allure of romance.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Intro to Magic Workshop
Learn some of the secrets to magic tricks in this interactive workshop by Brian Richards! You get a behind-the-scenes look at tricks while being amazed by how they work.
Learn some of the secrets to magic tricks in this interactive workshop by Brian Richards! You get a behind-the-scenes look at tricks while being amazed by how they work.
Friday September 27 27
4
10:00 am – 12:00 pm Adult Game Day!
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there's something for everyone. Let's play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at…
Join us every Friday morning for Game Day at the Library! From 10 AM- 12 PM experience fun, camaraderie, and games galore in a welcoming atmosphere. Whether you love cards, puzzles, or board games, there’s something for everyone. Let’s play and make Fridays your favorite day of the week at the library!
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Baby Play Time
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development. This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
Babies and their caregivers can start their Friday by playing and learning together! Visit various stations with age-appropriate educational toys, each designed to work on a different part of your baby’s early development.
This program is developmentally designed for babies and infants who are not comfortably walking yet.
2:30 pm – 4:45 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Crafting with Julie
Miss Julie will guide you each session through how to use a different craft material to make fun things! From crocheting, weaving, to felting, Julie can teach you a variety of skills starting with the basics.
Miss Julie will guide you each session through how to use a different craft material to make fun things! From crocheting, weaving, to felting, Julie can teach you a variety of skills starting with the basics.
+1 more events
Saturday September 28 28
3
10:30 am – 11:15 am Saturday Jiggly Wiggly
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly - all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
Join us for Saturday Jiggly Wiggly – all ages up to five years old will move, sing, dance, and have fun!
12:00 pm – 3:00 pm Digital PSAT/NMSQT Practice Test
For the class of 2025, the College Board is transitioning the PSAT and SAT from pencil-and-paper format to digital format. Becoming familiar with the new digital-format tests will be key for students to feel confident as they head into their official PSAT in October of junior year. The Revolution Prep…
For the class of 2025, the College Board is transitioning the PSAT and SAT from pencil-and-paper format to digital format. Becoming familiar with the new digital-format tests will be key for students to feel confident as they head into their official PSAT in October of junior year.
The Revolution Prep team is offering a free digital PSAT experience that most accurately reflects the official College Board test in format, user experience, adaptivity, and content. Students will learn how to navigate the new digital testing format and practice using the exact tools available to them on the real test, such as the graphing calculator, digital annotations, answer elimination, and much more!
*Registration is required.
To register visit: https://www.revolutionprep.com/partners/137937/
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm The Jester Jim Show
Join us for a fun, family style show with beatboxing, juggling, comedy, and more! While this show is appropriate for most ages, we recommend older kids and adults for registration. Jim performs hundreds of shows a year and is guaranteed to amaze you with his many talents and sense of…
Join us for a fun, family style show with beatboxing, juggling, comedy, and more! While this show is appropriate for most ages, we recommend older kids and adults for registration. Jim performs hundreds of shows a year and is guaranteed to amaze you with his many talents and sense of humor!
Sunday September 29 29
1
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Beatles Tribute Band London Calling
Since 2015, London Calling has been performing The Beatles greatest tunes. From A Hard Day's Night to Can't Buy Me Love, if you close your eyes you might imagine the Fab Four are performing for you. Additional memorable Beatles' cover songs include I Feel Fine, In My Life, Help, Come Together,…
Since 2015, London Calling has been performing The Beatles greatest tunes. From A Hard Day’s Night to Can’t Buy Me Love, if you close your eyes you might imagine the Fab Four are performing for you. Additional memorable Beatles’ cover songs include I Feel Fine, In My Life, Help, Come Together, She’s Got a Ticket to Ride, We Can Work it Out, and Penny Lane, among other awesome tracks.
Monday September 30 30
5
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Tai Chi & Qi Gong with Lisa Russell
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways…
Lisa Russell is a Tai Chi & Qi Gong Instructor and NJ Licensed Massage and Bodywork therapist. She has been studying the Chinese Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, Qi Gong & Traditional Chinese Medicine for almost 30 years, and it is her lifelong passion. Her classes focus on ways to practice these healing arts for good physical and mental health. She is a 3rd degree black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu, 2013 USA Martial Art Hall of Fame Inductee and has recently won “Best Tai Chi classes” in the Best of Hudson Valley.
2:30 pm – 5:00 pm Teen Room Fun
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
Teens can drop-in everyday after school to play board games, use our gaming consoles or watch an awesome movie, and maybe even solve a fun puzzle!
3:15 pm – 4:45 pm Game Design with Python
Instructor Yaoqing will walk you through the steps of learning how to code for video game design using Python. We will provide 10 laptops with preinstalled programs so you will be given everything you need. This course is split into two 5 week long sessions, and is recommended that you…
Instructor Yaoqing will walk you through the steps of learning how to code for video game design using Python. We will provide 10 laptops with preinstalled programs so you will be given everything you need.
This course is split into two 5 week long sessions, and is recommended that you attend all 5 weeks once you register. Please see the list below for all the dates to decide which session works better for you!
Session 1: Mondays: 9/23, 9/30 | Tuesdays: 10/8, 10/15, 10/22 @ 3:15 PM
Session 2: Mondays: 11/4, 11/11, 11/18, 11/25 | Tuesday: 12/3 @ 3:15 PM
Note: Two breaks occur. There is no class on October 1 or October 29!
5:45 pm – 6:30 pm Strike a Pose! Kids' Yoga with Ms. Debbie
Stretch your body, mind, and imagination with certified yoga teacher Ms. Debbie! We'll practice yoga poses based on a book that we will read, play games, and learn different ways to breathe. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring water. Yoga mats provided or you can bring your own.
Stretch your body, mind, and imagination with certified yoga teacher Ms. Debbie! We’ll practice yoga poses based on a book that we will read, play games, and learn different ways to breathe. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring water. Yoga mats provided or you can bring your own.
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm St. Maarten: One Friendly Island-Twice the Welcome
St. Maarten/Martin: One friendly island-twice the welcome: A picturesque breakdown of the many sights, highlights, and delights of one of the Caribbean’s most vibrant destinations.
St. Maarten/Martin: One friendly island-twice the welcome: A picturesque breakdown of the many sights, highlights, and delights of one of the Caribbean’s most vibrant destinations.
+2 more events | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 13 | https://mostlymusiccovers.com/2020/07/23/the-monkees/ | en | Mostly Music Covers | [
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cropped-headphones-original.jpg?w=400",
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/b6d14-monkees.jpg?w=320&h=212",
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/81549-davey2bjones.jpg?w=809",
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2020-07-23T00:00:00 | The Monkees This is an updated repost from Dec. 18, 2018 For a TV series that ran for only two years (1966-68) albeit 58 episodes, it has had a significant effect on music, even today. I recall 'sneaking' as my father was very much against us watching such "garbage" with two of my sisters to… | en | Mostly Music Covers | https://mostlymusiccovers.com/2020/07/23/the-monkees/ | The Monkees
This is an updated repost from Dec. 18, 2018
For a TV series that ran for only two years (1966-68) albeit 58 episodes, it has had a significant effect on music, even today. I recall ‘sneaking’ as my father was very much against us watching such “garbage” with two of my sisters to watch the shows on Saturday morning reruns. I tried watching a couple of episodes recently, it’s about a wacky group of guys struggling to make it in the music business, and apart from the music my father was not all wrong. However, for the time period it was great entertainment for tweens and teens especially and that demographic bought their records-lots of them. In fact about 75 million records to date. The demise of the silly TV show was due to a backlash regarding the ‘manufactured’ nature of the band itself and a change in the format in season two, the ratings dropped and that was it. The TV show was gone and all that was left was a lot of great songs and by now, an actual fully functioning band with the Monkeys themselves playing instruments and as always doing all the vocals.
Last Train to Clarksville written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart was the Monkees first Billboard #1 hit in November of 1966. Covered over 50 times here is a rendition from the Four Tops (1967).
The group consisted of Davy Jones, born David Thomas Jones (30 December 1945 – 29 February 2012) and the reason David Bowie changed his name from David Jones. Jones (vocals) was quite a good drummer but he was relegated to mostly tambourines and maracas. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his role as the Artful Dodger in the original London and Broadway production of Oliver (1964).
Davy Jones was also a recording artist having reached the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1965 with What are We Going to Do?.
The main man was Micky Dolenz, born George Michael Dolenz Jr. (March 8, 1945). Dolenz like Jones was a child actor (Circus Boy) who later formed a rock band and actually auditioned for the Monkees by singing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode. The producers wanted him to play the lead singer and drummer in the band so he needed lessons to be able to fake it for the TV show but by the time the Monkees went on tour he was good enough to play on all the songs.
Peter Tork (Peter Halsten Thorkelson) February 13, 1942 – Feb. 21, 2019. Tork was auditioned for the show after his friend Stephen Stills was turned down for the role and thank goodness for that as we’d never would have had Crosby, Stills and Nash! Tork was an accomplished musician playing bass and keyboards among other instruments. None of the band played any instruments on the first two Monkees Albums, so Tork was left to ‘fake’ play on the TV show as the keyboard player.
Robert Michael Nesmith was born December 30, 1942, at age four his parents divorced and he then lived with his mother. In 1955, Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 – May 12, 1980) invented was then known as “mistake out”, she later formed her own company and called it “White Out”. She sold the company to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million.
Nesmith was a legitimate musician and songwriter having penned Different Drum for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys in 1965. Apparently his blase attitude and wool hat from the audition was exactly what they were looking for, Nesmith was hired as the lead guitarist for the Monkees and also wrote several of their songs.
The Monkees next #1 song was I’m a Believer was written by Neil Diamond. Covered over 100 times this song had a grand resurgence after being used in the movie Shrek performed by ‘Smash Mouth’ (2001).
The last of their three #1’s was Daydream Believer (Dec. 1967) written by John Stewart (Kingston Trio). Featuring Davy Jones on lead vocals this song spent four weeks at the top and 16 weeks in the top 100. Anne Murray hit #3 on the Country Charts and #12 on Billboard in 1979 with a beautiful version, one of 60 covers. Here is the songwriter himself from 1971, John Stewart.
The list songwriters of the Monkees songs reads like a veritable who’s who of stars from that time period, in addition to those already mentioned are; Carole King and Gerry Goffin Pleasant Valley Sunday (1967) which reached #3. A lesser known song these days that reached #19 in 1968 was first released by the Monkees but actually first recorded by the Coasters, D.W. Washburn was written by the very successful pair of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Oh My My was written by Jeff Barry (who along with his wife Ellie Greenwich wrote dozens of hits including (Do Wah Diddy) and Andy Kim (Rock Me Gently). Others were; Carole Bayer Sager (“Arthur’s Theme”, Best That You Can Do), Neil Sedaka (Breaking Up Is Hard to Do), Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (Here You Come Again and dozens of other hits), Chip Douglas (The Turtles), Bill Martin (Puppet on a String), Denny Randell (Let’s Hang On by the Four Seasons), and Jack Nicholson, and yes I mean that Jack Nicholson who along with Bob Rafelson wrote Ditty Diego – War Chant from the Monkees psychedelic pop movie Head which was co-written by Nicholson as well and ranked as one of the top Movie Soundtracks of all time (Rolling Stone #25).
My favorite Monkees song is actually a cover of I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone (Nov. 1966) written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart who along with Don Kirshner deserve most of the credit for the Monkees sound and originally recorded by Paul Revere & the Raiders (May 1966).
Trivia. We know Chicago born Walter Koenig was cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the TV show Star Trek: The Original Series. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants so the accent came naturally to him. What I at least didn’t know was it was because of his resemblance to Davy Jones. The series creator deliberately sought out to have a Monkees or Beatles looking character to try and attract teenage girl viewers.
References: 1, 2, 3
A Spotify playlist of the Monkees greatest hit songs
If you like my blog, please consider clicking the ‘Subscribe’ button at the top of the home page. Remember to confirm the subscription when you get the first email. Confidentiality is assured unless you are a close friend or family member then all bets are off. While I can compile data from my blog it’s not tracking in terms of anyone’s identity. For past blog posts click on the menu on the right hand margin. Pass it along to a friend who might enjoy it as well! And many thanks as always for reading my blog! | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 31 | https://www.acmcountry.com/inremembrance | en | The Academy Remembers | [
"https://www.acmcountry.com/assets/350852f6/images/logo.png",
"https://s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/busites_www/acm2020/pages/meta/1/2/17loggins2_tklz_articlelarge_1721679372.webp",
"https://s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/busites_www/acm2020/pages/meta/1/2/17loggins2_tklz_articlelarge_1721679372.w... | [
"//www.youtube.com/embed/coOsSB-MkZM",
"//www.youtube.com/embed/3ut5wFB0AxI"
] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | /assets/350852f6/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png | https://www.acmcountry.com/inremembrance | Dave Loggins
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, Dave Loggins, passed away on July 10, 2024. He was 76.
Dave Loggins
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, Dave Loggins, passed away on July 10. He was 76. A Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, his most celebrated successes were his 1974 pop hit, “Please Come to Boston,” and the No. 1 country duet, “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do,” alongside Anne Murray. A Tennessee native, Loggins released five studio albums as an artist, garnering modest hits with “You’re Got Me to Hold on To” and “Pieces of April.” The former eventually became a Top 10 country hit for Tanya Tucker, while the latter was a Top 20 pop success for Three Dog Night. Turning his attention to songwriting, Loggins found his stride over the course of five decades, notching 14 No. 1s with Wynonna Judd’s “She Is His Only Need,” The Oak Ridge Boys’ “Every Day,” Alabama’s “Forty Hour Week (For a Living),” Reba McEntire’s “Love Will Find Its Way to You” and Kenny Rogers’ “Morning Desire,” among others. With songs recorded by the likes of Jimmy Buffett, Tammy Wynette, Vince Gill, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, Ray Charles and Johnny Cash, Loggins was awarded 25 ASCAP Awards, as well as named the ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year in 1987. Nominated for the ACM Top Vocal Duet in 1984 and the ACM Song of the Year in 1985 for penning Gary Morris’ “I’ll Never Stop Loving You,” he also wrote “Augusta,” which became the longest - running sports theme song in history for the annual Masters Golf Tournament.
Joe Bonsall
Joe Bonsall, the tenor singer in the Oak Ridge Boys and one of Country Music’s most enthusiastic entertainers, passed away from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis on July 9, 2024. He was 76.
Joe Bonsall
Joe Bonsall, the tenor singer in the Oak Ridge Boys and one of Country Music’s most enthusiastic entertainers, passed away from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis on July 9, 2024. He was 76. Bonsall was born on May 18, 1948, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he sang with a gospel group called the Faith Four, and befriended Richard Sterban, another gospel singer from the area. Sterban joined the Oaks in 1972, followed by Bonsall a year later. After making a minimal impact on Columbia Records, the group switched to ABC/Dot, where they finally broke out with 1977’s “Y’All Come Back Saloon.” The Oaks received 1978 ACM Awards in the categories of Album (for Y’All Come Back Saloon) and Top Vocal Group.
Bonsall brought an infectious energy to the quartet, which had deep roots in gospel music yet still appealed to country listeners. Between 1977 and 1991, the Oaks charted 34 Top 10 singles, with 17 of those reaching No. 1 at country radio. They performed one of their most eloquent singles, a rendition of Rodney Crowell’s “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight,” on the ACM Awards in 1980, the same year it reached No. 1.
The Oaks’ visibility soared with 1981’s “Elvira,” a Dallas Frazier composition that had been cut several times before the Oaks turned it into a smash for MCA Records and a pop crossover hit. Their irresistible performance netted a Grammy Award and an ACM Single of the Year trophy. With that momentum, they racked up chart-topping hits like “Fancy Free,” “Bobbie Sue,” “American Made, “Gonna Take a Lot of River,” and “No Matter How High.” Bonsall also recorded “Out Goin’ Cattin’” with Sawyer Brown, with the peppy single rising to No. 11 in 1986.
In recognition of their exceptional career, the Oak Ridge Boys received the 2007 Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award. They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2011 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015. Bonsall’s book about the band, On the Road with the Oak Ridge Boys: Forty Years of Untold Stories and Adventures, was published in 2015.
Mary Martin
Beloved music industry veteran Mary Martin passed away on July 4, 2024. She was 85
Mary Martin
Beloved music industry veteran Mary Martin passed away on July 4. She was 85. An inductee into the SOURCE Hall of Fame, she was a lauded talent scout, manager and record executive who played a critical role in the careers of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Rodney Crowell, Keith Urban and Vince Gill, among a long list of others. Born in 1939 in Toronto, Canada, Martin’s illustrious career began as an executive assistant to artist manager Albert Grossman, who shepherded the careers of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Peter, Paul & Mary and more. Starting her own venture in 1966, Martin eventually made her way to the A&R department at Warner Bros., as well as became the VP of RCA Records where she oversaw the careers of acts like Vince Gill, Clint Black, Paul Overstreet, Aaron Tippin, and Lorrie Morgan. After a brief stint as the Executive Director of Earth Communications Office, she served as an A&R consultant for Asylum Records before being tapped as Vice President of Mercury Records until 2002. With a keen eye for burgeoning talent and a fierce belief in artist’s and their craft, Martin was also a Grammy-winning producer, thanks to her work on the star-studded Hank Williams tribute album, Timeless, featuring Dylan, Johnny Cash, Keith Richards, Tom Petty and others.
Joe Scaife
Beloved studio engineer, record producer and music publisher, Joe Scaife, passed away on June 12, 2024. He was 68 years old.
Joe Scaife
Beloved studio engineer, record producer and music publisher, Joe Scaife, passed away on June 12. He was 68 years old.
Scaife earned a degree in Music Engineering and Recording from Nashville's Belmont University, getting his first taste of success with K.T. Oslin's 1987 hit, “80’s Ladies.” This led to a long string of recording sessions with some of the genre’s top-tier vocalists, including Montgomery Gentry, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Alabama, Glen Campbell, Lionel Richie, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Shania Twain and Toby Keith, among others. As a producer, Scaife was one of the creative masterminds behind massive projects like Billy Ray Cyrus' debut record, Some Gave All, which included his breakout hit, "Achy Breaky Heart," as well as Gretchen Wilson's breakthrough Here For The Party, featuring her career-defining "Redneck Woman."
Across his career, Scaife sold more than 80 million records and garnered over two billion streams. With a sprawling list of awards and accolades to his name, he received six nominations as a producer from the ACM. Among them are three nods for Album of the Year (Here for the Party - Gretchen Wilson, 2004; It Won't Be the Last - Billy Ray Cyrus, 1993; Some Gave All - Billy Ray Cyrus, 1992), two Single Record of the Year nominations ("Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson, 2004; "Achy Breaky Heart" - Billy Ray Cyrus, 1992) and one for Video of the Year ("Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson, 2004).
Mark James
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Mark James, died on June 8, 2024. He was 83 years old.
Mark James
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Mark James, died on June 8, 2024 at the age of 83.
Penning more than 200 songs throughout his career with several enduring hits sprinkled in, James’ first taste of success came with B.J. Thomas' “The Eyes of a New York Woman,” followed shortly after by “Hooked on a Feeling” and “It’s Only Love.” After writing and releasing his own version of “Suspicious Minds,” which garnered little success, it was later famously recorded by Elvis Presley. It became the superstar’s last No. 1 hit and led to other late-career cuts from James, including “Raised on Rock” and “Moody Blue.” Elsewhere across his career, James wrote “Always on My Mind,” originally performed by Brenda Lee. A decade later Willie Nelson turned it into a country crossover smash, nabbing the Song of the Year and Country Song of the Year at the 1983 Grammy Awards.
With songs recorded by the likes of Dwight Yoakam, B.B. King, Eddy Arnold, Charlie McCoy, The Partridge Family, Ronnie Milsap and more, James' music has also been heard across a wide range of films, including Reservoir Dogs, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Hawk Down, Kramer Vs Kramer, Honeymoon in Vegas, Breathless, Someone to Watch Over Me, Practical Magic and Frequency.
Erv Woolsey
Erv Woolsey, a former music executive, entrepreneur, and longtime manager for Country Music Hall of Fame member, George Strait, died on March 20, 2024, due to complications from surgery. He was 80.
Erv Woolsey
Erv Woolsey, a former music executive, entrepreneur, and longtime manager for Country Music Hall of Fame member, George Strait, died on March 20, 2024, due to complications from surgery. He was 80.
Born Eugene Ervine Woolsey, the Texas native began his career in the music industry in Decca Records' promotion department. Making his way to Nashville in 1973, he took on the role of Head of Promotions for ABC Records’ Country division. From there, he moved to MCA during the 1980s, working closely with an array of acts, including future Country Music Hall of Famers Barbara Mandrell, Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker, Conway Twitty, and more, before leaving the records industry in 1984 to manage then up-and-comer George Strait. The pair enjoyed a nearly five decades long partnership that saw Strait become one of the most revered artists in Country Music history. With Woolsey by his side, Strait secured two ACM Entertainer of the Year awards, as well as notched more than 60 No. 1 songs and sold over 105 million albums.
Woolsey's mark on modern Country Music extends beyond just Strait, also managing a number of hitmakers throughout his career, including Dierks Bentley, Ronnie Milsap, Clay Walker, and Lee Ann Womack. More recently, his lengthy management roster also featured Ian Munsick, Kylie Frey, and Leftover Salmon founder Vince Herman, among others.
Fran Boyd
Fran Boyd, a former Executive Director of the ACM and an essential player in shaping and growing the organization from its early years in California in the late-1960s through the start of the millennium, passed away on March 9, 2024. She was 84 years old.
Fran Boyd
Fran Boyd, a former Executive Director of the ACM and an essential player in shaping and growing the organization from its early years in California in the late-1960s through the start of the millennium, passed away on March 9, 2024. She was 84 years old.
Fran became the Academy’s first paid employee when she was hired as an executive secretary in 1968 and worked her way through the ranks over the years, overseeing daily operations of the organization, serving as Talent Producer of the ACM Awards, and maintaining oversight of virtually every aspect of the annual awards presentation. In 1995, following the passing of her husband Bill, who himself led the Academy, Fran was named Executive Director.
At the time of her retirement in 2002, she said, “I continue to be proud of all the Academy of Country Music has accomplished in my time. It has given me great joy to see so many young Country artists rise from newcomers to having great careers. The Academy has helped music fans acknowledge Country Music as the enduring genre it deserves to be.”
The Academy’s signature “hat” trophy was created the same year Fran Boyd joined the Academy, and throughout her tenure, she saw the organization open its first office in Hollywood, CA, refresh its name from the Academy of Country and Western Music to the Academy of Country Music in the early 1970s, and move the awards show to a number of major California venues, including Disneyland, Universal Amphitheatre, and Knott’s Berry Farm.
“Her tireless work and years of dedication to this organization, the Country Music industry and its artists cannot be overstated, and her legacy with the Academy will forever live on,” said Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music.
“Fran Boyd played an essential part in the Academy’s history, stretching way back to the earliest days in the 1960s and steering the ship through decades of change, innovation, and growth, all while fostering an incredible passion for Country Music,” said Gayle Holcomb, ACM Board Sergeant-At-Arms and longtime Board member. “Fran will always be remembered as a champion for our industry, its artists, and this organization. On behalf of the ACM Officers and Board of Directors, I send our gratitude, prayers, and condolences to the Boyd family.”
Toby Keith
Toby Keith, a Country Music superstar who wrote many of his biggest hits, passed away on February 5, 2024. He was 62 years old. A 14-time ACM Award recipient, including multiple wins for ACM Top Male Vocalist and ACM Album of the Year, he was named ACM Entertainer of the Year twice, in 2002 and 2003.
Toby Keith
Toby Keith, a Country Music superstar who wrote many of his biggest hits, passed away on February 5, 2024. He was 62 years old. A 14-time ACM Award recipient, including multiple wins for ACM Top Male Vocalist and ACM Album of the Year, he was named ACM Entertainer of the Year twice, in 2002 and 2003. With worldwide sales of more than 40 million albums, he built an exceptional career on well-sung ballads, barroom singalongs, and patriotic anthems, as well as heartfelt songwriting.
Born on July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Oklahoma, Toby Keith Covel grew up in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore. As a boy, he discovered live music by listening to the bands at his grandmother’s supper club in Fort Smith, Arkansas. After high school graduation, he worked in the oil fields while playing regional gigs fronting the Easy Money Band. When the oil industry crumbled in the early ‘80s, Keith signed on with the Oklahoma City Drillers semipro football team for two years before deciding to focus on music. Although the major labels in Nashville ignored his demo, a fan of the band who worked as a flight attendant gave a copy to Harold Shedd, a Mercury Records executive who was on her flight. Shedd heard the potential, traveled to Oklahoma for a show, and signed him to Mercury.
With the Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl just weeks before the single’s release date, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” took on a new meaning. By summer of 1993, it spent two weeks at No. 1 and paved the way for a dozen more Top 10 hits on Mercury (and affiliated labels Polygram and A&M). Keith returned to No. 1 with 1994’s “Who’s That Man” and 1997’s “Me Too.” A duet with Sting on “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying” earned an ACM nomination for Vocal Event and reached No. 2 at Country radio.
By signing with DreamWorks Nashville, Keith’s outspoken personality could finally shine through. In 2000, “How Do You Like Me Now?!” lodged itself at No. 1 for five weeks. In addition, he was named 2000 ACM Male Vocalist of the Year and picked up Album of the Year (as an artist and producer) for the project of the same name. More hits rolled in, notably a comical Bobby Braddock composition titled “I Wanna Talk About Me.” That single spent five weeks at No. 1, as did its follow-up, “My List.” Yet, amid a backdrop of the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War, Keith certainly made the biggest impression with “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” and its audacious threat to “put a boot up your ass, it’s the American way.” Its notoriety helped Keith claim the 2002 ACM Entertainer of the Year award.
Keith’s winning streak raged on. “Who’s Your Daddy?” became his sixth consecutive chart-topping single in 2003. A Willie Nelson duet titled “Beer for My Horses” spent six weeks at No. 1, earned a 2003 Video of the Year award, and inspired a movie that received the ACM Tex Ritter Award. That same year, Keith collected his second ACM Entertainer, Male Vocalist, and Album of the Year trophies, the latter for Shock ‘N Y’All.
Keith continued to offer a steady stream of radio-ready singles and accrued his 20th No. 1 hit, “Made in America,” in 2011. Although he’d released plenty of irreverent songs before, few listeners were prepared for the overwhelming reception of “Red Solo Cup,” a viral party anthem that soon crossed over into the mainstream and claimed the 2011 ACM Video of the Year award. A year later, “Beers Ago” became his 41st Top 10 Country hit.
Marking his 20th ACM Awards appearance in 2018, Keith was joined by Blake Shelton to sing “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” In addition, he appeared in the network specials George Strait: ACM Artist of the Decade All Star Concert in 2009 and ACM Presents: An All-Star Salute to the Troops in 2014. The Academy presented Keith with multiple honorary awards throughout his career, including the 2013 ACM Career Achievement Award, the 2016 ACM Poets Award, and the 2020 ACM Merle Haggard Spirit Award. Keith was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021. Other distinctions include the 2021 National Medal of Arts and the 2022 BMI Icon Award.
Keith’s many charitable initiatives included 11 USO Tours and nearly 300 USO events, a hometown fundraising concert following a devastating 2013 tornado, and an annual golf tournament to fund the OK Kids Korral, a cost-free home in Oklahoma City for families of children with critical illnesses.
"Toby Keith was a powerhouse singer-songwriter, performer, entrepreneur, and Country Music icon who defined the last several decades of Country Music and influenced a generation of talent,” said ACM CEO Damon Whiteside. “Here at the Academy, we’ve been able to celebrate Toby countless times over the years, including twice as our ACM Entertainer of the Year, along with more than a dozen of other trophies, such as the ACM Poet’s Award for songwriting and the ACM Career Achievement Award. In particular, I’m so glad we were able to honor Toby with the ACM Spirit Award in 2021, presented to a singer-songwriter who continues the legacy of Merle Haggard, one of Toby’s heroes. Additionally, his phenomenal commitment to philanthropy and serving the community throughout his career echoes in the work of ACM Lifting Lives. On behalf of our staff, Board, and membership, we send our love to Toby’s family, friends, and fans of his incredible music. His legacy in Country Music will live on forever.”
Margo Smith
Singer and songwriter Margo Smith passed away on January 23, 2024. She was 84.
Margo Smith
Singer and songwriter Margo Smith passed away on January 23, 2024. She was 84.
Born Bette Lou Miller in Dayton, Ohio, in 1939, she took on the stage name Margo Smith and left her career as a teacher to chase her musical dreams. It was in her 30s that she decided to pursue being a singer and songwriter, leading her to Nashville, where she recorded her solo-written songs.
She exploded onto the scene in the late 1970s with hits such as “Love’s Explosion,” “Take My Breath Away,” and “My Weakness,” all of which she co-wrote. It was her song “Still a Woman,” released in 1979, that cemented her success in the commercial market.
Smith had several iterations of her career, and one of those was as “The Tennessee Yodeler.” In 1983, she released The Best of the Tennessee Yodeler and continued releasing TV Market albums. In the mid-1990s, she partnered with her daughter, Holly, forming the duo Margo Smith and Holly. They released several Country-Christian hits and even earned the Christian Country Music Award for Vocal Duo of the Year in 1994.
Throughout her career, Smith released 18 albums and charted 27 singles.
Don Koch
Music industry veteran, producer, and songwriter Don Koch passed away on January 15, 2024. He was 62.
Don Koch
Music industry veteran, producer, and songwriter Don Koch passed away on January 15, 2024. He was 62.
Koch was born in San Jose, California, where his parents were missionaries. His education would eventually lead him to Belmont University in Nashville, where he earned a degree in sound engineering. Living in Music City also inspired Koch to begin songwriting. In 1986, he signed his first publishing deal with Benson Record Company. It was through Benson Records that he’d meet Jay DeMarcus and help his then band “East to West” get their first record deal.
Koch made his mark in the Christian music scene as a songwriter. Throughout his career, he wrote 38 No. 1 hits and would go on to earn six GMA Dove Awards for hits such as “In Christ Alone,” “Jesus Saves,” and “Land of Mercy,” among many others.
In 2018, Koch and his longtime friend, Jay DeMarcus, launched Red Street Records, where he was instrumental as a publisher, producer, and songwriter. Additionally, Koch was an integral part of launching Red Street Record’s Christian label division.
Larry Collins
Larry Collins, California Country songwriter and guitarist, passed away on January 5, 2024. He was 79 years old.
Larry Collins
California Country songwriter and guitarist Larry Collins passed away on January 5, 2024. He was 79 years old.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1977, Collins would only remain in the state for a short while. His older sister Lorrie won a talent competition in Tulsa which prompted the entire family to move to L.A. The siblings formed a duo, the Collins Kids, and became regulars on the show Town Hall Party in 1954. Through the show, the duo was able to play alongside legends of the day including Lefty Frizzell, Marty Robbins, Patsy Cline, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and more.
Larry went on to pursue a successful solo career. He had several hits under his belt from his days in the duo. But it was writing “Delta Dawn” that would propel his career forward, as well as launch the career of newcomer Tanya Tucker. In 1981, his song “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” co-written with Sandy Pinkard and recorded by David Frizzell and Shelly West reached No. 1. It was also awarded ACM Song of the Year. His songs were recorded by artists such as Mac Davis, Nancy Sinatra, Lou Rawls, Alex Harvey, Bette Midler and others.
Laura Lynch
Laura Lynch, one of the founding members of Country group, The Chicks, passed away on December 22, 2023. She was 65.
Laura Lynch
Laura Lynch, one of the founding members of Country group, The Chicks, died on December 22, 2023 after a devastating car crash in West Texas. She was 65.
Lynch co-founded the band, then named the Dixie Chicks, in 1989 alongside Robin Lynn Macy, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer. Serving as the group's upright bassist and lead singer, Lynch recorded three albums – Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, Little Ol' Cowgirl, and Shouldn't a Told You That – before she departed and was replaced by current lead vocalist Natalie Maines. After leaving The Chicks, Lynch became a public relations officer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Though much of The Chicks' success in the mainstream came after Lynch's departure in 1995, the band went on to win several ACM Awards in the years following, including Entertainer of the Year (2000), Top Vocal Group (1998-2000), and more, while also becoming one of the most enduring all-female bands in the Country space.
Bill Mayne
Bill Mayne, known as a giant of the industry who devoted his nearly 50 year career to Country radio, passed away on November 28, 2023. He was 72 years old.
Bill Mayne
Bill Mayne devoted his career to Country radio, along with dedicating more than 35 years of service to the Academy of Country Music’s Board of Directors. Mayne studied radio, TV, and film at the University of Houston, and his interest in radio carried him to Austin, Texas, where he worked as a disc jockey and a program director for KNOW. Subsequent stops included KASE in Austin, KSCS/WBAP in Dallas, and KZLA/KLAC in Los Angeles. In 1988, he accepted a position at Warner Bros. Nashville working in promotion, then rose to become Senior Vice President and General Manager of the label. During this time Mayne worked with artists such as Holly Dunn, Faith Hill, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, and Dwight Yoakam. After that, he held an executive role at 903 Music, the label launched by Neal McCoy, prior to establishing his own firm, Mayne Street Consulting.
In early 2010, Mayne’s company provided consultation to Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc., during a sensitive time for the Country Radio Seminar. Through Mayne’s leadership, CRS experienced a growth in attendance, sponsorship, and engagement. He had been part of the CRB’s Board of Directors when he accepted the role of Executive Director, a position he held from 2011 until his retirement in 2019. That same year, he marked his 50th anniversary of working in the music industry. Mayne has served as Chairman of the Board for the Academy of Country Music as well as ACM Lifting Lives, the Academy’s charitable partner, in addition to every other officer role.
Abe Stoklasa
Abe Stoklasa, talented singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, passed away on November 17, 2023. He was 36.
Abe Stoklasa
On November 17, 2023, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Abe Stoklasa passed away at the age of 36. A beloved figure in the Nashville songwriting community, his catalog of hits includes Chris Lane’s “Fix,” Michael Ray’s “Get To You,” Lady A’s “Ocean," Ben Rector’s “Brand New” and others for the likes of Tim McGraw, Charlie Worsham, Scotty McCreery, and Blake Shelton.
Hailing from Princeton, Missouri, his love for music spawned early on as he began playing in his father’s band at the age of 6 and joined several local bands throughout his childhood. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Nashville where Stoklasa set his sights on a career in the music industry. He enrolled in Belmont University's Music Business program, graduated in 2009 and became a touring musician for artists like David Nail and Billy Currington.
In 2013, he retired from the road, focusing full-time on his songwriting and garnered several cuts in the years that followed. Stoklasa also heavily contributed to Lady A singer Charles Kelley's 2016 solo album, The Driver, co-writing the song, "Leaving Nashville" and others.
Jim Vienneau
Jim Vienneau, celebrated producer and music industry executive, passed away on November 9, 2023. He was 97.
Jim Vienneau
Celebrated producer and music industry executive Jim Vienneau passed away on November 9, 2023. He was 97.
Born in New York, Vienneau was the nephew of pioneering country producer Frank Walker, who co-founded MGM Records in 1946. Mentored by his uncle, Vienneau began working for the label in 1955, producing hits like Conway Twitty’s “It’s Only Make Believe,” Connie Francis’ “Vacation,” Roy Orbison’s “Ride Away," Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel," and more. After being transferred to MGM's Nashville office in 1965 to head its Country division, he kept busy producing blockbuster hits for Hank Williams Jr. (“Cajun Baby,” “Pride’s Not Hard to Swallow,” “I’ll Think of Something”), Mel Tillis (“I Ain’t Never,” “Sawmill,” “Memory Maker"), Jeannie C. Riley (“Give Myself a Party”), and several others.
Following a brief stint at 20th Century Records, Vienneau joined Acuff-Rose Publishing where he worked with Lorrie Morgan, Aaron Tippin, and Kenny Chesney. He was named Billboard's Country Producer of the Year in 1972 and continued to serve as a producer up until his retirement in 1988.
Bill Rice
Bill Rice, beloved singer songwriter and member of the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame, passed away on October 28, 2023. He was 84.
Bill Rice
Beloved singer-songwriter Bill Rice passed away on October 28, 2023 at the age of 84. Inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1994, he penned a long list of hits for Charley Pride, Jerry Lee Lewis, Reba McEntire, Patty Loveless, Conway Twitty, and several others across his four-decades-long career.
An Arkansas native, Rice first picked up a guitar at 14 and inked his first recording contract by 18. His first taste of success came in 1960 as icon Elvis Presley recorded Rice’s “Girl Next Door Went A’walking.” After making the move to Nashville and finding a songwriting partner in longtime collaborator Jerry Foster, Rice’s prevalence in the Country space was apparent as he charted hit after hit, including Mel Tillis' “Heaven Everyday,” Lewis’ “Think About It Darlin’,” Pride's “Wonder Could I Live There Anymore,” Johnny Paycheck’s “Someone to Give My Love To,” Hank Williams Jr.'s “I’ll Think Of Something,” and more.
Though he did pursue his own career as an artist and landed a Top 40 hit with 1971’s “Travelin’ Minstrel Man,” most of his success was cemented in his songwriting. He notched 73 ASCAP Awards throughout his career, as well as two Grammy nominations for Jeannie C. Riley's "Back Side of Dallas" and Mickey Gilley's "Here Comes the Hurt Again."
Buck Trent
Buck Trent, master banjo player and guitarist died October 9, 2023. He was 85 years old.
Buck Trent
Buck Trent, master banjo player and guitarist died October 9, 2023. He was 85 years old.
Born Charles William Trent in Spartanburg, SC, he was exposed to music at a young age, first picking up the guitar at the age of seven. From there he learned to play everything from the dobro to the mandolin, and notably the 5-string banjo.
When Trent moved to Nashville in 1959, he joined the road show of Opry Member Bill Carlisle. He also played briefly with Bill Monroe before moving on to play with Porter Wagoner’s road show, which included Dolly Parton at the time. He would go on to play on all of the hit duets with Wagoner and Parton in addition to all of Parton’s solo recordings. In fact, the iconic guitar riffs in “Jolene” can be credited to Trent.
After playing for the Porter Wagoner Show for 11 years, Trent eventually joined the cast of Hee Haw which he remained apart of for 19 years. Throughout his career he recorded 15 solo albums, played on albums for Parton, Wagoner, Roy Clark, Norma Jean, Nancy Sinatra, Mac Wiseman and many others.
Mike Henderson
Mike Henderson, cofounder of the SteelDrivers, Country songwriter and multi-instrumentalist died September 22, 2023. He was 70 years old.
Mike Henderson
Mike Henderson, cofounder of the SteelDrivers, Country songwriter and multi-instrumentalist died September 22, 2023. He was 70 years old.
Henderson hailed from Independence, Missouri, and it was there that he honed his skills and eventual mastery of guitar, fiddle, mandolin, Dobro, and harmonica.
Upon moving to Nashville, he joined blues-rock group the Kingsnakes. The band would go on to be signed to Curb Records and Henderson signed a publishing deal with EMI. Henderson had cuts by artists including Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, The Chicks, Randy Travis, and Marty Stuart, and he played on records for artists including Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Tim McGraw, Bob Seger, Blake Shelton, and Sting.
Ultimately it was his work with reigning ACM Entertainer of the Year Chris Stapleton that would put Henderson on the map. Grammy winning song “Broken Halos,” a Stapleton-Henderson co-write was Stapleton’s first No. 1 on the Country airplay chart. Henderson was also nominated for three Grammys with The SteelDrivers from 2009-2011.
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett, the enduring entertainer who kept audiences singing along to “Margaritaville” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” September 1, 2023. He was 76.
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett, the enduring entertainer who kept audiences singing along to “Margaritaville” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” September 1, 2023. He was 76. Buffett and duet partner Alan Jackson spent eight weeks at No. 1 at country radio with “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” ultimately collecting 2003 ACM trophies for Single and Vocal Event of the Year; the feel-good anthem also landed on the ACM ballot for Song of the Year and Video of the Year.
Born on December 25, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Buffett was raised in Mobile, Alabama. He earned a degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi and served as a Nashville correspondent for Billboard magazine from 1969 to 1970. Although he’d done some recording in Nashville, he relocated to Key West, Florida, in 1972, and his original songwriting reflected his tropical lifestyle. First recording for Dunhill/ABC (and later ABC), Buffett charted six country singles in the 1970s, with “Margaritaville” rising to No. 13 in 1977. “Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitudes” climbed to No. 24 a few months later.
After moving to the MCA pop roster in the 1980s, he dented the country charts with songs like “If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me.” A 1985 compilation titled Songs You Know by Heart sold more than seven million copies. However, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” cemented his stature in the country community. He recorded singles with guests Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, and George Strait (the ACM-nominated “Hey Good Lookin’,” 2004), Martina McBride (“Trip Around the Sun,” 2004), and Zac Brown Band (“Knee Deep,” a triple-platinum No. 1 hit in 2011). Buffett’s 2020 album, Life on the Flip Side, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart.
Robbie Roberston
Robbie Robertson, a Canadian musician and songwriter, and leader of the influential rock group The Band died August 9, 2023. He was 80.
Robbie Roberston
Robbie Robertson, a Canadian musician and songwriter, and leader of the influential rock group The Band died August 9, 2023. He was 80.
Born Jaime Royal Robertson on July 5, 1943, he was one of the last two surviving members of The Band, an influential rock band that mixed folk, gospel and jazz with rhythm and blues and helped forge a distinctly American kind of roots rock sound. Robertson played lead guitar and wrote some of The Band’s best-known songs, including “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” But it was Robertson's appearance in "The Last Waltz," a 1978 documentary about the group's farewell concert that was directed by Martin Scorsese, that made him a star. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest concert films ever made.
Robertson went on to produce scores and curated songs for Scorsese movies like "Raging Bull," "The Departed," "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Irishman." Shortly before he died, Robertson finished his 14th film music project with Scorsese called "Killers of the Flower Moon."
Chuck Flood
Chuck Flood, a renowned business manager who played a pivotal role in launching and supporting countless artists’ careers, died on July 21, 2023. He was 78.
Chuck Flood
Chuck Flood, a renowned business manager who played a pivotal role in launching and supporting countless artists’ careers, died on July 21, 2023. He was 78.
Born in Waco, Texas, Flood moved to Nashville after attending Baylor University. His career, which stretched four decades, included stops at Capitol and Warner Bros. Records working in the A&R and national promotional departments. In 1986, he founded Chuck Flood & Associates and later joined forces with Frank Bumstead, Mary Ann McCready, and John McCarthy forming today’s FBMM. Over the years, FBMM has elevated the careers of numerous A-list artists including Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban.
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett, the traditional pop artist and jazz vocalist whose voice epitomized the American Songbook, died on July 21, 2023. He was 96.
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett, the traditional pop artist and jazz vocalist whose voice epitomized the American Songbook, died on July 21, 2023. He was 96.
While the world knew him as Tony Bennett, a name given to him by Bob Hope, he was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926 in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, NY. His recordings – most of them made for Columbia Records, which signed him in 1950 – were characterized by ebullience, immense warmth, vocal clarity and emotional openness. Bennett hit the scene as a suave crooner and quickly established himself as one of radio's most popular hit-makers. He was a showman, with an intimate nightclub sensibility. He went on to make duet recordings with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Lady Gaga, who later became his biggest cheerleader and an ambassador to a legion of new fans. His professional career spanned eight decades, and he garnered a No. 1 album at age 85.
Jerry Bradley
Music executive Jerry Bradley, the son of legendary Owen Bradley, died July 17, 2023. He was 83.
Jerry Bradley
Music executive Jerry Bradley, the son of legendary Owen Bradley, died July 17, 2023. He was 83. A Nashville, Tennessee native, Bradley served two years in the U.S. Army, and soon after began working with his father and watching artists such as Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, and Webb Pierce record in the legendary “Bradley’s Barn” studio.
Bradley began working with Chet Atkins and would eventually go on to serve as the head of RCA Records in Nashville from 1973 to 1982. In this position, Bradley worked with a long list of Country greats including Alabama, Ronnie Milsap, Dolly Parton, and Charley Pride. He also played a pivotal role in the career of Elvis Presley, who released a series of CountryMusic songs such as “Moody Blue” and “Way Down.” Following his work on the label side, Bradley was named the head of the Opryland Music Group, where he would stay until his retirement in 2003.
In 1980, Bradley received an ACM Award nomination for “Album of the Year,” serving as a producer on Charley Pride’s album “There’s a Little Bit of Hank in Me.” Bradley was later inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
Bobby Osborne
Noted Bluegrass musician and co-founder of the Osborne Brothers, Bobby Osborne died June 27, 2023. He was 91.
Bobby Osborne
Noted Bluegrass musician and co-founder of the Osborne Brothers, Bobby Osborne died June 27, 2023. He was 91. Osborne was born on December 7, 1931, in Hyden, Kentucky and spent a lifetime fascinated by Country Music. In fact, Osborne ultimately dropped out of high school to join his brother Sonny in the hopes that the newly formed Country duo could possibly find their way to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry…and oh how they did.
The Osborne Brothers were eventually inducted into the legendary institution in August of 1964, after building a career on songs such as “Rocky Top,” “Once More” and “The Kind of Woman I Got.” Later in life, as a member of the Osborne Brothers, the mandolin maestro and Purple Heart recipient was inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Honor in 1994 and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in 2002. Osborne also spent much time teaching at the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music.
But thankfully, there was more music to come. Following his brother Sonny’s retirement in 2005, Bobby began working as a solo artist and received much acclaim for his 2017 solo album Original, which received his first solo GRAMMY nomination for Best Bluegrass Album in 2018. He also enjoyed many years out on the road with his band the Rocky Top X-Press.
Jesse McReynolds
Jesse McReynolds, one half of iconic duo Jim & Jesse and the oldest standing Grand Ole Opry member, passed away on June 23, 2023 at the age of 93.
Jesse McReynolds
Jesse McReynolds, one half of iconic duo Jim & Jesse and the oldest standing Grand Ole Opry member, passed away on June 23, 2023 at the age of 93. Known for his combination of crosspicking and split-string mandolin playing, McReynolds and his brother Jim spent 50 years recording and performing as Jim & Jesse, becoming the longest lasting brother duo in Country Music history upon Jim's death in 2002. Since their debut in 1952 on Capitol Records, the pair produced several hit songs and fan-favorites, including “The Flame of Love,” “Gosh I Miss You All The Time,” “Cotton Mill Man,” “Diesel On My Tail,” “Are You Missing Me,” and “Paradise.” Jim & Jesse became members of the Grand Ole Opry in 1964. Among their other honors, they were inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1993 and received the National Heritage Fellowship Award in 1997.
Cynthia Weil
Renowned songwriter Cynthia Weil passed away on June 1, 2023 at the age of 82.
Cynthia Weil
Renowned songwriter Cynthia Weil passed away on June 1, 2023 at the age of 82. Weil and her husband, Barry Mann, were the creative minds behind countless pop and Country standards, including "On Broadway" (The Drifters), "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (Kenny Rogers & Dottie West), “Here You Come Again” (Dolly Parton), "Just Once" (James Ingram), “Walking in the Rain” (The Ronettes), “We’re Over” (Johnny Rodriguez), “Another Goodbye” (Donna Fargo), “Wrong Again” (Martina McBride), “Somewhere Down the Road’ (Barry Manilow), and the Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram hit, "Somewhere Out There," from An American Tail. An inductee in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Weil received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Songwriters, as well as the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, among many other accolades.
Les Leverett
Longtime Grand Ole Opry staff photographer, Les Leverett, died on June 1, 2023 at the age of 96.
Les Leverett
Longtime Grand Ole Opry staff photographer, Les Leverett, died on June 1, 2023 at the age of 96. Tallying 32 years as the Opry's official photographer, Leverett took countless iconic images of Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Vince Gill, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe and other members of the golden age of Country Music. In addition to being the visual historian of the Grand Ole Opry, he also photographed over 200 album covers throughout his career, including Porter Wagoner's 1966 Confessions of a Broken Man, for which he was awarded a GRAMMY, as well as Dolly Parton's Bubbling Over, which won Country Album Cover of the Year at the 1973 Billboard Awards. In 1994, Leverett was honored with inclusion in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Walkway of Stars, and he received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2001.
George Moffett
George Moffett, one of the entertainment industry’s most respected and beloved talent buyers, whose career spanned 55 years, passed away on May 14, 2023. He was 86.
George Moffett
George Moffett, one of the entertainment industry’s most respected and beloved talent buyers, whose career spanned 55 years, passed away on May 14, 2023. He was 86. During his sophomore year at Muskingum College, he started to book local bands on the side at fraternity parties and social clubs. After graduating, he realized the need for a booking agency, which lead to the founding of Variety Attractions in 1961. Over the course of his career, he booked Country artists like Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Alabama, Garth Brooks, Toby Keith, Trace Adkins, and more. George also had a love for the circus world and booked animal and high wire acts at local and county fairs across the country. George was named the ACM Talent Buyer of the Year two times (1994 and 1995). He received honors from many state fair associations, including being inducted into the Ohio Fair Managers Hall of Fame. George was one of the founding members of the International Country Music Buyers Association in Nashville, along with his colleagues Don Romeo and Hap Peebles.
Gordon Lightfoot
Canadian folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot died on May 1, 2023 at the age of 84.
Gordon Lightfoot
Canadian folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot died on May 1, 2023 at the age of 84. Lightfoot had success in success in folk, folk-rock and Country Music, and will be remembered as one of Canada’s greatest songwriters. Lightfoot’s career got its start when he recorded two singles at RCA in Nashville, both produced by Chet Atkins. The resulting songs,”(Remember Me) I’m the One” and “Negotiations / It’s Too Late, He Wins” went on to be huge hits in Toronto. In 1963, Lightfoot travelled in Europe and hosted BBC TV’s Country and Western Show, returning to Canada in 1964.
As a writer, Lightfoot went on to get cuts with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Chad & Jeremy, George Hamilton IV, the Clancy Brothers and the Johnny Mann Singers. Established recording artists such as Marty Robbins, Leroy Van Dyke, and Judy Collins all achieved chart success with Lightfoot’s material.Throughout his career, Lightfoot was able to have success from his home in Canada without moving to any music mecca, though he often recorded in Nashville at Owen and Jerry Bradley’s Bradley’s Barn during the ’60s.
Claude Gray
Claude Gray, known as “The Tall Texan” and the “Family Bible” singer, died April 28, 2023. He was 91.
Claude Gray
Claude Gray, known as “The Tall Texan” and the “Family Bible” singer, died April 28, 2023. He was 91. Originally from Henderson, Texas, Gray began his early adulthood serving in the U.S. Navy. It wasn’t until his late 20s, after landing a job as a radio announcer, that he began to pursue music. Signed by D Records, his Country Music career took off after he recorded hit “Family Bible.” The song, originally written by Willie Nelson, was sold to Paul Buskirk so Nelson could keep food on the table, but ironically Nelson credits its success as the impetus for him continuing to write songs and move to Nashville. Two years later, Gray was signed to Mercury Records and released his album Songs of Broken Love Affairs, which included hits “I’ll Just Have a Cup of Coffee (Then I’ll Go)” and “My Ears Should Burn (When Fools Are Talked About).” Gray continued releasing songs into the late 1960s, and into his older age, he remained active in the Country space, touring in the “Claude Gray Roadshow.”
Barbara Ellen Clarkson
Barbara Ellen (Leuallen) Clarkson, 83, formerly of Nashville, TN and more recently of Stuarts Draft passed away on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
Barbara Ellen Clarkson
Barbara Ellen (Leuallen) Clarkson, 83, formerly of Nashville, TN and more recently of Stuarts Draft passed away on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Barbara was an award winning song writer and play writer. Her most notable cuts were “I Am the Dreamer”, and “She Only Meant To Use You” by Conway Twitty along with “God Bless the Children” sung by Loretta Lynn, which all reached number one on the charts. Along with being musically gifted, she was a wonderful mother who enjoyed painting and singing.
Keith Gattis
Keith Gattis, a beloved singer, songwriter and producer passed away on April 23, 2023. He was 52 years old.
Keith Gattis
Keith Gattis, a beloved singer, songwriter and producer passed away on April 23, 2023. He was 52 years old. The Texas-born songwriter began his musical journey playing in Austin before moving to Nashville. After signing with RCA in 1996, he released “Little Drops Of My Heart” off his debut self-titled album. In 2002 he became Dwight Yoakam’s band leader and played both electric guitar and bass on Yoakam’s album Blame the Vain. Gattis would go on to become an in-demand session guitarist, playing for Bruce Robinson, Sunny Sweeney, Jon Pardi, Brandy Clark, and many more. He would also find success in songwriting. His song “El Cerrito Place,” off his album Big City Blues was rerecorded by Charlie Robinson, and eventually would become a hit for Kenny Chesney. Gattis would go on to have songs cut by George Strait, Randy Travis, Randy Houser, Gary Allan, Jack Ingram and more. At his studio, Pioneertown Recording Studio, he produced for Jon Pardi, Jake Owen, and Waylon Payne, among others and was a co-producer of Randy Houser’s 2019 acclaimed album Magnolia.
Ray Pillow
Ray Pillow, a longtime Grand Ole Opry member, died on March 26, 2023. He was 85.
Ray Pillow
Ray Pillow, a longtime Grand Ole Opry member, died on March 26, 2023. He was 85. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Pillow earned a business degree and served in the Navy before launching his music career. When a strong showing in a talent contest earned him a guest slot on the Opry, Pillow set his sights on Country Music. Signing with Capitol Records, Pillow enjoyed a banner year in 1966 with a Top 10 duet with Jean Shepard (“I’ll Take the Dog”), an invitation to join the Opry cast, and new artist accolades from Billboard and Cashbox. Between 1965 and 1981, Pillow charted 18 singles. With Lee Greenwood’s manager Larry McFaden, Pillow co-founded Sycamore Valley Music Company, which published the 1984 classic, “God Bless the USA.
Bob "Norton" Thompson
Bob “Norton” Thompson, the entrepreneur who opened the Nashville rehearsal studio Soundcheck died on March 24, 2023. He was 80.
Bob "Norton" Thompson
Bob “Norton” Thompson, the entrepreneur who opened the Nashville rehearsal studio Soundcheck died on March 24, 2023. He was 80. Following gigs as a roadie in the 1970s, Thompson signed on with the Eagles as a guitar tech for Glenn Frey, who became a lifelong friend and business partner. Thompson also worked on tours with the Bellamy Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, and others. In 1989, he and his wife co-founded Third Encore rehearsal studios near Los Angeles. After selling that company, Thompson and his family moved to Nashville and opened the Soundcheck facility in 1993, with Frey as co-owner. They sold Soundcheck in 2004 when Thompson retired. In 2020, Thompson published a memoir, Last Encore: My Time With Glenn Frey, The Eagles, And Other Hit Artists.
Liz Thiels
Liz Thiels, a pioneering public relations executive who represented the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as numerous Country artists in the 1980s and 1990s, died on March 19, 2023. She was 78.
Liz Thiels
Liz Thiels, a pioneering public relations executive who represented the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as numerous Country artists in the 1980s and 1990s, died on March 19, 2023. She was 78. The Louisiana native worked as a newspaper reporter and press secretary before moving to Nashville in 1969. Within two years, she’d become a partner and co-founder in the Nashville venue Exit/In. In 1979, Thiels co-founded Network Ink, considered Nashville’s first publicity firm to focus on music. She became sole owner in 1985 and mentored a generation of Country Music publicists. In 2001, Thiels closed the company to join the executive team of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, her longtime client. She retired as Senior Vice President in 2015.
Michael Rhodes
Michael Rhodes, a first-call studio musician who won 10 ACM Awards as a bassist, died on March 4, 2023. He was 69.
Michael Rhodes
Michael Rhodes, a first-call studio musician who won 10 ACM Awards as a bassist, died on March 4, 2023. He was 69. Rhodes was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and taught himself to play guitar around age 11. After a period of time living in Memphis, Austin, and Los Angeles, he moved to Nashville, where his funky style and adaptability led to a job as a demo session player for Tree Publishing in the late 1970s.Producers soon sought him out for major label projects and he received his first of 17 ACM nominations as a bassist in 1987.Rhodes was named a Nashville Cat by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2015; he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2019
Kyle Jacobs
Kyle Jacobs, a talented Nashville songwriter and producer and the husband of Kellie Pickler passed away on February 17, 2023.
Kyle Jacobs
Kyle Jacobs, a talented Nashville songwriter and producer and the husband of Kellie Pickler passed away on February 17, 2023. In 2014 Jacobs won an ACM Award as producer of Lee Brice's "I Drive Your Truck." In addition, he was a co-writer on Garth Brooks' single "More Than a Memory," the first song to debut at Number One on Billboard's Country Singles chart in its history.
"These past few days have truly been some of the hardest of my life," Lee Brice, longtime friend of Kyle, said. "At times, I feel lost and buried under this deep sadness. Other times, I sit and remember all the times with Kyle that bring me comfort and make me smile. He was, without a doubt, one of the best people anyone could ever hope to have in their corner…I am eternally grateful for having him in mine. I’ll keep Kellie, his family and everyone who was touched by him close to my heart. I’ll miss you til we meet again..I love you, brother."
Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach, a legendary pop songwriter who also composed two chart-topping Country hits, died on February 8, 2023. He was 94.
Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach, a legendary pop songwriter who also composed two chart-topping Country hits, died on February 8, 2023. He was 94. Growing up in Queens, New York, Bacharach developed an ear for music through piano lessons, and later, by sneaking into jazz clubs. After serving in the Army, Bacharach placed “The Story of My Life” with Marty Robbins, who carried the Country single (co-written with Hal David) to No.1 for four weeks in 1958. In addition to writing classics for The Carpenters, B.J. Thomas, and Dionne Warwick, he returned to No. 1 on the Country chart in 1982 with Ronnie Milsap’s remake of “Any Day Now.” Other Bacharach classics include “I Say a Little Prayer,” “On My Own,” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”
Pat Bunch
Pat Bunch, who co-wrote No. 1 hits for Ty Herndon, Faith Hill, and Restless Heart, died on January 30, 2023. She was 83.
Pat Bunch
Pat Bunch, who co-wrote No. 1 hits for Ty Herndon, Faith Hill, and Restless Heart, died on January 30, 2023. She was 83.
Peter McCann
Peter McCann, an advocate and songwriter best remembered for “Right Time of the Night,” died on January 26, 2023. He was 74.
Peter McCann
Peter McCann, an advocate and songwriter best remembered for “Right Time of the Night,” died on January 26, 2023. He was 74. McCann got his start in Los Angeles in the 1970s as a founder of folk-rock band The Repairs. After shifting his focus to songwriting, he secured a publishing deal with ABC and made an impact with “Right Time of the Night,” a 1977 pop hit recorded by Jennifer Warnes and produced by Jim Ed Brown. He charted his own pop hit in 1977 with “Do You Wanna Make Love.” McCann moved to Nashville in 1985 and placed cuts with Earl Thomas Conley, Janie Fricke, Kathy Mattea, Reba McEntire, and many others. Often working with NSAI, he spent decades lobbying for songwriters in Washington.
David Crosby
David Crosby, whose love of harmony and talent for songwriting helped usher in the folk-rock sound, died on January 18, 2023. He was 81.
David Crosby
David Crosby, whose love of harmony and talent for songwriting helped usher in the folk-rock sound, died on January 18, 2023. He was 81. Crosby grew up in Southern California and became a cornerstone of the Laurel Canyon sound of the 1970s. Fascinated by the Everly Brothers’ vocal blend, Crosby brought a gift for singing harmony as a founding member of The Byrds; he also co-wrote one of their most beloved songs, “Eight Miles High.” After leaving the group, he co-founded Crosby, Stills & Nash, and their lush vocals and exquisite songs such as “Guinnevere” (another Crosby original) led to a Grammy win in 1970 for Best New Artist. In 2019, Crosby shared his life story in the Cameron Crowe documentary film, David Crosby: Remember My Name.
Bruce Gowers
Bruce Gowers, an award-winning director who worked with superstar artists in pop, rock, and Country Music, died on January 15, 2023. He was 82.
Bruce Gowers
Bruce Gowers, an award-winning director who worked with superstar artists in pop, rock, and Country Music, died on January 15, 2023. He was 82. Born and raised in England, Gowers may be best remembered for directing Queen’s 1975 landmark music video, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” although his career flourished for decades afterwards. Among his hundreds of credits, Gowers directed John Mellencamp’s iconic 1982 video, “Jack & Diane,” and won a Grammy in 1985 for Huey Lewis & The News’ longform video, “The Heart of Rock & Roll.” For multiple years, Gowers directed the Academy of Country Music Awards (2002-2004), the American Music Awards (2001, 2003) and the Billboard Music Awards (1996-2006). Starting in 2002, he directed the first nine seasons of American Idol, winning an Emmy in 2009.
Stan Hitchcock
Stan Hitchcock, a television executive who guided the early years of CMT while balancing a career as a host and recording artist, died on January 4, 2023. He was 86.
Stan Hitchcock
Stan Hitchcock, a television executive who guided the early years of CMT while balancing a career as a host and recording artist, died on January 4, 2023. He was 86. Hitchcock was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and started performing at 12 years old. While in the Navy, he formed a Country band; upon his discharge in 1958, he settled in Springfield, Missouri. Discovered by Red Foley, Hitchcock secured a contract with Epic Records. Although his singing career yielded modest results, he found a national audience through hosting two syndicated television shows. Hitchcock joined CMT in 1983, just as music videos were becoming prevalent. In addition to his interview series, Heart to Heart With Stan Hitchcock, he founded the Americana Television Network and BlueHighways TV.
Anita Pointer
Anita Pointer, a pop star who twice crossed over to country music, died on December 31, 2022. She was 74.
Anita Pointer
Anita Pointer, a pop star who twice crossed over to country music, died on December 31, 2022.She was 74. The fourth of six children, Pointer grew up singing in her father’s church with her sisters Bonnie, June, and Ruth. After gaining traction in pop and R&B, the Pointer Sisters won a country Grammy for 1974’s “Fairytale.” Recorded in Nashville and written by Anita and BonniePointer, “Fairytale” reached No. 37 at country radio and the Pointer Sisters became the first African-American group to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. Conway Twitty’s cover of thePointer Sisters’ “Slow Hand” peaked at No. 1 in 1982. In addition, Anita Pointer and EarlThomas Conley reached No. 2 at country radio with 1986’s “Too Many Times.”
Stephen Allen Davis
Stephen Allen Davis, whose extensive songwriting credits include Jo Dee Messina’s “Stand Beside Me,” died on December 26, 2022. He was 73.
Stephen Allen Davis
Stephen Allen Davis, whose extensive songwriting credits include Jo Dee Messina’s “Stand Beside Me,” died on December 26, 2022. He was 73. A native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, Davis found his first songwriting success with Percy Sledge’s 1968 pop and R&B hit, “Take Time to Know Her.” In the late 1970s, Tammy Wynette reached the Top 10 with his compositions “One of a Kind” and “No One Else in the World.” Throughout his long career, he landed Top10 singles with Little Texas, Barbara Mandrell, Charly McClain (including her No. 1 hit, “Radio Heart”), Reba McEntire, and others. “Stand Beside Me” spent three weeks at No. 1 in 1999, while Messina earned ACM nominations for Top Female Vocalist and Album of the Year with I’m Alright.
Charlie Monk
Charlie Monk, fondly known as the Mayor of MusicRow, died on December 19, 2022. He was 84.
Charlie Monk
Charlie Monk, fondly known as the Mayor of MusicRow, died on December 19, 2022. He was 84. Monk grew up in Geneva, Alabama, equally fascinated with celebrities and radio. After serving in the Army and working as a disc jockey throughout Alabama, he moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1968 to program one of the earliest full-time country music stations. The following year he co-founded Country Radio Seminar, where he hosted and produced its annual New Faces Show for 40 years. Following seven years at ASCAP, he led CBS Songs, launched a publishing company, and helped revive the fortunes of legacy publisher Acuff-Rose Music. Monk joined SiriusXM as an on-air personality in 2004 and was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2019.
Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper, one of Nashville’s most admired music journalists and historians, died on December 6, 2022. He was 52.
Peter Cooper
Peter Cooper, one of Nashville’s most admired music journalists and historians, died on December 6, 2022. He was 52. A South Carolina native, Cooper moved to Nashville in 2000 as a music reporter for The Tennessean. His knowledge, wit, and enthusiasm quickly endeared him to the country music community. He accepted a position at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014, channeling his storytelling talent as a speechwriter, panel moderator, and frequent commentator for TV specials and documentaries. In addition to releasing albums of his own songwriting, Cooper co-produced the Grammy-nominated children’s album I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow. He published the autobiographical book Johnny’s Cash and Charley’s Pride: Lasting Legends and Untold Adventures in Country Music in 2017.
Jeff Cook
Jeff Cook, a founding member of the groundbreaking country band Alabama, died on November 7, 2022. He was 73.
Jeff Cook
Jeff Cook, a founding member of the groundbreaking country band Alabama, died on November 7, 2022. He was 73. Born on August 27, 1949, in Fort Payne, Alabama, Cook spent his teen years playing guitar and keyboards in bands and hosting a local radio show. Alabama evolved out of a band named Wildcountry, which Cook formed with Fort Payne musicians Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry while they were still teenagers. By 1980, two of Alabama’s independent singles reached the Top 40 at country radio, prompting an invitation to perform at the CRS New Faces Show and a contract with RCA Records.
Alabama immediately set itself apart in country music as a self-contained band, in contrast to popular vocal groups who used a backing band. With immediate momentum, Alabama claimed five ACM Entertainer of the Year trophies (1981-1985), six ACM Top Vocal Group awards (1980-1985), and three ACM Album of the Year honors. Alabama was named ACM Artist of the Decade for the 1980s. By 1999, the band had charted 50 Top 10 singles for RCA. In addition to vocal support and playing fiddle and guitar in Alabama, Cook co-wrote their enduring holiday classic, “Christmas in Dixie.”
Alabama’s numerous honors include the 2002 ACM Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award and a 2005 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. After initially retiring from the road in 2003, the group returned to No. 1 at country radio in 2011 as guests on Brad Paisley’s “Old Alabama.”
Jerry Whitehurst
Jerry Whitehurst, the ACM Award-winning musical director of TNN’s Nashville Now, died on October 30, 2022. He was 84.
Jerry Whitehurst
Jerry Whitehurst, the ACM Award-winning musical director of TNN’s Nashville Now, died on October 30, 2022. He was 84. Born in Nashville, Whitehurst was working for a trucking firm when he landed a part-time job as a pianist in the Grand Ole Opry house band. That gig led to occasional session work and playing piano on TV shows such as Hee-Haw and Pop Goes the Country. When Nashville Now debuted on the fledgling cable network TNN in 1983, Whitehurst’s musical versatility became vital to the daily talk show’s enduring success. Known for his pleasant personality and familiar baseball cap, Whitehurst also composed the show’s theme song. The Nashville Now house band won five consecutive ACM Awards (1985–1989) in the Non-Touring Band of the Year category.
Jerry Lee Lewis
The legendary Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29, 1935, in Louisiana and would grow up to be a pioneer of rock and roll music.
Jerry Lee Lewis
The legendary Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29, 1935, in Louisiana and would grow up to be a pioneer of rock and roll music. Lewis began his recording career in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis and soon released what would turn into iconic songs such as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Crazy Arms.” He would also record with musical giants such as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley as part of the famed “Million Dollar Quartet.”
In the late 1960’s, Lewis expanded his musical repertoire into the Country Music genre via songs such as “Another Place, Another Time,” “To Make Love Sweeter for You” and “Once More with Feeling” while still making some major noise on the pop charts with “Me and Bobby McGee” in 1971 and “Chantilly Lace” in 1972.
Eventually, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member’s life story would be told in the motion picture Great Balls of Fire starring Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder and Alec Baldwin.
On top of his already impressive career stats is the fact that Lewis won an ACM Award in 1975 as Piano Player of the Year, alongside many other nominations throughout the 1970s, highlighted by the ACM Career Achievement Award nomination back in 1977.
Anita Kerr
Anita Kerr, the vocal and instrumental arranger whose musical touch became a cornerstone of the Nashville Sound, died on October 10, 2022. She was 94.
Anita Kerr
Anita Kerr, the vocal and instrumental arranger whose musical touch became a cornerstone of the Nashville Sound, died on October 10, 2022. She was 94. As a child in Memphis, she played pipe organ in church and sang on local radio shows. After moving to Nashville in 1948, her visibility grew with performances on the Grand Ole Opry’s Prince Albert Show, national exposure on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, and recording sessions with Owen Bradley for Decca Records. From 1961 to 1963, she worked with Chet Atkins on hundreds of RCA sessions before pursuing other genres. Her lush arrangements, together with the beautiful blend of the Anita Kerr Singers, brought sophisticated textures and a fresh sound to country music at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll.
Jody Miller
Jody Miller, one of the most versatile singers of her era, died on October 6, 2022. She was 80.
Jody Miller
Jody Miller, one of the most versatile singers of her era, died on October 6, 2022. She was 80. As a teenager, she nurtured her singing talent in coffee houses in Oklahoma before moving to Los Angeles. Capitol Records signed her as a folk artist in 1962. She charted a pop single, “He Walks Like a Man,” in 1964 and appeared on American Bandstand. The following year, she placed a Top 5 Country crossover hit with the Grammy-winning “Queen of the House.” Miller received1965 and 1968 nominations for ACM Top New Female Vocalist. With Billy Sherrill producing, an Epic Records contract yielded five more Top 10 hits in the early 1970s. She retired from touring in the 1980s but continued to record gospel albums.
Loretta Lynn
Known best as the undisputed Queen of Country Music via number one songs such as “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Fist City” and “Don’t Come Home a ‘Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),” Loretta Lynn has been Country Music’s ultimate storyteller for over fifty years.
Loretta Lynn
Known best as the undisputed Queen of Country Music via number one songs such as “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Fist City” and “Don’t Come Home a ‘Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),” Loretta Lynn has been Country Music’s ultimate storyteller for over fifty years. She blazingly captured some of the pains and tribulations of being a wife and mother in her music and broke down countless barriers for women everywhere, continuing to inspire innumerable artists today.
A member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Lynn’s impact cannot be understated. Alongside worldwide record sales of more than 45 million worldwide and a staggering 51 Top 10 hits, Lynn received a total of 14 ACM Awards throughout her career and is currently the only female to be named ACM Artist of the Decade, as well as the first woman to win the ACM Award for Entertainer of the Year. Most recently, she was honored with the ACM Poet’s Award in 2021.
Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers, founder of the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, died on September 28, 2022. He was 68.
Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers, founder of the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, died on September 28, 2022. He was 68. Although he played in a rock band as a teenager, he learned about Country Music through a friendship with producer Billy Sherrill, who headed CBS Records. In addition to an A&R role at the label, Chambers observed Sherrill as he worked in the studio, thus sparking a lifelong interest in session musicians. As a songwriter, he placed cuts with Ricky Van Shelton, Randy Travis and more. In 1985, he opened Chambers Guitars, which evolved into a small retail chain. Chambers opened the museum in 2006 to honor notable session players, engineers and producers in Nashville, Los Angeles, Detroit, Muscle Shoals, Philadelphia and other music capitals.
Ray Edenton
Ray Edenton, a rhythm guitarist who played on more than 10,000 recording sessions, died on September 21, 2022. He was 95.
Ray Edenton
Ray Edenton, a rhythm guitarist who played on more than 10,000 recording sessions, died on September 21, 2022. He was 95. Edenton was born and raised in Mineral, Va. After serving in the Army during World War II, Edenton performed at barn dances and on radio shows before moving to Nashville in 1952. His steady playing style elevated signature hits by Webb Pierce, The Everly Brothers, Patsy Cline, Roger Miller, Kenny Rogers, Loretta Lynn and more. Although he rarely played lead in the studio, his vibrant guitar solo on Marty Robbins’ “Singing the Blues” confirmed his spot among Nashville’s A-team of session players. Edenton retired in 1991. Recognizing his studio achievements, the Country Music Hall of Fame honored Edenton in its “Nashville Cats” series in 2007.
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John, an internationally recognized entertainer who charted 15 Country singles in the 1970s, died on August 8, 2022. She was 73.
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John, an internationally recognized entertainer who charted 15 Country singles in the 1970s, died on August 8, 2022. She was 73. Born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Melbourne, Australia, Newton-John first gained attention with a British hit version of Bob Dylan’s “If Not For You” in 1971. She entered the American Country chart in 1973 with “Let Me Be There,” which won a Grammy for Country Female Vocal Performance. Newton-John also received the 1973 ACM Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist and earned a 1974 nod for Top Female Vocalist. In addition to her iconic music hits like “Physical,” “I Honestly Love You” and her iconic Grease duet with John Travolta, “You’re the One That I Want,” she was also an inspiration to millions, thanks to her public and brave battle with breast cancer.
Ed Hardy
Ed Hardy, the media executive who expanded the reach of Great American Country (GAC) as its president, died on July 31, 2022. He was 73.
Ed Hardy
Ed Hardy, the media executive who expanded the reach of Great American Country (GAC) as its president, died on July 31, 2022. He was 73. Hardy worked at WJW Radio in Cleveland, Ohio, at the start of his career, then broadened his broadcasting footprint across the Pacific Northwest. After selling his radio group to Citadel Radio, he served as president and CEO of Measure Cast and consulted for MediaBlue/Nox. Joining GAC in 2004 after its acquisition by the Scripps Network, Hardy immediately fueled the cable channel’s growth nationally and negotiated a multi-year deal to broadcast the Grand Ole Opry. Following his retirement in 2012, he was recognized with the CMA Chairman’s Award in 2013 and the President’s Award from the Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc., in 2014.
Bil Vorndick
Bil VornDick, a producer and champion for Americana, bluegrass and folk artists, died on July 5, 2022. He was 72.
Bil Vorndick
Bil VornDick, a producer and champion for Americana, bluegrass and folk artists, died on July 5, 2022. He was 72. A Virginia native, VornDick signed as a staff songwriter to Cedarwood Publishing at age 19. He then moved to Nashville with the encouragement of Chet Atkins, who helped VornDick enroll in the music business program at Belmont College. After graduating in 1979, VornDick accepted a position as chief engineer at Marty Robbins’ studio. He soon aligned himself with an auspicious class of acoustic artists who emerged in Nashville in the 1980s,
Eddie Edwards Drennan
Eddie Edwards, a 1985 ACM Award recipient for DiscJockey of the Year, died on June 19, 2022. He was 75.
Eddie Edwards Drennan
Eddie Edwards, a 1985 ACM Award recipient for DiscJockey of the Year, died on June 19, 2022. He was 75. Born in San Diego as Ernest Edward Drennan, he spent more than 50 years in the radio industry. His on-air career began in a broadcasting class at San Diego State University, and later, a small station in Barstow, Calif. Under his guidance as program manager at WNOE, the station helped establish New Orleans as a strong market for Country Music. He also hosted a long-running morning show, billed as Crazy Eddie and the Breakfast Flakes. Edwards was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 2013. He continued to stay active in the radio industry, most recently working mornings at WUUU in Covington, La.
Al Cooley
Al Cooley, a multifaceted music industry figure whose career spanned across decades, died on June 9, 2022. He was 76.
Al Cooley
Al Cooley, a multifaceted music industry figure whose career spanned across decades, died on June 9, 2022. He was 76. Cooley grew up in the Bronx and moved to Nashville in the early 1970s. After working as editor of a biweekly publication called Zoo World: The Music Megapaper, Cooley joined Combine Music in 1976 as a song plugger. In that role, he hired a then-unknown Kathy Mattea to sing demos and wrote a column for David Ross’ fledgling publication MusicRow. After Combine’s sale in 1986, Cooley continued in publishing until landing an A&R job in 1991 at Atlantic Nashville, the label that launched the careers of Tracy Lawrence, Neal McCoy and John Michael Montgomery. Departing after a label merger, Cooley accepted a position at Koch Nashville in 2004.
Glenn Meadows
Glenn Meadows, one of Nashville’s most prolific recording engineers, died on July 7, 2022. He was 73.
Glenn Meadows
Glenn Meadows, one of Nashville’s most prolific recording engineers, died on July 7, 2022. He was 73. Meadows grew up on Long Island, N.Y., and studied at Georgia Tech. After launching an engineering career at the Sound Pit in Atlanta, he moved to Nashville in 1975. Taking a position at Masterfonics, he positioned himself as a leading mastering engineer. He acquired the company in 1989 and worked with innumerable pop and Country artists, ranging from Merle Haggard, The Judds and George Strait, to Jimmy Buffett, Amy Grant and Steely Dan. In 1995, he opened the Tracking Room, a multimillion dollar recording studio near Music Row. With engineering credits on more than 1,600 albums, Meadows accepted the Audio Engineering Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
Hal Bynum
Hal Bynum, who co-wrote Kenny Rogers’ classic hit “Lucille,” died on June 2, 2022. He was 87.
Hal Bynum
Hal Bynum, who co-wrote Kenny Rogers’ classic hit “Lucille,” died on June 2, 2022. He was 87. Born in Texas, the Navy veteran moved to Nashville in 1968 after landing cuts like George Jones’ “The Old, Old House” and Jim Reeves’ “Nobody’s Fool.” Written by Bynum and Roger Bowling, “Lucille” vividly captures a moment between the title character in a Toledo bar and the heartbroken husband who confronts her. Among its accolades, “Lucille” collected the 1977 ACM Single and Song of the Year awards. Bynum’s other writing credits include Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings’1978 single, “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang,” as well as Patty Loveless’ 1990 No. 1 hit, “Chains.” He also had songs recorded by Suzy Bogguss, Lee Greenwood, and Ray Price.
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Gilley, acclaimed singer/songwriter died on May 7, 2022. He was 86.
Mickey Gilley
Mickey Gilley, acclaimed singer/songwriter died on May 7, 2022. He was 86. Gilley, cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart, got his start playing the club circuit in Texas, eventually opening his first nightclub in Pasadena, Texas called the Gilley’s Club. And with songs such as “Chains of Love,” “Honky Tonk Memories” and “She’s Pulling Me Back Again” along with some well-known covers he quickly established himself in the Country Music genre. However, in the 1980’s, Gilley found himself implanted in the pop landscape thanks to his cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” a song featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy. Throughout his career, Gilley was recognized many times by the ACM, bringing home awards for everything from ACM Most Promising Male Vocalist in 1974 to ACM Entertainer of the Year just two short years later. And in 2005, he was presented with the ACM Triple Crown.
Naomi Judd
Naomi Judd, a former nurse whose talent and tenacity carried her to legendary status in Country Music, died on April 30, 2022. She was 76.
Naomi Judd
Naomi Judd, a former nurse whose talent and tenacity carried her to legendary status in Country Music, died on April 30, 2022. She was 76. With her daughter Wynonna, The Judds won the ACM Award for Top Vocal Duet for seven consecutive years (1984 to 1990). Starting in 1984 with “Mama He’s Crazy,” they secured 14 No. 1 hits at Country radio. One of their many signature hits, “Why Not Me,” collected a 1984 trophy for ACM Song of the Year. Also, the duo cohosted the awards show twice, including the 25th anniversary show in 1990. While working at a hospital in Franklin, Tennessee, Naomi was taking care of producer Brent Maher’s daughter, Dianna, who had been in a car accident. Dianna attended the same high school as Wynonna and recognized Naomi from the duo’s performances on a local morning television show. After Dianna’s discharge, Naomi delivered a homemade demo tape to Maher’s office. Upon finally listening to it, Maher arranged for a live audition at RCA Records, which led to a recording contract. The dynamic between mother and daughter, which could be charming as well as challenging, made the Judds feel intimately familiar to Country fans. Their effortless harmony and acoustic arrangements appealed to traditionalists as well. Following a Hepatitis C diagnosis, Naomi announced her imminent departure from the group in 1990, adding a poignancy to the ballad “Love Can Build a Bridge” (which she co-wrote). In the decades to come, the Judds remained beloved, earning an ACM Pioneer Award in 2012 and an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022.
Thom Bresh
Thom Bresh, a celebrated guitarist and enduring entertainer, died on May 23, 2022. He was 74.
Thom Bresh
Thom Bresh, a celebrated guitarist and enduring entertainer, died on May 23, 2022. He was 74. Born and raised in Southern California, Bresh entered show business early, working as a movie stuntman as a child. He began appearing on local TV shows at age 11 and performed in Hank Penny’s band in Las Vegas at 16. Although he recorded multiple singles in his early 20s, he earned his first hit in 1976. Released on Farr Records, “Home Made Love” reached No. 6. He earned an ACM nomination for Top New Male Vocalist and charted nine Country singles through 1982. The son of Country Music Hall of Fame member Merle Travis, Bresh carried on his father’s famous “Travis-picking” style on records, television, and instructional videos.
Bill Walker
Bill Walker, known for his graceful touch as a composer and arranger, died on May 26, 2022. He was 85.
Bill Walker
Bill Walker, known for his graceful touch as a composer and arranger, died on May 26, 2022. He was 85. Born and raised in Australia and employed by RCA Victor in South Africa, Walker relocated to Nashville in 1964 to work with Jim Reeves. However, the Country legend was killed in a plane crash on the same weekend Walker arrived. Eddy Arnold then helped establish Walker as a notable arranger and composer on lush recordings like 1965’s “Make the World Go Away.” After serving as music director of The Johnny Cash Show, Walker produced Donna Fargo’s “The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.,” the 1972 ACM Single of the Year. In the 1990s, Walker lent his orchestral composition talent to TNN’s top-rated The Statler Brothers Show.
Don Howard
Don Howard, a former ACM Board Member who launched his music industry career in Hollywood, died on April 16, 2022. He was 83.
Don Howard
Don Howard, a former ACM Board Member who launched his music industry career in Hollywood, died on April 16, 2022. He was 83. Howard was born in Floyd, Texas, but moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s. His mother, Bea Terry, had already established herself in Country Music circles as a magazine columnist, publicist and radio promoter, among other roles. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Howard developed his own career as a booking agent, manager, and music publisher. He met his wife of 54 years, Marti, at the famed Palomino Club. In 1978, Howard and his family relocated to Sanger, Texas, where he worked in construction and real estate. At the time of his death, he was preparing to publish a memoir entitled Bea and Me.
Francis La Maina
Francis La Maina, the former COO of Dick Clark Productions, died on April 8, 2022. He was 82.
Francis La Maina
Francis La Maina, the former COO of Dick Clark Productions, died on April 8, 2022. He was 82. La Maina also served on the Academy of Country Music Board of Directors. He joined Dick Clark Productions in 1966 as head of the accounting department. By 1972, he became a director of the company and rose to Vice President of Business Affairs in 1973. He was appointed Executive Vice President in 1977 and COO in 1986. For over 25 years, La Maina represented Clark as his business advisor. In addition, La Maina handled business matters related to the company’s programming, including the ACM Awards, American Bandstand, the American Music Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
C.W. McCall
C.W. McCall, credited with co-writing and recording the 1976 truck-driving classic “Convoy,” died on April 1, 2022. He was 93.
C.W. McCall
C.W. McCall, credited with co-writing and recording the 1976 truck-driving classic “Convoy,” died on April 1, 2022. He was 93. “Convoy” arrived at the height of a CB radio craze, spending six weeks atop the Country radio chart and even topping the pop parade. C.W. McCall was actually the alter ego of advertising executive William Fries, who created the trucker character of C.W. McCall for a campaign for Old Home Bread. Fries co-wrote “Convoy” with Chip Davis, who later founded the group Mannheim Steamroller. McCall’s corresponding album on MGM Records, Black Bear Road, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. He showed his sentimental side with the melodramatic 1977 ballad, “Roses for Mama,” then stepped away from the music business the following year.
Jeff Carson
Jeff Carson, a ‘90s Country star who won an ACM Award for his music video of “The Car” died on March 26, 2022. He was 58.
Jeff Carson
Jeff Carson, a ‘90s Country star who won an ACM Award for his music video of “The Car” died on March 26, 2022. He was 58. Born in Oklahoma, Carson gigged around Rogers, Arkansas, and Branson, Missouri, before moving to Nashville. After working as a demo singer, he landed a recording contract with MCG/Curb Records. Carson reached No. 1 with the romantic “Not On Your Love” in 1995. He returned to the Top 10 with “The Car” and “Holdin’ Onto Somethin’.” Carson staged a surprising comeback in 2001 with “Real Life (I Never Was The Same Again).” His 2003 rendition of “I Can Only Imagine” became his 14th charting single. In 2009, he retired from music to work as a police officer in Franklin, Tennessee.
Mary Jane Thomas
Mary Jane Thomas, the wife of Hank Williams Jr., died on March 22, 2022. She was 58.
Mary Jane Thomas
Mary Jane Thomas, the wife of Hank Williams Jr., died on March 22, 2022. She was 58. A Daytona Beach, Florida, native, Thomas met Williams in 1985 while she was a model for Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion. They married in Missoula, Montana, in 1990, and lived in Paris, Tennessee. Williams filed for divorce in 2007, with a press release citing Thomas’ addiction issues. However, they reconciled in 2011 and appeared together at Williams’ 2021 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The couple’s son, Sam Williams, is a recording artist for Mercury Nashville. Their daughter, Katie Williams-Dunning, was killed in a 2020 car accident. Hank Williams Jr. is a three-time ACM Entertainer of the Year and received the 2008 ACM Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award.
Bruce Burch
Bruce Burch, a songwriter whose credits include Reba McEntire’s “Rumor Has It” and “It’s Your Call,” died on March 12, 2022. He was 69.
Bruce Burch
Bruce Burch, a songwriter whose credits include Reba McEntire’s “Rumor Has It” and “It’s Your Call,” died on March 12, 2022. He was 69. A native of Gainesville, Georgia, Burch scored Top 10 hits for T. Graham Brown and Billy Joe Royal in the 1980s. His song “Nobody Calls From Vegas Just to Say Hello” appeared on Vern Gosdin’s ACM-nominated landmark album, 1988’s Chiseled in Stone. Throughout the 1990s, Burch placed album cuts with John Anderson, Faith Hill, George Jones, Collin Raye, and Aaron Tippin. In 1996, he published a book titled Songs That Changed Our Lives. He also worked with multiple universities in Georgia to create music industry courses. Loretta Lynn recorded one of his most-admired songs, “Wine Into Water,” for 2016’s Full Circle.
Bobbie Nelson
Bobbie Nelson, pianist, singer, edler sister of Willie Nelson and member of his band, Willie Nelson and Family, died on March 10, 2022. She was 91.
Bobbie Nelson
Bobbie Nelson, pianist, singer, edler sister of Willie Nelson and member of his band, Willie Nelson and Family, died on March 10, 2022. She was 91.
Bobbie and Willie were raised by their grandparents in Abbot, Texas. Growing up playing music in the church and starting on the honky-tonk scene together as teenagers, the siblings would go on to share stages for decades to come. After her husband was killed in a 1961 car accident, Bobbie took a job demonstrating organs and playing piano in restaurants, lounges and supper clubs. When Willie signed with Atlantic Records, he invited Bobbie to play on a 1973 recording session and join his touring band. In 2021, the siblings issued a children’s book and released a Country gospel album, The Willie Nelson Family. | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 89 | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/daryl-hall-d-solo-album/ | en | Daryl Hall Unveils Long-Awaited Sixth Solo Album, ‘D’ | [
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2021/04/logo256.png",
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2024/05/attachment-Daryl-Hall-Dave-Stewart-YouTube-Image.jpg?w=980&q=75",
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2024/08/attachment-Jack-white.jpg?w=980&q=75",
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/202... | [] | [] | [
"new albums",
"news"
] | null | [
"Nick DeRiso"
] | 2024-05-03T17:14:14+00:00 | Daryl Hall announced the Dave Stewart-coproduced 'D,' his sixth solo album, in May 2024. | en | Ultimate Classic Rock | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/daryl-hall-d-solo-album/ | Daryl Hall's sixth solo album wasn't just co-produced by Dave Stewart. The Eurythmics legend also co-wrote seven of its nine new original songs, while Hall penned the other two more.
D is due on June 21. The video for the album's first single and a complete track listing can be found below. Preorders are already underway. Stewart previously served as a co-producer on Hall's 1986 solo album Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine, and co-wrote four songs for that project, as well.
"This album is about getting to my core," Hall said in an official release. The goal on D was to "break it down to the real thing, have fun, tropical reverie – and rekindle a musical relationship with a great friend."
READ MORE: How Hall and Oates Perfected New Wave Soul
D is Hall's first album since 2011's Laughing Down Crying. In the meantime, he issued 2022's BeforeAfter, a 30-song compilation of solo work dating back to 1980's Robert Fripp-produced Sacred Songs. Hall's erstwhile partner John Oates will release his own new solo album titled Reunion on May 17.
D was recorded and mixed at Stardust Studios in Harbour Island, Bahamas. There will also be exclusive vinyl variants, including silver at independent record stores and turquoise at Barnes & Noble.
Daryl Hall's Falling Out With John Oates
Hall's summer tour with Elvis Costello also kicks off in June at Oregon and continues through July in Virginia. Key stops include the Greek Theater in Los Angeles (June 18), the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas (June 23) and New York’s Radio City Music Hall (July 16).
This burst of activity follows a rough patch for Hall and Oates, rock's best-selling duo. Hall filed a lawsuit then obtained a temporary restraining order in an attempt to block Oates from selling his share in their joint venture to Primary Wave Music. Hall argued that the sale would violate terms of their business agreement. Oates described himself as "deeply hurt" by the accusations, before saying more recently that he'd simply moved on. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 33 | https://loudwire.com/kid-rock-dad-father-dead-dies/ | en | Kid Rock Mourns the Death of His Father, William ‘Bill’ Ritchie Sr. | [
"https://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2019/03/ldlogo2.png",
"https://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2024/02/attachment-kid_rocks_dad.jpg?w=980&q=75",
"https://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2024/07/attachment-woodstock_99_photos.jpg?w=980&q=75",
"https://townsquare.media/site/366/files/2024/07/attachment... | [] | [] | [
"news",
"r.i.p.",
"rock"
] | null | [
"Philip Trapp"
] | 2024-02-16T17:56:10+00:00 | The musician says, 'He was an incredible father, grandfather, great grandfather, and so much more, none shy of being quite the character!' | en | Loudwire | https://loudwire.com/kid-rock-dad-father-dead-dies/ | Kid Rock is mourning the death of his father, William "Bill" Ritchie Sr., while celebrating the life of the Ritchie family patriarch, as fans of the musician learned on Friday (Feb. 16).
"My Dad, Bill Ritchie Sr, moved on to be with Jesus yesterday," Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert "Bob" Ritchie, said in a Feb. 16 post.
He added, "He was an incredible father, grandfather, great grandfather, and so much more, none shy of being quite the character! Thank you for your condolences in advance. God Bless you and I love you Pop!"
Kid Rock's Dad
Ritchie Sr. owned several auto dealerships surrounding the outer Detroit suburb of Romeo, Michigan, according to Cowboys & Indians. Romeo is where Kid Rock was born and raised by his father and his mother, Susan, along with his sister Jill and brother William Jr.
READ MORE: Sugar Ray Singer Mark McGrath Confirms Kid Rock Lyrics Told the Truth
"I had a very, very comfortable upbringing," Kid Rock said of his family in a 2015 interview, "and I'm not ashamed at all to say I was raised in a very upper-middle-class family."
The musician added specifically of his dad, "My father likes to joke that I'm the only rock star he knows of who doesn't have to support his parents."
Still, Kid Rock's upbringing wasn't all sunshine and roses. When he first started doing music as a teen, there was "not a lot of support there" from his family, he explained.
However, "I understand why," the singer said. "I was very young, and I'm on the other side of town doing parties and shows with turntables and these things. And they were like, 'You don't even play an instrument. What are you doing?'"
Our condolences go out to all of the Ritchies' family and friends.
Kid Rock, "Drinking Beer With Dad" (2015)
In Memoriam: Rockers We Lost in 2023
Rock and metal musicians and icons who died in 2023.
Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff
Rockers We've Lost in 2022
Rock + Metal Musicians Who Died in 2022
Gallery Credit: Todd Fooks | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 86 | https://rollingstonesdata.com/songs/brown-sugar/ | en | Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones (1971) See song facts, etc. | [
"https://i0.wp.com/rollingstonesdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/rsd-logo-171b2c.jpg?resize=360%2C360&ssl=1",
"https://i0.wp.com/rollingstonesdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/rolling-stones-brown-sugar.jpg?resize=806%2C400&ssl=1",
"https://i0.wp.com/rollingstonesdata.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/rolling... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bar7SzNLnY0?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent"
] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Marcelo Sonaglioni"
] | 2024-04-16T13:00:00+00:00 | Brown Sugar (1971) All Rolling Stones official songs 1962-present with recording info, song facts, and more. | en | ROLLING STONES DATA | https://rollingstonesdata.com/songs/brown-sugar/ | If you like this, please consider making a donation with PayPal. From as little as $5, your support helps to pay for the site's maintenance costs. All donations are voluntary, you'll still be able to access all content. Thank you! *Donate here
brown sugar
Rolling Stones songs: Brown Sugar
*Click for MORE ROLLING STONES SONGS 1962-PRESENT
Now I bet your mama was a tent show queen/ And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen…
Also known as: BLACK PUSSY
Written by: Jagger/Richard
Recorded: Muscle Shoals, Alabama, USA, Dec. 1-4 1969; Olympic Sound Studios, London, England, Dec. 15 1969-Apr. 24 1970
Guest musicians: Bobby Keys (sax)
*Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012
Some facts about ‘Brown Sugar’ by The Rolling Stones
(from Songfacts)
The lyric is about slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl.
Mick Jagger wrote the lyric. According to Bill Wyman, it was partially inspired by a black backup singer named Claudia Lennear, who was one of Ike Turner’s Ikettes. She and Jagger met when the Stones toured with Turner in 1969. David Bowie also wrote his Aladdin Sane track “Lady Grinning Soul” about Lennear.
American-born singer Marsha Hunt is also sometimes cited as the inspiration for the song. She and Jagger met when she was a member of the cast in the London production of the musical Hair, and their relationship, a closely guarded secret until 1972, resulted in a daughter named Karis.
According to the book Up And Down With The Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez, all the slavery and whipping is a double meaning for the perils of being “mastered” by brown heroin, or “brown sugar.” The drug cooks brown in a spoon.
The Rolling Stones recorded this in the musically rich but luxury deprived city of Sheffield, Alabama, where Jerry Wexler of the group’s label, Atlantic Records, often sent his acts. The Stones arrived in Sheffield on December 2, 1969, stayed until the 4th, then performed their fateful Altamont Speedway concert on December 6, where they performed this song live for the first time. At the show, a fan was stabbed to death by a Hells Angels security guard.
During their three days in Alabama, the Stones recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, which opened in May 1969 when four of the musicians from FAME Studios left to establish their own company. “Wild Horses” and “You Gotta Move” also came out of these sessions, making it a very productive stop. The engineer at the Muscle Shoals sessions was Jimmy Johnson, the producer/guitarist who was one of the studio’s founders. The Rolling Stones engineer Glyn Johns added overdubs in England (including horns), but he left Johnson’s mix intact. Johnson says that Johns called him from England to compliment him on the mix.
Even though this was recorded in December 1969, the Stones did not release it until April 1971 because of a legal dispute with their former manager, Allen Klein, over royalties. Recording technology had advanced by then, but they didn’t re-record it because the original version was such a powerful take.
Mick Jagger started writing this while he was filming the movie Ned Kelly in the Australian outback. He’s been in a few movies, including Performance, Freejack and The Man From Elysian Fields. Jagger recalled to Uncut in 2015: “I wrote it in the middle of a field, playing an electric guitar through headphones, which was a new thing then.”
In Keith Richards’ 2010 autobiography Life, it floats a theory as to what the lyrics “Scarred old slaver know he doin’ alright” are all about. Some poor guy at their publishing company probably came up with that transcription for the lyrics, but Jagger was most likely singing “Skydog Slaver,” as “Skydog” was a nickname for Muscle Shoals regular Duane Allman because he was high all the time.
A year after this was first recorded, the Stones cut another version at Olympic Studios in London with Eric Clapton on guitar and Al Kooper on keyboards. It was considered for release as the single, but was shelved until 2015 when it appeared the a Sticky Fingers reissue.
Originally, Mick Jagger wrote this as “Black Pussy.” He decided that was a little too direct and changed it to “Brown Sugar.”
This was the first song released on Rolling Stones Records, The Stones subsidiary label of Atlantic Records. They used the now-famous tongue for their logo.
The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man wearing tight jeans, and contained a real zipper. This caused considerable problems in shipping, but was the kind of added value that made the album much more desirable (you don’t get this kind of stuff with CDs or downloads).
Sticky Fingers also marked the first appearance of the famous tongue and lips logo, which was printed on the inner sleeve. The logo was designed by John Pasche, who was fresh out of art school (the Royal College of Art in London).
“Brown Sugar” was used in commercials for Kahlua and Pepsi. The Stones have made big bucks licensing their songs for ads.
The fortunate souls who got to see The Rolling Stones on their nine-date UK tour in 1971 got a preview of this song, since it was included on the setlist even though Sticky Fingers wouldn’t be released for another month.
This was one of four songs the Stones had to agree not to play when they were allowed to perform in China. After getting approval to play in China for the first time in 2003, they canceled because of SARS, a respiratory illness that was going around the country.
Jimmy Johnson, who was a guitar player for the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as “The Swampers”), engineered the sessions that produced this song as well as “Wild Horses” and “You Gotta Move.” Johnson worked with many artists, including Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Johnnie Taylor.
Artists to cover this song include Little Richard, Collin Raye and Alice Russell. Bob Dylan performed it on his 2002 US tour.
ZZ Top released a completely different song called “Brown Sugar” in 1971, and D’Angelo released his own song with that title in 1995. In 2002, a movie called Brown Sugar was released with a title song by Mos Def called “Brown Sugar (Extra Sweet).”
In 327BC Alexander the Great came across the cultivation of sugar cane in India. From this reed, a dark brown sugar was extracted from the cane by chewing and sucking. Some of this “sweet reed” was sent back to Athens. This was the first time a European had come across sugar. (From the book Food for Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce)
The bootleg version which has Eric Clapton playing lead slide guitar was recorded at a birthday party for Keith Richards. It is widely considered to have been part of an informal audition by Clapton to become The Stones second guitarist. The bootleg version shows why Clapton likely did not get offered the job, or withdrew himself from consideration: While Clapton plays a million notes a minute, his lead has almost no interaction with the rest of the band. It is like a studio musician simply playing along with a CD that has already been recorded.
In many interviews, Richards has spoken admiringly of his good friend Clapton’s musicianship, but has always commented that the two-guitar sound he and Ron Wood have developed is not Eric’s cup of tea.
This features Bobby Keys on saxophone. A favorite of The Rolling Stones, having guested notably on Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St., he was also heard on John Lennon and Elton John’s hit “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” and on classic albums like George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On.
The year after this was released, Randy Newman released a much more earnest song dealing with slavery: “Sail Away.”
This song gets a mention in the 2002 episode of The Wire, “A Man Must Have A Code.” When a group of detectives are listening to a phone call they intercepted, one of them can figure out what’s being said while the others are baffled. Asked how he can decipher the mumble, he speaks the opening lines of “Brown Sugar” (“Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields, sold in a market down in New Orleans”) and says, “I bet you’ve heard that song 500 times but you never knew, right? I used to put my head to the stereo speaker and play that record over and over.”
“Brown Sugar” was a staple of Rolling Stones setlists until 2021, when they dropped the song. Asked why by the LA Times, Keith Richards said, “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out with the sisters quite where the beef is. Didn’t they understand this was a song about the horrors of slavery? But they’re trying to bury it.”
Mick Jagger gave this explanation: “We’ve played ‘Brown Sugar’ every night since 1970, so sometimes you think, We’ll take that one out for now and see how it goes.’ We might put it back in.”
About ‘Brown Sugar’ by The Rolling Stones
(from the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book)
It was during the shooting of Ned Kelly in Australia, under the direction of Tony Richardson, that Mick Jagger, with a light wound to his hand, wrote the first few lines of “Brown Sugar” and came up with the riff (on the electric guitar) that was destined to become one of the most famous in the Rolling Stones’ repertoire. Keith Richards really liked it when he heard it
for the first time: “I’m the riff master. The only one I missed and that Mick Jagger got was ‘Brown Sugar,’ and I’ll tip my hat there. There he got me. I did tidy it up a bit, but that was his, words and music.”
Mick finished writing the lyrics at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. Jim Dickinson, the pianist who participated in the sessions, recalls with some emotion: “I watched Mick write the lyrics. It took him maybe forty-five minutes; it was disgusting. He wrote it down as fast as he could move his hand. I’d never seen anything like it. He had one of those yellow legal pads, and he’d write a verse a page, just write a verse and then turn the page, and when he had three pages filled, they started to cut it. It was amazing!” And many more words have been written about these lyrics by other people over the years.
At first reading it seems obvious what the song is about: the heinous days of slavery in the United States, when the plantation owners in the Southern states (New Orleans in this instance) used female slaves for their sexual gratification. Like the bluesmen before him, however, Mick Jagger plays with a double meaning in this song. “Brown Sugar” certainly refers to the black slaves shipped to America, and more particularly to their private parts (the song’s first title being “Black Pussy”).
But the term brown sugar also refers to heroin, that hardest of hard drugs. “God knows what I’m on about on that song,” admits the Stones singer. “It’s such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go.” It is not impossible that Mick Jagger wrote “Brown Sugar” with the African-American singer and model Marsha Hunt, with whom he had a secret liaison, and who gave him his first child, Karis Jagger (born November 4, 1970), in mind. It is also surely possible that this song was inspired by his friend Claudia Lennear, a backing singer with Ike & Tina Turner. From here it is only a small step to the conclusion that Mick Jagger is insinuating that sex with a black woman is as addictive as heroin…
“Brown Sugar,” which opens Sticky Fingers, was released as a single (with “Bitch” and a live version of “Let It Rock” on the B-side) in the United Kingdom on April 16, 1971, and reached number 2 on May 15. The song would get to number 1 in the United States and Switzerland, number 2 in France, and number 4 in West Germany.gger wrote “Brown Sugar” with the African-American singer and model Marsha Hunt, with whom he had a secret liaison, and who gave him his first child, Karis Jagger (born November 4, 1970), in mind. It is also surely possible that this song was inspired by his friend Claudia Lennear, a backing singer with Ike & Tina Turner. From here it is only a small step to the conclusion that Mick Jagger is insinuating that sex with a black woman is as addictive as heroin…
copyright
copyright
Copyright © Rolling Stones Data
All information on this website is copyright of Rolling Stones Data. All content by Marcelo Sonaglioni. When using information from this site (online or printed) please refer to its source detailing the website address (also don't forget to quote authors and sources, like this very page does) Thank you. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 5 | https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/ | en | Academy of Achievement | [
"https://achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/logo@2x.png",
"https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/poitier_WhatItTakes_256x256-190x190.jpg",
"https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Poitier-young.jpg",
"https://achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpre... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2016-04-27T19:58:34+00:00 | In the 1950s and '60s, Sidney Poitier won international fame as a film actor and transformed the image of African Americans in the cinema. Although others had enjoyed success in character roles or as musical performers, Poitier won fame as a dramatic actor and romantic leading man, embodying an entire people's struggle for social equality. Sidney Poitier rose to a position of international eminence from a childhood of poverty in the Bahamas, where he spent the first years of his life on a tiny island, without electricity or running water. He arrived in New York City as a teenager, nearly illiterate, but determined to make his mark on the world. In 1964, he won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field; he was the first African American to be so honored for a performance in a leading role. His roles in To Sir With Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night made him the top-grossing star of the era. He has followed his successes as an actor with impressive accomplishments as a film director, author and diplomat. His rise from poverty and obscurity to the heights of success and acclaim is a great success story in itself, but his application of his renown to the cause of human rights and social justice has made him one of the most universally admired men of our times. | en | Academy of Achievement | https://achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/ | They let me in, and I started studying. Then they kicked me out because I didn’t show much possibilities. And then, I was rescued by my fellow students in the classes that I was in because they got to like me. They thought I was a little crazy guy, but they got to like me. And when they told me — when the authorities said to me that “You won’t be coming back because you didn’t show any possibilities,” my friends, on their own accord — not mine, I had nothing to do with it, but they kind of liked me. And a committee of them, like three of them, went to see the head person. And they said that “We understand that Sidney is not going to be coming back.” And so-and-so said, “We just wondered. We know that you’re going to be doing a student production. And we figure that since he worked so hard to try to be acceptable, we wondered if maybe you could give him a walk-on.”
“Maybe he can just walk across the stage once.” And the person said, “Well…” because she recognized that they had developed some kind of feeling for me. And she said, “I’ll think about it.” And when they went back to her, she said, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll make him an understudy for someone.”
So, she said to me, “I’ll let you understudy the guy who’s gonna play the part.” Now, she had no intentions of me ever, ever playing that part. So I took it. I didn’t know she had no intentions. I just learned that later. The guy that she had chosen to do the part was Harry Belafonte, a very handsome, well-known, good actor. Anyway, long story short, I studied that part, and I was on top of it as best I could. The evening of the performance, Harry Belafonte unfortunately could not come because his father was the janitor at a building, and he had to help his dad take the ashes from the furnace that heated the place. There were 8, 10, 12 big, big baskets of ashes, had to be taken up for the dump trucks to take away. And he had to do it on that particular evening. So she was stuck with me, and she sent me on. I went on, I played the part, I knew all the words. I had my accent, you know, and I did the best I could.
There was a guy in the audience who had directed that play before and had been invited by the lady who directed it. She had asked him to come and take a look to see what she had done with it. And the guy came on a night when Harry Belafonte, the star, wasn’t going to be there. So she put me on.
And this led to your first appearance on Broadway. Was that inLysistrata?
Sidney Poitier: Lysistrata was my first job on Broadway. Very, very first job on Broadway. That same guy who came and looked, he said to me, he said, “Would you come to my office on Monday?” And he says, “I’m doing a play called Lysistrata…” It was a Greek comedy. I went, and he had me read, and he offered me a job, my first job professionally.
We understand you had stage fright on opening night.
Sidney Poitier: I was petrified. I was petrified. I knew there were 1,200 people out in the audience waiting for me to walk out on that stage. And I only had a very small part, and that was in the very beginning of the of the evening. And on my way to the stage they said “places” which means everybody get ready, curtain’s gonna go up. But I had seen everybody in this play — not everybody, but most of the guys in the play — going to a little peep hole and looking out in the direction of the audience. And I was so interested in what they were looking at. I went and I took a look and I saw 1,200 people sitting, looking at the stage which the curtain hasn’t gone up. And I got so petrified. Then the curtain went up. And the play opened with me running out on the stage and saying, “So and so and so and so and so and so and so.” And they asked me, “Well, wah-dah-dah.” And I say, “Blah blah blah blah.” And then “Wah wah wah.” I got out there, and I couldn’t remember one word!
You ended up getting a good review though, didn’t you?
Sidney Poitier: I got a very good review. I got several splendid reviews, because I got out there, and I mixed up the dialogue. I was so frightened, I was so petrified, that I started it, but instead of starting with my first line, I started with my seventh or eighth line. And the guy who was supposed to answer me, his eyes went BOING! And he said, “Uhh…” And he takes his line, goes back and pulls up the response to this line, and it got all (mixed up). But, the audience is laughing because those who didn’t know the play, thought that that was the play. Well, I messed up the scene. But they — the other actors, because I didn’t come back on the stage anymore after I walked off — the other actors kind of righted the boat for them, and the play went on. Well, the critics said, several of them said, “Who was this kid who walked out there and opened this play? He was full of humor…” and so and so and so…
I left the theater after I came off, saying to myself, “That’s it, I tried, I am not gonna be an actor. I don’t have the gift. And it’s silly for me to be (doing) this. Okay, I did it, I’ve stuck to it, and I don’t have it.” So I left, and I went walking about in New York City. And on my way home, about 11:30, 12 o’clock at night, I’m on my way to my room where I had my residence, I decided to pick up the newspapers, and I picked up, I guess, The Daily News. And there were, believe it or not, there were 13 major newspapers in New York City at that time. Anyway, in three or four of them, I was mentioned very favorably. Well my dear, being — well, being, being, being — I changed my mind. I wasn’t gonna quit the business so quickly!
The last performance — because the show closed in three days, it didn’t get good reviews for itself — a Broadway producer who had on Broadway at that moment a show called Anna Lucasta — he came to see the show that night, the last night. He came backstage and he said to me, he said, “Let me ask you a question.” Now by the way, I’m reading my lines better. He said, “I have a show called Anna Lucasta, and I’m sending out a road company.” He said, “I wonder if you’d like to work for me and be an understudy.” And I said, “Yes, I would like that.” And he hired me. That was my start. I played Anna Lucasta on and off for years and years and years.
Even early in your career, when you were struggling, you turned down roles you didn’t believe in. You actually turned down a part that the agent, Marty Baum, recommended you for. He wanted you to take the role of a janitor in a gambling casino, but you refused.
Sidney Poitier: I did.
Was it because you wanted to portray a more heroic figure?
Sidney Poitier: No. It wasn’t the heroic nature of the character. Let me set the scene for you. I’m married now, my second child is about due. I don’t have any money. I’m working as a dishwasher.
But you had already played leading roles in films…
Sidney Poitier: Yes, yes. But I didn’t go right to the top. It was a bump here and a bump there and difficult times in between. Anyway, Marty Baum didn’t know me but he had heard of me, and he asked me to come to his office, the agency. He sent me next door to a hotel that his office was adjacent to. He said, “These guys are doing this movie, it’s a movie about a place called Phoenix City. And it’s a good part. Would you want to go?” And I said yes. And he sent me over, and there was the director and a writer and the producer. They explained it to me what the thing was, and they gave me a small scene and said, “Would you read this for us?” And I said yes, and I read it for them, and they liked it. And they said, “Okay,” he said, “We’ll talk to your agent.” And they said, “Here, take this script with you and read it when you get home.” So I go back to Marty Baum, the agent who sent me there. I told him what had happened. And he said, “Well, go on. Take it with you, and you read it. And you’ll come back…” He feels that they want me to do it. He said, “And let me know what you think about the script.” I said, “Fine.” I went home, I read it, and I hated it. I really hated it.
It was a story in which there was a janitor. I have no — and had then — no objections to playing a janitor. But this guy in this movie worked for a gambling casino. He was a janitor in this gambling casino. A murder takes place, and the bad guys were concerned about me, the character. If I had seen anything, that would be trouble for them. So what they did to seal my lips — I had a child, the character had a child, little girl. They killed the girl and threw her body on the lawn of his house. And I’m playing this guy.
I went to Marty, and I said — Marty Baum, the agent who put me on to it. — I said, “I read the script, and I can’t play it.” And he said, “Why can’t you play it?” I said, “I can’t play it because this is a father, and he has a child, and these guys kill his child to intimidate him. And the script permits that intimidation. So the writers feel that that’s just for them a plot line. You know? It’s not important to them.” And I said to him, I said, “I can’t play that, because I have a father. And I know that my father would never be like that. He would never under any circumstances be like that.” I said, “As a father, I would never be able to not attack those guys, do something to show how I am, to articulate me as a human being.” And he says, “That’s why you don’t want to do it?” And I said, “That’s why.” He says, “You need money?” And I did. My second daughter was about to be born, and I needed the money. I really needed it, and the money was $750 for playing this part, which was a lot of bucks.
Anyway, I couldn’t do it. Now, that speaks of who I was. It still speaks of who I was. And it speaks of who I am. But who I am is my father’s son. That’s who I am. And I spent my life with him until I left him at the age of 15. And I’ve seen him behave with my mother and their children. And I’ve seen him with my mother, how he treats her. I grew up on that. I know how to be a decent human being. So I couldn’t play it, and I didn’t play it. I left Marty’s office, and I went to 57th Street. Yes, 57th Street and Broadway. There was a loan office there called something-something finance that you could go in and borrow money on your furniture, on your car or whatever. I needed $75 to pay Beth Israel Hospital for the birth of my child. And I had to put up my furniture, such as it was. And they loaned me that money. I paid Beth Israel Hospital, and my baby was born.
Anyway, some months later, Martin Baum, the agent, called me up and he said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m working in this restaurant.” He said, “What do you do?” I says, “I’m washing dishes.” But I had a little bit of an investment. And he said, “Could you come down and talk to me? I want to ask you a couple questions.” I said, “Sure.” I went down, I walked in, he’s there alone, I sat down with him. And he said, “I have never been able to understand why you turned down that job for $700.” Eventually I would tell him why. I don’t know whether he understood it or not. But I think before I told him, he said to me, “I have decided that anyone as crazy as you are,” he said, “I want to be their agent.”
And how long did he remain your agent?
Sidney Poitier: ‘Till now as we sit here.
Someone else who was an influence on your career wasLloyd Richards. Could you tell us about him?
Sidney Poitier: Lloyd Richards was the director of A Raisin in the Sun. And he was more than a director. He was a theater master, master of theater. African American, extremely gifted. He and a man named Paul Mann, they were teachers. They had a teaching — a drama school, actually. And after I did the picture Blackboard Jungle, I went to see them because I knew I wasn’t working at the level I should be working at.
Even though that was a very successful film.
Sidney Poitier: It was a successful film, and I did fairly well, but the part was not fulfilled as much as I could have fulfilled it. So I went there and I asked them if I could come and take some classes, and they said yes. They invited me in. I stayed there for a very long time. And they taught me. I learned so much. I learned from them that behind words are meanings. Every word has a meaning, and its meaning might simply be used as a connection: is, as, was, then, now, last, first. There’s a meaning. Now, when we put words together, if we don’t express what the meaning is behind this particular bunch of words as actors, if we cannot articulate what is behind this bunch of words — which would be maybe just one paragraph — behind it may be one point of view or it may be a combination of points of views. The audience hearing these would expect to see them exemplified in the behavior of the actor. They taught me how to do that.
The Defiant Oneswas a big step in your career, and you were nominated for an Oscar. You spent most of that film chained to Tony Curtis.
Sidney Poitier: It was a wonderful experience for me because it was produced and directed by a great filmmaker named Stanley Kramer. And I had a chance to work with Tony Curtis, and we got along wonderfully well. The only thing that is really outstanding is that it was a production of Stanley Kramer. He was one of Hollywood’s most liberal, most courageous men in the business, particularly during a delicate time in America. Working for him was pleasure, a total pleasure.
Lilies of the Fieldbrought you the first Oscar for Best Actor ever awarded to an African American. That was historic. Can you talk a little about that role and what it meant to you to win that Oscar?
It was pretty much how I am. And what it meant to me to receive the award for it, it meant a great deal to me. It was the first time for an African American. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the experience, because what he was doing — the character mind you — what he was doing was exhibiting a vast sense of himself, and the wonders of being alive, and the wonders of being a human being, and the responsibilities of a human being. And here he is vortexing with some of the most loveable characters. And for that I got an award.
I embraced the award. It was wonderful. The man who wanted so badly to make that movie, did in fact, direct it. Ralph Nelson. I’ve made movies for him in my career several times, three times, as a matter of fact. Ralph Nelson was a very, very, very humane person. He hired me for three fantastic roles. I will always be indebted to Ralph Nelson because he was a real humanitarian.
In your filmIn The Heat of the Night, there’s a scene that is very famous. That’s the scene where you are slapped by this wealthy, white businessman. At first, that scene was written differently. Why did you need that scene to change?
Sidney Poitier: Well, the producers were all whites. I was one of the principal players in the movie. I know what my values were. My values are not disconnected from the values of the black community, the African American community. So I go in front of a camera with a responsibility to be at least respectful of certain values. This other character was a very wealthy, very well-positioned person in this community in the South.
And he’s under some suspicion at this point in a murder case.
Sidney Poitier: Correct. And I am a detective out of Philadelphia. I’m on my way home after having visited my mother. The producer happens to be a very close friend of mine, Walter Mirisch. When I read the script I said, “Walter, I can’t play this.”
The scene required me to stand there, this guy walks over to me, and he slaps me in the face. And I look at him fiercely and walk away. And I said to Walter, I said, “You can’t do that.” I said, “Let me tell you a little bit about America and the texture of American culture as it stands.” I said, “That is dumb. It is not very bright.” I said — we’re in the ’60s, this is 1968 or 7 — “You can’t do that.” I said, “The black community will look at that and say that is egregious. You can’t do that, because the human responses that would be natural in that circumstance, we are suppressing them to serve values of greed on the part of Hollywood, acquiescence on the part of people culturally who would accept that as the proper approach.” I said, “You can’t do it.” I said, “You certainly won’t do it with me.”
I talked to him about it. I say, “Therefore, if you want me to do this, not only will I not do it, but I will insist that I respond to this man precisely as a human being would ordinarily respond to this man. And he pops me, and I’ll pop him right back.” And I said, “If you want me to play it, you will put that in writing. And in writing you will also say that if this picture plays the South, that that scene is never, ever removed.” And Walter being the kind of guy that he was, he said, “Yeah,” he said, “I promise you that, and I’ll give it to you in writing.” I ultimately didn’t take it in writing. I just took a handshake because he’s the kind of guy, his handshake and his signature is one and the same. And that made the movie. Without it, the movie would not have done as well as it did.
We’d like to go back to the very beginning now. You’ve written about the unusual circumstance of your birth. You were not expected to survive. Can you tell us about that?
Sidney Poitier: My birth was quite unusual in that I was premature. I wasn’t expected to live. I was delivered by a midwife in Miami, Florida, in the African American section of that city. And there were no available hospitals for people of African descent. So certainly my mother didn’t know of one.
So I was born in a small house that was not ours. It was a house that my parents would live in because my parents were not Americans. My parents were Bahamians, which is a group of islands off the coast of Florida. Many, many, many islands. They run into the hundreds. Some of them are just that big (tiny), but many of them were large enough for populations to gather.
My parents were tomato farmers. They farmed tomatoes and they sold their tomatoes in Miami, Florida. They went two, sometimes three times per year. They would harvest, and they had to harvest at a given time, because there were no motorboats that would take their stuff across. So they had to go by sailboat. So they reaped the harvest prematurely. They had to, in order for it to ripen on the way so that when they got to Florida the fruit would be ready for sale. And on one such trip, my mother was pregnant by some six, seven months. They had no expectations that I would be born in Florida. But her water broke, that’s a phrase, I guess, that you would understand. The water broke, meaning that, of course, something happened in her internal structure that the baby was gonna come whether it was nine months or not. So it was that I was born in Florida unexpectedly.
They had to keep me there for some three months, because I was so underprepared for birth that it took three months for me to hit a point at which they could take me on a sailboat, which would take several days back to the Bahamas and their tomato field.
During the period when I was really, really close to not being here, everyone gave up on me. The midwife gave up on me. My father also gave up on me because they had had many children. I was the last of the lot. And my dad felt that having experienced births before in his family, he had no confidence in my surviving, because what had appeared to him was that this child was too fragile to survive. And my mother had a different point of view. My mother would not accept that. She did not accept it. As a matter of fact, the evening I was born, the very next morning, everyone present — but meaning the local people who were friendly with my parents, and the people who were not, they saw the child. Me. And they said, “No chance.” My mother had a different point of view.
Didn’t your father actually find a little coffin for you?
Sidney Poitier: He did. He left the house the following morning, and he went for a stroll. And that stroll ended up at the local undertaker’s parlor, in a discussion centered around preparations for my burial. And he came back to the house with this little shoe box. It was, in fact, a shoe box. And he came into the house with it. And my mother, who was naturally prone in bed, she was so outraged that she got up and she dressed herself — against everyone gathered there — and she left the house. She went out into the world, I suppose, figuratively speaking.
Anyway, long story short, she went out, and she spent the whole day, I suppose, going to local churches. Wherever she could find help, she would go. But the day ended, and there was nothing. So she’s on her way home.
She decided to stop in and visit a soothsayer. You know what they are. They are fortune tellers in a peculiar sort of way. And she stopped in and she said to this lady who was there, she said that “I just gave birth to a son.” And she explained what the circumstances were and stuff like that. And she said, “I want you to tell me about my son.” And they sat down, and this lady began. First she went into — I hate to say it, but this was the way I get the story, she went into a kind — she closed her eyes. The soothsayer closed her eyes, and she began to talk in a strange language. No language at all, I guess. It was gibberish to anyone listening, but my mother was hearing her. And then suddenly the soothsayer’s eyes flew open, and she looked at my mother and she said, “Don’t worry about your son. He will survive, and he will not be a sickly child. You must not worry about that child.” My mother came back to the house. It cost her 50 cents. In those days that was a lot of bucks. She went back to the house, and she told my dad to remove the shoe box from the house. “There’ll be no need for it,” she said.
Didn’t the soothsayer also predict that you would walk with kings?
Sidney Poitier: Yes, she did. She told my mother that I would travel to all the corners of the earth, I will walk with kings, I will be rich and famous. I don’t know about that, but she said so. Everything that she said to my mom, it’s amazing, everything came true. I have not to this day figured it out. I’m 82-years-old, come this Friday, but I could really never figure it out. I have a sense of practicality. I believe in logic and reason, two tools that I can apply, and somehow figure it out using those two elements. It’s not that I am stubborn. I am in some areas of my life, but it wasn’t that I was stubborn. I just felt there was something about that circumstance, that if I look at it logically and then put into it all kinds of other elements like my mother’s faith, for instance, that I could at least accept it as a part of the unfolding of this life of mine. So I’ve spent my life trying to understand it — not in terms of its component elements, but the whole occurrence — in terms of those forces in nature that have influences on our lives. Many people perceive it as strange, unusual, miraculous, all kinds of ways. I still don’t have a fix on it, but I do believe that there are forces in nature that we don’t understand, and probably never will, that have an influence on our lives that defies understanding.
You were very close to nature as a child on Cat Island, weren’t you? You’ve described it as an Eden.
Sidney Poitier: Yes, it was. But that’s in retrospect. I hadn’t seen the rest of the world. It wasn’t until I saw the rest of the world that I grew to understand that it was a very, very interesting setting.
What was life like on Cat Island? You didn’t have a lot of modern conveniences.
Sidney Poitier: No, we didn’t. We didn’t have any electricity. We had no roads. We had roads, but they were pathways in a way. We had very little. I mean, we ate from the sea, food from the sea, and what they grew in their subsistence farming, in a particular way. Their main crop had to be tomatoes, ’cause that’s how they made their living, and that money was spent in Florida, some of it, some of it in the capital, on the capital island which was Nassau. And they would bring certain hard groceries with them, mostly from Nassau. And hard groceries, I mean canned goods. There would be canned milk that would be shipped into the Bahamas from England. And there would be salt pork and salt beef and lard. We ate a lot of lard. There was no such thing as olive oil and all the good stuff, you know. We used lard to cook with. And we ate from the land and the sea.
No cars?
Sidney Poitier: Oh, no. I didn’t see a car until I was ten-and-a-half years old. And when I did see a car, whoa! I was on the boat with my mother, a sailboat, going into Nassau harbor. This is the first time I’m leaving Cat Island.
The state of Florida was encouraged — that’s the proper word, I think, was encouraged — by tomato farmers in Florida to stop importing tomatoes from the Bahamas and I suspect from other areas in the Caribbean. And it fell like that, whatever body was making the determination. And my father’s business just went, “Phew!” There was no place else to sell the tomatoes. So that’s all he’d ever done in his adult life. So he had to go and take the family to Nassau, which was a tourist island, and he would have to find a way to support his family by working there, doing whatever he could find, because he didn’t have very much money. He barely had enough to move the family to Nassau where he would look for a job.
Is that where you saw your first car?
Sidney Poitier: My first car. I’m coming in on a boat, and I’m just wild-eyed as I see the island coming up. It looks like a regular island at first, but it’s the first island I’m seeing other than the one I grew up on.
So I’m looking at this place, and then I saw what appeared to me to be a beetle, but it was massive. It was huge. And, I was fascinated looking at this thing. We are still quite a distance from Nassau. But there were obviously these beetle things. I said to my mother, I said, “What’s that?” And she said, “That’s a car,” because she had seen them in Miami and in Nassau before. And I said, “A car?” And I said, “What is that? What does it do?” And she tried her best to explain it to me until, of course, we got to the docks and I got off and I saw this thing up close, you know, and I was fascinated. I wondered, “How does it move? What is making it move?” It was just amazing. But so were so many other things, amazing for me, for a long time on Nassau, because there were windows. There were paved roads. Never seen a paved road. There were windows along the streets on the main thoroughfare which was near the docks. And there was glass. But it was glass you could look through, like you can look through a glass bottle. And there were many things in the window. There were goods and stuff in the window. And I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t know what glass was.
Had you ever seen a mirror?
Sidney Poitier: I hadn’t seen me in a mirror, of course not. There were no such things on Cat Island. I had seen my reflection in the pond, because my mother used to go to wash her clothing and the rest of the family’s clothing in a pond in the woods. It wasn’t really a forest, because the trees were never that tall. They were six, seven, eight feet tall. Not much taller than I was. She would take me with her when she did her laundry. She would add a little Octagon soap to a garment, and then she would beat the garment on a stone. That would get the dirt out of it. That’s how she did her washing.
So you had seen yourself in the pond but never in a mirror.
Sidney Poitier: Never in a mirror. I didn’t really see myself in the pond, because you can’t see yourself in a pond. She’s washing our clothing in the pond. With every movement, wherever she touches the water, it ripples. If the wind is ever so slight, there’s a ripple. So you can’t make out anything.
I didn’t know what a shadow was. You ready for this? I saw my own shadow, and I didn’t understand it. Mind you, I’m a kid. I’m a little, little kid. Eventually, my shadow became my best friend because it imitated me. Every time I do that, every time I do that, I could see my shadow doing the same thing. So my shadow became my friend. I used to race my shadow down the beaches, and depending on where the sun was, I would win sometimes, and my shadow would win sometimes. Oh my God. I’m glad psychiatry wasn’t around then. They probably would have put me away.
Where did you start school? Was it in Nassau?
Sidney Poitier: No, I was in school on Cat Island. On Cat Island, there was a school house. The school house was a “multiple,” meaning that there was one room. And the children, I don’t think there were more than grade one to three, maybe four. And I went on Sundays. Other days I went to the farm. I was going to the farm to work at five years old. Not every day, certain days I went to the farm. When there were available days for the school, I went to the school house.
Do you remember when you saw your first movie?
Sidney Poitier: When I saw my first movie, we had moved to Nassau by then, and we left Cat Island when I was ten-and-a-half. I was like a kid coming out of the center of the United States from the smallest, tiniest farming area and suddenly put into New York City. That’s the kind of impact, going into this whole new culture in Nassau. My folks were able to rent a small house, again, with no electricity and no running water and all that stuff. Anyway, this little house had to accommodate us all, and there were five boys and two girls in the family. I think the eldest of the group had already separated and were out on their own when we got to Nassau. They could start working and assuming responsibilities for themselves over and above the farm that we ran.
But anyway, I made some friends quite quickly. I met these new kids who were in this particular neighborhood, and they sort of embraced me. And they said to me — oh, I guess some weeks after we had moved — they said that they were going to a matinee, would I like to come? And I didn’t want them to know that I didn’t know what the word matinee meant. So I said, “Okay, sure.” I want to be one of the group. So they went to this theater. And this place had a façade that had pictures of people, white people, on the outside, which ultimately I came to understand were advertisements letting the audience know what the movie is about.
But, I didn’t know I was going to see a movie. I had no idea. So they bought a ticket for me, and we went in and we sat. And in this place there were many seats. Well, the whole place was seats. And we took a row there, and we’re sitting there. And I am making sure that I don’t slip up and ask the wrong question or something, because I know that I would make a fool of myself. So I just behaved as best I could as one of the guys, you see. Anyway, the lights go down, and a curtain, big curtain thing opened up. And there was this big white frame. And suddenly, out of nowhere, came letters, big letters, words, on this big, white screen. I can barely read. I am not really a reader. I read terribly. So I couldn’t make out really what the words were saying, except some of them were names, and you assume that they were names. So I just kind of waited to see what’s gonna happen with this lit up screen. I didn’t know there was a word called screen. But then I saw people, and it shocked me. How did they get there? Then I saw cows and I saw wagons and I saw brown people wearing skins and feathers. I had no idea. I would learn later that there were Indians and there were white people, settlers, in certain parts. That was my first movie.
Did you want to look behind the theater to see where they were coming from?
Sidney Poitier: Yeah, well that’s when it’s done. The movie is over. I am not about to make a fool of myself to my friends, yeah, I understand. I can’t talk to them. I can’t join the conversation as they’re talking about what the cowboys did and what the Indians did and what the people in the town did and so many horses and cows and stuff. So I kind of kept quiet. But as we started home, hmm, I said, “Listen guys, I’m gonna peel off for a little bit, and I’ll see you back at the corner.” So I kind of like dallied a bit, and then I turned around and I went back. I went to the back of the theater, because I didn’t understand how all those cows and the people and — how did they get the houses in that little building where I was? How could all of that happen? I had no idea. In the back of the theater was a door, just a door. It was too tiny for all those cows to come through. I didn’t understand, but I thought that something was going to come out of there. They have to. But nothing came out.
You were quite young when you started working, to help support the family.
Sidney Poitier: Twelve. A year-and-a-half from the time I arrived in Nassau from Cat Island. I went to a school there in Nassau, but I wasn’t very successful at that. Then the fragility of my parents’ economic situation forced me to go to work.
I was 12-and-a-half. I was tall. I figured I could get a job, because it was really wearing my dad out, you know. So I quit school and went to work. First I went to work as a water boy, working on a construction thing. I would go around with a dipper and a bucket, and these guys were all working in the sun, you know. In that part of the world the sun is fierce. So I walked up and down the line where these guys were working, and I have this bucket and this dipper and they would take a drink and so that was my job. But it didn’t pay very much, and my folks really were in need, so I decided that I was tall enough to hike my age and maybe get a job as an adult.
I went to the assistant to the foreman. He knew of my family, and I suspect he chose to make an exception, ’cause he knew what was going on. And he moved me, he gave me a pick and a shovel. I was among the big guys, and I was using a pick axe and shoveling dirt up out of this ditch, up onto the region up above it. And because the pay was much, much better in the aggregate — or rather the difference was such that — it was very helpful for food and all that stuff. I was making today’s equivalent of maybe two dollars, three dollars a week. But in those days the three dollars went quite a ways.
I stayed at that job, and then I worked as a delivery boy, and then I worked in a warehouse. Because I was tall, they just assumed I was eligible. I would have to take 98-pound bags of rice or sugar or flour and stack them to the ceiling of this warehouse in town. We would lay the foundation for it. Every bag of whatever would be put here until it covers the whole floor. And then we’ll use each bag as a step. And then we’ll do another, and then another step, so that toward the end, I would have 98 pounds on my shoulder, walking up these steps to the ceiling. And because we can’t go beyond the ceiling, I put this as the last up there. I stayed on the job quite awhile and I developed — ladies develop it when they become pregnant — varicose veins.
How did you or your family make the decision to send you to Miami?
Sidney Poitier: I hit a bad spot wherein I couldn’t find another job. My father became concerned. I had a friend, his name was Yorick Rolle. Very close, my very best friend at that time, we were like that. We used to buy raw peanuts, if we had a couple of pennies. We would buy raw peanuts and we would roast them, put them in little teeny bags and go to stand in front of the theater and sell them to people going in. But we were doing that just to make enough money for us to buy a ticket ourselves and go in to see the movies. Anyway, he was without me one day, we were that close all the time. And for what reasons, I don’t know, but he — on that day, I was not with him — and he stole a bicycle and he was caught, and he was sent to reform school for four years.
That worried my dad, because he knew I was very close with this guy, and he knew his own life was in the process of deterioration. He was in his 50s, I would think, and the wear and tear of all his experiences with farming had weakened his back. And finding jobs was difficult. So, he is not a young man anymore, anyway. He began to be concerned about me. I was leaving the house one day and he stopped me. He was sitting at the door of this house that we lived in. And as I stepped out of the door on my way out, I looked at him and he looked at me. And he said to me, he felt my arm, and he said, “You’ve not been eating regularly, have you, son?” And I said to him, “Oh I’m okay, I’m fine,” I said, “I’m fine.” I knew the weight that brought that out of him.
My oldest brother had stowed away on a motorboat that ran between Nassau and Florida. He was the oldest of the boys. He had stowed away. He went to Florida and he got away with it. He found a job and he worked very hard. Tremendous guy, this guy was. Cyril was his name. He met a girl, fell in love with her and she with him and they got married and he went down to the police station in the center of Miami and he told them that he was a stowaway and that he has been here such and such a time and he explained to them what he did. That he works, and he has always worked, and he gave them the name of the employers and all that, and he said he wanted them to know that. And he said, “I have children.” Anyway, they allowed him to stay. I don’t know what the circumstances were, but they allowed him to stay, and I was sent to him.
You didn’t like Miami much. Could you tell us about being a delivery boy in Miami and the experience you had there?
Sidney Poitier: I was a delivery boy. I worked for a place called Burdine’s department store. My brother worked there and I got the job through him. Yes, I hated Florida. At least I hated Miami, I didn’t know Florida. I suspect that I would have hated Florida if I had traveled about in Florida, because Miami was no different from the rest of Florida, but I did hate it. I hated it because it was an unfair place. For instance…
I was told to deliver a package to Miami Beach, this is from Miami itself. You go across the causeway, or you just walk across, or you take the bicycle — they had a bicycle for the delivery boys. They gave me the address and they explained to me how to get there and I went and I found it. And I went to the place, I saw the address, and I matched it with the thing they had written for me, and I went up to the door and I either knocked or pushed a button. A lady came to the door, a white lady. And she said, “Yes?” And I said, “Ma’am this is your package. I come from Burdine’s department store.” She looked at me in the most amazing way and she said, “Get around to the back.” And I didn’t understand, I really didn’t understand it, because she’s standing right there. She obviously is the mistress of the house, and I’m standing within three feet of her, and this is a big house. And I said to myself, “Why do I have to take it around the back? It’s a small package.” Were it something that’s too weighty for her, certainly I’ll carry it a mile if that’s the case. But I wasn’t aware of the depth of racism. I had been experiencing it every day there, but the impact of it in such a coarse way! She slammed the door in my face. And I took the package and I set it right down on the step in front of the house and I left.
I go back to Burdine’s Department Store and I did whatever my duties were. When the day was done, I went to Liberty City, which is where I lived. My brother lived there, I was living with him. I had a few pennies, and I decided to go to a movie, and at the end of the movie…
Now, I’m going home to my brother’s house. And I approached the house and there are no lights on. Well, I jiggled the lock — I mean the doorknob — it’s nothing. And then the door suddenly opens and it’s my sister-in-law — my brother’s wife — and she grabs me and pulls me into the house, slams the door, and on the floor she’s lying with her children. And she pulls me down and she said, “What did you do today?” I said, “What did I do? What do you mean?” She explained to me that the Klan had come to the house looking for me, because I had misbehaved I guess.
Weren’t you frightened?
Sidney Poitier: I was not frightened. I wasn’t as frightened as one might assume. If I knew that the Klan would be there, I would have been — if not frightened — I would have been at least on my guard. Now mind you, I am 15 going on 16 now. I’ve been in Miami just a few months. I went to Miami from Nassau and I went to Nassau from Cat Island and between Cat Island and Nassau, my perception of myself had already taken hold.
I didn’t spend the first 15 years of my life cringing in the presence of white people. The overwhelming — and we’ll get to this as well — the overwhelming majority of people in the Bahamas were black people. So I grew up those 15 years — with the exception of the three months when I was a baby in Florida — I spent them in Cat Island and Nassau. And spending them on Cat Island and Nassau, I was within the circumference of the black community constantly. So that I saw people, how they behaved with each other. I saw respect for each other, I saw laughter, I saw an embrace, I saw it was an environment that nurtured me in ways that I wasn’t even aware of, so that I got to 15 not afraid of white people.
You already had a strong sense of your own worth.
Sidney Poitier: But that strong sense of self-worth came from the Bahamas itself, out of my family, out of the families I knew. Out of the society, such as it was. But they treated each other respectfully, they raised their children to be respectful of elders. If my mother was unable to work in the fields, her friends would come by and bring food. It was a wonderful community. When we got to Nassau, it was somewhat different, but still…
Ninety percent of the people in Nassau were black. The cops were black. All the policemen were black, except possibly the head of the police department and his lieutenants. Mind you, I’m talking about a colonial country, but because it is a colonial country — and luckily for us, the colonial country being Great Britain — they could not manage a colonial empire, because they were so few people. The British were very few. Do you know that, literally speaking, a very small number of Britons ruled India? They ruled most of the Caribbean, and they could not — there was no way for them to cultivate the necessary personnel they would need to administer to their colonial possessions. So what they had to do, they had to educate the local people, so that there were policemen. All of the policemen, with the exception of the few guys who ran the police force, were black. So as a kid I didn’t run around being fearful that I was going to be mistreated. Okay, that gives you an idea of what I came out of, and the values I came out of the Bahamas with when I went to Miami.
I walked into the police station to get permission to go across the street, which was a vital statistics department of the government. I was going over there to get a birth certificate, because I had misplaced my birth certificate, which I had gotten from the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas. I walked into the police station, and I said to the gentleman, I said, “Sir…” and I called everybody “sir” because my father taught me that, and my mom. Pow, pow, pow! “You say ‘sir’ to your elders.” Anyway, I was respectful.
I walked into the police station to get permission to go across the street and so and so. And he called me the “n” word, the guy in the thing, and he said, “Take off that hat.” I was wearing a cap. I looked at this guy sitting up on a kind of thing at the desk. And I said, “What’d you call me?” And mind you, I’m a kid of 15 years old. I just lost it. I just said, “I am Reggie Poitier’s…” that’s my father’s name, “That’s my dad, and his name is Reginald and my mother’s name is so and so. And they named me Sidney, that’s my name.” Well, the cops, there were several in the place, and they looked at me as if I was insane. Oh God! Now, had I been born and raised in Florida, I would have a different approach, exactly. I would have been cultivated to respond in a different way, especially if I had spent those first 15 years of my life in Florida.
Not long after that, you went to New York City, on your own, with just a few dollars in your pocket. A very brave adventure. What was that like?
Sidney Poitier: Well, I got to New York by hopping freight trains and all kinds of different, interesting ways. I wound up in Georgia first. I didn’t get to New York. I wound up in Georgia in the mountains working as a dishwasher in a summer resort. I accepted the job as a dishwasher in Georgia. I took a bus from Florida, and I went to Atlanta. They transferred me to another bus that went to another place, close to the foot of the mountains, and someone met me there and took me up the mountain. And I spent my time washing dishes there. I saved all of my money. I never took a dime. I spent much of that summer there, all within the same year. And I came down from the mountains, and I went to the bus station, because that’s how I got to the mountains. And when I left there, I had $39.
By the time I got to New York, someone had rifled my little bag and taken my money, and I got into New York with very few dollars in my pocket. New York was an experience. It was a staggering experience. It was massive. It was huge. There were incredibly tall buildings. I got there in the afternoon, and the place I wanted to go to was Harlem, to see Harlem. I had heard a great deal about Harlem.
I asked a chap at the doorway of the bus station. I said, “How do I get to Harlem?” I had a very little, small bag with a couple of — three pairs of pants, some shirts, and that’s about the size of it. Maybe one jacket, but not for winter. We’ll get to that. So he said, “Well, you go right down those steps, and you just go to 116th Street.” And I said, “Okay.” So I go down the steps, and I said, “What I do?” when I got down there. And I watched people. They would come and they would put something in the little thing for the turnstile. And the guy upstairs had said to me, “Then you’ll take the train.” And I said to myself, “Wait a minute. Train? Under the ground? That doesn’t make any sense.” And it certainly didn’t make any sense to me. A train under the ground? But anyway, I went through the ritual and I hear this rumbling, and it scared me. And along comes this train. And I saw people putting a nickel — and in those days it was a nickel or something — in and they’d go through the turnstile. Well, I was always courageous in a way, some ways. And I go through the turnstile and I got, as he told me — 116th Street. So I got on the train. And every time it stopped, I was amazed. How could it be running under the ground? Makes no sense to me. But I’m alert, and I’m sitting there. And I see the station comes up, 116th Street. And I jumped off, and I walked and followed people going up the steps. And I walked out at 116th Street and 8th Avenue, and I was in Harlem.
You are largely a self-taught person, and yet you’re probably one of the most erudite, intellectual people in your field. Reading your books is a fascinating and rich experience. How did you come to be so learned without a lot of school?
Sidney Poitier: I don’t know that I’m that learned. I did learn early that everything I want to do in life requires that I accumulate understanding, knowledge, know-how. What is the quickest, most dimensional way to make that kind of accumulation? You have to read. You have to read. I’ve always felt that I didn’t know so much, and yet everything pretty much that I didn’t know is available somewhere. The first place I went to was to newspapers.
I had an experience with a Jewish waiter. I was a dishwasher, and he was a waiter in Queens, New York. I used to buy the local newspapers. Sometimes the Journal American, sometimes The New York Times, Daily News. At the end of the evening, when the waiters are done and the place is closed, just about closing, the waiters would sit at a table, and they would have tea, coffee, or a late snack which was permissible by the owner.
I would sit in the dining room next door to the kitchen. And I would sit there because everything else is done, all the dishes were done except those that the waiters are using for their snacks, you see. So I sit there. And I’m reading one of the papers. And there was a Jewish waiter sitting at the table, elderly man, and he saw me there. He got up, and he walked over, and he stood by the table that’s next to the kitchen, and he said, “Hi.” And I looked up, and I said, “Hi.” He said, “What’s new in the papers?” And I said to him, “I can’t tell you what’s new in the papers because I don’t read very well. I didn’t have very much of an education. So I can’t tell you what’s…” He said, “Ah,” he said, “Well, would you like me to read with you?” And I accepted. I said, “Sure. I’d like that.” Every night after that, he would come over and sit with me, and he would teach me about what a comma is and why it exists, what periods are, what colons are, what dashes are. He would teach me that there are syllables, and how to differentiate them in a single word, and consequently learn how to pronounce them. Every night.
What a great gift.
Sidney Poitier: Oh yeah. I went on to be a very successful actor, and one day I tried to find him, but it was too late. One of my great regrets in life is that I never had the opportunity to really thank him.
You describe in your autobiography a sense of coming alive that you felt, as an actor, fairly early on, that the art of acting kind of electrified you. Can you talk about that?
Sidney Poitier: There is something that takes place in me, but it didn’t always. It wasn’t there in the beginning. What was there at the beginning, in my first experience in front of a camera, my first experiences on stage, was a totally dimensional awareness of life.
I hit the age of 15 not being afraid. I was on my own in New York City at the age of 15. I was respectful to people. As my father explained to me, to elders you say “sir” if it is a man. To elders you say “ma’am” if it is a woman. You respect older people. I learned from him a certain way of behavior. But what I learned was not in terms of something I got out of a book. What I learned was an internal connectedness to life, in the family, in the small community where we lived, how people treated each other, particularly how my father treated his friends and my mother, you see. So I came at 15 to Miami, Florida with a sense of that humanity. That is why I am sitting in this chair now. All of what I feel about life, I had to find a way in my work to be faithful to it, to be respectful of it. I couldn’t and still can’t play a scene, I cannot play a scene that I don’t find the texture of humanity in the material. I can’t.
You also connected with humanity very deeply, which is part of what made you a fine actor and director.
Sidney Poitier: I don’t know how fine an actor or director I am or have been. But every person who goes into a theater — and anyone who watches this video who is interested in theater or the creative arts — anyone interested in theater arts, they enter a movie house, or they enter a theater with a stage, they sit there with other people, it’s a darkened room. Their attention is on what’s going on up there. They have five senses that are the tools they bring into the theater. They know, feel, touch. They know what they see objectively. They know what they hear. So their five senses are working, and they’ve been working pretty much since they were tots. So everything that happens on that stage, everything that happens on that screen, they can pass a judgment subconsciously as to whether we are hitting the marks or not.
There isn’t a person that sits in a movie house, of any maturity, who hasn’t been disappointed, who hasn’t been exhilarated, who hasn’t felt fear, who hasn’t felt joy. Every one of the emotions that human beings experience, even the most terrifying ones, they have been akin to all of them at one time or another, either in their daily lives, their weekly lives, their monthly lives, their yearly lives. So that when they sit in that theater, that’s all they bring in. That’s the scoreboard they bring in. And they sit there and they watch actors playing at fear, embarrassment, at love, at hate, at all of the emotions in life. That’s what they bring in. So when they sit there, and they’re looking at actors doing that, they cotton to those actors that make that connection, makes that connection with them. And that’s the actor’s job, it’s not their job. All they do is they bring this panel of human emotions with them. And these emotions are in neutral. They are absolutely in neutral as they sit there. And one by one, this really fine actress or actor begins to do things that somewhere in the consciousness of that audience, they’re saying, “Ooh boy, yeah, I know about that. I’ve seen that. Wow.” That’s where the admiration comes from, because they can also tell when that actor or that actress is not reaching home.
Just a few nights ago, you received the Lincoln Medal at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, with President Obama attending. What was that like for you?
Sidney Poitier: I was overjoyed, for obvious reasons. It was an evening that I never thought would come in my lifetime. I’m glad it did, because I could use that as a peg around which I can articulate my appreciation of my country — that he became the man that he is as a result of his experiences in this culture. He was an unknown young student with a point of view, with an integrity, with a vision, with an understanding far deeper and far wider than his objective imagery would imply. Objective: meaning his color. He is a young man who perceives himself to be African American. However articulate he might be, he is not only articulate. However visionary he might be, he’s not only articulate and visionary. You can go down the line, and he kept expressing that, showing that to us. Not intentionally, but we just couldn’t help but see it. We saw it. And if you take him back to a time when he was not quite as revered as he is now, and you looked at him then and say that this guy could be president in five years, you wouldn’t get one bet on that. But he has shown us that our survival is totally dependent on us perceiving ourselves as a single family.
We are 6,500,000,000 in our family. We have one home. It’s a planet. It’s a planet that has not grown one single inch since its creation. What is there is what we have. And that is our home. It will be our home until we either self-destruct or until nature decides that it wants — or she wishes — to alter it. Until then, it is entirely up to us to effectuate our survival in humane ways. We have to find a way to articulate the carrying capacity of our home. We don’t have a clue as to how many of us can be accommodated on this piece of earth. We really don’t. There aren’t but so much resources to sustain us if we are 6,500,000,000 now. Before you know it, we’re going to be 13 billion. What we need is men and women who can think on our behalf in the period of their existence.
He is an example. He has tried to surround himself with people who are like-minded and who will tend to and nurture the place we call home, who will attend to and nurture different cultures. We will protect different faiths, provided of course, there is a mutual understanding that the principle is always going to be us as a family.
He’s also a student of Lincoln. And Lincoln is important to you, too.
Sidney Poitier: Lincoln is important to me. Let me just say this about Lincoln. It is not very good that we have really not made a stronger, sustained effort to speak to our children — the black ones, the white ones, the brown ones — about this man. This man. It is because of this man, Lincoln, that we have a President Obama. Because the values of Abraham Lincoln were ignited in President Obama. And President Obama ignited some of Lincoln’s values in his fellow Americans. And if you were to take a listing of the American population two years, four years, five years ago, the possibility of him being what he is today wouldn’t have crossed very many minds. Would not. As a result, here is a guy who says, “I am this…” and “I am imperfect, but yes — and I screwed up here and I did this there, and I’ll tell you about it. And if you can tell me where I can improve, I will listen to you. My responsibility is to represent you.” Well, I find him absolutely glorious, this guy.
It sounds like you see tremendous integrity in him.
Sidney Poitier: Tremendous. Tremendous integrity. Great, great humanity. I wish him well. I don’t know the extent to which it will happen, but I think the world will be the better for him having come this way.
We can say the same of you. Thank you for talking with us today. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 70 | https://www.facebook.com/groups/WillieHNelson/ | en | Facebook | https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yb/r/hLRJ1GG_y0J.ico | https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yb/r/hLRJ1GG_y0J.ico | [
"https://facebook.com/security/hsts-pixel.gif"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Sieh dir auf Facebook Beiträge, Fotos und vieles mehr an. | de | https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/yb/r/hLRJ1GG_y0J.ico | https://www.facebook.com/login/ | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 27 | https://www.amazon.com/Leon-Russell-Journey-Through-History/dp/0306924773 | en | Amazon.com | [
"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/captcha/imzrkqqo/Captcha_ceslzrymuz.jpg",
"https://fls-na.amazon.com/1/oc-csi/1/OP/requestId=4VE0DVXTJTM5J9B95X4C&js=0"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | null | Enter the characters you see below
Sorry, we just need to make sure you're not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies. | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 72 | https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22135116-poetry-2022 | en | Books: Poetry ~~ 2022 Showing 1 | [
"https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/siteheaderbannerimages/1722529902i/427.jpg",
"https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/gr/icons/icon_close_white-dbf4152deeef5bd3915d5d12210bf05f.svg",
"https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/down_arrow-1e1fa5642066c151f5e0136233fce98a.gif",
"https://images.gr-as... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Author: add: link photo"
] | null | 586 discussion posts. Alias Reader said: ;Please share your favorite poems here. Heard any poetry news? Let us know. Learned about some new poetry ... | https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22135116-poetry-2022 | ||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 10 | https://teachingwriting.stanford.edu/news/marvin-quadrant-coming-genre-part-one-my-popular-music-literacy-narrative | en | The Marvin Quadrant: Coming to Genre, Part One: My Popular Music Literacy Narrative | [
"https://teachingwriting.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj21481/files/styles/card_1900x950/public/media/image/screenshot_2023-12-14_at_8.39.10_am_0.png?h=dc3d25c4&itok=fRkeHkzt",
"https://teachingwriting.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj21481/files/styles/card_1900x950/public/media/image/screenshot_2024-06-12_at_... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2023-12-14T04:00:00-08:00 | Marvin Diogenes | en | /profiles/custom/stanford_profile/themes/stanford_basic/favicon.ico | TeachingWriting | https://teachingwriting.stanford.edu/news/marvin-quadrant-coming-genre-part-one-my-popular-music-literacy-narrative | [pictured above: Marvin's childhood home in Oak Park, Michigan]
While I Was Napping
I arrived on earth (Sinai Hospital in Detroit, more exactly) just as rock and roll established itself as a tent pole of youth culture—or perhaps the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey signaling an evolutionary leap in human youth consciousness. An infant, I was likely already asleep in my crib during the first appearances of Elvis Presley on national television in 1956, first on Milton Berle (an extended set piece pitting youth music against slapstick, joke-driven comedy in a kind of prototype for the off-kilter mash-ups of fifties and sixties television), then on Steve Allen’s show (the appearance with the hound dog meant to humiliate the young performer), and then on Ed Sullivan, once Sullivan realized that he couldn’t stick to his pledge to ban Elvis and had to compete with the other shows by repeatedly booking the phenom. Note the progression through these clips in terms of the overall duration of the appearance, whether the song “Hound Dog” gets played in its entirety, the singer’s interaction with the host and other guests, and the visibility and function of the backing musicians—Elvis’s voice, good humor, and willingness to adapt (he did perform “Rhetoric Hotel,” after all) remain a constant, whatever the situation constructed to contain him.
Milton Berle clip, June 5, 1956: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJnVQDA9rHA Note the full performance of the song, including a second time through at a slower tempo, as well as the full view of the band, even a shot of the guitar solo. When Berle comes into the scene, the veteran comic (Uncle Miltie) gestures to the band to reprise “Hound Dog” so he can imitate Presley’s dance moves. Suddenly, vaudeville. After Berle does his Elvis (perhaps the first of the many Elvis impersonators leading all the way to Andy Kaufman), the band disappears behind a dropping curtain, making way for a Berle-Presley comic dialogue, with a guest cameo from movie star (at the time) Debra Paget—note how Paget functions as a representative of the young women sitting in the audience occasionally shown by the cameras; this serves as a kind of rehearsal for Beatlemania coming some eight years later (before television, the culture had seen a precursor with the swoon-filled fame of young Frank Sinatra) and also connects to the core premise of Bye-Bye Birdie, the plot predicated on a young woman from a Midwestern fan club chosen randomly to kiss Presley-inspired Conrad Birdie on the Sullivan show. These eight minutes on the Berle show offer a series of genres in quick succession and an early lesson in how television can absorb “transgressive” rock and roll (fairly) seamlessly into a medium at the time learning how to engage a mass audience buying television sets in the millions.
Steve Allen clip, later in June, 1956: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3r5AiBJr2M Allen gestures to the earlier Berle appearance and refers to Elvis’s “first comeback” (weirdly prescient, given the arc of the Presley career). He introduces the “new Elvis Presley,” who comes onstage wearing a tuxedo and carrying a guitar. Allen leads Presley across the stage where the band has set up, where there’s also a hound dog in a top hat perched, waiting for a serenade. Elvis delivers, singing to, petting, and doing moves around the dog, playing along despite the cringy circumstances. We get a truncated version of the song and very little sense of the backing band.
Ed Sullivan clip, October 28, 1956: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNYWl13IWhY. Some four months later we get the first of several appearances on Sullivan, with a tease at the end for the next appearance scheduled for January 1957 as well as a mention of one of Elvis’s first movies. Clearly by this time he’s been packaged and commodified across mass media. An estimated 60 million viewers tuned in for this Sunday night media sacrament (73 million viewed the Beatles’ first Sullivan appearance in 1964). We get the complete song once through, some sense of the band, and a strange group of four back-up attendants (the earliest iteration of the Elvis entourage?) who don’t seem to have a purpose other than to stand and smile uncomfortably. Sullivan briefly engages with Presley after the song, leaving immediately to allow Elvis to plug his movie and next appearance, as well as to wish the audience a life as blessed as his.
Again, I slept through all of this. Unlike Jenny “when she was just five years old” in Lou Reed’s ode to the savior sound spreading like wildfire via the airwaves, I didn’t start dancing to that “fine, fine music” from the New York station or register the seismic shift happening in front of the national television audience. Put simply, my life wasn’t saved by rock and roll.
The Music Seeping Through
I remember beginning to listen to pop music with emotional commitment and incipient scholarly intent in my early teen years. Of course I heard music long before that—my older sisters carried on about the Beatles appearing on the Sullivan show at the height of Beatlemania in 1964 and then twice more—I probably watched their appearances with little understanding of the fuss; I vaguely recall hearing various celebrated mainstream singers (YouTube offers Sullivan clips of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., Vic Damone, Vikki Carr, and Andy Williams, among many others) who frequented the Sullivan show and other “musical variety shows” (vaudeville domesticated for the mass audience) such as Hollywood Palace and the daytime performance plus talk featured on the Mike Douglas Show out of Philadelphia; all of the shows’ producers and hosts accepted the ratings necessity of booking rock and pop acts to expand their demographic appeal, so most hitmaking singers and popular bands made the rounds, co-existing as well as possible with hosts and entertainers from previous generations. (A side note on the Sullivan show, which ran on CBS from 1948-71: the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster appeared a record 67 times; in terms of comedy genealogies, Frank Shuster was SNL creator Lorne Michaels’s father-in-law and dad of Rosie Shuster, an original member of the SNL writers’ room and source or co-source of the Killer Bees, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner’s Todd and Lisa, and Radner’s Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseanneadanna.)
I think I remember occasional Broadway/Hollywood soundtrack albums (West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof) my parents played on the lumpen stereo cabinet squatting stolidly in the living room (lift the lid to get to the turntable). I know they had George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on vinyl.
More Than the Greatest Love
An upright piano stood against another wall in that living room, as my sister Miriam played, taking lessons from a family friend, Eric Rosenow—my eldest sister Cindy was the visual artist among the siblings, taking drawing and watercolor lessons, though I remember her singing in the chorus of the Oak Park High production of Bye-Bye Birdie; they staged the opening teens-talking number on an impressive wooden scaffold something like the grid on Hollywood Squares, a cast member in each square holding a telephone. I guess I was always the word kid, buried in books, newspapers, magazines, and Readers’ Digest. Along with giving piano lessons, Mr. Rosenow (pronounce the name to rhyme with Romanoff despite the spelling) led a local band, Eric Rosenow and the Continentals, which played at my bar mitzvah party in February 1968; no pop songs at that lackluster soiree—a more popular classmate had his bar mitzvah party the same night, attracting any friends we had in common, so I had a bad case of FOMO among the family members and my parents’ friends who attended. If I’d been middle-aged, I might have had a good time. Mr. Rosenow, an immigrant like my parents, possessed a certain savoir faire—I don’t think he wore a scarf, though I like to imagine him wearing one, holding a cigarette in manicured fingers, throwing the scarf blithely over his shoulder at lesson’s end as he left to climb into his Lincoln parked outside. Picture him as the diminutive, better-behaved uncle of the Russian actor Mischa Auer, best-known for his portrayal of the protégé Carlo in My Man Godfrey in 1936. A clip of Mischa Auer (at the piano singing in Russian) in the role here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIJ9Apva2zs
I remember singing occasionally after my sister’s lesson with Mr. Rosenow. I must have been ten or eleven. As I recall, the Miriam and Marvin standard (stage name M&M if we had ever ventured outside the living room) was a sixties song called “More,” recorded by Andy Williams and many other easy-listening vocalists. The opening lines: “More than the greatest love the world has known/This is the love I’ll give to you alone.” I had trouble reaching the high notes. Needless to say, Mr. Rosenow never invited me to join the Continentals as boy vocalist, though he provided my only glimpse of “show business” growing up.
Andy Williams sings “More”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blJlLKf7NLA Consider this clip in relation to the Presley clips and the clips I’ll include later in terms of wardrobe (love the sweater), orchestration, and hairstyle.
A side note on coming to cinema: I started working at a local chain of movie theaters (in Detroit, Ferndale, Oak Park, and Birmingham) at fifteen, which introduced me to a much wider range of films and cinema accoutrements (trailers, posters), as the independent chain specialized in arty European films. Thus I first encountered Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers) and other auteurs of the moment—Truffaut (Day for Night), Rohmer (Claire’s Knee), Fellini’s Roma—and the independent films coming to the fore outside the faltering studio system in the United States—Drive, He Said, directed by Jack Nicholson after he acted in Easy Rider and before his star-making turn in Chinatown, Harold and Maude from Hal Ashby featuring Cat Stevens songs on the soundtrack, Brewster McCloud from Robert Altman. That high school work experience prepared me to take advantage of the movie-rich environment of Stanford in the seventies, with films available almost every night of the week somewhere on campus.
Music in the Medium and the Message
Remember that what I describe here unfolded in a media environment defined by single-screen movie theaters along with network television reaching its adolescence in the sixties after the toddler technology took over living rooms through the fifties. Also consider the relationship between the Baby Boom (with Boomers born between 1945 and 1965, my sisters and I in the cohort) and the burgeoning of what I’m calling “youth culture”—expand a consumer market through a high birth rate and new mass media, and the engines of capital will roar with invention and revision. To wit: I have vague memories of a set of music-focused network series during my first full decade as a fledgling consumer of culture (the sixties): Hootenanny, on ABC from 1963-64, featured folk acts; Shindig!, which replaced Hootenanny on ABC from 1964-66, widened the range of music spotlighted, including British Invasion bands (Beatles, Stones, Who) as well as Tina Turner, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Jackie Wilson, The Beach Boys, The Supremes, and The Ronettes; Hullabaloo on NBC in 1965-66 aired as a response to Shindig!, including the same British Invasion bands introduced by Beatles manager Brian Epstein as well as such pop-scene luminaries as Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas & the Papas, Dionne Warwick, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Sonny & Cher, the Supremes, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and Roy Orbison, who first saw pre-breakout Elvis in the fifties as a nineteen-year-old—they were roughly the same age. Note the market-driven shift from folk to pop and rock and roll on two of the three major networks. Even Bob Dylan had gone electric, and The Turtles and Byrds covered some of his early songs, defining the early folk-rock genre. Some clips to give a sense of the music scene on the networks:
Judy Collins on Hootenanny 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-anKnExpu4
Ian and Sylvia on Hootenanny 1963: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHcSy_3ZO_c Think of these two in relation to Mitch and Mickey, played by Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy in Christopher Guest’s affectionate folk tribute A Mighty Wind. Clips here of two Mitch and Mickey songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMbeMmYkAXQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwLZfPPM7GQ. Bonus clip of The Folksmen from the same movie, comprised of the members of Spinal Tap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JhLuVu-Cho
Opening medley from Shindig! 1964: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46K0IzErJsA. Just little snippets of songs but note the shift in musical idioms from Hootenanny as well as the widening of the range of pop genres making it into primetime.
Tina Turner and Marvin Gaye on Shindig! 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1aqzVloyjE. The host introduces the performance as an “opera”—a remarkable artifact.
Chuck Berry on Hullabaloo 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTHtsDLwvig. Playing the revised version of “Rhetor B. Goode.”
The Rolling Stones on Hullabaloo 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO4fIRVscgM
While no longer napping, I again admit to only dim awareness of these manifestations of youth culture, though I expect my sisters watched avidly while I absorbed it all with less intense focus, as something simply part of my pre-teen environment, like air and water. Coming to musical awareness, slowly, I remember watching The Monkees on television during the two-year run of their show from fall 1966 to spring 1968 (overlapping, oddly, with the run of the original Star Trek for those two seasons). I learned later how the group came together as a “pre-Fab Four” through auditions of young actors and musicians in Los Angeles—Stephen Stills auditioned and didn’t make the cut due to an unfortunate pointed tooth deemed disqualifying for television; we should all thank the rock gods for that. The members of the Monkees resented their reputation as mere actors, not bona fide musicians, and advocated for themselves to write and perform their own material. Monkee Michael Nesmith had written “Different Drum,” a hit for Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Ponies, so the boys had a point; I hope they felt some gratitude, though, to Neil Diamond for their hits “I’m a Believer” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” composed before Diamond joined the ranks of singer-songwriters, dramatically eclipsing The Monkees’ brief fame with a decades-long career. (A note on the Monkees: after the show ended, they starred in a little-known film called Head, directed by Bob Rafelson and co-written by Rafelson and Jack Nicholson before they made Five Easy Pieces in 1970. My memory doesn’t speak but mumbles regarding this obscure film. I know I saw it, and I think I saw it in a school setting, or perhaps on a field trip with a hip teacher. The film, likely made to take advantage of the success of A Hard Day’s Night several years before, aimed for absurdist satire and bombed at the box office.)
Let me state here that I listened now as a voracious consumer, consuming pop songs the way I consumed network television and candy, with little of the critical/analytical distance that would come later. Now I recognize that television and radio trained me to watch and listen and always want more—incidentally, though likely intentionally, the media trained me in genre. Episodic plot structures became part of the wiring of my brain, along with pop song staples pertaining to verse, chorus, break, and rhyme along with the ever-present theme of young love lost, thwarted, or requited.
Transistor Radio
I’ve written in a previous newsletter piece about my childhood bedroom serving as the family television room and the beige fold-out couch that I slept on growing up. That room also contained a small desk, though I rarely sat there (the desk had a “secret” side compartment in which I used to hide candy, though I had no reason to hide it—I just liked having pretend contraband in the hidden compartment). I preferred to do homework stretched out on the floor between the couch and the dresser on which the television perched. While doing homework I listened to a transistor radio, a rectangle about the size of a cellphone, though thicker. This trusty radio kept playing through many of my childhood years—it had a kind of butterscotch-almost-soft-orange vinyl wrapping with round perforations for the section covering the tiny speaker. I imagine lousy sound quality, though I valued the reliability and portability—at that age I didn’t listen for anything but the familiarity of the current hits. AM radio in those days played only hits, on roughly a two-hour rotation, so if I listened for an extended period I could count on hearing any favorites I had more than once.
Imagine a photograph or better a sequence of stills from a movie set, as the imagining here requires that one wall of the setting not be there to allow a variety of camera angles to provide the editor shots to arrange to tell a story (remember the original credit sequence from The Dick Van Dyke show composed of a montage of stills). We see a character (young me) stretched out on the bedroom floor, with open books and sheets of paper covered in handwritten words, pen in easy reach (no typewriter, no computer, no screen other than the blank television hovering above). A foot or so from his head sits the transistor radio playing the local AM station softly but audibly. Imagine a cut to a still from another angle, with the prone character at the bottom of the frame, above him the bedroom door slightly ajar, with another character standing in the doorway (my father), with a look mixing bemusement, parental concern, and pride in the studious son. A close-up of the look and then a shot from over his shoulder capturing the father observing the son. The caption reads “I don’t know how you can listen to music when you’re doing your homework.” As my father spoke these words, he didn’t come all the way into the room or pronounce any rules forbidding radio listening while doing homework, as I clearly did my homework and brought home good grades. Results counted—no reason to ban music.
My psychological tether to the transistor radio stretched late into the night after the household retired. Now, with the couch unfolded into a bed, I placed the radio on the mattress, about a foot from my head on the pillow, set at low volume to avoid disturbing my parents, whose bedroom was just a few yards away. I often fell asleep with the radio on; when I awoke at 2 a.m. or so, the small speaker sounded dangerously loud and I quickly reached to turn it off, though my parents never mentioned that they heard the radio playing at night.
There’s Something Happening Here
I came to a different level of consciousness watching The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS from 1967-69 (also overlapping with the original Star Trek for two years); this landmark mash-up explicitly and unabashedly presented itself as counter-culture in attitude, despite the preppie look of the brothers and their roots in folk music. Tom Smothers’s politics catalyzed the rhetorical stance, brought to life by a writers’ room including veterans Hal Goldman and Al Gordon and young iconoclasts Steve Martin, Don Novello (later Father Guido Sarducci on SNL), Rob Reiner, Lorenzo Music, Bob Einstein (brother of Albert Brooks and later Super Dave Osborne and much later Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm), Mason Williams, and Leigh French (best-known for hosting the recurrent bit “Have a Little Tea with Goldie” on the show). Musical guests encompassed an eclectic Boomer Hall of Fame: George Harrison, Joan Baez, Buffalo Springfield, Cass Elliot, Harry Belafonte, Janis Ian, Cream, Donovan, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Spanky and Our Gang, Steppenwolf, Ray Charles, and Simon and Garfunkel. The network objected consistently to the politically and religiously irreverent humor (for instance, Pat Paulsen’s presidential campaign and comedian David Steinberg’s sermons), though the ratings kept the show on the air. A note of cultural significance: the show battled NBC juggernaut western Bonanza in the Sunday time slot and held its own. The times, they were a’changin.
Pete Seeger’s appearance in 1967: Seeger, a target of the McCarthy blacklist, hadn’t appeared on network television for seventeen years; he performed “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” an anti-war song set in the early 1940’s with the chorus ending with “the big fool said to push on,” as the commanding officer takes his soldiers deeper into the mud. My memory, which I can’t corroborate through sources, has the network or perhaps the local CBS affiliate in Detroit cutting off the song midway through. I sat in my room staring at the black and white television, processing with some glimmer of understanding that the forces that were would not allow Seeger to sing this clarion indictment of the president, the government, and the military in primetime.
Some clips to provide a sense of the show and another of the same period:
Smothers Brothers, “Mariah” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFHh0Rs34v0.Note how the brothers blend their standard comic shtick (older brother Tommy playing the fool in contrast to earnest and proper brother Dickie) with impressive musicianship and vocal harmonies. Steve Martin likely learned something from them, as his early stand-up had him playing a variant of the fool while playing banjo with great skill.
Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndOWwqva0sM As this is a comedy hour, the brothers undermine the musical performance, however briefly, by appearing in quick cuts away from Stephen Stills to mime moments from the song (inspired by a youth protest about a night-time curfew Stills observed in Los Angeles).
Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” and “Mr. Soul” on Hollywood Palace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V8VvEzuQ6Y Here we have a host (shades of earlier hosts clearly out of generational synch with the acts they introduce) referring to how the band has fared well financially. Note the shades-of-vaudeville stage with the rock band at the front, performing on a counter-culture island. We get a snippet of Stills before Neil Young takes over the main microphone to sing lead on “Mr. Soul.”
Pete Seeger, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXnJVkEX8O4 Here we get the entire song, though my memory insists that at least in Detroit the screen went blank or cut to commercial mid-way through.
Shul Trek
A note on my father’s singing. Saturday mornings during my childhood I walked with my father the half-mile or so to Young Israel of Oak Woods, the relatively orthodox synagogue (more colloquially “shul”) just down Coolidge from Oak Park High School. According to Wikipedia, “A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who leads the congregation in songful prayer.” Let’s go with chazzan here. Most of the chazzans at Young Israel didn’t sound to me particularly well-trained. I appreciated them when they expedited the services without embellishment and with minimal vocal flourishes, chanting more than singing. Again according to Wikipedia, a “shamash” or “gabbai” functions as an assistant to the rabbi, making sure the prayers run on time and organizing traffic around the “bimah,” the raised platform where congregants read from the Torah. I appreciated the old yet spry and wiry Young Israel gabbai, whose name I don’t recall, for his no-frills approach when he called people to the bimah and occasionally led a service. He sprinted through the liturgy as if he had a stopwatch timing him. High Holiday services, which run very long, especially on Yom Kippur, featured a special chazzan I remember only from those most holy of days—I also remember my youthful impatience with the near-operatic extravagances of his cantorial style, as he was something like Las Vegas-era Elvis minus the cape and sequins. Now I understand why his approach was appropriate to those days and those services—back then I squirmed in my seat. As for my father, I sat/stood next to him (lots of sitting, then standing, then sitting and standing again in shul), so I knew my father’s voice. I noticed that he didn’t have a high range, so when the prayer’s tune went higher, he dropped an octave, not all the way to Darth Vader, but down. I grew familiar enough with the liturgy that I knew the melodies (still do) and familiar enough with my father’s voice that I could anticipate the octave drop—that familiar downshift became part of my shul experience and to this day provides one of my vivid aural memories of my father.
Psycho (Torah) Reader
When I was twelve, in the midst of watching Star Trek and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the time came for me to prepare for my bar mitzvah, the transition to adult responsibilities regarding fulfilling commandments (mitzvahs) and other matters religious. The bar mitzvah ceremony marks the first time a young person can read from the Torah—that reading serves as the focal point of the bar mitzvah Saturday, with family and friends and regular members of the congregation serving as a decorous but supportive cheerleading squad. Mr. Bodzin (no first name on record) served as my bar mitzvah vocal coach (these days I expect there’s an app for that). He wouldn’t make the cut as a PWR lecturer, as his pedagogy consisted of “sing it like I sing it.” To practice on my own, I taped Mr. Bodzin singing my haftorah (the small portion I would chant/sing)—later when I tried to play the tape at home, I found that when recording I had pushed the wrong button on the tape recorder and thus had a blank tape. I stared into the silence for a good long while. Asking Mr. Bodzin to record the portion again took several years off my life—he fixed me with a glare before repeating his performance. This time I recorded successfully, leading to many evenings of preparation singing along to Mr. Bodzin’s rendition. The day came in February 1968. I ascended to the bimah. A friend told me later that he’d never seen anybody turn so pale before. I sang the haftorah portion. Kvelling ensued. I never spoke to Mr. Bodzin about the performance. Somebody told me they asked him to grade me. He gave me a B.
I Draw the Line at Guitars (A Flash Forward Digression)
My older sisters had “Sweet Sixteen” parties in the years before my bar mitzvah (son of commandment, or mitzvah), as the bat mitzvah (daughter of commandment, or mitzvah) ceremony had not become common practice in the congregations in Oak Park. Young Israel, as an orthodox-adjacent shul, did not call women to read the Torah and separated the women and men congregants with a mechitza, or partition—this practice extends to today in orthodox congregations such as Emek Berakha, where I said kaddish for my father in 2006 (the only congregation in the area that I could rely on for the daily minyan of ten necessary to reciting the kaddish). A generation later, though, in 1992 and 1994, respectively, my nephew and niece had their bar and bat mitzvah services at Beth Israel in Ann Arbor, a reform-adjacent congregation in which bat mitzvahs happen in the natural (new) order of things, women read from the Torah and lead services as chazzans every week, and services move back and forth between Hebrew and English. (The congregation still uses many traditional liturgical melodies that I recognize from Young Israel.) My parents attended the bar and bat mitzvahs with enthusiasm, as I recall, though I suspect my father had some misgivings or at least musings stemming from his upbringing and perhaps thought about what his father would think about his great-granddaughter reading from the Torah.
When the pandemic started, Beth Israel created a Zoom link and then a YouTube channel to make services available, so I’ve attended their high holiday services remotely and can see the bimah where my nephew and niece read from the Torah and where I delivered the eulogy for my mother in 2013. Along with the traditional melodies, the High Holiday services include a married couple, long-time members of the congregation, singing an a cappella version of Paul Simon’s “Old Friends” every year.
In regard to shul-based change, I (and I think my father too) draw the line at guitars.
School’s In
I sang in the choir, as did many students in the Oak Park public school system—I don’t remember what songs, though I recall we did Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” one year, the music teacher’s nod to the contemporary scene. I did an assignment for a high school Humanities class taught by Mr. Gamache, a member of the OPHS English Department who described himself as a “230-pound gadfly,” referring to his fondness for the Socratic Method—he was a florid, affable man fully committed to his vocation as a teacher. For the assignment (I don’t remember the prompt), I taped myself providing a close reading of two songs meant to illuminate two versions of teenage disaffection—time has swallowed any documentary evidence, though I know one was an obscure Elton John/Bernie Taupin song, “I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself” from the 1972 album Honky Chateau. The assignment allowed me to bring together the school genre of “close reading” I routinely performed for English classes and what mattered to me outside of school, in this case the songs I listened to over and over in my “music room” at home.
I want to dwell on this assignment a bit as an early experience in genre application, blurred boundaries, and a kind of internal battle between logic and emotion. For my high school English classes with the teachers who shaped future me, Shirlee Citron, Barbara Goldsmith, and Thelma Rosenbaum along with Joe Gamache and Bud Kulka, I felt entirely at home with New Critical interpretive/analytical strategies—“meaning” resided in the text, with the school genre’s purpose requiring the reader/writer to use close reading skills (finding patterns of theme and imagery, bringing to the foreground specific figurative language) to find and bring to the surface the meaning. That became my genre wheelhouse, a wielding of laser-focused decontextualized intellect. My relationship with popular songs didn’t rely on intellect but rather emotional identification—I didn’t sing along as an intellectual exercise in extracting meaning but as a celebration of feeling, though I’ll admit a dawning aesthetic awareness, a pleasure in recognizing and duplicating what the singer did and perhaps adding some vocal spin of my own. Consider the different ways we come to genre, how intellect, emotion, or identity can lead the engagement, with other facets of ourselves in supporting roles. Consider genre as an invitation to parts of ourselves, with implicit and/or explicit warnings against bringing those uninvited parts of the self into the writing. Mr. Gamache’s assignment created space for my teenage self’s emotional connection to pop songs, a self I kept subordinate in my close readings of literary texts and that I continued to keep cordoned off when completing later college writing and research assignments.
As usual, Star Trek provides an interpretive lens. Let’s posit that I wrote essays like Mr. Spock, relying on intellect/the form of reason specific to literary interpretation, I listened to music like Dr. McCoy, prone to emotion, exasperation, and joy whatever his medical training—I did nothing like Captain Kirk (nerds need not apply to sit in the captain’s chair).
Music Room
Let me explain more about the “music room” mentioned above. When both of my sisters left for college in Ann Arbor, I by stages “inherited” their shared bedroom as they spent less and less time in their childhood home. I somehow acquired a small turntable (“record player” in the parlance of the time) and gradually turned their room into my listening room—frankly, also a singing room, as once I heard the songs enough times I wanted to sing along. After school I’d sit on the floor of that room playing Carole King’s Tapestry, Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection and Madman across the Water, James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James, Cat Stevens’s Tea for the Tillerman, and Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night. I probably sang along to all of them once I learned the words (often the printed lyrics came with the album), but I remember most clearly singing along to Tapestry. Yes, I felt the earth move under my feet. In those days my vocal register closely matched Carole King’s (allow me my memories…). One day my mother, in the basement doing laundry, heard me singing through the vents. When she came upstairs, she violated the privacy of my sanctum to come into the room to tell me she heard me singing and was glad I was happy. She may have hugged and kissed me. I wouldn’t call myself a rebellious teenager, but I had enough teenage attitude to think my parents clueless—I didn’t have the patience or the words to enlighten Mom, to tell her that my singing stemmed from misery, not happiness. Thinking back now, she may have been right—wallowing in teenage angst might indeed qualify as teenage happiness.
Then I graduated from high school (of course there’s a story). After a summer working at the movie theaters, my winter coat and I boarded the plane to SFO, got on the Stanford bus, and arrived at Larkin, some 50 yards from the lawn on which Sweet Hall now stands.
Next Time: Coming to Genre, Part Two: the Brill Building (NYC), Motown (Detroit), and Laurel Canyon (LA) Preview: Genre defines and limits and guides creativity in context. Let’s consider the pop music genre in relation to time—we can experience pop music as essentially epideictic, praising the present moment (even if there’s pain for the speaker and blame for the distant or absent or cheating lover), as the genre at its core celebrates all facets of the emotion and even more the persistence of (young) love, the genre’s primary reason for being. How do the past and future come into the pop music genre in the fifties and sixties? The past as a static wasteland exists either without love or with previous love now gone, while the future exists either as the eternal extension of love or a barren expanse of lovelessness. The genre subordinates the past and future to the present or more exactly collapses the past and future into the present. Thus the past and future function as frozen in the moment. How does this relate to a genre like the RBA? The proposal RBA aims to transform the unsatisfactory present into a better future through enacting the proposal. The forensic RBA aims to bring judgment of the past into the present through analysis of past events from the perspective of the present. A persistent challenge of the RBA as genre has to do with the difficulty of creating a dynamic between and a balance among past, present, and future. The three-minute popular song can afford to flatten time into the present with the emotion driving the narrative, creating exigence (the heart must sing) and expression (in the hallowed form the genre provides).
In the Meantime: Write Your Own Popular Music Literacy Narrative—think about your aural memories of music and whatever sense of “music literacy” you developed growing up. This can include music you experienced live, made yourself, experienced via media, as well as what people (family, friends) made accessible to you. Think about the formation of your musical taste in relation to genre and your own evolving expectations of what music could and should do. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 12 | https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/linda-ronstadt | en | Encyclopedia.com | [
"https://www.encyclopedia.com/themes/custom/trustme/images/header-logo.jpg"
] | [] | [] | [
"Get information",
"facts",
"and pictures",
"about Linda Ronstadt",
"at Encyclopedia.com",
"Make",
"research",
"projects",
"and school reports",
"about Linda Ronstadt",
"easy",
"with credible",
"articles",
"from our FREE",
"online encyclopedia and dictionary"
] | null | [] | null | Linda Ronstadt [1]: 1946—: Singer Linda Ronstadt [2] has released more than 35 albums during a career that has spanned nearly 40 years, with sales topping more than 50 million copies. | en | /sites/default/files/favicon.ico | https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/linda-ronstadt | Linda Ronstadt
Singer
For the Record…
Selected discography
Sources
Few performers in any medium have proven more daring than Linda Ronstadt, a singer who has made her mark in such varied styles as rock, country, grand opera, and mariachi. In the 1970s Ronstadt churned out a veritable stream of pop hits and heartrending ballads that delighted country and rock fans alike. Just when she seemed pegged as a pop idol, however, she turned her talents to opera—in The Pirates of Penzance and La Bohème —and to torch songs accompanied by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Almost every Ronstadt experiment has met with critical acclaim and, surprisingly, with fan approval and hefty record sales. Newsweek contributor Margo Jefferson attributes this success to Ronstadt’s voice, which she describes as having “the richness and cutting edge of a muted trumpet.” Jefferson concludes, “In a field where success is often based on no more than quick-study ventriloquism, Linda Ronstadt stands out. She is no fad’s prisoner; her compelling voice wears no disguises.”
Time reporter Jay Cocks calls Ronstadt “gutsy,” “unorthodox,” and a challenger of creeds. As the singer tells it, she developed a habit of rebellion early in life and stuck to it with singleminded determination. Ronstadt was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, the daughter of a hardware-store owner who loved to sing and play Mexican music. Ronstadt herself enjoyed harmonizing with her sister and two brothers—she was proud when she was allowed to take the soprano notes. At the age of six she decided she wanted to be a singer, and she promptly lost all interest in formal schooling. Aaron Latham, a classmate at Tucson’s Catalina High School, wrote in Rolling Stone that by her teens Ronstadt “was already a larger-than-life figure with an even larger voice. She didn’t surprise anyone by becoming a singer. Not that anyone expected her fame to grow to the dimensions of that voice. But the voice itself was no secret.”
Ronstadt attended the University of Arizona briefly, dropping out at eighteen to join her musician boyfriend, Bob Kimmel, in Los Angeles. With Kimmel and guitar player Kenny Edwards, Ronstadt formed a group called the Stone Poneys, a folk-rock ensemble reminiscent of the Mamas and the Papas and the Lovin’ Spoonful. The Stone Poneys signed a contract with Capitol Records in 1964 and released a single, “Some of Shelley’s Blues,” in early 1965. Their only hit as a group came in 1967, when “Different Drum,” a cut from their second album, made the charts. By that time, intense touring, drug abuse, and a series of disappointing concert appearances as openers for the Doors caused the Stone Poneys to disband. Ronstadt told Rolling Stone that her band was “rejected by the hippest element in New York
For the Record…
Full name Linda Marie Ronstadt; born July 15, 1946, in Tucson, Ariz.; daughter of Gilbert (a hardware-store owner) and Ruthmary (Copeman) Ronstadt. Education: Attended Catalina High School, Tucson, and the University of Arizona.
With Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards, formed group the Stone Poneys, 1964-68, had first Top 40 hit, “Different Drum,” 1967; solo artist, 1968—. Has made numerous concert tours in the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Sang at Jimmy Carter’s inaugural concert, 1977. Appeared as Mabel in The Pirates ofPenzance on Broadway, 1981, and in a feature film, 1983; appeared as Mimi in La Bohème off-Broadway, 1984.
Awards: Recipient of Grammy Awards for best female pop performance, 1975, best female pop performer, 1976, and (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) best country performance, 1987; recipient of American Music Award, 1978, and Academy of Country Music Award, 1987.
Addresses: Office —c/o Asher, 644 N. Doheny Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90069.
as lame. We broke up right after that. We couldn’t bear to look at each other.”
Ronstadt fulfilled her Capitol recording contract as a solo performer, turning out some of the first albums to fuse country and rock styles. On Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969) and Silk Purse (1970), Ronstadt teamed with Nashville studio musicians for an ebullient, if jangly country sound. The latter album produced her first solo hit, the sorrowful “Long, Long Time.” In retrospect, Ronstadt has called her debut period the “bleak years.” She was plagued by the stresses of constant touring, difficult romantic entanglements, cocaine use, and critical indifference—and to make matters worse, she suffered from stage fright and had little rapport with her audiences. “I felt like a submarine with depth charges going off all around me,” she told Time. Ronstadt eluded failure by moving to Asylum Records in 1973 and by engaging Peter Asher as her producer and manager. Asher collaborated with her on her first best-selling albums, Don’t Cry Now and the platinum Heart Like a Wheel.
Heart Like a Wheel was the first in a succession of million-selling albums for Ronstadt. By the mid-1970s, with hits such as “When Will I Be Loved?,” “Desperado,” “You’re No Good,” “Blue Bayou,” and “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” the singer had established herself as rock’s most popular female star. Stephen Holden describes Ronstadt’s rock style in a Vogue magazine profile. Her singing, according to Holden, combined “a tearful country wail with a full-out rock declamation. But, at the same time, her purity of melodic line is strongly rooted in folk.” A Time contributor elaborates: “She sings, oh Lord, with a rowdy spin of styles—country, rhythm and blues, rock, reggae, torchy ballad—fused by a rare and rambling voice that calls up visions of loss, then jiggles the glands of possibility. The gutty voice drives, lilts, licks slyly at decency, riffs off Ella [Fitzgerald], transmogrifies Dolly Parton, all the while wailing with the guitars, strong and solid as God’s garage floor. A man listens and thinks ’Oh my, yes, ’ and a woman thinks, perhaps, ’Ah, well …’”
A leap from rock to operetta is monumental; few voices could make it successfully. In 1981 Ronstadt astonished the critics and her fans by trilling the demanding soprano part of Mabel in a Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance. Her performance led Newsweek correspondent Barbara Graustark to comment, “Those wet, marmot eyes turn audiences on like a light bulb, and when her smoky voice soars above the staff in a duet with a flute, she sends shivers down the spine.” Ronstadt’s appearance as Mimi in La Bohème off-Broadway in 1984 was received with less enthusiasm by the critics, but the singer herself expressed no regrets about her move away from rock. “When I perform rock ’n’ roll,” she told Newsweek, “it varies between antagonistic posturing and to-the-bones vulnerability. I wanted to allow another facet of my personality to emerge…. I’ve gained confidence in knowing that now … I can handle myself in three dimensions, and even if I never use my upper extension except in the bathtub, I’ve gained vocal finish.”
That “vocal finish” was applied to yet another Ronstadt experiment—two albums of vintage torch songs, What’s New? and Lush Life, featuring the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Jay Cocks calls What’s New? a “simple, almost reverent, rendering of nine great songs that time has not touched…. No one in contemporary rock or pop can sound more enamored, or winsome, or heartbroken, in a love song than Linda Ronstadt. Singing the tunes on What’s New, or even just talking about them, she still sounds like a woman in love.” Stephen Holden writes, “One of the charms of Ronstadt’s torch singing is her almost girlish awe in the face of the songs’ pent-up emotions. Instead of trying to re-create another era’s erotic climate, she pays homage to it with lovely evenhanded line readings offered in a spirit of wistful nostalgia.” Holden adds that What’s New “revitalized Ronstadt’s recording career by selling over two million copies, and, coincidentally, defined for her generation the spirit of a new ’eighties pop romanticism.”
More recent Ronstadt projects have departed even further from the pop-rock vein. In 1987 the singer released Canciones de mi padre, an album of mariachi songs that her father used to sing. Newsweek critic David Gates calls the work “Ronstadt’s best record to date,” noting that “its flawless production is the only concession to Top 40 sensibilities. And Ronstadt … has found a voice that embodies not merely passion and heartache, but a womanly wit as well.” Ronstadt also earned several prestigious awards for her 1986 album Trio, a joint country-music venture with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. While Ronstadt will not rule out recording more rock, she seems far more fascinated by other forms and other, more remote, historical periods. Gates finds the raven-haired artist “the most adventurous figure in American popular music,” concluding that, at the very least, Ronstadt is “commendable in her refusal to bore herself.”
Selected discography
With the Stone Poneys
Evergreen, Capitol, 1967.
Evergreen, Volume II, Capitol, 1967.
Linda Ronstadt, the Stone Poneys, and Friends, Volume III, Capitol, 1968.
The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt, Capitol, 1976.
Solo LPs
Hand Sown … Home Grown, Capitol, 1969.
Silk Purse, Capitol, 1970.
Linda Ronstadt, Capitol, 1972.
Don’t Cry Now, Asylum, 1973.
Heart Like a Wheel, Capitol, 1974.
Different Drum, Asylum, 1974.
Prisoner in Disguise, Asylum, 1975.
Hasten Down the Wind, Asylum, 1976.
Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits, Asylum, 1976.
Simple Dreams, Asylum, 1977.
Blue Bayou, Asylum, 1977.
Retrospective, Capitol, 1977.
Living in the U.S.A., Asylum, 1978.
Mad Love, Asylum, 1980.
Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits, Volume II, Asylum, 1980.
Get Closer, Asylum, 1982.
What’s New?, Asylum, 1983.
Lush Life, Asylum, 1984.
For Sentimental Reasons, Asylum, 1986.
Prime of Life, Asylum, 1986.
Rockfile, Capitol, 1986.
’Round Midnight: The Nelson Riddle Sessions, Asylum, 1987.
Canciones de mi padre, Asylum, 1987.
With Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris
Trio, Warner Bros., 1986.
Sources
Books
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, Harmony Books, 1977.
Stambler, Irwin, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock, and Soul, St. Martin’s, 1974.
Periodicals
down beat, July, 1985.
Esquire, October, 1985.
Newsweek, October 20, 1975; April 23, 1979; August 11, 1980; December 10, 1984; February 29, 1988.
People, October 24, 1977; April 30, 1979.
Rolling Stone, December 2, 1976; March 27, 1977; October 19, 1978; November 2, 1978; August 18, 1983.
Saturday Review, December, 1984.
Time, February 28, 1977; March 22, 1982; September 26, 1983.
Vogue, November, 1984.
Washington Post Magazine, October 9, 1977.
—Anne Janette Johnson
Linda Ronstadt: 1946—: Singer
Linda Ronstadt has released more than 35 albums during a career that has spanned nearly 40 years, with sales topping more than 50 million copies. With a total of 13 platinum albums to her credit, she was the first woman ever to have four consecutive albums sell more than one million copies. Gaining fame by covering popular pop-rock songs, Ronstadt has also delved into opera, mariachi, Afro-Cuban, jazz, big band, and children's lullabies. She is known as one of the premier contemporary interpreters of the rock ballad.
Began Performing With Family
Ronstadt was born on July 14, 1946, in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood with her sister and two brothers. Her father, who owned a large hardware store, was of Mexican and German descent, and her mother, a housewife, was of German, English, and Dutch descent. Her whole family was musically inclined. Her mother played the ukulele, and her father, who loved to sing his favorite Mexican songs, played the guitar. By the age of six, Ronstadt was singing harmony with her family.
As a child Ronstadt listened to her father's collection of Spanish-language albums, as well as to country and western, top 40, blues, and gospel. She first began performing as a teenager in local clubs and pizza parlors with her brother Pete and sister Suzie. She had a rebellious streak that did not serve her well during her years at Tucson's St. Peter and Paul Parochial School, where her attire was deemed too alluring and her talk of boys too direct. But by high school Ronstadt was focused on a future in music. After graduating from Catalina High School she enrolled in the University of Arizona, but lasted only a couple of months before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her musical career.
Ronstadt became romantically involved with Bob Kimmel, a Tucson native who occasionally played bass and guitar for Ronstadt and her siblings. Kimmel convinced Ronstadt to form a band with him in Los Angeles. In 1964 18-year-old Ronstadt agreed, and the two enlisted Kenny Edwards and formed the Stone Poneys. The band's entire—albeit short—history was a turbulent affair. Their first professional offer came from Mercury Records, which wanted to turn them into a surfer band called the Signets. The desired style was completely out of sync with their sound, which was much closer to the folksy Mamas and the Papas and Lovin' Spoonful, and the group rejected the offer.
At a Glance . . .
Born on July 14, 1946, in Tuscon, AZ; daughter of Gilbert and Ruthmary (Copeman) Ronstadt; two adopted children.
Career: Singer, 1964–.
Awards: American Music Awards, 1978; Grammy Awards, 1975, 1976, 1987 (with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton), 1988, 1989 (with Aaron Neville), 1990 (with Aaron Neville) 1992 (two awards), 1996; Academy of Country Music Award, 1987, 1988.
Address: Agent— Electra Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY.
Abandoned By Group, Began Solo Career
The Stone Poneys played at the Troubadour, a popular Los Angeles venue, where Ronstadt was approached by the promoter Henry Cohen to sign as a solo artist. Naively loyal to her band, she refused, but when the band finally split up, Ronstadt signed with Cohen and then convinced him to work with a reunited Stone Poneys band. The band ended up with a contract for three albums. The second album, Evergreen, Vol. 2, released by Capitol in 1967, included the single "Different Drum," written by Mike Nesmith, and the song reached the charts. Encouraged, Capitol sent the band on a promotional tour, but the trip was a failure. Working as an opening act for more popular groups, the Stone Poneys found themselves playing for audiences who didn't want to listen. Discouraged, Kenny Edwards left the band after the tour.
Ronstadt and Kimmel worked with pickup musicians to stage another tour, as the opening act for The Doors, but Kimmel soon jumped ship also, leaving Ronstadt holding an unfulfilled contract for a third album. Using session musicians, Ronstadt finally completed The Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. 3, released in 1968, but sales were abysmal. Still under contract with Capitol, Ronstadt released three consecutive solo albums, Hand Sown … Home Grown, Silk Purse, and Linda Ronstadt. Hand Sown … Home Grown revealed Ronstadt's lack of confidence and timid singing, but Silk Purse was an improvement, with such songs as "Lovesick Blues" and "Long, Long Time," which reached the top 30 in 1970. Linda Ronstadt contained several well-received singles, including "Rock Me on the Water" and "I Fall to Pieces."
The late 1960s and early 1970s were difficult times for Ronstadt. She went through a succession of managers, producers, and musicians, who did little to help her map out a clear plan for success. She was in debt due to the Stone Poneys' fiasco and was becoming exhausted from touring incessantly. During 1973 she opened for Neil Young and struggled with impatient fans waiting for Young's turn on stage. Ronstadt dealt with her worries, frustration, and significant stage fright with cocaine, but it was a habit she was able to quit following the tour.
Released Gold and Platinum Albums
Ronstadt's future began to take shape in 1973, when she signed with Asylum Records. She enlisted the services of producer Peter Asher, formerly of the British pop duo Peter and Gordon, who helped Ronstadt complete her next album, Don't Cry Now. Released in 1973, it became Ronstadt's first widely accepted album, and reached number 45 on the charts. The best-received cut was her highly acclaimed rendition of the Eagle's "Desperado." The success prompted Capitol to release a compilation of Ronstadt's earlier work, including several Stone Poneys' songs, a year later.
In 1973 Ronstadt found out she still owed Capitol another album. She completed her contractual obligation to Capitol in 1974 with the release of Heart Like a Wheel, which became her breakthrough album. With Asher as her sole producer and manager, Ronstadt put together a superb collection of country-rock cover tunes and contemporary songs that took the album, which went platinum, to number one on the charts. The singles "You're No Good" reached number one on the pop charts, and "I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love with You," with harmony by Emmylou Harris, climbed to number two on the country and western charts. "When Will I Be Loved" reached number one on the country and western charts and number two on the pop charts. Riding on the popularity of Heart Like a Wheel, Ronstadt won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocalist. The success of the album made Ronstadt a household name, and seemed due to a combination of factors, including stronger, more assertive singing, and better song selection, musical arrangements, and production.
Of Heart Like a Wheel, Stephen Holden wrote in his Rolling Stone review: "The song lyric … underscores the essence of Ronstadt's vocal personality. No other pop singer so perfectly embodies the Western mythical girl/woman, heartbroken yet resilient and entirely feminine in the traditional sense. There is a throbbing edge to Ronstadt's honey-colored soprano that no other singer quite possesses. … the edge between vulnerability and willfulness that I find totally, irresistibly sexy."
Riding the wave of her widespread popularity, Ronstadt put out Prisoner in Disguise in 1975, which also went platinum. Covering Motown classics such as "Heat Wave" and "Tracks of My Tears," she also sang Neil Young's "Love is a Rose," which became a hit on the country and western charts. Despite its success, however, the album was criticized as merely a remake of Heart Like a Wheel. In 1976 Asylum released Ronstadt's Greatest Hits, Vol.1. Ronstadt's Hasten Down the Wind was her seventh solo album and the third to go platinum. Highlights of the album included covers of Buddy Holly's hit "That'll Be the Day" and Willie Nelson's "Crazy."
Ronstadt spent six months in 1976 touring around the United States as well as Europe. In January of 1977 she was invited to sing at Jimmy Carter's presidential inaugural. During that year Capitol released Retrospective, a selection of Ronstadt's pre-hit country-based songs. By the end of the year, she had released Simple Dreams, which sold over three million copies, reached number one on the charts, and produced multiple smash-hit singles. Ronstadt, who continued to benefit from Asher's production skills, proved her ability to cover a wide range of styles, with renditions of Dolly Parton's "I Will Never Marry," Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou," and Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy." Her feminine interpretation of the gritty, male-dominated lyrics of the Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice" and Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" were also noteworthy. In a testament to her willingness to play on the edge of acceptable genres, Ronstadt also included an old standard cowboy tune, "Old Paint," performed with simple acoustic guitar and a dobro.
Living in the U.S.A., released in 1978, received mixed reviews. Individual cuts were praised, but overall the album suffered from a lack of focus and direction. The following year Ronstadt produced Mad Love, an ill-advised attempt to incorporate contemporary tunes. Given her past success covering classics from a number of genres, Ronstadt's move to take on a production dominated by new wave and punk-influenced pop was a disappointment. Stereo Review's Noel Coppage suggested, "To put it in easy pop terms, Ronstadt's a melody singer and what this music needs is a beat singer." Of most interest on the album were the covers of older tunes, including Little Anthony and the Imperials' "Hurt so Bad" and The Hollies' "I Can't Let Go." Despite the critics' lukewarm reception of Living in the U.S.A. and Mad Love, Ronstadt's superstar status propelled both albums to platinum.
Moved Into New Territories
Ronstadt's 1982 release of Get Closer signaled the closing days of her place at center stage of the pop rock scene. Although still successful, it was her first album in nearly ten years that did not go platinum. Ronstadt's solution to her waning pop popularity was to switch genres completely. She moved from Los Angeles to New York and spent 1980 on stage as Mabel in a Broadway production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, and then appeared in the film version in 1983. In 1981 she began a working relationship with arranger-composer Nelson Riddle and his 46-piece orchestra. What's New, which sold more than two million copies, included traditional pop standards such as "I've Got a Crush on You" and "Someone to Watch Over Me." Lush Life and For Sentimental Reasons again paired Ronstadt with Riddle. She appeared on stage again in 1984 in a small-scale production of La Bohéme.
The single "Somewhere Out There," a duet with Aaron Neville that was featured in the animated children's movie An American Tail, put Ronstadt briefly back in the mainstream pop audience. When Riddle's untimely death ended their collaboration, Ronstadt once again switched musical directions, releasing her first Spanish-language album, Canciones de mi Padre ("Songs of my Father"). Created as a tribute to her Mexican heritage and her father's love of mariachi music, Ronstadt sings both corridos (story songs) and rancheras (folk dances). She released two more Spanish-language albums: Mas Canciones ("More Songs") in 1990, and Frenesi (Frenzy), a tribute to Afro-Cuban jazz. In 1987 Ronstadt collaborated with Harris and Parton to produce Trio, a much-anticipated album that the three had been trying to put together for several years. The three came back together in 1999 to release Trio II. Ronstadt again partnered with Harris in 1999 on the country-based Western Wall—The Tucson Sessions, a rough-cut recording completed mostly in Ronstadt's living room at her Tucson home.
Returned to Roots
Ronstadt returned to pop music in 1989 with Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind, and her reentry into the mainstream was loudly applauded. In his Audio review, Hector La Torre noted, "The more you listen to Cry Like a Rainstorm, the more you realize that of greater importance than Ronstadt's return to pop/rock is the enormous musical development that has taken place in this woman." La Torre applauded Ronstadt's astonishing vocal development during her 40 years in the business.
After taking time to develop her Spanish-language albums and produce for David Lindley, Jimmy Webb, and Neville, Ronstadt returned to her folk- and country-rock sound with Winter Light and Feels Like Home. In 1999 she released Dedicated to the One I Love, which covers old popular tunes such as "Be My Baby" and "In My Room," but this time reinterprets them as children's lullabies. The release of We Ran in 1998 features covers of John Hiatt's "When We Ran," Bruce Springsteen's "If I Should Fall Behind," and Bob Dylan's "Tom Thumb Blues." In 2002 Asylum released The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, favoring Ronstadt's biggest hits from her rock-pop albums.
Although she remains active with her music, Ronstadt, now in her fifties, has slowed down her singing and recording schedule. The mother of two children by adoption, Ronstadt has never married, although she has been linked romantically to former California governor Jerry Brown and film director George Lucas, among others. Ronstadt moved back home to Tucson to raise her children among her family in relative anonymity. She has claimed she does not own a television or computer, loathes the junk-food culture, and would much rather attend the opera than listen to modern rock or pop. With few exceptions, she has preferred to fill her home with live music, and has avoided recorded or digital formats. Her pride appears to be mostly centered in the work of her later years.
Selected discography
(With the Stone Poneys) We Five Sounds, Capitol, 1967.
(With the Stone Poneys) Evergreen, Vol. 2, Capitol, 1967.
(With the Stone Poneys) The Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. 3, Capitol, 1968.
Hand Sown … Home Grown, Capitol, 1969.
Silk Purse, Capitol, 1970.
Linda Ronstadt, Capitol, 1971.
Don't Cry Now (Gold), Asylum, 1973.
(Compilation) Different Drum, Capitol, 1974.
Heart Like a Wheel (Platinum), Capitol, 1974.
Prisoner in Disguise (Platinum), Asylum, 1975.
Hasten Down the Wind (Platinum), Asylum, 1976.
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Platinum), Asylum, 1976.
(Compilation) Retrospective (Gold), Capitol, 1977.
Simple Dreams (Platinum), Asylum, 1977.
Living in the U.S.A. (Platinum), Asylum, 1978.
(Compilation) Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Platinum), Asylum, 1980.
Mad Love (Platinum), Asylum, 1980.
Get Closer (Gold), Asylum, 1982.
What's New (Platinum), Asylum, 1983.
Lush Life (Platinum), Asylum, 1984.
For Sentimental Reasons (Platinum), Asylum, 1986.
(Compilation) 'Round Midnight (Gold), Asylum, 1986.
Canciones de mi Padre (Songs of my Father) (Platinum), Asylum, 1987.
(With Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton) Trio (Platinum), Warner Brothers, 1987.
Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind (Platinum), Asylum, 1989.
Mas Canciones (More Songs), Asylum, 1990.
Frenesi (Frenzy), Asylum, 1992.
Winter Light, Asylum, 1995.
Feels Like Home, Asylum, 1995.
Dedicated to the One I Love, Elektra, 1996.
We Ran, Elektra, 1998.
(With Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton) Trio 2 (Gold), Asylum, 1999.
(With Emmylou Harris) Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, Asylum, 1999.
A Merry Little Christmas, Elektra, 2000.
(Compilation) The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, Rhino, 2002.
Sources
Books
Dictionary of Hispanic Biography, Gale, 1996.
Pareles, Jon, and Patricia Romanowski, eds., The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, Rolling Stone/Summit Books, 1983.
Slonimsky, Nicolas, and Laura Kuhn, eds., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Schirmer, 2001.
Periodicals
Audio, January 1990.
Billboard, December 4, 1993; August 21, 1999, p. 11.
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, November 7, 2002.
New Statesman, April 19, 1999, p. 39.
New Strait Times, March 27, 2002.
Popular Music and Society, Summer 1997, pp. 152-54.
Rolling Stone, January 16, 1975; March 27, 1975; October 19, 1978, pp. 50-59; July 13, 1995, p. 40. Stereo Review, May 1980.
U.S. Weekly, December 18-25, 2000, pp. 72-74.
On-line
"Linda Ronstadt," Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com (March 27, 2003).
Linda Ronstadt Homepage, http://www.ronstadt-linda.com (March 27, 2003).
—Kari Bethel
Ronstadt, Linda
Ronstadt, Linda , popular female rock vocalist; b. Tucson, Ariz., July 15, 1946. Linda Ronstadt combined folk, rock, and country music, along with the best material by young singer–songwriters and astutely chosen remakes of earlier pop hits, to become one of the most popular female rock vocalists of the second half of the 1970s. Always an eclectic singer, she spent her second decade on the pop scene exploring various musical genres, including reviving earlier pop standards with noted arranger Nelson Riddle to surprising success and exploring her own Mexican-American heritage.
Raised in Tucson, Linda Ronstadt was inspired to sing by a musically talented father. By age 14 she was singing with brother Pete and sister Suzi in local pizza parlors and clubs, occasionally accompanied by bassist-guitarist Bob Kimmel. After one semester at the Univ. of Ariz., she joined Kimmel in Los Angeles, where the two formed the Stone Poneys with local guitarist Kenny Edwards. Playing the region’s club circuit, the group signed with Capitol Records in 1966 and recorded two albums largely comprised of material written by Kimmel and Edwards, although their only major hit was Mike Nesmith’s “Different Drum.” After a third album, recorded with studio musicians, Ronstadt pursued a solo career, initially as a country singer. In 1970 she achieved a major hit with “Long, Long Time.” In 1971 her touring band coalesced around future Eagles Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Randy Meisner, who accompanied her on her self-titled solo album from that year, which produced a minor hit with Jackson Browne’s “Rock Me on the Water.”
Touring with Neil Young in early 1973, Linda Ronstadt reenlisted Kenny Edwards, who recruited songwriter-guitarist Andrew Gold for her new backup band. She recorded Don’t Cry Now with three different producers. The album included three songs written by John David Souther—the title song, “I Can Almost See It,” and “The Fast One”—and yielded minor hits with Eric Kaz and Libby Titus’s “Love Has No Pride” and “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” a major hit for the Springfields in 1962. One of the album’s producers, Peter Asher, became Ronstadt’s sole producer and manager through the 1970s; he produced the breakthrough Heart Like a Wheel, her final effort for Capitol Records. The album was an instant best-seller, yielding a top pop hit with “You’re No Good” (a minor hit for Betty Everett in 1963), a smash country hit with Hank Williams’s “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You),” and a smash country and pop hit with Phil Everly’s “When Will I Be Loved.” The album also contained Souther’s “Faithless Love,” Anna McGarrigle’s title song, and the Lowell George favorite “Willin’.”
Linda Ronstadt’s next album, Prisoner in Disguise, produced pop hits with covers of the Motown standards “Heat Wave” and “Tracks of My Tears” and a smash country hit with Neil Young’s “Love Is a Rose”; it also included Lowell George’s “Roll Urn Easy” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Hasten Down the Wind contained the major pop hit “That’ll Be the Day” (Buddy Holly’s biggest hit), the smash country hit “Crazy” (Patsy Cline’s biggest hit), and three compositions by Karla Bonoff, including the minor hits “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” and “Lose Again.” After completing a six-month tour of Europe and America in December 1976 and singing at President Carter’s inaugural the following January, Linda Ronstadt recorded Simple Dreams. The album sold more than three million copies and produced five hit singles: “I Never Will Marry” (a near-smash country hit), Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” (a smash pop and country hit), Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” (a smash pop hit), Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” and the Rolling Stones’ “Tumblin’ Dice.”
During 1978 Linda Ronstadt attempted to record a trio album with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, but the hastily made recordings proved unsatisfactory for release. Ronstadt’s formula for success continued with Living in the U.S.A., which produced hits with cover versions of “Back in the U.S.A.” (Chuck Berry), “Ooh Baby Baby” (The Miracles), and “Just One Look” (Doris Troy). The album also contained J. D. Souther’s “White Rhythm and Blues” and Elvis Costello’s “Alison,” Ronstadt’s concession to the burgeoning New Wave movement. Mad Love was Ronstadt’s attempt to record in a more contemporary vein; she included three songs by Costello and three by Mark Goldenburg of the Los Angeles-based Cretones, but the hits were “How Do I Make You” and covers of “Hurt So Bad” (Little Anthony and the Imperials) and “I Can’t Let Go” (The Hollies). Her first album of new material in nearly 10 years to not sell a million copies, Get Closer, yielded moderate pop hits with the title cut and “I Knew You When,” and a major country hit with “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win.”
Linda Ronstadt abandoned rock music for the rest of the 1980s to pursue projects that helped establish her as an all-around entertainer. She appeared as Mabel in the Broadway production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and the subsequent movie version, in 1980 and 1983, respectively. In 1983, against the advice of then-boyfriend and former governor of Calif. Jerry Brown, Ronstadt performed at the Sun City resort in South Africa. Later in the year, in a daring career move that defied conventional music-industry wisdom, she recorded an entire album of Tin Pan Alley ballads, What’s New, with arranger-conductor Nelson Riddle, best known for his 1950s work with Nat “King” Cole and Frank Sinatra, and his 46- piece orchestra. Although the album yielded only a minor pop hit, the title song, it eventually sold more than two million copies and encouraged Ronstadt to record two more albums with Riddle, Lush Life and For Sentimental Reasons. She made her big-band debut at Radio City Music Hall in N.Y. with mixed results, and later played Las Vegas with the entire retinue. In late 1984 Linda Ronstadt performed the role of Mimi in a small-scale version of Puccini’s opera La Bohème at the Public Theater in N.Y. Despite the improved power and discipline of her voice, the performance was judged lackluster and disappointing by critics. In late 1986 Ronstadt scored a smash pop hit with James Ingram on “Somewhere Out There” from the animated movie An American Tail.
Finally, in 1987 Linda Ronstadt’s long-anticipated collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton was released on Warner Bros. Over the next year, Trio produced smash country hits with “To Know Him Is to Love Him” (a top pop hit for the Teddy Bears in 1958), “Those Memories of You,” Linda Thompson’s “Telling Me Lies,” and Parton’s “Wildflowers.” Lauded for its rich harmonies, exquisite lead vocals, and sympathetic arrangements, the album sold more than a million copies. Ronstadt next pursued a reawakened fascination with traditional Mexican music, mariachi music in particular, performing in Luis Valdez’s Corridos! Tales of Passion and Revolution for PBS television and recording the poignant Canciones de Mi Padre (Songs of My Father) for Elektra Records. The album sold astoundingly well for a foreign-language recording and inspired her to tour with mariachi bands in 1988 and 1992. The 1988 tour produced an award-winning PBS television show. She recorded two more albums of Mexican music, Mas Canciones (More Songs) and Frenesi (Frenzy), in the early 1990s.
Linda Ronstadt returned to contemporary music with 1989’s Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind. The album included four songs written by Jimmy Webb and four duets with New Orleans vocalist Aaron Neville. Three of the duets became hits: the pop smash “Don’t Know Much” and the near-smash “All My Life,” both top easy-listening hits; and “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby.” After nearly 40 years in the music business, Neville finally received widespread recognition as a result of the best-selling album. In the late-1980s and 1990s Ronstadt became recognized as a producer by supervising albums by David Lindley, Neville, and Jimmy Webb. She returned to her country-rock sound with 1995’s Feels Like Home, which featured Randy Newman’s title song, Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush,” and Tom Petty’s “The Waiting.”
Discography
THE STONE PONEYS: The Stone Poneys (1967; reissued as Beginnings, 1975); Evergreen, Vol. 2 (1967); Stone Pmeys and Friends, Vol. III (1968); Different Drum (1974); Stoney End (1972). LINDA RONSTADT: Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969); Silk Purse (1970); L. R. (1971); Heart Like a Wheel (1974); A Retrospective (1977); Rockfile (early Capitol material) (1986); Don’t Cry Now (1973); Prisoner in Disguise (1975); Hasten Down the Wind (1976); Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (1976); Simple Dreams (1977); Living in the U.S.A. (1978); Mad Love (1980); Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1980); Keeping Out of Mischief (1981); Get Closer (1982); What’s New (1983); Lush Life (1984); For Sentimental Reasons (1986); ’Round Midnight: The Nelson Riddle Sessions (1986); Prime of Life (1986); Canciones de Mi Padre (1987); Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind (1989); Mas Canciones (1991); Frenesi (1992); Winter Light (1993); Feels Like Home (1995). THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE: Broadway Cast Album (1981). LINDA RONSTADT, DOLLY PARTON, AND EMMYLOU HARNCE: Trio (1987).
Bibliography
R. Kanakaris, L. R.: A Portrait (Los Angeles, 1977); V. Claire, L. R. (N.Y., 1978); M. Moore, The L. R. Scrapbook (N.Y., 1978); C. Berman, L. R. (Carson City, 1980).
—Brock Helander
RONSTADT, Linda
(b. 15 July 1946 in Tucson, Arizona), pop-rock superstar, songwriter, actress, and record producer who came out of the Los Angeles club scene in the 1960s to win Grammy Awards in rock, pop, country, and Latin music, becoming one of the most beloved singers of her generation.
Ronstadt was the third of four children born to Gilbert Ronstadt, a hardware store owner, and Ruthmary (Copeman) Ronstadt, a homemaker who was the daughter of Lloyd Copeman, a well-known inventor. Ronstadt grew up surrounded by music. She spent her free time listening to the radio and to records. When she was fourteen she formed a trio with her brother Mike and sister Suzie, called the New Union Ramblers. Cute and talented, she took center stage as the threesome performed in local clubs and coffee-houses, singing Mexican folk music, country songs, and popular folk songs. Ronstadt attended Catalina High School in Tucson.
In 1964, when she was eighteen, Ronstadt attended the University of Arizona briefly before moving to Los Angeles to launch her singing career at the invitation of Fred Kimmel, a Tucson friend who played rhythm guitar. Ronstadt arrived in the city with thirty dollars and a two-dollar bill with the corner torn off, a gift from her father for good luck. Naive and optimistic, she would later say that if she had realized how difficult it would be to earn a living as a musician, she would have stayed in Tucson. Still, in 1964 Los Angeles was exactly the right place for her—a mecca for aspiring musicians, attracting many artists who would become successful singers and musicians.
Ronstadt formed a trio with Kimmel and the keyboardist Ken Edwards, and they called themselves the Stone Poneys, after the Charlie Patton song "The Stone Poney Blues." Ronstadt, with her vibrant soprano voice and sexy waiflike beauty, was clearly the group's drawing card. With her raw and powerful voice and her instinct for lyrics, she shone above the others and soon attracted a cult following on the club circuit. Like other struggling musicians, Ronstadt was searching for a musical style and not finding it. A first chance to record came from Mercury Records, but the group turned down the offer, which would have renamed them the Signets and had them playing surfing music. Another offer came just for Ronstadt, but she did not want to sing solo. The Stone Poneys, who began as an acoustic rock band, did not jell as a pure rock act, because the group members were drawn in different directions musically. Ronstadt was more interested in country music, but the others were dubious of that musical style.
The Stone Poneys were booked into the Troubadour in West Hollywood, the "in" club where both rock stars and aspiring artists hung out, mingling with managers and promoters on the lookout for new talent. The band's stint at the "Troub" landed them a contract with Capital Records. In January 1965 the Stone Poneys recorded "Some of Shelley's Blues," their first single, for Capital Records, and the following year they recorded the album The Stone Poneys, which featured three Ronstadt solos. Their second album, Evergreen Volume II (1967), produced the group's only successful single, Ronstadt's rendition of "Different Drum," which had been written by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. The song, a sad ode to lost love and breaking up, became the first of many Ronstadt hits.
By 1968 the song made number thirteen on the Billboard charts. At age twenty-one Ronstadt had her first hit record, but psychologically she was not prepared for success. She was insecure and felt that she was not an accomplished musician, and felt that she suffered from a lack of guidance. The group was constantly on the road opening for other bands and artists, such as the Doors, Alice Cooper, the Mothers of Invention, and Neil Young. With audiences un-sympathetic to the band's style of music, Ronstadt's self-confidence continued to wither. Artistic differences, dissatisfaction with being an opening act for other bands, and low pay of barely $100 per month were all factors in the breakup of the band. Ronstadt recorded another album, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys, and Friends, Volume 3 (1968), backed entirely by studio musicians.
Despite suffering from agonizing stage fright, Rondstadt made her first solo appearance at a popular Los Angeles club, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go. In spite of her shyness she established a rapport with the audience, gradually becoming accustomed to solo performances. She continued to make records for Capitol, such as Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969) and Silk Purse (1970), and she had a hit single, "Long, Long Time," in 1970. This tearjerker about romantic yearning and sadness brought her continuing fame as the singer who taught the baby boomers how to cry. Ronstadt recalled these solo years as bleak: she was constantly on the road opening for other bands, had no continuity in terms of backup musicians, and was taking drugs, including cocaine, to help her deal with her insecurities.
Ronstadt was a paradox: a beautiful, sexy singer with low self-esteem who struggled to find her musical style. Her love affairs often were more publicized than her music. Over the years she was linked romantically to her one-time manager John Boylan; the singer/songwriter John David Souther; the actor/producer Peter Brooks; the comedian Steve Martin; California's governor Jerry Brown, Jr.; and the producer George Lucas. She always maintained, however, that her career was her first love and priority. In 1972 Ronstadt found self-confidence and success with the manager/producer Peter Asher, who knew how to provide an instrumental setting for her voice. In 1973, with Asylum Records, the two released Don't Cry Now, which included the critically acclaimed "Desperado." Ronstadt was on her way to superstardom. In 1974 she had her first platinum album, Heart Like a Wheel. In 1975 she had her first number-one single, "You're No Good."
Ronstadt had been singing since the early 1960s, but in musical terms the 1970s are remembered as Ronstadt's decade. Her next four albums went platinum, selling more than one million copies each, making her one of the biggest rock stars of the era. Her popularity helped bring an end to the male domination of rock and roll, and she used her success to open doors for other female performers and to improve the status of women within the music industry. Although Ronstadt never married, she adopted two children.
In the following years she would go on to change musical directions many times, singing everything from opera to Mexican folk tunes, from Tin Pan Alley favorites to country-and-western songs, from pop tunes to children's lullabies. She has released more than thirty albums in as many years and has earned nine Grammy Awards.
Biographies of Ronstadt include Vivian Claire, Linda Ronstadt (1978); Connie Berman, Linda Ronstadt: An Illustrated Biography (1980); Mark Bego, Linda Ronstadt: It's So Easy (1990); and Melissa Amdur, Hispanics of Achievement, Linda Ronstadt (1993). Her place in the baby boom generation is noted in Joel Makower, Boom! Talkin' About Our Generation (1985). An interview with Ronstadt concerning her song "Long, Long Time" and her Troubadour days is Ron Rosenbaum, "Melancholy Baby," Esquire (10 Oct. 1985). Biographical information and Ronstadt's place in musical history are discussed in Susan Katz, Superwomen of Rock (1978); Mary Ellen Moore, Linda Ronstadt Scrapbook (1978); and Edith and Frank N. Magill, eds., Great Lives from History, American Women Series, vol. 4 (1995). A website with information about Ronstadt and her recording career is <http://www.ronstadtlinda.com>.
Julianne Cicarelli | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 47 | https://tbrnewsmedia.com/tag/ed-blair/ | en | TBR News Media | [
"https://tbrnewsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/tbr_header_logo.jpg",
"https://tbrnewsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/tbr_header_logo.jpg",
"https://tbrnewsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/olivia-newton-john-700x357.jpg",
"https://tbrnewsmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Linda-Ronstadt-225x30... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"TBR Staff",
"Press Release"
] | 2017-11-16T12:09:39+00:00 | en | null | Celebrating the lives of Linda Ronstadt & Olivia Newton-John
By Ed Blair
Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Melbourne, Australia. Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona. “They were polar opposites in fashion style, song content and personality,” said Sal St. George, longtime creator of productions chronicling the lives of popular stars of the past and present. “And yet,” he continued, “Olivia and Linda had very similar beginnings and successes.”
Thus the reason that St. George has paired the two iconic songstresses in a Living History Production titled Tribute: Linda Ronstadt & Olivia Newton-John, a heartwarming holiday show that will run from Nov. 19 through Jan. 10 at the Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center in Stony Brook Village.
“Country, pop, opera, rock, Broadway — they successfully conquered all music genres and became music legends,” he added. The celebration of the lives of the two internationally famous singers focuses on their incredible stories, and audiences will thrill once again to their classic songs.
The show’s motif will be familiar to St. George fans. “The program will follow the same format as in the past,” he explained, “except we have two of the most popular singers of the seventies as our stars. We are in the year 1978. Olivia is riding high with the success of ‘Grease.’ Linda is astounding New York audiences in ‘The Pirates of Penzance.’ Both shows will be discussed in the program, and, along with the songs of the stars, seventies’ fashions will be highlighted.”
Linda Ronstadt’s singing career was quite diversified. Beginning with her work as lead vocalist for the folk-rock group Stone Poneys in the mid-1960s (“Different Drum” scored high on the ratings charts), Ronstadt pursued country, alt-country, country rock, pop rock, Latin and classic jazz genres. Along the way, she put together the band that became the Eagles, won a dozen Grammy Awards and was christened the “Queen of Country Rock.”
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt’s image became just as famous as her music. In 1976, she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone and was also featured on a TIME magazine cover in 1977. She was the top-selling female vocalist of the 1970s and produced a succession of platinum albums on into the ’80s. Ronstadt’s popularity continued into the ’90s, and beyond.
In a 2011 interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Ronstadt announced her retirement and sadly, in August 2013, she revealed to AARP that she was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, saying “I can no longer sing at all.” In an April 2016 interview, Ronstadt is quoted as saying, “I can’t sing anymore. That’s that. I can still sing in my brain but I can’t sing. It’s just the way it is. If you’re going to have Parkinson’s you’d better have a sense of humor.”
Actress Emily Tafur, who portrays Ronstadt in the WMHO production, noted, “I feel challenged and appreciated and honored to be portraying one of the great music legends of our time.”
Olivia Newton-John was known in the UK and Australia for her performances on television and in clubs, but her fame grew further when she came to the United States. Her hit recording “I Honestly Love You” (1974 Record of the Year) garnered a Grammy Award, and more successful albums followed. Newton-John really rocketed to international stardom, however, for her role in the 1978 film “Grease,” in which she co-starred with John Travolta.
Although she received another Grammy in 1981 for her hit, “Let’s Get Physical,” Newton-John’s musical career waned somewhat in the 1980s. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 and underwent a partial mastectomy. She has since donated portions of the proceeds of her appearances to cancer research and has recorded songs she designed to provide hope and courage to cancer patients and their families. Continuing her advocacy, Newton-John organized a charity walk along the Great Wall of China with other cancer survivors to raise funds to build the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne. During the past year, the singer learned that the cancer had returned, and she is currently undergoing treatment.
Cierra Ervin, who portrays Olivia Newton-John, offered these comments: “This is a daunting and exciting experience! To portray such an identifiable entertainer has been a dream come true. We think audiences will have a wonderful holiday experience at the show.”
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center, located at 97P Main St. in Stony Brook Village will present Tribute: Linda Ronstadt and Olivia Newton-John on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 11:30 a.m., and on Sundays at 12:30 p.m. on the following dates: Nov. 19, 25, 26, 29 and 30; Dec. 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20 and 21; and Jan. 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10.
Partially sponsored by the Roosevelt Investment Group, admission is $48 adults, $45 seniors and children under 15 and $40 groups of 20 or more. Performances are followed by a luncheon, tea and dessert. Reservations must be made in advance by calling 631-689-5888. For more information, visit www.wmho.org.
This post was updated Nov. 17 to correct pricing for seniors and children.
By Ed Blair
She was the quintessential “girl next door” — sweet, wholesome and unassuming. She was pretty and perky, had a dazzling smile and looked great in a cute summer dress. In short, she was the ideal, all-American girl every guy wanted to take home to meet his parents.
For many, Debbie Reynolds fit the classic romantic fantasy perfectly, whether she was dancing as an 18-year-old with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), rollicking in “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” (1964), for which she received an Oscar nomination, or crooning her chart-topping 1957 hit “Tammy.”
Reynolds’ daughter, Carrie Fisher, earned her star as another type of princess in her iconic role in the “Star Wars” series. Their relationship, and their coinciding deaths, were headline material that generated wide media attention, and the sometimes contentious interactions between mother and daughter will be a featured in “The Debbie Reynolds Story,” a musical theater tribute being presented at The Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center from May 6 to June 15.
The center has hosted a number of shows orchestrated by St. George Productions, which has brought to life the biographies of stars such as Bob Hope, Patti Page, Mickey Rooney and, most recently, Mary Martin and Dinah Shore. As in the past, presentations will be followed by a luncheon catered by Fratelli’s Italian Eatery and includes tea and dessert.
In a format familiar to audiences who continue to enjoy his live musical theater tributes, director/writer/producer Sal St. George’s latest offering details the life of Debbie Reynolds and her on-again-off-again relationship with her daughter, Carrie Fisher.
Setting the show’s time line, St. George explained, “The year is 1977. Debbie has recently completed ‘Irene’ on Broadway, as well her one-woman show, and is touring with ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’” Reynolds had received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her role in “Irene,” and teenager Carrie Fisher had appeared on stage with her early during the musical’s run. “Carrie, now 20, is still in England promoting ‘Star Wars,’” St. George continued. “Although she is not [portrayed] in our show, Carrie’s relationship with her mother will be a major topic of discussion.”
Indeed, that relationship has been scrutinized and commented upon in the media since the deaths of the two stars became headline stories in December of 2016. Reynolds’ kaleidoscopic career and rags-to-riches road to stardom contrasted sharply with Fisher’s experiences.
Paris Pryor, the actress who portrays Reynolds in The WMHO production, paid tribute to the late star’s achievements, pointing out that, “Although her death is still fresh in our minds, I hope our presentation will be a positive reflection on her rich legacy.”
St. George noted that Lucille Ball, Jimmy Stewart and Rosemary Clooney lived in the same neighborhood as Reynolds, and his production features actress Jordyn Morgan, who portrays Clooney. “It is an honor,” said Morgan, “to be re-creating the life of such a remarkable musical artist. Our production is a salute to two of Hollywood’s greatest icons.”
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center, located at 97P Main St. in Stony Brook Village will present “The Debbie Reynolds Story” on May 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24 (sold out), 25 and 31; June 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14 and 15. Performances are at 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. on Sundays). Admission is $48 adults; seniors (60 and over) and children under 15, $45; and groups of 20 or more $40. Advance reservations are required by calling 631-689-5888.
Created by Ward Melville in 1939 as The Ward Melville Community Fund, The WMHO is a not-for-profit organization founded to maintain and enhance historical and sensitive environmental properties and to develop and foster community enrichment through cultural and educational experiences. To learn more about The WMHO, call 631-751-2244 or visit the website at www.wmho.org.
By Ed Blair
One was a Broadway star who flew as Peter Pan, vowed to “wash that man right out of my hair” in South Pacific, and frolicked with the Von Trapp children in “The Sound of Music.” The other was a sweet southern singer and popular TV hostess who urged viewers to “See the USA in your Chevrolet.”
Audiences will have the opportunity to learn about the lives of two legendary stars while enjoying musical highlights from the iconic ladies’ careers, as The Ward Melville Heritage Organization presents “Holiday Wishes from Mary Martin & Dinah Shore” at its Educational & Cultural Center in Stony Brook Village. Actors will portray the duo in a beautifully decorated seasonal setting through Jan. 11. The event, presented by St. George Living History Productions, is followed by a high-tea luncheon featuring finger sandwiches and delectable desserts.
As a girl, Mary Martin took an early interest in performing. She channeled her creative impulses by teaching dance, opening her own studio in Mineral Wells, Texas. Fate intervened, however, and when her dance studio burned down, Martin decided to leave Texas and take her shot at making it in Hollywood.
After a number of auditions proved fruitless, Martin got her break when she caught the eye of Oscar Hammerstein, who thought her voice could play on Broadway. She became an overnight sensation in her stage debut in 1938, when the 25-year-old won audiences over with her poignant rendition of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” in Cole Porter’s “Leave It to Me!” Martin followed up with a Tony Award for her role in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.” The classic song from the show, “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair,” was actually written at her suggestion, and Martin dutifully washed her hair on stage every night during the run — eight times a week.
The now-famous star added Tony Awards for her performances in the title role in “Peter Pan” and as Maria in “The Sound of Music.” She also starred in “Annie Get Your Gun” and played opposite Robert Preston in “I Do! I Do!” Martin made media history, when, on March 7, 1955, NBC broadcast a live presentation of “Peter Pan.” The musical, with nearly all of the show’s original cast, was the first full-length Broadway production to air on color TV. The show attracted a then-record audience of 65 million viewers, the highest ever up to that time for a single television program. Martin won an Emmy Award for her performance. Mary Martin died in 1990 at the age of 77. There are two stars bearing her name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
As a student at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee native Dinah Shore began her career by performing her own short program on a Nashville radio station. After graduation in 1938, she moved to New York City, where she landed a job as a singer on WNEW. Her career progressed slowly, but she scored a few hits and became more well known during the World War II years, when she traveled with the USO, performing for the troops. “I’ll Walk Alone,” “I Love You for Sentimental Reasons” and “Buttons and Bows” were all major hits that catapulted her to stardom.
Shore appeared in a few films, but she made her impact on television as TV sets became standard features in homes across the nation in the early 1950s. Her variety show made its debut in 1951. It evolved into “The Dinah Shore Chevy Show” in 1956, which became a mainstay through 1963. Shore’s warmth and engaging personality appealed to TV audiences, and she followed her earlier successes by hosting popular talk shows — “Dinah’s Place,” “Dinah!” and “Dinah and Friends.” Along the way, she accumulated 10 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Shore also had a passion for golf. She founded the Colgate/Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle Golf Championship and sponsored the Dinah Shore Classic for a number of years, earning her an honorary membership in the Ladies Professional Golf Association Hall of Fame. Three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honor Dinah Shore, who died in 1994 at the age of 77.
What led writer/director Sal St. George to pair Martin and Shore in his production? “Mary did a special with Noel Coward in 1955, and that inspired me to ponder what a collaboration between her and Dinah would be like,” he explained. “It is a nostalgic part of the Golden Age of television of the 1960s when ‘Specials’ or ‘Spectaculars’ were well produced and had legitimate star quality. This is also Dinah’s 100th birthday year, so we took this opportunity to celebrate her life.”
St. George added, “This is also our 15th year presenting programs for WMHO. We wanted to make this show different and more glamorous than ever before. Consequently, we thought about adding a second celebrity guest. We have never had two high profile women together on the stage. This is the perfect holiday show for the family — great tunes from the Broadway songbook, plenty of good old-fashioned comedy and dazzling costumes — plus an appearance by Peter Pan. Who can ask for more!”
The WMHO Educational & Cultural Center, 97P Main St., Stony Brook will host “Holiday Wishes from Mary Martin & Dinah Shore” through Jan. 11. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows are at 11:30 a.m.; Sunday shows at 12:30 p.m. The high-tea luncheon performance, catered by Crazy Beans, is sponsored in part by the Roosevelt Investment Group Inc. General admission is $50; seniors 60 and over $48; groups of 20 or more $45. Advance reservations are required by calling 631-689-5888. For more information, visit www.wmho.org.
By Ed Blair
“I was a fourteen-year-old-boy for thirty years.” So said screen superstar Mickey Rooney, and his assessment of his career was not far off. To a generation of American moviegoers, the diminutive actor was forever a youngster, first as Mickey McGuire and then as Andy Hardy — both iconic roles in Hollywood’s cast of memorable characters.
Mickey Rooney is the subject of a musical theater tribute taking place from May 4 through June 12 at the Ward Melville Heritage Organization’s Educational & Cultural Center in Stony Brook Village. The Sal St. George production is a celebration of Rooney’s movie career, during which he appeared in over 300 films, as well as his successes in vaudeville, radio, television and on Broadway. His natural gift for acting, singing, dancing, comedy and drama are highlighted in a dynamic presentation featuring delightfully nostalgic songs and rollicking comedy.
Born in Brooklyn in 1920, Joe Yule Jr. first appeared on stage with his parents in a vaudeville act at the age of 17 months. When he was 7, his mother took him to audition for the role of Mickey McGuire in a short film based on the then-popular comic strip, Toonerville Trolley. The film enjoyed wide public appeal and developed into a series. Young Joe adopted the stage name of Mickey Rooney and appeared in the role of Mickey McGuire in 78 of the mini-comedies between 1927 and 1934.
From the time he was 16 until the age of 25, Rooney again appeared in a long-running role, this time as all-American teenager Andy Hardy, a character he portrayed in 16 films from 1937 to 1946. In three films in the series, he was paired with Judy Garland, and the two appeared together in other films as well, notably the musicals “Babes in Arms” (1939), for which Rooney, still a teenager, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, “Strike Up the Band” (1940), “Babes on Broadway” (1941), and “Girl Crazy” (1943). Of his relationship with Garland, Rooney proclaimed, “We weren’t just a team; we were magic.”
Rooney also appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in the classic “National Velvet” (1944) and showcased his dramatic acting ability, playing the role of a delinquent opposite Spencer Tracy in “Boys Town” (1938). Rooney proved to be an enduring star, appearing on Broadway, on television and on the big screen, memorably in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962), and “The Black Stallion” (1979), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His film credits carried well into the twenty-first century.
Rooney’s personal life was as arresting as his stage career. First married to Ava Gardner, he ended up totaling eight marriages, leading him to quip, “I’m the only man in the world with a marriage license made out ‘To Whom It May Concern.’” Mickey Rooney passed away quietly in his sleep at the age of 93 in April of 2014.
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization production follows the familiar format of other St. John presentations. Showgoers play the role of a 1960s television studio audience attending a talk show hosted by actress and long-time “I’ve Got a Secret” panelist Betsy Palmer (Madeline Shaffer), who, along with her domestic, Penny (Sarah Quinn), welcomes guest star Mickey Rooney, who talks about his life and career and also performs.
Daniel Garcia, who portrays Rooney, noted, “Mickey Rooney was the only entertainer/actor who appeared in motion pictures every decade between the 1920s into 2014. He was a masterful and much-beloved entertainer. This will be quite an acting challenge for me.”
The WMHO presents Musical Theatre Performances of “The Mickey Rooney Story” partially sponsored by The Roosevelt Investment Group, at the organization’s Educational & Cultural Center at 97P Main St. in Stony Brook Village. Shows run from May 4 through June 12 on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. and Sundays at 12:30 p.m. Admission is $50, $48 for seniors 60 and over and $45 for groups of 20 or more and includes a high tea luncheon catered by Crazy Beans Restaurant. Advance reservations are required by calling 631-689-5888. For further information, visit www.wmho.org.
By Ed Blair
On August 12, 1819, the Essex, a small but sturdy whaling ship piloted by 29-year-old Captain George Pollard, slipped her moorings and, with a following wind, sailed purposefully from the busy harbor of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Bound for Cape Horn and then on to the warm waters of the Pacific, Essex had a record of several financially successful voyages, and her crew of 20 hoped that their expected two-and-a-half-year expedition would be a profitable one. The whaling was indeed good, and, by November of 1820, Essex, now deep in the expansive South Pacific, was well on its way to completing yet another rewarding voyage. And then the unthinkable happened.
While Captain Pollard and his harpooners were on the hunt in their whaleboats, 23-year-old First Mate Owen Chase, aboard the ship, spotted in the distance a huge sperm whale — 85 feet by his reckoning — facing head-on toward the vessel. After spouting a few times, the leviathan inexplicably charged straight for Essex, smashing into her with what Chase later described as “an appalling and tremendous jar.” Not satisfied, the menacing giant, “as if distracted with rage and fury,” struck again, with devastating results. Essex went down, leaving her horror-struck crew to fend for themselves more than a thousand miles from the nearest land.
If the story strikes a familiar note, it is because the tales told by the Essex survivors were incorporated by author Herman Melville in penning his 1851 classic, “Moby-Dick.” Where Melville’s novel ended, however, the harrowing tale of Essex’s forsaken crew had only begun.
It is their incredible story, chronicled by Nathaniel Philbrick in his best seller “In the Heart of the Sea” (and also by Ron Howard in his newly released film by the same title), that The Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor is currently offering to share with visitors to the museum on Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor.
On Sunday, Dec. 27, and again on Saturday, Jan. 9, the museum will present college student actors who will perform, in full whaler garb, select scenes from the Philbrick book. Staged “in the round” inside an authentic whaleboat, the performance will offer a unique opportunity to gain insight into Long Island’s rich whaling history. The 30-foot whaleboat, built in an 1800s shipyard in Setauket, is fully equipped with its original gear according to Nomi Dayan, the museum’s executive director.
“While the Ron Howard movie may focus more on the whale’s attack, we differ in that we concentrate on how men pushed to their absolute limits were able to prevail,” she explained. Characterizing the local actors’ performance as “extremely professional,” Dayan added, “Our hope is that the interest aroused by the film stimulates an interest in an important part of Long Island’s past.”
The three-month odyssey of the crew members following the wreck of the Essex was one of torment and privation. At the mercy of the elements, they endured storms and starvation, and their desperation to survive eventually drove them to cannibalism. Eight men lived to tell the tale, Captain Pollard and First Mate Chase among them, and it was their rendering of the story that inspired Melville’s “Moby-Dick.”
The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor is located at 279 Main Street. Both performances of the selected readings will start at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a question-and-answer session and include a wine and cheese reception as well as exhibit viewing. Seating is limited to 40 guests for each performance. Tickets, which are $20 per person and $35 per couple, can be reserved online at www.cshwhalingmuseum.org or by calling 631-367-3418.
By Ed Blair
America has always had a love affair with motorcycles. “In a car you’re always in a compartment, and, because you’re used to it, you don’t realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You’re a passive observer, and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle, the frame is gone. You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.” So said Robert Pirsig in his book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.” Dan Aykroyd stated the case more simply: “You do not need a therapist if you own a motorcycle.”
Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, James Dean. Clint Eastwood, Buddy Holly, Peter Fonda. Hijinks from Evel Knieval and Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzerelli. There is no doubt that the motorcycle occupies a unique and intriguing niche in both the national culture and the counterculture, and it is the subject of an absorbing local offering.
Following on the success of last year’s summer exhibit, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization will present The Love Affair with Motorcycles Continues! opening July 11. On view are more than 30 motorcycles, as well as motorcycle memorabilia, artwork and sculptures.
Speakers will be on hand to talk about a number of motorcycle-related topics, and visitors can view an outdoor car showcase in the WMHO Center’s parking lot and also participate in a scavenger hunt. Stony Brook Village restaurants will feature exhibit-related dishes on their menus, such as the Hog Hero, the Harley Hoagie, the BMW Burger, Knucklehead Chili, and the Screamin’ Eagle.
The evolution of the motorcycle can be traced from Mike Wolf’s restored 1912 Indian TT Racer through to a 1975 Ducati 750 Sport from 20th Century Cycles of Oyster Bay. Also on display are bikes from the private collection of Joe Buzzetta, such as his 1977 Moto Guzzi Le Mans 850, and, courtesy of Peter Nettesheim, an unrestored 1928 BMW R52.
Also on view: a 1903 Indian (the only one known to exist), courtesy of Jim Giorgio; a 1955 Pan Head Billy Bike, (Gerry Duff); a 1970 Rupp Mini Bike (Joe Amendolia); a 1975 Norton Commando (Michael Racz); a 1975 FLH Harley (Douglas Johnston); a 1975 Honda Goldwing 1000 (Bill Mabanta); a 1973 Harley “Steampunk” (Copper Mike); and a replica of a motorcycle that appeared in the iconic biker movie “Easy Rider.” Besides getting up-close looks at the Harley Davidsons, Kawasakis, Suzukis, Triumphs, Hondas and other motorcycles, enthusiasts can give vent to their fascination with motorized two-wheelers by checking out the artwork of David Uhl.
Scheduled speakers and their topics are Pete Nettesheim — Restored vs. Unrestored Bikes (Sunday, July 12); John Petsche — Biodiesel Bikes (Saturday, July 18); Steve Linden — History of Motorcycle Brands and Emblems (Saturday, July 25); and Jeffrey James — Music and Motorcycles (Saturday, Aug. 8); and Movies and Motorcycles (Saturday, Aug. 22). All talks begin at 2 p.m.
The Ward Melville Heritage Organization will present America’s Love Affair with the Motorcycle Continues! July 11 through September 7 at its Educational & Cultural Center in Stony Brook Village. The exhibit, partially sponsored by Astoria Bank, is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children under 12. For a full schedule of exhibit events, 631-689-5888, or visit www.stonybrookvillage.com.
By Ed Blair
“I don’t entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I’m me. God knows, I’m me.”
Iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor’s self-appraisal references a life that ranged from the sensation of stardom to the sensationalism of tabloids. She was one of the last superstars of the Hollywood studio tradition, and her life and career, both on and off screen, were a source of entertainment for decades.
Audiences can listen to the legendary actress’ tale as the Ward Melville Heritage Organization presents “The Elizabeth Taylor Story” May 9 through June 17 at its Educational & Cultural Center, 97P Main St., Stony Brook. The popular musical theater and high-tea luncheon series returns to the center with a tribute to the enduring screen idol. The 1963 setting for the St. George Productions finds singer Eydie Gorme (played by Rosie Flore) headlining a musical comedy spring spectacular, with Taylor (portrayed by Lisa Mondy) as the her guest. Along with her faithful domestic, Rosie (played by Kim Dufrenoy), Gorme will talk with her glamorous visitor and delve into the roller coaster ride that marked both a distinguished acting career and an often turbulent personal life. A light lunch of finger sandwiches will follow the show.
The cast members weighed in with their thoughts about the star of the show.
“I think people will walk away with a different perception of Elizabeth Taylor. As she tells her story, you realize that she herself never took her stardom seriously. She felt fabricated by the movie studios, which staged her look as well as with whom she was seen. She never really wanted all the hoopla and drama that went with being a celebrity,” said Dufrenoy.
Added Rosie Flore, “Celebrities and icons are people too. They live, love, laugh and hurt just the way we all do.”
Portraying the former movie idol, Monde said, “Elizabeth Taylor represented glamour. She represented style; she represented Hollywood stardom. At times her personal life overshadowed her screen accomplishments, but in the end, after eight marriages and numerous life-threatening illnesses, Elizabeth Taylor was a survivor.”
Born in London in 1932 to American parents who took their St. Louis art dealership abroad, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor returned with them to the United States at age 7, as the family fled the impending war in Europe. The Taylors resettled in Los Angeles, where a family friend suggested that the arrestingly attractive Elizabeth be given a screen test at a movie studio. Her radiant good looks and charisma captivated the camera lens, and, by the time she was 10, the fledgling actress was appearing in films at Universal, MGM and 20th Century Fox. After playing several small parts, she rocketed to stardom, playing opposite Mickey Rooney, in the 1944 hit “National Velvet.” Now a child star with a contract with MGM, young Elizabeth scored another big success for her role in “Little Women” in 1949.
Blossoming into a voluptuous-figured, violet-eyed beauty as she entered her twenties, Taylor soon found herself playing opposite some of Hollywood’s top leading men. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles in “A Place in the Sun” (1951), “Raintree County” (1957), “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), “Suddenly Last Summer” (1959) and “The Taming of the Shrew” (1967). She garnered two Oscars for her role as a call girl in “BUtterfield 8” (1960) and for her definitive roll as Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 1966.
She also appeared famously in “Giant” with James Dean (1956) and with Richard Burton in “Cleopatra” in 1963 for which she was paid the then-stunning sum of one million dollars. Taylor became an international star and appeared solo on the cover of People Magazine 14 times.
Taylor was a significant voice in the battle against AIDS, helping to raise funds for research and playing a major role in focusing public opinion on the epidemic. For her tireless efforts, she was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001.
“It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS,” she said, “but no one should die of ignorance.”
Performances of “The Elizabeth Taylor Story” will run from May 9 through July 17 and take place on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and select Fridays at 11:30 a.m. and on Sundays at 12:30 p.m. Advance reservations are required. Tickets are $48 general admission, $45 seniors. For more information or to make a reservation, call 631-689-5888 or visit www.wmho.org. | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 32 | https://www.lonesomehighway.com/music-reviews | en | Music Reviews — Lonesome Highway | https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c7a77fe7a1fbd2a5f38fda7/1552223305833-JQKOMAQ45P8S6I4UOWB7/favicon.ico | https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c7a77fe7a1fbd2a5f38fda7/1552223305833-JQKOMAQ45P8S6I4UOWB7/favicon.ico | [
"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c7a77fe7a1fbd2a5f38fda7/1552258315519-FL8J9LM4W9T5GS5ACYKK/LonesomeHighwayWeb_Header2.png?format=1500w",
"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c7a77fe7a1fbd2a5f38fda7/1552258315519-FL8J9LM4W9T5GS5ACYKK/LonesomeHighwayWeb_Header2.png?format=1500w",
"https... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Stephen Averill"
] | 2024-08-19T00:00:00 | en | https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c7a77fe7a1fbd2a5f38fda7/1552223305833-JQKOMAQ45P8S6I4UOWB7/favicon.ico | Lonesome Highway | https://www.lonesomehighway.com/music-reviews | The Whiskey Charmers Streetlights Sweet Apple Pie
The fifth release from Detroit Americana outfit, The Whiskey Charmers, delivers more of their characteristic sound, criscrossing the roots rock and country rock highways, through western deserts and eastern urban landscapes.
Carrie Shepard writes all the songs, plays acoustic guitar and takes lead vocals. There’s a slight fragility in her sweet vocals that lends an attractive vulnerable quality. Her husband, Lawrence Daversa, prefers to express himself through his stellar Telecaster playing, responding to her vocals with eloquence and versatility. They are ably supported by the bass playing of Daniel Ozzie Andrews and the percussion of John Porter. The title track, inspired by a dream sequence, sets the scene of darkness and foreboding, reflected in the cover photo of an eerie urban landscape. There’s Black and Whiskey, It was Made For Drinking are songs of love gone wrong, more than gone right, continuing the downer theme for a while. But then there’s New Song for Sale, a tongue-in-cheek take on the classic country song, using a clever string of clichéd lyrics to great effect. They stray into Handsome Family territory with the equally amusing Little Green Man, where Shepard imagines our world from the view point of a space ship alien. Don’t Mean Nothin’ is the defiant anthem of a disillusioned wife in a dead marriage who is stuck at home with the housework, and I’ll give you one guess as to what she’s going to do when the song is over.
Stand out songs for this reviewer are Black Ridge Cave and Sage Brush. The former is a murder-revenge ballad, with a spaghetti western atmosphere evoked by Daversa’s guitar work and superb bass drum contributions from Porter, while the latter hints at a ghostly western tragedy. Definitely worth checking them out.
Eilís Boland
BJ Baartmans Ghostwriter Continental Europe
Well known in his native Netherlands, where he has been involved in the rock and allied music scenes for 40 years, producer and multi instrumentalist BJ Baartmans has also carved a name for himself throughout Europe as an in demand sideman. As well as releasing a duo album with Iain Matthews during lockdown (as Matthews Baartmans Conspiracy), Baartmans is a member of the current Matthews Southern Comfort line up and has toured with many Americana artists, most notably Suzie Ungerleider, Carter Sampson, David Corley and Eric Devries.
Forty years since his first solo album comes Baartmans latest solo offering, GHOSTWRITER, which he recorded in his own studio, Studio Wild Verband with his band, BJ’s Wild Verband. The album’s title is taken from a line in Someone To Blame, one of the rockier songs on offer here, where anger eventually turns to the realisation that he needs to look at himself. The opening song, The Other Side, is clearly inspired by his recent marriage break up, the anguish evident - ‘I write in here/I hide in here/I cried in here/ I died in here’ - suffused in a gentle piano (courtesy of Mike Roelofs) and electric guitar backdrop. Baartmans himself contributes lead vocals (his voice is reminiscent of the soft hoarse vocal style of Steve Forbert) as well as guitars, mandolin, bass and drums. The main drumming duties are very impressively handled by Sjoerd van Bommel.
Troubled introduces the superb pedal steel of Johan Jansen, in a song about the struggle to communicate with a grown up son when ‘this kid that I see that may look just like me/is a totally different man’. In You Only uses reggae with an edge, expressing self-frustration that evolves into self-exhortation, while Room 242 details a road story, typical in the life of the travelling musician. Baartman’s life long love affair with the guitar is expressed in the Americana-suffused Chasing Dreams, while Old Habits Die Hard uses a country blues palette, piano and pedal steel to the fore, to recount the difficulty in giving up cigarettes. He pays homage to Nick Lowe in the pub rock of Bootleg Companion, and in Solid Ground he’s ‘trying to wrap his head around’ life’s challenges, eventually finding resolution both musically and in reality.
In this deeply personal recording, it’s apt that he closes with a love song, She Just Knows, the pedal steel opening giving way to a laid back groove with soothing backing vocals, presumably inspired by his new love.
Eilís Boland
India Ramey Baptized By The Blaze Mule Kick
The last album from Ramey, SHALLOW GRAVES, was good enough to make our Albums Of The Year and it would seem that this one may surpass that. She has returned with a different set of players and producer this time out. It is overseen by Luke Wooten, a producer, engineer and mixer who has many names and artists to his credit, from Brad Paisley through to Sunny Sweeney. He has also brought in a solid selection of studios players who enhance the album. Names like James Mitchell, Alison Prestwood, Tommy Harden and Scotty Sanders all have an equally impressive track record that allows Ramey to up her game and deliver an album that nudges even closer to a vibrant, entrancing, honky-tonk sound. She has been described as combining elements of Flannery O'Connor and Loretta Lynn as both lyrical and performance touchstones, which is as accurate a comparison of her hard country leanings and southern gothic sensibilities as any, though, in the main, it is the former that is predominant on this album.
The album opens with the declaration to a suitor of having ‘been there, seen that and done that’ that is Ain’t My First Rodeo. Silverado takes a similar route about a one night motel stand, which combines twangy guitar and steel. More self reflective is the easy paced insight of Piece Of My Mind, a place Ramey warns “that gets dark in there sometimes.” Starting out acoustically but building slowly with a deep rumble and a simple tubular bell punctuation, the atmosphere is a rumination on remaining in a particular place on The Mountain. She decides she has been floored in a troubled partnership in Down For The Count and wonders what it might be that sets her free in the end. Again it is twang laden delight. Looking inside oneself after a failed affair, the ability to move on makes her see that It Could Have Been Me. Go On Git is a forthright dismissal of another less than satisfactory liaison, which again draws attention to the deliberations of a woman who is going to go her own way from now on.
The title track is a darker tale of burning down one’s ego and being reborn in the metaphysical flames. It has a powerful vocal delivery over a driving drum beat with some searing steel guitar. She Ain’t Never Coming Home is equally full of lingering sadness about a sister who has disappeared and “no one knows if she was taken or if she ran off on her own, the only things we know for certain is she ain’t never coming home.” Again, Ramey’s impassioned vocal is matched by the convincing arrangement. Making a hard decision is the story of wondering how to escape from a bad situation and in doing so realising that she is Never Going Back, possible redemption from such a situation, though, never sounded so good. That train of thought, which is a thread that runs through the album, is classic country songwriting, the inability to walk a line is part of the ‘let old times be forgotten’ theme in Rotten.
This is an album of which Ramey and all the team involved can be justifiably proud, one that declares she is another contender for her place in that growing number of women who know what they want and know how to get it.
Stephen Rapid
Surrender Hill River Of Tears Blue Betty
Another album from the duo of Robin Dean and Anton Salmon, a husband and wife duo, who have released a succession of albums that are uniformly strong on all fronts from the production, playing and writing point of view. The songs are all written by the pair, with Robin not only handling the production for the album but also mixing the majority of the tracks. The duo have a growing deftness and diversity to their lyrics which also is benefited by their compelling vocals, either in harmony or in one or other taking the lead. Alongside the duo they have stalwart supportive contributions from the likes of Mike Daly on steel guitar and the solid rhythm section of Drew Lawson and Matt Crouse. Keyboard contributions include Eric Fritsch and Kevin Thomas. Mike Waldon adds lead and baritone guitars - just to name some of those involved in what is a prime example of roots rock and country influenced music.
They are independent artists who have depended, to a degree, on sponsors but while this obviously may take time to realise, the final release has given them the time and freedom to make the music they want to make without any unwanted supervision. Again the results deliver over a sixteen song selection, and while that may seem like there may be some material that is not quite as strong as other inclusions, something that is only natural on so many albums, nothing here is a wasted opportunity.
The album opens with the title track which is, itself, one of the strongest cuts here and a perfect introduction to what is on offer. Not all duet-based albums have such an obvious empathy and correlation. The themes are varied but inevitably detail those kind of everyday situations that life in these and antecedent times have tended to throw up. Titles like Rent Is Due detail the demise of the livelihood and future prospects of those seeking to make a living in a small town “when the mill shut down and the train came running through.” It is powered by an effervescent guitar riff that is somewhat at odds with the message. It is often those small moments of togetherness and being able to breathe that are marked out as special as in In Our Time. An alternative of that scenario is detailed in Last Goodbye, in a soaring anthemic delivery.
Palomino references the much missed venue in California, where a singer-songwriter had hoped to find his fortune in that career but in reality he now details his singular misfortune and unrealised path from a barstool in the corner of the venue. Graced with dobro high in the mix, that Kind Of Living tells conversely of an attraction to that life as a freewheeling, footloose, rodeo rider, boxer or, indeed, travelling troubadour, another highlight where everything fits together so well. Also in a more subdued mode is Pining Over You, where the longing for a person is summed up by the realisation that there’s “no you and me.” Leaving a door open for a future continuation, when the time may be right, is the affirmation of You Can Always Call Me.
End Of The Line is of a similar theme to Townes Van Zandts’ If I Needed You, if from a slightly different viewpoint and if not quite as iconic as that song, is none-the-less heartfelt and more uplifting in delivery. The album closes with Angel, The Devil, And Me, a reflection on a life and what might or could be. It is again done with a more restrained backing, until the train mentioned in the song picks up speed and takes one to the end of the line and what may be waiting there. It is a solid finish to what is the best album from Surrender Hill to date and one that underscores the wealth of talent that still exists outside the mainstream, possibly changing, but an always welcoming selection of what is and what could be. The tide is high for this particular duo. Let it wash over you.
Stephen Rapid
Samana Self-Titled The Road
The musical duo of Rebecca Rose and Franklin Mockett describe themselves as multi-disciplinary artists who bring together their passion for poetry, music, film, photography and fine-art, into a singular vision through their various projects. Based in Wales, they have released two previous albums of hauntingly beautiful music and their ethereal sound is best described as an element in the greater swell of creativity being created by modern Roots music with a progressive Folk influence. It is an increasingly popular genre and, if you are looking for a signpost to guide you, then bands like Mazzy Star/Hope Sandoval, Jesse Sykes and Cinder Well may point in a similar direction. Jim Ghedi also explores themes of history and landscape in his music.
Opening track Into the Blue finds reflection in settling with, and recognising, negative emotions and waiting for a window to open beyond the darkness. The following track The Knife shatters the quiet calm by introducing a dramatic shift in the tempo, mid-song, as everything builds to a crescendo in looking at the spectre of loneliness and desiring someone. We Will Find A Way is a song that reaches out to offer consolation and empathy in times of depressive grief ‘The darkness is coming down, I never thought I’d hunt for peace again.’
The song Two Wrongs is a meditation on being in nature and experiencing the canopy of the land and sky from a moving freight train ‘Rivers snake past, East of highway 99, The desert sun and vastness collide, Tehachapi Mountains; gold on every side.’ The sense of movement almost a state of calm in itself.
Seven Years examines feelings of separation from someone who, although now gone, still resonates as a real presence ‘And your love, I carry it with me, Every letter is bound in twine, How can I keep this feeling, When I can’t hold onto time.’ There is a mountain range in Wales called the Preselis and this is the subject of the final, and longest, track on the album. It’s a song that speaks of being alive in nature and in the moment, laying down old fears and sorrows; whatever weighs the body down. Anima is described as the true inner-self and this is part of the swirling melody that wraps the music.
The use of cellos, violins, and horn instruments augment the haunting vocals of Rebecca Rose and the lush arrangements created by multi-instrumentalist Franklin Mockett. Samana is a state of mind as much as an enticing musical experience. The lush instrumentation threads these ten songs with a dreamlike, spiritual presence as the vocals of Rebecca suggest the inner conflicts that we must all face and try to reconcile . Always compelling, this album is another fine example of the quiet power that this duo possess.
Paul McGee
Jubal Lee Young Wild Birds Warble Self Release
These fourteen tracks and a wide variety of musical influences are the introduction to the undoubted musical talents of Jubal Lee Young. He previously released five albums in a creative run that lasted from 2006 until 2014, when his musical journey came to something of a pause along the highway. Now, ten years since that last release, Young has dipped his feet back into the water and pulled out some fine songs from artists that have inspired him over his career. Top of the list is his famous father Steve Young who died in 2016 and was a source of inspiration for so many with his great songs.
Jubal leads off the album with five of his father’s iconic songs, including Seven Bridges Road and Traveling Kind. He follows on with the inclusion of a composition of his own, the poignant Angel With a Broken Heart a song that captures life spent on the road, gigging for a living in a different town every night. The songs shift from the bluegrass influence on White Thrash Song and East Virginia, to the traditional country sound of No Place To Fall, which highlights the powerful vocal of Jubal on this Townes Van Zandt cover that does real justice to the original song.
Elsewhere he plays versions of songs from Warren Zevon (Carmelita), David Olney (Deeper Well and If My Eyes Were Blind), Mickey Newbury (Why You Been Gone So Long?), Utah Phillips (Rock, Salt and Nails), and Richard Dobson (Useful Girl). The cover song choices all work well together in the overall feel of the album but I’m left wondering why Jubal chose to take this particular direction on his return after so many years away from the recording process. His voice is very engaging across the song arrangements and the musicians that gathered to create this music are certainly top drawer with their musicality a real joy throughout.
Jubal Lee Young plays guitar and harmonica in addition to his arresting vocals and he is joined by producer Markus Stadler (dobro, banjo, mandolin, baritone guitar, backing vocals ), Brian Zonn (bass), Charlie Pate (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion), and Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle). The album is really sparked into life by the interplay across this stellar cast and I look forward to more from the pen of Jubal Lee Young when he uses these great songwriters of yesteryear to inspire his own creative muse into increased activity.
Paul McGee
Nichole Wagner Plastic Flowers Self Release
This artist was born in Colorado and after trying various careers like journalism and photography, she ended up at an open mic night in Austin, Texas and the rest is history. It started Wagner on a musical journey that began with an acoustic EP before her debut album AND THE SKY CAUGHT FIRE came along in 2018.
She delivered a further EP in 2020 during Covid lockdown and also spent the time in looking at the years that have passed by. The results are contained in the ten songs on this new album and opening song Monsters deals with fears of childhood replaced by a different kind of ghost in the spectre of domestic abuse. Raised By Wolves looks to a resolve to stand against anything that the world throws in our path ‘We’re born naked and we die alone, I know what it’s like to be on my own.’
Both Everything and Self Defence are songs that try to dissect a broken relationship for what was probably always lurking below the surface and which resulted in lessons learned too late. The title track Plastic Flowers has a telling line ‘ The truth, it seems, is stranger than the lie, Plastic flowers never die.’ The rocking rhythm of A Way With It is a highlight, and the strong arrangement shows the band in creative flow, lifting the emotion of the lyrics ‘Old habits, they die hard, Stay the course, stand your ground, Don't let down your guard.’
I Know Better This Time shows a new face on the love enigma and sees the girl in the picture fighting back against past experience, while on Until the Water Comes there is an acceptance of reality ‘We had the best laid plans, Until everything was swept away, It didn't kill us, or make us stronger, It just left us frail’ – finally time to move on and leave past hurts behind, where they belong. Resolution finds its way into old doubts on Beauty Where You Find It and the hesitation towards commitment ‘Jump on in, the water’s fine, Don’t think about tomorrow, There will never be a perfect time.’
On the final song Road That Jim Built tribute is paid to the memory of a loved one that has passed on and the enduring legacy left behind ‘I’m walking on the road, I see him on the road, The road that Jim built.’ This is a rewarding listen with plenty to enjoy in the music and lyrics of Nichole Wagner. The musicians who played on the songs deliver telling contributions and are very much integral in the overall enjoyment. A songwriter to watch out for, heartache and all …
Paul McGee
Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters The Only Ones That Stay Mule Kick
Unlike her previous recordings, which were standard studio affairs with overdubs, Amanda Anne Platt and her band favoured a different approach for her latest project. Attempting to recreate the vibe of her live shows, THE ONLY ONES THAT STAY was recorded live to tape at co-producer Scott McMicken’s Press-On Shed Studio (Greg Cartwright and Amanda are also co-credited with the production), where Amanda and her four players, crammed into the small studio, recorded and completed the album with minimal overdubbing. Many of the tracks are ‘first takes’,’ not that you would notice, given the quality of the vocals and instrumentation.
An astute songwriter who draws from a deep well of first-hand personal experiences as well as observations, Platt covers both bases on this twelve-track record. Childhood memories of smoky hotel restaurants kick off the album with Mirage. For this writer, it’s confirmation of Platt’s skill set to write and perform the perfect roots song, which is emotion-filled and further enhanced by weeping pedal steel. Equally nostalgic is The Lesson, where Platt’s thoughts are drawn back to a sports bar where she first met members of her current band.
Pocket Song is a gorgeous ballad directed towards Platt’s grandmother during the pandemic (‘So if my arms can no longer reach you and my smile can’t find you where you lay, there’s a pocket in my heart where I’ll always keep you’). As is the case across all the tracks, her crystal-clear vocals fully reflect the songs’ moods and no more so than on Clean Slate. It is also a ‘pandemic song’, with thoughts of those who might not fully recover as the world opens up again. Moving on and acceptance are visited in Saint Angela, and Big Year follows a similar theme of reflection and recognition.
Parallels between Amanda Anne Platt’s output and that of fellow artists Kathleen Edwards and Margo Cilker come to mind. Songs rich in ambition and execution, sparkling vocals, and classy yet straightforward arrangements all add up to one of the best things I’ve heard this year and a career-best for Platt. With twelve tracks on offer and the trend of ever-decreasing attention spans, let’s hope THE ONLY ONES THAT STAY does not get overlooked. So, please don’t take my word for it and investigate it for yourself. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Declan Culliton
Shelby Lynne Consequences For The Crown Monument
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne has been releasing albums, twenty so far and counting, for over three and a half decades since her debut record, SUNRISE, recorded in 1989 when she was twenty-one. Her multifaceted career has included a duet with George Jones, If I Could Bottle This Up when she was barely out of her teens, her blues-influenced classic album, I AM SHELBY LYNNE, her tribute to the late Dusty Springfield, JUST A LITTLE LOVIN' in 2008, and the often-autobiographical REVELATION ROAD in 2012.
Despite her exceptional back catalogue, the industry and possibly Lynne herself never positioned her in one genre. Originally shoehorned into the country market in her early career, which she resented, she has since also been featured in the indie, folk, and rock charts, yet not at the level that her talent richly deserves. Returning to live in Nashville after an absence of almost three decades, her latest album reinforces her genre-hopping approach across its twelve tracks.
A pointer towards Lynne's admiration among her peers was the calibre of the co-writers who jumped at the opportunity to work with her. Those artists included Miranda Lambert, Carter Faith, Jedd Hughes, Karen Fairchild, Ashley Munroe, Meg McRee and Ben Chapman. Co-produced by Lynne with the assistance of Fairchild, Munroe and Gena Johnson, the material was initially written to be recorded by others. But with songs that visit topics that have surfaced frequently in Lynne's work, namely heartbreak, loss and evolution, it soon became apparent to her co-writers that this was a Shelby Lynne album in the making, since very few artists write so well when suffering and recovering from pain as her.
It isn't all gloomy, either. The dreamy keyboards and layered vocals on Butterfly add to the soulful tale of Lynne's devotion to and love of her younger sister, Allison Moorer. More typical of the album's thread is But I Ain't, with call-and-response lines that hark back to bitter rejection and doomed love ('You threw me out with pink flowers and the trash - did you miss me? Rid yourself of obstacles and lit the match - did you miss me?). Shattered captures the mood and grinding reality of despair and vulnerability, with an intro of swirling horns and Over and Over is cut from the same cloth. Also visiting an intimate space is Gone To Bed with a spoken intro that draws the listener into the backstory.
Like many of her recordings, Lynne's latest record is a profoundly personal project. As always, it deals with heaviness of the heart, and together with her adoring co-writers and players, she has once more created something quite lovely here. Welcome back to Nashville, Shelby.
Declan Culliton
The Whiskey Charmers India Ramey Surrender Hill Samana Music Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters Shelby Lynne.
Teni Rane Goldenrod Self Release
This debut album from Chattanooga native Teni Rane runs for thirteen songs and is quite a generous debut in terms of quality and length. The forty-four minutes of contemporary Folk-oriented music drifts along quite seamlessly on a current of sweet melody and the songs have a strong sense of nature running through the themes. The beauty in the surrounding areas of Chattanooga has no doubt influenced the lyrics in part and it is not called “the scenic city” without good reason. The Appalachian mountains and the Tennessee river that frame the city create a balance, and the tug of nature reflects the urge to live in the moment as much as possible.
Whereas change is inevitable in life, the hope that it will bring positive experiences is what drives us to try and control our outcomes, even if this is not always possible. Despite the environment, we are all prone to experience disappointment and feelings of vulnerability. These sentiments are expressed on a number of songs as Rane seeks answers to the big questions of what really defines us and what is important at the end of our daily struggles as we engage the world. It was WB Yeats who said that “Peace comes dropping slow” and there is much introspection on this album that seeks to resolve the conflict of foolish ego and selfless acceptance.
One of the standout songs Here To Stay reflects that ‘I’m not afraid to hold on to my dreams, But man, sometimes it’s hard to own my scars.’ On another highlight, the wistful Cold Wind (Ghost), Rane offers ‘The ghost of my past, I try to be her friend, She’s trying to keep me away from pain; I’m trying to keep me on the mend.’ Another song Small Steps councils to keep moving forward and to trust yourself ‘With all these small steps, they take big courage, I’m learning not to apologise.’ As a code of living, these are sentiments that we can all relate to. Equally Don’t Look Down tackles similar territory and places the focus on self-acceptance.
Nature and the power of it’s beauty is wrapped in songs like Goldenrod and Passerine, with Firefly looking at the fleeting moments that pass too quickly as, for example, a few weeks in summer see the demise of the process of metamorphosis. Another highlight is So Beautiful and the song arrangement has a real edge in the playing and a message to know when to let go ‘Why my need to grasp, For a season that won’t last?’ The cover version of Killing the Blues (Rowland Salley), is sweetly melodic with some lovely cello, but it lacks the poignancy of the definitive version by Chris Smither. Cinnamon reflects upon relationships and exactly who does the leaving; tables can turn in the complexity of feelings and emotion.
There is a very attractive quality to the vocal tone of Teni Rane, not unlike Natalie Merchant in part, and the assembled musicians do full justice to these interesting songs. The players are Teni Rane (vocals, acoustic guitar, guitalele), Dave Eggar (cello, piano), Phil Faconto (various guitars, ukulele), Jonathan Schumaker (bass), and Roger Gustaffson (bass, stell guitar). This is a very rewarding album and one that comes highly recommended.
Paul McGee
Chris Robeson Euphoriphobia Self Release
Austin, Texas is home to Chris Robeson and this debut album has been quite a number of years in the creation. The thirteen songs run for close on forty minutes and the entire listening experience is very rewarding. There are ten co-writes on the album and six of these are shared with Gabriel Rhodes, fellow musician and producer. Gabe is a multi-instrumentalist and also composes for film. There is an obvious synergy between the two artists which comes through in the rich variety on the album and the excellent production.
Robeson writes mainly from a personal perspective and he visits topics such as depression, drug abuse, suicide and the urge to accumulate wealth as a sign of success in these songs. His candour is offset by an inclination to try and laugh at the absurdity of certain life challenges and situations. The circumstances that we find ourselves surrounded by can dictate our responses, we can sink under or we can try and rise above, in order to gain both a new perspective and a way forward that provides solace and strength.
Lonesome harmonica blends into sitar and a slow melody opens the album with I’m Built To Fall Apart, a song that absorbs the blows of daily living and councils on being resolute enough to carry on regardless ‘I'm rolling down the hill, Smiling at my bruises and drinking my fill.’ It’s a message that repeats on other songs and the consideration that melancholy can lead to greater self-awareness is part of Home In the Rain ‘I've got a heart full of love and a fistful of rage, I bury 'em deep till they break like beasts from the cage.’ Facing your fears and weaknesses is the way through to the other side.
Elsewhere, songs like Wanderin’ and A Better Song reference the life of the travelling minstrel and the urge to create music for both survival and personal redemption. Both Fistful Of Cash and Fool’s Gold are reflections on the race for shiny things and material greed. The skewed sense that happiness lies in external pleasures lies at the centre of much misery that pervades our modern times. Feel the Good Things Too is a plea to look for the positive and to not get caught up in negative thinking ‘You gotta turn away from the voices, That say you're not allowed to win, Cuz you prove them right every time you choose to lose.’
Right Back Down visits self doubt along the journey ‘Somewhere through the haze and the waste, There's a dream that I'm trying hard to reach, But all my ghosts keep showing their faces and laughing At who I'm trying to be.’ Everything Goes is about the impermanence of life and all that we experience ‘Yea we're alive for just the moment, And we love for just a moment.’ The song Take Me Too is a reflection on friends that have died by suicide and how fragile this web of life can be ‘Still feel your loving, Still feel the loss, Still telling stories about you like you ain't gone.’ The final song I’m Comin’ Home (If You’d Let Me) is a plea to a higher power and a belief in something beyond this mortal coil ‘And I lay myself down at the end of my history, through the lines of your hands, A lifetime of blessings drawn out for this unworthy man.’
Chris Robeson (acoustic guitar, lead vocals) and Gabriel Rhodes (electric, acoustic guitars, steel guitar, mandolin, sitar, erhu, piano, keyboards, flute, horns, percussion, backing vocals), lead the creative process with great elan and skill. They are joined by Matt Slagle (bass), Josh Flowers (upright bass, strings), Guy Forsyth (harmonica, saw, backing vocals), John Chipman (drums, percussion, foley sounds, backing vocals), Oliver Steck (harmonica, trumpet), Shawn Pander (backing vocals, dog bark) and Ilya Janos Kolozs (percussion). An impressive debut album that really leaves a mark. Highly recommended.
Paul McGee
Helen Rose Rugged Elegance Self Release
Across nine songs and thirty-four minutes this songwriter leaves a very strong musical statement and invites repeated visits to the exciting playing and production on her second release. Helen Rose sings with both attitude and aplomb. Her fine vocal tone jumps out of the songs and King Of This Town has a dynamic delivery with a strong hint of Lucinda Williams, all revved up and ready to roar into your town looking for trouble. The tension in the arrangement is edgy with harmonica, guitar and driving drums delivering a real groove.
The laid back Where Is My Home is in contrast, and the use of strings add to the sweet melody and a wish to feel grounded. Equally, The Drakes, a song about ocean adventure, delivers a reflective vocal and restrained playing in the melody lines. Wolf Tones is a rocker that exudes plenty of soul and angst in the interplay of harmonica and electric guitar motifs, a sense of unease straining at the arrangement throughout. There is a lovely plaintive quality on Demons and the country sound of pedal steel of Greg Leisz wraps the shared vocals of Rose and guest Tyler James Kelly.
The title track is a nice blues romp with superb piano and guitar interplay, while Get Me Out Of This City is a plea to break away from urban living into a rural environment where it’s possible to breathe clean air. Raspberry Plain is a song about finding love while out riding horses on the open plains and the gentle acoustic strum of This Ship has a message of love and for living in the now ‘We are only here for so long… Feel your feet on the ground.’
The album was produced by Jonah Tolchin who also contributes on guitar, and he is joined by Carey Frank on piano, Greg Leitz on lap and pedal steel, Nic Coolidge on bass and Kevin Clifford on drums. String arrangements are by Andrew Jocelyn with backing vocals courtesy of Marley Monroe and Valerie Pinkston. Most worthy of your time and a strong declaration of eve better things to come.
Paul McGee
Orphan Colours King Of Alchemy Wolfmoon
This band formed back in 2016 and was drawn from the embers of other bands such as Ahab and Noah and the Whale. An early EP arrived in 2016 and this was followed by a debut album in 2018, ALL ON RED. Covid lockdown slowed the progress of the band with the result that they took a sabbatical until last year. Steven Llewellyn and Fred Abbott then decided to return to the studio and begin work on this follow up album and the wait has certainly been worth it.
Opening with the rocking groove of Temptress this album announces itself in a flurry of guitar driven rhythm and horns, with soulful backing vocals. The production by Llewellyn and Abbott really shows off the great dynamic in the playing and the rest of the album doesn’t disappoint in any way. Free follows on and has another hard driving beat with the big sound, heightened by Abbott on lead guitar and the earthy vocal tones of Llewellyn. The pace relaxes after this fast-lane introduction to everything and Blame It On the Weather is more a mid-tempo arrangement that looks to impart sage advice to a friend who is feeling low with ‘the curse of circumstance.’
The title track follows and Llewellyn delivers a fine vocal performance, at times reminiscent of Stereophonics Kelly Jones, on a song that speaks of never giving up despite the odds. There is some tasty pedal steel on the sweetly melodic Always Spend the Day Running courtesy of Joe Harvey Whyte (The Hanging Stars), and he appears again to great effect on the next track The Vibe. It’s a song that builds with a slow tempo as it speaks of feeling alive and casting off negative feelings. Another track Brighter Days is a soulful slow burn anthem to days gone by and the memories that they hold.
Sex and Violence turns everything up a notch again on a rocking number with twin guitars ringing out their attack. The horn section kicks in to raise the temperature and the driving drum beat carries the song to a satisfying climax. The mellow acoustics on Wave are in complete contrast, with a song that reflects upon a relationship with superb guitar and piano parts lifting the melody. Radio Heart is another slice of Anglicana with a fine vocal from Llewellyn and acoustic guitar mixing with pedal steel in a stylish swoon.
The final track Let You Go is a co-write with English singer songwriter Beth Rowley and she delivers a memorable co-vocal alongside Llewellyn on a song that charts a relationship challenge ‘I’m a liar and a thief, and what I took I know I can’t replace.’ It’s a fine conclusion to a very strong album and one that has much to recommend it.
Paul McGee
Silas J. Dirge Swan Songs Self Release
This album is more sad, slow and understated music from the man who goes by the (perhaps well chosen) name of Dirge. It is, in truth, the nom de plume of Jan Kooiker, a Netherlands-based gothic-folk singer-songwriter who has just released his third album. These songs deal with those characters whose take on life is often blighted by personal failure, as well as those unfortunate events that can easily occur along those dark highways. Dirge is the primary vocalist and writer and plays guitar and harmonium. Here, he is joined by Harald De Ruiter on guitars and backing vocals, Matt Slobodan on drums, bassist and fiddle player Morganeve Swain, Japp Roo on piano and Justin Zandbergen also add backing vocals. All contribute much to the material without ever getting in the way of the simple directness of the songs, yet vocally and instrumentally, making this album a step forward from the previous two releases.
However, as with a lot of music that has such dark overtones, the resulting songs may be morose but have a slow spiritual awakening that is made very clear by the overall attraction that The Saddest Girl holds. It sounds like a song that immediately seems familiar and memorable. Running From Myself has a wordless vocal refrain that gives it an atmosphere that befits the title of someone trying to distance themselves from their existential existence. The traditional folk sounding Under The Old Oak Tree has a sense of resignation.
Sounding not unlike a ballad of the Civil War, Food For Powder unfolds the fact that names and burial places for the subjects of their song are unlikely to be known after the involvement in an unknown hostility. Again, it makes much use of the vocals being used in a choral arrangement. Looking internally, Best Friends I Ever Had refers to the voices in the protagonist’s head that tell him that he’s not mad! There is more country blues feel to the short instrumental Dust Settling.
More illusionary is Dream In A Dream, where things appear to be not what they seem and again there is a fleeting grasp of reality. The music is sparse with Dirge’s, often alluring, vocal over a fiddle and guitar applying the accompaniment. The album closes with When I Went To Heaven which has an understated gospel feel adding to its etherealness.
The music of Silas J Dirge may be something of a required listening experience in terms of mass appeal, but it is never-the-less, within its own parameters, a rewarding listen with an overall adroitness that will appeal to those drawn to the attraction of its gothic nature and subsequently sparse delivery. It is, as the swan depicted on the cover, delivered with a bare-bones but musically effective context.
Stephen Rapid
Andrew Combs Dream Pictures Loose
Recently, the number of albums produced in home studios is at an all-time high. With the correct equipment, a sound-proofed room, and the proper recording levels, the creation of self-produced home recordings has become affordable for many. For some, it has also resulted in records that have avoided over-production, with the potential to draw the listener into the story within the song without the distraction of the supporting instrumentation. A prime example of this is Nashville-based artist Andrew Combs' latest and sixth album, DREAM PICTURES, which was recorded at his close friend Dom Billett's home studio in East Nashville.
Co-produced by Combs and Billett, they also played all the instruments except for some pedal steel contributions from Spencer Cullum. The album follows a similar pattern to Combs' 2022 release, SUNDAYS, composed by him during the pandemic and while recovering from a personal illness. It also features a more stripped-back sound than on his earlier studio albums, CANYONS OF MY MIND (2017) and IDEAL MIND (2019).
Written late at night when his wife and children were tucked up in bed, the twelve tracks, delivered with whispered vocals and set essentially to minimalistic backings, transport the listener to Comb's inner thoughts of contentment and acceptance. The album draws a comparison, for me, with Paul McCartney's debut record from 1970, McCARTNEY, possibly because of its simplicity and honesty.
Eventide, directed to his wife ('You are my back against the wall, you are my hands when I'm falling'), is a tender and intimate love song, equalled in quality by the thoughtful Your Eyes And Me. Less joyful but similarly notable are The Sea In Me, I'm Fine and Table For Blue, with their emphasis on anguish and isolation. Mary Gold is a simply gorgeous, upbeat, poppy affair with trippy keyboards and swirling pedal steel.
DREAM PICTURES is an exciting gateway into the mind of a hugely masterful songwriter and artist. It plays out like a project that Combs fashioned for himself rather than being market-aware in any way. However, in doing so he has transported the listener into his twilight world with this hypnotic and breathtaking collection of songs.
Declan Culliton
Red Clay Strays Made By These Moments RCA
Nominated as the Emerging Act of the Year at this year's Americana Music Awards, Alabama's Red Clay Strays' career is most certainly on an upward trajectory. The past year has seen them supporting Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, and Old Crow Medicine Show and also making their Grand Ole Opry debut.
Formed in Mobile, Alabama in 2016, the five-piece band is fronted by Brendan Coleman (lead vocals, guitar, keys) alongside Drew Nix (electric guitar, vocals, harmonica), Zach Rishel (electric guitar), Andrew Bishop (bass) and John Hall (drums). MADE BY THESE MOMENTS follows their self-released 2022 album MOMENT OF TRUTH, and was produced by Dave Cobb, with the recording taking place at his Georgia Mae studio in Savannah, Georgia. With the material road tested by their hectic touring schedule and with Cobb's Midas touch, they hardly put a foot wrong on the eleven-track album. There is little original or groundbreaking on offer, simply rock music with a particular Southern sound and well-written material.
What makes Red Clay Strays stand out among the many Southern Rock and Outlaw bands? Well, Coleman's exceptional vocals are great, for starters. He can hit notes, both high and low, well outside most others’ range and has a vocal quiver that compares favourably with that of Chris Robinson. Alongside Coleman's healthy lung capacity, they also write dynamic material that's melodic and contains meaningful lyrics.
The album opens with a couple of rockers, Disaster and Wasting Time, before putting a foot on the brakes with the mournful Wanna Be Loved, evidence that they're equally comfortable with the face-melters as they are with rock ballads. Ramblin' is a cross between Dr Feelgood at their most manic and the full-on blues of Z.Z.Top. That blend of raucous (Devil In My Ear) and sensitive (Drowning, God Does) is deployed significantly across the album.
By exploring the properties of music from bygone eras, Red Clay Strays continue to create their own dynamic with this album. It may not be original, but it’s head and shoulders above the numerous bands following a similar path.
Declan Culliton
49 Winchester Leavin’ This Holler New West
From playing high school shows over a decade ago to more recently supporting Luke Combs in front of twenty thousand people and headlining their own tour, the title of Castlewood, Virginia (pop.2,045) band 49 Winchester’s 2022 album FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE certainly rings true. Taking their name from a street in their small mountain hometown, what started as a group of friends jamming after school has, through hard work and dedication, leapfrogged them to a level where they have been hailed as ‘Country Music’s Buzziest of Buzz Bands’ by Rolling Stone.
Fronted by vocalist and guitar slinger Isaac Gibson, the other band members are Bus Shelton (guitars), Chase Chafin (bass), Noah Patrick (steel guitar), Justin Louthian (drums) and Tim Hall (keys).
Avoiding the often-overloaded and predictable Southern Rock path, the band has built on the promise of their debut album with ten tracks that blend modern soulful country and outlaw. Much of the writing is no-nonsense and thought-provoking, doffing their hats to their small-town heritage and their journey as they spread their wings and make their way in a crowded marketplace. The title track sets out their stall, and Make It Count, with a heartland rock feel and driving rhythm, recalls the ingrained drive and ambition from their humble beginnings. It features a slick guitar break, as does the tongue-in-cheek Hillbilly Happy, which also includes some killer pedal steel by Patrick. Not surprisingly, attraction, infatuation and romantic connections get an airing, with Fast Asleep and Yearnin’ For You ticking those boxes. The former includes input from the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Travelling Band delves into the highs and lows of the highway miles, and the album’s highlight, Tulsa, crackles with energy.
Gibson's unique voice shifts comfortably between the earthy, soulful country songs and the country rockers on LEAVIN’ THE HOLLER. He’s joined by a crew of road-hardened players, firing on all cylinders from start to finish, on a body of work that’s likely to herald the band’s continuing rise in the modern country industry.
Declan Culliton
Amy Annelle The Toll Self-Release
Even if you are not familiar with the work of folk artist Amy Annelle, if you watched the Golden Globe-winning film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, you would have heard her stunning version of Townes Van Zandt’s Buckskin Stallion Blues. Chicago-born Annelle, currently living in Texas, having spent a number of years as a nomadic artist, has previously recorded under her name and also the byname, The Places, and has worked with noted fellow artists Michael Hurley and Bill Callahan.
As the album title suggests, the twelve tracks, though handled delicately, explore challenging themes. Recovering from a lengthy period of illness, Annelle recorded the album at her simple home studio surrounded by friends and fellow artists like Cooper McBean of The Devil Makes Three, who co-produced the album with Annelle and contributed guitars, bass, banjo, and accordion.
The ghosts of bygone times emerge in Pull Tabs and Broken Glass, which features Jolie Holland on harmony vocals, and East Texas Son plays out like an ode to a character from former times. Matters of the heart raise their head on Why Did He Take His Love Away, which speaks of unfaithfulness and abandonment, and I Loved A Lad has a similar narrative of broken dreams. Both have a timeless feel, enhanced by well-paced strings in the mixes. Bleak times experienced by the writer are recalled in Down And Out In Denver, and the illusion of marital bliss is challenged in Common Law Marriage. The title track bookends the album, and the closing lyrics, ‘I have no answer to the questions that burn in the dark night of your soul. I am but a weary traveller, with no coin to pay the toll,’ suggests a ‘work in progress’ rather than complete healing.
With songs that appear to reference periods in the author’s life, Annelle’s writing is timeless, considered, and often captivating. THE TOLL may explore emotionally raw terrain and is not an album to listen to when in a less-than-jovial mood. But with its charming mix of old-school and contemporary folk, it is both a thought-provoking and compelling listen.
Declan Culliton
Jude Shiels One More Last Time Self-Release
The single Peaceful Dreams / A Friend Like You, released in 2017, pointed towards a change in Jude Shiels' musical direction. More known for following in his legendary father, Brush Shiels' footsteps as a rocking and stomping blues man, after two albums in that genre with his band The So-Called, he has revisited his love of roots and traditional country music with this ten-track record.
Heavily influenced by the late Jerry Jeff Walker's self-titled album from 1972, Shiels recruited two of the players that contributed to that album, pedal steel supremo Patterson Barrett (Buddy and Julie Miller, Hal Ketchum, Nanci Griffith) and renowned harmonica player Doc Simons. Both players are in vintage form, supporting Shiels' matter-of-fact lyrics.
Across the ten self-written songs, Shiels delicately handles the standard country themes. Love lost and matters of the heart (Will I Ever Know, Not My Hard Luck Story), tears in your beer (Drinking & Thinking About Having One More), religious intensity (False Idol), and, of course, trains (One Way Ticket) are all addressed.
We at Lonesome Highway have been bewildered that so few Irish artists and bands have joined the growing revival of 'real' country music in recent years. Take a bow, Jude Shiels. Hopefully, you've kicked started a trend, and others will follow.
Declan Culliton
Rainy Eyes Lonesome Highway Royal Potato Family
At Lonesome Highway, we have been drawn to the quality of music being recorded by Scandinavian artists in recent years. Irena Eide (aka Rainy Eyes) is the latest name to add to the growing list of singer-songwriters from that location creating interesting and provocative music, in her case drawn from nomadic and often troubled experiences from childhood. A single mother raised Norwegian-born Eide; her father was a Serbian musician who struggled with addiction and was only a fleeting presence in her childhood. Her childhood love of music, influenced by her uncle, drew her to the music of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Given her unstable childhood, it’s little surprise that Eide sought independence at a young age, leaving Norway in her late teens and moving to Denmark and one year later decamping to San Francisco with a jazz saxophone player whom she fell for. Her time in the Bay Area introduced her to several renowned musicians such as Peter Rowan, Pete Seeger and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, drawing her into old-time folk music. Honing her skills in both folk and bluegrass music, she hosted classes and music camps for young children and recorded her debut folk album, MOON IN THE MIRROR, in 2019.
LONESOME HIGHWAY finds Eide on a more experimental path than on her debut record. The eleven tracks not only embrace her folk leanings but also inject roots, country, and traditional aspects into her music. This diverse musical palette, coupled with the whirlwind and traumatic circumstances that brought the project into being creates an album that is both intriguing and exciting. Eide’s joy of motherhood was contrasted by the breakdown of a marriage that had turned sour, which lead to her fleeing California and relocating in South Louisiana.
Producer and hailed multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell invited Eide into his studio for the recordings, and the album is an honest and unrestrained collection of songs that confront painful experiences, acceptance and rebirth. Powell’s daughters Amelia and Sophie added backing vocals, Chris Stafford played pedal steel, and Eric Adcock was on organ.
The autobiographical Misty Eyes, which opens the album, sets the scene of desolation and isolation (‘Misty mama on the run, breaking out towards that rising sun. Spend the night on a stranger’s floor, dreaming of an open door’). As with many of the tracks where the theme is downbeat, the deliveries are sparkling, drawing the listener into the tales within the songs. The title track is a two-stepping country delight equalled by the ‘tears in your beer’ A Little Dream. Set Me Free is a jaunty blues affair, possibly recalling the writer’s introduction to early Rolling Stones music in her early years. The strikingly evocative I Thought About You is a stripped-back song with only vocals and strummed acoustic guitar.
The album is bookended by Monday’s Gonna Come Around, which plays out like its author looking in a mirror and addressing herself, dusting herself down, and preparing to forge ahead and put the past behind her.
It takes a lot of pluckiness for an artist to open their heart and lay bare their vulnerabilities. In doing so with LONESOME HIGHWAY, Eide has addressed her personal journey and fashioned a lyrically poetic and hugely satisfying album.
Declan Culliton
Maya de Vitry The Only Moment Self-Release
Maya de Vitry, a founding member of the now-defunct The Stray Birds, has evolved significantly as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Her latest album, THE ONLY MOMENT, marks her fourth solo release. After co-producing her last record, VIOLET LIGHT, with Ethan Jodziewicz, she took complete control of the production duties on this ten-track record, showcasing her growth and artistic maturity.
For the past decade, Maya de Vitry has called Nashville home, and it's here that she recorded her latest album at Phantom Studios in Gallatin, Tennessee. She was joined by her studio band, Anthony da Costa (guitar), Ethan Jodziewicz (bass), Alex Wilder (organ), Dominic Billet (drums), and Phoebe Hunt (harmonies). Her music, a blend of alt-country and indie folk, is a unique sound that is showcased in this latest release, featuring some of her most robust material to date.
Some Rent and Burning Building particularly impress. Slightly more left of centre with De Vitry abandoning her comfort zone, the former’s driving rhythm and woozy guitar captivate. With an unrushed vocal delivery and stirring backing vocals, the latter is also raised to another level by fine electric guitar work. Compass enters quintessential Richard Thompson territory, and opener Nothing Else Matters, co-written with Phoebe Hunt, is a lyrically poetic and classic textbook folk ballad. Minimalist tracks I’m Not Going Anywhere and Watching The Whole Sky Change are typical de Vitry evocative compositions.
Maya de Vitry's musical journey began in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she was born into a musical family. Her path has taken her from playing on street corners to bars, then festivals with The Stray Birds, to her current station as an accomplished singer-songwriter. It's a testament to her skill in creating intimate songs that are fuelled by self-examination and astute questioning. With this album, de Vitry solidifies her status as an artist with endless potential and whose rising star is well deserved.
Declan Culliton
Michael Waugh Beauty and Truth Compass Bros
With four prior albums to his name this Australian singer songwriter has been developing a career that started with a debut release in 2016. He grew up in the beautiful countryside of Gippsland, Victoria and his formative years were something of a challenging time. Having won the Golden Guitar award presented by the Country Music Association of Australia in 2022, Waugh came out as being a gay man and spoke openly about the homophobia he had suffered as a young person. It shaped his growth into adulthood and also played a role in the fact that Waugh decided to follow expected norms and he married into a conventional relationship with a woman and they had a son together.
Waugh works as an English and drama teacher and having reached a decision that he couldn’t hide his true nature any longer, he declared his true sexual leanings in order to eventually face the ghosts of his youth that had led to shame and self-hatred at various intervals. Waugh lost both his parents in 2020 and his brother a year later, prompting him to now live very much in the moment and to embrace the days that we are given. Music is all about making connection and across the eleven songs included on this new album Michael Waugh certainly succeeds in bringing the listener on a journey that unveils lots to enjoy.
Fellow musician Shane Nicholson produced the album and he has worked with Michael Waugh on all his albums to date. Other players on the album in addition to both Waugh and Shane Nicholson (bass, piano, organ, Wurlitzer, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, baritone guitar, lap steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, bouzouki, percussion, backing vocals), include Ollie Thorpe (guitars, pedal steel and backing vocals) and James Gizzard (bass), along with Ali Foster (drums, percussion, backing vocals) with Jen Mize and the Rosylns (backing vocals).
The album opens with a strong statement on behalf of the gay community and We Are Here namechecks a number of iconic gay men who have established celebrity in particular fields over the centuries, from James Baldwin and Oscar Wilde, to Alan Turing, Harvey Milk and Allen Ginsberg. Fix Me is a song that references the experiences of gay men in dealing with confused signals surrounding sexuality and the lyrics reflect this ‘But you can’t fix me, I’m not broken, I’m the way I’m meant to be.’ It is a defining moment for Waugh in his brave decision to come out and suffer the slings and arrows of public reaction.
The title song Beauty and Truth is very much in confessional mode and sent out to his wife in trying to address the hurt caused ‘ Too young to be a father, Unfit to be a husband, Too stunted by the world to be full grown, And in my stupid youthfulness, I tried my very best to fill those roles.’ By way of apology he asks that ‘I hope that you find the love that I could not give to you, I hope you find beauty and truth.’
Another deeply personal song is Father’s Day and it tracks the emotions of an estranged parent who has limited access to a child he loves ‘What I wouldn’t give to hear your voice again, Even in another screaming fight, Silence reminds me of things I regret, And words said in anger and spite.’ The trio of songs Out, Playlist and Moved are in celebration of the new love that Waugh has found and his desire to shout out his happiness for all to hear. Wanting to let go of past hurts and also sharing favourite songs on a playlist that keep a closeness with someone when they are not with you, ‘When my mind was fixed, When my life was stuck, Look at how you moved me.’
The track that highlights the empathy in Michael Waugh is Songs About Women where he gives vent to the way in which women are put down by ignorance and misogyny in society ‘Don’t give some bastard an anthem and let him think we understand, I don’t want another song about another woman hurt by a man.’ On Patsy Cline we have a tribute to the country legend in addition to mention of Tammy Wynette, both of whom have made an impression on the singer. He wrestles within a relationship where the differences can best be highlighted by the lyrics ‘And it’s fatally flawed ‘cause you don’t even know who Patsy Cline is, But is it that you like to dance and I like my heart broken?’
The final song is To Be Alive and is a celebration of being able to celebrate the moment, having fun and striking out for the golden fleece. Michael Waugh has a very warm vocal tone and these songs certainly resonate. An album that bring plenty of pleasure in the great production, even if there is quite a lot of pain threaded through these interesting songs.
Paul McGee
The Gringo Pistoleros The Rise and…subsequent Fall of the Texas Alien Self Release
If Texas swing and a traditional honky tonk sound are your preferences then this album is tailor-made for you. With tracks like One Step Further and I’ll Walk the Line (for your Hoochie Coo) jumping out of the speakers, it’s not hard to love what going on among this band of troubadours.
As a once-off project the combined talents of Lazarus Nichols and Cory Grinder came together with fellow musicians to record at Signal Hill Studios in Austin. Over a period of just one week they laid down these ten songs and the entire process was overseen by co-producers Patrick Herzfeld and Larry Wilson. Three of the songs are cover versions, with the classic That’s How I Got To Memphis (Tom T Hall) making an appearance, alongside Dire Wolf (Garcia/Hunter) and the traditional classic Crawdad Song. There is a more measured pace to country songs like I Can Still Remember When and Time Bomb with the assembled musicians clearly enjoying the spirit of the occasion and laying down this spontaneous music.
Lazarus Nichols wrote the seven songs that sit alongside the cover versions and Cory Grinder (guitar, piano, fiddle, vocals) brought his Playboy Scout swing band members Bee Roberts (drums), Stephen “Tebbs” Karney (pedal steel, vocals), Alexander Buchanon (bass). They are joined by Michael O’Connor, Oliver Steck, Joe Faulhaber, Larry Wilson and Austin Stambaugh on various instruments. Vocal duties are shared across the songs and highlights include a down and dirty blues sound on The Cat Came Back and the classic country sound of High Mileage Heart with a shifting tempo and the pedal steel and piano floating around the melody – I can almost hear the spirit of Willie in the backing vocals.
Will the Gringo Pistoleros consider another rendezvous and declare a statement of intent to carry on? This is anybody’s guess but there is so much to enjoy here, created over such a short time-frame, that the answer should be a resounding YES!
Paul McGee
Mark Brown Happy Hour Self Release
Ulster County, New York is home to this interesting singer songwriter and his biography is one that would make you want to take notice of his music and his words of hard earned experience. Mark has at various intervals worked as a mechanic, a commercial fisherman, a carpenter and a farmer. His road has been filled with interesting encounters along the way and these inform his songwriting, as can only be expected. This is his third album release and he previously performed in the band Uncle Buckle.
There are a number of quirky moments on the album and at just 38 minutes, the fourteen songs don’t overstay their welcome, making the listening experience very enjoyable. Scratch asks the question and answers it by listing a series of places where people stop, to take a moment and .. scratch! An interesting choice to open the album and there is a distinct nod to Stan Ridgeway on the song Davenport with fine backing harmonies and a song about just lounging in the yard on a large sofa. Inertia celebrates the fine art of idleness and the urge to do nothing in the face of mounting chores and tasks. The fun of Happy Hour is paired with some mean guitar licks as the craziness of family life plays out. The calypso groove of Gasoline Hands is addictive, with a deep bass line, jazzy percussion and female chorus line.
The songs Long Time, Broken Glass and God Bless Me Jesus have a nice Country influence in the arrangements, and the final track The Unanswered Prayer is a nice acoustic coda to a very engaging album that throws up many surprises. Mark Brown wrote all the songs and delivers on lead vocals and guitar. He is joined by Ken McGloin (guitar), Mark Murphy (bass), Dean Sharp (drums), Dean Jones (banjo, keyboards, vocals), Dakota Holden (pedal steel), Katie Mullins (vocals). Both Jones and McGloin handled the production duties and the results are very rewarding.
Paul McGee
Billy Eli Lace Self Release
This is another solid country album produced by Ed Tree at his Californian Treehouse Studio. It features a fine coterie of West Coast musicians, including bassist Taras Prodaniuk, Dale Daniels on drums, pedal steel players Kevin Maul (in the main), Jim Hemphill's additional guitars, and Jaycee Maness. Teresa James adds harmony vocals, and Ed Tree covers almost everything else. One track, All Day, features another stalwart of the scene, who has also recently released a Tree-produced album, Davis Serby.
Eli naturally handles all the lead vocals with the confidence and assurance of an artist who has been around the block a time or two. He has a knack for writing (or co-writing) a melody that translates to tracks and immediately becomes memorable. The opening two tracks fit this overview, with Trying To Drown and You're The Wine being graced by guitar riffs that are both effective. Both are slices of the everyday - dealing with the day-to-day and looking at the love there is in good company rather than in simply an alcoholic intake. That theme of seeking solace or empathy follows in songs like Hey Maria, Here's To You, it appears, to these ears at least.
The pastime of consumption, though in very different contexts, is a thread that runs through the titles Drinking To The Angels, Anejo Nights and Wine In The Desert. All Day features what might be the most unlikely sound in a country of song, and that is the electric sitar, which is highly effective in adding a different sonic tack. Spending the day in a place that was an unexpected and unwanted stop in a schedule is the subject of Getting Out Of Denver with its tale of being snowbound in that city's airport for an extended period so that "the airport bar is starting to feel like home" and the realisation that he has "got 20 more hours to go as the runway is covered up in snow."
The album's ten song inclusions show that Eli is comfortable in his skin and, in his own way, a part of the legacy that has been central to West Coast country for quite some time from the likes of Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam through to some of the new, younger artist emerging. Eli sits somewhere between by delivering his take on that sound, which he denotes as Americana, that is not about breaking down barriers but more about following a personal mission to bring his songs to the best place he can. He succeeds with that under the helm of Tree and the other musicians involved.
The warm tones of Eli's vocals help make this an easy listen without ever becoming 'easy listening.' It sits easily alongside previous Eli albums without any radical change in direction and shows his growth and maturity as a singer/songwriter who has woven all his attributes into something worthy of your consideration.
Stephen Rapid
Charlie Overbey In Good Company Lone Hawk
Following his previous E.P. and album, this new set of songs is aptly titled as it features a host of guest players joining him on various tracks. Many of these friends contribute not only as vocalists but also as players. The vocal performances come from Jamie Wyatt, Eddie Spaghetti, Sarah Gayle Meech, Courtney Santana and Nils Lofgren, who also adds his guitar skills to the track he guests on. Other six-string guitar slingers include Charlie Starr, Chris Masterson, Stuart Mathis, Danny B Harvey and Duane Betts. In one song, Jon Graboff adds pedal steel, while Rami Jaffee adds a variety of keyboards. These artists, alongside the many other contributions from the committed crew, were under the captainship of Californian Charlie Overbey. As the opening song denotes ("I'm a punk rock spy in the house of the honky tonk heaven … but punk and honky go together"), this is an album with as much rock' n' roll in its bloodstream as that of underlying country influences. Undoubtedly influenced by the time when Overbey was a member of an L.A. cow-punk band, Custom Made Scare, from around the 2000s, who were a big part of that scene back then.
The ten songs explore that premise of rock' n' swagger. The music leans more towards the kind of Stones-ish sense of country influences rather than anything more traditional country. The themes also play this out with tracks such as Champagne, Cocaine, Cadillacs and Cash, Life of Rock & Roll and Punk Rock Spy. The guitars rock and the keyboards swirl over the solid bass and drum foundation, which drives things along nicely with moments of Southern rock, outlaw country making themselves felt. Somewhat more heartland in tone is The Innocence, which has guitar and vocals from Nils Lofgren, a musician who himself had been at the centre of that genre in the past.
But there are moments of quieter reflection, such as Dear Captain, which features some integral soulful harmony vocals from Sarah Gayle and Lori Ottino and some subtle guitar for Johnny Stachella. That rock and soul influence carries over to Let Me Love You with guest Jimmy Vivino and keyboards, guitar and call and response backing vocals. The whole thing is a passage through life, and life pretty much in the company of the ups and downs that accrue along its highways. Other moments are more straight-up twangs, with Miss Me utilising Graboff's steel guitar with piano and, again, the vocals of Sarah Gayle Meech. This is followed by another solidly twang-laden reminisce in Two Minute Marvin, about a man who is less than worthy of the woman who should be with him; it features Danny B Harvey on guitars.
There is more than one string to Overby's bow, as he is also a renowned and sought-after hat maker for the stars of both movies and music. This is just another tangent of a long and doubtless hard enough journey to where he is now and the reason that his creative path has been his own.
However, it is Overbey who is at the heart of these recordings; even in good company, he is the main man who not only produced, wrote, and played acoustic guitar and drums but also added a believable, gritty, and upfront vocal to each track, which has that level of authenticity that is essential for good listening in whatever company you may be in.
Stephen Rapid
Matt Castillo Pushing Borders Texace
Matt Castillo has a signature sound and a recognisable voice, making this new release something to take notice of. With real bite, beat and ambition the album will only help define how traditional country has its place in the marketplace. It has got the right elements of 90s country down to a tee. It helps, of course, that the man at the helm here, Roger Brown, both as producer and co-writer of many of the songs with Castillo, is an artist himself, an award-winning songwriter, and a producer with a vast experience of numerous Americana formats but also with a definite understanding of how to make a record that sounds as good as it does. Of course, Castillo himself adds his own stamp and definition with a blend of his Texas upbringing and his border lineage, which features accordion and some Spanish as vital and standout ingredients. There are immediate reminders in this sound blend of similar tracks by Dwight Yoakam and Rick Trevino - an artist later produced by the equally like-minded Mavericks' leader Raul Malo.
This album, though, stands on its own strengths with track after track sounding like a possible single - not something that you can really say about every new album. The themes cover the tribulations of the working man (Working For The Man), the contrast between hoping a relationship will flourish and for rain to fall (If It Rains Today) and, of course, songs dealing with all aspects of love, be it lost, found or continued. Almost, Got Get Her, wherein he wonders if he's such a go-getter why didn't he get her. Trail Of Love, Mañana Blues , and I'm Hurting all continue his upbeat tales of woe.
Castillo has understandable energy given his relative age and an overview that seems beyond his years with his fulsome vocal efficaciousness. This may be because he has partnered with veteran co-writers such as Brown, Byron Hill and Tommy Connors. Particular mention is also warranted to the players here, especially the accordion contributions of Michael Rojas and Jeff Taylor, the lead guitar of James Mitchell and Eddy Dunlap's pedal steel. That assembled team is a major part of the album's success. It is a prime example of all aspects of the project being complementary. This extends to the album cover, which is equally considered and shows that the whole release was been given the attention it deserved to bring it to another level.
With two full albums and an EP under his belt, Castillo can use this base to further build his career. He is currently an independent artist who has expanded his horizons, as befits the album title. This may well be part of why his sound is as it is today, and even if that changes when the possibility of a major label signing arises, it will expectantly mean not so much a change of direction as the option to court a wider audience while, if anything, solidifying his strong traditional roots.
For me, this is another contender for one of the best albums released so far this year, placed alongside the likes of the new albums from George Ducas and Jesse Daniel, also in that category. If you hanker for the drive and distinctiveness of the best of the music that emerged in the mainstream in the 90s, then this is a release that should be sought out and savoured.
Stephen Rapid
Jude Shiels, Rainy Eyes, Maya de Vitry, Michael Waugh, The Grng0 Pistoleros, Mark Brown (Uncle Buckle), Billy Eli (The UnExplainable Billy Eli & The Amazing Spooklights), Charlie Overbey Music, and Matt Castillo Music
Darin & Brooke Aldridge Talk Of The Town Billy Blue
North Carolina’s much loved bluegrass and Americana duo, Darin & Brooke Aldridge have returned with their tenth studio album and their best yet. They are a match made in heaven: Darin with his pedigree in bluegrass (starting off as a young instrumentalist in Acoustic Syndicate, followed by joining The Country Gentlemen) and his songwriting and production skills, and Brooke as fourtime IBMA Vocalist of the Year with her background in gospel and country. Her instrument is her voice, and she approaches Emmylou’s pedigree with her crystal clear tone and reach. Not surprising then that they chose the Desert Rose Band’s Price I Pay as the opening track, one that has, of course, been covered by Emmylou since her Nash Ramblers days. Not only that, but they called in old friend and guitar whizz John Jorgenson to help out on vocals and lead guitar. That opening song also gives the album its title and Brooke says that it resonates with her because it reflects exactly how she felt when she initially started dating Darin when she was at college and he was away for extended periods of time touring.
Although honouring the deep roots of the bluegrass tradition, the couple have always been influenced by country, gospel, folk and West Coast rock, and Brooke is quoted as saying that they ‘decided to really do that this time and not be bound down to one thing … to just be us’. Four of the songs are self-penned and the remaining eight are a selection of well chosen new and old classics from across those genres. The stand out gospel song of the three has to be Lori McKenna’s Jordan, where they’re joined by Mo Pitney on vocals and Ricky Skaggs on mandolin and vocals (check out the video). The self-penned Same Old New Love is an instant ear worm, as is another love song, Here We Are, from the pen of Beth Nielsen Chapman and Vince Gill. The latter also guests on vocals on A Million Memories, his moving tribute to the much missed fiddler, Byron Berline, who passed away in 2021.
Hank Snow’s classic country heartbreaker, A Fool Such As I, is simply gorgeous, with Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Mark Fain (who also co-produced with Darin) on acoustic bass, Brent Rader’s keys and Eddie Dunlap’s pedal steel. They are also joined on various tracks by the cream of bluegrass musicians, including Matt Menefee, Cody Kilby, Samantha Snyder, Jacob Metz and Lynn Williams.
Already a contender for my album of the year, I urge you to seek it out.
Eilís Boland
Jack Garton Original Skin Demon Squadron
I love it when an album defies category and that all-too-common need to try and squeeze the creative talent of the artist into some definable box. Before the onset of large record labels and their desire to market ‘product’ to an unsuspecting public, there was the timeless creative energy that fuses all music together into a creative whole, with no categorization, and where the joy of the song was more than enough.
Well, this album will certainly give the listener plenty of food for thought as the fourteen tracks visit many different genres as they weave their way into your consciousness across an hour of eclectic music. The PR sheet describes the music as both Folk and Roots and there are indeed such influences at play. However the essence of the album is in the willingness to push the creative process into new areas and to try and make something that is of lasting value. Jack Garton is known in his native Canada as a musician who has collaborated with groups such as Viper Central and Petunia and the Vipers, among others, over a long career. He has released two prior solo albums, with the last appearing pre-Covid, in 2018. This album is like a dear-diary entry, as it traces the journey taken over the years of gigging, living on the road, meeting all sorts of characters and being given time to reflect upon the life lived and the memories that linger.
You will be hooked from the opening song Watching Kurosawa and a hugely enjoyable peek into the life of a night shift security guard, and movie freak, who keeps crushing boredom at bay by replacing the security monitor tape with favourite films to watch. Making the mundane bearable through such tiny victories in rebellion – pure songwriting genius... ‘I'm working hard, hardly working, my boss here is a jerk’ - the graveyard shift has never felt so attractive.
Garton plays a whole range of instruments and is mostly known for his prowess on accordion and trumpet. Both feature regularly along with an array of other instruments from the studio musicians who recorded mostly in a live studio setting for that sense of spontaneity and to capture that special chemistry. Noah Walker (electric and acoustic guitar, musical cartography), Jodie Ponto (drums, percussion, backup vocals, album photography), Steven Charles (upright and electric bass, piano, baritone guitar, backup vocals), Corwin Fox (banjo, backup vocals, emotional support), all play key roles throughout the songs and Garton contributes on lead vocals, accordion, trumpet, Rhodes, organ, piano, classical and acoustic guitars, mellophone, secret reeds. There are additional vocals by Ashley Robyn and Carolyn Mark that also add great colour to the song arrangements.
Coming Back To Life Again is a song about the onset of Spring and the optimism of new beginnings amid a happy sound with an uplifting melody. There is a doo-wop vibe on Decoy Love while the Cajun groove on Good Times echoes an Elvis Costello vocal in tone, with a cool piano motif. Christina is all horns and keyboard swells while the playful Western Shirt has a pure Country sound and a cool delivery.
Rock n’ Roll on Berkeley In the Springtime surfaces with a great backbeat and rhythmic bass fills. The slow blues on I Can’t Trust My Heart Anymore turns into a Rockabilly celebration on Hey Grandad and another great groove. Things become somewhat reflective on The Real Thing and the stripped down piano reflects that ‘Sometimes the real thing is the same as the dream.’ Surf rock mixes it up with a Tex-Mex dynamic on the instrumental Stovetop Coffee which features plenty of Link Wray guitar attack.
Where the Mystery Is has a nice tempo and an acoustic feel as the writer looks back to capture old memories, and that youthful reminiscence continues on the final song The Field, a real Magnum Opus that clocks in at thirteen minutes of spoken vocal and a chorus that looks at old neighbourhood and school memories where lots of old ghosts are lurking in the environment ‘Meet me out at the field, we’ll try our bodies on for size, and we’ll see what gets revealed, under the light of open skies.’ If you can bottle childhood rites of passage, then this song does it’s best to cover growing up, feelings of attraction towards the opposite sex, football games, classroom fights and standoffs, gym class, locker rooms and the drama of the schoolyard, all captured with acoustic guitars, banjo picking and sweet harmony vocals. It’s the perfect end to a very impressive album and one that will bring many hours of pleasure. Highly recommended.
Paul McGee
Bobbo Byrnes Self-Titled Self Release
Growing up just north of the Boston, in the state of Massachusetts Bobbo was fond of reading the novels and poetry of Jack Kerouac. The words of the beat generation pioneer would instil a sense of adventure into any impressionable youth, but the difference with Bobbo Byrnes is that he acted upon his growing sense of inquiry and he took his wanderlust onto American highways in search of his dreams. Relocating to California, Bobbo lived the life of the roving troubadour and played in various collaborations over the years. His musical skills became quite honed during his time with The Fallen Stars (four studio albums, a few Eps and a live recording) and then, with Riddle and the Stars (two albums).
Jump forward to 2017 and the release of a debut album as a solo artist; a move that saw Bobbo speed into the distance with a strong work ethic, and no little talent, as he continued his musical adventures. Now, some six solo albums later, Bobbo has decided to release a self-titled album and the results are hugely enjoyable. If you liken a journey in music to a winding road of no fixed destination, sprinkled with plenty of interesting stops along the way, then Bobbo has seen it all over years of gigging across the USA and Europe. His sound is certainly what we describe these days as Americana with his leanings more towards the Rock side of that broad category. Put simply, he just makes great music.
The album opens with the rocking rhythm and inventive guitar of Around Here, a song about having to leave the local scene of his youth in order to develop and grow. The next track I Cannot Say follows in a similar vein with jangling guitar and a strong melody line that echoes thoughts of addiction and character traits that are best kept monitored and under control. He is such a fine guitar player and the band are really tight in the dynamic delivery. Bobbo plays various guitars, mandolin, organ, pedal steel, piano and takes lead vocals throughout. He is joined by his wife Tracy Byrnes (vocals, bass), Matt Froehlich (vocals, drums), with Brian Matteson and Ben Riddle (backing vocals) and Allen Morris guesting on bass for one song, completing the line-up.
Plain Street slows things in tempo with a nicely spaced arrangement and thoughts of nocturnal activities. Too Many Miles is a standout song with a slow pulse in the backbeat and nice organ sounds to augment the winsome vocal of Bobbo. It deals with relationship issues and the too-often breakdown of real communication; again, some stellar guitar licks here to enjoy. Bad Decisions is another rocker with attitude and aims towards the urge of letting it all go ‘I want to make some bad decisions, come on let’s get a tattoo.’ The tempo changes up a gear during the song and delivers an interesting work-out that creates a fine energy.
Some Salvation is a country influenced song arrangement with warm organ sound and great harmony vocals. Glad and Sorry is a standout with a hypnotic guitar riff that lingers, and again, memorable harmony backup. The final two songs use pedal steel to great atmospheric effect and the lengthy Chance is a real tour de force. Bobbo double tracks his guitar sound and the layering really enhances the enjoyment of the album; all bright and celebratory in the excellent production. In terms of a back catalogue there is no disputing the consistency and real quality on offer from this impressive singer songwriter. He should be on everybody’s radar that seeks to purchase music of enduring quality and excellence.
Paul McGee
Luther Black and the Cold Hard Facts Let The Light Back In Self Release
A fine, understated album that largely stays with the low-key unhurried arrangements of some finely balanced songs. The band is fronted by writer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Rick Wagner. The album sets out its stall with the opening Tom Petty song, Room At The Top, a sad reflection on isolation which immediately brought to mind the latter day work of Elliot Murphy (as mentioned in a previous review) as well of its author. That world-falling-apart awareness is a frequent theme, one that is enhanced by the similar tone of his vocals that have enough gravel to indicate a real understanding of life, love and loss. Also covered is the soul classic That’s How Strong My Love Is which has its own soulful qualities without trying to be a carbon copy, but rather a rendition with a similar feeling and an incisive spirit.
Picking up the tempo and the wish to attempt to give it one more shot is the place that Ain’t Nothing Good About Goodbye takes us to. It has the assembled band of Wagner, drummer Jonathan Kampner, and additional slide and lap steel guitar from Lance Doss. Matt Wissler adds occasional mandolin and Brandi Thompson brings her background vocals to Black And Blue. However it is Wagner front and centre as producer, musician, writer and vocalist. This is indisputably his baby, under the Luther Black headline banner.
The sense of traveling a difficult path is alluded to with mentions of “highway of regret” and the “long and lonesome road.” Ain’t Nothing Good About Goodbye tries to foster a mood of reconciliation to get back on track and give it one more try. It is rendered with a more full on band sound that feels more heartland rock than anything. The gentler and moodier approach is taken for Lost In The Rye, with the lap steel adding a sense of the feeling of loss. The grittiness in the vocal mirrors the regret that is that nothing ache like a memory; one that is not only for people, once a part of a person’s life, but also of music and places that have become, with the metaphor of location again, like Ghosts On The Boulevard. The ominous siren that opens in the background of Black And Blue offers a dark indication in a tale of racism and harsh realism. Wagner’s delivery is more spoken than shouted and more telling for that approach.
Acoustic guitar and drum beat open the plea that is Let The Light Back In, which asks for some faith in human nature. Understated and effective. The Rest Of My Days is listed as a live version but it is again performed with a quiet subtly that makes it seem to be a live in the studio take rather than a venue recording. There is a sense of completing a full circle with the stripped back acoustic guitar, harmonica and voice of Coming Home, a realisation that the time has finally come to make that, often difficult, decision to take the road back to where you started out from.
All of the Luther Black and The Cold Hard Facts releases have delivered on different levels without really ever troubling the mainstream or media heights, yet Wagner continues to deliver his own personal take on life, love with a musical direction to fit an individual persona to light his path.
Stephen Rapid
Karen Jonas The Rise And Fall Of American Kitsch Self Release
There is an obvious energy in the recording of the songs in this the latest album (her seventh) from Karen Jonas, which may be because it was recorded live in the studio. Jonas declares herself a lover of vintage kitsch, from a time when there was an optimism for the future and a love of the past. This album may well be full of that kind of positive expectancy. Something apparent from the opening album track Rich Man’s Valley is a summary of her rags to riches story of success, from a dirt poor background growing up in Poor Valley,Virginia to her rise and success and move to the heights of fame and more prosperous circumstances. From then on this is an album of songs that are a testament to Jonas’ growth as writer, singer and band leader. The album was helmed by engineer Blaine Misner over a three day session, in close consultation with Jonas’ long term foil, guitarist Tim Bray, who manages to touch base on numerous country guitar sounds of the past while bringing things right into focus for today’s audience. The rhythm section of Seth Morrissey and Ben Tufts provided the forward motion, and the additional vintage flavourings came from steel player Ahren Buchheister, Booby Hawk’s fiddle and keyboards from Benji Porecki. A solid, distinguished team indeed who are able to adapt with ease to the given instrumental setting required, of which there are a lot of different scenarios on offer; from straight country to touches of soul, blues and swing.
Given the album title it’s not surprising that the presence of Elvis is omnipresent too. A fair number of the songs including Four Cadillacs, Call Dr Nick, Shake Bump and Grind and Mama’s Gone all deal with aspects of Presley’s ongoing myths, legend and magnetism. Inspired in part by the recent biographical movie which painted a largely bright and in your face portrait of the star’s rise, the fall doesn’t feature in these musings. Other stops along the shopping mall of kitsch and sink offer an ode which features a list of purchases available to the home procurer, with some sonic steel and twang laden guitar to help this sale of Online Shopping. Another features those Plastic Pink Flamingos while tells us of the heightened reality of a woman obsessed with those mimicked sham birds. While the ambition of Let’s Go To Hawaii is of a housewife’s dream to persuade her husband to go on a vacation to the island of here dreams, it’s not surprising that it gives a nod to Jonas’ love of the music and storytelling of Jimmy Buffett on the journey (as well as the movie career of that sunburned, sideburned icon). There is a distinctly more Vegas lounge feel to the post wedding chapel carousel in Gold In The Sand. American Kitsch is a narration with a subtle atmospheric setting that, more than anywhere, by the focus on the words, shows her talent as a consummate wordsmith.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that there is a sense of fun, both in the arrangements and delivery, as there is in Jonas’ lyrical direction, which is smart, engaging and an exercise in taking a long established format and giving it a new coat of paint. But it is also a sign of her maturity as a vocalist of no mean ability, who is able to take on the various guises necessary to bring these songs to life. The understanding that occurs between all parties is apparent with the ease with which they can give each song a different perspective ,while never losing focus of an overall vision and vocabulary. It is surprising that Jonas isn’t more lauded overall, as she is deserving of that ahead of many of her contemporaries who have far bigger budgets to utilise, thanks to major label involvement. Yet perhaps what she has gained is the space to develop and control of what she writes and records. That may count for more in the long run for any independent (or otherwise) artist. Much to savour in this ode to the pleasures of kitsch and country music - the real kind.
Stephen Rapid
George Dearborne Lotta Honky Tonkin’ Left In Me Self Release
This album has been receiving a lot of praise as an example of honky tonk at its best. Deservedly so and with a lot of music aimed at the same demographic coming out of Texas, it is even more admirable. I have to admit that this is my first aquaintance with the music of Beaumont singer George Dearborne. He plays traditional based country music with a passion and purpose that will appeal to the growing number of listeners who want something that is imbued with the honky tonk.
The album was produced by an avowed veteran of the format in Jimmy Ritchey, a man who knows what he is about and also adds his guitar and writing talents to the album. He had a hand in co-writing five of the cuts and assembled a band of solid Nashville A-teamers such as Brent Mason, Jim ‘Moose’ Brown, Glen Worf, Larry Franklin, Mike Johnson, B. James Lowery, Shannon Forest and background vocalists Pam Willis and Wes Hightower. You couldn’t ask for a better selection of players if you wanted a real country album, musicians whose credits have appeared on numerous critically acclaimed recordings in the past. They prove their worth again here.
Dearborne is a top notch vocalist, who is not a writer on this outing but an old school interpreter of songs that define the genre. A couple may be know to some, such as Muddy Waters or Haggard’s Fighting Side Of Me. The others maybe not, but they are chosen with care and are perfect for an album with this title. Writers like Jim Lauderdale, Whitey Schafer, Pam Willis and Cledus T. Judd have form in this particular rodeo. There are also, maybe surprisingly to some but not those who know, a couple of songs written by the late great Doug Sahm. Dearborne has been around since the 70s as, initially, a drummer before forming his own band that played in Beaumont, a place that also claims George Jones, Mark Chestnutt and Tracy Byrd as their own and can now add Dearborne to that list of acclaimed vocalists. He has a previous 2020 album, OLD BROWN BOTTLE, that included original songs and which was also produced by Ritchey. However, it is this album that will hopefully turn the spotlight on his aptitude.
These songs sit at the bar of heartbreak and try to drown their sorrows, as do so many of those who need to immerse themselves in that sadness to feel happy. For many, this is the kernel of what real country music does, as indeed does much of the blues, both forms dealing in that emotion and in creating music that in its misery finds a lot of company. There isn’t a misstep or out of place tune here and, when the album is finished, you want to go back to the beginning to appreciate how good it is one more time.
From start to finish, these fifteen tracks help define the music that has seemingly been absent for so long, but in truth has always been around, if you looked hard enough. This year alone there have been a number of artists who will make it hard pressed for an aficionado to choose the top ten honky tonk albums of 2024. This is most definitely a contender for that particular accolade.
Stephen Rapid
Martha Fields Bramble Bridge Self-Release
Named after a bridge in Wayne County, West Virginia, Martha Fields' latest album sticks to her well-tried template of country, blues, and rock and roll. A proud Appalachian who wears her heart on her sleeve, she fuses the sounds of East Kentucky and West Virginia of her childhood with the Texan and Okie country music handed down from her father.
Fields divides her time between Bordeaux, France and Texas. She performs regularly in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland, playing festivals, headline and private shows backed by her regular players and backing vocalists, Manu Bertrand (dobro, mandolin, banjo, guitar), Olivier Leclerc (violin), Urbain Lambert (guitar), Serge Samyn (bass, fiddle). Denis Bielsa completes the lineup on drums.
Recorded in France and mixed in Nashville by Grammy winner Sean Sullivan, BRAMBLE BRIDGE features eleven tracks, ten originals and a five-minute version of the traditional gospel song, Wayfaring Stranger. Field's material may be primarily impacted by her childhood exposure to the music that surrounded her. Still, Biscay Bay and Country Roads Of France have their origins in her adopted country of recent years. The latter tells the tale of the joys and stresses of long days and nights on the road from show to show; the former pays homage to the peacefulness and serenity of a place close to her heart. Party Marty is a fun-filled and funked-up ditty and opener All I Know could have been plucked from Rodney Crowell's songbook.
BRAMBLE BRIDGE replicates what Martha Fields has been dishing out on all her studio albums. Songs forged from traditional and more modern country roots supported by a bunch of exceptional musicians are once more the order of the day. What's not to love about that?
Declan Culliton
David Newbould Live In Germany Blackbird
Coincidentally, this album review comes shortly after I witnessed a blistering live set by David Newbould and his band at the Static Roots Festival in Germany. Many of the tracks on the album featured in his fifty-minute setlist at the festival, and the added bonus on the album is another twenty minutes of mostly full-on rock and roll across eighteen tracks.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Newbould has previously spent time honing his skills in New York and Austin. He is now an integral part of the multi-genre music scene in East Nashville. His former band members include the much-lauded Dan Baird and drummer Brad Pemberton, who is a member of Steve Earle’s backing band The Dukes and has previously worked with Ryan Adams and Brendan Benson.
The lion’s share of the material on LIVE IN GERMANY is taken from Newbould’s 2019 record SIN & REDEMPTION and POWER UP! from 2022. Also included are a few covers that readers will be familiar with: Neil Young’s Powderfinger and Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance? written by the late Rusty Wier. The closest live recording that comes to mind with this record is Young’s WELD, so it’s little surprise that a song by Newbould’s fellow Canadian features.
The highest praise I can pour on Newbould’s material is that many of the songs have that ‘where did I hear that before?’ quality. Particularly of note are the face-melters Peeler Park, Sin & Redemption, and Sensitive Heart, the latter bringing to mind a pumped-up Tom Petty delivery. Jean is a short and snappy dose of rootsy power-pop, and the mid-tempo Home Depot Glasses is a tribute to John Prine, written by Newbould the day after he passed away.
If Neil Young, backed by Crazy Horse or the crunching no-holds-barred rock of Rich Hopkins & The Luminarios rock your boat, you’ll love this. Thumbs up to Newbould’s band members, Adam Dalton on guitar and backing vocals, Joel Strandberg on bass and backing vocals, and Tommy Goss on drums for their injection of energy and buzz on the recordings.
These days, it can be a case of having to scratch beneath the surface to unearth twin guitar-driven roots rock, so albums like this are a breath of fresh air. Headphones and full volume are essential for maximum return.
Declan Culliton
Melissa Carper Borned In Ya Mae Music/Thirty Tigers
Our introduction to the musical world of Texan Melissa Carper came about in 2021 when we reviewed her album DADDY'S COUNTRY GOLD and subsequently interviewed her. Born into a musical family and performing from the age of twelve with her family's four-piece, The Carper Band, her musical journey included studying music at college in Nebraska, getting immersed in the vocalists Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald, and becoming obsessed with blues legend Leadbelly.
Taking a leaf out of all their books, Carper's vocal phrasing and devotion to old-time country, jazz, and blues have rung true in her impressive catalogue of albums, both solo and with her other projects, Sad Daddy, Buffalo Gals Band, and her more recent collaboration with Brennen Leigh and Kelly Willis, Wonder Women of Country.
Carper's latest album takes its title from a quote from Ralph Stanley, ('I don't think you can get this sound unless it's borned in ya,'). Sticking with the formula that worked so well on her two last recordings, the aforementioned DADDY'S COUNTRY GOLD and RAMBLIN' GOLD from 2022, this album was recorded at Andrija Tokic's Bomb Shelter Studios in East Nashville and features a number of the players that also guested on those albums. Household names like Dennis Crouch, who co-produced with Tokic, Chris Scruggs, Chris Gelb, Sierra Ferrell, Matt Combs and Billy Contreras all lent a hand. Working with that talented crew contributed boundlessly to Carper's distinctive and flawless silver-voiced deliveries.
That’s My Desire, previously recorded by Patsy Cline and one of two covers included on the album, and You're Furniture's Too Nice recall an era when dinner-jacketed gents and their costume-dressed wives and girlfriends dined in elegant surroundings, entertained by Billie Holiday. The second cover is a splendid rendition of Cole Porter's Every Time We Say Goodbye. The title and opening track is a gospel-flavoured affair, and There'll Be Another One, including strings and orchestration, is a countrypolitan treasure. Old-time jazz is modelled in Let's Get Outta Here, and Evil | |||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 30 | https://rockportraits.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/linda-ronstadt/ | en | Linda Ronstadt | [
"https://rockportraits.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/picronstadtlinda.jpg?w=648",
"https://2.gravatar.com/avatar/e4b65e62a611829889dd09cd41e10f8646fb3c5582a58f9497ad24bead1d85bb?s=48&d=identicon&r=G",
"https://0.gravatar.com/avatar/c027b2e29721d0ca87c243e630e041226c1856d422607a70e67c40075666b668?s=48... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2014-10-02T00:00:00 | Linda Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt – circa 1979 “Where you’re concerned, my heart has learned / It’s so easy to fall in love” – ‘It’s So Easy’ (Buddy Holly, Norman Petty) Is the world ready for a rock star as First Lady? Could the wife of the President of the United States be a famous singer? … | en | https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico | rockportraits | https://rockportraits.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/linda-ronstadt/ | Linda Ronstadt – circa 1979
“Where you’re concerned, my heart has learned / It’s so easy to fall in love” – ‘It’s So Easy’ (Buddy Holly, Norman Petty)
Is the world ready for a rock star as First Lady? Could the wife of the President of the United States be a famous singer? These are questions being asked in 1979. Jerry Brown, the Governor of the State of California is considered a potential future candidate for the Presidency. Brown’s girlfriend is Linda Ronstadt, one of America’s most popular female vocalists at the time. ‘Political pundits are wondering whether marriage to Ronstadt would be a good or bad thing for Brown’s Presidential aspirations.’ Aware of the pressures, Linda Ronstadt notes, “The newspapers had begun to speculate on whether the Governor was going to spend State money to protect his girlfriend’s house. Precisely because of such speculation, Jerry had already decided not to.” Will she trade chart power for political power?
Linda Marie Ronstadt is born 15 July 1946 in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. She is the daughter of Gilbert Ronstadt and his wife Ruth Mary Ronstadt (nee Codeman). On her father’s side, Linda’s ancestry is a mix of German, English and Mexican backgrounds. On her mother’s side, Linda is of German, English and Dutch descent. Sorting out these diverse threads is a bit complicated. The obviously Teutonic surname of Ronstadt comes from her paternal great-grandfather, Friedrich August Ronstadt. Friedrich Ronstadt marries a Mexican woman, Margarita Redondo Y Vasquez. Their son (Linda’s grandfather), Frederico Jose Maria Ronstadt, is born in Banamichi, Sonora, Mexico. Frederico Ronstadt marries Maria Guadalupe Augustina Dalton, a woman born in Arizona of one quarter English and three quarters Mexican descent. Their son, Gilbert Ronstadt, is Linda’s father.
Gilbert Ronstadt is a guitar player – but he is also a machinery merchant. “Everybody in my family plays and sings, not necessarily to a professional level,” Linda Ronstadt explains. “My grandmother and grandfather were classical music devotees and they also loved [traditional] Mexican music.” As may be imagined, the Ronstadt home is filled with music and much of it is influential to the work Linda herself would go on to record.
Linda Ronstadt has three siblings: Peter, Michael and Gretchen (a.k.a. Suzi). When Linda is 14, she forms a folk music trio, The Union City Ramblers, with Peter and Suzi. This becomes The Three Ronstadts and then The New Union City Ramblers. (Peter Ronstadt later becomes the police chief of Tucson, Arizona.)
Linda Ronstadt goes on to attend the University of Arizona in 1964…but only for one semester. While at university she meets Bob Kimmel, a singer and guitarist. In 1964, the 18 year old Linda Ronstadt moves to California ‘determined to make a living as a singer.’ “When I got to L.A. [Los Angeles, California], I was so intimidated by the quality of everybody’s musicianship,” she admits.
In Los Angeles, Linda Ronstadt and Bob Kimmel recruit a local musician, Kenny Edwards, and form ‘a folk trio’ called The Stone Poneys in the summer of 1966. Within the act, the members have the following roles: Linda Ronstadt (vocals), Bob Kimmel (guitar, vocals) and Kenny Edwards (bass, vocals). The Stone Poneys secure a recording deal with Capitol and cut three albums: ‘The Stone Poneys’ (1967) in January, ‘Evergreen, Vol. 2’ (1967) (US no. 100) in June and ‘Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys And Friends, Vol. 3’ (1968). It is clear from the title of the third disc that Capitol’s plans are built more around the act’s lead vocalist than The Stone Poneys as a trio. During their time, The Stone Poneys score a hit single with ‘Different Drum’ (US no. 13) in 1967, a track from their second album. ‘Different Drum’ was written in 1965 by Mike Nesmith of 1960s U.S. pop group The Monkees. Nesmith’s inclinations towards country music did not always find expression in The Monkees’ more pop-oriented output. ‘Different Drum’ is first recorded by The Greenbriar Boys in 1966. The Stone Poneys’ version of the song is delicate pop with orchestral flourishes courtesy of producer Nik Venet. “You and I travel to the beat of a different drum / Oh, can’t you tell by the way I run, every time you make eyes at me,” sings Linda Ronstadt in a style somewhere between a yodel and an operatic display. Amongst the additional musicians appearing on this song is guitarist Bernie Leadon, who will re-enter this story a little later.
The Stone Poneys come to an end and, with the encouragement of Capitol Records, Linda Ronstadt embarks on a solo career.
The musical style with which Linda Ronstadt is most identified is country rock. As the name suggests, this is a fusion of country and western with rock ‘n’ roll. Over the course of the 1970s, Linda Ronstadt changes from a country singer with a dash of rock to, by decade’s end, a rock singer with a little residual country influence. The country half of the equation seems to come more easily to her, probably because it is less of a stretch from her past experience with folk trios The Union City Ramblers and The Stone Poneys. This is not to suggest that Ronstadt’s more rock influenced songs are less satisfying; they are just more learned and less natural for her.
Linda Ronstadt is not a songwriter. The vast majority of her catalogue consists of cover versions of songs originally recorded by other artists, augmented by a small number of songs which she is the first to perform. Some of the original recordings by other artists are very famous; some of them are much more obscure. The origins and backgrounds of only selected songs performed by Linda Ronstadt will be traced here. When asked about the difference between writing your own material and recording the songs of others, Linda Ronstadt responds, “You gotta pay ‘em [the songwriters] royalties, but I don’t [the record company does].” Arguably, there are still some conclusions to be drawn from the songs chosen by the performer, but it may be presuming too much to think that the songs she sings reveal very much about Linda Ronstadt herself.
When Linda Ronstadt begins her career, female rock stars are still a minority. “When I first started doing this, there weren’t really any other women singers, except for Maria Muldaur and Grace Slick,” Linda claims. On another occasion, she amends this list to include Janis Joplin and recalls the influence of Darlene Love of The Crystals. Of the four women cited, the folky jazz of Maria Muldaur is the nearest to Linda Ronstadt, but she is more like a contemporary (Muldaur’s first solo album is not released until 1973). The Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick played the vengeful Valkyrie, while Janis Joplin was a boozy blues mama – both well outside of Ronstadt’s musical persona. “I like being a girl,” she shrugs. Although Darlene Love’s rhythm and blues shaded pop on songs like 1962’s ‘He’s A Rebel’ and 1963’s ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ may seem unlikely forebears of Linda Ronstadt, there is the same tendency to turn up the vocal power to overcome the band and the song itself. At her worst, Linda Ronstadt’s vocals can seem a bit sterile, a bit too mannered and careful but, more often, she combines the heartache of country, the bluster of rock and her own precision to good effect.
Linda Ronstadt begins her solo career with ‘Hand Sown, Home Grown’ (1969). Produced by Chip Douglas, this effort is most notable for her first attempt at ‘Silver Threads And Golden Needles’, a song Ronstadt will return to a few years later. ‘Silk Purse’ (1970) (US no. 103, AUS no. 34) has a cover image of the singer sittin’ in a hog pen – to fulfil the adage ‘making a silk purse from a sow’s ear.’ This disc’s best known piece is ‘Long Long Time’ (US no. 25), a song whose forlorn melody is screened by clouds of strings at the direction of producer Elliot F. Mazer. ‘Silk Purse’ is recorded in country music capital Nashville, Tennessee, but Linda Ronstadt reputedly ‘hates the album.’
As Linda Ronstadt’s public profile increases, so does media interest in her love life. Although she never marries, she is linked with a number of boyfriends. “I wish I had as much in bed as I get in the newspapers,” Ronstadt splutters in exasperation at one point. Despite the gossip column coverage, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when she changes lovers so all that can be offered here is a ‘best guess’ at those dates.
Record producer John Boylan (1972?) is Linda Ronstadt’s first well-known ‘boyfriend.’ Boylan is part mentor and father-figure as well as part lover. However, his role is soon usurped by singer-songwriter John David Souther (1972-1974?) who is described as Ronstadt’s ‘live-in boyfriend for several years.’ Both men play a role in the next development in Linda Ronstadt’s career.
“I was walking through ‘The Troubadour’ [a club in Los Angeles] one day with John Boylan,” explains Linda Ronstadt. “He and I were looking to put a band together because I had a big tour booked…I heard this band called Shiloh at ‘The Troubadour’ and I said, ‘That drummer’s really good. Let’s see if I can get him for the band’…His name was Don Henley…I had been playing with Bernie Leadon [from ‘Different Drum’] in my band, but he’d gone off to [country rock pioneers] The Flying Burrito Brothers [from September 1969 to October 1971, but was now available again]. I was living with J.D. Souther at the time, who’d had a musical duo [Longbranch Pennywhistle circa 1969] with a guy named Glenn Frey…So I said, ‘We’ll get Glenn’…and I had Don [and Bernie Leadon]…John Boylan suggested Randy Meisner.” This quartet, Glenn Frey (guitar), Bernie Leadon (guitar), Randy Meisner (bass) and Don Henley (drums), find they work well together and make plans to start their own career. Linda Ronstadt suggests, “It’s gonna take you a while to put a band together,” so, in the meantime, they should work with her and earn some money. This is how Linda Ronstadt’s backing band becomes The Eagles, one of the leading country rock acts of the 1970s. The album on which they work is ‘Linda Ronstadt’ (1972) (US no. 163), produced by John Boylan. This is the singer’s last album for Capitol Records.
The Eagles’ debut album, also in 1972, is released on David Geffen’s Asylum Records label. This becomes the new home of Linda Ronstadt as well. Although Warner Brothers buys Asylum in 1973, the label remains largely autonomous.
At this point, Peter Asher enters the story of Linda Ronstadt. In his native Britain, Peter Asher teamed with Gordon Waller as the pop duo Peter And Gordon. In the mid-1960s they had a string of hits including ‘World Without Love’, ‘True Love Ways’ (a cover version of a song by 1950s rock star Buddy Holly), ‘Lady Godiva’, ‘Nobody I Know’ and ‘I Got To Pieces’. ‘World Without Love’ is written for the duo by John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the British 1960s rock titans, The Beatles. This is less surprising when it is known that Peter Asher is the brother of Jane Asher, Paul McCartney’s girlfriend circa 1963-1968. When Peter And Gordon split up, Peter Asher becomes head of Artists & Repertoire in 1968 for The Beatles’ new-born Apple Records label. One of his first signings is a singer-songwriter of acoustic music. He is named James Taylor and he is visiting the U.K. from Los Angeles. As The Beatles – and Apple – fall to pieces at the end of the 1960s, Peter Asher accompanies James Taylor back to Los Angeles, serving as his producer and manager. Branching out, Peter Asher becomes the producer and manager of Linda Ronstadt as well. “Peter was the first person willing to work with me as an equal,” notes Ronstadt. He is not a mentor like John Boylan or J.D. Souther; nor is he Ronstadt’s lover as those two men had been. The Ronstadt-Asher partnership is strictly professional. It is difficult to overstate the importance of Peter Asher to the continuing career of Linda Ronstadt, not only as producer and manager, but as arranger and for his role in assisting in the selection of appropriate songs.
‘Don’t Cry Now’ (1973) (US no. 45, AUS no. 46) is Linda Ronstadt’s first album for Asylum. Production duties are shared between John Boylan, J.D. Souther and Peter Asher. ‘Silver Threads And Golden Needles’ is revisited here as a country hoedown with sawing violins. The glum piano ballad ‘Desperado’ is written by Ronstadt’s former backing musicians Glenn Frey and Don Henley of The Eagles. ‘Love Has No Pride’ (US no. 51) is an agonised ballad of lost love.
After the departure of The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt does not maintain a regular backing band. Instead, she uses a pool of talent, many of whom come from the Los Angeles session musician fraternity. Session musicians are like musical mercenaries. They are prepared to use their high level of musical skills for whoever is willing to pay for their services. Session musicians are employed not only for pop songs, but also advertising jingles and movie music. Among the backing musicians – whether from a sessions background or not – that Linda Ronstadt employs (both in the studio and on tour) during the next few years are the following: guitars – Andrew Gold (1974-1976), Danny Kortchmar (1975), Dan Dugmore (1975-1979), Waddy Wachtel (1976-1978), Mark Goldenberg (1979); keyboards – Andrew Gold (1974), Don Grolnick (1977-1978), Bill Payne (1979); bass – Kenny Edwards (1974-1978) [Linda’s former associate in The Stone Poneys], Bob Glaub (1979); and drums – Andrew Gold (1974), Russ Kunkel (1974-1975, 1978-1979), Rick Marotta (1977). “People think there’s orgies and drugs going on, but my band weren’t like that,” contends Linda Ronstadt. “They were a really literate bunch of guys, readers…Don Grolnick…Kenny Edwards…They were serious people, professionals.” And while her erudite sidemen debated the fate of the world, what was their female commander-in-chief doing? “I knitted,” she says.
‘Heart Like A Wheel’ (1974) (US no. 1, AUS no. 35) is an album Linda Ronstadt owed to Capitol. It also marks the point at which her ‘career upturns dramatically’, ‘making Ronstadt a star.’ Peter Asher acts as producer on this and all but one of the next thirteen Linda Ronstadt albums. The song that gives her a breakthrough is ‘You’re No Good’ (US no. 1). Over ominous and sinister electric guitars played by Ed Black and Andrew Gold, Linda Ronstadt intones, “Feeling better, now that we’re through / Feeling better ‘cos I’m over you.” ‘You’re No Good’ is written by Clint Ballard, Jr. It is first recorded by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963, but it is Betty Everett who has a hit with the song in November 1963. In the U.K., it is The Swinging Blue Jeans who take the song into the charts in 1964. Linda Ronstadt also has a hit with ‘When Will I Be Loved?’ (US no. 2), a song composed by Phil Everly and made into a hit with his brother Don, The Everly Brothers, in 1960. Etched with sharp guitars, this is an oven-hot country rocker. “I been made blue / I been lied to / When will I be loved?” the lyrics ask but, despite their pitying tone, the arrangement kicks its heels up too much to seem mournful. On the other hand, ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ is a more traditional, mopey, country music lament. “When ‘Heart Like A Wheel’ went to number one [on the album chart], I just walked around apologising every single day – I’m not that good a singer,” says Linda Ronstadt modestly.
Comedian Steve Martin is the next of Linda Ronstadt’s boyfriends (1975?). They are reported to have ‘dated while Martin was doing stand-up’ comedy routines. Steve Martin’s stand-up stint went from the mid-1970s to 1981, so this seems to be about where he fits chronologically.
‘Prisoner In Disguise’ (1975) (US no. 4, AUS no. 76) finds Linda Ronstadt back on Asylum again. ‘Love Is A Rose’ (US no. 63) is a banjo-pickin’ country folk tune (Herb Pedersen is the banjo player). Sumptuously couched heartache is the order of the day for ‘The Tracks Of My Tears’ (US no. 25). The album’s most commercially successful moment is ‘Heat Wave’ (US no. 5). Written by Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, this was originally recorded by Motown Records act Martha And The Vandellas, whose version was released in January 1963. In Ronstadt’s hands, ‘Heat Wave’ becomes a jiving honky-tonk number over which she wails, “Whenever I’m with him / Something inside / Starts to burning / And I’m filled with desire.”
‘Hasten Down The Wind’ (1976) (US no. 3, UK no. 32, AUS no. 28) is home to Linda Ronstadt’s version of ‘That’ll Be The Day’ and ‘Someone To Lay Down Beside Me’. ‘That’ll Be The Day’ (US no. 11) is written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison and originally recorded by their band, The Crickets, in 1957. Linda Ronstadt renders the tune as straight-up pop rock: “That’ll be the day / When you say goodbye / That’ll be the day / That you make me cry.” There’s nothing wrong with Ronstadt’s version – it’s a big hit for her – but the trouble is it remains indelibly associated with Buddy Holly. It’s one of the signature recordings by a very famous icon of rock ‘n’ roll. It’s difficult for Ronstadt to really make it her own. On the other hand, ‘Someone To Lay Down Beside Me’ (US no. 42) is a Karla Bonoff song. Bonoff is an underappreciated contemporary of Ronstadt. This gives Ronstadt much more scope to make the most of this song of existential frailty and modern fears. It’s not as commercially successful as ‘That’ll Be The Day’ but, arguably, it is more aesthetically satisfying.
Comedic actor Albert Brooks ‘lives with Linda Ronstadt for two years in the 1970s’ (1976-1977?) and seems to be next of her partners.
A measure of Linda Ronstadt’s growing stature in the public eye is her selection, along with the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, and country music legend Loretta Lynn, to perform at the televised Inaugural Concert for new U.S. President Jimmy Carter on 19 January 1977.
Celebrity of a different sort comes Linda Ronstadt’s way in May 1977 when she is one of ten famous women offered a million dollars each to be photographed nude for Larry Flynt’s skin-magazine ‘Hustler’. “I got the offer in the mail,” she confirms. “I laughed at it, and then threw it in the wastebasket.”
“There’s no way that I can be objective and say one album [of mine] is better than another,” claims Linda Ronstadt, before confessing, “I never listen to them anyway.” ‘Simple Dreams’ (1977) (US no. 1, UK no. 15, AUS no. 1), in September, may have the strongest grasp on the title of Linda Ronstadt’s best album. Commercially, it ‘becomes the singer’s biggest hit, staying on top of the [U.S.] charts for five weeks and selling over three million copies.’ Creatively, its credentials are also sound. For a start, it includes Linda Ronstadt’s best single, ‘Blue Bayou’ (US no. 3, UK no. 35). “I feel so bad, I got a worried mind / I’m so lonesome all the time / Since I left my baby behind on Blue Bayou,” she sings in this song of swampy sorrow. ‘Blue Bayou’ is written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson and was originally a hit for Orbison in 1963. Former boyfriend J.D. Souther suggested Ronstadt cover this song. Roy Orbison’s original, near-operatic performance certainly presents Ronstadt with a challenge. “I crack into falsetto – not very well (at the end of ‘Blue Bayou’),” she says self-effacingly. Actually, that soaring final note is one of the song’s chief attractions – along with Dan Dugmore’s weeping pedal steel guitar. ‘Simple Dreams’ is notable for being ‘more rock-oriented’. This alteration in emphasis partly arises from a meeting between Linda Ronstadt and Mick Jagger, frontman of The Rolling Stones, sometimes acclaimed as the ‘greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world.’ Jagger suggests Ronstadt should play more hard rock songs. She retorts that her band plays The Rolling Stones’ song ‘Tumbling Dice’ from 1972 at soundchecks before concerts. She asks Jagger to write out the words for her. In transposing the gender orientation of the song, it is suspected Jagger may have played a trick on Ronstadt. In The Stones’ original, the opening line is: “Women think I’m tasty, but they’re always tryin’ to waste me.” The version on this album by Linda Ronstadt begins, “People try to rape me / Always think I’m crazy.” In any case, its dirty guitar riffs work well. Also on the more rock side of the equation is a version of ‘Poor Poor Pitiful Me’ (US no. 31), a song from Warren Zevon’s 1976 self-titled album. Jackson Browne, another Los Angeles-based soft rock artist, suggested to Linda Ronstadt that she cover this song. From its cowbell percussion and syn drums, through its strummed acoustic guitar, to full-blown electric guitar, this is an exciting performance. Linda Ronstadt also uses another Zevon song on the album, ‘Carmelita’, a junkie’s lullaby. “His talent spoke for him,” Ronstadt advises. “I didn’t know Warren very well. He was so odd.” ‘It’s So Easy’ (US no. 5) is another rocking song of spring-mounted passion. It is written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty and originally recorded by The Crickets in 1958. The country side of the country rock formula is represented on this set by: the self-pitying ‘Sorrow Lives Here’; a traditional ode to a pony called ‘Old Paint’; and the cowgirl blues of ‘I Never Will Marry’. The last-named has vocal harmonies from country music queen Dolly Parton.
When the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team play in the World Series on 14 October 1977 they request Linda Ronstadt, their city’s favourite adopted daughter, sing the national anthem. Linda complies…but the Dodgers lose to the New York Yankees.
Live performances of ‘Poor Poor Pitiful Me’ and ‘Tumbling Dice’ by Linda Ronstadt and her band are featured in the film ‘F.M.’ (1978) and its soundtrack in May. The film is a comedy about a dispute within a radio station about its playlist.
‘Living In The U.S.A.’ (1978) (US no. 1, UK no. 39, AUS no. 3) is Linda Ronstadt’s next outing. Released in September, the album title is derived from the song ‘Back In The U.S.A.’ (US no. 16), a Chuck Berry hit from 1959. A rollicking rock ‘n’ roll number with clattering piano, its loquacious lyric gives Ronstadt an opportunity to use her most careful diction: “New York, Los Angeles, oh how I yearn for you / Detroit, Chicago, Chattanooga, Baton Rouge.” ‘Ooh Baby Baby’ (US no. 7), penned by Smoky Robinson and Warren ‘Pete’ Moore, was first recorded by their vocal group, The Miracles, in 1965. Ronstadt’s version is suffused with saxophones and smouldering late-night regret: “I’m just about at / The end of my rope / But I can’t stop trying / I can’t give up hope.” ‘Just One Look’ (US no. 44) offers nicely ordered pop with soaring harmonies. Familiar contributors J.D. Souther (‘White Rhythm And Blues’) and Warren Zevon (‘Mohammed’s Radio’) are on hand, but a bigger pointer to the future is ‘Alison’, an edgy song from British punk / new wave artist Elvis Costello.
Linda Ronstadt becomes involved with Jerry Brown (1978-1980?) during the time Brown is Governor of California (1975-1983). Linda remembers they “had a lot of fun for number of years. He was smart and funny, not interested in drinking or drugs, and lived his life carefully, with a great deal of discipline.”
In January 1979 Linda Ronstadt begins recording an album with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Although Parton and Harris may sometimes be considered country rock artists, they are much closer to the country end of the scale than Ronstadt. At this point, nothing eventuates from the work of the three women, but the idea will later be revisited.
On 21 December 1979 Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, and Chicago (a brass-heavy outfit) put on a benefit concert at the San Diego Sports Arena. A similar concert is subsequently held at the Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas. These concerts raise money for Jerry Brown’s Presidential campaign. Ultimately, Brown’s tilt at the nation’s highest office proves as ill-fated as his romance with Ronstadt. “Neither of us suffered under the delusion that we would like to share each other’s lives,” says Linda Ronstadt. “I would have found his life too restrictive, and he would have found mine entirely chaotic. Eventually we went our separate ways and embraced things that resonated with us as different individuals…We have always remained on excellent terms.”
‘Mad Love’ (1980) (US no. 3, UK no. 65, AUS no. 6) in February is a bold step in a new direction for Linda Ronstadt. Country rock is dying out. The prevailing trends of the day are disco and punk / new wave. Linda Ronstadt opts for the latter. This album includes three Elvis Costello songs (‘Party Girl’, ‘Girls Talk’ and ‘Talking In The Dark’) and three songs from The Cretones’ album ‘Thin Red Line’ (1980) (‘Mad Love’, ‘Cost Of Love’ and ‘Justine’). Cretones’ guitarist and leader Mark Goldenberg is on hand to lend some authority to the album. Further freshening things up is new producer Val Garay, though he has been acting as engineer (sort of like an assistant to the producer) on the Ronstadt albums produced by Peter Asher. It’s almost amusing hearing Linda Ronstadt and her session musicians trying to sound purposefully rough and spontaneous like new wave acts. The album’s first hit is ‘How Do I Make You?’ (US no. 10), a song written by Billy Steinberg which Linda Ronstadt is the first to record. With (mock?) fury, the singer rants, “You put your head on my pillow and you’re fast asleep / And how do I make you, how do I make you, how do I make you / Dream about me?” ‘Hurt So Bad’ (US no. 8) was first released by Little Anthony And The Imperials in 1965. The song is written by Teddy Randozzo, Bobby Wilding (Weinstein) and Bobby Hart (Harshman). Over serrated guitars, Linda Ronstadt pleads, “You loved me before / Please love me again / I can’t let you go back to her.” ‘I Can’t Let Go’ (US no. 31) has a tense and dramatic sound.
On 15 July 1980 Linda Ronstadt makes another odd, sideways, career decision. She appears as Mabel in a New York City production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. The production has a long run (seven hundred and seventy-two performances), though Linda Ronstadt’s role is taken over by other pop singers, Karla De Vito and Maureen McGovern. Ronstadt returns for the motion picture incarnation, ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ (1983).
Peter Asher resumes production duties for ‘Get Closer’ (1982) (US no. 31, AUS no. 26). On the title track, ‘Get Closer’ (US no. 29), Linda Ronstadt produces a leonine roar, but the album ‘fizzles’ commercially.
In 1983 37 year old Linda Ronstadt dates 21 year old Jim Carrey, before he becomes famous as a comedy actor in Hollywood.
Linda Ronstadt forsakes rock ‘n’ roll all together for her next three albums: ‘What’s New’ (1983) (US no. 3, UK no. 31, AUS no. 11), ‘Lush Life’ (1984) (US no. 13, UK no. 100, AUS no. 32) and ‘For Sentimental Reasons’ (1986) (US no. 46. AUS no. 43). These albums all feature her performances of ‘pre-rock standards’ backed by The Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Riddle also acts as arranger.
In the midst of this phase, Linda Ronstadt has a relationship with George Lucas (1985?), the movie director best known for creating ‘Star Wars’ (1977). This is apparently a fairly significant pairing since they are reported to have become engaged, but it soon comes to an end. George Lucas is the last known boyfriend of Linda Ronstadt.
At the end of 1986, the duet ‘Somewhere Out There’ (US no. 2) is released by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram. This hopeful, romantic effort comes from an unlikely source: the animated movie ‘An American Tail’ (1986).
‘Trio’ (1987) (US no. 6, UK no. 60) is the long-delayed collaboration between Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. This is released in February.
In November comes ‘Canciones de Mi Padre’ (1987) (US no. 42) – literally, ‘Songs Of My Father’ – a compendium of mariachi music and traditional Mexican folk songs. It may be recalled that Gilbert Ronstadt, Linda’s father, was a guitar player and her family loved traditional Mexican music.
‘Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind’ (1989) (US no. 7, UK no. 42, AUS no. 11) features ‘Don’t Know Much’ (US no. 2), a duet with New Orleans singer Aaron Neville. It is Linda Ronstadt’s first album of contemporary music since ‘Get Closer’ (1982). After this, her career leapfrogs from genre to genre. Also, with this disc, Linda Ronstadt moves to another subsidiary label of Warner Brothers, Elektra.
‘Mas Canciones’ (1990) (US no. 88) is another album of Mexican rancheras and corridos.
Despite not having a romantic partner, Linda Ronstadt adopts an infant daughter, Mary, in 1991. She goes on to adopt a baby boy as well, Carlos, in 1994.
‘Frenesi’ (1992) (US no. 193) is a mix of Latin American, jazz, and Cuban music styles. ‘Frenesi’ is co-produced by Peter Asher and George Massenburg. It marks the end of Peter Asher’s twenty year tenure as Linda Ronstadt’s main record producer. George Massenburg produces or co-produces subsequent releases.
‘Winter Light’ (1993) (US no. 92) contains pop, new age and art rock. ‘Feels Like Home’ (1995) (US no. 75) is a return to country rock. ‘Dedicated To The One I Love’ (1996) (US no. 78) is an album of children’s lullabies and pop tunes.
In 1997 Linda Ronstadt is diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease that contributes to her weight gain over the years.
‘We Ran’ (1998) (US no. 160) is a rock album. ‘Trio II’ (1999) (US no. 64) in February is another outing with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. ‘Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions’ (1999) (US no. 73) in August is by Ronstadt and Harris alone. As the title suggests, ‘A Merry Little Christmas’ (2000) (US no. 146) is an album for the holiday season.
Leaving behind Elektra Records, ‘Hummin’ To Myself’ (2004) (US no. 166) is a jazz album released on Verve. Vanguard Records issues ‘Adieu False Heart’ (2006) (US no. 146), an album of duets with Ann Savoy on folk rock, Cajun and acoustic material.
In 2011 Linda Ronstadt retires from music. At the end of 2012 she is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system, and is left unable to sing. Linda Ronstadt publicly announces her illness in August 2013.
‘The Complete Trio Collection’ (2016) (US no. 125, UK no. 47), issued by Rhino Records, is a three CD box set of Linda Ronstadt’s collaborations with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. It collects ‘Trio’ (1987), ‘Trio II’ (1999) and a twenty track bonus disc of additional material.
Linda Ronstadt never became the U.S. First Lady because her partner, Jerry Brown, did not secure candidacy for the role of President of the U.S.A. and, in any case, she and Brown split up. However, it could be argued that she was the First Lady of Rock in the 1970s. Which position is more prestigious would be a matter of opinion. From 1974 to 1980 Linda Ronstadt’s career was at its height. Few artists in rock history who have relied almost entirely on recording cover versions of other performer’s songs have been as successful or highly regarded as she. ‘Of the principal Los Angeles rock stars of the 1970s…Linda Ronstadt best combined artistic integrity and mass commercial success.’ ‘Linda Ronstadt became one of the most popular interpretive singers of the 1970s.’
Sources:
‘Rolling Stone Rock Almanac’ by the Editors of ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine (Papermac, 1984) p. 266, 270, 275, 284, 294, 305, 314, 322
‘Friday On My Mind’ by Ed Nimmervoll (Five Mile Press, 2004) p. 119
‘The Los Angeles Times’ (Los Angeles, U.S.A. newspaper) – ‘Linda Ronstadt recalls time with Jerry Brown in new memoir’ by Anthony York (17 September 2013) (reproduced on articles.latimes.com)
Notable names database – nndb.com – as at 21 December 2013
wikipedia.org as at 21 December 2013, 4 January 2017
Internet movie database imdb.com as at 9 February 2014
‘The Illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock’ by Nick Logan, Bob Woffinden (Salamander Books, 1978) p. 199, 200
Linda Ronstadt video interview conducted by Patt Morrison of KCET-TV (Pt. 1 of 4) (2013?)
allmusic.com, ‘Linda Ronstadt’ by Stephen Thomas Erlewine as at 18 March 2002
‘Rolling Stone’ magazine, ‘Linda Ronstadt: The Million-Dollar Woman’ by Cameron Crowe (2 December 1976) (reproduced on ronstadt-linda.com/arts76.html)
‘The Rolling Stone Illustrated History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll’, ‘The Girl Groups’ by Greil Marcus, ‘The Sound of Southern California’ by John Rockwell (Plexus Publishing, 1992), p. 189, 191, 542, 544
‘Linda Ronstadt – Greatest Hits’ – Anonymous sleeve notes (Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records, 1976) p. 3, 4, 5, 6
‘The Illustrated Rock Handbook’ edited by Roxanne Streeter, Ray Bonds (Salamander Books, 1983) p. 152, 183, 184
brainyquote.com as at 3 February 2014
‘Linda Ronstadt – Greatest Hits Volume Two’ – Anonymous sleeve notes (Elektra/Asylum Records, 1980) p. 3, 4, 5, 6
albertbrooks.com as at 4 February 2014
‘The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time’ – ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine (February 2004) p. 54
lyricsfreak.com as at 8 February 2014
rollingstone.com – ‘Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris to Release “Trio” Box Set’ – by Stephen L. Betts (14 March 2016)
Song lyrics copyright MPL Communications, Inc. / BMI with the exceptions of: ‘Different Drum’ (Screen Gems – EMI Music Inc. BMI), ‘You’re No Good’ (E.H. Morris & Co. Inc. / JAC Music Co. Inc. / Blue Seas Inc. / U.S. Songs Inc. ASCAP), ‘When Will I Be Loved?’ and ‘Blue Bayou’ (both Acuff-Rose Publications Inc. BMI), ‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Ooh Baby Baby’ (both Jobete Music Company, Inc. ASCAP), ‘Tumbling Dice’ (EMI Music Publishing Ltd.), ‘Back In The U.S.A. (Arc Music Corp. / BMI), ‘How Do I Make You’ (Billy Steinberg Music / ASCAP) and ‘Hurt So Bad’ (Vogue Music / BMI)
Last revised 12 January 2017 | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 73 | https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/jokes/ | en | Jokes | https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp-content/themes/genesis/images/favicon.ico | https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp-content/themes/genesis/images/favicon.ico | [
"https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp-content/themes/solife/images/livingeverymoment.png",
"https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp-content/themes/solife/images/post-formats/default.png",
"https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp-content/themes/solife/images/content-filler.png",
"https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/wp-content/themes/genesis/images/favicon.ico | https://www.stewardshipoflife.org/jokes/ | Billy said, “In heaven.”
Tommy said, “In our bathroom.
Asked to explain, Tommy said, “Every morning my dad knocks on the bathroom door and says, ‘Jesus Christ, are you ever going to come out?'”
* * * * *
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
One Sunday the pastor was talking about prayer during the children’s sermon. One precocious six-year-old boy piped up and said, “My mommy prays with me every night!”
“That’s wonderful,” said the pastor. “What does she say when she prays with you? Do you use a certain prayer?”
“Oh, no,” the boy replied, “She just says, ‘Thank you, God. He’s in bed!'”
* * * * *
You Can’t Beat a Dead Horse Joke
The country pastor approached the deacon one Sunday after worship. “Say, deacon,” he said. “A horse died out in front of the church during worship.”
“Well, it’s the job of the pastor to look after the dead,” replied the deacon. “Why tell me?”
“You’re right, it is my job,” said the pastor. “But we always notify the next of kin first.”
* * * * *
After the third time that the father told his son and daughter to be quiet in church, the daughter pouted and asked, “Why do we have to be quiet in church?”
Her brother quickly chimed in, “Because people are sleeping!”
* * * * *
Spare Parts
The keynote speaker was in such a hurry to get to the venue that when he arrived and sat down at the head table, he suddenly realized that had forgotten his dentures.
Turning to the man next to him, he whispered, “I forgot my teeth!”
The man said, “No problem.” With that he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a pair of dentures. “Try these,” he said. The speaker tried them. “Too loose,” he said.
The man dug around in his briefcase again. “Here, try these.”
The speaker tried them and responded. “Too tight.”
The man didn’t seem taken aback at all. He dug around in his briefcase again. “Here. I have this pair. Give them a try.”
The speaker smiled. “They fit perfectly.” He ate his meal and gave his speech without any further troubles.
After the event concluded, the speaker went over to thank his benefactor and return the spare parts.
“I want to thank you for coming to my rescue. Where is your office? I’ve been looking for a good dentist.”
“Oh, I’m not a dentist,” the man replied. “I’m the local funeral director.”
* * * * *
Overhead on Noah’s Ark
1. “Did anyone think about bringing a couple of umbrellas?”
2. “Hey, there are more than two flies in here!”
3. “Wasn’t someone supposed to bring some shovels?”
4. “Okay, who’s the wise guy who let the mosquitoes on board?”
5. “Don’t make me pull this ark over and come back there!”
6. “Steak for dinner? We didn’t bring any steak with us. Uh.Oh.”
7. “Are we there yet?”
* * * * *
Jesus Returns
The pastor was working in his office one day when the church secretary came scurrying through the door, out of breath.
“Pastor, Pastor, I have news!” she said, trying to regain her composure.
“Well, what’s the news?” asked the perplexed pastor.
“Jesus is coming. He’s back, and he’s coming here right now. What should we do?”
The pastor smiled, turned back to his computer and answered, “Look busy.”
* * * * *
Following the pastor’s fiery sermon on sin, one recent convert soughth him out for a clarification.
“I’m not sure if i’ve actually died to sin,” he said, “but it makes me sick to my stomach on a regular basis.”
* * * * *
Our church has a singles ministry called SALT (Single Adults Learning Together). During a recent service, our minister mentioned SALT in the announcements. “If any of you are single,” he told the congregation, “be sure to check out SALT. Those initials stand for …” The minister paused a moment before continuing. At last he seemed to remember their meaning. “They stand for Single Adults Living Together.”
–Carolyn Bolz, Riverside, CA. Today’s Christian Woman, “Heart to Heart.”
How to Keep a Child Still in Worship
The pastor recalls, “After a recent worship service the mother of a fidgety seven-year-old boy told me how she finally got her son to sit still and be quiet. About halfway through the sermon, she leaned over and whispered, ‘If you don’t be quiet, the preacher is going to lose his place and will have to start his sermon all over again!’ It worked!”
* * * * *
Things you’ll never hear in church:
– Hey! It’s MY turn to sit on the front pew!
– I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went over time 25 minutes.
– Personally, I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
– I’ve decided to give our church the $500.00 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.
– I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.
– Forget the denominational minimum salary: let’s pay our pastor so s/he can live like we do.
-I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before!
-Since we’re all here, let’s start the worship service early!
-Pastor, this winter we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.
– Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign!
* * * * *
A distraught man sought the advice of his wise pastor. “I was born blind,” he exclaimed, “But some people tell me that if I had more faith I could be healed.”
The pastor paused a moment before speaking.
“I see you carry a cane,” she said. “Whenvever people say that, hit them over the head with the cane. Then tell them if they had more faith it wouldn’t hurt!”
* * * * *
There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country.
“Is there anything breakable in here?” asked the postal clerk.
“Only the Ten Commandments,” answered the lady.
The Pope and the Business Man
During an audience at the Vatican, a businessman approached the Pope with an offer: Change the last line of the Lord’s prayer from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken.” and KFC will donate $10 million to Catholic charities. The Pope declined. Two weeks later he was back, this time with a $50 million offer. Again the Pope declined. A month later the man offers $100 million, and this time the Pope accepts.
At a meeting of the Cardinals, The Pope announces his decision in the good news/bad news format. The good news is… that we have $100 million for charities. The bad news is that we lost the Wonder Bread account!
* * * * *
After two hours of meeting, the chair of Committee on Church Growth was ready to call it a night.
“Unless anybody has another idea besides calling every service Easter or Christmas,” she said, “I’ll accept a motion to adjourn.”
* * * * *
Some ministers were talking about death and dying over coffee at the local cafe. “What would you want people to say about you at your funeral?” one of them asked.
“I’d want people to say, ‘He was a great and compassionate humanitarian who cared about those in need,” responded a recently retired minister.
“I’d like for people to say, ‘He was a good father and husband, a man whose life was a fine example for others to follow,” intoned another.
“Oh, I’d like for people to remember me for my fine sermons and church growth,” said the newest member of the group.
A grizzled old farmer leaned over from the next table and said, “That’s all well and good, fellas, but I’d rather hear ’em say ‘Look, he’s moving!'”
* * * * *
The Best Way to Pray
A priest, a minister and a guru sat discussing the best positions for prayer, while a telephone repairman worked nearby
“Kneeling is definitely the best way to pray,” the priest said.
“No,” said the minister. “I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven.”
“You’re both wrong,” the guru said. “The most effective prayer position is lying down on the floor.”
The repairman could contain himself no longer. “Hey, fellas,” he interrupted. “The best prayin’ I ever did was when I was hangin’ upside down from a telephone pole.”
* * * * * * *
Can I Get a Testi-money?
It was testimony time at the church stewardship committee meeting.
“I’m very rich,” one man said. “I am very rich because God has blessed me. I am rich because when I was a young man, with only $1 in my pocket, I heard an address by a missionary. The Spirit told me to give everything I had to that missionary. So I gave that dollar.”
A fellow committee member tapped him on the shoulder. “I dare you to do it again,” she said.
* * * * *
A Cat-achism Baptism
The young son of a Baptist minister was in church one morning when he saw for the first time the rite of baptism by immersion. He was greatly interested in it, and the next morning proceeded to baptize his three cats in the bathtub.
The first kitten bore it very well, and so did the other young cat, but the old family cat rebelled. It struggled with him, clawed and tore him, and got away.
With considerable effort he caught it again and proceeded with the ceremony. But she acted worse than ever, clawed at him, spit, and scratched his hands and face.
Finally, after barely getting her splattered with water, he dropped her on the floor in disgust and said: “Fine, be an Atheist.”
* * * * *
Purely Academic
Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules.
Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
Theology is a game whose object is to bring rules into the subjective.
* * * * *
While shaking hands with the pastor after worship, Mrs. Jones noticed that he had a rather bad cut on his face.
“Why pastor, what happened? How did you cut your face?,” she asked.
“Well, I was thinking about my sermon this morning while I was shaving,” the pastor replied. “I guess I wasn’t concentrating and cut myself in the process.”
“That’s too bad,” Mrs. Jones replied. “Next time you should concentrate on your shaving and cut your sermon.”
* * * * *
And those bulletin blooper continue with more zingers from actual church publications. Enjoy!
The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on the Water.’ The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus.’
————————–
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
————————–
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say ‘Hell, to someone who doesn’t care much about you.
————————–
Don’t let worry kill you off – let the Church help.
————————–
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
————————–
The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
————————–
The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
————————–
This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
————————–
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
————————–
Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
————————–
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
May 2013 be marked with much holy hilarity!
* * * * *
The church installed hot air hand dryers in the bathrooms to cut down on paper towel waste and save money. They worked just fine, but the Rev. Jones ordered them removed after someone scrawled a note on the wall next to it: “For the pastor’s latest sermon, push here!”
* * * * *
A Little Help from Joseph
One day during our children’s sermon, I was telling the kids about how the angel came to Mary to tell her about how she would help bring Jesus into the world. One little girl seemed puzzled about this whole scene. Then another child asked what I thought the first thing Mary would have asked for after the angel left her. Instantly this little girl chimed in with “I’ll bet she asked for a little help from Joseph!
* * * * *
Seen on the door of a church nursery:
1 Corinthians 15:51
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
* * * * *
The Sidestitch Spouse
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny, what is the matter?” Little Johnny responded, “I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”
* * * * *
What Denomination?
A woman went into a post office to buy some stamps for her Christmas cards. What denomination do you want ? asked the lady at the counter. ‘Good God!’ she replied, Has it come to this? I suppose you’d better give me twenty Catholic and twenty Presbyterian.
* * * * *
SPELLCHECK CHURCH BULLETIN BLOOPERS
The spring retreat will be hell May 10th and 11th.
The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join.
The outreach committee has enlisted twenty-five members to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.
The third verse will be sung without musical accomplishment.
The agenda was adopted. The minutes were approved. The financial secretary gave a grief report.
Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to the church secretary.
Ushers will eat latecomers.
Attend and you will hear and excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.
*****
PECANS IN THE CEMETERY
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.
“One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me,” said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me…”
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
“Come here quick,” said the boy, “you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls!”
The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.” When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”
The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord…?”
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done…”
They say the old man had the lead for a good half-mile before the kid on the bike passed him.
* * * * *
The pastor’s college-age daughter came running to her in tears. “Mom, you gave me some terrible financial advice!”
“I did? What did I tell you?” said her mother.
“You told me to put my money in that big bank, and now that big bank is in trouble.”
“That’s one of the largest and best banks in the state,” she said. “There must be some mistake.”
“I don’t think so,” she sniffed. “They just returned one of my checks with a note saying, ‘Insufficient Funds’.”
* * * * *
Eino, a Finn from Cook County in northern Minnesota, was an older, single gentleman who was born and raised a Lutheran. Each Friday night after work, he would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a venison steak.
Now, all of Eino’s neighbors were Catholic…..and since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating meat on Fridays. The delicious aroma from the grilled venison steaks was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked to their priest. The priest came to visit Eino, and suggested that Eino convert to Catholicism.
After several classes and much study, Eino attended Mass…..and as the priest sprinkled holy water over Eino, he said, “You were born a Lutheran and raised a Lutheran, but now you are Catholic.”
Eino’s neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived, and the wonderful aroma of grilled venison filled the neighborhood.
The priest was called immediately by the neighbors and, as he rushed into Eino’s yard, clutching a rosary and prepared to scold Eino, he stopped in amazement and watched……
There stood Eino, clutching a small bottle of water which he carefully sprinkled over the grilling meat, and chanting: “You were born a deer, and raised a deer, but now you are a walleye.
* * * * *
Share and Share Alike
A couple whose marriage was on the rocks sought the advice of their pastor. The pastor encouraged them to patch up their quarrel and keep their vows, but the couple was adamant.
“Well,” said the pastor, “you know the consequences if you insist on a divorce. Remember this: you must divide your property equally.”
The wife flared up. “You mean the $4,000 I have saved up? I must give him half? My money?”
“Yes,” said the pastor. “He gets $2,000. You get $2,000.”
“What about my furniture? I paid for that.”
“Same thing,” answered the pastor. “You split it equally.”
There was a challenging gleam in the wife’s eye. “What about our three children?”
The pastor was stumped at first but then quickly came up with a Solomonic solution. “Go back and live together until your fourth child is born. Then you take two children and your husband takes two.”
The wife shook her head. “No, I’m sure that wouldn’t work out. If I depended on him, I wouldn’t have the three I’ve got.”
* * * * *
The Stud
Two priests die at the same time and meet Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter said, “I’d like to get you guys in now, but our computer is down. You’ll have to go back to Earth for about a week, but you can’t go back as priests. So what else would you like to be?”
The first priest says, “I’ve always wanted to be an eagle, soaring above the Rocky Mountains.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and off flies the first priest.
The second priest asks, “Will any of this week ‘count’, St. Peter?”
“No,” he says. “I told you the computer’s down. There’s no way we can keep track of what you’re doing.”
“In that case. I’ve always wanted to be a stud.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and the second priest disappears.
When the computer is running again, God asks St. Peter to recall the two priests. “Will you have any trouble locating them?”
“The first one should be easy,” says St. Peter. “He’s somewhere over the Rockies, flying with the eagles. But the second one could prove to be more difficult” He’s on a snow tire, somewhere in North Dakota.”
* * * * *
The New Baby
After the birth of his baby brother, a little boy was thoroughly annoyed at all of his crying and screaming.
“Where did we get him anyway?” he asked his mother.
“He came from heaven!” his mother replied.
“Well I can see why they threw him out!” the boy replied.
* * * * *
Fine Dining and Divine Frugality
God greets Mother Teresa at the Pearly Gates. “Thou be hungry, Mother Teresa?” saith God. “I could eat,” Mother Teresa replies. So God opens a can of tuna and reaches for a chunk of rye bread and they share it.
While eating this humble meal, Mother Teresa looks down into Hell and sees the inhabitants devouring huge steaks, lobsters, pheasants, pastries and fine wines. Curious, but deeply trusting, Mother Teresa remains quiet.
The next day God again invites Mother Teresa to join him for a meal. Again, it is tuna and rye bread. Once again looking down, Mother Teresa can see the denizens of Hell enjoying caviar, champagne, lamb, truffles and chocolates. Still Mother Teresa says nothing.
The following day, mealtime arrives and another can of tuna is opened. Mother Teresa can’t contain herself any longer. Meekly, she says: “God, I am grateful to be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here in heaven all I get to eat is tuna and a
piece of rye bread and in the Other Place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but I just don’t understand…”
God sighs. “Let’s be honest, Mother Teresa,” he says. “For just two people, does it pay to cook?!”
* * * * *
Fred was very old, sick, and doctors said he would not l and dying. There was an elderly man at home in his bed, dying. He smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies baking in the kitchen downstairs, and he wanted one last cookie before he died. His life fading, he made his way down the stairs and crawled into the kitchen where his wife was busily baking cookies.
With his last remaining strength, he crawled to the table and was just barely able to lift his withered arm to the cookie sheet. As he grasped a warm, moist chocolate chip cookie, his favorite kind, his wife suddenly whacked his hand with a spatula.
Gasping for breath, he asked her, “Why did you do that?”
“Those are for the funeral.
* * * * *
Not Broken
After examining the miserly tips left by a church group, our waitress was not pleased. Looking toward my table, she grumbled, “These people come in with the Ten Commandments and a ten-dollar bill, and they don’t break any of them!”
+ + + + +
Everybody Pull!
An out-of-town pastor drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse, named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, “Pull, Martha, pull!” Buddy didn’t move.
Then the farmer hollered, “Pull, Peter, pull!” Buddy didn’t respond.
Once more the farmer commanded, “Pull, Jezebel, pull!”
Nothing.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, “Pull, Buddy, pull!” And the horse easily
dragged the car out of the ditch.
The pastor was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.
The farmer said, “Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one
pulling, he wouldn’t even try.”
Stewardship Application: Buddy’s sort of like a church member on stewardship Sunday. Christians need to know others have “skin in the game” too. Don’t holler “Whoa, mule!” before you even get started. Make it a team effort–even if you have to pull in the “invisible” reserve players.
* * * * *
Mary was surprised to receive $10 from her uncle for her birthday. The uncle asked how she was going to spend it.
Mary said, “I’m taking it to Sunday School to put in the offering. God’s gonna be just as surprised as I was at not getting a dollar like usual!”
* * * * *
The new minister in the local congregation learned that one of the wealthiest members on the roll was not a regular contributor or attender, so he made a phone call.
“From all appearances your business is doing quite well, yet you haven’t given a penny to your own church,” the pastor began. “Wouldn’t you like to help us in ministry this year?”
The lapsed member replied, “Did you know that my mother is ill, with extremely expensive medical bills?”
“Um, no,” mumbled the pastor.
“Or that my brother is blind and unemployed? Or that my sister’s husband died, leaving her broke with four kids?”
“I … I … I had no idea.”
“So,” said the member, “if I don’t give them any money, why would I give any to the church?”
* * * * *
An archeologist, a pastor, and an entomologist were discussing the ongoing search for Noah’s ark.
“I have faith that we will find it one day,” opined the pastor.
“I agree,” said the archeologist, “but you need my scientific skill and expertise.”
“You’re both wrong,” sniffed the entomologist. “I can guarantee that the ark will never be found.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked the other two.
“Well, if it’s true Noah included two of every critter, then the termites have taken care of the evidence,” replied the entomologist.
* * * * *
A preacher went into his church and he was praying to God. While he was praying, he asked God, “How long is 10 million years to you?” God replied, “1 second.” The next day the preacher asked God, “God, how much is 10 million dollars to you?” And God replied, “A penny.” Then finally the next day the preacher asked God, “God, can I have one of your pennies?” And God replied, “Just wait a sec.”
* * * * *
The Preacher and his Horse
A circuit-riding preacher trained his horse to go when he said, “Praise the Lord,” and to stop when he said, “Amen.” The preacher mounted the horse, said “Praise the Lord,” and went for a ride in the nearby mountains.
When he wanted to stop for lunch by a mountain stream, he said, “Amen.”
He took off again, saying “Praise the Lord.”
The horse started heading toward the edge of a cliff on a narrow mountain trail. The preacher got excited and said, “Whoa!” Then he remembered and said, “Amen,” and the horse stopped just short of the edge. The preacher was so relieved that he looked up to heaven and said, “Praise the Lord!”
* * * * *
The Chief Hog
A church secretary answered the phone and heard the caller say, “I want to talk to the chief hog of the trough.”
“Sir,” she replied, “that is no way to talk about the Reverend. He is the pastor of this church.”
“Sorry, Lady,” he said. “I just wanted to donate $100,000 to the church.”
Quickly she said, “Just a minute. Here comes the big fat pig now!”
* * * * *
Ole and Lena were sitting side by side on the pew listening to the pastor go on and on with his sermon. Lena looked over and noticed that Ole’s eyes were closed. She elbowed him in the ribs.
“Wake up, Ole! What are you doing going to sleep during the sermon?”
“I was not asleep; I was considering the great hereafter,” whispered Ole.
“He’s not talking about heaven,” said Lena.
“I know he’s not.” said Ole. “I was thinking about the coffee and donuts we’ll have here after.”
* * * * *
Kill the Sermon Not the Messenger!
The new pastor was earnestly practicing his sermon delivery in the empty sanctuary when he realized the elderly sexton was standing in the doorway listening.
“I’ll bet you’ve heard a lot of preaching over the years,” said the pastor, trying to make small talk. “What did you think of my sermon execution?”
“Better make sure it’s dead,” replied the sexton.
* * * * *
In honor of the recent finding of the Higgs Boson Particle:
Higgs Boson walks into a Catholic church. Priest says, “How dare you call yourself the God particle! Blasphemer! Get out!” Higgs Boson says: “Well, OK–but without me, you can’t have mass!”
* * * * *
Money isn’t everything.
It can buy a house, but not a home.
It can buy a bed, but not sleep.
It can buy a clock, but not time.
It can buy you a book, but not knowledge.
It can buy you a position, but not respect.
It can buy you medicine, but not health.
It can buy you blood, but not life.
It can buy you sex, but not love.
So you see, money isn’t everything…
I tell you all this because I am your friend, and as your friend I want to take away your pain and suffering… so send me all your money, and I will suffer for you.
CASH ONLY, PLEASE!
* * * * *
The cash-strapped church was doing all it can to save money. The altar guild proudly reported they had saved $5 by washing the linens by hand, rather than having them dry cleaned.
“Great,” the pastor said. “Wash them again!”
* * * * *
A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting the $100. When the local postal authorities received the letter addressed to the Lord, USA, they decided to send it to the IRS. The agent who opened the letter was so impressed, touched, and amused that he sent the little boy a $5.00 bill, thinking this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00, and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord. It said: Dear Lord, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through the IRS and as usual, those jerks deducted $95.
*****
HYMN # 365
A minister was preaching a sermon about the evils of alcohol. With great emphasis he said, ‘If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.
With even greater emphasis he said, ‘And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’
And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he said, ‘And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’
Sermon complete, he sat down…
The choir director stood cautiously and announced with a smile, nearly laughing, ‘There will be a change for the hymn of the day. Please turn to #365, ‘Shall We Gather at the River.’
* * * * * *
On the way to Sunday school with his offering money, little Johnny stopped at the convenience store for candy. “Shouldn’t you give that money to church?” asked the shopkeeper. “No, I ll spend the money on chocolate, and then you can give it to church.”
* * * * *
Pesky squirrels had overrun the town’s four churches: Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Lutheran.
After much prayer and consideration, the Presbyterians determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and people shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will.
In the Baptist Church the squirrels had nested in the baptistery, so the deacons put a lid on it and tried to drown the squirrels. But they escaped and kept on multiplying.
The Methodists decided they would not harm any of God’s creaturs, so they humanely trapped the critters and set them free across town. Three days later the squirrels were back.
The Lutherans came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels, made them members of the church and gave them a copy of the popular tract, “Tithing In A Nutshell.” The horrified squirrels immediately left for the Methodist Church.
* * * * *
A man being mugged by two thugs put up a tremendous fight! Finally, the thugs subdued him and took his wallet. Upon finding only two dollars in the wallet, the surprised thug said “Why did you put up such a fight?” To which the man promptly replied “I was afraid that you would find the $200 hidden in my shoe!”
* * * * *
Pastor to a congregation member: “Can you give me change for a dollar?”
Member: “Sure thing, pal.”
Pastor: “Pal? Pal?? Is that any way to talk to your pastor? Let’s try it again Can you give me change for a dollar?”
Member: “No, reverend.”
* * * * *
Question and answer
Q: Why didn’t Noah go fishing?
A: He had only two worms!
Q: When was the longest day in the Bible?
A: The day Adam was created because there was no Eve.
Q: Why did God create man before woman?
A: God didn’t want any advice.
Q: What do you call a sleepwalking nun?
A: A roamin’ Catholic!
Doctor: ‘Your recovery was a miracle!’
Patient: ‘PRAISE GOD. Now I don’t have to pay you!’
Q: Why did Moses wander in the desert for 40 years?
A: Even then men wouldn’t ask for directions!
*****
Planning His Future
After a church service on Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, “Mom, I’ve decided to become a minister When I grow up.”
“That’s okay with us, but what made you decide that?”
“Well,” said the little boy, “I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit and listen.”
* * * * *
The Tate Family
How many members of the Tate family belong to your church?
There is old man Dic-Tate who wants to run everything, while Uncle Ro-Tate tries to change everything. There’s sister Agi-Tate who stirs up plenty of trouble, with help from her husband, Irri-Tate. Whenever new projects are suggested, Hesi-Tate and his wife, Vege-Tate, want to wait until next year. Then there is Aunt Imi-Tate, who wants our church to be like all the others. Devas-Tate provides the voice of doom, while Poten-Tate wants to be a big shot. But not all members of the family are bad. Brother Facili-Tate is quite helpful in church matters. And a delightful, happy member of the family is Miss Felici-Tate. Cousins Cogi-Tate and Medi-Tate always think things over and lend helpful, steady hands. And of course there is the black sheep of the family, Ampu-Tate, who has completely cut himself off from the church. How about it – do you know anyone in the “Tate” family?
* * * * *
Eager to hire the young pastor just out of seminary, the elder of the small country church asked what kind of salary the candidate expected.
“I’d like $70,000, housing, full medical benefits and a generous retirement plan,” said the pastor.
The elder replied, “How about a brand new BMW too?”
“Your kidding!” said the pastor.
“I am,” the elder said, “but you started it!
* * * * *
How Much is an Easter Sermon Worth?
One Easter Sunday Pastor Jones announced to the congregation, ‘My good people, I have here in my hands three sermons……
A $100 sermon that lasts five minutes
A $50 sermon that lasts fifteen minutes
And a $20 sermon that lasts a full hour.
Now, we’ll take the offering and see which one I’ll deliver.’
* * * * *
The new pastor was startled to learn that the wealthiest member of the congregation never gave a dime. So she stopped by to ask him why.
“The annual report of your corporation lists your salary at $750,000, and yet you never have given to the church,” she began. “May I ask why?”
“Well,” he began, “Did the corporate report mention that my mother is ill, with extremely expensive medical bills? Or that I have three children in expensive private schools? Or that my brother, who has a wife and three children, was disabled in an accident and can’t work?” He asked again. “Was any of that in the corporate report?”
“No,” said the pastor. “So sorry.”
“Well,” he concluded, “If I don’t give them any money, why would I give any to the church?”
* * * * *
The friendly usher at the country church greeted the elderly woman visitor at the door and helped her up the steps. “Where would you like to sit?” he asked politely.
“The front row, please,” she answered.
“You really don’t want to do that,” the usher said. “The pastor is really boring.”
“Do you happen to know who I am?” the woman inquired.
“No,” he said.
“I’m the pastor’s mother,” she replied indignantly.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
“Good,” he answered.
* * * * *
A seminary student was preaching his first sermon. He meant to say that “God called me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out the devil.” However, what came off of his stammering tongue was, “God called me to heal the dead, cast out the sick, and raise the devil.”
* * * * *
By the time Bobby arrived, the football game had already started. “Why are you so late?” asked his friend.
“I couldn’t decide between going to church and going to the football game. So I tossed a coin,” said Bobby.
“But that shouldn’t have taken too long.” said the friend.
“Well, I had to toss it 35 times.”
* * * * *
Father George was opening his mail one morning. Taking a single sheet of paper from an envelope, he found written on it only one word: ‘Fool’.
The following Sunday, in church, Father George announced to the assembled congregation, ‘I have known many people who have written letters to me and forgotten to sign their names. But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and had forgotten to write a letter.’
* * * * *
The chairman of the finance committee grumpily declared that the meeting could not go forward because they were one person shy of a quorum. Eager to get on with the meeting’s business, the pastor insisted he be allowed to pray.
“Dear Jesus,” he began, “You have taught us that where two or three are gathered in your name, you are also. We gather in your name, Lord, so we know you are here to make a quorum.”
Red faced, the chairman convened the meeting.
* * * * *
A woman approached the minister after the sermon, and thanked him for his discourse. “I found it so helpful,” she said.
The minister replied: “I hope it will not prove as helpful as the last sermon you heard me preach.”
“Why, what do you mean?” asked the astonished woman.
“Well,” said the minister, “that sermon lasted you three months.”
* * * * *
After a very long and boring sermon the parishoners filed out of the church saying nothing to the preacher. Towards the end of the line was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.”Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God!”
“Wow!” gushed the pastor. “Tell me why.”
“Well – it reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding and the Love of God because it endured forever!”
Babysitter
A Sunday School teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. A small child replied, “They couldn’t get a babysitter.”
* * * * * * *
What are the Three Gifts?
While participating in a church Christmas pageant many years past, I had the good fortune to be chosen as the narrator. Each rehearsal went off well and then on the night of the show, I, in a loud and penetrating voice, announced the gifts of the Magi as “gold, Frankenstein, and myrrh.”
* * * * * * *
Confused
Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac?
He would stay up all night wondering about the existence of doG.
The Inn is Full
A Jewish lady named Mrs. Rosenberg many years ago was stranded late one night at a fashionable resort – one that did not admit Jews. The desk clerk looked down at his book and said, “Sorry, no room. The hotel is full.”
The Jewish lady said, “But your sign says that you have vacancies.”
The desk clerk stammered and then said curtly, “You know that we do not admit Jews. Now if you will try the other side of town…”
Mrs. Rosenberg stiffened noticeable and said, “I’ll have you know I converted to your religion.”
The desk clerk said, “Oh, yeah, let me give you a little test. How was Jesus born?”
Mrs. Rosenberg replied, “He was born to a virgin named Mary in a little town called Bethlehem.”
“Very good,” replied the hotel clerk. “Tell me more.”
Mrs. Rosenberg replied, “He was born in a manger.”
“That’s right,” said the hotel clerk. “And why was he born in a manger?”
Mrs. Rosenberg said loudly, “Because a jerk like you in the hotel wouldn’t give a Jewish lady a room for the night!”
* * * * *
The Perfect Pastor
The Perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes, condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone’s feelings. The perfect pastor works from 8 a.m. until midnight, is always on call, and fills in as the church caretaker.
The Perfect Pastor makes $500 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $100 a week to the church. He or she is 29 years old and has 40 years’ worth of experience.
The Perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of the time with the senior citizens. He or she smiles all the time with a straight face because of a sense of humor that maintains serious dedication to the church. The perfect pastor makes 15 home visits a day and is always in the office when needed.
The Perfect Pastor always has time for church meetings and all of its committees, never missing the meeting of any church organization. And he or she is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.
The Perfect Pastor is always in the next town over!
Perplexed Primate
The gorilla at the zoo looked confused as he read two books –the Bible and Darwin’s “Origin of the Species.” The tiger asked him what was wrong.
“I can’t figure out if I’m supposed to be my brother’s keeper or my keeper’s brother.”
* * * * *
Jesus and Cornelius
One night a robber broke into a home and heard a voice say, “Jesus is watching you!” while he rummaged through the desk.
He replied, “Who said that?!”
Once again he heard the same thing, “Jesus is watching you!”
The robber looked around the room only to see a parrot. He asked the parrot what its name was. The parrot replied, “Cornelius.”
The robber said, “What kind of a name is that?! Who names a parrot that?!”
The parrot said, “The same person who named that rottweiler behind you Jesus.”
* * * * *
Nuts by the Fence
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.
“One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,” said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
“Come here quick,” said the boy, “you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls.”
The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.” When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me…”
The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord.”
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”
They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the kid on the bike.
* * * * *
The Christian barber had been thinking he should share his faith with his customers more, and one night in pryer he decided to witness to the first customer who walked in the next morning.
Soon after he opened his shop the first man came in and said, “I want a shave!”
The barber said, “Certainly. I’ll be with you in a moment.” He went in the back of his shop and prayed: “Lord, I’m going to witness to this man, so help me to know just the right thing to say. Amen.”
Then quickly the barber came out with his razor knife in one hand and a Bible in the other while saying “Good morning sir. I have a question for you … Are you ready to die?”
* * * * *
Frustrated by his congregation’s apathy, the pastor surprised the Altar Guild volunteer when he ordered that prune juice be used instead of wine for communion. “Why prune juice?” she asked.
The pastor smiled. “If my sermons won’t move them, the prune juice will!”
* * * * *
The Veterinarian
One Sunday, in counting the money in the weekly offering, the pastor of a small church found a pink envelope containing $1,000. It happened again the next week!
The following Sunday, he watched as the offering was collected and saw an elderly woman put the distinctive pink envelope on the plate. This went on for weeks until the pastor, overcome by curiosity, approached her.
“Ma’am, I couldn’t help but notice that you put $1,000 a week in the collection plate,” he stated.
“Why, yes,” she replied, “every week my son sends me money, and I give some of it to the church.”
The pastor replied, “That’s wonderful. But $1,000 is a lot; are you sure you can afford this? How much does he send you?”
The elderly woman answered, “$10,000 a week.”
The pastor was amazed. “Your son is very successful; what does he do for a living?”
“He is a veterinarian,” she answered.
“That’s an honorable profession……I had no idea they made that much money,” the pastor said….”Where does he practice?”
The woman answered proudly, “In Nevada…He has two cat houses, one in Las Vegas, and one in Reno!!!”
* * * * *
The village pastor was known for his weakness for trout. He loved trout and he loved to fish. “But not on Sunday!” he preached in the sermon.
The next day one of his members presented him with a fine string of fish. “I guess I ought to tell you, parson, that those trout were caught on Sunday.”
The minister hesitated, gazed appreciatively at the speckled trout. And he accepted the gift.
“The fish aren’t to blame for that,” he said piously.
* * * * *
A pig and a chicken were walking through a poor section of the city.
The chicken said to the pig, “Look at all those hungry people. Let’s give them ham and eggs for breakfast.”
The pig said, “Wait a minute. For you, it’s a donation. For me, it’s a sacrifice.”
* * * * *
A few more definitions for words near and dear to the hearts of Christians everywhere:
Bulletin: 1)Something to read during the sermon; 2)a fan used in churches without air conditioning; 3)your receipt for attending church.
Choir: A group of people who sing loudly enough to enable the rest of us to lip-sync all hymns.
Recessional hymn: The final hymn of a Church service; this hymn is usually the quietest of all hymns because so many parishioners have already left before it is sung.
* * * * *
A cat and a mouse died on the same day and went up to Heaven. At the top they met God and he asked them ‘How do you like it so far?’
The mouse replied ‘It’s great, but can I get a pair of roller skates?’ God said ‘Sure’, and he gave him a pair of roller skates.
The next day God saw the cat and asked him ‘How do you like it up here so far?’ and the cat replied ‘Great, I didn’t know you had meals on wheels up here!’
* * * * *
Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, “My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50.”
The second boy says, “That’s nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100.”
The third boy says, “I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon. And it takes eight people to collect all the money!”
* * * * *
Johnny was on the way to church when he stopped by the corner store. He was going to use his Sunday school money to buy candy when the proprietor, who knew the family well, put up his hand.
“Son, you should give that money to the church.”
Johnny replied, “I have an better idea, I’ll buy the candy, and then YOU can give it to the church.!”
* * * * *
An old man was on his death bed, and wanted to be buried with his money. He called his priest, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. “Here’s $30,000 cash to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me.”
At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin. Riding away in a limousine, the priest suddenly broke into tears and confessed, “I only put $20,000 into the envelope because I needed $10,000 to repair the roof of the church.”
“Well, since we’re confiding in each other,” said the doctor, “I only put $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new X-ray machine for the pediatrics ward at the hospital which cost $20,000.”
The lawyer was aghast. “I’m ashamed of both of you,” he exclaimed. “I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, I enclosed a check for the full $30,000.”
* * * * *
Three men died in a car accident and met Jesus himself at the Pearly Gates. The Lord spoke unto them saying, “I will ask you each a simple question. If you tell the truth I will allow you into heaven, but if you lie….Hell is waiting for you.
To the first man the Lord asked, “How many times did you cheat on your wife?” The first man replied, “Lord, I was a good husband. I never cheated on my wife.” The Lord replied, “Very good! Not only will I allow you in, but for being faithful to your wife I will give you a huge mansion and a limo for your transportation.
To the second man the Lord asked, “How many times did you cheat on your wife?” The second man replied, “Lord, I cheated on my wife twice.” The Lord replied, “I will allow you to come in, but for your unfaithfulness, you will get a four- bedroom house and a BMW. To the third man the Lord asked, “So, how many times did you cheat on your wife?”
The third man replied, “Lord, I cheated on my wife about 8 times.” The Lord replied, “I will allow you to come in, but for your unfaithfulness, you will get a one-room apartment, and a Yugo for your transportation.
A couple hours later the second and third men saw the first man crying his eyes out. “Why are you crying?” the two men asked. “You got the mansion and limo!” The first man replied, “I’m crying because I saw my wife a little while ago, and she was riding a skateboard!”
* * * * *
An elderly woman had recently died. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote …
“They wouldn’t take me out while I was alive; I don’t want them to take me out when I’m dead.”
*****
After church, Johnny tells his parents he has to go and talk to the minister right away. They agree and the pastor greets the family.
“Pastor,” Johnny says, “I heard you say today that our bodies came from the dust.”
“That’s right, Johnny, I did.”
“And I heard you say that when we die, our bodies go back to dust.”
“Yes, I’m glad you were listening. Why do you ask?”
“Well you better come over to our house right away and look under my bed ’cause there’s someone either comin’ or goin’!”
* * * * *
Mr. Johnson, a businessman from Wisconsin, went on a business trip to Louisiana. He immediately sent an e-mail back to his wife, Jean. Unfortunately, he mistyped a letter and the e-mail ended up going to a Mrs. Joan Johnson, the wife of a preacher who just passed away.
The preacher’s wife took one look at the e-mail and promptly fainted. When she was finally revived, she nervously pointed to the message, which read: “Arrived safely, but it sure is hot down here!”
* * * * *
For the benefit of the unchurched, here is a glossary of “churchy” words:
Bulletin– 1 )Something to read during the sermon; 2)a fan used in churches without air conditioning; 3)your receipt for attending church.
Choir– A group of people who sing loudly enough to enable the rest of us to lip-sync all hymns.
Recessional hymn– The final hymn of a service; this hymn is usually the quietest of all hymns because so many parishioners have already left before it is sung.
* * * * *
After a very long and boring sermon the parishioners filed out of the church saying nothing to the preacher. Towards the end of the line was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.
“Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God!”
The pastor was thrilled. “No one has ever said anything like that about my preaching before. Tell me why.”
Well, it reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding and the Love of God because it endured forever!”
* * * * *
The most expensive vehicle to operate, per mile, is the shopping cart!
* * * * *
This minister just had all of his remaining teeth pulled and new dentures were being made.The first Sunday, he preached only 10 minutes.
The second Sunday, he preached only 20 minutes.
But, on the third Sunday, he preached 1 hour 25 minutes.
When asked about this by some of the congregation, he responded this way.
The first Sunday, my gums were so sore it hurt to talk.
The second Sunday, my dentures were hurting a lot.
The third Sunday, I accidentally grabbed my wife’s dentures… and I couldn’t stop talking!
* * * * *
The little boy was helping his mom around the house, and he left the broom on the back porch.
His mother was cleaning up the kitchen when she realized that her broom was missing.She asked the little boy about the broom and he told her where it was.
She then asked him to please go get it. The little boy informed his mom that he was afraid of the dark and didn’t want to go out to get the broom.
His mother smiled and said “The Lord is out there too, don’t be afraid.”
The little boy opened the back door a little and said “Lord if you’re out there, please hand me the broom.”
* * * * *
A policeman pulls over a car full of nuns. “Sister, this is a 55 MPH highway,” he says, “Why are you going so slow?”
The Sister replies, “Sir, I saw a lot of signs that said 40, not 55.
“Oh, Sister, ” the officer says, “that’s not the speed limit, that’s the highway you are on!”
The Sister says, “Oh! Silly me! Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be more careful.”
At this point, the officer sees the other nuns in the car shaking and trembling. “Excuse me, Sister, what’s wrong with your friends back there?”
The Sister answers, “Oh, we just got off Highway 101.”
** * * *
“Sunday school was boring,” groused the fourth grader.
His mother asked, “Did you study Jesus?
“”No,” the boy sulked. “He wasn’t even there!”
* * * *
A man wanted to be buried with his money. On his death bed, he called his pastor, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. “Here’s $30,000to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me.”
At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin. Riding away in a limousine, the pastor suddenly broke into tears and confessed, “I put only $20,000 into the envelope because I needed $10,000 to repair the roof of the church.”
“Well, since we’re confiding in each other,” said the doctor, “I put only $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new CAT Scan machine for the pediatrics ward at the hospital, and we were $20,000 short.”
The lawyer was aghast. “I’m ashamed of both of you,” he exclaimed. “I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, I enclosed a check for the full $30,000.”
* * * * *
A businessman was in big trouble. He had put everything into his business, and now it was failing. It was so bad he was even contemplating suicide. As a last resort he went to a priest and poured out his story of tears and woe.
When he had finished, the priest said, “Here’s what I want you to do: Put a beach chair and your Bible in your car and drive down to the beach. Take the beach chair and the Bible to the water’s edge, sit down in the beach chair, and put the Bible in your lap. Open the Bible; the wind will rifle the pages, but finally the open Bible will come to rest on a page. Look down at the page and read the first thing you see. That will be your answer, that will tell you what to do.”
A year later the businessman went back to the priest and brought his wife and children with him. The man was in a new custom-tailored suit, his wife in a mink coat, the children shining. The businessman pulled an envelope stuffed with money out of his pocket, gave it to the priest as a donation in thanks for his advice.
The priest recognized the benefactor, and was curious. “You did as I suggested?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” replied the businessman.
“You went to the beach?”
“Absolutely.”
“You sat in a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?”
“Absolutely.”
“You let the pages rifle until they stopped?”
“Absolutely.”
“And what were the first words you saw?”
“Chapter 11.”
* * * * *
The choir director became peeved when a buzzing insect distracted the singers during practice. When it landed, she promptly squashed it.
“What is it?” a singer asked.
The director grinned: “A bee-flat!”
* * * * *
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny, what is the matter?”
Little Johnny responded, “I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”
*****
Greeting people at the door after Easter services, Pastor Jane was delighted to shake hands with “Seldom-Seen” Steve, and even more delighted when he complimented her on her sermon and said service was “amazing.” Faced with such evidence of faithfulness, she asked why he didn’t come to church more often.
“I’m just following the Lord’s example,” he said. “If Christ can rise up early only one Sunday a year, that’s good enough for me, too!”
*****
This year’s church carnival included a dunking tank, where softball throwers with good aim could make a big splash with the pastor. The tank proved a popular attraction, but things really took off when the pastor put a sign above himself that read, “Goliath.”
*****
In a moment creative inspiration, the entrepreneur who owned the Laundromat beside the church commissioned this sign for his window: “Where cleanliness really is next to Godliness!”
*****
Two pastors were riding very fast on a motorcycle. They were promptly stopped by a policeman who said, “What do you think you are doing? What if you have an accident?”
The pastor driving said, “Don’t worry, Jesus is with us.”
“In that case,” the policeman said, “I have to book you. Three people are not allowed to ride on a motorcycle.”
*****
A Pastor in Florida lamented that it was very difficult to get his message across to his congregation. “It’s so beautiful here in the winter,” he said, “that heaven doesn’t interest them. And it’s so hot here in the summer that hell doesn’t scare them.”
*****
Jesus made a quick return to earth for a visit. He came upon a lame man, had compassion on him, and healed his leg. Further down the road, Our Lord came upon a blind man, had compassion on him, and healed him. A little further down the road, Jesus came upon a man sitting on the curb sobbing his heart out. Jesus asked him what was wrong. The man cried out in agony, “I’m a pastor!”
Jesus sat down beside him, put his arm around him… and cried too.
*****
Bulletin Bloopers
“As we move into the new worship center we want to ask everyone to avoid carrying food or drink (coffee, soft drinks, candy, pot, etc.) into the sanctuary.”
“The outreach committee has enlisted 25 volunteers to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.”
“Parents are asked to remind their children to be on their pest behavior.”
“Announcement requesting baking donations for the annual bazaar: ‘And I don’t want abstract promises. I want concrete pies!'” “Announcing a covenanting service for the new minister, the bulletin had it as a ‘coveting’ service.”
“As soon as the weather clears up, the men will have a goof outing.”
From Ralph Milton’s RUMORS, a free Internet ‘e-zine’ for Christians with a sense of humor.” Subscribe by sending a blank email to rumors-subscribe@joinhands.com.
*****
“The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”
–George Burns
*****
An Irishman goes into the confessional box after years of being away from the Church. There’s a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates.
Then the priest comes in. “Father, forgive me, for it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to confession,” says our man. “But I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be.”
“Get out,” says the priest. “You’re on my side.”
–Shamelessly stolen from Rumors, the weekly ezine of Ralph Milton.
*****
An unmarried guy decides life would be more fun if he had a pet. So he goes to the pet store looking for something a bit unusual. He finally settles on a talking centipede, the kind that really does have a hundred legs.
The next day being Sunday, he decides to take the centipede to church. He goes up to the little centipede box and says, “Would you like to go to church with me today?”
There’s no answer. A few minutes later he tries again. “How about going to church with me?” After a few more minutes, he says, more urgently, “Are you coming?”
A tiny, bug-like voice comes out of the box. “I heard you the first time! I’m putting on my shoes.”
*****
To prepare for his talk about global missions, the speaker had brought an inflatable globe the size of a beach ball. Misfortune struck when minutes before the talk his globe sprang a leak and deflated.
Nonplused, the speaker used the limp prop to make a point: “Funny how, when you get rid of a lot of the hot air, the world isn’t very small after all.”
*****
An elderly couple were killed in an accident and found themselves being given a tour of heaven by Saint Peter.
Here is your oceanside condo, over there are the tennis courts, swimming pool, and two golf courses. If you need any refreshments, just stop by any of the many bars located throughout the area,” said Peter.
“Heck, Gloria,” the old man hissed when Saint Peter walked off, “we could have been here ten years ago if you hadn’t insisted on exercising three times a week and eating that stupid oat bran, wheat germ, and low-fat food!”
*****
As Bill was approaching mid-life, not only was he going bald, but he also had a large pot belly. The last straw came when he asked a woman co-worker out on a date, and she all but laughed at him. Determined to change his life, he joined a gym, started eating right, and got an expensive hair transplant and new clothes. Six months later he asked his female co-worker out, and this time she accepted.
All dressed up for the date, looking better than he ever had. He stood poised to ring the woman’s doorbell, when a bolt of lightning struck him and knocked him off his feet. As he lay there dying, he turned his eyes toward the heavens and said, “Why, God, why now? After all I’ve been through, how could you do this to me?”
From up above, there came a voice, “Bill? Is that you? I didn’t recognize you.”
*****
The drunk boasts to the stranger he’s just met, “I’m Jesus Christ, and I can prove it!” He leads his new friend to a bar. When they enter, the bartender looks up and yells “Jesus Christ, are you here again?”
*****
A guy goes to a zoo and sees a gorilla with two books. The gorilla looks confused. One of the books is the Bible, the other Darwin. The guy asks the gorilla why he looks confused. The gorilla says “I can’t figure out if I’m my brother’s keeper or my keeper’s brother!”
*****
It was just before Christmas and the magistrate was in a happy mood. He asked the prisoner who was in the dock, ‘What are you charged with?’
The prisoner replied, ‘Doing my Christmas shopping too early.’
‘That’s no crime’, said the magistrate. ‘Just how early were you doing this shopping?’
‘Before the shop opened’, answered the prisoner.
*****
Pastor’s Announcement Before Offering:
“I would like to remind you that what you are about to give is deductible, cannot be taken with you and is considered in the Bible that the love of this is the root of all evil.”
*****
A Sunday School teacher decided to have her 2nd grade class memorize Psalm 23, one of the most quoted passages in the Bible. She gave the children a month to learn the chapter.
One little boy was excited about the task, but he just couldn’t memorize the Psalm. Although he practiced and practiced, he could hardly get past the first line. The day came for the children to recite Psalm 23 before the congregation. The little boy was nervous. When his turn came, he stepped up to the microphone and proudly said, “The Lord is my Shepherd and that’s all I need to know!”
*****
Forget EPA estimates! Per mile, the most expensive vehicle to operate is the shopping cart!
*****
The visiting preacher was really getting the congregation moving. Near the end of his sermon he said, “This church has really got to walk,” to which someone in the back yelled, “Let her walk, preacher!”
The preacher then said, “If this church is going to go, it’s got to get up and run!” Somone again yelled with gusto, “Let her run preacher.”
Feeling the surge of the church, the preacher then said with even louder gusto, “If this church is going to go it’s got to really fly!” Once again with ever greater gusto, someone yelled, “Let her fly, preacher, let her fly!”
The preacher then seized the moment and stated with even greater gusto, “If this church is really going to fly, it’s going to need money!” Someone in the back yelled, with gusto, “Let her walk, preacher, let her walk!”
*****
Our church was saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valued members, Someone Else. Someone’s passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. Else has been with us for many years and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than a normal person’s share of the work.
Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s list, “Let Someone Else do it.” Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results; “Someone Else can work with that group.”
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most generous givers in our church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference.
Someone Else was a wonderful person; sometimes appearing superhuman. Were the truth known, everybody expected too much of Someone Else. Now Someone Else is gone! We wonder what we are going to do. Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?
When you are asked to help this year, remember — we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.
*****
As my five-year-old son and I were heading to McDonald’s one day, we passed a car accident. Usually when we see something terrible like that, we say a prayer for whoever might be hurt, so I pointed and said to my son, “We should pray.”
From the back seat I heard his earnest voice: “Dear God, please don’t let those cars block the entrance to McDonald’s.”
-Sherri Leard, in Readers Digest
*****
For those who tire of excuses why people don’t go to church, these are the reasons why I never wash. 1. I was forced to wash as a child. 2. People who wash are hypocrites – they think they’re cleaner than others. 3. There are so many kinds of soap I could never decide which was right. 4. I used to wash, but it got boring. 5. I only wash on Christmas and Easter. 6. None of my friends wash. 7. I’ll start washing when I’m older. 8. I really don’t have the time. 9. The bathroom isn’t warm enough. 10. People who make soap are only after your money.
*****
A Lutheran pastor and his wife were driving in Chicago, and they were pulled over for speeding. As officer O’Malley approached the pastor, he saw the pastor’s Roman style collar and mistook him for a Catholic priest. “Oh, sorry about that, father,” he said. “Just try and slow it down a little, OK?”
As they drove away, the pastor’s wife said, “Shame on you! You know who he thought you were!”
“Oh, I know who he thought I was,” replied the pastor. “I’m just wondering who he thought you were.”
*****
Two priests die at the same time and meet Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter said, “I’d like to get you guys in now, but our computer is down. You’ll have to go back to Earth for about a week, but you can’t go back as priests. So what else would you like to be?”
The first priest says, “I’ve always wanted to be an eagle, soaring above the Rocky Mountains.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and off flies the first priest.
The second priest asks, “Will any of this week ‘count’, St. Peter?”
“No,” he says. “I told you the computer’s down. There’s no way we can keep track of what you’re doing.”
“In that case. I’ve always wanted to be a stud.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and the second priest disappears.
When the computer is running again, God asks St. Peter to recall the two priests. “Will you have any trouble locating them?”
“The first one should be easy,” says St. Peter. “He’s somewhere over the Rockies, flying with the eagles. But the second one could prove to be more difficult” He’s on a snow tire, somewhere in North Dakota.”
*****
A man died and went to heaven. He was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter who led him down the golden streets. They passed stately homes and beautiful mansions until they came to the end of the street where they stopped in front of a rundown cabin. The man asked St. Peter why he got a hut when there were so many mansions he could live in. St. Peter replied, “I did the best with the money you sent us.”
*****
Three little boys discovered they were about the only ones in their playgroup who weren’t baptized, so they decided to do something about it.
They went to the nearest church, but only the janitor was there. “I’ll baptize you,” he said, and one at a time he dunked their little heads in a toilet bowl.
When they got outside, one of the boys asked, “What religion do you think we are?’
The oldest one said, “We’re not Katlick, because they pour the water on you. And we’re not Babtis, because they dunk all of you in the water.”
The middle boy said, “We’re not Methdiss, because they just sprinkle water on you.”
The littlest one said, “Didn’t you smell that water?! I think we’re Pisscopailians.”
*****
A retired preacher was driving to town to buy a lawn mower when he saw one at a yard sale. When he stopped, he found the mower was purring nicely at idle and the seller assured him it ran great. Satisfied, the preacher brought the mower home. But the next day he pulled the starter rope again and again, but it would not start, no matter what he tried.
Finally he called the seller and accused him of deception. “I said the mower runs great, NOT that it starts great,” the man reminded him. “But there is a secret. You have to cuss at the mower — really let it know who’s boss.”
The preacher was aghast. “I haven’t cussed in years,” he said. “I don’t think I remember how.” The seller chuckled a bit and said, “Well, if you keep pulling on that starter rope, eventually it’ll all come back to you.”
*****
Fun Quotes
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” Benjamin Franklin
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” Abraham Lincoln
*****
“Why don’t you go to church?” the Lutheran pastor asked the man with whom he had struck up a conversation in the grocery line. “All I have are my work clothes,” he said, looking down at his dusty jeans, muddy boots and sweat-stained tee shirt. “I can’t come to a Lutheran Church like this.” The pastor then collected some nice clothes from the congregation and gave the man quite an upgrade in his wardrobe. Several weeks later the pastor bumped into him again. This time the man wore a pair of kakhi slacks, penny loafers and a buttondown shirt. “Why didn’t I see you at church?” the pastor asked. “Well,” the man began, “Last Sunday I showered, shaved and put on the clothes you gave me. I looked so dang good I decided to go to the Episcopal Church instead.”
*****
A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says “get in, get in!” The religious man replies, “No I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle.”
Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again: “God will grant me a miracle.”
With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grant me a miracle and I have been let down.” St. Peter chuckles and responds, “I don’t know what you’re complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter.”
*****
A Sunday school teacher challenged her children to take some time on Sunday afternoon to write a letter to God. They were to bring their letter back the following Sunday. One little boy wrote, “Dear God, We had a good time at church today. Wish you could have been there.”
*****
Biblical Questions and Answers:
Q. Who was the greatest financieer in the Bible?
A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
Q. Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible?
A. Pharaoh’s daughter. She went down to the bank of the Nile and drew out a little prophet.
*****
A lawyer, a doctor and a pastor went hunting. When they saw a buck, all three of them shot at the deer simultaneously. But only one shot struck the buck, and an argument broke out on which of them had actually made the kill.
A game officer came on the scene and, after examining the buck, settled the matter. “The pastor shot the buck,” he said with confidence. “I can tell because the bullet went in one ear and out the other.”
*****
After the service, a parishioner thanked the minister for the wonderful sermon. “I found it so helpful,” she said. The minister replied: “I hope it will not prove as helpful as the last sermon you heard me preach.” “Why, what do you mean?” asked the astonished woman. “Well,” said the minister, “that sermon lasted you three months.”
*****
There is the story of a preacher who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it’s still out there in your pockets.”
*****
Four Catholic ladies are having coffee together. The first one tells her friends, “My son is a priest. When he walks into a room, everyone calls him ‘Father’.”
The second Catholic woman chirps, “My son is a Bishop. Whenever he walks into a room, people say, ‘Your Grace’.”
The third Catholic woman says smugly, “My son is a Cardinal. Whenever he walks into a room, people say, ‘Your Eminence’.”
The fourth Catholic woman sips her coffee in silence. The first three women give her this subtle “Well…..?”
She replies, “My son is a gorgeous, 6’2″, hard bodied stripper. When he walks into a room, people say, ‘Oh my God…’.”
*****
What do you call a sleepwalking nun?
A roamin’ Catholic!
*****
When a toddler asked the pastor why he wore a clerical collar, the minister explained it was part of the “uniform” for a pastor in their denomination. He then removed it from his shirt for the lad to examine.
“Do you know what it says on the collar?” asked the pastor.
The boy, who didn’t know how to read, looked at the letters and guessed, “Kills fleas and ticks up to six months.”
*****
How many sopranos in the choir does it take to change a lightbulb?
1. One. She holds the bulb and the world revolves around her.
2. Two. One to hold the diet cola and the other to get her accompanist to do it.
3. Four. One to change the bulb and three to pull the chair out from under her.
*****
A monastery in the English countryside had fallen on hard times, and decided to establish a business to defray their expenses. Other monasteries, they knew, had opened bakeries or wineries. Being English, however, they decided to open a fish-and-chips restaurant. The establishment soon became very popular, attracting people from all over.
One city fellow, thinking himself clever, asked one of the brothers standing nearby, “I suppose you’re the ‘fish friar’?”
“No,” answered the brother levelly, “I’m the ‘chip monk’.”
*****
Joe was opening a new business, and one of his friends decided to send flowers for the occasion. The flowers arrived and Joe read the card. It said, “Rest in Peace.” Joe, enraged, called the florist to complain. The florist replied, “Sir, I’m really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry, you should imagine this: somewhere there is a funeral taking place today, and they have flowers with a note saying, “Congratulations on your new location.”
*****
A minister was walking to church one morning when he passed one of his members working in his garden. “Can’t you hear those bells calling you to church?” asked the minister.
“Eh, what’s that?” said the member.
“Can’t you hear those bells calling you to church?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to speak a little louder!” said the member.
“CAN’T YOU HEAR THOSE BELLS CALLING YOU TO CHURCH?!” shouted the minister.
“I’m sorry,” said the member, “I can’t hear you because of those darned BELLS!”
*****
When the Lutheran pastor’s three Baptist colleagues accepted her invitation to participate in a special worship service one Sunday, she placed an additional three seats for them in the sanctuary.
The assisting minister asked what they were for.
“Three chairs for the Baptists,” the pastor said.
“What?” asked the assisting minister, who was hard of hearing.
The pastor said louder, “Three chairs for the Baptists.”
“What?” he asked again.
Practically shouting, the pastor said, “Three chairs for the Baptists!”
The assisting minister dutifully turned to the congregation and said, “Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray!”
*****
After finishing the last book of the Left Behind series, the believer’s phone rang, and it was Jesus!
Jesus: “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I am back.”
Believer: “And the bad news?”
Jesus: “I’m calling from Salt Lake City.”
*****
The full-of-herself religious woman was deeply shocked when the new neighbors called on Sunday morning and asked to borrow her lawn mower.
“The very idea of cutting grass on Sunday,” she ranted to her husband. “Shameful! Certainly, they can’t have it. Tell them our lawn mower is broken.”
*****
A boy asks his father to use the car and the father replies “No, not until you cut your hair!”.
The boy replies “But father…Jesus had long hair!”
To which his father says, “Yeah, but Jesus walked everywhere.”
*****
Denominational falling:
When the Methodist minister falls down the stairs, he picks himself up and
says, “That was an experience, how do I learn from it?”
When the Catholic priest falls down the stairs, he picks himself up and
says, “I must have done something really bad to deserve that.”
When the Presbyterian minister falls down the stairs, he picks himself up
and says, “That was inevitable, I’m glad it’s over.”
When a Lutheran minister falls down the stairs, he picks himself up and
says, “Who pushed me?”
*****
The Sunday School teacher was describing that when Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom she turned into a pillar of salt, when Bobby interrupted. “My mommy looked back once while she was driving,” he announced, “and she turned into a telephone pole.”
*****
When you prepare you sermons on paper, they say that you are just reading off the paper and not hearing from God. But when you DON’T have paper, they say that you were not prepared!
*****
A family went to church one day. The choir sang beautifully and the Pastor preached the word of God profoundly. The congregation shouted and danced praised unto God. They had a really exciting time in The Lord. On the way home, the youngest son said. “Dad, I can’t believe they put on that whole show for only a dollar!”
*****
After church one Sunday, little Suzy announced that she wanted to be a pastor. Pleased and surprised, her parents asked her why she came to that decision.
“Well,” she explained, “I figured it would be more fun to stand in front and yell than sit in the pews and listen.”
*****
Inscribed in stone over the front doors of the grand old church was the message,
“This is the Gate of Heaven.”
But on the door the staff had placed a sign, “Please Use Side Entrance.”
*****
Delivering a speech at a banquet on the night of his arrival in a large city, a visiting minister told several anecdotes he expected to repeat at meetings the next day.
Because he wanted to use the jokes again, he requested the reporters to omit them from any accounts they might turn in to their newspapers.
A cub reporter, in commenting on the speech, ended his piece with the following: “The minister told a number of stories that cannot be published.”
*****
A preacher’s young daughter asked her dad why, before entering the pulpit to preach, he always bowed his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He replied, “I’m asking God to help me preach a good sermon.
After a moment’s thought, she asked, “Daddy, why doesn’t God do it?”
*****
The minister stormed into the lay council and flung his sermon notes on the table. “Today,” he shouted to the church officer, “I have preached to a congregation of asses!” The Church officer nodded, “So that was why you kept calling them ‘beloved brethren.'”
*****
An impoverished old man applied for membership in a rich church. The pastor attempted to put him off with all kinds of evasive remarks, and finally dismissed him, saying, “Go ahead and pray on it.”
Several days later he returned. “Well,” asked the pastor, “did the Lord give you a message?” “Yes Sir, he did” was the old man’s answer. “He told me it wasn’t any use. He said, ‘I’ve been trying to get in that same church myself for ten years, and I still can’t make it.'”
*****
A preacher was completing a temperance sermon: with great expression he said, “If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.” With even greater emphasis he said, “And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”
And then finally, he said, “And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”
He sat down. The song leader then stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, “For our closing song, let us sing Hymn # 365: “Shall We Gather at the River.”
*****
A seminary student was preaching his first sermon. He meant to say that “God called me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out the devil.” However, what came off of his stammering tongue was, “God called me to heal the dead, cast out the sick, and raise the devil.”
*****
A young man is playing golf with a priest. At a short hole the priest asks, “What are you going to use on this hole son?”
The young man says, “An eight iron, father. How about you?”
The priest says, “I’m going to hit a soft seven and pray.” The young man hits his eight iron and puts the ball on the green. The priest tops his 7 iron and dribbles the ball out a few yards.
The young man says, “I don’t know about you father, but in my church when we pray, we keep our head down.”
*****
A minister was worried about asking the congregation for money for repairs, so, he asked the organist if she could play some inspirational music to get the congregation in a giving mood after he made his pitch.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll think of something.”
During the service, the minister said, “We still need $6,000 more for the new roof. Would those who can pledge at least $100 please stand up.”
Just then the organist began “The Star Spangled Banner.”
*****
The minister stormed into the council and flung his sermon notes on the table.
“Today,” he shouted to the church officer, “I have preached to a congregation of asses!”
The Church officer nodded, “So that was why you kept calling them ‘brothers and sisters.”
*****
The pastor told the search committee, “If I am voted in as pastor of this church, I will work hard to bring us into the 20th century.”
Someone spoke up: ” Uh, Preacher, don’t you mean the 21st century?” The pastor replied, “Let’s take it one century at a time.”
*****
Realistic New Year’s Resolutions
10. Read less. There are better things to do with your time.
9. Forget dieting. It’s easier to gain weight than to lose it.
8. Stop exercising. Waste of time.
7. Watch more TV. There are too many good programs that you’re missing.
6. Procrastinate more. You didn’t want to do it anyway.
5. Drink more alcohol. It’s no fun being sober.
4. Start being more superstitious.
3. Spend more time at work. The boss won’t approve time off anyway.
2. Stop bringing food from home. There are plenty of fast food restaurants.
1. Take up a new habit. Smoking? Swearing? Drinking? All three?
*****
The pastor was out Christmas shopping for his family when he saw a great train set display in the high-end toy store. After 10 minutes of rapt watching, he told the sales woman, “I’ll take it.”
“Your son will really like it,” she beamed.
The pastor thought a moment and said, “In that case, I’ll take two.”
*****
A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas.
After hearing about this extravagant gift, a friend of his said, “I thought she wanted one of those sporty four-wheel-drive vehicles.”
“She did,” he replied. “But where was I going to find a fake Jeep?”
*****
The pastor always used the phrase, “It might be worse,” when some calamity would come his way. One day a friend said to him, “I’ve something to tell you, and you won’t be able to use your favorite phrase. I dreamt last night that I died and went to hell.” “It might be worse,” said the preacher. The friend came unglued: “man alive, how could it be worse?” to which the pastor replied: “it might be true.”
*****
No sooner had the church installed hot-air hand dryers in the rest rooms when the pastor called for them to be removed. The units worked fine, but some wag had written on the wall above the dryer in the men’s room, “Push button for a sample our pastor’s preaching.”
*****
Four pastors were on vacation when one of them confessed he had a problem with alcohol. He knew these men, his most trusted and valued friends, would quietly help him.
The second pastor said that he too, had a secret vice — gambling.
The third pastor confided that lust was a really big issue for him.
The fourth pastor announced that he also had a problem: gossip.
*****
Two ministers met in the after life. One said, “Isn’t heaven wonderful after the parish ministry?”
The other said, “This isn’t heaven!”
*****
For the umpteenth time Mrs. Jones told her pastor, “I’m so scared! My husband says he’s going to kill me if I continue to come to your church.”
“Yes, yes, my child,” replied the pastor, tired of hearing this before. “I will continue to pray for you, Mrs. Jones. Have faith – the Lord will watch over you.”
“Oh yes, he has kept me safe thus far, only…..”
“Only what, my child?”
“Now he says if I keep coming to your church, he’s going to kill YOU!”
“Well,” said the pastor. “Perhaps it’s time to check out that little church on the other side of town.”
*****
A bishop visited a church in his jurisdiction. Only three people turned up to hear him preach.
He asked the pastor, “Did you publicize my visit?”
“No,” replied the pastor, “but word seems to have gotten around anyway”.
*****
Two pastors were discussing the decline in morals in the modern world.
“I didn’t sleep with my wife before I was married,” said one clergyman self-righteously, “Did you?”
“I don’t know,” said the other. “What was her maiden name?”
*****
Lying in the hospital bed, a dying man began to flail about and make motions as if he would like to speak. The pastor, keeping watch at the side of his bed, leaned quietly over and asked, “Do you have something you would like to say?”
The man nodded, and the pastor handed him a pad and pen.
”Use this to write a note and I will give it to your wife. She’s on her way.”
Gathering his last bit of strength, the scrawled his message and then died.
The pastor folded the note without reading it, then maintained a vigil until the wife arrived. When she came, he handed her the note, “His last words,” the pastor said. She fainted when she read, “GET OFF MY OXYGEN HOSE!”
*****
The young pastor was excited when they asked him to preach one Sunday in prison, but he was also very nervous .
On the day he arrived at the prison, he was greeted by a large group of prisoners waiting to hear him. As the young pastor walked and stood behind the pulpit, he said, “Good morning. It’s so good to see you here!”
*****
A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing.
One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”
“Why, of course,” he replied. “He hears us every time we pray.”
She pauses on this a moment, and asked, “Does he hear everything we say the rest of the time?”
“Yes, dear, every word,” he replied, encouraged that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters.
However, his pride was quickly turned to humility…
“Then which does God believe?”
*****
When the pastor arrived at the family’s house for dinner, the little girl informed him that her mama was cooking buzzard for dinner.
“We’re having chicken,” her father reassured the pastor.
“But daddy,” the daughter exclaimed, “I heard Mommy tell you we were having the old buzzard for dinner.”
*****
A climber fell off a cliff, and as he tumbled down, he caught hold of a small branch wedged in the rock.
“HELP! IS THERE ANYBODY UP THERE?” he shouted.
A majestic voice boomed through the gorge:
“I will help you, my son, but first you must have faith in me.”
“Yes, yes, I trust you!” cried the man.
“Let go of the branch,” boomed the voice.
There was a long pause, and the man shouted up again, “IS THERE ANYONE ELSE UP THERE I COULD TALK TO?”
*****
“Thanks for the generous donation,” the church treasurer said, looking at a check she had just been handed.
The donor smiled. “Well, you can thank the Holy Spirit.”
The treasurer rolled her eyes. “C’mon. It wasn’t that generous.”
*****
The greatest surprise of Mary’s life was receiving a dollar on her fourth birthday. She carried the bill about the house and was seen sitting on the stairs admiring it.
“What are you going to do with your dollar?” her mother asked.
“Take it to Sunday School,” said Mary promptly.
“To show your teacher?” Mary shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I’m going to give it to God. He’ll be as surprised as I am to get something besides pennies.”
*****
My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned…couldn’t concentrate.
Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the ax.
After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn’t suited for it …mainly because it was a so-so job.
Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was too exhausting.
Then I tried to be a chef — figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just didn’t have the thyme.
I attempted to be a deli worker, but any way I sliced it, I couldn’t cut the mustard.
My best job was being a musician, but eventually I found I wasn’t noteworthy.
I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn’t have any patience.
I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net income.
I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.
So then I got a job in a workout center, but they said I wasn’t fit for the job.
After many years of trying to find steady work I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.
My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.
*****
The visitor was curious when he saw the Bible verse on the door from 1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
It all became clear when the visitor realized the door was to the nursery.
*****
Recreation is my shepherd, I shall not stay at home; It maketh me to lie down in a sleeping bag; It leadeth me down the interstate each weekend.
It restoreth my suntan; It leadeth me to state parks for comfort’s sake. Even though I stray on the Lord’s Day, I will fear no reprimand, for I am relaxed; My rod and reel they comfort me.
I anointed my skin with oil, My gas tank runneth dry; Surely my trailer shall follow me all the weekends of summer, And I shall return to the house of the Lord this fall.
But by then, it will be hunting season and football season, And that’s another psalm.
*****
Q: How many independent Baptists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one – any more than that and it might seem like an ecumenical activity.
Q: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s done decently and in order.
Q: How many Unitarians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two. One to write a solemn statement which will affirm that: This light bulb is natural, a part of the universe, and evolved over many years by small steps. And we seek for each light bulb the fullest opportunity to develop itself to its full electrical potential. The second Unitarian’s job is to read this statement and then write the obligatory criticism and dissent.
Q: How many missions magazine editors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Just one — they’re trained to bring light to a dark world.
Q: How many atheists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None – there’s no point, since atheists refuse to see the light.
Q: How many Quakers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Ten to sit around in a circle until one feels an inner light.
Q: How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Thirteen – one to change the bulb and 12 to sit around talking about how much they miss the old bulb.
Q: How many creationists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None – they just wait for God to say “Let there be light.”
Q: How many Calvinists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: If God has predestined the light bulb to shine, it will change itself.
Q: How many Brethren does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change? What is this change you speak of?
Q: How many campfire worship leaders does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Just one, but soon all those around can warm up in its glowing.
*****
The greatest surprise of Mary’s life was receiving a dollar on her fourth birthday. She carried the bill about the house and was seen sitting on the stairs admiring it.
“What are you going to do with your dollar?” her mother asked.
“Take it to Sunday School,” said Mary promptly.
“To show your teacher?” Mary shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I’m going to give it to God. He’ll be as surprised as I am to get something besides pennies.”
*****
“What did you learn in Sunday school?” the grandfather asked the little boy after church.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” replied the grandfather. “Didn’t you study Jesus?”
The boy scowled. “No, he wasn’t even there.”
*****
During a Lutheran worship service a man began to be moved by the Spirit.
Out loud he said “Amen!” People around him were a little disturbed.
Then louder he said, “Hallelujah!” A few more people were becoming disturbed.
Louder still he shouted “Praise Jesus!”
An usher moved quickly down the aisle. He bent over and whispered to the man, “Sir! Control yourself!”
The man exclaimed, “I can’t help it. I got religion!!!”
To which the usher responded, “Well you didn’t get it here!”
*****
Definitions:
Bulletin: 1)Something to read during the sermon; 2)a fan used in churches without air conditioning; 3)your receipt for attending church.
Choir: A group of people who sing loudly enough to enable the rest of us to lip-sync all hymns.
Recessional hymn: The final hymn, and usually the quietest of all hymns because so many parishioners have already left before it is sung.
Ushers: The only guys in the church who still do not know the actual seating capacity of a pew.
Relics: Older members who still remember when to sit, stand, and kneel during worship. *****
A Nun was taking a shower one day and she heard the door bell ring, she yelled “Who is it?”
And the person ringing the door bell yelled, “I’m the blind man.”
So the Nun got out of the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel, she didn’t bother putting a towel around herself.
She opened the door and said, “What do you want?”, and the man said, “I’m here to check your blinds.”
*****
A man who died is refused entry into heaven. “There’s no record of you having done a good deed,” St. Peter explained. “Have you?”
The man thinks and replies, “Well, there was this one time when I was driving down the highway and saw a group of thugs assaulting this poor girl. I stopped, grabbed my tire iron, walked up to the leader of the gang and yelled ‘Leave her alone, you sick, deranged animals!’ ”
Impressed, St. Peter asks, “When did this happen?’
“About two minutes ago.”
*****
As the substitute preacher was greeting the congregation he made the statement, “You know, a substitute preacher is like a piece of cardboard in a broken window. He fills the space, but after all, he’s not the real glass.” He then proceeded with his sermon. After the service, a lady approached him trying to pay him a compliment by saying, “You weren’t a replacement after all. You were a real pane.
*****
A middle-aged woman has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she has a near death experience. During that experience she sees God and asks if this is it. God says no and explains that she has another 30 years to live.
Upon her recovery she decides to just stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck, etc. She even has someone come in and change her hair color. She figures since she’s got another 30 years she might as well make the most of it.
She walks out of the hospital after the last operation and is killed by an ambulance speeding by. She arrives in front of God and complains, “I thought you said I had another 30 years.”
God replies,” I didn’t recognize you.”
*****
All four churches in the small town had a serious problem with squirrel infestation.
The Presbyterians decided that it was predestined that squirrels be in the church and that they would just have to live with them.
The Methodists decided they should deal with the squirrels lovingly in the style of Charles Wesley. They humanely trapped them and released them in a park at the edge of town. Within 3 days, they were all back in the church.
The Catholics also humanely trapped them and attempted to teach them the “rhythm” method which of course did not work.
The Lutherans had the best solution. They confirmed the squirrels, and now they see the animals only at Christmas and Easter.
*****
A pious man who had reached the age of 105 suddenly stopped going to church. Alarmed by the old fellow’s absence after so many years of faithful attendance the pastor went to see him. He found him in excellent health, so the pastor asked, “How come after all these years we don’t see you at services anymore?”
The old man looked around and lowered his voice. I’ll tell you, Pastor,” he whispered. “When I got to be 90 I expected God to take me any day. But then I got to be 95, then 100, then 105. So I figured that God is very busy and must have forgotten about me ….. and I don’t want to remind Him.”
*****
The Preacher’s Lament
“If I express myself on a subject, I’m trying to run things.
If I’m silent, I’m dumb or have lost interest.
If I’m often at my office (preparing messages), why don’t I get out and learn what’s going on.
If I’m out when they call, why am I not tending to business, or studying for a message.
If I’m not at home at night, I’m out having a good time.
If I’m home, I’m neglecting important outside contacts and activities.
If I don’t agree with persons, I’m bullheaded.
If I do agree, I don’t have any ideas of my own.
If I don’t do what I’m requested, I’m a very poor pastor or minister.
If I do agree, well, that’s what I’m paid for.
If I give someone a short answer, I’m “too big for my britches.”
If I attempt to explain the pros and cons of an issue, I’m a know-it-all.
If I’m well dressed, I think I’m a big sho | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 26 | https://www.udiscovermusic.com/playlists/1960s-music-67-lost-songs/ | en | Revealing 67 Lost Singles Of The 60s | [
"https://www.udiscovermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/uDiscover-top-site-230-site-logo.png",
"https://www.udiscovermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/uDiscover-top-site-230-site-logo.png",
"https://media.udiscovermusic.com/img/trans28x22.gif",
"https://media.udiscovermusic.com/img/trans28x22.gif",
"h... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Richard Havers"
] | 2024-06-28T04:10:34+00:00 | Some great 1960s music went MIA, but that's to be expected. Never fear: We've picked the best 60s singles that you may not know. | en | uDiscover Music | https://www.udiscovermusic.com/playlists/1960s-music-67-lost-songs/ | When we say “singles,” in the context of music, we immediately think of those little 45rpm records in brightly colored bags. Before 45s there were 78s, and it wasn’t until 1949 that RCA released the first 45; when they did, they were pressed in colored vinyl to reflect the music. Country music was green, for example; inexplicably, R&B was orange, rather than blue. As rock’n’roll took hold during the 50s, so did the 45. Singles were everywhere, played on radio, put onto jukeboxes, and, more importantly, bought in their millions by fans. Come the following decade, hundreds of millions of singles were being sold, making the 7” single the format of choice for much 1960s music.
While you’re reading, listen to our Lost 60s playlist here.
The rise of the 45 rpm single record
The 78rpm shellac discs competed for much of the 50s, but finally lost out to the 45 in the early 60s, as every home, seemingly, had a record player on which you could stack seven or eight 45s to play in sequence. By the time The Beatles came along, the 45 was selling in vast numbers – at least for some artists.
ADVERTISEMENT
Hundreds of millions of singles were sold every year in the 60s, and while there was a great deal more million-sellers back then, there were also many more records released. Success depended on getting a single on the radio, and then getting it on heavy rotation to convince people to go out and buy it.
In Britain, the weirdness of needle time, which, up until 1967, prevented the BBC playing too many records, in order to protect musicians’ jobs (go figure), meant that even fewer records got played. The pirate radio stations helped a little to redress the balance, but there have always been 24 hours in a day, and that means only so many 45 got played across the world.
The best lost music of the 1960s
The result of all this? Lots of great 1960s music slipped through the radio sifting process, and have become lost over time. In the ensuing decades, radio stations have usually programmed their “oldies” playlists based on chart success. No sales, no chart success; no chart success, no enduring memory of many of the songs on our list.
We have picked 67 of what we think are the great lost 45s from the 60s, and we suspect that many of you will not have heard the vast majority of them. There are examples, such as “Different Drum,” by The Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt, that were modest hits in America but did nothing in the UK and the rest of the world.
But that’s very much an exception. How many of you have heard of The Aerovans? Their Beatlesque sound didn’t quite cut it at the time. Then there’s the original band to call themselves Nirvana. What about The 23rd Turn Off, The Parade, The Mad Lads, or Art? And we’re certain you’ve never heard Roger Nichols & The Smile Circle of Friends.
We’ve even included a Beach Boys song, “Gettin’ Hungry,” that, for some inexplicable reason, was released as a Mike Love and Brian Wilson record… It wasn’t a hit. Plus we remember Spanky and Our Gang, who have been likened to The Mamas & The Papas, but were a very interesting group in their own right, particularly on their hard-hitting political song “Give A Damn.”
Some 45s end up being the record released just before an artist hit the big time, like The Moody Blues’ “Fly Me High,” Free’s debut single, “Broad Daylight,” The Steve Miller Band’s first minor hit, “Living In The USA,” or James Taylor’s version of “Carolina In My Mind,” which he recorded for The Beatles’ Apple label before hitting the big time.
Vashti’s “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind” was written for her by Messrs Jagger and Richards, while Glen Campbell’s “Guess I’m Dumb” was one of his earliest singles, written by Brian Wilson and Russ Titelman, who later forged a career as a major producer. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 24 | https://billybobstexas.com/about/handprints | en | World Famous "Wall of Fame" Handprints at Billy Bob's Texas | [
"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=541331636055099&ev=PageView&noscript=1",
"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1081957632392334&ev=PageView&noscript=1",
"https://billybobstexas.imgix.net/static/billy-bobs-texas-logo-compressor.png?w=384&h=269&fit=crop&q=50&auto=format,compress",
"https://bbt-media.sfo2.cdn.digitalo... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/IThtFV6x8Oc",
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/1YnKNLlN4Ho"
] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2018-08-02T17:33:01+00:00 | You can visit the Wall of Fame and see the handprints and autographs of Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and even Ringo Starr to name a few... | en | Billy Bob's Texas | https://billybobstexas.com/about/handprints | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 71 | https://jazzrocksoul.com/artists/neil-merryweather/ | en | Neil Merryweather - | [
"https://jazzrocksoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/JazzRockSoul-rp.png",
"https://jazzrocksoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Neil-Merryweather.jpg"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Trimaximalist"
] | 2020-12-12T05:17:40+00:00 | Neil Merryweather (Dec. 27, 1945 — March 29, 2021) was a Canadian bassist, vocalist, and songwriter who emerged on the mid-’60s Toronto scene in a sequence of bands. After moving to Los Angeles, he fronted Merryweather for two 1969 albums on Capitol. Merryweather partnered with singer Lynn Carey for the 1970/71 projects Ivar Avenue Reunion […] | en | https://jazzrocksoul.com/artists/neil-merryweather/ | Neil Merryweather (Dec. 27, 1945 — March 29, 2021) was a Canadian bassist, vocalist, and songwriter who emerged on the mid-’60s Toronto scene in a sequence of bands. After moving to Los Angeles, he fronted Merryweather for two 1969 albums on Capitol.
Merryweather partnered with singer Lynn Carey for the 1970/71 projects Ivar Avenue Reunion and Merryweather & Carey. They formed the soul-rock band Mama Lion and issued two albums in 1972/73. Concurrently, the musicians cut two albums as Heavy Cruiser.
He formed his own backing band, the Space Rangers, for two popular albums on Mercury: Space Rangers (1974) and Kryptonite (1975).
Early Career, The Just Us
He was born Robert Neilson Lillie in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and launched his career at age 18 in Toronto under the name Bobby Neilson.
His first band, The Ookpiks, named themselves after a Canadian stuffed toy owl. They changed their name to The Sikusis (after another stuffed toy) and finally The Just Us. Their one single, “I Don’t Love You” (b/w “I Can Tell”), appeared on local-press Quality Records in 1965. Soon after, two members jumped ship to The Bossmen, fronted by (future Blood Sweat & Tears singer) David Clayton-Thomas.
Neilson changed his name to Neil Lillie and formed a second iteration of The Just Us. They recorded an album at Toronto’s Arc Sound, but their manager stole the tapes. When their bassist quit, Lillie learned the bass within two weeks. The chart success of a US duo named The Just Us forced Lillie to rename his band The Tripp. Despite their prominence on Toronto’s live circuit during late 1966 and early 1967, they didn’t record.
The Mynah Birds, The Flying Circus
In mid-1967, Lillie joined Toronto soul-rockers The Mynah Birds, fronted by Ricky James Matthews. They traveled to Hitsville U.S.A. (aka Motown studios, Detriot) and cut “It’s My Time,” written by Matthews and Neil Young, a one-time Mynah Bird. The project stalled when members quit the band.
Back in Toronto, Matthews and Lillie drafted replacements, including a young Bruce Cockburn. Not long after, Toronto authorities arrested Matthews on a breaking and entering charge and discovered that he was a draft dodger from the US Navy. With Matthews unable to rejoin the Mynah Birds, Lillie renamed them The Flying Circus. (Mathews later emerged as funk star Rick James.)
The Flying Circus cut numerous Cockburn originals and played several high-profile concerts, including the opening slot for Wilson Pickett at Ottawa’s Capitol Theatre. Weary of Cockburn’s folk leanings, Lillie left the band and re-teamed with Tripp alumni in New King Boiler.
At the suggestion of one-time Mynah Bird bassist Bruce Palmer (now in Buffalo Springfield with Young), Lillie moved his band to Los Angeles, where they renamed themselves Heather Merryweather. The lineup consisted of Lillie (bass/vocals), David Colin Burt (guitar, cello), Ed Roth (keyboards, flute), and Coffi Hall (drums).
1969: Merryweather and Word of Mouth
In late 1968, Heather Merryweather opened for Chicago Transit Authority at the Whisky a Go Go. That performance impressed A&R John Gross, who signed them to Capitol Records under the shortened name Merryweather. After sessions wrapped on their first album, Lillie had a conversation outside the studio with another new Capitol signee, Linda Ronstadt of the Stone Poneys. In parting, she mistakenly called him “Neil Merryweather,” a name he adopted professionally and legally.
Merryweather’s self-titled debut album appeared in early 1969 on Capitol. It features 10 Neil Merryweather originals with a co-write apiece by Burt (“Feeling of Freedom”) and Roth (“We Try Softer”). The below-the-knee front cover folds out on top to reveal a poster-size vertical group photo.
In September 1969, Merryweather issued Word of Mouth, a double-album comprised of jams with assorted west coast musicians, including Steve Miller, Dave Mason (Traffic), keyboardist Barry Goldberg (Electric Flag), and harpist Charlie Musselwhite. Neil Merryweather disbanded the group soon after, but linked the other members with old pal Rick James, who hired them for his new band Salt ‘n’ Pepper. Meanwhile, Merryweather passed on an invite by Stephen Stills to join Crobsy, Stills, Nash & Young.
1970: Ivar Avenue Reunion, Merryweather & Carey
Merryweather returned to Toronto, where he drafted ex-Ugly Ducklings drummer Robin Boers, ex-Nucleus guitarist John Richardson, and ex-49th Parallel keyboardist J.J. Velker. He brought them to LA, where they recorded the album Neil Merryweather, John Richardson and Boers, released in early 1970 on the blues label Kent.
The album features one Merryweather original (“Aren’t You Glad That You Know”), a Stills co-write (“City Boy“), two group-composed numbers (“Flat Black,” “Local 149“), and songs by Isaac Hayes (“Your Real Good Thing Is About to End“) and Elmore James (“Dust My Blues“). Merryweather composed one further track, “You Must Live It,” with his new girlfriend, singer Lynn Carey. She hailed from soul-rockers C.K. Strong, which cut a 1969 album on Epic.
With Carey on board, Merryweather retained Richardson and Boers and added Goldberg and Musselwhite. This lineup cut a self-titled album as Ivar Avenue Reunion, released in late 1970 on RCA Victor. Velker plays organ on two cuts (“Run, Run Children,” “Magic Fool”) and electric piano on “Ride Mama Ride.” They took their name from the location of RCA Studios on Ivar Avenue; “reunion” accounted for Merryweather’s use of Word of Mouth personnel.
RCA liked the Merryweather/Lynn combo and optioned them as a duo. They recorded the album Vacuum Cleaner, released in 1971 with 12 songs split between two backing bands. Half the tracks were recorded with the Ivar Avenue crew, the other half feature Merryweather alumni Roth and Hall, plus guitarist Kal David, formerly of the Illinois Speed Press and a one-time member of The Exceptions with (future Chicago) bassist Peter Cetera. One track, a funked-up cover of the Miracles oldie “Shop Around,” also appeared on a Kent 7″ under the name Momma and Pappa Rock’n Family.
Displeased with RCA’s staff changes, Merryweather broke from the label and formed a new band with Carey up front. He retained Hall and hired two young musicians: guitarist Rick Gaxiola and keyboardist James Newton Howard. They signed as Mama Lion to Artie Ripp’s Family Productions label.
1972–73: Mama Lion, Heavy Cruiser
Mama Lion released their first album, Preserve Wildlife, in 1972. It caused a stir with the cover, where a windowed view of Carey opens to a medium photo of the singer nursing a lion cub. Musically, the album features 10 gritty soul-rock numbers in the vein of Birtha. Merryweather co-wrote five of the album’s six originals.
Also in 1972, the musicians (sans Carey) cut a hard rock album as Heavy Cruiser, released on Family Productions. It features 10 cuts, closing with the epic “Miracles of Pure Device.” Of the eight originals, Merryweather wrote two songs (“My Little Firefly,” “‘Lectric Lady”) and co-wrote the other six.
For the next round of albums, Merryweather swapped Gaxiola for another young guitarist, Alan Hurtz. In 1973, Mama Lion released Give It Everything I’ve Got, a 10-track set with one Merryweather original (“From Bad to Worse”) and six co-writes. It was initially conceived as a double album. That same year, Heavy Cruiser released Lucky Dog, comprised of nine short songs and the lengthy “Free-Fall Glider.”
A planned tour with Alice Cooper was scuttled by Ripp, who sent Mama Lion to Europe with the intention of making Carey the breakout star. After a string of troubled shows, Merryweather split from Carey and returned to Los Angeles. He cut demos with another aggrieved signee of Family Productions, Billy Joel, who was moonlighting as LA bar pianist “Bill Martin” in an effort to hide from Ripp. One song they demoed was “Piano Man,” which Joel used to land his deal with Columbia.
1974–75: Space Rangers, Kryptonite
In 1974, Merryweather formed the Space Rangers with drummer Tim McGovern, who’d played with Randy California and the Velvert Turner Group. Two young musicians, guitarist Michael Willis and keyboardist Edgemont, rounded the lineup. Merryweather produced Space Rangers, released that year on Mercury. Sessions took place in two nights at Capitol Records studios. Engineer Rick Heenan (Help, Ahmad Jamal, Keith Jarrett, Les McCann) did the final mixdown.
Space Rangers features eight Merryweather originals (incl. “Hollywood Blvd.,” “Step in the Right Direction,” “Sole Surivivor,” and “Neon Man”) and covers of The Byrds (“Eight Miles High”) and Donovan (“Sunshine Superman”). The cover shows a green alien with a captive female Earthling amid interplanetary strife, credited to artist John Wolf and Earth Baby Productions.
With McGovern and Willis on board, Merryweather hired slide guitarist and keyboardist Jamie Herndon, who purchased a Chamberlin electro-mechanical keyboard from Sonny & Cher. It features on the second Space Rangers album, Kryptonite, released in 1975 on Mercury.
Merryweather wrote, recorded, and produced Kryptonite in a period of five days at LA’s Village Recorders. The album features eight tracks, including the five-minute epics “The Groove,” “Give It Everything We Got,” “Star Rider,” and “Let Us Be the Dawn.” The cover, which depicts the band as DC-style caped superheroes, is credited to artist Don Rico.
The Space Rangers disbanded over money problems. McGovern cut two albums apiece between 1979 and 1983 with The Pop, The Motels, and Burning Sensations.
Post 1975: Productions, Differences
Merryweather produced two 1975 singles for the all-girl singing trio Band of Angels: “He’s Not There” (a gender-appropriated Zombies cover) and the Goffin/King classic “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” backed with the Merryweather-penned “Every Minute.”
In 1976, Merryweather produced the second-recorded album by LA glam rockers The Hollywood Stars. It went unreleased until 2019 when archivists Burger Records issued the album on CD under the title Sound City, named after the recording studio.
His only post-Space Rangers solo album, Differences, appeared in 1978 on Dutch label GIP. It features 10 songs, including “Captains of Our Dreams,” “Devil’s Daughter,” “Night of Nights,” and “Just Like Jesse James.” The album was only released in the Netherlands, where Merryweather produced 1978–80 singles for fellow GIP acts Carlsberg, Sesam, Shoreline, and Ariola recording artists Phoney & The Hardcore.
In 1980, he called in Space Rangers alumni Michael Willis for the rock four-piece Eyes, which issued Radical Genes on Dutch RCA Victor.
Back in Los Angeles, Merryweather managed ex-Runaway Lita Ford. A sequence of business conflicts preceded her 1983 debut solo album Out For Blood, which he co-produced without compensation.
Fed up with the music business, Merryweather turned to photography. For a number of years, he worked as a model builder for the City of Los Angeles. In the mid-1990s, he produced songs for two children’s television programs: Super Human Samurai Cyber Squad and Tattooed Teenaged Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills. In 2014, he sang two songs for Mountain of Power and collaborated with their mastermind Janne Stark on two subsequent discs as Merryweather Stark.
Merryweather died on March 29, 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a short illness.
Discography:
Merryweather (1968)
Word of Mouth (1969)
Neil Merryweather, John Richardson and Boers (1970)
Vacuum Cleaner (1971 • Lynn Carey & Neil Merryweather)
Space Rangers (1974)
Kryptonite (1975)
Differences (1978)
Sources: | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 68 | https://www.7inchrecords.com/Discography/BeatGroups/HumanBeinz/humanbeinz.asp | en | THE HUMAN BEINZ | [
"https://www.7inchrecords.com/Discography/BeatGroups/HumanBeinz/SfoxeyladyJP2.jpg",
"https://www.7inchrecords.com/Discography/BeatGroups/HumanBeinz/SlesteenagersJP.jpg",
"https://www.7inchrecords.com/Discography/BeatGroups/HumanBeinz/EPfoxeyladyMEX.jpg",
"https://www.7inchrecords.com/Discography/BeatGroups/Hu... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | Records are not for sale - For your viewing pleasure only
The Human Beinz is an American rock and roll/frat rock band from Youngstown, Ohio. Originally known as The Human Beingz. The Beinz started in 1964 as The Premiers, launching their professional career to build a local fan base. In 1966, they changed their name to The Human Beingz because they felt their old name did not fit with the feel of the late 1960s. They recorded covers of songs by Them, The Yardbirds, The Who and Bob Dylan. The group was also the first to record a cover of "Gloria" by Them, which became a hit for The Shadows of Knight, and covered "The Pied Piper", which later became a hit for Crispian St. Peters. The group signed to Capitol Records in 1967 and at that time Capitol misspelled their name, leaving out the "g". The Beingz were told it would be changed on the next release if the debut single did not have any success. In September 1967 "Nobody but Me" was released and became their only Billboard Top 40 hit, which meant that Capitol would not correct the spelling. The Beinz' next single, "Turn On Your Love Light," flopped in the United States, but reached #1 in Japan. Despite their Japanese success, The Human Beinz broke up in March 1969, but due to contract obligations, had to undertake a tour there. Their song "Dance On Through" was featured in an episode of The Addams Family. In 2004, Quentin Tarantino used "Nobody But Me" in his film, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and the song made yet another appearance in Martin Scorsese's 2006 film The Departed. The Human Beinz are touring again with a new line-up still with their original leader Ting Markulin. Markulin is currently living in Florida.
MEMBERS:
John "Dick" Belley replaced by Gene Szegedi - Guitar and Vocals
Joe "Ting" Markulin - Guitar and Vocals
Mel Pachuta replaced by Ed McCarthy - Bass and Vocals
Gary Coates replaced by Mike Tatman replaced by Rick White and Mike Cerra - Drums
Sal Crisafi (present) - Keyboards, Guitar and Vocals | ||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 46 | https://savingcountrymusic.com/tag/the-eagles/ | en | Saving Country Music | [
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/logo.png",
"https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/motto.png",
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/the-eagles-travis-tritt-120x100.jpg",
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/the-wilde... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Trigger"
] | 2023-12-06T11:10:47-07:00 | Tag archive page for The Eagles. | en | Saving Country Music | https://savingcountrymusic.com/tag/the-eagles/ | Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit all agreed to show up to a bar in Los Angeles on December 6th, 1993 and appear in the video—shooting pool, hanging out, and cutting up as cameras rolled.
If this dark little corner of the internet never did anything else worth a damn, at least it introduced The Wilder Blue to country music megastar Luke Combs. The Wilder Blue have a new album coming out on November 21st.
Bass players never seem to get the proper respect. Randy Meisner suffered that fate as much as any of them. But from being a founding member of The Eagles, being there during the early formations of country rock…
In the founding era of country rock, guitarist Tom Leadon was right there witnessing and participating in some of the most important moments and projects. He just happened to be overshadowed in many respects by the bigger names that country rock would launch.
Vince Gill really is the closest thing that country music has to the five-tool baseball player. He can do it all. As a solo artist, he’s a Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry stalwart. He can throw a high harmony on any song and make it shine, or turn in a guitar solo that is good or better than any session player.
When it comes to the banjo in bluegrass or anywhere else, aside from maybe Earl Scruggs, nobody else has been heard and enjoyed more than Sonny Osborne of The Osborne Brothers. Both prolific and influential, the Osborne Brothers rendition of the iconic song “Rocky Top.”
I haven’t wanted to do this. Because ultimately, it should be the primary members and partners of the Turnpike Troubadours who should be allowed to control the narrative about any potential reunification, or the lack thereof for the band that went on indefinite hiatus two years ago.
Put Rusty Young right up there with the greatest West Coast twangers who instilled an appreciation for country sounds in a generation of psychedelic rockers, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that country music could be cool. He was a pioneer of country rock.
One of the most curious, and maybe one of the most cool developments in music over the last couple of years has been Vince Gill becoming a late career member of The Eagles. It wasn’t a development that came with a lot of fanfare or explanation. With the passing of Glenn Frey in 2016, it just sort of happened.
There should be no shame in major music outfits taking money through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, to keep their road crew and support staff financially stable, despite it being characterized as the cash grab of millionaires by some, aided by certain embellished and misleading headlines in the media.
Chris Darrow, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, country rock pioneer and member of multiple influential bands including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Corvettes who backed up Linda Ronstadt, has passed away according to his representatives. He was 75-years-old. He was a centerpiece of country rock.
What makes a country boy like Vince Gill think he has the ability to fill some of the biggest shoes ever rendered vacant in American music? Well, 21 Grammy Awards, and incredible voice, some of the most underrated guitar chops in music, and a longer lineage with the music of The Eagles than one might think.
Jerry Reed and Ricky Skaggs may still be on the outside looking in when it comes to the Country Music Hall of Fame, but the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, located on the other side of downtown in the Municipal Auditorium, has decided these two country music superpickers are worthy of induction. And along […]
Though Young was considered mostly a background member of the Outlaw movement for many years, his appearance on the legendary Outlaw documentary Heartworn Highways helped awaken the world to his talent. Though he still remained mostly known through the songs he wrote that others performed, Young had a strong solo career and released a total of 14 albums.
Love them, hate them, evoke the strong opinions of the Coen Brothers’ fictional character Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski all you want, but Glen Frey and The Eagles turned millions of music fans from all around the world into country music listeners through the evocative power of simple, universal sentiments bathed in twangy tones, however filed off the edges may have been, or however commercially successful the pursuit ultimately was.
Henley’s been out there outwardly criticizing the state of country music and the state of music in general, though doing so with a lot more of a thoughtful and informed tone than many others, including tracing the problem back to the disappearance of the agrarian way of life that was once prevalent throughout America, and now finds itself quickly receding.
Whatever you could want or hope from Don Henley’s “Cass County” as a country music fan, this album delivers it and in ample quantities. I don’t know that any country fan’s expectations can meet the actual enjoyment this music deals out. And this is a traditional country record.
I don’t expect Don Henley’s entire country record to sound this classic, but his take on the old Louvin Brothers standard with Dolly helping out was a welcomed treat that tells you this album isn’t going to be Don reaching for commercial relevance. It’s going to be Don making the country record he wants to make.
Don Henley, the singer and drummer for the Eagles, will be releasing a country album called Cass County via Capitol Record—his first solo album in 15 years. This was the news coming out of an exclusive listening party held at the Ruby event space as part of this week’s CMA Fan Fest in Nashville. And don’t expect this to be an aging rocker looking for a second wind in country by chasing the current trends.
Harris Interactive has just released a new poll that queried the American public about their favorite music artists, musicians, and bands, and some noteworthy country music names made the list. When pollsters asked for unprompted responses to the question, “Who is your favorite singer/musician or band?”
As one of America’s most traditional genres, drum machines, purposely Auto-tuned lyrics, and other such elements were treated with a very negative stigma, and stayed mostly buried on the fringes of the genre in experimental projects. But now as rap and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) have become very influential in popular country. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 11 | https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/5192 | en | Michael Nesmith | [
"https://secondhandsongs.com/art/logo.png",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/art/logo.png",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/picture/589237?x=0&y=266&w=665&h=665&c=0",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/art/amazon.png",
"https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=secon08-20&l=ur2&o=1",
"https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d00... | [] | [] | [
"Michael Nesmith",
"Covers",
"Cover Songs",
"Samples",
"Tributes",
"Music"
] | null | [] | null | Michael Nesmith covered Conversations, In the Still of the Night, Sweet Young Thing, You Told Me and other songs. Michael Nesmith originally did Keys to the Car, You Told Me, Conversations, Sweet Young Thing and other songs. Michael Nesmith wrote Different Drum, Listen to the Band and Some of Shelly's Blues. | en | /art/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png | https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/5192/all | Discover The Original
SecondHandSongs is building the most comprehensive source of cover song information. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 52 | http://berkeleyfolk.blogspot.com/2010/ | en | Berkeley in the Sixties | http://berkeleyfolk.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | http://berkeleyfolk.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | [
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAZFr_cB132jjdMFk4j-yrhhtAKM6m4cu500UO958D_J8iNZ0cCqzOpJwK8vp8l7nGyDpT0z7H3WvQ5WvssBpIRKioLWbAT1XMyeg7wmhjgfdM-ZvQ1j4bDiegN1WY65EYO5ChPVjGyBN/s320/Sky+Blue+Iceland+19680913.jpg",
"https://resources.blogblog.com/img/icon18_email.gif",
"https://resource... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"The Yellow Shark"
] | null | Dedicated to increasing and sharing knowledge of the Berkeley coffeeshops and music venues of the 1960s, and the musicians who played there. | http://berkeleyfolk.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | http://berkeleyfolk.blogspot.com/2010/ | Piano Drop: Duvall, Washington - April 28, 1968
Oooooh!—Kaahwump!—Aah!" Those are the sounds a crowd and an uptight piano' make when a helicopter dumps the piano from a height of 200 feet.
More than 3,000 people, many of them flowered, beaded and longhaired hippies paid $1 and gathered in an isolated grassy ravine near here underneath sunny and warm Sunday skies to watch "the piano drop."
A musical underground group called Country Joe and the Fish, provided music while the crowd waited for the helicopter.
When the time came, spectators, children and several dogs were shooed back from the area where the piano would drop.
The helicopter soared overhead. The piano dropped, the crowd went 'Oooooh!", the piano went "Kaahwhumpl", shattered and the crowd went "Aaah!."
The whole thing was a benefit for a listener-sponsored FM radio station, KRAB, in Seattle, 40 miles west of the "piano drop" area.
Piano dropped from helicopter in Duvall and thousands turn out to see it on April 28, 1968
On April 28, 1968, nearly 3,000 spectators flock to Larry Van Over's farm in Duvall to see (hear?) a piano drop from a helicopter. Duvall is located in King County northeast of Seattle.
Van Over, better known as "Jug" for his musicianship as a member of the Willowdale Handcar jug band, had recently heard a recording on KRAB-FM of a piano being destroyed by sledge hammers. Finding the aural experience disappointing led to the speculation (most likely fueled by certain psychoactive chemicals) about dropping a piano from a building, or better yet, a helicopter, and what that drop might sound like.
Van Over enlisted the aid of Paul Dorpat (b. 1938) at Helix. A benefit "Media Mash," co-sponsored by KRAB and Helix, had already been scheduled for April 21, with performances by Country Joe and the Fish among others. The Piano Drop was hooked on as a free premium the following Sunday.
Larry tracked down an old upright piano, moved it to his farm, and contracted a helicopter service out of Boeing Field. The pilot didn't quite get the point, but he had moved pianos with his helicopter before. Having successfully not dropped pianos, he saw no special problem in doing the opposite. As Larry later recalled, "There were a number of Newton's laws that the pilot neglected to consider."
Assured of the feasibility of musical strategic bombing, Larry calmly dropped acid on Sunday afternoon and climbed into the helicopter to guide the pilot out to his farm in Duvall. It was sunny and clear. As the helicopter passed Woodinville, Larry and the pilot noticed that the traffic below was getting heavier and heavier. "Gee, there are a lot of people out today," Larry commented over the engine's roar.
By the turnoff to Larry's farm, he and the pilot realized that they had not been observing mere Sunday drivers. The roads around the farm were a parking lot - and then they saw a wall-to-wall carpet of humanity covering the drop zone. Instead of the 300 participants he expected, the pilot estimated at least 10 times as many people filled the countryside below. At that moment, Larry got that special, tinny taste in his mouth indicating that his mental altimeter had exceeded the helicopter's.
"No way, no way, no way," the pilot muttered with mounting conviction as he set the helicopter down next to the awaiting piano. "What exactly is your apprehension here?" Larry asked innocently.
"They're not going to get out of the way," the pilot explained.
"They'll move, man, they'll move," Larry pleaded with that persuasive power only true evangelists and zonked-out lunatics can muster. "Trust me, man, it'll be like the Red Sea all over again!"
For whatever reason -- curiosity, fear of not getting paid, or a contact high -- the pilot relented. "Okay, but they gotta give me plenty of room, or no drop."
The pilot hitched the piano to a special harness and lifted off. He approached the target, a platform of logs, from an altitude of at least 150 feet. The machine hove into view and the crowd, as Larry had predicted, parted and retreated to a respectful distance.
The pilot brought his machine to a halt mid-air, but bodies in motion tend to remain in motion, and the 500-pound piano dragged the helicopter forward. The pilot panicked and hit the harness release, but nothing happened. He then hit the emergency cable release, and the piano snapped free.
It described a lazy arc through the bright spring sky, overshot the target by several yards, struck the soft earth, and imploded with a singularly unmusical whump. "A piano flop," Paul Dorpat later dubbed it.
The crowd was not disappointed and let loose a collective "Far out!" as it surged toward the remains of the piano. By the time Larry pushed his way to the piano's impact crater, not a stick, wire, ivory, or scrap of felt remained. "They devoured it," he recalled. The last he saw of the instrument was its steel harp being loaded into a VW microbus by two hippies.
As Country Joe and the Fish fired up their amplifiers, somebody said, "Hey, let's do that again," and so was born the idea for the Sky River Rock Festival and Lighter Than Air Fair, which took place later that year.
Sources:
AP Article “Piano Drop”
Walt Crowley, Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), 110-112, 255. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryndle | en | Wikipedia | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50p... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
] | 2006-09-18T05:17:23+00:00 | en | /static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryndle | American folk-rock band
Bryndle was an American folk-rock band first formed in the late 1960s in Los Angeles.
The original lineup consisted of singer-songwriters Andrew Gold, Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards (founding member of The Stone Poneys), and Wendy Waldman.[1][2] with several instrumentalists joining them for recordings or concerts over the years.
History
[edit]
In 1970, Bryndle recorded sessions for an album for A&M Records, with Peter Bernstein and Dennis Wood playing bass and drums, respectively.[1][2] Newcomer producer Chuck Plotkin worked with the group, but their would-be debut album never materialized. Only one track, Bonoff's "Woke Up This Morning", was released as a single, briefly becoming a regional hit in northern California but failing to win a wider audience. With little to show for their considerable time and effort, the discouraged group disbanded.[1]
Waldman, Bonoff, Gold, and Edwards each established solo careers and undertook session work in the 1970s and 1980s, and each worked closely with Linda Ronstadt in this time period. Edwards, who had been a founding member of the Stone Poneys prior to the formation of Bryndle, recorded and toured with Ronstadt for about ten years beginning in the mid-1970s. Gold was a key member of Ronstadt's backing band for several years. Waldman became a friend of Ronstadt and also toured with her for a period; they collaborated on a song, "I Want a Horse", for the 1980 Sesame Street LP In Harmony. Bonoff was one of many songwriters whom Linda Ronstadt introduced via covers on her albums, notably "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me".
In the early 1990s, Bryndle re-formed with its original quartet of Bonoff, Gold, Edwards and Waldman.[1] In 1995, their newly recorded debut album, Bryndle, was released, and the band began a tour of the US and Japan, adding drummer Scott Babcock (who also recorded with them on the new album) and bassist Bill Bonk.[1][2] In 1996, core member Gold left the band and briefly moved to the East Coast with his family. Bryndle, now essentially a trio, continued touring through 1997, with Matt Cartsonis replacing Bonk (who left to work with Aimee Mann) in the touring band.[2]
After the tour, the four singer-songwriters took a break from the road, and all of them became busy with their solo careers. Work on a second Bryndle album proceeded slowly over the next five years with much of the songs written and recorded separately, unlike their more collaborative 1995 album. The trio focused on completing the new album in 2001 with contributions from former member Andrew Gold. Bryndle would,[1] performing two house concerts during this period.[citation needed] House of Silence was finally released in early 2002.[1]
With the album released, Bryndle once again became inactive as a band, and its members returned to other solo and group projects. Sadly, Edwards died in August 2010, aged 64, closely followed by Gold in June 2011, aged only 59.
Discography
[edit]
Bryndle (album)
[edit]
BryndleStudio album by
Bryndle
ReleasedOctober 1995Studio
O'Henry Sound Studios (Burbank, California)
Quarkbrain Studios and Trax Studios (Los Angeles, California)
GenreFolk rockLength63:19LabelMusicMastersProducerJosh Leo, BryndleBryndle chronology
Bryndle
(1995) House of Silence
(2001)
Professional ratingsReview scoresSourceRatingAllMusic[3]
Track listing
[edit]
All songs written by Bryndle, except where noted.
Personnel
[edit]
Bryndle (Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman) – vocals, instruments
Bob Carpenter – accordion
Leland Sklar – bass
Eddie Bayers – drums, percussion
Scott Babcock – percussion
James Ross – viola
Production
Bryndle – producers
Josh Leo – producer
Andrew Gold – recording, mixing (7)
Steve Marcantonio – recording, mixing (1-6, 8-14)
Brett Swain – second engineer
Michael McDonald – additional recording
Allan Tucker – mastering at Foothill Digital (New York City, New York)
Dawn Patrol – art direction, design
Randee St. Nicholas – photography
House of Silence
[edit]
House of SilenceStudio album by
Bryndle
ReleasedJanuary 2002Studio
The Long House (Encino, California)
The Guest House (Santa Barbara, California)
GenreFolk rockLength67:44ProducerBad HaggardBryndle chronology
Bryndle
(1995) House of Silence
(2002)
Track listing
[edit]
Personnel
[edit]
Karla Bonoff – vocals, keyboards
Kenny Edwards – vocals, acoustic piano, keyboards, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, slide guitar, baritone guitar, mandolin, bass
Wendy Waldman – vocals, keyboards, organ, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, high-string guitar, mandolin, dulcimer
Andrew Gold – vocals, keyboards, synthesizer programming, electric guitars, high-string guitar, bass, fiddle
Martin Cartsonis – bass
Scott Babcock – drums, percussion
Production
Bad Haggard – producer
Michael Boshears – assistant producer, engineer, photography
Paul Grosso – photography
Eric Staudenmaier – photography
Karla Bonoff – photography
Andrew Gold – photography
Wendy Waldman – photography
Nancy Terzian – graphic design | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 84 | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/ | en | Psychobabble | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | [
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDPJMOQYyrhedw4JNRdbQZNT2tCEglUBp0fOYWONj70dUc-FExa4Byc5KcAlqeXkooTeZEc_ABegwkqxP1B7-ZY23XtWXnTzvC5CGgbC4PJdbSUGMtf4Gkb8yPh7dtYb3OAu2D4Kw50oVkE9UrIwWTOwrn7H-s6ecWMVcjIWuQrvU5_dNWm5FclJEumEk=s16000",
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-9Pljf1QpkNy... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Mike Segretto (Psychobabble)"
] | null | Psychobabble: For Groovy Ghouls, Retro Rockers, & Kooky Cultists. | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/ | Pet Sematary. Near Dark. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The Babadook. What do all of these movies have in common? They're scary. What else? They were all directed by women.
For a lot of movie goers, even horror freaks, it's hard to name a lot more female-directed fear films than these, but there are actually quite a lot, and I'm not just talking about the explosion of them in the past fifteen years. During the early days of film, there were a number of silent films directed by women such as Lois Weber (Suspense) and Louise Kolm-Fleck (Die Ahnfrau). When the Hollywood sound era bullied to the fore in the thirties, women filmmakers were put out of business in America, but they continued to work elsewhere in the world. From the fifties through the eighties, a number of women directed exploitation films, largely because the guys producing such films, such as Roger Corman, figured that they'd just be happy to get the work and not expect the freedom or pay their male counterparts could count on. And as such injustices were finally addressed in more recent years, and digital technology democratized filmmaking in general, the number of horror movies directed by women positively exploded.
I learned a lot of this from I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies. Of course, I'd already seen Pet Sematary, Near Dark, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and The Babadook and quite a lot of other horror movies directed by women before reading Heidi Honeycutt's sprawling new book, but I knew nothing of Weber or Kolm-Fleck or a welter of the other films she explores.
This is a truly exhaustive and eye-opening look at films made by humans who constitute half of the human population but haven't had the opportunities the other half has enjoyed. A book like this cannot help but be political, but Honeycutt refuses to turn her book into some sort of tract that would undercut the artistry of the artists she discusses. I Spit on Your Celluloid mostly reads like any study of a particular segment of film history would. She focuses on a period, introducers the filmmakers of that period, and synopsizes (beware of spoilers) and critiques their genre work. The story only takes on a political slant when politics play a specific role in it (as when women filmmakers could no longer get work for purely sexist reasons or were only allowed to make trashy movies for purely sexist reasons) or when the films, themselves, became explicitly political, which really only started happening with great regularity in the 2010s. Honeycutt refuses to suggest that there is some sort of stock shared point of view among women filmmakers or attempt to force apolitical films into a political drawer. By refusing to do so, she does the women filmmakers she discusses the ultimate service by discussing them as filmmakers, period.
When Maryland's Velocity Girl came shimmering out of Sub Pop with their debut album in 1993, Bob Weston's wall-of-noise production couldn't hide the gleeful melodism of the singles "Crazy Town" and "Audrey's Eyes" (and if this song doesn't automatically force you to picture Sherilyn Fenn in saddle shoes, you and I might have trouble relating to each other), the squalling "Pretty Sister" (my personal fave), or "Pop Loser", which is totally pop despite a lyric mocking those who sing la-la shit. And no group in that lo-fi scene had a singer like the opera-trained Sarah Shannon. Burying her clarion pipes way down in the mix couldn't hide that either.
Upon learning that Sub Pop would be reissuing Copacetic as an expanded and, more alarmingly, remixed double-LP called UltraCopacetic, I feared guitarist/remixer Archie Moore would re-envision his grungy gust of melody and fuzz box hurly-burly with cleaner lines, that Shannon's voice would rise up in the mix, that the album would end up sounding more like the band's squeaky clean second album, Simpatico! This notion gave me pause. The original mix's rough yet gripping alchemy could get polished away. Simpatico! is really good, but Copacetic is its own thing and should remain as such.
I certainly wasn't expecting the remix to sound quite as it does. Instead of the whole thing skewing cleaner and poppier with more pronounced vocals, as I was hoping it wouldn't, each side of its salty-sweetness is just more more. The layers of noise sound nastier. The sheets of shimmering jangle gleam brighter. Shannon's voice is still fairly low in the mix, which is key because a good deal of Copacetic's appeal is its specific atmosphere, the sound of a strong voice shouting to be heard from the center of a swirling tornado of guitars.
Many previously unheard details gust to the fore in this new mix: subtle shades of echo, shivering tremolo effects, the stuttering piano and hollow-cheeked percussion of "Pop Loser", the über-deep guitar growl that blows "Living Well" apart, as well as other debris. I must admit that as skeptical as I was, and as much as I'm resistant to hearing old friends with new voices, UltraCopacetic sounds better than Copacetic. A really terrific album becomes a great one... a rare development in a remix-crazy age.
I was hoping that more of the material on Velocity Girl's early singles, collected on an essential eponymous CD EP in 1993, might appear on UltraCopacetic's bonus LP, because it doesn't seem likely that any of that stuff will see some sort of vinyl reissue otherwise. But only "Always" appears amongst the bonus tracks. The stuff that is included, though, is very good: an excellent track from a split 7" with Tsunami, wild B-sides from Copacetic's two singles, one outtake, and a clutch of Peel sessions that Moore's new liner notes insist are closer to the sound his band had envisioned than Copacetic's original mix was in his new liner notes. (The fact that his notes also include a passing reference to Twin Peaks makes me wonder if I'd been right about "Audrey's Eyes" all along!)
As for the red-vinyl pressing, it's mostly fine. The LPs are both flat with well-centered spindle holes. LP-1 is largely free of unintended noise and distortion, but there are some fairly long non-fill passages in "A Chang" that cause clicks audible through the music, and this issue also arises at the very end of each side. LP-2 begins with some gritty surface noise, although this basically disappears when "Warm/Crawl" kicks in. Noise returns between songs throughout Side C, but generally fails to upset the music. Side D suffers from some non-fill and groove distortion, which can get fairly invasive at times. UltraCopacetic is still a superb package and makes me hope that a Simpatico reissue is also in the works.
Love was the greatest American band of the sixties to never score a national hit. Arising from an LA scene that spat out superstars like The Byrds, The Doors, and Buffalo Springfield, Arthur Lee and company were widely regarded as the godfathers of the Sunset Strip. Jimi Hendrix admired Lee; Jim Morrison worshipped him. Even the Stones borrowed liberally from Love (although the reverse is true, too). Love’s first three albums, particularly 1967’s Forever Changes, are regarded as a triptych masterpiece even though each section is completely unlike the others.
Yet Love has not endured as their contemporaries have because Lee refused to play the major label game. He hated flying and being jarred out of LA— where he lived in a castle, was regarded as royalty, and the mixed-race nature of his band wasn’t a major issue— so he refused to tour. His controlling, stubborn, angry, paranoid nature alienated many of the people who most wanted him to succeed. Eventually he became a serious coke addict who chastised his bandmates for their drug use.
Of course, Arthur Lee was also a genius by pop standards, and his complications have earned him a cult similar to those that revel in every eccentricity of Brian Wilson, Roky Erickson, Syd Barrett, and Peter Green. Forever Changes has topped many a “greatest album of all time” poll in the UK, where Love enjoyed far greater success than they did in the U.S., and its timeless beauty has inspired a horde of later-generation artists, including Led Zeppelin, The Damned, Robyn Hitchcock, Belle and Sebastian, and The Soundtrack of Our Lives.
John Einarson’s 2010 authorized biography Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love captured all sides of the Love polygon, acknowledging Lee’s brilliance without skimming over his belligerence, self-indulgence, and unpredictability. Although Einarson spends ample time poring over Lee’s less desirable qualities, he remains objective by structuring his book as a near-oral-history with the majority of quotes coming from Lee’s unpublished autobiography.
The rest of the book largely consists of interview excerpts Einarson collected from sixty subjects, including many surviving members of Love’s various line-ups. Johnny Echols— the vastly underrated guitarist who drove the group’s revered early albums with his fierce, stuttering leads— is particularly enlightening, helping to dispel many of the myths surrounding the band. Although Lee is the chief focus of the book, all supporting players are adequately profiled. Bryan MacLean, who composed “Alone Again, Or”, the most well-known track on Forever Changes, is represented in interviews conducted before his death in 1998, as well as conversations with his mother and his sister, Maria McKee (later of Lone Justice). Einarson’s clean, cohesive prose glues it all together seamlessly.
Forever Changes becomes a bit of a heavy read halfway through when Lee’s drug-issues really take over and he becomes an increasingly less sympathetic figure— abusing girlfriends, firing bandmates for failing to kiss his ass adequately, etc. — but it’s all part of the Love story. Lee would experience better times after being released from prison following a weapons charge in late 2001 and taking Forever Changes on the road to massive success. The onset of leukemia, which took his life in 2006, brought a sad end to this resurgence.
Forever Changes: Arthur Lee and the Book of Love is now returning as a second edition with a slightly different title, Forever Changes: The Authorized Biography of Arthur Lee and Love, and a new foreword by Echols, who writes briefly but lovingly about his old cohort, a slightly revised introduction from the author, and a trippy new cover design. With any title Forever Changes remains the definitive book of Love.
[*This review is an updated version of one I originally published in 2010]
Jim Henson was a restlessly creative guy, and like a lot of restlessly creative guys, he kept track of his endless flood of ideas in a notebook. Henson's little red one was filled with brief journal entries and marvelous sketches. It was in this book that he worked out ideas for Rowlf the dog, one of his earliest Muppets; commercial concepts; and other brainwaves.
Henson's fabled little red book was the backbone of Karen Falk's 2012 book Jim Henson's Imagination Illustrated, although her book offered a lot more than those excerpts. That's probably a good thing since the average journal entry tended to be no more involved than "Oct 29- Tonight Show, Beautiful Day." Henson didn't seem to work out his ideas very elaborately in his little book either. So Falk supplemented the excerpts with more extensive biographical details, to put the artist's wispy jottings into context, and a wealth of additional art material. There are cartoons and book covers and storyboards and character sketches. And not all of this is Henson's work. There's a terrific cartoon by Carroll "Big Bird" Spinney and a typically fabulous illustration of Henson's creations by the great cartoonist Jack Davis and several gorgeous works by Brian Froud, the fantasy artist who brought The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth to life.
As a tie-in with Ron Howard's new documentary Jim Henson: Idea Man, Jim Henson's Imagination Illustrated is now being reprinted with a new foreword by Howard. The foreword is too slight to recommend a rebuy, but if you're a Henson fan who doesn't already have Imagination Illustrated in your library, now would be a good time to snatch one up.
Anyone who's fallen under the spell of Robyn Hitchcock's tombstone surrealism should be more than a little intrigued by his foray into the memoir world. The guy can write. Not that you'll necessarily find as much story in 1967 as you will in, say, "Underwater Moonlight".
As the title trumpets, the narrative stays firmly planted in that year of psychedelic whimsy that would so influence Hitchcock's perspective when he began putting out his own songs a decade later. In '67 he was an unripe 14 year old consigned to boarding school, so do not expect 1967 to be the usual rock and roll bacchanal. Even as far as British schoolboy stories go, there isn't much story here. Young Hitch goes to school, where he encounters a few eccentric instructors, as well as his meathead and groover peers, none of whom we readers ever get to know too well. Clearly much more significantly for the lad, he falls in love with the likes of Syd Barrett, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and The Incredible String Band. Then he learns to play the guitar.
Even though not much happens in 1967, there is still a quiet message in this book: Robyn Hitchcock's experiences during that year shaped the man who would go on to lead The Soft Boys before beating his own singular path as a distinctly English solo artist. As mundane as the doings are, Hitchcock still infuses them with his own peculiarly surreal voice, whether imaging himself being hunted by demons in a rat-poison strewn shed or crafting a coffin for his sister's doll. His adeptness as a writer makes the transition from songwriting to prose-writing intact.
I learned nothing from reading 1967 that I hadn't already learned from listening to "Old Pervert" or watching The History Boys, but, as an Anglophile and British-psych-o-phile, I still liked reading it. And the whole thing can be read in the time it takes you to enjoy a back-to-back spin of Blonde on Blonde and Underwater Moonlight.
After releasing Band on the Run and finally getting a gold star from venomous critics, including the most venomous critic of all (Lennon), Paul McCartney was hot to keep riding that wave of good will. So he rushed into the studio with Wings to follow up with a live-in-the-studio session of covers and songs he'd already recorded and released with his current band, as a solo artist, and with his old band featuring that most venomous critic of all (Lennon).
The idea was a hasty one, and McCartney thought better of the whole One Hand Clapping project, which was to also involve a documentary about the record's making, and got to work writing some new songs, which would ultimately become Venus and Mars, an album that was not quite as highly regarded as Band on the Run but definitely didn't get undeservedly slammed the way the wonderful RAM did. It was probably the right move, but McCartney's fans were not done with that hasty yet intriguing abandoned project yet. When the bootleggers got their hands on the One Hand Clapping tapes, they had the proverbial field day. The film made its way out there too.
Fifty years later, One Hand Clapping, the album, is finally getting an official release as a double LP plus bonus seven inch vinyl set. It feels a bit like a dry-run for the massively successful Wings Over America concerts that would follow a couple of years later and wow audiences with the first selection of Beatles chestnuts Paul performed since the end of The Beatles. He goofed around with some of those songs on One Hand: "Lady Madonna", "Blackbird", and "The Long and Winding Road". The band did "Go Now" in deference to Denny Laine's days with The Moody Blues and the guy's wonderful and underused voice.
One Hand Clapping diverges from that later set with a few songs Wings would cut from their act over the next couple of years (mostly stuff from the little-loved Wild Life), as well as a handful of simple, demo-like piano/voice numbers, such as a version of "Let's Love", which he'd written for Peggy Lee; "All of You"; and "I'll Give You a Ring", which he would not polish and release for eight more years when it crept out on the B-side of "Take It Away". There are also a clutch of rock and roll classics from the closets of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, and Elvis Presley. Despite their age and the fact that most of them are played in simple guitar/voice arrangements, these songs freshen up One Hand Clapping since performances of them are unique in McCartney's catalog.
Not that the other songs don't sound great. Wings was often a critical punching bag, but they were always a great band, even when they were basically McCartney overdubbing himself, as he did on Band on the Run. Plus McCartney always just sounds happy to play. That joy comes through clearly on One Hand Clapping. Is it as essential as RAM, Band on the Run, or Venus and Mars? Nope, but it's definitely deserving of release, even if it took fifty years to happen.
Even though pretty much everyone loved it, Star Wars became an easy go-to villain for every dreary movie critic who'd come to complain that it ruined cinematic art by making special effects and bottom line far more important than story, complex themes, and characterizations. Nevertheless, it took a few years for the influence of George Lucas's film to really ripen. Aside from a few stray extravaganzas like Superman, Alien, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Star Wars influence was mostly manifest in grade-Z schlockers like Star Crash and Battle Beyond the Stars in the years immediately following the summer of '77.
In his new book The Future Is Now, Chris Nashawaty essentially sets out to prove that that year of ripening was 1982. The spring/summer season of that year saw the release of no less than eight special-effects laden, major-studio genre movies: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Tron, Poltergiest, The Road Warrior, The Thing, and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Not all of these movies were mad successes. Before its recent nostalgia-based revisionism--which is now afforded to every old movie, even if it's as dire as Clue, The Monster Squad or Hocus Pocus--Tron was lumped in among Disney's embarrassing flops of the early eighties. Despite becoming far more deserving of the cult classic status it now enjoys, The Thing performed more poorly at the box office and critics hated its bleakness. The most ostensibly high-brow of the summer's genre pictures, Blade Runner, was too joyless and tedious for most tastes.
Nevertheless, all of these movies brought something fairly long-lasting to genre films. Even the stinker Tron (the only one of these movies I could never bring myself to sit through) can probably be blamed for the unapologetically digital effects work that would come to conquer moviemaking. And some, like E.T., Poltergeist, The Thing, and Wrath of Khan, were genuinely terrific movies.
You could get a juicy book out of any one of these films, so it must have been something of a challenge for Nashawaty to cover eight of them in one fairly slim volume, but the author remains focused enough that you don't feel as though you're ending up with nothing more than a morsel of a potential meal. Nashawaty is mainly concerned with how this particular year ended up being the one in which the genre bubble finally reached full size and its films completed all that which Star Wars began. Yet we not only get a lot of satisfying information about the eight films on which he focuses but also ones that led to their making, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Dark Star, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, and, of course, Star Wars. While The Future Is Now could have easily swelled to three times its published length without losing an iota of zing, or even moved a bit beyond July of '82 (Dark Crystal, where art thou?), what's here deserves to become a must-read for genre movie fans as much as The Thing deserved to become the genre classic it ultimately became. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 27 | https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/64740-Bill-Martin-Rd-Bend-OR-97703/121307257_zpid/ | en | 64740 Bill Martin Rd, Bend, OR 97703 | [
"https://s.zillowstatic.com/pfs/static/z-logo-default.svg",
"https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/6cf477ec88bef4d22e4b6d0c7c57c63f-cc_ft_960.jpg",
"https://s.zillow.net/pfs/static/app-store-badge.svg",
"https://s.zillow.net/pfs/static/google-play-badge.svg",
"https://s.zillow.net/pfs/static/z-logo-default.svg... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Zillow has 51 photos of this $1,590,000 4 beds, 4 baths, 3,463 Square Feet single family home located at 64740 Bill Martin Rd, Bend, OR 97703 built in 2014. MLS #220185867. | en | /apple-touch-icon.png | Zillow | https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/64740-Bill-Martin-Rd-Bend-OR-97703/121307257_zpid/ | Welcome to this peaceful and private ranch style home perched high above the heart of Tumalo with unobstructed panoramic views to the East. The 17.8 acres is set up and ready for your horses and is adjacent to 540 acres of open space. This home has 4 oversized bedrooms, 2 of which are full primary en-suites. The kitchen is a chefs dream with exquisite appliances, an oversized fridge/ freezer and much more. An antique Italian cook stove imported from Italy sits next to the kitchen. All cabinetry in every bathroom is beautiful and tasteful. Outside is an absolutely wonderful fire pit with stone walls and floor overlooking Tumalo. Theres a paved private basketball court, high end jacuzzi and especially made horse shoe pit ready for summer barbecues. The thoughtfully planned barn is attached to a private, oversized horse paddock surrounded by the best quality horse fencing. Additional outbuilding could be art studio or home office. Oversized, three-car garage is attached to barn. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 86 | https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artrs75.htm | en | Linda Ronstadt Interview | [
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/lr75-1.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/rs75-1.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/rs75-3.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/rs75-2.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/rs75-5.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/rs75-7.jpg",
"https://www.ronstadt-linda.com/rs... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | Linda Ronstadt
Heartbreak on Wheels
by Ben Fong-Torres
photographs by Annie Leibovitz
Rolling Stone, March 27, 1975 Linda Ronstadt arrived in Honolulu, drowsy and a little on the dowdy side, in a red rock T-shirt, blue Lee overalls and sandals. Her hair was a postflight brunette tangle, with a string of gray here and there. On the eve of one of her favorite holidays- St. Valentine's- she was Number One on the pop charts with her album Heart like a Wheel, and her single, "You're No Good." The flip, "I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love with You," was in the Top Five, meantime, on the country charts. And after the show tomorrow night at the Waikiki Shell her latest tour would be over, pau, as they say here.
At the gate, before she'd even had a chance to rub her eyes, the local concert promoter, a young, earnest-looking Korean named William Kim, stepped up and greeted her: "I'm here to give you your first lei," he cracked. A photographer maneuvered into position. Ronstadt blinked her eyes and backed off. She turned to Peter Asher, her manager. "What is this crap all about?" she asked. Finally, properly introduced, she accepted the lei and allowed herself to be pecked on the cheek- but not to be photographed. As she climbed the steps of a Wiki bus headed for Baggage Claim, she turned to Asher again. "Was that rude?" she asked.
The day before, in Hollywood, Linda was reconsidering something she had said in an interview for the book, Rock 'n Roll Woman- that she was basically an unhappy person. That was in early 1974, shortly after the release of Don't Cry Now, an album that had taken over a year, some $150,000 and three producers (not counting herself) to complete. Now, she had her first hit single since 1970's moderate success, "Long Long Time." She was about to finish a smooth and successful tour, a five-week run that showed off a more musically assured Ronstadt than ever. And in Peter Asher she seemed to have found an astute manager and a compassionate, trustworthy producer. Could she possibly still be unhappy?
Well . . . yes. "I'm more confused than ever about that," she said. "I went through an intensely happy period for about six months, and then it changed, real fast, last summer and that's when I got fat." She wailed, as if betrayed: "I went, 'Oh, no! It's all a lie!'"
Away from the album covers, Ronstadt still has an open, Sally Fields-cute, country-cousin appearance (with a shape she describes as approximating "a fire hydrant"). At age 28, she often looks, acts and sounds like a little girl. To punctuate unpleasant thoughts or flashes of guilt or excitement, the wide eyes widen, the comic-strip perfect lips stretch out in dumbfounded anxiety, and the voice revs up, sometimes getting loud and strident. Now, she is quiet, reasoned:
"I don't know, I may be just an unhappy person forever. I'm very dissatisfied with everything. I'm hard to please and very restless, so it's always a battle between that and my real deep desire to have a home and roots, which is a kind of contentment which is beyond description when you find it. And I've only had glimpses of it."
For her body, Ronstadt joined a health club in Los Angeles and went through a rigorous program of running seven miles a day. For her head, she has been seeing a psychiatrist for the last six months. "I think it's helped," she said, "but I'm getting restless about that now, too. I do everything for about six months, then I go, 'Pfft-next!'
"I had to start going because I couldn't perform. I just felt very alienated. I would stand onstage and look at the audience, and they would appear dehumanized to me; they weren't human beings and I wasn't a human being and I couldn't understand why anyone would want to be there to hear it. I didn't have anything to say to anybody, and I found it very difficult to concentrate. But it's changed; I don't feel that way anymore." She shifted around in the sofa.
"It's harder, though. There are more people looking at me and people come up and say, 'Gee, you're dada-dada-da!' and I don't like that. I feel dehumanized and sort of insulted. People intimidate me like mad, so I try to be as polite as I can be and stay as withdrawn as I can. But very often I come off rude."
Onstage at the Waikiki Shell, Linda Ronstadt was reserved; she made only a brief mention of Valentine's Day. She wore her standard tour apparel: blouse tied at the waist and blue jeans. No lei. She barely moved onstage, holding the mike stand with both hands and allowing her hips to sway on the fast numbers only as much as a tapping foot seemed to require. Still, when it got down to the singing, she checked in strong and clear. The little girl has always been a woman in song, but now the powerful voice is more controlled; Linda is able to express multiple emotions in a single phrase, snarling out one word and crying another in "I Can't Help It if I'm Still in Love with You." Hot-pointed anger and heartbroken concession all at once. Despite a lingering flu, her control of falsetto and of the mid-glide up from falsetto back to chest voice was remarkable.
But some in the crowd were not there for musical appreciation. One fan tossed a heart-shaped box of chocolates to her in midsong and it startled her. "I thought it was a bomb," she said with a decided lack of diplomacy after inspecting the contents. And, as she began a fragile number, "Keep Me from Blowing Away," she was suddenly faced with a large blond man who'd swayed his way up to the stage apron, then somehow vaulted up onto the stage. Just as he was getting a good look at Linda- who kept singing- a security guard caught up with him and Ronstadt's stage manager hauled the young man backwards off the stage and back onto earth. For the next minute, the dazed man was shuffled, pushed and dragged around while members of the audience yelled for the authorities to leave him alone. Ronstadt stayed at the mike, trying to concentrate on the song, eyes intently focused somewhere above the audience in the trees and the carbon blue skies. After the song, she attempted to shrug it off: "Looks like 'Kung Fu Fighting' here tonight," she said. But after the show she was torn. Sure, she was frightened by the hulk. "He looked so scary. He was just there all of a sudden. He looked like a gorilla. You never know what anyone might do to you. But, boy, I felt bad for him 'cause he was obviously so loaded. And I heard his head, it went crack against that floor . . ." She shuddered and groaned. "I went, 'Ohh, no . . .'
"But I also felt I didn't want him up on the stage."
It is not a happy Valentine's Day for Linda Ronstadt. In Hollywood, she had stayed up late with Peter and Betsy Asher making a valentine for Albert Brooks who was in the studio finishing up a new album. But here in Waikiki, she watched a couple walking in front of her, holding hands, and she pined away for Brooks. "Oh, I don't have anybody to kiss me," she complained. At night's end, she disappeared, alone, into a Sheraton elevator.
Linda Ronstadt was always a lover. She learned about the birds and the bees, the boys and the girls, at age seven from a cousin who was one year older. In junior high in Tucson, Arizona, she started dressing up sexy. "I was trying to be Brigitte Bardot," she said. In rebellion against the nuns at the school- St. Peter and Paul- she went "boy crazy." At Catalina High, she went out with older men, among them a steel guitar enthusiast with whom she left town at age 18. In Los Angeles, she sought a career in music and became the object of attention- the kind that led to too many wrong relationships, too many years of hating her own records and concerts, too many sad songs to sing and, today, to a still uncertain Linda Ronstadt.
Welcome to the top of the pops.
Our stay with Linda began in Berkeley, where she had given a concert. We would hit Davis, near Sacramento, for two shows at the University of California campus there; Bakersfield, 300 miles away, for one show and Tucson for two hometown concerts. After a few days' rest in L.A., the tour would end in Honolulu.
Linda- and most of her band- are afraid of flying and most of the tour had been by bus. On the eastern swing, just finished, they had rented Hank Williams Jr.'s custom vehicle, called "The Cheatin' Heart Special," with nine bunk beds and plenty of room for playing cards. Now the group was making do with the largest mobile home they could find. There was one long seat up front, two bunks built into overhead shelves and two tables, one front, one rear, with a kitchenette between them. There would be little sleeping, but lots of blackjack, with stakes constantly reaching serious proportions ("Last game," Linda said, "they all owed each other their houses"). Linda would join the table on another trip, but for now she was content to chat and work on a sweater for Albert in cream and jade heather colors.
Linda talked freely, with a bright, winsome manner, and began to reveal herself. Her father, Gilbert, 63, of Mexican and German descent (Ronstadt is a German name), is a musician, a guitarist and a singer who has sung informally with mariachi bands on visits to Mexico. He also crafts jewelry, and now runs Ronstadt Hardware ("Established in 1888") in downtown Tucson. It was Pop who exposed her to music other than her early Sixties staples: folk music and rock, "especially the Beach Boys." Her father, she said, is "into melodies, and he made me listen to Peggy Lee and Billie Holiday . . .". Her sister kept Hank Williams records on all day long until Linda was hooked. Now, she lists Williams, along with Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye among her favorite male singers. She's also listening now to Sinatra. "Those Nelson Riddle arrangements are so sensitive . . ." And George Jones and Tammy Wynette, recently split. "I saw him singing 'Grand Tour' on television and I sat there and cried like a housewife," said Linda. "He's one of my heroes."
She talked about love. People commit suicide without it, she offered. "I was reading about a study that showed people did it because they couldn't make an intimate connection with another human being. You need that- or else it's religion or drugs. I could never handle religion. And drugs- there's no way out of that." She resorted to plenty of cocaine she said, during the Neil Young tour of early 1973 when she had to face 15,000 Neil Young freaks as an opening act, often as a last-minute booking and an unwelcome surprise for impatient Youngies. "I had to have my nose cauterized twice- I think they shot sodium nitrate up there- I'm okay now. I don't put anything up my nose anymore, except occasionally my finger." She looked at my notebook and winced, disgusted with herself.
On Highway 80, just south of Fairfield, the bus broke down and required a half-hour stop, but Linda wasn't disturbed. She talked about Led Zeppelin. "Andrew Gold from the band is indoctrinating me," she said. "Their stuff is like insect music to me. I can't listen for a long time without getting a headache, but I'm getting to understand it." A little later she asked a question of no one in particular: "What's Plant look like? That's such a great name for someone who sings like that."
A few other men's names popped up: Governor Jerry Brown, comedian Steve Martin, Little Feat's Lowell George, songwriter Tom Campbell. They've all been boyfriends- excepting the new governor of California. "We just went out a couple of times," she said. "There was no romance. I met him at Lucy's in L.A.- they have the greatest enchiladas- he was secretary of state and thinking about campaigning. And then he called me later and asked for me to help in his campaign. I said, look, I don't know anything; I'm the worst. I don't watch TV; I just read what I want to read about. I said, please, I'm in no position, I can't even be responsible for my own vote and I still feel that way." Did she vote for him? "I didn't vote last election 'cause I was at the fat farm . . ." She is betting Andrew Gold $200 that she can beat him to a 15 pound weight loss inside of two months. Gold, the eclectic member of an all-eclectic band, appears trim, but Linda knows better. "You should see him with his clothes off," she said. "He looks like a 12-year-old around the shoulders, and about 40 years old with his belly." Anyway, she will begin her diet in earnest today. But her first stop, on arrival at the hotel in Davis, was the coffeeshop where she watched pies revolving in a display case.
After the soundcheck, she returned to the hotel and placed a call to Brown, who invited her to breakfast and a tour of the old governor's mansion the next morning. But the group's schedule would not allow the visit.
The first show in Davis went well, but she called for another quick soundcheck and some unhappiness with the monitors was quickly taken care of. Backstage, Linda shared her upstairs dressing room with the band, and the music of Roger McGuinn and his band was barely audible. Nostalgia . . . and a sense of irony . . . pervaded the group. There were quick nods and tributes from the band members- several of whom are on their first tour of any substance- to the man who introduced them all to folk rock . . . who tonight was their opening act. But they didn't dwell on rock & roll's roller coaster. In fact, after a round of "Many Rivers to Cross," most of the attention in the room was given to yo-yos.
Don Francisco, the drummer, had invited a buddy from his hometown, Pensacola, Florida, to the Davis shows, and the friend, a jaunty, chubby, curly-haired 33-year-old named Paul Lybrand, happened to be the Duncan Yo-Yo champion of America. Champ, in fact, since 1972. Duncan pays him to tour the country nine months a year, doing promotional exhibitions at schools. He brought along a brown paper sack full of yo-yos. Linda had watched him spin through a series of neat tricks in front of the food table and decided to let him do a spot during her own set. Now, in the dressing room, the band and road managers and crew members were throwing the yo-yos in all directions while Linda sat and knitted.
Peter Asher laughed. "As soon as we offered him the gig, he went out to his car and got his jacket- this red blazer with the yo-yo champion emblem on it." The laughter is just short of deprecating. But short.
At the five-minute cue to go backstage, Linda called out, "Ten more stitches," completed them and moved easily to the mirror, where she knotted her blouse at the navel- "Not to make me look sexier," she said. "I want to look thinner" - and put on some light makeup.
The show was, again, smooth. During the Dolly Parton number, "I Will Always Love You," a nervous Paul Lybrand, in his championship jacket, rehearsed furiously backstage, Walking the Dog, bending down to let the yo-yo do the Creeper, snapping the string to form the Man on the Flying Trapeze. This would be a highpoint in 25 years of yo-yoing. Onstage, he came through with a tight, five-trick set that lasted only 50 seconds, with Gold and Francisco offering support on piano and drums. The crowd had greeted him with freak-show laughter, but wound up whooping and hollering. Lybrand did Duncan proud.
The show ended with Linda soothing the audience with the ballad, "Heart like a Wheel," accompanied only by Gold on the piano. The crowd, up for the last two numbers- "You're No Good" and a razzle-dazzle reading of "Heat Wave"- stayed up and paid attention.
And it's only love and it's only love That can break a human being And turn him inside out
Up near the stage, the audience looked like an assembly of kids getting a light scolding; moustache-fingering thoughtful, as if listening to a eulogy. Linda Ronstadt is no longer just a slice of country pie.
In the mobile home on the way back to the hotel, the entire band was up front, playing around with a scat sing of the instrumental parts of Led Zeppelin's "Dancing Days." Ed Black, a blond baby-faced guitarist, stood by the screen door and Ronstadt looked up from her knitting bag, pleased. "This is just like a family in a house," she said.
The band is Andrew Gold on piano, guitar and vocals; Kenny Edwards, a former Stone Poney along with Linda, on bass and vocals; Dan Dugmore on pedal steel and rhythm guitars; Ed Black on pedal and lead guitar and occasional piano and Don Francisco on drums. It is a friendly, tour-tightened unit, one of Linda's best. Gold and Edwards had worked behind Wendy Waldman, a long-time friend of Linda's from Tucson days. The two men had also formed a rock band and opened for Ronstadt at a McGovern benefit at the Daisy in Hollywood. Edwards, an affable sort, a kind of cross between Elliott Gould and Fred MacMurray, is not at all uneasy about his return to the Ronstadt fold. When he split from the Stone Poneys, it was because he wanted to rock, while the Poneys' leader, Bob Kimmel, wrote mostly folkie, Pentangled material. Now, he is rocking. Francisco is another whose face reminds of others- in his case, Richard Greene and Roger Daltrey come to mind. Francisco is a former history and geography teacher and barker at a topless joint in San Francisco. He was hired for the band late last year, just before the tour. Dan Dugmore is also a recent addition, joining after a tour with John Stewart. Ed Black, a former guitar teacher, met Linda almost four years ago on the road, when he was with Goose Creek Symphony. A half year later, he got a call and his first assignment was to overdub one note for the Linda Ronstadt album- the last steel guitar note on "I Fall to Pieces"- originally played, live, by Sneaky Pete at the Troubadour.
Over the course of her solo career, Linda Ronstadt has been understandably wary about her backup groups. For one thing, she felt inadequate- she didn't know how to talk in musical terms, she said and couldn't give effective orders. For another: "Backing up a girl wasn't cool at all. They didn't want to do that. They wanted to be rock & rollers and have this sexual identity they get by being up onstage with their guitars."
The extreme example occurred in 1972, when she hired Glenn Frey and Don Henley, now Eagles. "I knew Glenn was a temporary thing," she said. "I knew he was going to be a star the minute I met him, he was such a hot shot. I loved him. When Glenn met Don, they wanted to form a band right away."
The current backup men also have aspirations (in fact, Gold has signed an artist contract with Asylum Records), but they seem to have a sense of duty. Francisco, before his audition, got a tip that Ronstadt liked, more than anything, a good back beat with emphasis on the high the snare and the bass. "And that's exactly what I play."
"She doesn't like complicated licks," said Black. Dugmore completed the thought: "It's understandable. You're trying to showcase the song and the singer, not the band."
Sitting around the front of the bus while Linda played blackjack, Black, Francisco and Dugmore also seemed uniformly devoted to Linda as a person. Were they ever tempted to advance beyond a professional relationship?
Nervous laughter.
Black spoke first. "There've been a couple of instances of more than a musical thing," he said, "but I don't care to go into it." He slowed down, and added: "You know." Francisco confessed: "At the outset I had amorous designs- a straight-out crush. But then I got to know her as a friend . . ." Which would not have stopped me, I was going to say, but I was interviewing them. Dugmore remained silent. "He's married," said Black, "so he has to watch out." More nervous laughter.
On the road to Bakersfield, Ronstadt talked some more about drugs. She has taken just about every drug around, she said in answer to a question. But she's given up almost every one. Grass once made her hands swell, she said. Cocaine made her "feel terrible. And I also can't take opiates." Nor can she drink. A steady diet of gin, she said, made her dizzy and she thought she had vertigo. Other drinks gave her skin rashes. She tried heroin "once or twice, but it's not for me." She can take speed and declared Methedrine her only remaining vice. "But it makes me sneeze too much. But the fat farm [actually the Ashram, in Los Angeles, affiliated with Ronstadt's now defunct health club] taught me that running does the same thing speed does, and it doesn't make you feel bad, so now I run whenever I can."
Her current obsession is food. And, between mouthfuls of a burrito from a roadside burger stand, she expressed a desire to kick, for professional reasons: "I can sing better after shooting smack in both arms than after eating too much," she said.
Linda turned to a man-on-the-street question feature from the San Francisco Chronicle. The question was, "Do you like hairy girls?" Ronstadt: "Jackson [Browne] and J.D. [Souther] aren't hairy. I like furry men. Albert's hairy." She brightened. "You can cling to him and slide all around. He's just like a human teddy bear."
The next day, the day of the Bakersfield concert, the Los Angeles Times's review of Linda's concert at the Music Center was out; it was a rave, headlined: "A Triumph for Linda Ronstadt." The show had ended with Maria Muldaur joining in on "Heart like a Wheel." Linda slowly read the review and looked up at Asher with only one comment: "Hmm, he didn't say anything about Maria."
Bakersfield was where Ronstadt lost her temper, something her friends say she has learned to keep in check in recent years. Onstage, she is easily distracted by exploding flashbulbs. At Bakersfield Civic Auditorium, the stage is only a foot or two high and the front row is only the width of an aisle away from the edge of the stage. After the opener, "Colorado," Linda asked that all flash pictures be taken during the second song, "That'll Be the Day." But one man in the front row either didn't hear or didn't want to hear Ronstadt's request and he kept shooting away. On the instrumental break of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," she gestured for him to quit- and he didn't.
Last time she got really mad, Linda tried kicking in a door and broke her leg. Before that, she heaved a wax candle at a loudmouthed customer at the Troubadour (she was in the audience, not onstage). Here in Bakersfield, she completed "Silver Threads" and hurled her tambourine, Frisbee style, at the flasher. "That was for the asshole who keeps taking flash pictures," she said and repeated her request.
Linda recovered and rolled through the rest of the hour-long set with ease; she received an encore call from a mostly tepid crowd. After the concert, she packed up her knitting case quickly, joked with the band and talked with Asher and crew members about the sound system. As for the tambourine incident, she was sorry- not about having thrown the instrument, but about her poor aim. "I hit some girl in the shin," she said, and made a face that said something between "Oops" and "Yikes."
But the show was over, and Linda was coming home.
Linda Maria Ronstadt comes from singing stock. At age three she was listening to music on the radio and begging her mother to play the ukelele. "I remember doing it in baby talk." she said. Linda was serenaded on birthdays with a family favorite, "Las Mananitas." Her parents frequently hosted dinner parties and invariably her father would pick up a guitar around 10:30 and family and friends would gather around for a group sing that would last till two or three in the morning. And the kids were allowed to stay up. "We'd be lying on the floor trying to hold our eye lids up," said Linda, "but they'd let us sing along, without trying to make us perform." Linda learned much of her music from the records of Lola Beltran, a master of the falsetto studded, rancheros style of singing.
At Tuscon International Airport Linda was greeted by brother Pete, 33, a policeman, his wife, Jackie, and two kids, Phil and Mindy. Linda was immediately the neat aunt, modestly famous, to the extent that they hear her songs and ask for the concert on the radio. "Oh," Linda responded, "Do you still have that Snoopy radio?"
At home, Linda was greeted by her mother at the door; they had seen each other a couple of weeks ago, when Mrs. Ronstadt, known to friends as "La," accompanied the tour through several Eastern cities, sleeping on "The Cheatin' Heart Special" and winking at the funny-smelling smoke. "I had so much fun I forgot I was 60," she said. Linda's father, a fair-sized man with expansive, Cugat facial features, embraced his daughter inside, patting her three times on the ass, and gave her a gift: a gold heart on a setting of wood. Linda, suddenly the little daughter, immediately asked for a chain to go with it. Sister Suzi, 35, a housewife, brother Mike, 21, bearded and hoping to be a singer himself, and an assortment of in-laws, nephews, nieces and friends dropped by. In a quiet moment, everyone sitting around waiting for someone to talk, Mom asked: "How does it feel to be Number One, Number One and Number One?" Linda made a dunno face. "I'm not crying," she shrugged and sat down on the carpet to listen to Phil's singing, on tape, of "Snoopy and the Red Baron."
The family was in a reminiscing mood and the center of the stories, of course, was number one daughter, how she, Suzi and Pete were such a dynamite group in the folkie days, playing Tucson parties, pizza joints and, one time, a bra and girdle sale downtown. "Linda had a solo spot," said Suzi. "She sang things like 'The Trees They Do Grow High.' She was so cute and little, and she wore a black dress with a string of pearls." Bob Kimmel, the Stone Poney who played bass for the Ronstadts on occasion, remembered Linda at age 14: "She had a phenomenal voice. The quality of it, the characteristic Linda Ronstadt sound, was there."
On the way in from the airport, Linda had casually told Pete: "We're not doing 'Silver Threads' and 'I Can't Help It' too well. You wanna sing with us?" And Pete, who'd effectively killed the family act when he decided to join the force, casually replied: "Sure. In fact, we've worked up some la-las for 'Keep Me from Blowing Away."
At the house, the three, plus Mike, worked out parts for the Hank Williams classic, while La sat at a distance, smoking and making requests for "So Fine." At the soundcheck at the Tucson Music Center, the band seemed happy to step back and make way for the family. The harmonies, onstage that evening, were difficult to hear- the sister is a little mike shy, and all three were unaccustomed to electric backing. But what was audible was pleasant, as it was at the house. If Pete hadn't become a cop, it could very well have been Linda and the Ronstadts.
It was late by the end of two shows, but the Ronstadts had planned a party for the band, the family and a few friends, featuring Mom's Mexican cooking. The first little scene at the party was Peter Asher's entrance. As soon as the timid-looking manager was pointed out to Mr. Ronstadt, Linda's father went over, hugged him and whisked him away for a little talk. Later, everyone fed, Mr. Ronstadt accepted a guitar from Mike and began to sing a lilting Spanish song. Linda joined in on the chorus, in high harmony. On another number, with Pete taking over on guitar, Mr. Ronstadt reached out and held his younger daughter's hand for a fleeting moment. Guests looked at each other with soft smiles. A rock & roll party, indeed . . .
Back in Los Angeles, on the eve of Hawaii, Linda recalled the family sing and, to the best of her ability, the songs. "They're all revolutionary songs," she said. "One was 'El Adios del Soldado,' a song of great heartbreak, about a soldier riding away. This guy says, 'Don't worry, sweetheart, I'm going off to battle, but I'll be back tomorrow.' And the next day, his ghost rides back."
We were in Albert Brooks's house, in the Hollywood Hills: nice place, white walls, lots of recording equipment. Linda moved in last Christmas but has hardly been there; her cartons are still in one room, unopened. If she and Albert stay together, they'd want another house, she said. And if they split, she'd rather not go through another packing job. Life, as always, is unsettled.
I asked about her parents' response to her success. "They're proud of me. I left home at 18 and they didn't stand in my way. They thought I was too young, but they knew I wanted to sing. My father gave me $30 and he gave me this advice . . ." Linda started to titter . . . "which was, basically, 'Don't let anyone take your picture with your clothes off.'" She laughed. "'Watch out for those guys in the city.' And he gave me a two-dollar bill with a corner torn off, which I still have."
Linda went to Los Angeles, at the behest of Bob Kimmel, the first beatnik Linda ever ran across in Tucson. Kimmel moved to L.A. when Linda was still a senior at Catalina High. He wrote her about the L.A. music scene and invited her out. She tried a weekend during the Easter break of 1964 and sang with Kimmel at the Insomniac, a small club in Hermosa Beach (it is now a parking lot). By the time she was out of high school, Kimmel had met Ken Edwards, who hung out at the Ash Grove and picked up music from the likes of Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and saw player Larry Hagler. Later that year, Linda made the split from home and in L.A. she heard Kimmel's plans for a group. "It was going to be five people. We had an electric autoharp and a girl singer, and we thought we were unique in the world. And it turned out the Jefferson Airplane and the Lovin' Spoonful had beaten us." The dream was trimmed to a trio, and one night, doing their wash and minding their business, they got discovered.
There was a place called Olivia's, which was an amazing soul food place down in Ocean Park [between Venice and Santa Monica]. Everybody ate there. The Doors were getting together then and they ate there. We used to do our laundry across the street, and these two guys- they were sort of would-be managers- were eating lunch, and they heard us rehearsing [with Kimmel on guitar] all the way across the street, through the traffic and the dryers. They came over and- you know- 'We're going to make you stars.' They took us down to see Mike Curb, who was working for Mercury, and we thought, 'Wow, this is it!'
But they wanted to call us the Signets; they wanted me to wear evening gowns and work in Vegas. They wanted us to make surfing music. They hired the Hondells to play on our records. We made a couple of records, 'So Fine' and a couple of Bobby's tunes, and then we told them to forget it, 'cause we wanted to be called the Stone Poneys, and I wanted to wear this denim skirt I had." A comic who worked at another club in Hermosa Beach stepped in and offered to get them a hoot at the Troubadour; he did, but immediately after the set he introduced her- and only her- to Herb Cohen, a folk manager and promoter. "He and Herb came and grabbed me and started to propel me out the door, and they took me to Tana's, next door, and Kimmel wandered over eventually and I remember Herbie saying to Kimmel, 'I don't know whether I can get you guys a contract, but I can get your girl singer recorded,' and that was sort of the beginning. Trouble in the ranks. And I said, 'No, no, I won't sing without the group.'"
Without Cohen, the Poneys got a job at the Troubadour, opening for Oscar Brown Jr. "It was so demoralizing," said Linda. "He had a band and this amazing chick he married [Jean Pace], and he got a very uptown black audience. It was such a blow to our confidence that we broke up. I moved to Venice and Kenny and I continued to play at a couple of places, but we were starving to death for two or three months. My mother sent me rent money." When Linda heard a record by one of Herb Cohen's acts, the Modern Folk Quartet, on the radio she thought she'd blown her chance, but called him anyway. "He tried to get me together with Frank Zappa to cut a demo. Jack Nitzsche was looking for a girl Rolling Stones kind of singer." Ronstadt considered herself provincial at that point but she was open, she said, to "modern music." But the matchup went nowhere, and she regrouped with the Poneys. Cohen stuck with her- and the group- and introduced them to Nick Venet, a producer who shortly after meeting the group got a job at Capitol Records.
"Capitol wanted me as a solo," she said, "but Nick convinced them I wasn't ready, that I would develop. It was true. I wasn't ready to do anything. I still wasn't ready when I became a single." Still, she was constantly being pushed. "I remember when we first recorded, Nick and Herbie put their arms around me, took me out in the hallway and said, 'You realize that you're going to be a single if you're good.' I still thought the situation would resolve itself, that we would develop as a group and they would see it that way." A first album, sort of soft/folkie, We Five sounds with Linda doing lead on several cuts, flopped. The second album included a rock number pulled out by Venet called "Different Drum," with Linda backed by four L.A. session-players. Before "Drum" hit, in late 1967, Capitol sent the group out on a promotional tour. "We did things like open for Butterfield at the Cafe au Go Go- which was worse than Oscar Brown." Linda looked sorrowful at the memory. "Here we were rejected by the hippest element in New York as lame. We broke up right after that. We couldn't bear to look at each other." Edwards split for India.
But the Poneys had a hit. Linda and Kimmel pulled themselves together, hired some help and toured with the Doors. "Second acts," Linda laughed. "It's really the pits, you know?" After the tour, Kimmel left and settled in Big Sur for a year, working as a vegetable gardener and night watchman; he now operates McCabe's Guitar Shop in Los Angeles.
Capitol squeezed out one more album, this time with Linda and all session musicians, and called it Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poney and Friends, Vol. 3. But she was definitely on her own now- and, once again, in poverty.
"See, the Poneys were taken off the books after the second album. Since it was a hit, they made royalties off it. But I didn't. I paid all by myself for the third album, which was expensive and it put me severely in the red by the time I started recording my first solo album. I never made any royalties until . . . well, I'll make some at the end of this next royalty period . . . I'll make a bunch." Don't Cry Now, her first album for Asylum, sold over 300,000 but royalties were swallowed up by recording costs and the advance she had received for switching over.
Her first solo album for Capitol, Home Grown, was produced by Chip Douglas and had her running through songs by Dylan, Randy Newman, John D. Loudermilk and Fred Neil. To her, it's an easily forgotten album. So is Silk Purse, produced by Elliot Mazer in Nashville, despite the hit, "Long Long Time."
"I hate that album," she said. There was no hesitation in saying so. "I'm sure Elliot doesn't think it's very good either. I couldn't sing then, I didn't know what I was doing. I was working with Nashville musicians and I don't really play country music; I play very definitely California music, and I couldn't communicate it to them." And the one song she liked- Gary White's "Long Long Time"- was ignored by Capitol until L.A. radio airplay forced the label. "They released it," said Linda, "but they told me, 'Don't bring us another country single.'"
Linda then met John Boylan, whose production work (especially on Rick Nelson's record of Dylan's "She Belongs to Me") she liked. "I wanted someone who knew what I was trying to do and would do what I wanted. So eventually we moved in together."
Boylan became her producer and, from here on, things get a little muddy. Boylan became her former boyfriend- Linda met and moved in with J.D. Souther- and she dropped Cohen as manager. She tried for a friend, Peter Asher, but he was managing Kate Taylor and feared a conflict of interests. "Just," said Asher, "in terms of a gig coming up that would be ideal for both, and one would have a hard decision to make." Boylan agreed to manage her.
These shifts burdened Ronstadt through what she calls "the bleak years, when I was just grinding it out." One of her problems, she said, was her tendency to fall into dependent, father-daughter relationships. "Herbie Cohen gave me a perspective on the music business- how it was basically all bullshit. But he was older than me- he's 40ish now- and he intimidated me. I did everything he did and I related to him in a whiney, wimpy way. But he wasn't a musician and couldn't help me with the music. He had me on the road with any old kind of band, which is terrible, and if I needed a guitar player, his idea would be to call up the musician's union.
"Boylan was more effective transmitting things, but we argued a lot; we competed enormously in the studio. I just didn't trust him, I didn't trust anyone then, and I was always afraid that something was going to get pulled over me. I was punch-drunk from producers. I must have been very difficult to work with."
And Boylan was another dad-kid relationship. "I'd wake up and call him and ask, 'Gee, what should I do today? What socks should I put on?' It was very unhealthy, and it went on for a couple of years. And finally, in the middle of the Neil Young tour, we were just getting on each other's nerves too much and I was turning into an idiot, and I wasn't doing any thinking for myself, and it wasn't right, because of course you have to make your own decisions."
On the Young tour, in Boston, Linda ran into Kate Taylor, who told her she wasn't working anymore and that Asher might be free. He was. Literally.
"Here I had a situation with Herbie Cohen where I was still paying commissions because I couldn't get out of that contract- it was seven years or something horrible like that; I'm still paying him off- and Peter was really groovy. He waived commissions for a year and really worked his ass off for me."
Linda began Don't Cry Now with John Boylan. "I knew Peter wanted to produce it, but I was too paranoid; I was too afraid to move from another situation again. John had got me off Capitol, negotiated the deal with Asylum- I was going to make an album for Asylum, then another one for Capitol- and that's when Peter came into the situation. I continued for a few months to try to record with John, but it was apparent our relationship had deteriorated to the point where we couldn't work together anymore."
She asked Asher to help on a couple of tracks ("Sail Away" and "I Believe in You"), and while they were among the best sounding, ultimately, to her, she called the sessions "disastrous"- "I had personal problems or something else was happening." One of her better songs on the Young tour was a version of the old Betty Everett hit, "You're No Good," and she tried cutting it. "It was terrible," said Asher. "I had the wrong rhythm section. They were very good, but they were playing the wrong kind of thing. We gave up."
"Then," Ronstadt continued, "I started rerecording everything with J.D. Souther. We were like kids in the studio, just inept, and we took a lot of time. But I learned a lot and it was worth it, almost, because it was such hard work. After that experience, I knew so much more when I went into the studio with Peter, so it was easier for me to talk to him; it wasn't like I was a person who didn't know how to do what she wanted to do."
It is all finally coming together. After six years at it, she is even feeling all right about being a solo singer. "I didn't feel at ease about it until this month," she said. "I mean I finally feel that I'm doing okay as a singer, and that we're doing good shows, and the band is cooking and it's great."
"See, my voice was always the thing I hated the most. I thought it was nasal. But I always had lousy sound systems, and I never knew I was a loud singer till this year, I never heard myself; I sang by radar. I would oversing, ruin my voice and never develop subtle nuances, or try to experiment. Being onstage was always an unpleasant experience for me.
"I always thought I was horrible. If people didn't like me, I thought they just had good taste." She laughed. "But I didn't think it always had to be bad or I would've quit. I thought it was bad because of reasons I had to correct and I was right. What I finally did was, when I got Peter, I finished off Don't Cry Now and two days later I had to be on the road, I had to take this band I put together real fast, with a lot of good musicians. but people who \ couldn't play with each other. And Peter was looking at it, and I thought, 'My god, he'll think this is terrible and he'll quit!' That's when I realized it was up to me; I'd have to pull it together, get up onstage and take command. And I did. I started playing guitar onstage, 'cause we needed an acoustic guitar player. I remember sitting in the dressing room rehearsing "Long Long Time" between shows, so I could go onstage and do it. And Peter was impressed that I was able to pull it off.
"The band before that was so clumsy. We'd play ballads and it sounded like elephants playing, it was so musically unrefined. And I'd feel bogus about it and couldn't stand up onstage and say, 'This is great music and we're gonna lay it on you.'"
A book of the onstage wit and wisdom of Linda Ronstadt would wind up just a shade thicker than a book of Nixon's factual statements about Watergate. We now know that the adolescent giggling is part of Linda's character when she's nervous or ill at ease. Also, a person is not normally stocked with a variety of giggles from which to choose for crowd-pleasing purposes. So hers is an awkward one that gets Peter Asher, for one, "empathetically squirmy."
"Uh, it makes me uncomfortable," he said, "because it means she's uncomfortable. The solution is to get everything right.
"They say a pro can handle whatever happens, but the trouble with proness is: You start to get unreal and have fixed lines. To be real like Linda, you almost have to be nervous or embarrassed- or, if someone in the audience is objectionable, you have to dislike them- not necessarily throw her tambourine- but mentally, you have to.
Joni Mitchell suffered from the same things. She's done shows where she's burst into tears and run off. In a sense, they're both in the same situation, of trying to say what they think."
But when it comes to story-telling, Joni wins, even with her giggles. Linda, without the aura and the stance of writer of the songs she sings, can come off like a babbling idiot in comparison. Recently, however, she has learned to edit herself and now her remarks about the songs she sings are illuminating and to the point.
"I knew people thought I was dumb," she said, "and I encouraged it a lot of times, 'cause I would get onstage and be very self-conscious." Offstage, "People would get me in situations and actually try to make me feel dumb . . . Yeah, so they'd have more control over me. Peter and Betsy, I met them in New York five years ago and they were so nice. I always do better on the East Coast, for some reason. People who I met on the East Coast thought I was neat and intelligent. People I met on the West Coast thought I was an idiot who always threw drinks around the Troubadour bar, so it was fortunate I met them on the East Coast. They moved out to Los Angeles and would invite me to parties and Peter was an intelligent person I could talk to and he would talk back to me like a person, not like somebody he wanted to ball, or somebody he thought was silly and could push around. All I needed was somebody to react to me like that."
Peter Asher is a thin, red-headed, eyeglassed, shy sort, British and a teen idol ten years ago, the Peter of Peter and Gordon. Since then he has shied from performing- except for background bits behind the acts he has produced and managed, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.
Their five-year friendship, he said, has helped in the studio. "Her musical instinct and ear were exceptional and almost always right." he said. "People in the past have tended to discount that, but I think it was because she had a hard time getting people to understand her." Linda, he said, chose most of the songs and worked out the initial vocal arrangements on Heart like a Wheel. Instrumental arrangements were a cooperative matter among Asher, Ronstadt and Andrew Gold.
One of the few and major arguments about the album was over "You're No Good." Asher had resurrected the song and, with Gold, tried to come up with a guitar track. "We'd been there all night and tried a million things. Finally we built up this montage of all these guitar overdubs which we were very proud of by the end of this 12-hour thing. Linda came in the next day and didn't like it. And for a while she actually tried having someone else [Ken Edwards] overdub something else. But in the course of listening to it several times, she completely turned around."
Linda had heard part of Asher's remarks, and I asked her what she didn't like about the guitar lines.
"Oh, I thought it sounded like the Beatles," she said. And it does. I turned back to Asher.
What about the time, in Tucson, when Linda's father took Asher aside. What did he say?
"He said he was glad to meet me, that he was glad she was successful and thanked me. And he said he hoped she was making some money that she would keep, because she wouldn't be doing this forever. He knows she's never made any money in the past."
I asked Asher for the secret of his success with Linda. "I think the thing it's frequently attributed to is that I'm the first person who's managed and produced her with whom, as they so delicately put it, there is a solely professional relationship. It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with."
Ah . . . but what about temptation? Or, as I so delicately put it, "Was Betsy ever insecure that you might fall into a relationship with Linda?"
Asher smiled. "I've no doubt it's crossed her mind," he replied. "Crossed my mind."
"I always felt I fell in love with people for neurotic reasons, said Linda. "It's nice to like someone who is nice to you for a change."
She likes Albert Brooks, the comedian. For once, she is not in competition with a musician / boyfriend. Based on eight months together, Ronstadt says it's too hard to tell about him. "But he's the nicest person I've known." At a hotel in Los Angeles, after an interview, she called him to let him know she was on her way home. She baby talked to him, asking if he was smiling, even though he'd been up all night working on his album and fighting with engineers. And even though he and Linda weren't on the best terms. "I'll make you smile," she cooed into the phone.
Linda doesn't talk much about her love life, but from the songs she has chosen to sing and the stories she has told about her frustrations, I began to toy with the word "heartbreak" for her story. I told her this in Hawaii and she perked up.
"I've been heartbroken a lot," she said. "That's a key word. It's like that John David song- 'Faithless love, where did I go wrong / Was it telling stories in a heartbreak song . . . '
"When you choose to become a singer and sing about stuff like that, it means you choose a life like that. It naturally means it'll be overbalanced in areas that don't contribute to emotional security and continuity with anyone. It contributes to an overall person who is more paranoid and volatile; you have to stay sensitive and more vulnerable in that way and things change so fast; people like you for such strange reasons, for such untrustworthy reasons, that pretty soon you don't know who to believe or trust.
"The weirdest things make me fall in love. Usually, it's whatever I happen to be missing right at the moment. I can have a guy I'm in love with who has everything but one thing; then the next guy I meet has a whole lot of that one thing and I go, 'Oh, I'm in love with him,' but he hasn't got any of the other things. So it's usually very illusory." Ronstadt emphasizes the ill.
At L.A. International, the plane to Honolulu was delayed and Linda and Peter made small talk. Bonnie Raitt needs a producer and two suggestions have come up for her comment: two producers who have worked with Linda. She dismissed both- one as too sloppy, the other as a jerk. "You should produce her," she told Asher- "even though I might be cutting my own throat."
They also talked about Asylum. They have begun planning an album, which the company wants ready for release in May, and if they don't deliver, David Geffen is considering releasing a single from Don't Cry Now. Meantime, Capitol, having already released a collection of old Stone Poneys and solo tracks under Linda's name, is now thinking of repackaging the first and worst Poneys album under her name. Since Capitol owns the album, there is nothing to be done, but Asher hopes to stop the company from representing it as a Linda Ronstadt album. "If the Beatles had broken up and split into obscurity except Ringo," he reasoned, "I don't think you could put out Revolver and call it Ringo Starr"
Speeding toward Hawaii, Peter Asher relaxed into the latest Reader's Digest while Linda watched The Sting. Asher had already gone through Business Week, and he'd read the New Yorker at home. Seconds later, he nudged my attention and pointed to an article he'd found about a leukemia victim in Nashville. He wanted me to note the title, in romantic pink type:
"Linda's Extraordinary Triumph and Rebirth," it read.
Thanks to Karen Segboer for providing this article.
Back to Articles/Interviews | Back to Main Page | ||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 90 | https://auditioningforcollege.com/vocal-performance/what-does-an-operatic-career-look-like/ | en | What does an Operatic career look like? | [
"https://auditioningforcollege.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/anna_netrebkoanzpsdiv04.jpg?w=300&h=231",
"https://graph.facebook.com/732434821/picture?type=large&_md5=479377850a6d91bfa78ab89896cefe3a",
"https://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24125c9b62e9824bddea07a72778aebab21fe5ae28a920f2dd605992af845f0b?s=40&d=identico... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2011-09-01T02:28:20+00:00 | NOTE: Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to check out the blog and helped spread the word. There have been over 4,000 Facebook shares of this particular post and it has been seen by over 40,000 people! However, I think there has been some misunderstanding. I am NOT anti-opera. I love opera. I… | en | https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico | The College Audition Blog | https://auditioningforcollege.com/vocal-performance/what-does-an-operatic-career-look-like/ | NOTE: Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to check out the blog and helped spread the word. There have been over 4,000 Facebook shares of this particular post and it has been seen by over 40,000 people! However, I think there has been some misunderstanding. I am NOT anti-opera. I love opera. I did not write this post to scare people and I am NOT trying to be negative. I am trying to be realistic. The business has changed drastically in the last ten years and the information about many of the changes is not available in a format accessible by aspiring performers. If you love opera and want an operatic career, you will look at this post and be motivated to work harder. If this post scares you, hopefully you will walk away inspired to think about things a little more. I don’t want to depress people or ruin dreams, I just want to remove the blinders and help aspiring singers to see things clearly. I hope those of you who love this art form will go out into the world and conquer it! My Facebook feed is full of friends who are singing at the MET, winning and earning spots in the finals of major competitions, and otherwise enjoying life as opera singers. Believe me, if that’s what you want I wish you nothing but the best. There is nothing more beautiful in this world than the human voice sharing the human experience through song. Good Luck!!! ~Matt
Anna Netrebko is a beautiful woman. She is a successful operatic superstar. She sings in the world’s greatest opera houses, wears fine jewels, beautiful gowns, and dines at some of the finest restaurants. But to get to that point there is a long, grueling process that most aspiring singers never hear about. This post is intended to help shed light on what it takes to build a career and some of the struggles you may encounter along the way. There is a great book for musical theatre students called Making it on Broadway that is full of stories about the difficult climb to the top, but I have never seen a similar book for opera singers. This post was inspired by that book and takes a similar approach to the subject – a cold, hard look at the dirty truth about the climb to the top. (This post has been slightly edited from the original version to address some of the wording that stirred up controversy amongst a few of my colleagues in the teaching world. The content is the same but explained more clearly than it was in the original version.)
There are currently over 9,000 students studying vocal performance (according to the National Association of Schools of Music) in the Untied States. According to Opera America, there are around 150 opera companies in the United States and Canada. The examples I write about below come from my own personal experiences through thirteen years of pursuing an operatic career, the experiences of my wife who is also a singer, and the experiences of many of my friends who are also in or have been in the industry. Not everyone will go through all of the steps as described below nor will everyone face the same challenges. Some of my friends have gone through the worst of the worst and have come out on the other side as successful singers. Others have decided that the career path was more than they could handle or that it required more than they were willing to sacrifice. Many of my friends who have come to one of those conclusions have still enjoyed performing part-time or have found other fulfilling careers that involve music: casting, artist representation, arts administration, music education, music therapy, and/or starting their own small businesses. Many of them would tell you that their academic training in vocal performance prepared them for those alternative career paths and they wouldn’t change a thing. Others would tell you that if they would have known in high school what they know now, they would have majored in something completely different.
This article is meant to open your eyes to what may lie ahead and encourage you to ask questions about the good and the bad. If this article scares you, I encourage you to talk about it with your teacher. Ask other professionals that you may know and get their opinions as well. My opinions are strong and they have been formed through my own personal experiences with other singers in my generation. Things are always changing, so you must keep exploring on your own if this is the career you really want to pursue. If you decide this IS what you want to do for a living, great! Make the most out of your education, learn more about the topics I address on your own, and dedicate yourself to making things happen. You CAN do this, but it will take lots of hard work and dedication.
Step #1: Bachelor Degree
The Bachelor degree is step #1. The bachelor degree builds your foundation as a professional musician. You will learn theory, history, languages, and acting while building a strong vocal technique. Unfortunately, the bachelor degree in performance is really only a starting place for your education as a professional musician. Most students will discover that to truly be competitive as a professional musician, they will need to continue their education for the rest of their lives in and outside of academia. Some students choose to major in music education, which will allow them to work in music full time upon graduation. Others double major or even earn a degree in another field while minoring in music. However, anything less than a bachelor degree in music can often make entering graduate school difficult if not impossible. In needs to be clearly stated that a bachelor degree alone in vocal performance does not qualify you to teach voice, teach at a university, teach in public schools, or to walk directly into a career as a professional singer. The degree is a stepping stone that will provide you with the fundamentals essential to success in this field while preparing you for further training in or outside of academia.
Step #2: Graduate School
Grad school is where the real vocal development happens for many classical singers. With general education requirements out of the way, singers can spend more time focusing on their singing. Since the voice is usually more mature by the time a singer reaches graduate school, students can usually make significant technical progress during their degree. Some students are awarded a graduate assistantship, which will often give them a full tuition waiver and a small salary of $3,000-12,000 a year. In return, the student will assist with teaching a course, teach non-major lessons, or with office work. If you have taken on a significant amount of student loan debt during your undergraduate studies, you may have limited options when it comes time to apply for graduate school. This is yet another reason why you need to take financial planning seriously while doing your research.
Step #3: Choose A, B, or C
A) Performance Certificate/Artist Diploma – Many students choose to continue their academic study in a performance certificate or artist diploma program. These programs do not lead to an official degree, but instead give the student an opportunity to stay in school and study performance related courses only. These programs usually run 1-3 years. Some offer assistantships or scholarships, others do not. (Next progress to B or C)
B) Doctorate – Many students stay in academia to pursue their Doctorate. Most students at this level have a graduate assistantship, which provides them with a full tuition waiver and a salary of $6,000-12,000 a year to teach a course, teach private lessons, or to assist with office work. (Next progress to C or begin teaching at a university).
C) Start auditioning for the YAP circuit.
Step #4 – The YAP circuit
The YAP circuit is slang for a roughly tiered level of Young Artist Programs that student singers (age 21-35) move through as they pursue a professional career. Notice that I said age 21-35 above? Everyone’s path is different, but it is not uncommon for heavier voices to take longer to develop. For those singers, the artist development process often takes longer; some end up staying in this circle of student and young artist programs until age 35. Granted, it is a much different “student experience” than being in high school or even undergrad. But nonetheless, you are still considered an artist-in-training during these steps and the pay scale will match that classification. YAPs take place during the summer as well as the academic school year. Those that take place during the school year often combine performing in K-12 schools in educational outreach programs as well as singing in the opera chorus and occasionally small roles at the opera company. Programs that combine educational outreach and main stage performing tend to pay slightly better than those programs that focus on main stage performing alone (i.e. summer YAPs). Progressing through the YAP circuit will usually include the following steps.
A) Pay-To-Sing – PTS programs require the singer to pay a fee (tuition) to sing in a season of concerts and/or operas. Famous programs of this type include Brevard Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Opera in the Ozarks. The fees for participating in these programs usually range from $2000-8000 (some offer scholarships including full rides). A few of these programs give you the opportunity to sing in Europe, thus adding a European credit to your resume. Most singers do at least one of these programs, but usually no more than three. Some singers are fortunate to get into a PTS during undergrad, which can help them progress through the career path more rapidly. However, it’s not at all unusual to participate in a PTS during graduate school.
B) Non-union YAP – YAPs come in union and non-union form. In a non-union YAP, there are no minimum requirements for artist treatment, housing, or pay for the artist. Last time I checked (2010), the lowest paying YAPs were somewhere around $600 for 8 weeks, with housing and lunch provided. Performers in this YAP had one day off during the 8 week period and worked around 10-12 hours a day (this information may now be outdated). The better paying YAPs offer between $1500+ for 8 weeks, with one day off a week, but its still not uncommon to encounter 10-12 hour work days. The living situations are not always glamorous. Some of the YAPs rely on home stays for housing, which means you will live in a spare room of a family who supports the opera. At one of the YAPs I participated in, some of the families asked their artists to help in the duties of the house or in some cases they asked the artists to house sit while the home owner was gone for the summer, leaving you to take care of the dogs, cats, garden, etc. In one of my stays, I was given a master bedroom suite in a home with a beautiful pool in the back yard. There are definitely good situations, bad situations, and everything in-between. In a home stay situation, you may find yourself staying at a significant distance from the rehearsal and performance spaces, which will require you to pay for your own gas as well as food. My farthest home stay was 30 minutes from the performance venue and 20 minutes from the rehearsal space. Even though these are not pay-to-sing programs, you will often need more money than you are getting paid to survive.
C) Union YAPs – These are the highest level of the YAP circuit. The union, AGMA, limits rehearsals to six hours a day (as of 2010) and requires companies to pay established minimums that correspond to the size of the role. These programs tend to pay somewhere in the $250-525 per week range for the education and chorus duties with additional pay for any roles performed on the main stage. Many of these programs offer housing, although some of the better paying programs do not and you will have to make your own housing arrangements. Those programs that run during the academic school year may also offer health insurance and other benefits. With the economic downturn, those benefits have in some cases been pulled back or completely eliminated, but as the economy improves that may change.
Auditioning For YAPS
The audition process for young artist programs is not the same as in other fields of the performing arts. There are numerous opinions about the fairness and validity of the YAP audition process. I will present some observations from my own personal experiences that I found surprising. I present this information because I believe that everyone should be aware of the system ahead of time in order to navigate it successfully when they are ready.
I had a lot of theatre friends during my undergraduate training and we often talked about the process of auditioning. In the theatre world, an audition is considered to be a scam if the company charges you to audition. In fact, Equity (the professional theatre union), forbids companies from charging any type of fee to audition for a production. In theatre and dance, performers show up at the audition site the day of the audition and are seen in the order they arrive. Equity also requires companies to see auditions by any Equity member who shows up at an audition, even if they have auditioned for the same company or production several times before. Federal law says that it is illegal to ask an applicant for their age or marital status when applying for a job and theatrical agents and casting directors are therefore forbidden from asking for any demographic information when casting. I expected that auditioning for opera would be similar, but I quickly found out that its not.
In my audition experience, I found that opera companies:
-Charge you an audition fee to audition (usually between $25 and $100 per company) and they often require you to pay for your own accompanist, either bringing your own ($25-50) or paying for theirs (~$20). Therefore, I found that I needed to budget $50-$150 for each audition.
-Many of the audition applications regularly asked for your age and sometimes marital status. If the company felt that you were too old by their standards (which could vary by voice type), they could choose to not grant you an audition, yet still keep your audition fee. This was one of the most difficult aspects of this process for me to accept. There were many times I would pay $25+ in audition fees for an audition I was not accepted for. I was also advised by some of my mentors to lie about my marital status since listing myself as married could be problematic.
-If you sing for a company and they don’t like you, it is possible that they will put you in a file to either never be seen again, or to not be seen again for a certain period of time. I have listened to YAP directors talk about this in masterclasses. Some of them feel that certain technical faults will not improve and they would rather take their chances hearing a singer they’ve never heard before than on someone they have already heard before and who did not impress them. You have no way of knowing if that is their perception of you. Sometimes when you apply, you will receive a response saying that they would like to see you in a few years after you have developed your resume. Sometimes you will only receive a notice stating that you did not receive an audition time slot. If you are really interested in a company that did not grant your audition request, you will need to keep re-applying in the future (and pay the applicable audition fee) to see if the company has changed their mind. This is why it is very important to listen to your voice teacher and only apply for the programs that they believe you are ready for. If your teacher tells you not to audition for a program, they are looking out for your best interests. They are trying to help you, not hold you back.
-Opera companies plan their auditions for young artist programs several months in advance with specific deadlines for applications that usually fall several months before the actual audition date. Sometimes the companies’ deadlines and your trip planning deadlines will not line up and you will be left in a situation where you will need to decide whether or not to book a trip to NYC for auditions that you may or may not be granted. Because of this, most singers plan on picking a 1-4 week period to stay in NYC during audition season, which runs for a 4-6 week period in November and December. You need to plan for this and save/budget accordingly. Your time in NYC is a great opportunity to see performances, network, and get familiar with the way the business operates. Take advantage of it.
Budgeting to find a gig
Because of all of the costs involved, you will need to budget for each year’s auditions. Here is a sample budget:
-Fees $1,125 (15 auditions with combined fees of $75 each)
-Airfare $500
-Ground Transportation $200 ($85 city transport pass and $115 for taxis)
-Practice Rooms $150 (15 half hour slots to warm-up before your auditions at a cost of $10 per half hour)
-Food $300 (Breakfast, lunch, and dinner over a two week period)
-Lodging not included. Most people sleep on a friend’s floor or couch during their visit.
TOTAL: $2,275.
You will probably participate in these type of auditions every season during your YAP years (age 21 to 30-35). Most people do not YAP for the full 14 years, but it is reasonable to plan on spending 5-7 years in this phase (especially bigger voices and lower voices which take longer to develop). Just remember that you will only be making $600-2000 for the gig once you land it. So you may be performing at a loss when you factor in what you spent on auditioning. Budgeting and pre-planning is absolutely essential in this phase. A church gig or other side job during the academic year may help you save to cover audition expenses and fill in the gap between your income and expenses during the summer. If you have another marketable skill (web design, photography, etc.), consider developing it as a way to help cover your expenses.
Side Step (#4.5) Competitions
Some singers do very well singing in competitions. The competition circuit can be very lucrative with top prizes reaching $10,000+. Its not unusual for one singer to win first, second, or third in every competition taking place during a season. Others will spend significant money on competition fees and never win or place. Some singers do very well in competitions and never work in opera, the opposite is also true. A good balance of both is often a good option for most singers. Just like opera companies, many competitions require application and/or accompanist fees. These are in addition to the costs associated with covering your own travel for the competition. So if this is something of interest to you, plan on budgeting for it accordingly.
Step #5: YAP TO SMALL ROLES
The next step in your career development will often be from YAP programs to singing small roles. The easiest way to do this is to have participated in enough YAPs that people in the business know you and start recommending you for jobs. Many YAPs will invite you back to the company as a main stage artist 2-3 years after you’ve left their program (assuming you’ve done other bigger and better things since your time with them). This phase of your career is not a money making phase, but things tend to be a little better than the YAP years. Since you will be traveling frequently, hopefully you can live with your parents or friends in-between gigs and therefore bypass renting a place to live. This phase of your career will usually begin somewhere between 27-33 if you were an early bloomer on the YAP circuit. If you got started a little later, this phase may come along later in your twenties or early thirties. Average fees are anyone’s guess in the current economy. But it is doubtful anyone could work for less than $500 a performance (assuming 2-6 performances). Bigger companies may pay $1000 per performance (6-12 performances). You will also hopefully land a few concert gigs (oratorios, masses, pops concerts) with orchestra, which tend to pay well for the time commitment. You will usually rehearse once or twice and then perform earning $500-3000 per performance.
Step #6: SMALL ROLES TO AGENT
The next step in your career evolution usually happens somewhere in your thirties, again it often depends on when you got started YAPing. In this phase, someone recommends you or invites you to sing for an agent. Agents in opera are essential for making the leap from small roles to leading roles. An agent receives requests from orchestras and opera companies in the United States and abroad who are looking to hire singers. The agent then submits singers they think are a good fit, the company reviews the singers resumes, and the companies then pick the singers that they would like to hear in person. For this part of your career, you must live in NYC (there are rare exceptions). You will usually have a part time job in the day or evening and go to auditions as your agent instructs you. You can also seek out auditions on your own. Then as you get a gig, you will leave town and your day job, do the performances, return and do it all over again.
Step #7: Blossoming into a full career
If you are lucky, each gig will lead to another bigger and better gig. Opera companies are classified by their budget: “A” being the highest level (Met, Chicago, San Francisco) and “D” being the lowest level (Small town opera companies). There are many different paths in this phase. You may start out singing supporting roles at B houses and leading roles at D and C houses. Eventually you hope to progress to lead roles at B houses. Other singers may begin this phase by singing leads at D houses and then work their way up to leads at A houses. Every path is different and its very hard to predict how any individual’s career will progress. It is not unheard of for singers to never make it to A houses, or to make it there singing supporting roles and still have a day job on the side. In this phase, singers are usually on the road 6-10 months a year, often carrying their lives in their car and moving from hotel to hotel.
At some point, many tire of life on the road and move into teaching or some other aspect of the music profession, perhaps even pursuing a different career altogether. Some never tire of the life style and spend their entire career on the road. Europe at one point was a great option, but changes in the European Union have made it easier to hire an Italian to sing in Germany than an American. It used to be that singers from both countries were on an equal playing field in terms of hire-ability and due to the better training system in the U.S., Americans would often get the roles. That is no longer the case and you cannot plan on having a career in Europe like your parents or teacher did. That issue is beyond the scope of this article, but in depth discussions can be found in various publications including Classical Singer magazine.
Summary
Pursuing an operatic career, in my opinion, is currently the most difficult of any of the possibilities for singers. Some of my colleagues may disagree; I will happily post any other viewpoints if you would like to submit a comment. Even though it can be extremely difficulty, performing as a classical vocalists on the professional stage can be one of the most thrilling experiences of your life. Very few people will ever get the chance to stand on the stage as a soloist with a full orchestra and chorus singing un-amplified for 3,000 people. Those who are fortunate enough to worry about the small details of climbing the professional ladder as I describe above are very lucky people.
Understanding your career prospects is an important step in planning for any career. Your planning begins with choosing which schools you will audition for and how much student aid you are willing to take out in student loans as you pursue this career. Hopefully this post will inspire you to do your own research and start forming your own game plan for the future. Hard-work and dedication can make any dream a reality. Good Luck!
~Matt | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 89 | https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/rex-cauble-and-the-cowboy-mafia/ | en | Rex Cauble and the Cowboy Mafia | [
"https://img.texasmonthly.com/2022/05/red-cauble-cowboy-mafia.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=jpg&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1250",
"https://img.texasmonthly.com/2015/07/cover565.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=jpg&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=300",
"https://img.texasmonthly.com/2024/08/maund-bonu... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Lawrence Wright",
"Katy Vine",
"Patricia Sharpe",
"Lauren Larson",
"Rose Cahalan",
"Daniel Orr",
"Stephen Harrigan",
"Sasha von Oldershausen",
"Dan Solomon",
"Russell Gold"
] | 1980-11-01T05:00:00+00:00 | The Denton millionaire hated drugs and liked cops. He also liked Muscles Foster, a footloose cowboy who was one of Texas’ biggest drug runners. | en | /apple-touch-icon.png?v=121421 | Texas Monthly | https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/rex-cauble-and-the-cowboy-mafia/ | The greatest friendships are sometimes the most unlikely, and in this category we can speak of the relationship between Rex Cauble and Muscles Foster—one of them (Rex) being a member of the Texas super-rich with an established reputation as a fanatic against the use of marijuana, and the other (Muscles) being a rumpled, slightly crazy cowpoke who was the admitted ringleader of probably the largest dope smuggling operation in the state. At one of the trials psychiatrists would call their friendship “a father-son relationship,” but psychiatrists have a way of boiling off the broth to get to the bone. Muscles did need the guidance of a successful older man, since his own father’s tragic example was nothing to emulate, and certainly Rex craved devotion. What each of them needed, however, was less than what he found in the other. It was an extraordinary friendship.
They don’t see each other anymore, of course; it’s not possible with the siege of federal agents at Rex’s door. It has been nearly two years since Muscles’s dope ring was broken, and since then the government has poked into every corner of the Cauble empire, looking for evidence that would establish Rex—owner of several ranches and Cutter Bill Western Wear stores, former chairman of the Texas Aeronautics Commission, political friend of John Connally and other notables, and possessor of a vast fortune—as the kingpin of the narcotics underworld in Texas. It’s easy to believe that Rex wishes he had never met Muscles Foster. Rex sits in his Denton office surrounded by civic awards and photos of the rich and famous, and yet there is an emptiness in this sanctum that is as keenly sensed as the clamor of the grand juries outside the walls. Muscles is missed.
They met somewhere in the grandstands of the horse business in 1960. Rex was a square-faced oilman with bushy eyebrows and a big-shot cigar, and although he was only a neophyte breeder of quarter horses at the time, he had ambition and a fortune to spend. Already he owned some of the most famous studs in the industry, including Silver King, Hard Twist, and even the great Wimpy—the original stud of the entire quarter horse breed, who was twenty years old when Rex acquired him. But it was a young palomino stallion named Cutter Bill that would make the Cauble stable famous in the horse world. When Rex and Muscles met, Cutter Bill was four years old and just beginning to show the form that would make him the world champion cutting horse and set a record for money earned in a single year of competition. Cutting, in horseman’s parlance, means picking a calf out of a herd and holding it apart, one of the fundamental skills of a good cow pony. The first time Muscles watched Cutter Bill perform, he realized that the horse would become a legend.
Women and Horses
Muscles knew horses. He had grown up in the rodeo, riding bulls and broncs for not much money. His real name was Charles, but the cowboys called him Muscles, which was a joke of sorts, since he was slightly built and weighed about 130 pounds. He had big ears, a goofy grin, and shoulders that rolled forward from slumping in the saddle so that he stood in the shape of a question mark. Muscles had traded his first horse before his voice broke—for a $90 cow and a Mickey Mouse watch—and from then on he knew he had a gift for buying low and selling high where horses were concerned. Some of the big men of the Texas horse world, the Caruths and the Phillipses, extended lines of credit to Muscles to buy mares for them, and he quickly earned a reputation as one of the sharpest traders in the country. Soon after they met, Rex became another of Muscles’s millionaire clients.
Rex and Muscles grew close, but not in the way of business friends. It’s a common observation that rich and powerful people surround themselves with obsequious, ego-dependent individuals who trade flattery for access to monied society. Muscles was certainly willing to make that trade, although his feeling for Rex was more complex than the adoration of a sycophant.
Muscles had barely known his own father, except as a darkly raging drunk. When he was ten years old his mother took him and his three sisters out to U.S. 80 in front of their home in Mineola and hitched a ride to Dallas. Four years later Muscles ran off to rodeo in Oklahoma. Small as he was, Muscles could ride with the best; one year his winnings put him within a few dollars of the world bull riding championship. Then he suffered the first of three bad marriages, this one lasting only two weeks. He returned to Dallas and learned that his father had died in Terrell State Hospital. By then he was worried that his own life was following the same sad script to the end.
With his amiable smile, Muscles made friends everywhere he went, and yet inside he was a brittle man with a single great weakness: women. He was their devoted fan. The sight of an approaching female filled him with hope and unbearable anticipation. If she even remotely fulfilled the promise of his imagination at fifty paces, his jaw would drop open with admiration; a few steps closer and his love was in full bloom and his hand was reaching instinctively for his wallet. Money was his standard approach to women. He was not a handsome man—there was something monkeyish about him, with his small head and long, dangling arms—and like many ungainly people, he idealized beauty and imagined that whatever interest a woman had in him was a charitable form of corruption. He would promise them anything and give them all he had—this horse trader, who was so canny in one sphere of his life and so loony in another. When the promises rang hollow and the money ran out, the women would leave him and Muscles would go into a decline. He would mope and moan for a while, then suddenly disappear. Sometimes he would be gone for months. Finally he would return, full of Oregon or Maryland or some such place where he had passed a little time and made a few friends and then vanished as abruptly and inexplicably as he always did.
The last woman who married him actually stuck around long enough to bear him two sons; then, in 1965, they were divorced and she left, taking the boys along. Muscles shattered like a china saucer. This time he did not wander into Oregon. He called for help, and the man he turned to was Rex Cauble. Rex had suffered his own trials in marriage, so when Muscles called and began to sob on the phone, Rex told him to pull himself together, he’d be right over. “It’s not the end of the world, Muscles,” Rex told him when he got there, but Muscles was disconsolate. He walked around the house wringing his hands and weeping, “like a wet dishrag,” Rex later said. Finally Muscles got around to asking for money—he planned to lure his family back in the only way he knew how—and Rex wrote out a check for $9000. Muscles’s wife spurned him but took the money, and soon after that he tried to commit suicide. He was taken to a Dallas sanitarium in a straitjacket, having convulsions and foaming at the mouth.
Most of his friends thought he was just off on another jaunt, but when Muscles returned months later they realized that he was a changed man. He was bland-faced and had trouble remembering names. It was the shock treatments, he apologized. He told his best friend, Willis Butler, that it was like having his mind erased, but of course some of the memories wouldn’t go away. Although he had never been a drinker (years after a teenage encounter with white lightning, a whiff of whiskey still made him queasy), he now discovered the gentle anesthesia of rum and Coke. Upon Muscles’s release from the hospital, William Caruth, another millionaire who was fond of him, let him use his Saber Ranch, the Dallas landmark directly across the highway from NorthPark shopping mall, but Muscles stayed drunk and left the property a mess.
When Caruth booted him out, Muscles went to Rex and asked for a job. Rex hired him to breed mares and break horses. A few months later Rex promoted Muscles to be the overseer of all his property, which included several large ranches and many smaller lots around the state.
It is hard to figure out what Muscles and Rex meant to each other. Rex had an explosive temperament, and nobody made him angrier than Muscles, whom he found “loyal, obedient, and undependable.” But since he valued the first two qualities so highly he suffered the third. “He thought a lot of Muscles, but, I mean, he would talk to him like a kid,” one of the cowhands later testified. “He’d talk to him pretty hard. I would have quit, but Muscles didn’t.”
Muscles dreaded those blasts from Rex. “If you ever had your ass chewed out by an expert,” he recalls, “you can say one thing: he’s second to Rex Cauble.”
During the late sixties Rex acquired a steel company, a welding company, and a horse trailer company in Fort Worth, and his Cutter Bill Western World stores in Dallas and Houston became famous. They featured fancified Western clothes at extravagant prices—“the Neiman-Marcus of Western wear,” they were called by the Los Angeles Times. He also ordered an architect to build the most splendid stable in Texas beside the interstate north of Denton, on the ranch where he lived. The stable had its own show ring and a trophy room for the ribbons and loving cups his horses brought home. On the roof he had painted, in enormous black letters legible only to airplane passengers, CUTTER BILL CHAMPIONSHIP ARENA, and in front of the stable he erected a gilded statue of his palomino stud, which twinkled in the sunlight like a yellow god. Rex could boast assets of the $80 million, and yet every Wednesday that Muscles was in residence at the ranch—he lived in the guest house—the old man would stop by and pick up his laundry.
Rex the Two-fisted Chairman
Through large and frequent campaign donations Rex had become allied with some of the most influential politicians in the state—notably John Connally, whose picture is as ubiquitous in Cauble’s many offices as photos of the president are in the warrens of the federal bureaucracy. When Connally made his first run for governor in 1962 he asked Rex to be one of his campaign coordinators, and after he was elected he appointed Rex to the Texas Aeronautics Commission, which was a small-time agency that built boondocks airports—until the following year, when some of the governor’s friends and business associates invested in Southwest Airlines stock. Then the TAC became quite a conspicuous place to be, especially during Rex’s tempestuous reign as chairman, when he forced through rulings in favor of the infant commuter airline and once pushed out another commissioner who had posed an objection concerning the use of the TAC staff. The press began referring to Rex as “the two-fisted chairman,” which very much corresponded to his image of himself.
Rex also became a member of the Special Texas Rangers, an organization of law-enforcement enthusiasts—cattlemen, corporate executives, and lobbyists—who were allowed to carry guns and badges and even to dress like Rangers. Rex subsequently got acquainted with some of the characters in the Department of Public Safety’s narcotics division, a netherworld of hustlers and sharks who were nearly indistinguishable from the element of society they were supposed to police. Rex had always had an affinity for the rogues and the con men who were an established part of the high-rolling fraternity of Texas oil barons, in which Rex was a charter member. He became a patron of the DPS narcs, using them for part-time security work and frequently lending them flash money and the use of his plane. At one time he had four ex-DPS agents working for him.
Rex seemed fascinated by the violent world these men inhabited. They made him an honorary member of the Texas Narcotics Officers Association, and he threw parties for them in his Denton show barn. He liked to appear at these shindigs dressed in flamboyant Western outfits from his Cutter Bill stores, and if he sometimes felt a little false in his jeweled suits and python boots, the fact that he could play Daddy Warbucks to some of the roughest cops in the state gave him a feeling of true-grit legitimacy. The highlight of the parties was the appearance of Manuel T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas, a legendary Texas Ranger. Once when Rex was still just an oil field bum, Lone Wolf had chased him off a freight car. He was aged now, but he could still shoot with either hand and he still walked stealthily, as Rex remembers, “like he was walking on eggshells.”
Rex brought glamour to Denton, and Denton liked it. His parties glittered with Texas society, and Rex’s money and position became a kind of symbol of the greater aspirations of the small college town. Rex represented Denton in the same way that his stud Cutter Bill represented his own desire for graceful possession of power.
Enter the Smugglers
Over the fourteen years that Muscles worked for Rex, his responsibilities increased until he either controlled or had access to the entire Cauble empire—the ranches, the airplanes, the stores, and also the Long Branch Saloon, a Denton night spot that Rex established to provide for Muscles’s retirement. And yet, as great as his authority was, he could never string more than a few months together at a time before he would disappear, usually just when Rex was trying to coax him to go into the hospital. Muscles was terrorized by the shock treatments; he said they were killing him, that he woke up in the morning after a treatment and just felt like dying. When his black moods started to close in on him, Muscles would walk out to the interstate and stick out his thumb. Rex would curse his name for weeks, and then in the middle of the night a collect call would come from the bus station in some godforsaken landfall and Rex would wire him the dough to come home. Muscles was in his forties, but he called Rex “Poppa.”
Once Muscles went over the hill carrying the keys to every lock on the ranch and leaving in the lot nineteen mares that he had bred to three different studs. Rex had a devil of a time getting the breeding straight. A couple of weeks later the keys arrived in the mail and Rex blew up again. Muscles finally turned up in Georgia at the ranch of Ray Hawkins, who seemed to be part horseman and part hippie—a long-haired cowboy whose principal asset was a quarter horse stud named Tardy Too. Hawkins had come to Denton to buy a horse from the Cauble stable, and Muscles may have learned then the source of his sizable income.
Also visiting the Hawkins ranch at the time were Carlos Gerdes and Jamie Holland. Carlos was a good-looking Latin who was experimenting with organic gardening. “He was dead serious about it,” Muscles says. “He would work his tail off to grow a single cucumber.” Jamie Holland was quiet, sullen, and extremely muscular—“healthy,” as Muscles describes him. Muscles noted that, like Ray Hawkins, Carlos and Jamie seemed to have quite a lot of money, considering that they were so young and apparently unemployed. It was an observation that many people were beginning to make, not just about Muscles’s acquaintances but also about the hundreds like them in Florida and California, and in Texas as well.
In the early seventies some of these young men were living on the Gulf Coast of Florida when somebody realized that the local shortage of marijuana might be eased by making a quick run to Jamaica, where grass was plentiful and sold for $10 a pound. They made the trip in a 28-foot boat and unloaded their conspicuous cargo on the docks of the marina in the Tampa Bay area. On that day the modern age of marijuana smuggling was born.
If Carlos Gerdes was not present at the birth, he certainly attended the infancy. One of his friends estimated in court that Carlos made at least $10 million in smuggling. In the St. Petersburg area he became known as an eligible young bachelor with money. Through one of his sweethearts he met Jamie Holland, who was dating her sister. He also met John Ruppel, a distinguished-looking white-haired man in his late fifties whose name, along with Rex Cauble’s, would one day surface in the hearing room of a New York grand jury investigating the narcotics underworld.
The geographical advantage of basing a smuggling ring in Florida was its proximity to the Caribbean, but by 1975 the U.S. government had largely destroyed the Jamaican pot fields, sending most American buyers to Colombia. At the same time, the State of Florida had instituted more stringent drug laws, and big-time smugglers like Carlos were lying low and looking for a new base of operations. So when Muscles appeared on the scene, carrying the keys—both literally and figuratively—to the Cauble empire, he seemed to offer the perfect solution.
Muscles claims even now that he went to Georgia only to break horses. While he was there, however, an agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who was keeping Carlos under surveillance thought to write down the license number of the Chevrolet Suburban that Muscles was driving. It was registered to a horse trailer company in Fort Worth. After the computer had done its work the name of Rex Cauble made its first appearance in the records of narcotics agents all across the country.
Waiting for the Monkey
The government’s case against Rex really begins immediately after Muscles’s return to Denton in 1976. According to Rex, Muscles said he was interested in going into the shrimping business, and as unlikely as that might have been, Rex contacted a boat broker in Aransas Pass and told him that Mr. Foster would be in touch with him about the purchase of a shrimp boat. Muscles went down to meet the broker, and soon after that, in August, Carlos Gerdes and John Ruppel appeared and purchased a steel-hulled shrimper called the Monkey.
In December Muscles visited Willis Butler. As teenagers, Willis and Muscles had spent some time together in the care of Bob Grant, who was part owner of the Mesquite Rodeo and a man beloved for his care of misplaced youngsters like Muscles. Willis was near to being a brother to Muscles. “I loved Muscles,” Willis later recalled. “I would get so mad at him I could kill him, but we have been down a lot of roads together.” They had even gone into the “lead business” together at one time. In the lead business you sell worn-out car batteries to a smelting plant, which salvages the metal. Willis by this time had graduated to the “milk business”—he was driving a dairy truck—and Muscles also had a good job, with Rex. But his pockets never jingled when he walked; he simply couldn’t keep money together. For him it was like raking leaves in a high wind. So Willis was surprised when Muscles appeared with a cashier’s check for $15,000 drawn on the Denton bank owned by Rex Cauble. He told Willis he was on his way to Colombia to set up a dope deal.
It is worth a pause to wonder why Muscles ever got involved in the marijuana business. Cowboys were smoking pot long before it was fashionable in Haight-Ashbury, but Muscles never had a taste for it. His stomach was too delicate and the odor made him sick. Muscles loved money, but what he loved most about it was giving it away; you couldn’t say he was a greedy man. He says he became a smuggler for the adventure. His psychologist says he did it because he was grandiose and not “rule-governed.” The government would suppose that he did it for the same reason he did most things in his life: for Rex.
Two months later, in February 1977, Muscles was back in Texas and on the phone to Willis. He had some “errands” that needed doing in the Beaumont area, Muscles said, and he was willing to pay $50,000. Willis was on his way. Muscles stationed him out on Sabine Pass with a pair of binoculars and told him to watch for the Monkey and contact the crew when it came into view. Unfortunately, that first shipment was delayed, and it was three days before Muscles remembered Willis. He found Willis still there, asleep in his car on the side of the road.
They rotated watches after that. When it was Muscles’s turn he walked out to the end of a community fishing pier and just stood there, staring out to sea. One of the other smugglers suggested that he might be less conspicuous with a fishing rod in his hand, so he went to a sporting goods store and purchased seventeen rods and assorted tackle. He spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to rig his gear. The Queen Mary might have passed by and he wouldn’t have noticed.
But when the Monkey finally heaved into port, loaded with more than 30,000 pounds of marijuana, Muscles redeemed himself. He cleared out the foreman on Rex’s Meridian Ranch in Fort Worth so the smugglers could use it to divide the shipment and distribute it to the buyers. Willis drove the marijuana to the ranch in a tractor-trailer. Carlos kept the books and handled the distribution.
After the deal Carlos, Jamie, Ray, and some of the others went to Denton to celebrate. They stayed with Muscles in the guest house on the Cauble ranch, and one morning they all had breakfast with Rex himself. Hawkins told Rex he was in the market for land in Texas. Jamie and Carlos had already bought land near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where John Ruppel had constructed a mountaintop palace. Jamie had plans to be a rancher, and Carlos announced that he was finally going into organic gardening in a big way. Rex later maintained that he had no idea what brought the young men to Denton—“They were just Muscles’s friends,” he claimed—although Ray Hawkins gave him $100,000 in cash toward the purchase of a ranch in Valley View, and Jamie Holland bought one of Rex’s prize bulls to get his own herd started. It may have been then that they planned their trip to Las Vegas, the natural conclusion of a big smuggle. In Vegas, illegal money is casually lost on the gaming tables or easily laundered as winnings.
The trip actually began with Carlos Gerdes in St. Petersburg; he and two of his partners chartered a plane to fly to Gatlinburg. On the way they drank whiskey and practiced playing poker, using real money that Carlos produced from one of his aluminum suitcases. Carlos always carried the money that way. “We discussed what a good suitcase it was,” Muscles remembers. “I thought it was hideous.” In Gatlinburg they picked up John Ruppel and switched to a Learjet, then flew to Love Field in Dallas, where they transferred to yet another plane, a Beechcraft with Cauble’s name written large across it. Muscles came aboard, and while they were transferring the luggage a woman drove up in Muscles’s Suburban station wagon. She was Fern Lynch, Rex’s girlfriend of long standing. According to John Ruppel’s testimony later, “they loaded several of these aluminum suitcases into her station wagon, and they talked and joked and she left.”
In spite of all the effort that the government subsequently expended trying to link Rex and Ruppel, investigators were never able to connect the two men in Las Vegas, although both of them made a practice of going there to gamble every New Year’s Eve—Rex called it “duck hunting” so his wife wouldn’t know. He stayed at Caesars Palace. Ruppel also liked to go to Las Vegas. He was there on New Year’s Eve, 1977, as were some of the other smugglers and also the boat broker who had sold Ruppel and Gerdes the Monkey. During the time the smuggling ring was in operation, Ruppel spent each New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. Rex intended to go every year, but he was waylaid by surgery once and an ice storm another time.
Muscles made the first trip to Las Vegas dressed in his ranch clothes, with a pair of dime-store spectacles hanging on a shoelace around his neck. He had to borrow money to gamble, since he had already given $130,000 of his loot to his girlfriend. Carlos took pity on him. He hired a girl named Cookie and gave her several hundred dollars to buy Muscles some decent clothes. She selected a pair of silk shirts at $150 each, and Muscles wore them in the casino with his old jeans and a brand-new pair of jogging shoes.
Mick Jagger, a Poor Example
Jogging shoes? The hands on the Cauble ranch were embarrassed for Muscles, especially when he began a tentative jogging program, his old white legs looking like something that might have been chased out of a cave. The cowboys didn’t realize that Muscles was undergoing radical behavior therapy with Dr. Donald Whaley, who is a long distance runner and the director of the Center of Behavioral Studies at North Texas State University.
In 1974 Rex had solicited Doc Whaley to treat his son, Lewis Rex, who, Rex said, was “addicted” to marijuana. “He feels that marijuana has robbed his son of motivation,” Whaley said. “Actually, I diagnosed Lewis’s problem right away as Rich Kid’s Syndrome.” Whaley became an arbiter between father and son, and in gratitude they threw a charity benefit for Whaley’s center. Willie Nelson came to perform, and it was at the Nelson concert that Doc Whaley first met Muscles.
Partly because of his son’s drug use, Rex launched a campaign against marijuana. When Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones went shopping at Cutter Bill’s (the store is famous as a celebrity stopover), some of the salespeople drove him up to the Denton ranch for picture taking. Rex heard about it and hit the ceiling, saying that Jagger was a poor example for the nation’s youth. Rex had some of his best employees take a lie detector test to determine if they had ever used marijuana, and when the president of Cutter Bill’s failed the test Rex fired him on the spot. “I have never seen a person so fanatic against pot,” Doc Whaley remarked. Rex is like that: explosive and capricious. His naturally florid complexion reddens with anger until you think his face might split open like an overripe tomato. He would fire his best merchandiser for participating in what the world knows is accepted practice in the upper reaches of the garment industry.
He was determined to find a crack replacement to run Cutter Bill’s. In fact, he already had someone in mind, someone perfect. After all, who could represent the wonderfully profitable marketing alliance of cowboy nostalgia and disco trinketry better than the one and only original Marlboro Man?
The Marlboro Man
That’s how Les Fuller billed himself. To see was to believe: in his early middle age Les was lean and tall—six foot three—with a sharply modeled face resembling Paul Newman’s and the sun-etched crow’s-feet around the eyes that Marlboro Men always seem to have when they light up and stare off into the distance. And it wasn’t just that Les was good to look at. He was a fixture in the Dallas clothing world—a sales manager for Parade Dress, well liked and widely admired in the industry. Hiring Les seemed to be a smart move from every perspective. He was experienced, he had good connections, and, with his gold bracelets and necklaces, his open Western shirts, his swagger and aplomb, he was the very personification of the cosmic cowboy.
There existed between Muscles and Les an oddly competitive friendship that centered on their relationships with Rex. Although Les wasn’t a real cowboy like Muscles, he was at least an earnest imitator. He had learned to ride cutting horses, and one year his stallion War Chip won the cutting horse championship, just as Cutter Bill had done a decade before. Rex liked to imagine that he and Les had more in common than the heavy silver championship buckles they wore on their belts.
Muscles could not help envying the Marlboro Man’s rugged handsomeness and easy way with women. As Muscles skulked around the Texas coast overseeing his burgeoning smuggling business, he would sometimes sign himself Les Fuller—an absolutely stupid imposture, but one that was almost irresistible to Muscles. Perhaps it was while he was pretending to be Les Fuller that Muscles realized that the role itself was a fraud.
Les was in trouble from the moment he took the job at Cutter Bill’s Western World. “After the first thirty days he was there,” Muscles recalls, “I said to myself, ‘He’ll never make it.’ ” Les had the same feeling. Within six months sales were dropping off the charts and his self-esteem was racing after them. His friends say it wasn’t Les’s fault, that Rex was siphoning cash out of the stores and Les couldn’t keep up the inventory. Muscles claims it was because Les was such a snob—“He wanted to sell strictly the millionaire product.” In any case, Les blamed himself. The Marlboro Man facade crumbled with the first tremor of defeat, and the whole world could see the uncertain man inside. On April 12, 1978, Les sat down and wrote out a will on a sheet of legal-sized paper, then scratched off a final letter. “Dear Rex,” he began, “I failed you and I failed myself. For that I can’t go on, cause there’s no place for me. I’m truly sorry that I let you down. But believe me I really tried—I just never could get a handle on CBWW. You are a true friend—I hope you’ll forgive me—like you, I never could stand failure, but unlike you I failed!”
A few moments later Les emptied a bottle of Valium tablets and gave himself up to the darkness.
Mafioso Muscles
Muscles was a genius. The most dangerous part of the smuggling operation is finding a safe place to unload, and oh boy, did Muscles find a place. He combed the coast and came up with a spot near High Island, in the sparsely populated stretch between Galveston and Port Arthur, under a bridge that crossed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. You couldn’t see it from the bridge, and you couldn’t see it from the canal either, because Muscles had dredged an inlet off to one side. You couldn’t even see it when you got under the bridge, since the whole area was covered with scrub and weeds twice the height of a man. You just couldn’t see it at all. It was as if Muscles had found a seam between the fabric of real life and the fourth dimension, and in this invisible spot he built the Thompson Seafood Company.
The amusing thing is that Muscles occasionally insisted on bringing in seafood, something no one else was interested in. As many as four boats were making runs to Colombia, and every trip was worth millions. One of the smugglers later testified that they bought the pot in Colombia for $25 a pound and sold it in Texas for $200 a pound. “Expenses and everything would bring the cost up to about sixty dollars,” he said, which meant that the average load of 35,000 pounds would net $5 million.
Muscles was making a killing, and yet at the moment when he should have been his happiest he went into another decline, for the same old reason: his girlfriend had thrown him out of the house. In a state of depression he wandered up to Tennessee, and it was there that he met Leslie Sprinkles, a nicely formed blonde. Muscles persuaded her to come to Texas, and when they arrived he borrowed one of Rex’s ranches and “gave” it to her, along with a half-interest in the Long Branch Saloon, which Rex also owned. Muscles assured Miss Sprinkles that he was the majority stockholder in Cauble Enterprises and that he was just keeping ol’ Rex on as a sort of figurehead. He really did give her a $17,000 flesh-colored Cadillac, but he kept it in the garage so Rex wouldn’t see it. Muscles explained his caution by telling her that he was in the Mafia, and when her eyes got wide he allowed that he was the actual godfather.
Rex Enraged
Les Fuller was recovering under the care of Doc Whaley, who told him, “Get your life in order and quit being a showboat. You’ve got a tough job to do, and you’re only Les Fuller, not the Marlboro Man.” Rex had been terribly understanding. “We’ll just make out like nothing happened,” he said, and of course everyone was very careful around Les when he came back to Cutter Bill’s. Unfortunately, things didn’t get better; they got worse. It was only a matter of time before Rex would have to make a change.
Federal lawmen had already begun an investigation of Cauble’s enterprises, bringing with them a series of subpoenas for financial records and other documents. The subpoenas were shot through with references to Muscles Foster, and Rex must have gathered pretty quickly that the heat was on. The Texas Rangers had already stumbled onto some marijuana sweepings at one of the Cauble ranches, but the investigation had been dropped—perhaps because Rex was one of the principal sponsors of the Ranger Museum in Waco, or because of Rex’s long membership in the Texas Narcotics Officers Association, or because, the way the political situation was shaping up, Rex stood to become the next commissioner of public safety. He was a strong supporter of John Hill in his race for governor, and the rumor was that if Hill won he would put Rex in charge of all state law enforcement.
Rex called Muscles’s cronies into his office one by one and told them to stay away from Muscles because he was too hot. “I raised so much hell,” Rex later remarked, “that Muscles finally disappeared.” He sent one of his men to find him, and word came back that Muscles was hiding out at Les Fuller’s.
“On September 23, 1978, Rex Cauble called me into his office in Denton,” Les later told federal agents. “Rex jumped me about being disloyal and hiding Muscles.” The FBI was looking for Muscles, Rex told him, and so were the Texas Rangers. “I thought that was kind of funny because Rex could have the Texas Rangers find Muscles if he wanted to,” Les said. In the course of the argument Rex accused Les of faking his suicide because he “didn’t have guts enough to use the .357 Magnum” that he always carried.
Les threatened to quit, but Rex persuaded him to stay on, at least until after an upcoming style show in Austin. As Les rose to leave, according to his statement, he told Rex, “ ‘When you started all this stuff about Muscles I did not know what was coming down but now I do know’ . . . I told Rex that I had a lawyer and this lawyer had a letter detailing what had gone on and I told Rex just to be sure that nothing happened to me. Rex just looked at me . . .”
Two days after his meeting with Rex, Les cleaned out his desk at Cutter Bill’s and left the best job he had ever had. He was 49 years old and in trouble. Willis Butler could not have called him at a more vulnerable time. “He asked me if I wanted to make the boat trip to South America,” Les later stated. “I said yes.”
Stick ’Em Up
The Agnes Pauline was a handsome eighty-foot shrimper that had been outfitted with sonar, radar, and quite a lot of very expensive navigational equipment, all of which would break down during the voyage. After their first day out the crew started calling the ship the Aggie, as if that were the kind of joke she had turned out to be.
There were five on board, three men and two women. Les brought along Gloria Davis, a strapping cowgirl he had met on the horse circuit. A green-eyed blonde with an acid tongue, she loved Les, and that had been a tonic to his ego after his unsuccessful suicide attempt.
Gloria noticed right away that “the three super sailors with us didn’t know how to work the rigging on the shrimp boat. Oh, well,” she wrote in her diary, “I guess you can’t think of everything.” She and Holly, the other woman, set about arranging the galley while the men steered the ship out of Galveston Bay to the open sea. They soon got their first inkling of what the trip was going to be like. “The brooms we had hung on the wall were flopping around like plastic pennants in a strong wind,” Gloria wrote. “Doors were banging open and shut, the portable radio and miscellaneous items slid off the table, and then the biggie happened. The refrigerator door flew open and spit out 5 gallons of milk, a bottle of salad dressing, two bottles of orange juice, a jar of strawberry jam, and a can of 7-Up. . . .
“We finally got it all cleaned up and went upstairs to check on the guys. The first thing they asked me for was something to eat. Well, needless to say, my stomach wasn’t about to let me back down in the kitchen again. I looked at Holly and I knew she felt the same way. I headed for the nearest bed and I think she did too, after making a stop in the bathroom first.”
It took nine days to reach Colombia, through fifteen-foot seas and winds that reached thirty knots. Les was beleaguered by kidney-stone attacks, the pump broke down so often that it was almost impossible to shower, and it didn’t help that the Aggie started taking on water the moment she left port. The sonar unit had been installed upside down on the hull, and the water gushed in steadily. They had to pump bilge water constantly. It wasn’t altogether horrible, however. Gloria wrote that her first night at sea was “a terrific experience. The ocean was calm, the sky clear and the moon and stars looked as if they were sewn onto an endless black velvet canvas as a large pearl centered among a thousand tiny diamond chips.” She and Les stood watch together at the wheel, and they were so moved they hardly spoke.
The Aggie anchored off the Colombian coast in a gale, and in the middle of the night one of the men discovered that the anchor line was broken. They were drifting backward into the rocks in winds up to forty knots. There was nothing to do but steer straight into the face of the storm.
To make things worse, they couldn’t establish contact with Big Pete, their Colombian connection, for several days, so they just steamed along the coastline. Finally Big Pete sent word that delivery would be postponed another three days. “I think it’s our bad luck that keeps us going,” Gloria decided. “If we didn’t have bad luck we wouldn’t have any.”
At last the cargo was ready to be loaded. “The reality of this trip was finally starting to grip me,” wrote Gloria. “I sat perched atop the wheel house with my shotgun, two boxes of shells & a 38 revolver. It’s not the danger that bothered me, it was the way it was affecting Les. He was like a kid playing cops & robbers.” After midnight Big Pete’s boats arrived—elongated canoes with outboard motors. They pulled up on either side and started throwing bales of marijuana aboard. The loading wasn’t finished until nearly dawn, and everybody just about collapsed.
The return was easier; with all that ballast in the hold, the Aggie sat better in the water, although she was leaking faster than ever. Everyone was euphoric. They took pictures of each other posing on the marijuana bales, holding their weapons. Les looked tan and rugged aiming an automatic weapon into the sunset and wincing like the Marlboro Man. Right away he started talking about making another run.
They passed Thanksgiving on board and celebrated by charcoaling a seven-pound roast—“not very traditional but good,” Gloria decided. After dinner the guys were making plans, so Gloria took her coffee and went out onto the deck. The air felt nice and cool on her shoulders. “When there’s no moon out, it’s totally black outside. There’s no horizon, nothing to divide the sea from the sky. It’s almost like you’re weightless, floating through a black void.” She thought about Les, who was down in the cabin sketching out his new career, and it made her shiver to think of the risks involved. “If we were to get caught it would mean we would be separated for a long time. I don’t think I could handle that. I love him and need him so deeply, I couldn’t live without him. To me, nothing in this world is important enough to risk that. I guess I’m just feeling sorry for myself because he doesn’t feel the same way I do.”
Tempers got short when cigarette rationing began, and everyone was ready to be home by the time they finally made it back to Texas six days after Thanksgiving, 1978. They passed up Muscles’s invisible seafood company near High Island and steamed through Sabine Pass right up to the public docks in Port Arthur, where they had reserved a spot to unload their shipment. Once they left the open ocean, the smell that had trailed them all the way through the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico caught up with them. They passed right in front of the Coast Guard station and docked next to some other shrimpers that were gassing up at the docks, only two blocks from the county courthouse in downtown Port Arthur. “The odor of marijuana,” Les later confessed, “was tremendous.”
Of course they had been as good as caught, really, before they ever left port. The entire operation had been like a ripe fruit waiting to be plucked—and the pluckers had been pulling rank and fighting jurisdictional problems for the entire 22 days the Aggie was at sea. In the end everyone got in on the bust, which began as soon as Jamie Holland and Willis Butler and some of the cowhands arrived with tractor-trailers to unload the boat. A crew-cut fed leaped up and actually said, “Stick ’em up.” Agents popped up everywhere. Customs agents, Treasury agents, Drug Enforcement Administration agents, DPS narcs, and even the Galveston County sheriff, who was eighty miles outside his jurisdiction. Everybody but the courthouse stenographer and the Port Arthur police got credit for the bust, and the Port Arthur police chief afterward complained angrily about the lack of cooperation: “But I guess the state and federal authorities don’t really care.”
The cowboys read the scene at once: box canyon, surrounded on all sides, no way out. The agents scrambled on board and ordered the crew to lie face down on the deck. One of them walked over to Les Fuller and stuck a shotgun in his ear. “Okay, cowboy,” he said, “are you going to give us the big man in Denton?”
The Jabbering Cowboy
The twenty tons of pot taken out of the Aggie’s hold were quickly described as the largest amount of drugs ever seized in the Beaumont–Port Arthur area. In the usual escalation of real values into “street” values, the feds estimated the pot to be worth $24 million. The case fell within the province of the assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, an assertively clever man named David Baugh who is one of the few black prosecutors in the country.
In one of the trials that followed, much was made of David Baugh’s ambition—a charge that was no less true of the lawyer who made it—and there was in fact every reason to believe that David Baugh was on the verge of a great career. The only brake on his forward progress was his unfortunate location: Beaumont, a city that, while not free of sin, is also not graced with the juicy gangland felonies of Houston or the tony white-collar crimes committed in the skyscrapers of Dallas.
But a marijuana case—no matter how big—is not the most prized scalp for a prosecutor’s belt. Possession of marijuana is no longer a crime in eleven states, and mere possession is seldom prosecuted in federal courts unless intent to distribute is proved. The mixed national attitudes, reflected in the variety of laws and penalties from state to state, invite comparison with liquor prohibition, when the rumrunners of Thunder Road were performing a service that many a citizen appreciated. David Baugh himself had talked about having to surrender certain behaviors when he became a federal prosecutor, and he sometimes wore a gold marijuana leaf in his lapel.
Back in Denton an attorney named Bill Trantham got a call from Muscles Foster. Trantham—or the Tarantula, as he came to be called by the legion of lawyers involved in the case—is a tall, brown-haired man with an unruly moustache and a perpetually astonished expression. His office is only a few steps from the Western State Bank, where Rex’s office is, and as an attorney he had frequently performed legal services for Cauble Enterprises. “Some of the boys are in trouble,” Muscles informed him, and he got $20,000 to Trantham to bail them out. Trantham drove all night to Beaumont, and when he arrived he found the bail set at $1.6 million.
In the prosecutor’s office the happy realization had dawned that this case was far bigger than it had first seemed. The government set out to establish its bargaining position. Around the courthouse, reporters were casually informed that the kingpin of the operation was Les Fuller—the word “kingpin” in this case being like a tail in search of a donkey and the donkey who gets stuck with it gets the heaviest charge, that of continuing criminal enterprise. That term is used to cow defendants into becoming government witnesses. To say that Les Fuller was the kingpin was tantamount to saying that he was facing ten years to life in prison, with no possibility of parole. The desired effect—abject terror—was quickly achieved. Out on bond, the cowboys scurried to their lawyers (who had been carefully chosen by Trantham) to see what deals they could make. The Marlboro Man was the first to crack. Names and dates tumbled forth and subpoenas went out, bringing in Carlos Gerdes, Ray Hawkins, and finally John Ruppel. But Muscles Foster was nowhere to be found.
The name of Rex Cauble did not appear on the subpoenas. Instead, the government began the cautious process of grand jury investigations, as many as three at a time, that subpoenaed records from Rex’s bank and the sales of his horses and virtually all of his business enterprises—but not Rex himself. In Denton, Rex watched nervously as a parade of FBI agents dispatched by Baugh went in and out of his bank, and he got reports from newsmen of Baugh’s frequent references to his involvement in the case. Articles began appearing in papers around the state outlining the links between the smuggling operation and the Cauble empire—information that Rex believed could have come only from the prosecutor’s office. “I never had bad publicity in my life,” he complained. “That damn nigger wants to nail my hide to his wall!”
The Unsuccessful Self-sacrifice
In the early days of December Muscles called the Tarantula from Memphis to find out what had happened to the busted cowboys. Trantham advised him to stay where he was, and then flew all the way to Memphis to fetch him. Trantham claims that Muscles was crazy when he found him in Memphis, although government investigators said that Muscles’s insanity blossomed on the long ride home. That may be so. As they passed through Little Rock, Muscles began to discourse on the future of marijuana smuggling, which, he told Trantham, would be conducted mostly with submarines. He already had his eye on a Navy surplus model that he had heard was selling for only $1 million. In his mind Trantham pictured Muscles with his cowboy hat sideways on his head, peering through the periscope of his sub as he murked along the bottom of the Houston Ship Channel.
Doc Whaley checked Muscles into Arlington Neuropsychiatric Hospital. “He was bonkers,” Whaley explained. Nobody told the government where Muscles was, so the speculation around the federal building that Muscles had been “taken care of” became an article of belief.
But Muscles was too crazy to stay in the hospital. After he got into an argument with a nurse he checked himself out. He hid out in a trailer in Krum, a couple of miles west of Denton, and finally called Willis Butler. “Willis came out and we had a little talk,” Muscles recalls. “I said, ‘You boys have got yourselves in a hell of a mess, but you all got families and I ain’t got no ties. Since I got you all in this jam just put the blame on me. I’m gone.’ ”
Willis had already made plans for dealing with the government. During the next week he made a number of calls to Tennessee, pestering Jamie Holland and John Ruppel to repay the money he had spent to outfit the Agnes Pauline. It was the tapes Butler made of these conversations that provided the principal evidence against Ruppel. They also offered the strongest exculpatory evidence for Rex.
“You know who they think’s done it is R. C. Big Man down there,” Jamie Holland says on the tape.
“They are wrong,” Willis replies.
“Well, I know,” says Jamie, “but they are trying to get after him. See, they wanted him on a bunch of other things.”
Willis finally went to the government and agreed to testify, with the rest of the cowboys, that Muscles Foster was the kingpin. It was the hardest thing Willis had to do in his life, since Muscles was his closest friend. The week before the first trial was scheduled, Willis drove up to the Oklahoma border and rented a cabin in a state park. Like Muscles and Les Fuller before him, Willis had reached that dark moment when life was no longer separate from the void. He opened the oven door in the cabin’s kitchen and turned on the gas. Then he lay down on the bed and waited. Not being much of a cook, Willis failed to realize that the burners on the stove had a pilot light. Thirty minutes later there was a terrific explosion that shattered the windows and blew the roof off the cabin—awakening Willis from his slumberous voyage to eternity, leaving him shaken and nauseated but otherwise perfectly fit to testify.
Secret T-shirts
By the time the trial began, in September 1979, the government had indicted 29 people. Pretrial hearings in federal judge Joe Fisher’s formal marble-and-walnut courtroom were overwhelmed by a lawyer-mob that shoved the prosecution away from its traditional table and even spilled into the spectator section. After the negotiating and the plea bargaining, only 12 of those indicted chose to stand trial; the rest pleaded guilty or testified for the government or, like Muscles, had never been found.
“This is not a marijuana trial,” David Baugh told the jury, “this is a racketeering trial.” He outlined the scale of the smuggling operation, estimating that 172,000 pounds of grass worth $34 million had been brought into the country by the defendants between August 1976 and December 1978. Three men were charged with the kingpin count of continuing criminal enterprise: John Ruppel, Carlos Gerdes, and an Orange shipbuilder named Martin Sneed. Ray Hawkins, Jamie Holland, and seven others, including a Louisiana horse dealer and his brother, faced conspiracy charges. The government also charged Jamie Holland’s wife, Beth, with criminal knowledge.
While the government prosecuted the defendants, the defense prosecuted Rex Cauble. It was a strategy formulated by some of the best narcotics lawyers in the country. They pointed out that the main government witnesses were all Cauble employees who had driven trucks full of marijuana to Rex’s ranches around the state, where the loads were divided and distributed, and who frequently met to scheme in Rex’s stores or his Denton saloon or his Houston apartment. “Has it occurred to you,” the jury was asked by Gerry Goldstein, the most renowned marijuana lawyer in Texas, “that everyone in this case connected to Cauble is either cooperating with the government or missing?”
The witnesses wanted to pin the tail on Muscles (as Muscles had suggested), but the lawyers kept pointing them to Rex. Larry Dale Washington, one of the cowhands, testified that Rex had paid him $5000 that Muscles owed him and that Rex had said he would take it out of “Muscles’s money.” Two of the cowhands admitted on the stand that Rex had bailed them out of jail and pad for their attorneys. None of them, however, would testify that Rex’s involvement went further than a vague guilty knowledge of what was going on everywhere around him. “Why are Cauble employees putting innocent people into this?” asked Ray Hawkins’ lawyer, referring to his client. “To protect the general.”
It was not, in the end, a good defense. Although two of the defendants were acquitted by the jury and one of them, Ruppel, appealed on a mistrial, nine of the twelve were convicted. (Later Judge Fisher overturned the continuing criminal enterprise conviction against Sneed.) Beth Holland and the Louisiana horse dealer were acquitted and the jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of John Ruppel.
Sometime in the middle of the trial David Baugh received at his office a package wrapped in brown paper and bearing the return address of Thompson Seafood, High Island, Texas. Baugh opened it with great caution. Inside was a yellow T-shirt with a note from the Tarantula. Baugh’s guffaws rang through the halls of the federal building, and pretty soon federal agents and defense attorneys were trailing into the prosecutor’s office like a column of ants. Urgent orders were placed over the telephone, and in a few days yellow T-shirts were everywhere, but always worn discreetly under blouses or long-sleeved shirts and suit coats. Witnesses wore them on the stand. Defendants wore them inside the bar. Even a favored news reporter in the audience wore one. Occasionally someone would open a collar to show a wink of yellow, like a gesture of fraternity. Gerry Goldstein finally blew open the conspiracy by entering his shirt into evidence. The judge looked at it in bewilderment. On the front of the shirt was a picture of the Aggie loaded down with marijuana plants, sailing behind the state of Texas. Above and below it, in bold, black letters, were the words “Cowboy Mafia.”
A Million for Muscles
The government assumed that Muscles was dead; the unspoken (at least to reporters) corollary was that Rex had killed him. Carlos Gerdes and another conspirator had refused to testify before the grand jury that was still looking into the smuggling operation, and they were being held for contempt of court. “They’re afraid the same thing could happen to them that happened to Muscles Foster,” a federal narc explained.
But Muscles was not dead; he was alive and well and living in Bolivia. He had gone into the lead pipe business in Santa Cruz. Bolivia does not extradite people charged on drug offenses, so Muscles made no effort to disguise his identity. On the contrary, he went out of his way to let his American acquaintances know that he was a wanted man, since they might not wish to associate with him.
One day a couple of Bolivian policemen appeared grinning at his door and said they were interested in talking to him and would he mind going into town? Muscles got his hat. He already knew what was going on. They didn’t go to town; they went to the airport and flew across the country to La Paz, where an American narcotics agent was waiting for him. “I minded in a way, and in a way I didn’t mind,” Muscles said. It had been hard to get news in Santa Cruz, and until he was kidnapped Muscles had been worried that everyone had forgotten about him. All of his life he had wanted to be wanted and now he was. Really wanted.
On the flight to Miami he admitted to his abductor that he’d done all right in the smuggling game, but that it was the man he used to work for who had made all the profit. When Muscles landed in Miami he was astonished at his sudden celebrity. “I couldn’t believe it. Mafia! Racketeering! I couldn’t believe they’d think those things.” A federal magistrate set his bond at over $1 million—$1 million for Muscles Foster! At last he was being treated as if he really was what he had once boasted of being: the godfather.
If You’ve Got G. Brockett Irwin . . .
In Muscles’s absence, John Ruppel had been convicted in the marijuana case on several charges, including that of continuing criminal enterprise, but because David Baugh had not revealed the terms of a government deal with two of his witnesses, the new judge in the case, Robert Parker, granted Ruppel yet another trial, his third. In the second trial—Ruppel II, as it became known around the courthouse—the defense attorney had continued the strategy of prosecuting Rex, so that David Baugh was finally moved to tell the jury, “There is ample evidence to indict Mr. Cauble”—an astonishing statement to make in open court. The obvious conclusion, since Rex was still unindicted, was that there was not yet enough evidence to convict. In the minds of nearly all observers, Muscles Foster’s return would take care of that.
Now that Muscles was back, he would be tried with Ruppel, the aging millionaire. Since Muscles claimed to be a pauper, Judge Parker had to find an attorney to represent him. The previous defendants had been represented by the finest—and most expensive—lawyers in the nation, some of whose fees began at $100,000. Court-appointed attorneys usually receive $1000, and although a lawyer with an established practice will occasionally accept a court appointment, for the most part such chores are foisted upon either younger attorneys who need exposure or legal hacks who will go through the motions just to pick up a fee. Judge Parker wanted Muscles to be well represented in a courtroom that included David Baugh and Ruppel’s highly respected, extremely expensive counselor, Robert Ritchie. Parker let his mind wander over the list of possible attorneys, and perhaps he smiled when he remembered the Longview Pygmy.
In a way, the choice was an act of rehabilitation. G. Brockett “Jerry” Irwin, at the age of 34, was in a troubled phase of his career, though his debut on the courthouse scene had seemed to promise a new Percy Foreman or Racehorse Haynes. Jerry Irwin had already developed a modest reputation in East Texas for winning impossible cases when he took on the defense of Don Trull for aggravated kidnapping. Irwin is very blond, with fair skin that turns florid when he gets passionate, and at five three and a half he is an object of fascination to jurors—rather like a miniature horse that dances at the circus. Although Trull had confessed to the crime on videotape, by the end of his trial, Irwin had persuaded the jury that the person who had been kidnapped—the victim in the case—was so much more worthless than his client that they let Trull go.
Right after that triumph Irwin was hired to defend Billy Sol Estes on a barrage of charges ranging from mail fraud to income tax evasion. It was the perfect case to establish Irwin’s career: a big name and a remote chance of winning. His defense of Billy Sol was as brilliant in its way as the Trull case; it was essentially that Estes is such a liar that nothing he ever says can be used against him. The jury was almost convinced. They acquitted Billy Sol on eleven counts and then convicted him on two. After that, Irwin was no longer the invincible dwarf; he was the man who lost Billy Sol. So when he returned to his office one day and found a note from Judge Parker appointing him to defend Muscles Foster, he recognized it as both a charitable act and the best chance he might ever get to make his mark in Texas jurisprudence. It certainly was the most improbable case in his career.
Muscles’s sisters, who wanted to arrange for his defense, were skeptical of a court-appointed attorney; they demanded Racehorse Haynes. But Bill Trantham agreed to meet Irwin in Longview. “I found him on the top floor of the only tall building in Longview, surrounded by pictures of himself,” Trantham recalls. “I knew then I was dealing with a fully developed ego.” He drove back to Denton, convinced that Jerry Irwin was the best lawyer for the job. In the meantime, one of Muscle’s sisters had placed a call to Racehorse, who told her, “If you’ve got G. Brockett Irwin, you don’t need Racehorse Haynes.”
The Last of the Marlboro Man
David Baugh had reason to be cocky. Since the beginning of the case, twenty people had been convicted and only two acquitted (and both of those were small fry by any measure). It was his biggest case and he’d performed brilliantly. There remained only his latest trial before he delivered his masterstroke, which he had been promising for more than a year now: the indictment of Rex Cauble.
There was plenty of circumstantial evidence; in fact, the transcripts were overflowing with references to Rex’s involvement, elicited by the best defense lawyers Baugh had ever faced. His entire approach to Rex had been laborious accumulation of facts and details, which were certainly damning but not enough for a conviction. However, there were two men whose testimony he was certain would clinch the government’s case. One was Muscles; he would surely fall. He was charged with seven counts of racketeering and possession with intent to distribute, as well as continuing criminal enterprise. In every trial so far, the witnesses had pointed to Muscles as the kingpin, and they could hardly change their stories now. After Muscles was convicted he’d be facing ten years to life with no parole; he would have to either testify against Rex or expect to grow old and die in prison.
One witness was already in the bag. He had been strangely absent from all the previous trials, and yet of all the government witnesses he had wound up with one of the lightest sentences. The Marlboro Man was Baugh’s hole card. More than any other evidence, Les Fuller’s statement had linked Rex to the case. Baugh had not chosen to play the Les Fuller card in the previous trials because he hadn’t wanted to tip his hand to Rex, but now he called Fuller’s lawyer to set up a meeting with Les in Dallas. Rex Cauble had finally been subpoenaed to testify—by both the prosecution and the defense—and it might be the very best moment to spring the trap.
The lawyer tried to reach Les, but Gloria—now Gloria Fuller—told him that her husband had flown down to Port Isabel with some business friends. On its return the plane took off from Port Isabel with four men aboard: Les; Jim Geders, a Dallas flight instructor; Jim Cole, part owner with Geders of an air charter company; and Steve Ott, a young man who worked for Geders. All four of them were accomplished pilots. A storm front had passed over Waco, so when the plane failed to arrive in Dallas a search was begun over the pastureland between Waco and Austin. Nothing was found.
It was in Corpus Christi that a television newsman named Ron Fulton, listening to a radio scanner, overheard a Coast Guard transmission about a duffel bag that had been picked up in a shrimper’s net in the bay. “Charlie, Oscar, Lima, Echo,” said the Coast Guard radioman, reading the name on the duffel bag: Cole. It was the first indication that the plane had never reached Central Texas but had gone down shortly after takeoff in clear weather.
Three bodies came up rather quickly. From a rented helicopter, Cole’s son spotted his father’s body in Corpus Christi Bay near Portland, and then Geders washed up on the shore near the causeway. Ott was found by a shrimper off Port Aransas. But no Les.
No one except Gloria seemed to believe that Les was dead. The authorities were not even searching for his body. There seemed to be an assumption that Les had staged the crash to keep from testifying. Gloria vowed that she would not go back to Dallas without his body. After Ron Fulton broadcast an appeal for assistance on the evening news, a boat operator and an electronics expert volunteered to help her with the search. It took more than a week, but they finally found his body, bloated and partly eaten by crabs. Gloria identified it by the gold ID bracelet on his wrist. The rest of his jewelry, worth thousands of dollars, had been looted. The airplane is still missing.
Rex Takes the Fifth
David Baugh had been trumped—by fate or what?—but he still had Muscles. The Longview Pygmy developed two strategies for Muscles’s defense. The first was to acknowledge quite honestly that the case was hopeless and to make a deal with the government. Irwin went to Baugh before the trial and tried to negotiate a plea, but Baugh was making no bargains. The more leverage he had on Muscles the better, and life imprisonment was good leverage. The second strategy was the only defense available, considering all the government witnesses and Muscles’s own loose statements. That was to plead insanity.
Insanity is an old and reliable defense in murder cases, or assault, or any other kind of case involving a rash, ill-considered action. Given Muscles’s history of depression and hospitalization, he would be an easy candidate for acquittal in a case like that. But the government wasn’t charging Muscles with doing something crazy. It was charging him with doing something clever—running the biggest smuggling operation in Texas for three years and making an extraordinary amount of money from it. On its face the insanity defense seemed ludicrous. Certainly it had never been offered in a smuggling case.
The trial was moved to Marshall, where it began May 23, 1980, with the government’s presentation of the “criminal enterprise.” David Baugh outlined the case from the day the Monkey was purchased until the seizure of the Agnes Pauline. Sitting at the defense table were Muscles Foster, in a Bolivian shirt and blue jeans, and John Ruppel.
“My first impression of him was that he should be on the Supreme Court,” Muscles says of his codefendant, and in fact it was easy to imagine Ruppel as a kindly judge with white hair and black glasses, tapping his gavel in gentle reprimand if the spectators got out of line and nodding off when the testimony began to wander. In Gatlinburg, where Ruppel had retired, he was known as an openhanded philanthropist. He had donated land for the new animal shelter and was one of the major boosters of the Fraternal Order of Police. John’s wife, Margaret, was a sweet-looking woman with a white ponytail and a gravely wounded expression. Outside the courtroom the Ruppels seemed to be exactly the sort of couple you might expect to see flying off to Hawaii for their golden wedding anniversary. Ruppel’s every physical aspect, from the frank little smile he gave the jury when he first sat down, to the clean and nicely shaped nails of the fingers he held intertwined as if in prayer, denoted respectability. As the jury listened to Baugh’s description of the smuggling operation, it was hard to imagine that this well-barbered old fellow would have anything to do with that crumpled reprobate beside him, Muscles Foster.
Irwin began his opening statement with an attack on David Baugh, who was, he warned the jury, “possessed of great ambition.” His client was a “lame pawn,” not a kingpin; twice he had attempted suicide, and during his many trips to the hospital “on at least thirty-one occasions they electrocuted Mr. Foster’s brain a little at a time.” Muscles was not innocent, Irwin admitted, but he was not guilty by reason of insanity. “He will not roll his eyes and he will not drool,” but “he suffers from anxiety reaction; chronic, moderately severe obsessional personality with chronic depressive trends; recurrent reactive depressions with paranoid features; an underlying manic depressive problem, probably associated with a genetic basis; alcohol dependence if not addiction . . .” Muscles seemed to sink in his chair under the load of clinical terms. Finally, Irwin alerted the jury that “the ghost of Rex C. Cauble will float through this courtroom throughout the trial,” and he suggested that the prosecutor was out to get Cauble only because “success has catapulted him to some fame.” That was the first time any defense lawyer had spoken well of Rex Cauble.
It was not the ghost of Rex Cauble but the old man himself who took the stand as the first witness, his face so red that he seemed ready to explode but speaking in such a whisper that he was barely heard beyond the bar. Baugh approached this moment with special savor: the ultimate kingpin, to Baugh’s mind, was finally out in the open, in the flesh and on the stand. At that moment Baugh must have wished Les Fuller were alive and waiting in the wings. Baugh asked the witness his name.
“Rex Carmack Cauble,” he said in a low voice, staring in frozen fascination at the confident black prosecutor who had been his adversary and the object of his curses for a year and a half. Rex gave his age as 66 and his business as “investments.”
“Do you know Muscles Foster?” asked Baugh.
“I respectfully decline to answer because of my attorney’s instructions.” Rex was being represented by William Hundley, the Washington attorney who had defended Tongsun Park and former attorney general John Mitchell.
Judge Parker would not let him get away with that; if Rex wanted to take the Fifth he’d have to admit it. “Is the basis of your refusal to answer the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution?”
“Whether you are guilty or not guilty, you are afforded that right,” Rex responded grudgingly. He claimed afterward that taking the Fifth was the hardest thing he ever did in his life.
Then the government began the parade of cowhands, who repeated their previous testimony when Baugh questioned them. Irwin seldom bothered to counter the incriminating statements. Instead, he used the government witnesses as character references for the defense. It was maddening to Baugh. The cowhands told how stupid Muscles was when he bragged to women, and what he was like when the women ran off and he went to the hospital. They remembered how changed he was when he returned. “He would go to bed of a night and maybe not sleep thirty minutes,” one of them said, “and he’d be up a-walkin’, and be mumblin’, talkin’ to hisself, and if you was ridin’ along, why, he would kind of be chewin’ on his tongue or spittin’ like.” It was sad and sometimes funny, those images of Muscles on the end of the fishing pier trying to assemble seventeen rods, or driving all the way from Beaumont to Dallas to pick up a battery charger and then forgetting what he went for, or gambling in Las Vegas casinos in his silk shirt and old blue jeans.
From Baugh’s perspective, the case was wandering out of control. Dr. Littlejohn, the court-appointed psychiatrist, testified that the defendant Foster “lacked substantial capacity during the period of 1976 through 1978 both to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.”
At this point, Baugh’s boss, U.S. attorney John Hannah, arrived from Tyler to take the reins. Hannah is a stony-faced man with the ace of spades tattooed on one hand. He had to break down Littlejohn’s testimony. Hannah began by saying, “Assume that Mr. Foster coordinated the trucks and drivers to transport marijuana. Could the jury use that as some evidence pointing toward his sanity?”
Littlejohn nodded. “If he was able to function in a supervisory capacity over others, make judgments about deliveries and assigning trucks and this type of thing—yes, it would certainly affect the way I felt about the way he functioned at that time.”
“And if he managed the activities of at least five people over a period of two years to smuggle marijuana,” Hannah continued, “that would be evidence of his sanity, would it not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“If he left the country and traveled to Bolivia to escape prosecution, that would be evidence of his sanity, would it not?”
“Well . . . if he left to escape prosecution that he knew was coming, yes . . .”
Hannah began to run down the list—“that he arranged offload sites . . . that he established a shrimp company using a fictitious name . . . that he took part in the importation of 172,000 pounds of marijuana in five shipments over a period of two years without being detected by law enforcement officers”—and if all those things were accepted as true (and they were not disputed), wouldn’t the jury have to accept the fact that Mr. Foster was sane? Littlejohn more or less agreed that they would. John Hannah placed his notes in his briefcase and returned to Tyler.
“When Hannah got through with Littlejohn, I didn’t see any way to salvage the case,” Irwin admits. During Ruppel’s defense Irwin sat at the table and seriously considered a plea bargain on any terms. He really had only two witnesses to call: Doc Whaley, who could add some history of Muscles’s mental problems, and Muscles’s sister Joanne Wells.
The Ruppels each took the stand; they seemed like nice folks, very normal. Ruppel’s defense was that he enjoyed helping youngsters get ahead in the world, but that some of them had obviously taken advantage of his charity and naiveté. It was a pretty Milquetoast defense compared to the Byzantine complications of Muscles’s mentality, which was on trial beside him.
Irwin decided to press on; he called his witnesses. Doc Whaley told of Muscles’s “great feelings of inadequacy, his misgivings about his personal appearance. He often spoke of how ugly he was and how he could never keep a woman because he was too unattractive.” Joanne Wells told the jury about her brother’s early life, the father who had died in a state hospital, another sister who is a paranoid schizophrenic. “Mr. Cauble took care of my brother,” she testified. “He not only saw to his dental work, he sent him to the eye doctor, he tried to make him eat properly. He saw to his clothing. He would go once a week and gather up his clothes and send them to the laundry.”
Joanne testified that after Muscles ran away because of Leslie Sprinkles, “Mr. Cauble sent people looking for him all over the state, and Mr. Cauble had to go to the hospital and Muscles heard about it. So he came home and I met him in Denton and we went out together. We were expecting a big confrontation with Mr. Cauble. Well! We walked in the door and Mr. Cauble’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. I’ve never seen anything like it. And Muscles said, ‘How are you, old man?’ and he said, ‘How do you think I could be with you running off all over the country?’ ”
In a way, it was a risk to draw out this love relationship between Muscles and Rex, but there it was, two men with as complex an emotional relationship as anyone could imagine, each fearfully dependent on the other in ways that psychiatrists had described but couldn’t explain. Irwin closed Joanne Wells’s testimony by asking what Muscles had talked about doing if he hadn’t gotten caught. She said he told her he had planned to go to Iran to free the hostages.
The jury retired at 4:30 p.m. on June 3, 1980, and they reached a verdict a few moments after midnight. Nice Mr. Ruppel was convicted on four counts, although he was acquitted of continuing criminal enterprise. Muscles Foster was found not guilty. Muscles nodded and looked around. He asked the marshal if he could say hello to his sisters, who were standing in the spectator section. He was so disoriented that the judge called him to the bench. “Mr. Foster, this verdict means you are a free man,” the judge explained. “You’re free to go.” Muscles thanked him and said he believed he’d gotten a fair trial. Then he turned around and walked outside.
He strolled out of the courthouse to where Jerry Irwin’s Buick was parked. Strange, to be suddenly out of jail and free of the courthouse, like any ordinary citizen on a summer night and unlike, well, the godfather of the Cowboy Mafia. Muscles waited for Irwin to unlock the door and then he sat and gazed at the stars through the sunroof. Finally Muscles looked at Irwin and said, “Now how in the hell did you do that?”
Inside the courthouse, David Baugh was asking the same question. Of the two witnesses he might have used to convict Rex Cauble, one was dead and the other—as far as the jury was concerned—was crazy. The entire foundation of his case had crumbled with Muscles’s acquittal. He would try to rebuild it, of course, but in the eighteen months he had been preparing to indict Rex, the odds favoring conviction had never seemed worse. Was it over? He couldn’t say. Was Rex guilty? He couldn’t prove it, not now at any rate, and he must be wondering if “not now” really means “not yet” or “not ever.” | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 64 | https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/loss-leaders-from-warner-brothers-reprise-an-album-by-album-thread.464037/page-10 | en | Loss Leaders from Warner Brothers/Reprise: An album by album thread | [
"https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/loss-leaders-from-warner-brothers-reprise-an-album-by-album-thread.464037/data/avatars/m/15/15744.jpg?1352778307",
"https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/loss-leaders-from-warner-brothers-reprise-an-album-by-album-thread.464037/styles/default/xenforo/avatars/avatar_male_m.... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | My father was a manager for TG&Y. I remember seeing a box of copies of Wings in the stockroom of one of his stores as late as 1978.
What is "Wings"? | en | /images/apple-touch-icon.png?v=2017a | Steve Hoffman Music Forums | https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/loss-leaders-from-warner-brothers-reprise-an-album-by-album-thread.464037/page-10 | Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (PRO423 - 1970)
We have arrived at the final Loss Leader of 1970, and what a Loss Leader it is; three albums, 36 tracks, more than two hours of music (all for $3, keeping with the buck-a-disc price established with the first release); this is a remarkable collection. Good listening too. Many perennial names (Arlo Guthrie, Fleetwood Mac, The Kinks, Frank Zappa, Pearls Before Swine, Jimi Hendrix) are back, but there's also a good number of interesting newcomers, most notably Black Sabbath, Little Feat, Ry Cooder, Little Richard, The Youngbloods, and Beaver and Krause. Joni Mitchell and Neil Young (the latter busy with CSNY on Atlantic) sit this one out. There are a couple of utter obscurities, but most names range from recognizable to superstar. The weirdness side returns again. There's a side dedicated to Jesus (indirectly reflecting the surge of Christian themed songs that charted in 1970-1971), a hard rock side, a "singers/songwriters whose songs do better for other singers" side, an established rock acts side, and a California post-psychedelic side. Individual titles for each side have returned. The booklet expands to eight pages.
Obviously, the cover was a draw; Warner Brothers' parent company had produced and still owned the Looney Tunes cartoon series that brought Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck to the world. Intrepid wabbit hunter Elmer Fudd poses as a cop with a billyclub, perhaps a wink at the revolution in the streets...
Hey, if you were sitting around in your room bored in late 1970 and had three bucks burning a hole in your pocket, wouldn't you want one too?
Notes:
Art Direction – Ed Thrasher
Design [Cover Art] – Dave Willardson
Design [Organized & Annotated By] – Hal Halverstadt
Engineer – Bobby Hata
Liner Notes [Insert Booklet] – Martin Gottfried, Stereo Review
Mastered By – Bobby Hata (tracks: A1 to E6), Joe Sidore (tracks: F1 to F6)
8-page booklet of liner notes
Each side has its own title
The only triple-disc set in the series
Last Loss Leader of 1970
Track Listing:
Side 1: 5.5 Richter and Above
A1–John Gordon , Larry Lipades Radio Spot: It's The Plastic 0:60
A2–The Faces Real Good Time 3:59
A3–Black Sabbath Paranoid 2:50
A4–Little Feat Strawberry Flats 2:21
A5–Hard Meat Smile As You Go Under 3:04
A6–Fleetwood Mac Tell Me All The Things You Do 4:10
A7–Jimi Hendrix Stepping Stone 4:05
Side 2: Resident Writers and Reapers Of Wry Kudos
B1–John Simon The Elves' Song 4:32
B2–Ry Cooder Alimony 2:11
B3–Randy Newman Let's Burn Down The Cornfield 3:03
B4–Gordon Lightfoot Me And Bobbie McGee 3:38
B5–Jimmy Webb P.F. Sloan 4:00
B6–Jack Nitzsche Harry Flowers 4:00
Side 3: Breadwinners and Other Staples
C1–John Gordon, Larry Lipades Radio Spot: Chip Dip 0:60
C2–Little Richard I Saw Her Standing There 2:37
C3–The Grateful Dead Sugar Magnolia 3:15
C4–Van Morrison Call Me Up In Dreamland 3:52
C5–The Kinks Apeman 4:06
C6–Arlo Guthrie Valley To Pray 2:47
C7–The Beach Boys It's About Time 2:56
Side 4: California Antacid Rock
D1–The Youngbloods It's A Lovely Day 2:35
D2–Jeffrey Cain Hounddog Turkey 2:56
D3–Lovecraft Love Has Come To Me 3:11
D4–Sweetwater Just For You 9:20
Side 5: Avant and National Guard
E1–Captain Beefheart Lick My Decals Off, Baby 2:38
E2–Mothers Of Invention Directly From My Heart To You 5:17
E3–Alice Cooper Return Of The Spiders 4:25
E4–Frank Zappa Would You Go All The Way? 2:30
E5–Beaver And Krause Spaced 3:51
E6–Pearls Before Swine The Jeweler 2:40
Side 6: Electric Jesus
F1–Beaver And Krause Sanctuary 1:43
F2–James Taylor Lo And Behold 2:34
F3–Harper's Bizarre If We Ever Needed The Lord Before 2:57
F4–Van Dyke Parks On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak To Me 2:25
F5–The Persuasions It's All Right 3:25
F6–Turley Richards I Heard The Voice Of Jesus 7:05
Song Commentary:
Side 1: 5.5 Richter and Above
A1–John Gordon , Larry Lipades Radio Spot: It's The Plastic 0:60 For the audiphiles who wonder how these records sound, here's a radio spot facetiously assuring you that Warner Brothers only produces records on the best vinyl. They even chose Burbank as their headquarters so they could be situated atop the "largest and richest deposit of pure vinyl" The insertion of radio ads on this volume may have been a Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento) idea; as he took more creative control of the compiling there would be more.
A2–The Faces Real Good Time 3:59 This is an advance single from the Faces, now belatedly credited in North America under their new name, and hadn't yet been assigned an album (it would turn up on Long Player in 1971). If there was one band that could truly rival the Rolling Stones in 1970-1971, it had to be the Faces. A hard rocker with honky-tonk elements, it boasts a powerful Stewart vocal, which Wood echoes and riffs off of. Pounding piano, spirited drumming, a real 70's rock swagger. Stewart, of course, would eventually become one of Warner Brothers' cash cows. Ronnie Wood would eventually become a Rolling Stone.
A3–Black Sabbath Paranoid 2:50 Black Sabbath turned out to be an unexpected windfall for Warner Brothers. Unknown at the time of The Big Ball, they were fast becoming a powerhouse. Their 1970 debut Black Sabbath had made the top-10 in the U.K., and managed to peak at #23 in the US without a lot of promotion. The liner notes claim that "Paranoid" was a number one single in England (actually it was #4), in the US, it would fare no better than #61. However, Paranoid, a #1 UK album, would just miss the top-10 in the US, at #12. It would also go on to become a 4x Platinum album over the years. Ozzy was still "John Osbourne" in the liner notes.
A4–Little Feat Strawberry Flats 2:21 Little Feat was formed by Lowell George, who had been in the Mothers of Invention (founding member Roy Estrada had also been a Mother, and Bill Payne had auditioned for the Mothers but never joined). The pre-Little Feat George had penned the GTO's song on Zapped. Sounding very unlike the Mothers, Little Feat's 1970 debut album is a zonked piece of dusty Western folk rock, somewhat anomalous to the direction they would ultimately take. "Strawberry Flats" is typical of the album; an inspired rocker with paranoid lyrics partly set in Waco, Texas, with some serious chops on display and a somewhat detached, druggy, loser feel to it. For the second time in the series (the first was Randy Newman's "Suzanne" on Schlagers!) partial lyrics are included in the liner notes. The debut album stiffed, but the band's fortunes would improve during the decade until George's death in 1979. Bill Payne revived the band in 1986, and it exists to this day.
A5–Hard Meat Smile As You Go Under 3:04 Hard Meat were a British hard rock trio with progressive inclinations that signed with Warner for two albums before disbanding. Not a whole lot to say about this minor band except that the liner notes proudly tell us a recent promotional campaign for the band went "Bust your chops on Hard Meat", which may have contributed to their problems. "Smile as You Go Under" sounds like a lot of British hard rock of the time, somewhere between Free and Traffic. It's a good song, acoustic-based with some good lead guitar and a mellow vibe.
A6–Fleetwood Mac Tell Me All The Things You Do 4:10 Fleetwood Mac make their third appearance, the first from Kiln House (1970). Peter Green had just quit the band, and Christine McVie (nee Perfect) had just joined but wasn't contributing much yet. The liner notes for this song are fairly remarkable in how they kinda dis Green. In a lengthy record-company-as-music-critic write up, they express gratitude that the band "shifted gears and made a quick high speed turn off the cosmic trail Green had left them on" What we get is an excellent Danny Kirwan song that almost is enough to make us forget Green for a moment. Rocking, propulsive, and with plenty of guitar fireworks, it is one of the best songs on the album. The album suffered a serious fall in sales in the UK (#39 to #6 for Then Play On), but was a significant improvement in sales in the US (#69 to #109 for Then Play On)
A7–Jimi Hendrix Stepping Stone 4:05 Jimi Hendrix makes his third Loss Leaders appearance (fourth, if the 1968 proto-Loss Leader Some of Our Best Friends Are is included) Regrettably, it is also his very first posthumous appearance, as he died just weeks before the album went on sale. Hendrix had been a serious money maker and publicity generator for Warner/Reprise on both sides of the Atlantic, and he was an act close to the heart of Mo Ostin, the president of Reprise who had given him his contract. The liner notes acknowledge his passing. "Stepping Stone" (b/w "Izabella") was his last single issued before his death and was recorded with the Band of Gypsys, and appears on the 2001 release Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection. The single didn't chart. The song is a wild and wooly bit of blues-rock/funk hysteria bordering on heavy metal.
Side 2: Resident Writers and Reapers Of Wry Kudos
B1–John Simon The Elves' Song 4:32 Simon was both a producer and session musician who had worked with The Band (of whom he was sometimes dubbed "the sixth member"), Electric Flag, Simon and Garfunkel, and Janis Joplin. He released two of his own albums on Warners, and "The Elves' Song" is from his debut, The John Simon album. This is a pretty weird song, with a twisted 1950's R&B/doo-wop style instrumental backing with bizarre, psychedelic distorted backing vocals that recall some of the Beach Boys' more outre studio experiments. It's a brilliant song, precisely the kind of left-field gem this series was good at unearthing.
B2–Ry Cooder Alimony 2:11 Ry Cooder makes his first Loss Leader appearance here with "Alimony", taken from his self-titled 1970 debut album for Reprise. Cooder had already become one of the most sought-after sessionmen in the business, appearing on albums by The Rolling Stones, Taj Mahal, Captain Beefheart, and Randy Newman, among many others. His famous bottleneck guitar is present here, and he gets some help from some familiar Warner names. Van Dyke Parks (who has become quite a mover and shaker at Warner by now) and Lenny Waronker produce. The album wasn't a big seller, but Cooder's career continues to this day. He remained with Warner Brothers through the 1980's.
B3–Randy Newman Let's Burn Down The Cornfield 3:03 Randy Newman makes his fifth appearance, and becomes the first artist to have an album poached four times for Loss Leaders, leaving 8 songs left to go from 12 Songs. He's also had three songs done by other artists included so far. At this stage, there probably is no other artist getting as hard a push. Once again, the liner notes print some of the lyrics to his song. However, at this point the album is more than a year old, and the sales just weren't there. Ry Cooder plays on this one and Jack Nitsche co-produced. This time out, Newman is an arsonist who gets an erotic charge out of it, delivering the vocal in a deliberately shaky, oily voice while Cooder plays a lonesome bottleneck. It's not hard to see why Warners was frustrated; Newman's songs have been consistently provocative, engaging, and atmospheric.
B4–Gordon Lightfoot Me And Bobbie McGee 3:38 At this point Janis Joplin, who was weeks away from her own death, had not yet recorded this Kris Kristofferson song. Lightfoot's single, the first taken from Sit Down Young Stranger (and the third song from that album on a Loss Leader) reached #13 in Canada, and #1 on the Canadian country charts, but failed to reach the charts at all south of the border. Lightfoot's star would begin to soar in the US in a few short months, when he'd score a top-5 single with "If You Could Read My Mind", which would eventually push this album to #12 in the US. His reading is straight and direct; his warm voice is well suited for the song.
B5–Jimmy Webb P.F. Sloan 4:00 "P.F. Sloan" is a song about the songwriter, whose career shared some characteristics with Webb's. It is a gentle, soft rock song with fairly bittersweet sounding lyrics seemingly about the hardships of being a songwriter. Webb and Sloan must have had a falling out of sorts, because by 1971 Webb was claiming that P.F. Sloan didn't exist and was a name he had made up. In which case, it is a remarkable coincidence. Webb had made his mark as a songwriter, with many compositions for other artists, especially the 5th Dimension. He wrote "Wichita Lineman", "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", and "MacArthur Park" "P.F. Sloan" was taken from his second album, and first for Reprise, Words and Music (1970).
B6–Jack Nitzsche Harry Flowers 4:00 This is a track from the 1970 soundtrack to Performance, best known as one of Mick Jagger's first starring roles in a movie, but also a pretty good, trippy, disturbing movie itself. The soundtrack, which was a Warner product, included some interesting artists, including Randy Newman, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Merry Clayton, and Ry Cooder, and was produced by Jack Nitzsche. "Harry Flowers" is a very pretty muzak-style string orchestra recording that eventually grows increasingly more distorted and corroded sounding, and it accompanied a particularly creepy scene in the film. Writer credit is Nitzsche/Newman.
Side 3: Breadwinners and Other Staples
C1–John Gordon, Larry Lipades Radio Spot: Chip Dip 0:60 Another radio ad, ending with the punchline "Warner Brothers Records-- the shiny black chips you eat with your ears" You'll have to listen to it to get the set-up.
C2–Little Richard I Saw Her Standing There 2:37 Little Richard had returned to secular music in 1962, but struggled for most of the decade. His records didn't sell, he was reduced to playing dives, and he received little-to-no support from his record labels. However, by 1969 his fortunes were on the upswing as raucous performances at the Atlantic City Pop Festival and the Toronto Pop Festival outshined those by Janis Joplin and John Lennon respectively, and landed him on the talk-show circuit. "Freedom Blues", from his first Reprise album, The Rill Thing, even became his first US top-50 single since 1958. "I Saw Her Standing There" (the third Beatles song of the series so far) is an unexceptional cover version, but it is pretty funny to hear him mimic Paul's "woos" which were inspired by Richard in the first place.
C3–The Grateful Dead Sugar Magnolia 3:15 When we last met the Dead, on The Big Ball from early 1970, they were kinda on the Warners s-list, at least among the producers and execs who had to deal with them. Two well-regarded top-30 albums later, recorded without the studio excesses that had chafed Warners so much, all is forgiven. Even Joe Smith had nice things to say. The Weir-Hunter "Sugar Magnolia" should be known to all; it's one of the band's most famous songs and it was a key track on American Beauty, the band's briskest-selling album to date, peaking at #30. It would take decades, but eventually it was certified 2x Platinum. A live version from Europe '72 was released as a single in 1972 (b/w the once-rare "Mr. Charlie"), but it did no better than #91. After that, they departed Warner and started their own label.
C4–Van Morrison Call Me Up In Dreamland 3:52 This song is from His Band and the Street Choir, his fourth solo album, from 1970, and also marks Morrison's third Loss Leader appearance. A lively slice of life song about life on the road, it features a Morrison sax solo, and prominent chorus. It has a vaguely gospel feel it it. Released as the third single from the album, it reached #95 in 1971. The album reached a respectable #32. Morrison would remain with Warner Brothers until the early 1980's.
C5–The Kinks Apeman 4:06 After pumping the Kinks (making their fifth appearance here) in the liner notes of previous Loss Leaders incessantly, Warners finally has something to crow about. "Lola" had taken off in the US, reaching #9, and Lola Vs. The Powerman and Moneygoround, Part One had made it to #35, the band's best showing on both fronts in the US since 1965. "Apeman" would not fare as well as its predecessor, mustering only #45, and once again the Kinks would be unable to even buy a hit until 1978-1979. In fact, they were destined to make the US top-40 only twice after this single. As for the song, it is one of their familiar ones, bemoaning the modern world and longing for a simpler existence, with a Caribbean feel to the instrumentation and vocals.
C6–Arlo Guthrie Valley To Pray 2:47 Arlo Guthrie, also making his fifth appearance, had also been getting a serious push in this series. This song almost could have made the "Jesus side" based on its subject matter. It's a peppy, pleasant song with somewhat offbeat instrumentation. Guthrie had reached his zenith in 1969, however, and was already beginning a long, slow descent back to earth. Washington County, the new 1970 album from which this was taken, peaked at an unexceptional #33, and almost every subsequent release would chart lower than the previous one. Warner never abandoned him though, and kept on promoting his work on Loss Leaders until the end of the series. Guthrie would leave Warners in 1981 and form his own label, Rising Son.
C7–The Beach Boys It's About Time 2:56 This is the Beach Boys' second appearance, and second song from Sunflower. An uncharacteristically tough-sounding rocker about the pitfalls of fame, it sounds contemporary and commercial. The liner notes quote from the good reviews the album had received, but saleswise, it was toast, becoming the worst selling album of the band's career up to this point. The band would soon see a reversal of this commercial decline, but for now execs at Reprise must have been worried.
Side 4: California Antacid Rock
D1–The Youngbloods It's A Lovely Day 2:35 With the exception of their fluke hit "Get Together", which hit the top-10 two years after it was released, the Youngbloods were not especially big sellers. The Jesse Colin-Young-penned "It's a Lovely Day" was the lead-off single from Rock Festival, which would become the band's highest charting album by reaching #80. The album was the first for the band's own label, Raccoon Records, which was distributed by Warners. A hippie celebration of sunshiney days and a lament for a missing lover, it is a pleasant if inconsequential little acoustic ditty.
D2–Jeffrey Cain Hounddog Turkey 2:56 Jeffrey Cain is a Youngbloods discovery, whose For You album was Raccoon Records' second release. Hounddog Turkey is a comedic folk-blues rocker, with Jesse Colin-Young helping out on bass. It's good, but minor in the same ways the Youngbloods are minor; nothing is wrong with it, but there's not a whole lot interesting about it, either. Cain managed to squeeze a second album out of Raccoon, but hasn't been heard from since. Almost nothing exists on the web about him.
D3–Lovecraft Love Has Come To Me 3:11 Lovecraft is a spinoff group from the defunct folk-psych group HP Lovecraft, featuring George Edwards and Michael Tagza from the original band. "Love Has Come to Me" is from the first album credited to Lovecraft, Valley of the Moon, a 1970 Reprise release. It opens with a vaguely raga-rock guitar run with jazzy overtones, before unfolding into a gentle dreamscape of a song, with airy harmonies on the chorus and subtle prog touches. It's really a fairly sweet and pretty song, but I doubt it inspired many album sales.
D4–Sweetwater Just For You 9:20 Sweetwater, making their third appearance, tops Fleetwood Mac and Frank Zappa for the longest song on a Loss Leader so far with "Just for You", the title track of their 1970 sophomore album. The band was in some serious trouble at this point, as their lead singer, Nansi Nevins, had suffered brain damage and damaged vocal chords in a severe car accident the previous year. This left her unable to participate in future recordings with the band, although she had a stash of unreleased songs recorded already that sustained them for this and one more album in 1971. After that, the band broke up. They did reunite (with Nevins) for Woodstock '94. This song, sung by Nevins, is something of an epic genre-shifting piece, slightly reminiscent of a cross between Fairport Convention, Santana, and It's a Beautiful Day, if you can imagine that. Ambitious, but a little muddled.
Side 5: Avant and National Guard
E1–Captain Beefheart Lick My Decals Off, Baby 2:38 The traditional "weird side" leads off with the title track to Lick My Decals Off, Baby, Beefheart's fourth album, released in 1970 on Straight. Don Van Vliet has been quoted saying this album was his favorite, and there are fans who cite this as a better work than his groundbreaking Trout Mask Replica. It is easily as experimental as the former album, if not more so. This track is a brisk-tempo'd, jagged, angular guitar driven number, with a strong Van Vliet vocal. Art Tripp supplies a pastiche of percussion to it. A music video exists for this song, filmed in 1970. This turned out to be the fourth non-charter for Beefheart in the US, but it was his highest charting ever in the UK, peaking at #20.
E2–Mothers Of Invention Directly From My Heart To You 5:17 "Directly From My Heart To You" is a Little Richard song, taken from the new Weasels Ripped My Flesh, the second post-breakup release of Mothers material, after Burnt Weenie Sandwich. This album also featured the contributions of Lowell George, who went on to form Little Feat with Roy Estrada. Done as a heavy blues, with Sugarcane Harris providing electric violin in lieu of a guitar solo. Pretty irresistible, and not especially weird.
E3–Alice Cooper Return Of The Spiders 4:25 This is the second dip into Alice Cooper's sophomore album, Easy Action (the first was "Refrigerator Heaven", which I had mistakenly identified as on Pretties for You) This starts of with a lot of rolling forward momentum, and ratchets it up from there. The lyrics are paranoid, the vocals are manic. The band is a lot tighter than on the first album; most (not quite all yet) of the psychedelia is gone, and the playing has a metallic feel to it. John Mendelsohn is quoted in the notes, describing the band's insane stage show at the time (and they were just getting started!) This song was also the B-side of the non-charting "Shoe Salesman". The album didn't chart either, but the next one would.
E4–Frank Zappa Would You Go All The Way? 2:30 We switch over to solo Frank Zappa here, the first dip into Chunga's Revenge (1970), his third solo album. In some ways, once could call this a concept album about groupies, which make up the theme of about half of the songs (the other half are about sex). This is the first album with Flo & Eddie (formerly of The Turtles) onboard. "Would You Go All The Way? borrows from 50's greaser rock, and is played for laughs. Good guitar and funny, stuttering vocals, and trombone by George Duke. The album peaked at #119 in the US and #43 in the UK.
E5–Beaver And Krause Spaced 3:51 Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, two electronic music pioneers specializing in the Moog, teamed up for four albums, the last three on Warners. This one is a spare and sparse electronic noodle; if "No Time or Space" (from Electronic Sound) sounds like flying though an asteroid belt, this sounds like the deep space beyond. From In A Wild Sanctuary (1970) Krause had begun his career as a banjo player in the Weavers. He also taught Micky Dolenz how to play the Moog. He currently is retired from music and has focused on recording wild natural landscapes, for which he has become a founding pioneer in the field of soundscape ecology (yes, it is a real thing)
E6–Pearls Before Swine The Jeweler 2:40 The fourth appearance by Pearls Before Swine, this is a cut from their new album, The Use of Ashes. After a transitional album, These Things Too, this one was something of a comeback, with some Tom Rapp fans proclaiming it the best album of all. I haven't heard the album, but this little piece of it is agreeable. Rapp's strange, sometimes morbid fascinations are still present, and the song has an unusually poppy lilt to it.
Side 6: Electric Jesus
F1–Beaver And Krause Sanctuary 1:43 A second track from In a Wild Sanctuary, this sounds like someone playing synthesizer in a monastery. A few years later, and this would be called "New Age" Hearing this, I imagine Brian Eno may have been a fan.
F2–James Taylor Lo And Behold 2:34 James Taylor had gone from sleeping on sofas to one of the biggest stars at Warner Brothers in a matter of months. This is his second Loss Leader appearance, and the second song chosen from Sweet Baby James. This is a spare, gospel-inflected number, and one of the more memorable non-singles on the album. The album peaked at #3, and has since gone 3x Platinum.
F3–Harper's Bizarre If We Ever Needed The Lord Before 2:57 This is a Thomas A. Dorsey gospel song by old-time music revivalists Harper's Bizarre. It is a fairly ambitious arrangement, if not especially soulful, with nice harmonies, and piano and organ supplying the most memorable sonic signatures. As an utterly unrelated side note, I'll mention that Harper's Bizarre is the only group I can think of to have been on a hijacked flight (a TWA flight in 1969, no passengers were harmed)
F4–Van Dyke Parks On The Rolling Sea When Jesus Speak To Me 2:25 Van Dyke Parks makes his fourth appearance, with the b-side to the single "The Eagle and Me" (1970) This really should have gone on the weirdness side instead. A Gospel song from Mars, this has a gospel chorus and a gallumping, woozy, multi-instrumental production in which trombones play a sizable role.
F5–The Persuasions It's All Right 3:25 Making their first appearance on a Loss Leader are the Persuasions, an a capella doo wop band signed to Straight. The band was known for inspired a capella versions of contemporary songwriters, even offbeat ones like Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead. "It's All Right" is from their debut album, fittingly titled Acapella (1970), and is an original. This is really a spoken word piece, with some funny yet inspirational stories each with the punchline, "It's all right", recited to a gentle backing of a cappella close harmony singing. The band was never a commercial force, but they did manage to put out dozens of albums, right up to the 2000's.
F6–Turley Richards I Heard The Voice Of Jesus 7:05 Turley Richards, another Loss Leaders newcomer, is a blind folk singer/guitarist who had been releasing singles since 1959. "I Heard the Voice of Jesus" is from his lone album, Turley Richards, released in 1970. While the album didn't chart, remarkably two singles from it would actually slip into the Hot 100; this one made #99, and a Dylan cover ("Love Minus Zero/No Limit") would reach #84. Richards possesses a very expressive and soulful voice, and this song is a nice bit of embryonic Christian rock, done mostly on acoustic guitar, but with organ and a weeping electric guitar adding color, and epic-sounding strings entering midway.
Advertisement:
Additional Thoughts:
A long and winding listen, but a good one. This has enough star power to keep it interesting, and the obscuro artists are a fairly interesting bunch. The packaging is great, and this is one of the best sets so far. As with all the albums in this series, even the humdrum songs are at least "interesting" on some level, and nothing is a complete dog.
This ends 1970. We've seen Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and James Taylor begin their ascent, and we've seen the Everly Brothers fail to find an audience. The Fifth Avenue Band made a game effort, but came up empty. We've seen some of Frank Zappa's best work, an unrelenting push to get Randy Newman some sales. Jethro Tull evolves, Arlo Guthrie peaks, and upstarts like Black Sabbath appear out of nowhere. An interesting year for the series, which is still just taking off. We still have 28 albums of Loss Leaders to dig through (for a total of 54 discs) So stay tuned.
Next Up: Non-Dairy Creamer, the third of only four single-disc Loss Leaders, and the first Loss Leader of 1971. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 31 | https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/rolling-stones-producer-jimmy-miller-15-things-you-didnt-know-630234/ | en | Rolling Stones Producer Jimmy Miller: 15 Things You Didn’t Know | [
"https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=6035310&c4=&cv=3.9&cj=1",
"https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://www.rol... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/DQdFStANuJ8?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent",
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/SUl6otD2vJI?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent",
"https://www.youtube.c... | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Jim Merlis"
] | 2018-05-24T15:36:56+00:00 | Learn 15 things you might not know about Jimmy Miller, the producer who oversaw the Rolling Stones' classic late Sixties and early Seventies LPs. | en | Rolling Stone | https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/rolling-stones-producer-jimmy-miller-15-things-you-didnt-know-630234/ | The Rolling Stones‘ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” released as a single 50 years ago today, isn’t merely the greatest song ever written about Keith Richards’ gardener (who inspired the tune in name only). It recently came to light that, in the summer of 2016, a phrase from the opening line – “crossfire hurricane” – became the FBI code name for their investigation of President Trump and his ties to Russian meddling in the election. But due to the involvement of producer Jimmy Miller, “Flash” was already a landmark in the band’s discographical lore.
The song arrived five months after the ill-fated Their Satanic Majesties Request LP, which had critics and fans alike questioning whether the Stones were still relevant. Writing for Rolling Stone, Jon Landau said “Their Satanic Majesties Request, despite moments of unquestionable brilliance, puts the status of the Rolling Stones in jeopardy. With it, the Stones abandon their capacity to lead in order to impress the impressionable. They have been far too influenced by their musical inferiors and the result is an insecure album in which they try too hard to prove that they too are innovators, and that they too can say something new.” Landau further added that the album “was marred by poor production.”
The Stones didn’t need a rock critic to tell them they could use some help. Before you could say Jack Flash, they’d hired Brooklyn-born producer Jimmy Miller who, while they were recording Satanic Majesties in studio A at Olympic Studios, had been recording Traffic’s debut album in studio B. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was the first release with the new partnership.
The collaboration would be one of rock’s most fruitful, with Miller producing the next five Stones albums: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, and Goats Head Soup. Those first four aren’t just four of the best albums the Stones would ever record; they’re four of the greatest rock albums of all time (coming in at numbers 58, 32, 64 and 7, respectively, according to Rolling Stone). “Jimmy Miller was one of the most simpatico producers that I’ve ever worked with,” Keith Richards said in According to the Rolling Stones. “He could handle a band – especially this band – and gave everybody the same level of support. … He had a very good rapport with Mick.”
Editor’s picks
Jimmy Miller brought two major things to the Stones. First, he encouraged experimentation in the studio. To wit: When the band played the demo for “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” on a mono cassette, Richards commented how much he liked the distortion his acoustic guitar was getting from overloading the tape. Miller suggested that if they liked the sound so much, they could record the guitar part that way for the song. “You know, there we were, spending good money for time in a top studio,” Miller told writer Richard Buskin for his book Inside Tracks, “and recording on a 20 pound cassette machine.”
Miller also brought the groove, the roll, to the rock. “Jimmy Miller was a damn good drummer,” Keith Richards writes in his memoir, Life. “He understood groove. He made it very easy for me to work, mainly for me to set the groove, set the tempos …” “Sympathy for The Devil,” which started as a folk-inspired dirge, would be nothing without the samba rhythm, which was incorporated under Miller’s watch.
1. Jimmy Miller’s first success came with the Spencer Davis Group, which featured a young Steve Winwood.
As Miller explained to Nina Antonia from Record Collector, Chris Blackwell (who was both label chief of Island Records and manager to the Spencer Davis Group) “thought it might work for me to come over and do something with Steve and the Spencer Davis Group on ‘Gimme Some Lovin.’ It changed my life and it was their first hit in America.”
Blackwell had been impressed with Miller’s work producing local New York and New Jersey R&B groups, and brought him to London to remix the song for the American market and. An A/B test of the U.K. and American versions (on Spotify the U.S. version is tagged as “Single Mix”) shows not only what Miller did with that song, but also lays out the blueprint for what he would bring to the Stones’ sound. On this track, Miller added gospel-inspired backing vocals, sped up the tempo to get a better groove, and added both percussion and live ambience. The band had a follow-up hit with their next single, “I’m a Man,” which Miller both produced and co-wrote. Winwood, who Miller said “always had a touch of Ray Charles about him,” went on to tap Miller as producer for the first two Traffic albums as well as Blind Faith’s sole LP.
Related
2. That’s Miller, not Charlie Watts, drumming on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
“I felt a rhythm figure that everyone liked, but Charlie didn’t feel it.” Miller recalled in Inside Tracks. “I sat down and played it again and Charlie, who was lovely and humble said, ‘Jim, that sounds great, you play it.'”
“Jimmy actually made me stop and think again about the way I play drums in the studio,” Watts recounted in According to the Rolling Stones, “and I became a much better drummer in the studio thanks to him – together we made some of the best records we’ve ever made…”
Miller is also behind the kit on “Happy,” “Shine a Light” and the outro to “Tumbling Dice,” and played different percussion instruments on songs including “Gimme Shelter,” “Monkey Man” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” And of course, there’s also the cowbell …
3. Miller is the man behind the famous cowbell in “Honky Tonk Women.”
Musician Gary Wright, who knew Miller before he went over to the U.K., and later worked with him in the vastly underrated Spooky Tooth, recalls that Miller was a great producer and that “if you’d be doing something and it wasn’t quite happening, he’d go out and pick up a cowbell and go out into the studio and whole thing would turn around.”
And this was happening as the Stones worked trying to find the groove for their song “Honky Tonk Women.” As they struggled, Miller went to the studio and “started playing two little cowbells, one atop of another on a steel prong, and set the tempo for the whole song,” recalled engineer Andy Johns in Robert Greenfield’s Ain’t It Time We Said Goodbye. “Jimmy really knew how to get fantastic grooves and come up with cool sounds …”
The sound is so singularly Miller-ian that the Stones have had a hard time replicating it on the road. “We’ve never played an intro to ‘Honky Tonk Women’ live the way it is on the record,” Watts said in According to the Rolling Stones. “That’s Jimmy playing the cowbell and either he comes in wrong or I come in wrong – but Keith comes in right which makes the whole thing right. It’s one of those things that musicologists could sit around analyzing for years. It’s actually a mistake but from my point of view it works.”
4. In 1968, he and Bill Wyman displayed some real-life heroism and we’re all the better for it.
French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard was at Olympics Studio filming the Stones arranging, rehearsing and recording “Sympathy for the Devil,” for his frustrating film of the same name (originally titled One Plus One). In his memoir, Stone Alone bassist Bill Wyman recalls that a fire broke out after an all-night session. The heat of the film crew’s lights set fire to the studio ceiling. “The rest of the boys had left and my first thought was to save the tapes: Jimmy and I dashed in to the control room and then into the vaults to pull them clear, and then we ran for safety,” Wyman recalled. “Everyone was evacuated while three fire-engines came within minutes to extinguish the blaze. Guitars, amplifiers, a Hammond organ and photographic equipment were all soaked. After the firemen had finished, Jimmy Miller and I returned the undamaged tapes to the studio’s tape vault and we left for home.”
5. Miller deserved a medal just for getting Exile on Main Street made.
Tales of the making of Exile are legendary. A good deal of the album was recorded in the basement of Keith Richards’ mansion in the South of France, which was frequented by drug dealers, not to mention drug addicts, drug buddies, drifters who definitely were on drugs, and grifters. The Stones themselves would rarely make it to sessions, and the oppressively humid space wasn’t at all conducive to making instruments stay in tune. The control room – the new Rolling Stones Mobile Studio – was a truck parked outside of the mansion, which made it difficult for the production team to communicate with the musicians. And of course the master of the house, Keith Richards, was cultivating a rather nasty heroin problem, to which Miller soon succumbed as well. It’s no wonder that in According to the Rolling Stones Keith Richards said, “Jimmy Miller’s name is written in gold in rock’n’roll heaven. Working under the most bizarre conditions and knowing the characters he had to deal with, Jimmy was a joy.”
6. Mick Jagger had a very specific reason he wanted Miller to mix his vocals low.
“Mick and I always fought a bit over his vocals,” Miller said in Inside Tracks. “I thought they should be up front, but whenever we were mixing he would say ‘too much voice, too much voice.’… I said, ‘Mick, why are you always asking for less level on the vocals? I mean, aren’t you confident about how your vocals sound?’ He said, ‘No, it’s not that.’ And he described how, when he was growing up and listening to negro blues songs, there would always be a bit of a contest to recite the words because the artist often sounded like they had a mouthful of mush. You couldn’t work out the words to a song by hearing it now and then on the radio, so you would have to go out and buy the record, and play it over and over.’ Pragmatic as ever, Mick now believed that if people wanted to get the words … mixing down his vocals would make them more prone to buy the records!”
7. Jimmy Miller is the missing link you’ve always wondered about between the Stones and P-Funk.
Chris Blackwell had first became aware of Miller after hearing work he did with American soul and R&B groups, including sessions he did with future funk master George Clinton in his early group the Parliaments. In fact, Miller says the first single he produced was for the Parliaments, “Lonely Island.” Clinton told Offbeat writer John Wirt, “Jimmy Miller used to sing with us. He would write with myself. When he left us, he took some of the funkiest stuff over to London.”
8. Don’t think he could give Mick Jagger a run for his money, but Jimmy Miller did put out some singles of his own.
Jimmy Miller did make a run at it as a lead singer. More Dion and Drifters than Steve Winwood or Mick Jagger, he released a few singles on mostly regional record labels. As evidenced by tracks like 1965’s “Break My Heart Break,” the man could certainly carry a tune.
9. His dad was also in showbiz.
Jimmy Miller’s father, Bill, was a Russian Jew who came to the United States with his family at the turn of the century. He owned a New Jersey nightclub called Bill Miller’s Riveria which attracted headline acts including future Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Sammy Davis Jr. The club was closed in 1953 so the Palisades Parkway could be built. Miller then headed out west to Las Vegas. There he became entertainment director at the Sahara and, according to the Las Vegas Journal Review, “virtually invented the Las Vegas lounge show.” According to Bill Miller’s daughter, Jimmy’s half-sister Judith, “He helped integrate the show biz scene there by booking Sammy Davis Jr., who was not permitted to stay in the hotel!”
The senior Miller also booked Elvis Presley in 1969 at the International Hotel for his 1969 return to live performance.
Trending
10. Jimmy Miller’s half-sister Judith Miller isthe Judith Miller
Judith Miller may be better known as the former New York Times op-ed writer who was front and center in the Valerie Plame scandal during the George W. Bush era, the one who served time in prison for not revealing her sources. But back in the day, while she attended the London School of Economics (after Mick Jagger), she got to watch the Stones record at night. As she wrote in The Story: A Reporter’s Journey, “I quickly lost interest in my courses, preferring to watch Jimmy work – usually from midnight to dawn.”
11. He got credit for producing a record he didn’t do much producing on.
He’s credited as the producer of Sticky Fingers, but he wasn’t in the studio for “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” or “You Gotta Move.” Those songs were recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, during a couple of days off from the band’s 1969 tour, in early December. Session guitarist Jimmy Johnson, who engineered the songs along with the Stones, was the de facto producer. In According to the Rolling Stones Charlie Watts says the tracks down in Alabama were great, “and we did them without Jimmy Miller which was equally amazing.”
12. He got the Knack before there was a Knack.
He discovered and produced a band of Detroit teenagers called Sky. The band was fronted by Doug Fieger, who would years later front the Knack. After Sky opened for Traffic, that band’s flautist-saxophonist Chris Wood gave the teenage Fieger producer Jimmy Miller’s address and suggested he write him, which Fieger did. In an interview with Todd Longwell, Feiger recounted, “One night, we’re watching TV, and my dad says, ‘There’s a guy named Jimmy Miller on the phone.’ I’m going, ‘Yeah, right …’ it’s John from my band putting me on. And it was [Miller]! He said, ‘I’m coming to Detroit to look at the Motown Studios, and I want to see your band.’ We picked him up at the airport and we drove him to Motown, then brought him back to my house. We sat around my ping pong table in the basement and played him all our songs, and he signed us the next day. A week after I graduated from high school, he flew us to London. We were in Studio A, while the Stones were in Studio B recording Sticky Fingers. I was seventeen years old. It was unbelievable.”
13. His last album with Stones was Goats Head Soup.
As “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” signaled the dawn of the golden era for the Stones, Goats Head Soup signaled the demise of it. It also marked the last time Miller would work with the Stones. It wasn’t a terrible album by any stretch, but after the span of brilliant and innovative albums that preceded it, Goats Head Soup sounds uninspired. In Life, Keith Richards comments, “We wore out Jimmy Miller, who slowly succumbed to the dope and ended up carving swastikas into the mixing board while he worked on his swan song album for us, Goats Head Soup.” Miller would battle drug and alcohol addiction for the rest of his life.
14. Later, Miller would become the fourth member of Motörhead.
Miller would at times overcome his addiction and in the late 1970’s he got himself together to produce the seminal Motörhead LP Overkill. He would succumb to drugs again as he made the follow up Bomber. In a Metal Hammer interview with Malcolm Dome, Motörhead frontman Lemmy recalled that the band was given a list of four producers to work with and chose Miller for his work with the Stones. He noted that Miller “made a massive contribution. For a start, Jimmy knew his way round a studio, and as a band we certainly didn’t. He also became the fourth member of Motörhead for the time he worked on the album.” | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 48 | http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-troubadour-west-hollywood-and-san.html | en | Rock Prosopography 101: The Troubadour, West Hollywood and San Francisco, CA: Performance List May | [
"https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X-CwhPTD730/X8EDzT2Lh9I/AAAAAAAAHwQ/H6O8_PhMe5k11kd2IXzE9OAbfDYwuLkwgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Troubadour_a_night_view.jpg",
"https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p4OaNe9-vQs/YAnewEf9eUI/AAAAAAAAIC4/KdYH-v13-8oCCjKHTY91Z0yRvCp80RT-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Kristofferson%2Blp%2BMonument%2B1970.jpg",
"https://1.bp... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | The Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA The Troubadour, The Whisky A-Go-Go and West Hollywood In the latter 60s, ro... | http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | http://rockprosopography101.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-troubadour-west-hollywood-and-san.html | The Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA
The Troubadour, The Whisky A-Go-Go and West Hollywood
In the latter 60s, rock bands made their bones in the ballrooms, with the light shows and people swaying. Word would pass on the underground telegraph that Cream or Quicksilver Messenger Service or Ten Years After were great, and you would check them out the next time they came to town. There were a few rock nightclubs, but most fans weren't even 21 yet, and clubs in any case were too small to create much residual buzz, not compared to a college gym.
In the 1960s, however, there was one major exception to this rule. The infamous Whisky-A-Go-Go club in West Hollywood (at 8901 Sunset Blvd) defied all these conventions. Name bands played there for union scale just to get heard. The Hollywood hip people, whether in the record industry or just cool cats, heard the bands and helped to decide who got some buzz. In August 1966, the house band at the Whisky were some unknowns called The Doors, and they became as big as anybody. In January, 1969, a new group built on the ashes of the old Yardbirds played the Whisky, and within a week the word was out about Led Zeppelin.
Hollywood proper had been part of the city of Los Angeles since the 1930s. But West Hollywood was unincorporated, part of Los Angeles County, but not the city. It was insulated from the notorious Los Angeles police and the machinations of the LA City Council. Thus West Hollywood was, paradoxically, the entertainment district for Hollywood, and had been since the 1940s. There were clubs, restaurants and jazz, and plenty of stars came to hang out, and that was how tastes got made. Rock and roll wasn't that different. The Whisky had opened in 1964, and made "Go-Go" a thing. By 1966, the club had a new act every week, all trying to catch the Hollywood buzz. Cream and Jimi Hendrix each played there in 1967, for practically nothing, just so that people would listen. So did numerous other ambitious groups, because rocking the Whisky was a ticket to a big tour.
A mile East of the Whisky, however, was a former coffee shop called The Troubadour. The Troubadour was at 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard (at Doheny Drive), near the Beverly Hills border. Proprietor Doug Weston had opened the club in 1957, but by 1970 it had a full bar and regular performers. Initially it presented folk acts, and in a sense, it still did. Electric instruments were standard fare by the end of the 60s, and the Troubadour wasn't for purists. But the Whisky was for rocking out, and the Troubadour was for reflection. As the 70s rose on the horizon, reflection was the order of the day, and success at The Troubadour would turn out to have more impact than success at the Whisky.
Kris Kristofferson's debut album was released on Monument in 1970. He played the West Hollywood Troubadour in June, opening for Linda Ronstadt
Troubadour Performance List, May-August 1970
The Troubadour was open seven days a week, with performers every night. The restaurant and particularly the bar were open as well, so it was a hangout for music industry types as well as musicians. Supposedly, many 70s bands, such as the Eagles, had their beginnings in the Troubadour bar. Troubadour bookings were almost always from Tuesday through Sunday. The Tuesday night show was almost always reviewed in the Thursday Los Angeles Times, giving industry and fans an idea of what was worth seeing that weekend. A good review in the Times, followed by a packed house on the weekend, could make an artist's career, as it did with Elton John later in 1970.
Maximum capacity at the Troubadour was about 300. Generally, there were two shows each night, and sometimes three shows on weekend nights. Sets were relatively short, from what I can tell, in order to turn the house over. Headliners would play about 40 minutes, and openers nearer to 20. The Troubadour was a showcase, not a place where performers jammed all night with their pals. I don't know whether the Troubadour had the arrangement where if the late show was not sold out, patrons could stick around if they would buy another drink. For a packed James Taylor/Carole King show in November of 1970, the Times reported that all 4000 tickets were sold out, and while I don't know if that was for 12 or 14 shows, and whether it was an approximation, but it gives us an idea of capacity.
Monday nights were "Audition Nights." Performers were booked, but they weren't advertised in the papers. Presumably, patrons could call the club, or the bands were listed at the club itself. In some cases, record companies would arrange to have performers play Monday night at the Troubadour so they could invite a few people and check them out. I assume that when a performer did not have a full Tuesday-Sunday run, and no performer was listed (usually a Tuesday or a Sunday), "auditions" were booked on those open nights too. I think one reason to call these booking auditions was also to minimize what they were paying the performer (probably just union scale). I don't think there was an admission charge on audition night. I'm not aware of any way to retrieve who played on Audition nights (and I appear to be the first attempting to capture who played the Troubadour during this period).
At the beginning of 1970, many of the acts at the Whisky had their eyes on Las Vegas, Television Variety shows and the big hotels. Hippie acts that might have been welcome at the Fillmore, or even a college campus, weren't that common. By the end of the year, the hair had gotten longer and the stakes had gotten higher. Rock music and the record industry was turning out to be big money, and finding the next big recording artist was more important than knowing who was looking good for the Ambassador Hotel downtown or the Sands in Vegas.
In a previous post, I reviewed the performers at the Troubadour from January through April 1970. In a short time, the Troubadour went from mostly featuring performers looking to get on TV or into Las Vegas to long haired singer songwriters that are famous today. It was becoming clear that there was big money in the booming record industry, and the Troubadour was right at the center. This post will review the performers at the Troubadour from May through August 1970. It will also cover the opening of the ill-fated Troubadour in San Francisco.
April 28-May 3, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Van Morrison/Elyse Weinberg (Tuesday-Sunday)
Van Morrison was yet another artist who used the Troubadour to get heard by the whole industry. Morrison had been around for a while, of course: he had been in Them, he had a '67 hit with "Brown-Eyed Girl," and a classic 1968 album Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks hadn't sold that well, however, and while Morrison had toured a little bit, he hadn't been much heard from. By this time, Morrison was based in Woodstock, NY.
Moondance, Morrison's new album on Warners, had been released in February 1970. I don't need to add that it was a revelation. There were no big singles, but FM radio worked differently than AM. Songs off the album got played all the time on the big FM stations: the title track, "Crazy Love," "And It Stoned Me," "Caravan" and Into The Mystic" got played all the time. And that was just from side one. Los Angeles wanted to hear just how he was doing this.
Michael Sherman gave a generally positive review of Van Morrison in the April 30 Times (covering opening night). Sherman praised the great song and the swinging six-piece band, and of course Van's epic singing voice. The only real complaint was Morrison's eerie detachment when he delivered his joyous music. Pretty much, this was the review of every Van Morrison performance ever (certainly all the ones I saw over some decades): great songs, hot band, fantastic singing, strangely aloof. Still, Van Morrison's talent wasn't going to be contained, and playing the Troubadour for a week ensured that.
Opener Elyse Weinberg is fairly obscure now, but she was very much in the mix in the 1960s. She had made a solo album in 1969 on Tetragrammaton, and it wasn't the typical singer-songwriter thing, but rather sort of a psychedelic album. Born in Ontario, Weinberg had been part of the Toronto folk scene around 1963. She had moved to Los Angeles in 1966 to meet up with her friend Neil Young. Staying with Cass Elliott, her songs got heard, and she got signed. Her album featured Neil Young and others, and apparently is a sort of lost psych classic. Weinberg released another album in 1971, then signed with Geffen Records in 1973, but ultimately retired from music.
May 5-10, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Rick Nelson and The Stone Stone Canyon Band/Fairport Convention (Tuesday-Sunday)
Rick Nelson had been a radio and television star since the 1950s, as the real-life and TV son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. In the early 60s, teenage Ricky liked rockabilly music, so most episodes of Ozzie And Harriet featured Ricky playing a song with his band. His band included the great James Burton on guitar, and for pop music, it was pretty rockin'. Thanks to the power of TV, the records sold massively, and songs like "Hello Mary Lou" are classics today.
By the end of the decade, with Ozzie And Harriet off the air, Rick (not Ricky) Nelson was more interested in country rock in the style of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline. His new album was called Rick Sings Nelson, credited to Ricky Nelson and The Stone Canyon Band. The Stone Canyon Band included pedal steel guitarist Tom Brumley, an All-Star from Buck Owens' Buckaroos. Also in the band were guitarist Allan Kemp, drummer Patrick Shanahan and bassist Peter Cetera.
Opening act Fairport Convention, then fairly obscure, would have been the real revelation. Their previous album, Liege And Leif (released in the States on A&M in December 1969), had all but single-handedly invented English folk-rock. Songs like "Come All Ye Roving Minstrels" and "Matty Groves" were getting good FM airplay all over the country. Yet for their first American tour, Fairport was without their most recognizable member, lead singer Sandy Denny. Of course, all that meant was that lead guitarist Richard Thompson was even more prominent. Despite the short opening sets, Fairport clearly caught the ears of the locals, since the band returned as headliners a few months later (in September), and apparently every musician in Los Angeles would show up.
May 12-17, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Hedge and Donna/Frank Kimel (Tuesday-Sunday)
Hedge And Donna had deep roots at the Troubadour. The married folksinging duo (last name Capers) from the San Dieog area had been so impressive at a Troubadour Hoot Night in 1967 that Doug Weston became their manager. By 1970, Hedge And Donna had released their 4th album on Capitol, Special Circumstances. The duo were backed by heavyweight Hollywood session pros (Joe Sample, Carole Kaye, Paul Humphrey, Ron Tutt, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Bernie Leadon, to name a few), but their folk-rock sound had become somewhat passe.
Frank Kimel is unknown to me.
May 19-24, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Pentangle (Tuesday-Sunday)
Pentangle were brilliant and unclassifiable, but they are usually broadly lumped in with Fairport Convention as "British Folk-Rock." That's not even wrong, but Pentangle was so much more. The quintet included two of the best and most original acoustic guitarists in the British folk scene, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. Established jazz bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox added a light but swinging rhythm section, and Jacqui McShee had a striking, madrigal-style voice, ably supported by singing from the rest of the band.
Pentangle were among the pioneers in--for lack of a better term--amplified acoustic music. The twin guitars could be heard with the bass and drums, and the vocals soared over the delicate but firm sound. They weren't purists--banjo or electric guitar was added as needed. They did English folk songs, American folk music, the odd R&B song and even some Charles Mingus. There was nothing like them. The previous year, the band had toured all the psychedelic ballrooms. When Pentangle had opened for the Grateful Dead (Feb 27-Mar 2 '69 at Fillmore West), Jerry Garcia was so impressed that he adopted the twin-acoustics-plus-rhythm sound for the acoustic live Dead of 1970.
For this tour, Pentangle was supporting their fantastic new album Basket Of Light, which had been released in October of 1969 on Transatlantic Records.
May 26-31, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Doug Kershaw (Tuesday-Sunday)
Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw had been a country musician for at least a decade. His song "Diggy Diggy Lo" had reached #14 in the country charts back in 1961. Cajun music, however, was particularly suited to the amplified style of rock music, and Kershaw's remake of "Diggy Diggy Lo" had reached #69 in 1969, not too shabby for an old country guy. Kershaw's 1970 album was Spanish Moss (on Warners), made in LA with James Burton, Red Rhodes (steel guitar), Russ Kunkel (drums) and others. His version of the bluegreass classic "Orange Blossom Special" had even been a minor hit. So Kershaw was playing the Troubadour, apparently to introduce himself to a different audience.
June 2-7, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Mike Nesmith with First National Band (Tuesday-Sunday)
Mike Nesmith had been a Monkee, of course, so he was nationally famous. Also, he was quite a talented songwriter, but the Monkees' management had no interest in that. So when the band disintegrated at the end of 1968, Nesmith set out to make himself a "real" artist, instead of the plastic Monkee that had come before. In fact, prior to the Monkees, Nesmith had carved out something of a modest career already.
In 1965, when Nesmith had been "discovered" by the TV production company, he had been the "Hootmaster" at the Troubadour. His job would have been to sing a few songs and then keep the participants moving on and off the stage. He had also written and copyrighted a number of original songs. One of them, "Different Drum," had even been a hit for the Stone Poneys (with Linda Ronstadt) in 1967, during Monkeemania. So Nesmith had plenty of building blocks for the next phase of his career.
Nesmith was interested in playing what would now be called "country-rock," and formed a band with pedal steel guitar ace Red Rhodes. Nesmith played guitar, sang and wrote, and drummer John Ware and bassist John London rounded out the group. In July 1970, Mike Nesmith and The First National Band would release the album Magnetic South on RCA Records. Playing the Troubadour prior to the album's release was probably intended to give agents and radio people some insight into what to expect from the former Monkee. Given how popular the Monkees had been, that was no small thing.
June 9-14, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Theo Bikel/Peter Evans (Tuesday-Sunday)
Theo Bikel (1924-2015) was famous as both an actor and a folksinger. Born in Austria, he had emigrated to pre-war Palestine, and then ended up in New York. Among many other credits, he had originated the role of Captain Von Trapp in The Sound Of Music. The Times noted that he would be playing triple shows on Friday and Sunday. Bikel would have appealed to a broader age range than the hippie acts who were starting to dominate the Troubadour's bookings. Bikel would have been appealing to older fans who knew him from folk music and TV.
Peter Evans was a flamenco performer.
June 16-21, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Ian and Sylvia with Great Speckled Bird/Danny Cox (Tuesday-Sunday)
Ian and Sylvia Tyson had been a popular Canadian folk duo going back to 1959. When folk music faded away in the mid-60s, the duo easily made the switch to country-rock, both because of their talent and their excellent songwriting skills. Ian And Sylvia's early 1968 album Nashville, on Vanguard, was one of the first collaborations between rock songwriters using Nashville session men, preceding The Byrds' Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. By 1969, Ian And Sylvia had evolved into the band Great Speckled Bird, releasing an album of that same name on Ampex Records in October '69.
Ian and Sylvia received a very positive review, including compliments for their pedal steel guitar player. Although not named in the review, the steel chair was held down by the great Buddy Cage. Cage would play on many of Anne Murray's hits (like "Snowbird"). When Great Speckled Bird joined the fabled Canadian Train Tour immortalized in the movie Festival Express, Jerry Garcia heard Cage and tapped him as his own replacement in the New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Cage would leave Great Speckled Bird to join the Riders in the Fall of 1971. Guitarist Amos Garrett would also end up moving to the Bay Area.
Danny Cox was an African-American folksinger from Kansas City. He shared management with Brewer And Shipley. Like them, Cox would also record in San Francisco with Nick Gravenites, but his debut album would not be released until 1971.
June 23-28, 30, July 1-5, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Linda Ronstadt/Kris Kristofferson (Tuesday-Sunday, Tuesday-Sunday)
If Linda Ronstadt and Kris Kristofferson appeared together today in Hollywood, it would be a media event--even though they both have retired and wouldn't be performing. Imagine, for a moment, both of them young, engaging, on the rise and singing for their future, appearing for two straight weeks at the Troubadour. There would have been 24 (or maybe 30) show over twelve days--no wonder the Troubadour is a West Hollywood legend.
Linda Ronstadt would have been supporting her second solo album, Silk Purse, which had been released on Capitol on April. Ronstadt had been part of the Stone Poneys, with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards. The trio had released three albums in 1967 and '68, and had even scored a modest hit with the Michael Nesmith song "Different Drum," which reached #13 in 1967. The Stone Poneys had come from Tucson in 1965, and had played the Hoot Night at the Troubadour many times. Ronstadt had received offers as a solo singer, but she had refused to abandon her bandmates. Finally, after a Troubadour hoot performance in 1966, the Stone Poneys had been signed as a group.
In the 1960s, Kris Kristofferson was only known as a Nashville songwriter, albeit a quite successful one. He had written hits like "Sunday Morning Coming Down," "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and "Me And Bobby McGee" for various artists. Kristofferson had only released his first album in 1970, Kristofferson, on Monument Records. It featured his own versions of many of his hits for others. He had toured around clubs a little bit, but he wasn't yet a polished performer. Kristofferson's backing trio had Zal Yanovsky (ex-Lovin Spooful) on guitar, Norman Blake on dobro and guitar, and Billy Swan on bass.
According to a Robert Hilburn article (see August 2 below), Weston had been in San Francisco working on his new project, and invited folk legend and old friend Ramblin' Jack Elliott to see it. Elliott had brought along Kristofferson, and when Weston had heard Kristofferson casually picking and singing, Weston said he knew he had to book him. Weston had very good instincts about performers, which was how the Troubadour had consistently hired good acts on the way up.
July 7-12, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: John Hartford/Steve Martin (Tuesday-Sunday)
John Hartford was a singer, songwriter and talented musician from Missouri. He was best known for writing the song "Gentle On My Mind," a gigantic hit for Glenn Campbell and others. The success of the song gave Hartford some economic comfort not usually afforded bluegrass musicians. By this time, Hartford was familiar to audiences for having regularly appeared on TV shows like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour.
RCA had signed Hartford back in 1966, probably figuring they were getting another country singer. In fact, Hartford was a unique and creative talent, but not always very commercial. In late 1969, Hartford had released an album entitled John Hartford (even though it was his sixth record for RCA). Strangely, it was a complexly-orchestrated country "art-rock" album, if such a thing can be imagined. It was not well-reviewed, nor did it sell well. Early in the year, Hartford had played a single Friday night engagement at the Troubadour, presumably in support (on January 2, 1970).
In mid-1970, Hartford had released Iron Mountain Depot. While less arty, it seemed to be a sort of wry knockoff. Micheal Sherman reviewed Hartford's show in the Times and said it was bland. Hartford had a four-piece band, and Sherman also disapproved of his playing an electric banjo. Per Sherman, Hartford played 9 songs in his set.
At this time, Steve Martin was a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and an aspiring comedian. Since the highly-rated Smothers Brothers show had been abruptly canceled, however, Martin was probably out of work. Sherman commented that Martin played the banjo and told jokes "in the style of the Kingston Trio." I don't think he meant it as a compliment. Of course, Martin's angular approach to humor may not have been fully formed yet, and it may not have struck home to Sherman, either.
Neil Diamond's Gold album was recorded live at The Troubadour on July 15, 1970, and released in August. It featured performances of his biggest hits up to that time.
July 15, 1970 The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Neil Diamond (Wednesday)
Neil Diamond had been a hugely successful pop songwriter for many years, and in 1969 he started to get big hits under his own name. He didn't really have a reputation as a performer yet, however, so he had played a week at the Troubadour back in March (March 24-29). Playing a week at the Troubadour would have given the industry a chance to see how well Diamond could put on a show. It must have gone well, since Diamond returned for a night to record a live album. Diamond's album Gold: Live At The Troubadour was released shortly after, in August of 1970. It was a sort of "Greatest Hits" for Neil Diamond, but including some songs that had been hits for other artists. Diamond was backed by a trio (Carol Hunter [guitar], Randy Sterling [bass] and Eddie Rubin [drums]).
Diamond was from Brooklyn, and had worked in the famous Brill Building in the 60s. He had moved to Los Angeles in 1969. In 1969, Diamond's big hits had been "Sweet Caroline," which had reached #4 in May, and "Holly Holy," which had reached #3 in October. It is an irony of pop culture that the bigger of Diamond's two hits that year is now largely forgotten, whereas "Sweet Caroline" (thanks particularly to the Boston Red Sox) is an anthem.
July 16-19, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Eric Andersen/David Brenner (Thursday-Sunday)
Eric Andersen had been among the first wave of folksingers that followed Bob Dylan. By 1969, he had released five album for Vanguard, and his songs had been recorded by a variety of artists. Andersen then signed with Warner Brothers, and given his excellent songwriting and the renewed interest in singer/songwriters, he seemed to be well-positioned. His self-titled December 1969 album had been his second album for Warners (and his seventh overall).
I'm not sure whether Andersen played solo or with a band, probably the former. Despite the changes in the record industry, his career never received the renewal that would have seemed so likely. He moved to the West Coast around this time--I'm not sure precisely when--but despite his talent and stellar connections, he never reached the success that might have seemed likely.
Comedian David Brenner opened the shows. I don't know if the Andersen/Brenner booking began on Tuesday and took a night off for Neil Diamond, so I have assumed they started on Thursday.
July 21-26, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Albert Collins/Jerry Hahn Brotherhood (Tuesday-Sunday)
The Troubadour did not have a purist aesthetic, so for this week the club featured loud electric guitars. Texas guitarist Albert "The Iceman" Collins had been recording since the 1950s. In 1964, he had a hit with the song "Frosty," and he became somewhat well-known. In 1968, the band Canned Heat was playing in Houston and attended one of his shows. The Heat offered to get Collins a record deal and live work, and he accepted. Collins signed with Imperial Records, and moved to Palo Alto, CA (of all places) in November '68. Collins' first Imperial album was Love Can Be Found Anywhere. By 1969, Collins was a regular at rock venues throughout the West Coast.
In Michael Sherman's review in the Times, he praised Collins, but suggested that he was only doing what other bluesmen had already done. Sherman probably didn't know that if there was a "typical" blues guitar sound, Collins had played a role in establishing that. Still, it isn't untrue that Collins fell into the category of "very good, but not exceptional." The Troubadour, like Hollywood in general, was about the Next Big Thing, and that wasn't going to be Albert Collins.
The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood were a San Francisco band that had only formed in March. They had gotten a fairly big advance from Columbia, who was heavy on the jazz-rock vein, since they had hit it big with Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago Transit Authority. Hahn was a pretty serious jazz guitarist, based in San Francisco, and he had played with John Handy and Gary Burton, among others. As "jazz-rock" became a thing, Hahn seems to have wanted to play in a more rock vein. Organist Mike Finnegan was from Wichita, Kansas. He was not only a great Hammond player, he was a terrific blues singer too (also, he was 6'6'' tall, and had gone to U. of Kansas on a basketball scholarship, making him the Bruce Hornsby of his era). Filling out the band were jazz musicians Mel Graves on bass and George Marsh on drums. Marsh had just left the Loading Zone, an interesting (if perpetually struggling) Oakland band.
Michael Sherman's review of the Jerry Hahn Brotherhood was scathing. The Hahn group was used to San Francisco, where every band jammed their brains out. Not in Hollywood. Sherman bluntly said that "at times the result was appalling. The band is either ahead of its time or simply grotesque. This reviewer leans towards the latter interpretation." The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood retreated quietly back to clubs like The Matrix in San Francisco, where they didn't seem to be grotesque.
July 28-August 2, 1970, The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Tiny Tim/Lynn Kellogg (Tuesday-Sunday)
Tiny Tim, born Herbert Khaury, was a talented, if eccentric performer, and an expert on largely-forgotten styles of American popular music. However, he had become a sensation when he appeared on the popular NBC variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. He had become a national figure, although he was seen as a novelty rather than a serious artist. At this time, his current album was For All My Little Friends, released in 1969 on Reprise Records. Tiny Tim had appeared earlier in the year at The Troubadour (the week of January 13-18).
Lynn Kellogg is unknown to me.
The Sunday Los Angeles Times (for August 2) had a glowing Robert Hilburn profile of Doug Weston. Weston was described as "the father of folk music in Southern California." Among other things, the article mentioned that Weston owned the building housing the Troubadour. More intriguingly, however, the article revealed that
Since the Troubadour's location is threatened by a future freeway, Weston has been devoting much of his energy lately to the renovation of a four-story building in San Francisco. The building will eventually serve as the center of an entertainment complex that will include a club, recording studio, health food restaurant, offices for his record company and his residence.
He originally planned to open the building last month [July], but a series of delays made him revise his schedule. Now, he's planning to open one phase of the operation at a time, with the restaurant due this month.
"I will be able to stay in that building and keep busy 24 hours a day" Weston said. "It's the fulfillment of my dreams."
While it seems surprising that a Los Angeles personality like Weston would plan to decamp up to San Francisco, there was logic behind his thinking. For at least two decades, the San Francisco Bay Area had been an incubator of innovative musical talent that Los Angeles record companies had thrived upon. Back in the 50s, jazzmen like Dave Brubeck and Cal Tjader, singers like Johnny Mathis and groups like the Kingston Trio had all come from the Bay Area. More recently, bands like Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and now Santana were huge successes. So San Francisco was perhaps a better place to find and nurture new talent than Los Angeles. SF was open to new sounds, and the pressure was lower than in Hollywood.
Now, granted, Bill Graham was also trying to build a music machine, with concert promotion, a booking agency, management and two record companies. Graham, however, was more oriented towards loud rock groups. Graham's talent and connections were less oriented towards quieter singer/songwriters, since they were not going to go over as well when they were third on the bill at Fillmore West. Still, thanks to Graham and the Fillmore, the record companies were starting to build studios in San Francisco: Mercury had built a studio, Columbia was planning one, and all the big acts used Wally Heider's San Francisco studios. So SF wasn't a backwater.
I should note in passing that outside of sports--and really just the Giants and Dodgers--any enmity between San Franciscans and Los Angeles residents was strictly one-way. People from SF delight in putting down LA, but everybody I've ever met from Southern California absolutely loves the Bay Area. So Weston's willingness to base his operation in SF made lots of sense. For one thing, there really weren't any high profile contemporary rock clubs in San Francisco. The Matrix was a tiny backwater, and clubs like The Poppycock (Palo Alto) or The New Orleans House (Berkeley) were small and out of town. Weston would not be competing with Fillmore West for acts, and he would have no other serious competitors. It was a good plan.
August 4-9, 1970 The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Livingston Taylor (Tuesday-Sunday)
Livingston Taylor was two years younger than his brother James, but he had been a folk singer in the Boston area since 1966. At this time, James Taylor had released one forgotten 1968 album (on Apple, of all things) and had released his Warners debut Sweet Baby James in February. So "Fire And Rain" was climbing the charts, but Livingston wasn't just "James' brother." Not yet anyway.
Livingston was also a songwriter, but he played in a bluesier style than James. Livingston had been one of the first signings on Capricorn records, the Macon, GA label founded by former Otis Redding manager Phil Walden. Walden and Capricorn's flagship was the Allman Brothers Band, of course, but they had various other acts as well. Taylor's self-titled debut on Capricorn had probably just come out. The album was produced by Boston's Jon Landau, but mainly recorded in Macon. Players on the album were Southern soul/rock veterans Pete Carr (guitar), Robert Popwell (bass), Paul Hornsby (keyboards) and Johnny Sandlin (drums).
August 4-9, 1970 Troubadour (North), San Francisco, CA: Kris Kristofferson/Doug Kershaw (Tuesday-Sunday)
On Tuesday, August 4, 1970, the San Francisco outpost of the Troubadour opened on 960 Bush Street. Old San Francisco rock fans may recall 960 Bush Street as the address of the Boarding House, a much-beloved venue open from 1972 to 1980. For those of us that recall the intimate circular bowl of a theater at the Boarding House, however, that was not in fact the setting for the Troubadour. The Troubadour's showroom was in the basement, basically a large dining room with a stage. In the Boarding House years, the old Troubadour stage was sometimes used for comedy shows, and generally referred to as the dining room. Probably it was used to serve dinner as well (I have included a picture of the Boarding House from the mid-70s, to show what the building looked like).
What few references there are to the San Francisco Troubadour often call it the "Troubadour North," but in fact that was just a nickname; the club was named The Troubadour. To keep this post from going off the rails, however, I am referring to it here as the Troubadour (North).
Phil Elwood reviewed the opening of the Troubadour in the August 5 Examiner. Elwood was very positive about Kris Kristofferson, and polite but dismissive about Doug Kershaw. In general, Elwood's description is mostly positive.
The club, once Facks II and the Balalaika restaurant among many other names, has been refurbished, expanded and fitted with excellent sound and light systems for the stage...It also has some traffic problems (inside and out), noisy patrons, natural foods, organic juices, sandwiches, dinners, "breakfast trips," plus beer and wine.
Clearly, Weston's concept was that the Troubadour (North) would be a restaurant destination, and not just a music showcase. It's fair to say that Weston correctly anticipated culinary trends of the next few decades, but I think he was at least a decade too early. He did say to Elwood that he expected a big lunch trade in the San Francisco club. 960 Bush (at Taylor) is in Lower Nob Hill, just West of Chinatown. It's not far from Union Square, and about six to eight blocks from Market Street and downtown, depending on what route you take.
Six to eight blocks from downtown sounds promising for a nightclub, or a fashionable lunch spot. But you have to think about San Francisco. For one thing, there are steep hills in San Francisco. For another, at all times of the year, the city can be cold and windy (insert mandatory Mark Twain joke). If your date or wife was wearing high heels--it was 1970, right?--were you going to say "come on honey, let's walk 8 blocks to dinner"? Sure, you could drive, but most people don't like driving on hills, much less parallel parking. So in order to go to see a show at 960 Bush Street, you had to be comfortable driving and parking in the city, and know your way around, or else be very, very warm and hearty indeed. Certainly, for suburban folks who only came to the City a few times a year, Bush and Taylor wouldn't be a trip made with confidence.
August 10, 17, 24 1971 Troubadour (North), San Francisco, CA: Hoot Night (Mondays)
The San Francisco Examiner usually listed the Monday auditions as "Hoot Night," continuing the pattern of the Hollywood club. I would love to know who played, but there's probably no way to ever find out.
August 11-16, 1970 Troubadour (North), San Francisco, CA: Livingston Taylor/The Dillards (Tuesday-Sunday)
One very obvious benefit to Weston to opening the SF Troubadour was that he could book artists in two cities. For the opening month, San Francisco and Hollywood had very similar bookings. Livingston Taylor had played the previous week in Hollywood, and then came up to San Francisco for another week.
Also on the bill were The Dillards, who had played the West Hollywood club many times. The Dillards were veteran bluegrass performers, having come out to Los Angeles from Salem, MO back in 1963. The Dillards, too, had some TV fame, having had recurring roles as The Darling Family on The Andy Griffith Show. The Dillards had a new album in 1970, Copperfields, although I'm not sure exactly when it was released. It was their fifth album for Elektra, and their first in two years (since 1968's Wheatstraw Suite). By this time, The Dillards had remodeled themselves into a more folk-rock style, and less explicitly bluegrass oriented, but the high lonesome sound was probably still a big part of their stage show. Herb Pedersen had replaced Doug Dillard, but Rodney Dillard (guitar), Dean Webb (mandolin) and Mitch Jayne (bass) were still in the band.
In the August 11 Examiner, Elwood had an extensive interview with Doug Weston about his new club:
"The Troubadour is not a night club," the thin, 6-foot-6 owner, Doug Weston stated as we walked through his newly opened establishment.
"It is the prepared health food and service here in the San Francisco Troubadour that are going to be the most important," he said, "not just the entertainment, or the recording studio, shops or even the natural food store.
"The Troubadour is going to provide the opportunity, for everyone who wants it, to get out of their plastic, rubber-stamp world. We are catering to all levels and phases of San Francsico's population.
"The Troubadour, you see, is a way of life to me and those who work with me. We think our life-style is worth expanding into the community."
Weston, something of a legend in the world of folk-rock (he admits to coining the term) has spent a dozen years building the Santa Monica Boulevard Troubadour in Hollywood into a world-famous entertainment room.
Six months ago [February] he bought the 45 year old building at 960 Bush Street and began a massive refurbishing job.
The lowest level (of four) is the showroom which opened to the public last week....
One level was once the Bush Street Theater, later Coast Recording's studios. The proscenium remains, as does a mishmash of recording studios and engineer's rooms. Weston plans to present live programs and TV programs from the hall as well as utilize the recording facilities...
What Elwood refers to here as the former Bush Street Theater would re-open as a theater in late 1971. By that time, SF Troubadour manager David Allen had re-opened the Troubadour as The Boarding House. Around 1972, the "Boarding House Theater" started being used for Boarding House shows, and ultimately the entire operation was based upstairs. The sightlines were better, and the capacity was greater (300 vs 225). In the Theater's prior life, it had been the Coast Recording studios in the 1950s and early '60s. In the early and mid-60s, the apprentice engineer was one Dan Healy, later the Grateful Dead's soundman (he apparently would sneak the Dead and other bands in after hours to make tapes).
August 13-16, 1970 The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Laura Nyro/Peter Evans (Thursday-Sunday)
Laura Nyro headlined a week at The Troubadour, and it was a major event. Todd Rundgren, a formidable songwriter himself, heard her play live and changed his whole approach to songwriting, possibly at one of these concerts (in the song "Baby, Let's Swing" from Runt he sings "Laura/I saw you open in LA"). Laura Nyro was already a hugely successful songwriter by this time, but she didn't perform much. Few people would have been able to see her live, so this was a major event. Apparently she did not disappoint.
Laura Nyro (1947-1997) had been born in the Bronx. Her songs merged the catchy Brill Building sound with soul music, so her songs were catchy, deep and danceable--a formidable combination. Her 60s hit songs are familiar to everyone of a certain age: "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic" (both Fifth Dimension), "And When I Die" (Blood, Sweat and Tears), "Eli's Coming" (Three Dog Night) and "Stoney End" (Barbara Streisand) are just the most prominent.
Her actual recording career was more checkered. More Than A New Discovery, her debut, had been released by Verve Folkways in February 1967. Nyro had then appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in July, but her soul sound did not go over as well as the more feedback-heavy acts. David Geffen then took over as her manager, and managed to void her previous contracts on the grounds that she had signed them as a minor. Nyro went to Columbia, where she had released Eli and The 13th Confession in 1968. It was followed by New York Tendaberry in Fall 1969. By 1970, Geffen and Nyro had sold her publishing (through Tuna Fish Music) for $4.5 million, a huge number. They split the money, and Nyro was then free of having to worry about her next hit.
Robert Hilburn's review of the opening show (Thursday April 13 early show) is glowing. The place was packed, Nyro played 8 songs on the piano and the crowd went absolutely crazy. She comes back for two more encores. Hilburn cannot say enough nice things about her, and all of Hollywood agreed. Although only 22 (Hilburn mentions this), Nyro doesn't need to record or tour, so it makes the rare display of her many talents all the more special. The fact that Nyro played the Troubadour and not a larger place--which she could have easily sold out--added immeasurably to the club's aura.
Nyro did not play a full six nights, like most acts, probably because she didn't need to. I'm sure there were additional "Audition Nights" on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I can't find any record of who might have played.
I believe Peter Evans was a flamenco guitarist.
August 18-23, 1970 The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: The Dillards/Longbranch Pennywhistle (Tuesday-Sunday)
The Dillards now headlined a week at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. They had played the clubs many times before, but in their most recent appearance (in January of 1970) they had been opening for Phil Ochs. Now they were the headliners. I suspect this was because they had a new album (Copperfields), but I haven't been able to track down the release date. Since they were playing in Los Angeles, it's likely they were joined by fiddler Byron Berline, who was sort of an adjunct member of the group.
Opening act Longbranch Pennywhistle was the singer/songwriter duo of Glenn Frey and JD Souther. The pair would release their only album on Amos Records in early 1970. They had opened at the Troubadour before, for the Flying Burrito Brothers (in January and then April of 1970). Presumably Frey and Souther's housemate, Jackson Browne, dropped by at least once.
August 18-23, 1970 Troubadour (North), San Francisco, CA: John Stewart/Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks (Tuesday-Sunday)
Phil Elwood reviewed John Stewart's opening night at the Troubadour in the Examiner (Thursday August 20), and hinted at the club's problems. Elwood loved Stewart, but he began the review by saying "If the new Troubadour on Bush Street can come up with a quality headliner like big John Stewart every week, most of Doug Weston's problems will evaporate." So even two weeks in, it was clear that the Troubadour wasn't catching on. Jerry Jeff Walker had originally been booked, but he seems to have been replaced by Stewart. Stewart had many local ties, and may have already been living in Marin by this time. Elwood mentions that Stewart played a 9-song set, and compliments his' singing and guitar playing, mentioning that he was backed by bassist Bryan Garafolo and drummer Lloyd Barata.
John Stewart (1939-2008) had been a member of The Kingston Trio from 1961 to 1967. The group had been very popular, but they were passed by when the likes of The Beach Boys and The Beatles came along. Stewart had gone solo, and released a variety of well-received albums, such as 1969's California Bloodlines. Although he had written a hit for The Monkees ("Daydream Believer"), Stewart was well known at this time, but not particularly successful. His current album would have been Willard, released on Capitol in 1970. The album was produced by Peter Asher, and recorded in Hollywood and Nashville. The LA tracks included players like James Taylor, Carole King, Mike Stewart (John's brother) and Chris Darrow, and the Nashville tracks had stellar backing as well. Clearly, Capitol felt Stewart was ticketed for success in the new world of singer/songwriters. Stewart actually had a fairly productive career into the 21st century, but in the early 70s he did not have the success that his talent would have foretold.
Elwood also briefly mentioned opening act Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Hicks had been around the San Francisco scene as long as there had been one. He had been the drummer in the Charlatans, the band that started the psychedelic ballroom revolution in Virginia City, NV. Later he had switched to guitar, so he could sing more. The Charlatans played loud, psychedelic blues, however, and Hicks had other interests. He formed a "side group" with local violinist David LaFlamme to play a sort of modified swing music. When LaFlamme left to form It's A Beautiful Day, Hicks left the Charlatans and formed Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks.
The band had released an album in 1969 on Epic, Original Recordings. The group wore Edwardian clothes, and it looked like a repackage of an old album. While the band played acoustic swing music, kind of, Hicks' wry, cynical lyrics were a striking contrast to the music. The album included future Hicks' classics like "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away" and "I Scare Myself." Nobody sounded like Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. The band at this time was probably Hicks on lead vocals and guitar, Jon Weber on lead guitar (Elwood mentions him), Sid Page on violin and Jaime Leopold on bass. "The Hot Licks" personnel varied sometimes, but at this time I believe it was Maryann Price and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg. Hicks most famous album, Where's The Money (Blue Thumb) would actually be recorded at the West Hollywood Troubadour in February 1971.
August 25-30, 1970 The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Elton John/David Ackles (Tuesday-Sunday)
Elton John's appearance at the Troubadour was likely the most significant booking in the history of the club, and that's no small thing. Certainly, Elton John is a huge star, and his performance at the Troubadour was a booster rocket for his success. Elton himself thinks that, as the event is replayed in his biopic, where he feels like he is being lifted off the stage as he plays the Troubadour. Still, the event wasn't just significant for Elton John's formidable career.
The 1960s had witnessed the rise of rock music, first the Beatles and Stones, and then Cream and Hendrix and both Fillmores. It was loud, free and electric. In Hollywood, rising rock bands played the Whisky-A-Go-Go. Led Zeppelin had come to town as nobody in January of 1969, and after a week at the Whisky they were off and running.
Now, wherever you are on the spectrum of Elton John fandom, it's undeniable that he cut across a lot of boundaries. Bernie Taupin's lyrics were thoughtful, and Elton sang them with feeling. The songs were carefully arranged so the full impact of those lyrics could be heard. Yet even just with a trio, Elton John rocked hard, his piano covering a lot of musical territory. Elton could have rocked out the Whisky, no problem. Certainly, Elton killed it later in the year at both Fillmores. But he played The Troubadour the week of August 25-30, 1970, and elevated it, and the era of the singer-songwriter had begun, with its most successful performer.
Elton John had been a working musician in England in the mid-60s, playing with Long John Baldry and others. He also had a songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. Elton (birth name Reginald Dwight) had released his debut album Empty Sky in 1969. It was only released initially in the UK, and made little impact. In 1970, he released his second album, Elton John, but it was his first album released in the United States, on the tiny Uni label (DJM in the UK). Ultimately, there were two big hits off the record, "Your Song" and "Take Me To The Pilot," but the single wasn't released until October of 1970. Still, Elton's album was getting FM airplay on rock stations.
Elton's management sent him to America mainly to expose him to the music industry, so that he could get radio play. It was the form book for success in the 1970s. The old 60s model had been that bands toured all the Fillmore-type places, as well as the civic auditoriums and the rock festivals and college gyms, first as an opening act, then second and finally headlining. As a band became known, they started getting airplay on the local hippie FM stations. Bands like Ten Years After became huge on this model, without any really major records. The 1970s acts inverted this model--get big on the radio, and then rake in the concert receipts. In that sense, Elton John (along with his manager John Reid) were pioneers.
Robert Hilburn's review of Elton John's opening night is the biggest rave any artist has probably ever received (from the August 27, 1970 Times):
Rejoice. Rock music, which has been going through a rather uneventful period lately, has a new star. He’s Elton John, a 23-year old Englishman whose United States debut Tuesday night at the Troubadour was, in almost every way, magnificent...
His music is so staggeringly original that it is obvious he is not merely operating within a given musical field (such as country or blues or rock), but, like Randy Newman and Laura Nyro among others, creating his own field…
The audience, which included one of the largest local gatherings of rock writers in months, roared its approval, bringing John back for an encore….Tuesday night at the Troubadour was just the beginning. He’s going to be one of rock’s biggest and most important stars.
Remember, Hilburn was right in all of his predictions. Hilburn reveals another important point, too, which any 20th century rock journalist would confirm. The local rock writers in any city all knew each other, and often judged the buzz surrouding an artist by how many of their fellow critics were at a show. When Hilburn says Elton's opening show was "one of the largest local gatherings of rock writers in months," it's a marker that it isn't just Hilburn who can read the omens. Elton John was coming, and the Troubadour was where you got to see it first.
David Ackles, an American songwriter, had released his second album on Elektra in 1970, Subway To The Country. Ackles was widely regarded by British artists like Elton John, Elvis Costello and Phil Collins, but he did not become known at all until later, and he was never really popular. Ackles opened for Elton John at the Troubadour in both Hollywood (August 25-30) and San Francisco (September 1-6), and apparently Elton watched his show every night. Bernie Taupin would produce Ackles' 3rd album (American Gothic) released in 1972.
August 25-30, 1970 Troubadour (North), San Francisco, CA: Mike Nesmith and First National Band/Lisa Kindred (Tuesday-Sunday)
Nesmith and his First National Band played a week in San Francisco. By this time, their new album Magnetic South would have been out for at least a month.
Opener Lisa Kindred was a bluesy guitar player from Buffalo. She had released an interesting album on Vanguard in 1965 (I Like It This Way). While it was well-received, Kindred had had a variety of problems with record companies, and pretty much did not release anything after that. She had moved to the Bay Area by 1969, where she would perform in various configurations for many years. Elwood praises her singing, and mentions that she was accompanied by guitarist John Besharian.
September 1-6, 1970 Troubadour (North), San Francisco, CA: Elton John/David Ackles (Tuesday-Sunday)
The display ad above (from the August 28, 1970 Examiner) is one of the very few traces of Elton John's appearance at the San Francisco Troubadour. Following his pattern, Weston booked Elton John for a week in San Francisco right after his Los Angeles debut. Elton's performance at the Hollywood Troubadour made his career, changed his life and was a milestone in popular music.
It is telling that Elton John's similar performance in San Francisco disappeared almost without a trace. I'll save you the trouble of googling--I'm the only person to write about it. Even the first-rate Eltonography site can only allude to it vaguely. Now, let's be clear--the SF Examiner reviewed the opening night, and the reviewer (Michael Kelton) acknowledges Elton's talent, energy and songs. But he dismisses him for being "inauthentic," although he uses the term "artificial." The San Francisco ethic at the time was Jerry Garcia or Carlos Santana, crouched and squinting over their guitars, not a guy in a sequined suit jumping around. Elton John's appearance at the Hollywood Troubadour is the centerpiece of his bio-movie--his appearance at the same club in San Francisco is barely even noted in the website devoted to his history.
Music and the music industry was changing, and the center of gravity was heading south down Highway 101, from San Francisco to Los Angeles. By the end of 1970, as we will see in the next installment, the West Hollywood Troubadour was one of the most important venues in popular music. The San Francisco Troubadour would only last two more months, and would disappear with almost no trace. | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 51 | https://savingcountrymusic.com/tag/the-eagles/ | en | Saving Country Music | [
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/logo.png",
"https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/motto.png",
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/the-eagles-travis-tritt-120x100.jpg",
"https://savingcountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/the-wilde... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Trigger"
] | 2023-12-06T11:10:47-07:00 | Tag archive page for The Eagles. | en | Saving Country Music | https://savingcountrymusic.com/tag/the-eagles/ | Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit all agreed to show up to a bar in Los Angeles on December 6th, 1993 and appear in the video—shooting pool, hanging out, and cutting up as cameras rolled.
If this dark little corner of the internet never did anything else worth a damn, at least it introduced The Wilder Blue to country music megastar Luke Combs. The Wilder Blue have a new album coming out on November 21st.
Bass players never seem to get the proper respect. Randy Meisner suffered that fate as much as any of them. But from being a founding member of The Eagles, being there during the early formations of country rock…
In the founding era of country rock, guitarist Tom Leadon was right there witnessing and participating in some of the most important moments and projects. He just happened to be overshadowed in many respects by the bigger names that country rock would launch.
Vince Gill really is the closest thing that country music has to the five-tool baseball player. He can do it all. As a solo artist, he’s a Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry stalwart. He can throw a high harmony on any song and make it shine, or turn in a guitar solo that is good or better than any session player.
When it comes to the banjo in bluegrass or anywhere else, aside from maybe Earl Scruggs, nobody else has been heard and enjoyed more than Sonny Osborne of The Osborne Brothers. Both prolific and influential, the Osborne Brothers rendition of the iconic song “Rocky Top.”
I haven’t wanted to do this. Because ultimately, it should be the primary members and partners of the Turnpike Troubadours who should be allowed to control the narrative about any potential reunification, or the lack thereof for the band that went on indefinite hiatus two years ago.
Put Rusty Young right up there with the greatest West Coast twangers who instilled an appreciation for country sounds in a generation of psychedelic rockers, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that country music could be cool. He was a pioneer of country rock.
One of the most curious, and maybe one of the most cool developments in music over the last couple of years has been Vince Gill becoming a late career member of The Eagles. It wasn’t a development that came with a lot of fanfare or explanation. With the passing of Glenn Frey in 2016, it just sort of happened.
There should be no shame in major music outfits taking money through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, to keep their road crew and support staff financially stable, despite it being characterized as the cash grab of millionaires by some, aided by certain embellished and misleading headlines in the media.
Chris Darrow, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, country rock pioneer and member of multiple influential bands including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Corvettes who backed up Linda Ronstadt, has passed away according to his representatives. He was 75-years-old. He was a centerpiece of country rock.
What makes a country boy like Vince Gill think he has the ability to fill some of the biggest shoes ever rendered vacant in American music? Well, 21 Grammy Awards, and incredible voice, some of the most underrated guitar chops in music, and a longer lineage with the music of The Eagles than one might think.
Jerry Reed and Ricky Skaggs may still be on the outside looking in when it comes to the Country Music Hall of Fame, but the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, located on the other side of downtown in the Municipal Auditorium, has decided these two country music superpickers are worthy of induction. And along […]
Though Young was considered mostly a background member of the Outlaw movement for many years, his appearance on the legendary Outlaw documentary Heartworn Highways helped awaken the world to his talent. Though he still remained mostly known through the songs he wrote that others performed, Young had a strong solo career and released a total of 14 albums.
Love them, hate them, evoke the strong opinions of the Coen Brothers’ fictional character Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski all you want, but Glen Frey and The Eagles turned millions of music fans from all around the world into country music listeners through the evocative power of simple, universal sentiments bathed in twangy tones, however filed off the edges may have been, or however commercially successful the pursuit ultimately was.
Henley’s been out there outwardly criticizing the state of country music and the state of music in general, though doing so with a lot more of a thoughtful and informed tone than many others, including tracing the problem back to the disappearance of the agrarian way of life that was once prevalent throughout America, and now finds itself quickly receding.
Whatever you could want or hope from Don Henley’s “Cass County” as a country music fan, this album delivers it and in ample quantities. I don’t know that any country fan’s expectations can meet the actual enjoyment this music deals out. And this is a traditional country record.
I don’t expect Don Henley’s entire country record to sound this classic, but his take on the old Louvin Brothers standard with Dolly helping out was a welcomed treat that tells you this album isn’t going to be Don reaching for commercial relevance. It’s going to be Don making the country record he wants to make.
Don Henley, the singer and drummer for the Eagles, will be releasing a country album called Cass County via Capitol Record—his first solo album in 15 years. This was the news coming out of an exclusive listening party held at the Ruby event space as part of this week’s CMA Fan Fest in Nashville. And don’t expect this to be an aging rocker looking for a second wind in country by chasing the current trends.
Harris Interactive has just released a new poll that queried the American public about their favorite music artists, musicians, and bands, and some noteworthy country music names made the list. When pollsters asked for unprompted responses to the question, “Who is your favorite singer/musician or band?”
As one of America’s most traditional genres, drum machines, purposely Auto-tuned lyrics, and other such elements were treated with a very negative stigma, and stayed mostly buried on the fringes of the genre in experimental projects. But now as rap and Electronic Dance Music (EDM) have become very influential in popular country. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 8 | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/linda-ronstadt-long-long-time/ | en | Why Linda Ronstadt Never Liked Her ‘Long, Long Time’ Vocal | [
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2021/04/logo256.png",
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2023/01/attachment-long-long-time.jpeg?w=980&q=75",
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2024/01/attachment-lindaselena.jpg?w=980&q=75",
"https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2022/10/attachment-linda... | [] | [] | [
"linda ronstadt long long time",
"song history"
] | null | [
"Allison Rapp"
] | 2023-01-31T16:58:45+00:00 | Linda Ronstadt's 1970 song 'Long Long Time' got new life in January 2023 thanks to inclusion in 'The Last of Us' TV show. | en | Ultimate Classic Rock | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/linda-ronstadt-long-long-time/ | Linda Ronstadt had already been working in the music industry for a little less than a decade by the time she started releasing solo music in 1969.
She formed a folk trio with two of her siblings while still living in her hometown of Tuscon, Ariz., before moving to Los Angeles at 18 and becoming part of the folk-rock band the Stone Poneys. They were signed to Capitol in the summer of 1966 and released three albums within 15 months. They had a hit single with "Different Drum," which was written by Mike Nesmith before he joined the Monkees. In the spring of 1969, still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, which didn't chart.
"I felt I was floundering as a singer, and my style hadn't jelled," she wrote in her 2014 book, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir.
In 1969, Ronstadt opened for singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker at the Bitter End in New York's Greenwich Village. He was accompanied by another guitar player, David Bromberg, who brought Ronstadt with him to the nearby Cafe Au Go Go. He told her his friend Gary White was playing and had a song that might suit Ronstadt. "I was prepared to be disappointed," she later wrote. "I thought it difficult for someone else to know what I looked for in a song."
Following the performance, Ronstadt went backstage to meet White. "He had already packed up his guitar," she explained. "So he took it back out of its case, sat down and began to sing a song called 'Long Long Time.' I told Gary I wanted to record it immediately."
Ronstadt recorded the song - and her second album, Silk Purse - in Nashville. Her producer, Elliot Mazer, brought in a group of session musicians known as Area Code 615, whose methods were somewhat unconventional. Weldon Myrick, for example, had an electronic device attached to his pedal steel guitar that generated a sound he dubbed the "Goodlettsville String Quartet." Bassist Norbert Putnam handled the arrangement of "Long Long Time." "It was an unusual sound for the time, with a touching emotional quality," Ronstadt later wrote. "I thought the musicians played it beautifully."
But she didn't think she sang it all that beautifully. "I never liked my performance on the record," she explained. "It was recorded at 10 in the morning, somewhat early for a singer, and we used the live vocal."
Listen to Linda Ronstadt's 'Long Long Time'
Ronstadt was often self-critical, a trait Bromberg noticed over the years. She once compared herself to Emmylou Harris, who she insisted was a far better performer. (Ronstadt and Harris later teamed up with Dolly Parton for a pair of Trio albums.) "I don't doubt that's what Linda thought," Bromberg told Delaware Online in 2013. "But nobody ever sang with more passion than Linda."
In a conversation with Bromberg in 2015 for Delaware Online, Ronstadt acknowledged that her relationship with her music was complicated. "I don't like to listen to my own recordings," she said. "I always hope they are better than I remember them, but they usually aren't. If I stumble onto one and have to hear it, it's usually not as good, and I remember [it] as not being good enough. It's just hard to judge your own work."
Plenty of other people in 1970 didn't think so critically of "Long Long Time," which was released as the first single from Silk Purse and reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remained on the list for 12 weeks and also earned Ronstadt a Grammy nomination in 1971 for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance.
By the time the song hit its peak on the chart, Ronstadt had gotten more comfortable with the vocal, noting later that it "bought me time to learn."
Watch Linda Ronstadt Perform 'Long Long Time' in 1970
"Long Long Time" went on to be covered by a variety of artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker in 1989, and appeared in several films and TV shows. It was featured in a 1975 episode of The Rockford Files and the 2018 coming-of-age film Hot Summer Nights. In 2023, it appeared in an episode of The Last of Us, the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic drama based on a hit video game that scored HBO some of its highest viewing numbers in a decade. The day the third episode aired, Spotify reported that "Long Long Time" saw a "4,900% increase in U.S. streams." | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 12 | https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/roxy-gordon-texas-history-music-writer-pretendian/ | en | His Art Was Real. His Native American Heritage Wasn’t. | [
"https://img.texasmonthly.com/2021/03/Mike-Hall.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=jpg&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=92",
"https://img.texasmonthly.com/2021/03/Mike-Hall.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=jpg&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=160",
"https://img.texasmonthly.com/2024/03/Roxy-Gordon-1.jpg?auto=co... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/rk0Jws1wiPI?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&listType=playlist&list=PLM5z_s7OemdmX8drdaDutdZqNuvP4foS1"
] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Michael Hall",
"View Articles",
"David Courtney",
"Lea Konczal",
"Megha McSwain",
"Meher Yeda",
"Courtney Thomas",
"Anthony Head",
"Skip Hollandsworth",
"Michael Hardy"
] | 2024-04-03T13:00:00+00:00 | The outlaw poet and artist loved Native culture so much that, at least in his own mind, he “became” an Indian. | en | /apple-touch-icon.png?v=121421 | Texas Monthly | https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/roxy-gordon-texas-history-music-writer-pretendian/ | Nobody could tell a story like Roxy Gordon. He would stay up all night on the porch of his house in East Dallas—this was in the eighties and nineties—surrounded by artists and musicians, spinning tales, singing songs, drinking vodka. Roxy, who wore his dark glasses even at night, had the charisma of a rock star, with long black hair spilling out of his cowboy hat, a coyote-tooth necklace, and a tattoo of an eagle on his left forearm. In his deep West Texas drawl, he would talk about growing up in a small town near San Angelo, going off to Montana to live on the Fort Belknap Indian reservation, or the time he met Willie Nelson. The books he’d written, the albums he’d made, the magazines he’d started. Roxy knew his Western history and told about the Indians in Texas, their struggles with Anglo settlers, and his own journey as a man of mixed blood. Some of his stories would change with the telling, but no one seemed to mind.
His home, which he shared with his wife and two young sons, was well known in Dallas as the Bone House because of all the skulls, femurs, and vertebrae from cattle, horses, and sheep hanging from the ceiling on the front porch. Almost every night there was some kind of gathering under the bones, with Roxy holding court. Sometimes the famed songwriter Townes Van Zandt would come over and the two would stay up all night drinking. They shared the same birth date and were similar characters: stubborn, whimsical, alcoholic, doomed. “Roxy Gordon is a brother of mine,” Van Zandt said once. “I don’t like the word ‘poet’; it is usually used too lightly. Roxy, however, is a real one.” Van Zandt died of hard living on January 1, 1997, at age 52. Roxy met the same fate three years later and two years older.
While many Texans know Townes’s dramatic story, few have heard of Roxy, an outsider who enjoyed bewildering everyone he met. From the start, as an imaginative boy in a small town, Roxy was determined to do his own thing—writing, drawing, painting, storytelling. He grew up to be, in the words of his friend Sally Wittliff, “one of the world’s first hippies,” a subversive and literary troublemaker. “Roxy Gordon is one of the great outlaw artist misfits,” artist and songwriter Terry Allen once said. Roxy made albums, though he wasn’t really a musician, and wrote songs, though he wasn’t really a songwriter.
He worked as a Native American activist, though he wasn’t really a Native American. He said he was—and he might have believed he was—but Texas Monthly was unable to find any evidence that he had Native heritage. Today Roxy, who was intent on creating his own artistic identity, no matter the cost to himself or those around him, would be called a “pretendian” or a liar. He would say he was just telling stories. “I don’t know the difference,” he once wrote. “Truth, lie, all the same thing. I’ll use either one that’ll work. Either one I can get away with.”
Roxy Lee Gordon was born March 7, 1945, in tiny Ballinger (35 miles northeast of San Angelo), and grew up in tinier Talpa, a few miles away. He was an only child. His mother ran the post office and played piano in the Methodist church, and his father was a World War II vet who spent much of his time drawing and painting. Roxy was an artistic kid, always drawing and writing, something of an oddball in a town where most of the other boys played sports. He loved history, often immersing himself in stories about the Alamo and the Civil War. He had plenty of Texas history in his lineage, including several Texas Rangers, one of whom was his great-grandfather. His grandparents owned a house about six miles east, in the area near Bead Mountain, and he spent a lot of time there. He called it the Hill and wrote about it in mythic terms. “The Hill was rugged and close, always in my sight, drawing me the way hills and mountains have always drawn human beings. I was both fascinated and afraid.”
Inspired by the Beat poets and writers, he played guitar and read Jack Kerouac. Roxy was determined to be a writer, and at Talpa-Centennial High School, he and his friend Mike Rush published a zine with their stories. Roxy was, he would later write, “always thinking and talking about writing, trying to discern what a writer might be, how a writer might approach life and experience.” He published another zine as an English major at the University of Texas, where he’d enrolled because he’d heard “that Austin was full of communists, and it sounded pretty good to me.” For the four-page newsletter, Ramblings, Roxy wrote fiction and poems; his new wife, Judy Nell Hoffman, created the art; and friends of theirs wrote nonfiction and poetry. Roxy was an early agitator against the Vietnam War, excoriating world leaders in a 1965 essay: “Murderers! I wish you eternal nightmare.” He also wrote for the Texas Observer, penning a sweet, evocative short story about a meeting in downtown Dallas between two men from West Texas. When Roxy wasn’t playing the guitar with his folk singer friends, he was hanging out with writers, and he soon became editor of the student literary magazine Riata, working with young bucks such as Larry McMurtry and Dave Hickey. Roxy and his friends sat around the Chuck Wagon, a cafe in the UT student union, and told stories about what they would do when they got rich and famous.
Anxious about the draft, he and Judy joined the Volunteers in Service to America program in 1968 and were sent to tiny Lodge Pole, Montana, where the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes lived on the Fort Belknap reservation. The couple resided in a one-room log cabin and published the tribes’ weekly newsletter, Fort Belknap Notes. They also became friends with an older Assiniboine couple named John and Minerva Allen; he served on the tribal council, and she was a poet. The two would become crucial to Roxy’s Native American journey.
After a year on the reservation, the Gordons moved to San Diego, where Roxy—full of the hubris of youth—worked on a book about his life so far. In 1969 he attended a writer’s conference in San Diego and befriended hippie poet Richard Brautigan, as well as rock star poet Jim Morrison. Roxy and Judy met more poets and musicians when they moved north to Oakland, California, and hung out in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.
After their son John Calvin (known as J.C.) was born, in 1970, the Gordons moved to Moriarty, New Mexico, near Albuquerque. In 1971, Bill Wittliff (later of Lonesome Dove fame) published the autobiography Roxy had been working on, titled Some Things I Did. It got good reviews; Texas Observer critic Steve Barthelme wrote of “the mean beauty of Roxy Gordon’s mind” and said that his gift is “to be self-conscious without being so terribly serious.”
During this time, Roxy wrote poems and criticism for the Observer in which he wasn’t afraid to go after his peers—including by taking potshots at Bud Shrake’s Strange Peaches (“a combination rich-Texan joke/liberal horror story”) and Larry McMurtry’s All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (“another of McMurtry’s elegies for the west. He’s been killing off the west for years now.”). Roxy seemed to be going somewhere, writing essays for the Village Voice and Rolling Stone. In August 1973, Rolling Stone published a list of one hundred poets to watch, and his photo was under Nikki Giovanni’s and to the right of Louise Glück’s.
Roxy loved the progressive country music coming out of Texas, so in 1974 he started a magazine dedicated to the scene and called it Picking Up the Tempo, after the Willie song. Roxy did a lot of the writing, and he published up-and-coming journalists such as Joe Nick Patoski, Ed Ward, and Richard Meltzer. Like the artists he profiled—Willie, Van Zandt, Billy Joe Shaver—his own writing could be rebellious and inventive. In 1978 he penned a nine-thousand-word review of Butch Hancock’s debut record, West Texas Waltzes and Dust-Blown Tractor Tunes, for a British magazine called Omaha Rainbow. It’s a remarkable piece of criticism about an album that would later be considered a classic, with Roxy laying out—in four separate sections—the physical and cultural landscape of West Texas before going into the songs, all of it seen through the lens of his own West Texas upbringing. “Maybe,” he wrote, pondering reincarnation, “I’ve always lived on these prairies and maybe I will, for centuries to come.”
Ever since his time in Montana, Roxy had been fascinated with Native Americans, the ultimate outsiders. In 1979, he and Judy, now living in Dallas, named their second son, Quanah Parker Gordon, after the child of Cynthia Parker, an Anglo woman who was abducted as a child in 1836 by a Comanche band in East Texas. Roxy was immersed in Indian history, reading every book he could find and writing his own dark and bloody stories and poems about the battles between Indians and Anglos. Several times he traveled back to Lodge Pole to spend time with the Allens, who became his mentors. Roxy often reached out to them, said J.C. “He always leaned on John and Minerva when he himself was probably trying to find direction in his life.” In a Texas Observer book review, he had once written about “white Indians,” Anglos whose lives were changed after meeting Native Americans. In a few instances, he wrote, these Anglos “actually become Indians.” Roxy—child of West Texas, scion of a Texas Ranger—was determined to understand the Native American way of life.
So he “became” an Indian. Roxy’s poems and short stories began appearing in anthlogies of short fiction by Native Americans, such as Earth Power Coming. He cowrote a couple of plays with Choctaw author LeAnne Howe; their comedy Indian Radio Days would be performed dozens of times all over the country. He began reading his poems in bookstores and clubs in Dallas and Fort Worth. “He started getting a reputation,” said J.C. “If you wanted a counterculture opinion or if you wanted the Indian side of something, people just called. The phone was constantly ringing.”
Roxy and Judy were part of Dallas’s vibrant underground literary scene, self-publishing their own chapbooks of art and poetry as well as those of other artists. In 1984, a small Austin press put out a book of his Indian-themed poems, stories, and drawings called Breeds. The book featured a blurb from famed songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen. The couple had started their own publishing company called Wowapi Press and, in 1985, published Roxy’s book Unfinished Business. That same year Roxy worked with artist and songwriter Terry Allen to record a voice-over for his installation China Night, which explored how Native Americans who went to war in Vietnam encountered ancient relatives of theirs from thousands of years before.
Roxy had always loved music, and in the mid-eighties he started performing his poetry with various musicians behind him at local art galleries and punk clubs, the perfect venues for his confrontational pieces about Indians. Friends such as Bill Johnston on fiddle and Frank X. Tolbert 2 on washtub bass would join him, and Judy or young Quanah would sometimes play a hand drum.
After the shows, the party would continue at the Bone House, in Lower Greenville, where artists and musicians hung out on the porch and listened to Roxy. His friend Mike Rush remembered how Roxy’s charisma drew people in. “He would turn an ordinary experience into an exploration. He had this ability to create these little zones that other people wanted to be part of.”
And they would stick around, sometimes for days, said J.C., who spent a lot of time in his childhood bedroom, away from the drinking and drugs. “There were people coming and going night and day, seven days a week. My dad was always playing real hard at cowboys and Indians. He passionately lived that lifestyle. It was the essence of his storytelling as an artist. That never shut off; that was 24-7.” Van Zandt, who would play Poor David’s Pub, just down the street, would crash on the Gordons’ couch for days at a time. Roxy was a huge fan of Van Zandt’s—he had once written about the “perfect darkness of his music”—and the two would stay up all night, telling stories and drinking vodka. Hard drinking ran in Roxy’s family, he wrote, and though friends such as Howe tried to get him to temper his excesses (sometimes including a quart of vodka in a day), he wouldn’t listen. Howe remembered, “He was like, ‘This is my life. This is the way I want to live.’ ” The drinking eventually drove her and other friends away.
Roxy started releasing albums of his poetry with music: Unfinished Business, in 1988, and Crazy Horse Never Died, a year later. Crazy Horse was a dark, intense affair, the music sometimes antagonistic (screechy keyboards) and other times sublime (fingerpicked acoustic guitar). His sympathies were plain to hear, from the title poem (“The white man came to Crazy Horse’s home and wanted buried resources there to run their white men’s world, but Crazy Horse said no.”) to “The Texas Indian,” a rewriting of the old folk song “The Texas Rangers,” giving the Indians’ point of view about a battle on the Rio Grande. The highlight of the album is “I Used to Know an Assiniboine Girl,” a bleak, heartrending story of a battered Indian woman who fought back against her abusive white husband and was sentenced to prison.
By this point he was saying openly what he had mostly only hinted at before: that he was Native American. He appeared on a public access TV show in Tyler and avowed that he was Choctaw on both sides of his family, though on his mother’s side he was also a fifth-generation Texan. “So I’m a genuine breed—lots of white and lots of Indian.”
Culturally, psychologically, and politically, yes. But biologically? Roxy had never talked about being Choctaw when he was growing up, nor did he write about it in his autobiography, and J.C. has never found any documentation of it. “I cannot find any evidence that my father was Choctaw or had Choctaw lineage in the family beyond what he expressed through his writings, art, and music,” he said. According to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma membership department, Roxy was not an enrolled member of the tribe. Today, everybody from Bandcamp to the Texas State Historical Society to the Austin radio station KUTX calls Roxy Choctaw, but if he were alive, he would also be called a pretendian, like politician Elizabeth Warren, pop singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Canadian novelist Joseph Boyden.
To Roxy’s credit, he didn’t use his alleged heritage to gain fame or wealth. To his friends, the whole thing was a natural progression of his artistic personality. “He saw in the tribes people who were leaning into the past and living the past in their lives,” said Rush. “Seeing himself as a Native American gave him a unifying point of view to his written, visual, and spoken art.” Terry Allen agrees. “He was totally caught up in what was happening to Indigenous peoples in the West. That’s where his heart was and that’s where his visions came from.”
But art is different from life, said J. Todd Hawkins, a Fort Worth poet and citizen of the Choctaw Nation: “There has to be a genetic connection if you’re going to claim to be a Native.” Hawkins said he welcomes cultural allies who can write from an outside perspective without saying they are Indians. “I write a lot of blues poetry. I love blues music. But if I were to assume the persona of being Black, that would be problematic. That’s the thing about writing—you can pick up any persona you want to write a poem from. But once you step outside that persona and you’re the poet again, that’s where that line needs to be drawn. This appropriation is a part of what has been systematically done to erase a people.”
Anglos who take on Native identities are part of a long tradition of “playing Indian,” says Kim Tallbear, a citizen of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate nation and professor of Native studies at the University of Alberta, whether they are dressing up in football stadiums or around Boy Scout campfires. “This is part of a long-standing problem of appropriating our stuff,” she said, “our material resources and our voices.” She acknowledges that many who do it are well-intentioned, like Roxy: “Sometimes people find a more profound meaning in Native cultures, and there’s also a desire to belong to this land, not feel morally complicit in colonialism, in ongoing colonialism and the theft of Indigenous land. We have lots of people who do good things with our communities without lying about who they are.”
Roxy, the eternal outsider who had finally found his place in the world, did both. He falsely appropriated an identity for his own benefit—and he genuinely cared for and was embraced by his Native friends. He organized and played at benefit concerts and readings to help the American Indian Movement and to advocate for the release of Leonard Peltier, a Native American convicted in 1977 of murdering two FBI agents in South Dakota. Calling himself a “militant Indian poet,” Roxy helped put on a special day at the Kerrville Folk Festival that featured Native American acts. His good works and good intentions didn’t go unnoticed, at least by John and Minerva Allen. In 1991 they invited him to Montana and adopted him into their family. At the end of a four-day Sun Dance ceremony, Roxy was given a new name, and, at least for him, his transformation was complete. From then on, he was Roxy Gordon, First Coyote Boy.
Even as Roxy lived his artist’s life—self-releasing three more albums and several homemade books of poetry, as well as performing and speaking at workshops all over the state—he would travel back to Coleman County to visit his parents and the Hill. Once again, he would wander the terrain, feeling the presence of the past. “We spend as much time as we can there,” he wrote, “amongst ghosts and other mysteries and memories and a south wind that blows forever.”
In 1992, he started writing a column for the Coleman Chronicle & Democrat-Voice, and over the next eight years he would publish more than 125 stories. For thirty years he had been writing—as a callow journalist, a rock star poet, a strident activist—and now he seemed to find his voice as a seasoned veteran of Texas letters, writing in a wry, minimalist style about his wild life, the world around him, and his plans for the future: “All I want to do is write songs, prose, and plant a garden, maybe paint strange things on the side of the house.” You can hear Roxy’s love of history and his curiosity about people and why they do things as he tells stories his grandmother had told him—and relates adventures with Brautigan, Hickey, and Van Zandt, who (a week before he died) called Roxy and said he’d had a dream about moving nearby and starting a donkey ranch.
After his father died, in 1997, Roxy moved back to Coleman County for good, to help take care of his mother and aging grandmother. But Roxy himself was in terrible shape. He had always hated going to the doctor, and his final year was a difficult one, some of it spent in a wheelchair. He died February 7, 2000, of cirrhosis of the liver. “He drank himself to death,” Howe said.
Roxy was only 54, and it’s hard not to feel sadness at what could have been. “Bill in particular thought he had a lot of unused talent,” said Sally Wittliff, referring to her husband, who died in 2019. Mike Rush hated seeing Roxy’s self-destruction and thinks his charisma ultimately hurt him. “I wished he could have been able to stay focused on storytelling rather than being the wizard of this little cultural niche that he created.” Roxy was stubbornly Roxy, and Brendan Greaves of Paradise of Bachelors records, which rereleased Crazy Horse last year, thinks that has a lot to do with why so few today know of him and his work. “Part of his obscurity was willful,” Greaves said. “I think he self-sabotaged a lot.”
Roxy’s reputation probably suffered from his refusal to focus on one type of art—he was a writer, critic, poet, and visual artist. He was a bit of a trickster, said Rush, a shape-shifter. “He was an artist,” said Terry Allen. “I think Roxy lived pretty true to his desires, and you can’t say that about everybody.”
Greaves says he will be releasing some of Roxy’s other obscure albums, and J.C. is also trying to get more of his dad’s work out into the world. Growing up, J.C. had a sometimes fraught relationship with his distant father, and when he finally left home, he was resentful. “I wanted to leave and not look back,” he said. But a few years ago, after raising a son of his own, J.C. made a conscious choice to let go of his anger and get to know the man who had always been a mystery to him. He began looking through boxes of old stories, poems, and drawings, and he was so moved by what he saw that he set up a website to host them as well as photos of his mom (who died in 2022) and dad. He pored over the hundreds of stories from both the Coleman Chronicle & Democrat-Voice and Picking Up the Tempo. While he wants to find a publisher for them, he’s not in any hurry. “I miss my father,” he said, “but I have found a way I can cheat his death and meet him as a person, not as a dad.” | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 10 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nesmith | en | Michael Nesmith | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/The_Monkees_1966_-_N... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
] | 2002-01-15T19:44:42+00:00 | en | /static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nesmith | American musician, songwriter, and actor (1942–2021)
Musical artist
Robert Michael Nesmith (December 30, 1942 – December 10, 2021) was an American musician, songwriter, and actor. He was best known as a member of the Monkees and co-star of their TV series of the same name (1966–1968). His songwriting credits with the Monkees include "Mary, Mary", "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Tapioca Tundra", "Circle Sky" and "Listen to the Band". Additionally, his song "Different Drum" became a hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys.
After leaving the Monkees in 1969, Nesmith continued his successful songwriting and performing career, first with the seminal country rock group the First National Band, with whom he had a top-40 hit, "Joanne" (1970). As a solo artist, he scored an international hit with the song "Rio" (1977). He often played a custom-built Gretsch 12-string electric guitar with the Monkees and afterwards.
In 1974, Nesmith founded Pacific Arts, a multimedia production and distribution company, through which he helped pioneer the music video format, winning the first Grammy Award for Video of the Year for his hour-long comedy/variety program, Elephant Parts (1981).[2] He created one of the first American television programs dedicated to music videos, PopClips, which aired on Nickelodeon in 1980, and was soon after approached to help develop the MTV network, though he declined. Nesmith was also an executive producer of the film Repo Man (1984).
Early life
[edit]
Nesmith was born in Houston, Texas, on December 30, 1942.[3] He was an only child; his parents, Warren and Bette Nesmith (née McMurray), divorced when he was four. His mother married Robert Graham in 1962, and they remained married until 1975. Nesmith and his mother moved to Dallas to be closer to her family. She took temporary jobs ranging from clerical work to graphic design, eventually attaining the position of executive secretary at Texas Bank and Trust. When Nesmith was 13, his mother invented the typewriter correction fluid later known commercially as Liquid Paper. Over the next 25 years, she built the Liquid Paper Corporation into an international company, which she sold to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million. She died a few months later at the age of 56.[4]
Nesmith attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas, where he participated in choral and drama activities,[5] but enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1960 before graduating. He completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, was trained as an aircraft mechanic at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, and was permanently stationed at Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base near Burns Flat, Oklahoma.[6][7] He obtained a GED certificate and was honorably discharged in 1962.[8]
Music career
[edit]
After Nesmith's tour of duty in the Air Force, his mother and stepfather gave him a guitar for Christmas. Learning as he went, he played solo and in a series of working bands, performing folk, country, and occasionally rock and roll. He enrolled in San Antonio College, where he met John London and began a musical collaboration. They won the first San Antonio College talent award, performing a mixture of standard folk songs and a few of Nesmith's original songs. Nesmith began to write more songs and poetry, then he moved to Los Angeles and began singing in folk clubs around the city. He served as the "Hootmaster" for the Monday night hootenanny at The Troubadour, a West Hollywood nightclub that featured new artists.[9]
Randy Sparks from the New Christy Minstrels offered Nesmith a publishing deal for his songs.[8] Nesmith began his recording career in 1963 by releasing a single on the Highness label. He followed this in 1965 with a one-off single released on Edan Records followed by two more recorded singles; one was titled "The New Recruit" under the name "Michael Blessing", released on Colpix Records, coincidentally also the label of Davy Jones, though they did not meet until the Monkees formed.[10]
Barry Freedman told him about upcoming auditions for a new TV series called The Monkees. In October 1965, Nesmith's confident, carefree and laid-back manner impressed the producers and he landed the role as the wool hat-wearing guitar player "Mike" in the show, which required real-life musical talent for writing, instrument playing, singing, and performing in live concerts as part of the Monkees band.[11]
Nesmith's "Mary, Mary" was recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Monkees themselves on their second LP in 1967, and then reworked by rap group Run DMC in the mid 1980s. His "Different Drum" and "Some of Shelly's Blues" were later recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys in 1967 and 1968, respectively. "Pretty Little Princess", written in 1965, was recorded by Frankie Laine and released as a single in 1968 on ABC Records.[citation needed] Later, "Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care)" were made popular by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy.[8]
The Monkees
[edit]
From 1965 to early 1970, Nesmith -- along with Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones -- was a member of the television pop-rock band the Monkees, created for the television situation comedy of the same name. Nesmith won his role largely by appearing nonchalant when he auditioned.[8] He rode his motorcycle to the audition, and wore a wool hat to keep his hair out of his eyes; producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider remembered the "wool hat guy" and called Nesmith back.[citation needed]
Once he was cast, Screen Gems bought his songs so they could be used in the show. Many of the songs Nesmith wrote for the Monkees, such as "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", "Mary, Mary",[8] and "Listen to the Band" became minor hits. One song he wrote, "You Just May Be the One", is in mixed meter, interspersing 5/4 bars into an otherwise 4/4 structure.[citation needed]
Even before Colgems and Don Kirshner's surreptitious release of the Monkees 2nd LP, without the knowledge or consent of the four musician-actors, they came to be frustrated by their studio-manufactured "bubblegum" image. Within weeks of the release of More of the Monkees, Nesmith lobbied successfully with the group's creators, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, that the Monkees be allowed to play their instruments on future records. During a group meeting with Kirshner and Colgems lawyer Herb Moelis, in a suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel, each actor received a $250k royalties check, yet Nesmith still threatened to quit. Moelis rebuked him, "You'd better read your contract". Nesmith defiantly punched a hole in the wall, declaring to Moelis, "That could have been your face, motherfucker!" Weeks later, due to a breach of (verbal) agreement over the next single release, which was promised to Nesmith by Rafelson & Schneider, Nesmith led the charge in completely ousting musical supervisor Don Kirshner, effectively giving the four youths complete artistic and production control of their output, and the group finally worked as a true 4-man rock group on 1967's Headquarters, despite Jones & Dolenz having very limited instrumental skills, studio time being pricey and retakes costly.[11]
During the band's first independent press conference, Nesmith called their 2nd LP, More of the Monkees "probably the worst record in the history of the world", partly due to rushed, shoddy studio engineering. The band took a hit to its artistic credibility when fans learned the four had not played all the instruments on the first 2 LPs. But still sales continued to be profitable. Headquarters sold 2 million copies, down 2 million units from its predecessor, but still reached the number 1 spot on Billboard, falling only to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band a week later and remaining #2 all through the entire 1967 Summer of Love.[11]
For the remaining five Monkees LPs, ironically, the original Kirshner formula of hired studio musicians & songwriters again became the norm, although Nesmith, Tork, Dolenz and Jones contributed about 50% of the original compositions, Nesmith the majority of those.[11] By the end of the Monkees run, Nesmith was withholding many of his original song ideas from Monkees albums, planning to release them in his post-Monkees solo career. Nesmith's last contractual Monkees commitment was a commercial for Kool-Aid and Nerf balls in April 1970 (fittingly, the spot ends with Nesmith frowning and saying, "Enerf's enerf!"). As the band's sales declined, Nesmith asked to be released from his contract, despite it costing him: "I had three years left ... at $150,000 [equivalent to $1.16 million in 2022] a year."[citation needed] He remained in a financial bind until 1980, when he received his inheritance from his mother's estate. In a 1980 interview with Playboy, he said of that time: "I had to start telling little tales to the tax man while they were putting tags on the furniture."[citation needed]
Return to the Monkees
[edit]
Nesmith did not participate in the Monkees' 20th anniversary reunion,[8] due to contractual obligations with his production company, but he did appear during an encore with the three other Monkees at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986. In a 1987 interview for Nick Rocks, Nesmith stated, "When Peter called up and said 'we're going to go out, do you want to go?' I was booked. But, if you get to L.A., I'll play."[12]
Nesmith next joined his fellow Monkees for the 1986 "Monkees Christmas Medley" video for MTV appearing throughout dressed/disguised as Santa Claus until the finale, when he revealed his identity - and participation - to all.[13]
"The question I am most often asked is 'how does it feel to be up with the guys after all this time?' Well, it's a mixture of feelings and all of them are good. But the one that comes to mind is the feeling of profound gratitude."
Michael Nesmith, speaking about being part of The Monkees at the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star award in 1989.
In 1989, Nesmith reunited with the other members of the Monkees, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones. Prior to the official kickoff of The Monkees '89 tour (on July 1 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) all four Monkees gathered in Los Angeles, California, making two live radio appearances (KLOS-FM: The Mark and Brian Show on June 28 and KIIS Radio on June 30) to promote their reunion concert at the Universal Amphitheatre where they appeared together as a foursome live on stage on July 9. The following day (July 10th) all four band members were in attendance as the Monkees received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.[14]
In 1995, Nesmith was again reunited with the Monkees to record their studio album (and first to feature all four since Head in 1968), titled Justus, released in 1996. He also wrote and directed a Monkees reunion television special, Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees. To support the reunion, Nesmith, Jones, Dolenz, and Tork briefly toured the UK in 1997.[8] The UK tour was the last appearance of all four Monkees performing together. In 2012, 2013, and 2014, after Jones's death, Nesmith reunited with Dolenz and Tork to perform concerts throughout the United States. Backed with a seven-piece band that included Nesmith's son, Christian,[15] the trio performed 27 songs from The Monkees discography ("Daydream Believer" was sung by the audience).[16] When asked why he had decided to return to the Monkees, Nesmith stated, "I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thoughts and part of my overall work as an artist. It stays in a special place."[17]
In 2016, Nesmith contributed vocally and instrumentally to the Monkees' 50th anniversary album Good Times!. He additionally contributed a song, "I Know What I Know", and was reportedly "thrilled" at the outcome of the album.[18] Despite not touring with Dolenz and Tork for the majority of the Monkees' 50th-anniversary reunion in 2016, Nesmith did twice fill in for the ailing Peter Tork and appeared for the final show of the tour, which featured the three surviving band members (the last show to do so). At the end of the final show, Nesmith announced his retirement from the Monkees, never to tour again.[citation needed]
In 2018, Nesmith and Dolenz toured together as a duo for the first time under the banner "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show". The tour was cut short four dates out due to Nesmith having health issues (he was flown back home and proceeded to have quadruple bypass surgery). He contributed two songs to the Monkees' 13th studio album, Christmas Party (the group's first Christmas album), released on October 12, 2018.[citation needed]
In 2019, Nesmith and Dolenz reunited again to make up the cancelled dates of the tour and adding several more dates, including a planned tour of Australia and New Zealand. Nesmith and Dolenz announced a follow-up tour, "An Evening with the Monkees", to begin in early 2020.[19] The tour was delayed, however, due the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced by Nesmith and Dolenz on May 4, 2021, that the Monkees would disband following a farewell tour. Dubbed "The Monkees Farewell Tour", the tour consisted of over 40 dates in the United States from September to November. However, because of restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they were not able to play shows in Canada, the UK or Australia. The final date of the tour was held on November 14, 2021, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.[20][21]
Solo career
[edit]
As he prepared for his exit from The Monkees, Nesmith was approached by John Ware of The Corvettes, a band that featured Nesmith's Texas band mate and close friend John London. London played on some of the earliest pre-Monkees, Nesmith 45s, as well as numerous Monkees sessions, and had 45s produced by Nesmith for the Dot label in 1969. Ware wanted Nesmith to put together a band. Nesmith's interest hinged on noted pedal steel player Orville "Red" Rhodes; their musical partnership continued until Rhodes's death in 1995. The new band was christened Michael Nesmith and the First National Band and recorded three albums for RCA Records, the first two issued in 1970 and the third released in 1971.[citation needed]
Nesmith's First National Band is now considered a pioneer of country-rock music.[22] Nesmith wrote most of the songs for the band and he is considered one of the trailblazers of country rock.[23] He also had moderate commercial success with the First National Band. Their second single, "Joanne", hit number 21 on the Billboard chart, number 17 on Cashbox, and number four in Canada, with the follow-up "Silver Moon" making number 42 Billboard, number 28 Cashbox, and number 13 in Canada. Two more singles charted ("Nevada Fighter" made number 70 Billboard, number 73 Cashbox, and number 67 Canada, and "Propinquity" reached number 95 Cashbox), and the first two LPs charted in the lower regions of the Billboard album chart. No clear answer has ever been given for the band's breakup.[citation needed]
Nesmith followed up with The Second National Band, which consisted of Nesmith (vocals and guitar), Michael Cohen (keyboards and Moog), Johnny Meeks (of The Strangers) (bass), jazzer Jack Ranelli (drums), and Orville Rhodes (pedal steel), as well as an appearance by singer, musician, and songwriter José Feliciano on congas. The album, Tantamount to Treason Vol. 1, was a commercial and critical disaster. Nesmith then recorded And the Hits Just Keep on Comin', featuring only him on guitar and Red Rhodes on pedal steel.[citation needed]
Nesmith then became more heavily involved in producing, working on Iain Matthews's album Valley Hi and Bert Jansch's L.A. Turnaround. Nesmith was given a label of his own, Countryside, through Elektra Records, as Elektra Records's Jac Holzman was a fan of Nesmith's. It featured a number of artists produced by Nesmith, including Garland Frady and Red Rhodes. The staff band at Countryside also helped Nesmith on his next, and last, RCA Victor album, Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash. Countryside folded when David Geffen replaced Holzman, as Countryside was unnecessary in Geffen's eyes.[citation needed]
In the mid-1970s, Nesmith briefly collaborated as a songwriter with Linda Hargrove, resulting in the tune "I've Never Loved Anyone More", a hit for Lynn Anderson and recorded by many others, as well as the songs "Winonah" and "If You Will Walk With Me", both of which were recorded by Hargrove. Of these songs, only "Winonah" was recorded by Nesmith himself.[citation needed] During this same period, Nesmith started his multimedia company Pacific Arts, which initially put out audio records, eight-track tapes, and cassettes, followed in 1981 with "video records". Nesmith recorded a number of LPs for his label, and had a moderate worldwide hit in 1977 with his song "Rio", the single taken from the album From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing.[8] In 1979, Nesmith released the single Cruisin', also known as "Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam", which was popular on AOR rock stations and in New Zealand.[24] In 1983, Nesmith produced the music video for the Lionel Richie single "All Night Long". In 1987, he produced the music video for the Michael Jackson single "The Way You Make Me Feel".[citation needed]
PopClips and MTV, Elephant Parts, and Television Parts
[edit]
Further information: PopClips
During this time, Nesmith created a video clip for "Rio", which helped spur Nesmith's creation of a television program called PopClips for the Nickelodeon cable network. In 1980, PopClips was sold to the Time Warner/Amex consortium. Time Warner/Amex developed PopClips into the MTV network.[8]
Nesmith won the first Grammy Award presented for (long-form) Music Video in 1982 for his hour-long Elephant Parts. He also had a short-lived series (1984-5) on NBC inspired by the video called Michael Nesmith in Television Parts. Television Parts included many other artists who were unknown at the time, but went on to become major stars in their own right: Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Whoopi Goldberg,[8] and Arsenio Hall. The concept of the show was to have comics render their stand-up routines into short comedy films much like the ones in Elephant Parts. Nesmith assembled writers Jack Handey, William Martin, John Levenstein, and Michael Kaplan, along with directors William Dear (who had directed Elephant Parts) and Alan Myerson, as well as producer Ward Sylvester to create the show. The half-hour show ran for 5 episodes in the summer of 1985 on NBC Thursday nights in prime time.[citation needed]
Pacific Arts and legal dispute
[edit]
Nesmith formed the Pacific Arts Corporation, Inc. in 1974 to manage and develop media projects. Pacific Arts Video became a pioneer in the home video market, producing and distributing a wide variety of videotaped programs, although the company eventually ceased operations after an acrimonious contract dispute with PBS over home video licensing rights and payments for several series,[8] including Ken Burns' The Civil War. The dispute escalated into a lawsuit that went to jury trial in federal court in Los Angeles. On February 3, 1999, a jury awarded Nesmith and his company Pacific Arts $48.875 million in compensatory and punitive damages, prompting his widely quoted comment, "It's like finding your grandmother stealing your stereo. You're happy to get your stereo back, but it's sad to find out your grandmother is a thief." Six months after the verdict, a settlement was reached with the amount paid to Pacific Arts and Nesmith kept confidential.[25]
Nesmith's most recent Pacific Arts project was Videoranch 3D, a virtual environment on the internet that hosted live performances at various virtual venues inside the ranch. He performed live inside Videoranch 3D on May 25, 2009.[26]
Movies and books
[edit]
Nesmith was the executive producer for the films Repo Man, Tapeheads, and Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, as well as his own solo recording and film projects.[27]
In 1998, Nesmith published his first novel, The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora. It was developed originally as an online project and was later published as a hardcover book[8] by St Martin's Press.[28] Nesmith's second novel, The America Gene, was released in July 2009 as an online download from Videoranch.com.[29]
Recent history
[edit]
In the early 1980s, Nesmith teamed with satirist P. J. O'Rourke to ride his vehicle Timerider in the annual Baja 1000 off-road race. This is chronicled in O'Rourke's 2009 book Driving Like Crazy.[30]
During the 1990s, Nesmith, as trustee and president of the Gihon Foundation,[8] hosted the Council on Ideas, a gathering of intellectuals from different fields who were asked to identify the most important issues of their day and publish the result. The foundation ceased the program in 2000 and started a new program for the performing arts. Nesmith also spent a decade as a board of trustees member, nominating member and vice-chair of the American Film Institute.[citation needed]
In 1992, Nesmith undertook a concert tour of North America to promote the first CD release of his RCA solo albums (although he included the song "Rio" from the album From a Radio Engine to the Photon Wing). The concert tour ended at the Britt Festival in Oregon. A video and CD, both entitled Live at the Britt Festival, were released capturing the 1992 concert.[31]
Nesmith continued to record and release his own music. His final album, Rays, was released in 2006. In 2011, he returned to producing, working with blues singer and guitarist Carolyn Wonderland. Nesmith produced Wonderland's version of Robert Johnson's "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" on her album Peace Meal. Wonderland married writer-comedian A. Whitney Brown on March 4, 2011, in a ceremony officiated by Nesmith.[32]
In 2012, Nesmith briefly toured Europe prior to rejoining the Monkees for their tours of the United States.[33] Intermixing the Monkees concerts, Nesmith also launched solo tours of the U.S. Unlike his 1992 U.S. tour, which predominantly featured music from his RCA recordings, Nesmith stated that his 2013 tour would feature songs he considers "thematic, chronological and most often requested by fans".[citation needed] Chris Scruggs, grandson of Earl Scruggs, replaced the late Red Rhodes on the steel guitar. The tour was captured on a live album, Movies Of The Mind.[citation needed]
In 2014, he guest-starred in season four, episode nine, of the IFC comedy series Portlandia in the fictitious role of the father of the mayor of Portland, Oregon.[27]
In 2017, Nesmith released a memoir and companion "soundtrack" album titled Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff.[34]
In 2018, he announced that he would be doing a five-date tour of California with a revamped version of The First National Band, including a date at The Troubadour, where he performed before The Monkees.[35] On February 20, a tour was announced as "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show", their first tour as a duo. The pair would play Monkees music and promote the tour under the Monkees banner, but Nesmith stated, "there's no pretense there about Micky and I [sic] being the Monkees. We're not."[36] The tour was cut short in June 2018, with four shows left unplayed, due to Nesmith having a "minor health issue"; Dolenz and he rescheduled the unplayed concerts plus adding several other including an Australian and New Zealand tour in 2019.[37] After recovering from his health scare, Michael Nesmith and the First National Band Redux went on a tour of the U.S., with mostly the same lineup and setlist as the southern California shows.[citation needed]
In 2019, Nesmith toured in a two-piece configuration with pedal steel player Pete Finney, focusing on his 1972 album, And the Hits Just Keep on Comin'. This was the first time Nesmith had performed in this format since 1974 with Red Rhodes. Nesmith was also joined by special guests Ben Gibbard and Scott McCaughey on opening night in Seattle.[38]
Personal life
[edit]
Nesmith was married three times and had four children.
He met his first wife, Phyllis Ann Barbour, in 1964, while at San Antonio College.[39] Together, they had three children: Christian, born in 1965; Jonathan, born in 1968; and Jessica, born in 1970. Nesmith and Barbour divorced in 1972.
Nesmith also had a son, Jason, born in August 1968 to Nurit Wilde, whom he met while working on The Monkees.[40]
In 1976, he married his second wife, Kathryn Bild.[41]
In 2000, he married his third wife, Victoria Kennedy, but the marriage ended in divorce in 2011.[42]
When the Monkees' TV series ended in 1968, Nesmith enrolled part-time at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied American history and music history. In 1973, Nesmith founded the Countryside Records label with Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra Records.[43] In 1974, Nesmith started Pacific Arts Records and released what he called "a book with a soundtrack", titled The Prison, as the company's first release.[44]
Health and death
[edit]
Nesmith was forced to cancel the last four dates of his 2018 tour with Micky Dolenz due to a "minor health scare". In an interview with Rolling Stone published on July 26 of that year, Nesmith said he had undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery, and had been hospitalized for over a month.[45]
Nesmith died from heart failure at his home in Carmel Valley, California on December 10, 2021 at the age of 78.[46][47] His family said in a statement: “With infinite love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes.”[48] Dolenz memorialized Nesmith as "a dear friend and partner."[49][50]
Discography
[edit]
Main article: Michael Nesmith discography
Source:[51][48]
Filmography
[edit]
Television
[edit]
Year Title Role Notes 1966–1968 The Monkees[48] Himself Credited as Monkees persona "Mike" 1969 33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee Host NBC special[52] 1985 Television Parts[53] Host One-series spin-off from Elephant Parts 1997 Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees[53] Himself Credited as Monkees persona "Mike" 2014 Portlandia Father of the Mayor Season 4, episode 9
Films
[edit]
Year Title Role Notes 1968 Head[53] Himself Credited as Monkees persona "Mike" 1982 Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann[53] Race Official uncredited 1984 Repo Man Rabbi credited 1987 Burglar[53] Cabbie uncredited 1988 Tapeheads[53] Water Man
Home video
[edit]
Year Title Role Notes 1981 Elephant Parts Various characters/Producer Released on DVD 1998 and again in 2003 1981 An Evening with Sir William Martin Foyer the butler/Writer/Producer Half-hour comedic monologue 1983 Rio and Cruisin'[52] Performer/Producer Music videos 1985 The Television Parts Home Companion Various characters/Producer Compilation from television series 1986 Dr. Duck's Super-Secret All-Purpose Sauce Various characters/Producer Music and comedy segments 1989 Nezmusic Performer/Producer Music videos 1991 Live at the Britt Festival Performer/Producer Concert from 1991 concert 2008 Pacific Arts Performer/Producer Music videos on DVD
Books
[edit]
(n.b. books proper – not including The Prison and The Garden)
The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora (1998)[8]
The America Gene (2009)[29]
Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff (2017)[34]
Audiobooks
[edit]
The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora (2004) (with Nesmith reading the story)[51]
Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff (2017) (narrated by Nesmith)[7]
References
[edit]
Further reading
[edit]
Article in Wired magazine about Michael Nesmith and the Council on Ideas
Michael Nesmith biography
(Unofficial) Michael Nesmith home page
SWINDLE Magazine interview
Michael Nesmith interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
Michael Nesmith: Overcoming The Monkees at NPR.com
Michael Nesmith interview 2013
Michael Nesmith Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection (2019) | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt | en | Linda Ronstadt | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Semi-protection-shackle.s... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
] | 2002-12-22T20:43:05+00:00 | en | /static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt | American singer (born 1946)
Musical artist
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards,[3] three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.[4] On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities.[5][16] In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio.[17][18] Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in the UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles Chart.[19][20] She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number one albums on the US Billboard albums chart.[citation needed] Ronstadt has lent her voice to over 120 albums, collaborating with artists in many genres, including Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine,[21] Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle.[22] Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."[23]
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating.[24] She released her final solo album in 2004 and her final collaborative album in 2006 and performed her final live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease but later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy.[24][a] Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir,[25] in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona on July 15, 1946,[26] the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (1911–1995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co.,[27] and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (1914–1982), a homemaker.[28]
Ronstadt had a Roman Catholic upbringing[29] and was raised on the family's 10-acre (4 ha) ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's chief of police from 1981 to 1991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.[30]
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family[31] and was of Mexican descent with a German male ancestor.[32] The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are documented in the library of the University of Arizona.[33] Her great-grandfather, the engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt), immigrated first to Sonora, Mexico, and later to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany. He married a Mexican citizen and eventually settled in Tucson.[34][35] In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars, delivered in 1903–04.[36]
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven.[37] His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.[38]
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements – genres which defined post-1960s rock music – Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.[40] Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade.[40][41][42][43] Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock"[31][44] and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s.[31] Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance,[45] teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off,[46] and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love; What's New; Canciones de Mi Padre; and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011.[47] Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum.[48][49] Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide[50] and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.[40]
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.[52]
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own records – rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachi – is all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.[51][53]
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense."[55] She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday".[31] Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever."[56] She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".[57]
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.[53]
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers".[58] Their repertoire included the music they grew up on – folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican.[59] But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll,[43] and in 1964, after a semester at the University of Arizona,[60] the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.[61][62][63]
The Stone Poneys
Main article: Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday,[61] decided to move there permanently to form a band with him.[62] Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 1967–68: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.[64]
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist.[40] During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".[65]
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with her on the Cheap Thrills album.[66] The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers,[68] as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show[69] and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.[70]
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims."[58] Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.[71]
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals.[72] In these shows she would sing lead vocal on numerous songs including the Eagles' "Desperado" while singing background and playing tambourine and acoustic guitar on others.[73]
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours"[41] she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit.
Being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit."[74] In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."[75]
There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided.[76] Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level.[62] She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band.[76] According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.[77]
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".[78]
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grown – this time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends,"[79] which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.[78]
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously.[58] Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio.[78] Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer[80] and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with," he said.[78]
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.[81]
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera music – which she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass" – and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots.[82] Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.[83]
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times",[84] and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs.[85] Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks.[58] An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."[86]
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930s – music which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics.[88] Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."[89]
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."[62]
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.[79]
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era."[90] Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums."[40] Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award,[91] as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.[31]
Her album covers, posters, magazine covers – her entire rock 'n' roll image – were as famous as her music.[39] By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers"[85] became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world."[92] "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."[93]
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."[94]
With the release of Heart Like a Wheel—named after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigle—Ronstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart;[95] it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum[96] (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheel's first single release, "You're No Good" – a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to her[78] – climbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts.[97] The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved" – an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers song – hit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard.[97] The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.[97]
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award[98] for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies.[96] It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990).[94] The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard's Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum[96] album Hasten Down the Wind. The album featured a sexy, revealing cover shot and showcased Ronstadt the singer-songwriter, who composed two of its songs, "Try Me Again" (co-authored with Andrew Gold) and "Lo Siento Mi Vida". It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which, after spending nine consecutive weeks at number 2 behind Fleetwood Mac's Rumours,[99] displaced it, and held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.[100] It sold over 31⁄2 million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy" – previously sung by Buddy Holly – , a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominations – including Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou" – and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's most successful albums internationally, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts.[101] Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."[59]
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.[102]
Time and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt said she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)".[15] Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.[15]
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music.[39] In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants.[39] In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."[103]
Her 1977 appearance on the cover Time under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock.[15][104] At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover,[15] and she noted how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project.[15] In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning[106] and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold".[80] Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.[77]
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer."[42] She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies).[41] The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).[107]
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album[39] and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."[108]
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice".[109][110][111] On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."[42]
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans,[31] Ronstadt became the "highest-paid woman in rock".[41] She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charting pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million[31] (equivalent to $56,000,000 in 2023)[113] and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 million – grossing over $60 million[114] (equivalent to $280,000,000 in 2023).[113]
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus",[42] her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years, and it was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum in 2001[96] (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.[96]
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at the Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPs – Hasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them.[115] Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock"[114] and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."[114]
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbook – made famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald – and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.[116]
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"[117]
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline.[118] She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.[52]
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982.[119] Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way."[97] Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.[120]
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When" – a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal – while the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.[121]
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi Padre – A Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.[122]
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since."[123] By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million[124] mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid.[125][126][127] At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere".[128] Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."[129]
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas.[130] She had ceased to feel that arenas, where people milled around smoking marijuana cigarettes and drinking beer, were "appropriate places for music". She wanted "angels in the architecture" – a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.[131]
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.[49]
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview.[132] But the appeal of the album's music had seduced Ronstadt, as she told DownBeat in April 1985, crediting Wexler for encouraging her.[133] Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.[134]
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983—U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984—U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986—U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum[96] (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."[136]
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Rain – a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience.[134] Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra,[137] which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life.[137] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print."[138] What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.[138]
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.[23]
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio time—and owed her record company a finished album—removed Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
Main article: Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre.[139] Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American.[140] Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family.[141] In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida" – a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.[52]
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[142]
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March.[97] Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S. – one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albums – in production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum[96] (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations.[143] Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989[97]) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast.[57] ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")[144]
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.[145]
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboard's Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.[146]
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.[citation needed]
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."[147]
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song – a tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artist – on the track "Miss Otis Regrets".[148]
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement.[47] In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she had Parkinson's disease and could "no longer sing a note."[149] Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy.[24] Her memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands was published in 2022.[150]
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[151] In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree.[152] On May 7, 2022, during the International Mariachi Conference, the Tucson Music Hall at the Tucson Convention Center was officially renamed as The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.[153]
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number-one pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums, and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number one. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number-one hit and three number-two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number-one hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote that a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."[86]
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies". In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away", with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold as of 2001.[96] Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s.[41] She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade".[31] "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324.[154] The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million.[51] Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.[155] Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums.[96] She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums.[49] Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies).[41] Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 21⁄2 million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb.[156] She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements.[157] In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks.[158] In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Ronstadt at No. 47 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.[159]
Personal life
In the early 1970s, Ronstadt briefly dated fellow musician J. D. Souther, who co-produced her Don't Cry Now album.[160] Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979,[161] as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months.[162] From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director and creator George Lucas.[163]
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt.[164] In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt.[165] Ronstadt has never married.[166] Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"[167]
In the late 1980s, after living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California.[165] "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me."[56] In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children.[165] In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.[168]
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 00–42 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.[169]
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography,[170][171] Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños Sencillos – Memorias Musicales.[172]
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite.[173][174] In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.[24]
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".[175]
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore.[176] Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."[176]
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises.[177] Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.[178]
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times.[179] Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin.[57] Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America.
At a 2006 concert in Canada, Ronstadt told the Calgary Sun that she was "embarrassed George Bush (was) from the United States. ... He's an idiot. ... He's enormously incompetent on both the domestic and international scenes. ... Now the fact that we were lied to about the reasons for entering into war against Iraq and thousands of people have died—it's just as immoral as racism." Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".[180]
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson.[181] That same year, she drew criticism and praise[182] from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.[183]
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."[184]
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight" – as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement family – was the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.[185]
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit,[186] against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.[187]
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)",[163] and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.[188]
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music,[190] and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.[191]
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.[192] On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards,[193] a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed artistic director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival.[194][195] On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable",[196] Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.[195]
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture.[197] Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".[58]
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1971 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female "Long, Long Time" Nominated [198] 1976 Album of the Year Heart Like a Wheel Nominated Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female Nominated Best Country Vocal Performance, Female "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" Won 1977 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female Hasten Down the Wind Won 1978 "Blue Bayou" Nominated Record of the Year Nominated 1981 Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female "How Do I Make You" Nominated 1983 "Get Closer" Nominated Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Get Closer Nominated 1984 What's New Nominated 1986 Lush Life Nominated 1988 Album of the Year Trio (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Nominated Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal Won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Somewhere Out There" (with James Ingram) Nominated 1989 Best Mexican-American Performance Canciones de Mi Padre Won 1990 Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind Nominated Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Don't Know Much" (with Aaron Neville) Won 1991 "All My Life" (with Aaron Neville) Won 1993 Best Tropical Latin Album Frenesí Won Best Mexican-American Album Mas Canciones Won 1997 Best Musical Album for Children Dedicated to the One I Love Won 2000 Best Country Album Trio II (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Nominated Best Contemporary Folk Album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (with Emmylou Harris) Nominated Best Country Collaboration with Vocals "After the Gold Rush" (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Won 2007 Best Traditional Folk Album Adieu False Heart (with Ann Savoy) Nominated 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Won 2021 Best Music Film Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice Won
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Won [199]
Primetime Emmy Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1989 Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program Canciones de Mi Padre (Great Performances) Won [200]
Tony Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1981 Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical The Pirates of Penzance Nominated
Golden Globe Awards
1983 – Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1983 Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical The Pirates of Penzance Nominated
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007 – Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974 – Best New Female Artist
1987 – Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988 – Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008 – Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music[201]
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989 – Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist[202]
1992 – Regional Mexican Female Artist[203]
1993 – Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").[204]
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Studio albums
Videography, filmography and stage appearances
Books
Ronstadt, Linda (2013). Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir (First Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-6872-8. OCLC 829743967.
Ronstadt, Linda (2022). Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands. New York: Heyday Books. ISBN 978-1597145794. OCLC 1290245461.
Explanatory notes
References | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 13 | https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/complete-national-recording-registry-listing/ | en | Complete National Recording Registry Listing | http://www.loc.gov/static/images/favicons/open-graph-logo.png | http://www.loc.gov/static/images/favicons/open-graph-logo.png | [
"https://www.loc.gov/static/images/logo-loc-new-branding.svg",
"https://www.loc.gov/static/images/social-media/facebook.svg",
"https://www.loc.gov/static/images/social-media/twitter.svg",
"https://www.loc.gov/static/images/share/link.svg",
"https://www.loc.gov/static/images/share/email.svg",
"https://www.... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Sort recordings by title, artist, year of release, year inducted into the Registry, and genre by using the up and down arrows at the top of each column. | en | The Library of Congress | null | Sort recordings by title, artist, year of release, year inducted into the Registry, and genre by using the up and down arrows at the top of each column.
Download the list sorted alphabetically (PDF, 164KB), by induction year (PDF, 141KB), or by genre (PDF, 167KB).
Title Artist/Composer/Recorder Year of Release Year Inducted Genre Clarinet Marmalade
(single) Jim Europe’s 369th Band
Additional Information 1919 2024 Pop (Pre-1955) Kauhavan Polkka
(single) Viola Turpeinen & John Rosendahl
Additional Information 1928 2024 Folk Wisconsin Folksong Recordings
(collection) Various
Additional Information 1937-46 2024 Field Rose Room
(single) Benny Goodman Sextet with Charlie Christian
Additional Information 1939 2024 Jazz Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
(single) Autry, Gene
Additional Information 1949 2024 Pop (Pre-1955) Tennessee Waltz
(single) Patti Page
Additional Information 1950 2024 Country/Bluegrass Rocket “88”
(single) Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
Additional Information 1951 2024 Pop (Pre-1955) Catch a Falling Star/Magic Moments
(single) Perry Como
Additional Information 1957 2024 Pop (1955-1975) Chances Are
(single) Johnny Mathis
Additional Information 1957 2024 Pop (1955-1975) The Sidewinder
(album) Lee Morgan
Additional Information 1964 2024 Jazz Surrealistic Pillow
(album) Jefferson Airplane
Additional Information 1967 2024 Pop (1955-1975) Ain’t No Sunshine
(single) Bill Withers
Additional Information 1971 2024 Pop (1955-1975) This is a Recording
(album) Lily Tomlin
Additional Information 1971 2024 Comedy/Novelty J.D Crowe & the New South
(album) J.D. Crowe & the New South
Additional Information 1975 2024 Country/Bluegrass Arrival
(album) ABBA
Additional Information 1976 2024 Disco/Dance Parallel Lines
(album) Blondie
Additional Information 1978 2024 Disco/Dance The Cars
(album) The Cars
Additional Information 1978 2024 Pop (1976-1996) El Cantante
(single) Héctor Lavoe
Additional Information 1978 2024 Latin La Di Da Di
(single) Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick
Additional Information 1985 2024 Rap/Hip Hop Don’t Worry, Be Happy
(single) Bobby McFerrin
Additional Information 1988 2024 Pop (1976-1996) Amor Eterno
(single) Juan Gabriel
Additional Information 1990 2024 Latin Pieces of Africa
(album) Kronos Quartet
Additional Information 1992 2024 Classical Dookie
(album) Green Day
Additional Information 1994 2024 Pop (1976-1996) Ready to Die
(album) Notorious BIG
Additional Information 1994 2024 Rap/Hip Hop Wide Open Spaces
(album) The Chicks
Additional Information 1998 2024 Country/Bluegrass The Very First Mariachi Recordings
(album) Cuarteto Coculense
Additional Information 1908-09 2023 Latin St. Louis Blues
(single) Handy’s Memphis Blues Band
Additional Information 1922 2023 R&B Fletcher Henderson
Additional Information 1925 2023 Jazz Dorothy Thompson
Additional Information 1939, August 23-September 6 2023 Broadcast/Spoken Word Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around
(single) Fairfield Four
Additional Information 1947 2023 Gospel Sherry
(single) The Four Seasons
Additional Information 1962 2023 Pop (1955-1975) Wang Dang Doodle
(single) Koko Taylor
Additional Information 1965 2023 R&B What the World Needs Now Is Love
(single) Jackie DeShannon
Additional Information 1965 2023 Pop (1955-1975) Ode to Billie Joe
(single) Bobbie Gentry
Additional Information 1967 2023 Country/Bluegrass Déjà vu
(album) Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Additional Information 1970 2023 Pop (1955-1975) Imagine
(single) John Lennon
Additional Information 1971 2023 Pop (1955-1975) Stairway to Heaven
(single) Led Zeppelin
Additional Information 1971 2023 Pop (1955-1975) Take Me Home, Country Roads
(single) John Denver
Additional Information 1971 2023 Country/Bluegrass Margaritaville
(single) Jimmy Buffett
Additional Information 1977 2023 Pop (1975-1995) Flashdance…What a Feeling
(single) Irene Cara
Additional Information 1983 2023 Pop (1975-1995) Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
(single) Eurythmics
Additional Information 1983 2023 Pop (1975-1995) Synchronicity
(album) The Police
Additional Information 1983 2023 Pop (1975-1995) Like a Virgin
(album; 1985 reissue) Madonna
Additional Information 1985 2023 Pop (Post-1975) Black Codes (from the Underground)
(album) Wynton Marsalis
Additional Information 1985 2023 Jazz Super Mario theme
(soundtrack) Koji Kondo
Additional Information 1985 2023 Other All Hail the Queen
(album) Queen Latifah
Additional Information 1989 2023 Rap/Hip Hop All I Want for Christmas is You
(single) Mariah Carey
Additional Information 1994 2023 Pop (1975-1995) Pale Blue Dot Carl Sagan
Additional Information 1994 2023 Broadcast/Spoken Word Gasolina
(single) Daddy Yankee
Additional Information 2004 2023 Latin “Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.” Chamber Music Northwest. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, composer.
Additional Information 2012 2023 Classical/Opera Harlem Strut
(single) James P. Johnson
Additional Information 1921 2022 Jazz Complete Presidential Speeches Franklin D. Roosevelt
Additional Information 1933-1945 2022 Broadcast/Spoken Word Walking the Floor Over You
(single) Ernest Tubb
Additional Information 1941 2022 Country/Bluegrass On a Note of Triumph (May 8, 1945) Norman Corwin
Additional Information 1945 2022 Broadcast/Spoken Word Jesus Gave Me Water
(single) Soul Stirrers
Additional Information 1951 2022 Gospel Ellington at Newport
(album) Duke Ellington
Additional Information 1956 2022 Jazz Tonight’s the Night
(album) The Shirelles
Additional Information 1960 2022 Pop (1955-1975) We Insist!
(album) Max Roach
Additional Information 1960 2022 Jazz The Christmas Song Nat King Cole
Additional Information 1961 2022 Pop (1955-1975) Moon River
(single) Andy Williams
Additional Information 1962 2022 Pop (1955-1975) It’s a Small World
(single) Various
Additional Information 1964 2022 Children's Reach Out, I’ll Be There
(single) The Four Tops
Additional Information 1966 2022 R&B In C
(album) Terry Riley
Additional Information 1968 2022 Classical Hank Aaron’s 715th Career Home Run (April 8, 1974) Milo Hamilton, announcer
Additional Information 1974 2022 Sports Bohemian Rhapsody
(single) Queen
Additional Information 1975 2022 Pop (1955-1975) Don’t Stop Believin’
(single) Journey
Additional Information 1981 2022 Pop (1976-1996) Canciones de mi Padre
(album) Linda Ronstadt
Additional Information 1987 2022 Latin Nick of Time
(album) Bonnie Raitt
Additional Information 1989 2022 Pop (1976-1996) The Low End Theory
(album) A Tribe Called Quest
Additional Information 1991 2022 Rap/Hip Hop Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
(album) Wu-Tang Clan
Additional Information 1993 2022 Rap/Hip Hop Buena Vista Social Club
(album) Various
Additional Information 1997 2022 Musical/Soundtrack Livin’ La Vida Loca
(single) Ricky Martin
Additional Information 1999 2022 Pop (1996+) Songs in A Minor
(album) Alicia Keys
Additional Information 2001 2022 Pop (1996+) WNYC broadcast for the day of 9/11 N/A
Additional Information 2001 2022 Broadcast/Spoken Word WTF with Marc Maron (with guest Robin Williams) (April 26, 2010) Marc Maron
Additional Information 2010 2022 Broadcast/Spoken Word St. Louis tinfoil recording Thomas Edison
Additional Information 1878 2020 Technology Nikolina
(single) Hjalmar Peterson
Additional Information 1917 2020 Pop (Pre-1955) Smyrneikos Balos
(single) Marika Papagika
Additional Information 1928 2020 Pop (Pre-1955) When the Saints Go Marching In
(single) Louis Armstrong
Additional Information 1938 2020 Jazz Christmas Eve Broadcast (December 24, 1941) Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill
Additional Information 1941 2020 Broadcast/Spoken Word The Guiding Light (November 22, 1945) Irna Phillips, creator/writer
Additional Information 1945 2020 Broadcast/Spoken Word Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues
(album) Odetta
Additional Information 1957 2020 Folk Lord, Keep Me Day by Day
(single) The Caravans
Additional Information 1959 2020 Gospel Roger Maris hits his 61st homerun Phil Rizzuto, announcer
Additional Information 1961 2020 Sports Aida
(album) Leontyne Price, et.al.
Additional Information 1962 2020 Classical/Opera Once a Day
(single) Connie Smith
Additional Information 1964 2020 Country/Bluegrass Born Under a Bad Sign
(album) Albert King
Additional Information 1967 2020 Blues Free to Be...You and Me
(album) Marlo Thomas, et.al.
Additional Information 1972 2020 Children's Harder They Come
(album) Jimmy Cliff, et.al.
Additional Information 1972 2020 Musical/Soundtrack Lady Marmalade
(single) Labelle
Additional Information 1974 2020 R&B Late for the Sky
(album) Jackson Browne
Additional Information 1974 2020 Pop (1955-1975) Bright Size Life
(album) Pat Metheny
Additional Information 1976 2020 Jazz The Rainbow Connection
(single) Kermit the Frog
Additional Information 1979 2020 Musical/Soundtrack Celebration
(single) Kool & the Gang
Additional Information 1980 2020 Disco/Dance Strauss: Four Last Songs
(album) Jessye Norman, et.al.
Additional Information 1983 2020 Classical/Opera Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814
(album) Janet Jackson
Additional Information 1989 2020 Pop (1976-1996) Partners
(album) Flaco Jimenez
Additional Information 1992 2020 Latin Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World
(single) Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Additional Information 1993 2020 Pop (1976-1996) Illmatic
(album) Nas
Additional Information 1994 2020 Rap/Hip Hop This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money (May 8, 2008) Ira Glass, et.al.
Additional Information 2008 2020 Broadcast/Spoken Word Whispering
(single) Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra
Additional Information 1920 2019 Pop (Pre-1955) Protesta per Sacco e Vanzetti
(single) Compagnia Columbia
Additional Information 1927 2019 Pop (Pre-1955) Sacca e Vanzetti
(single) Raoul Romito
Additional Information 1927 2019 Pop (Pre-1955) La Chicharronera
(single) Narciso Martínez and Santiago Almeida
Additional Information 1936 2019 Folk Arch Oboler's Plays: The Bathysphere
(November 18, 1939) Arch Oboler
Additional Information 1939 2019 Broadcast/Spoken Word Me and My Chauffeur Blues
(single) Memphis Minnie
Additional Information 1941 2019 Blues NY Giants vs. Brooklyn Dodgers 1951 National League Playoff Russ Hodges
Additional Information 1951 2019 Sports Puccini: Tosca
(album) Maria Callas, Carlo Bergonzi, Georges Pretre, etc.
Additional Information 1953 2019 Classical/Opera Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh
(single) Allan Sherman
Additional Information 1963 2019 Comedy/Novelty WGBH Broadcast of the Boston Symphony on the day of the Kennedy Assassination
(November 22, 1963) Boston Symphony Orchestra
Additional Information 1963 2019 Broadcast/Spoken Word Fiddler on the Roof
(album) Original Broadway cast
Additional Information 1964 2019 Musical/Soundtrack Make the World Go Away
(single) Eddy Arnold
Additional Information 1965 2019 Country/Bluegrass Afghanistan Recordings Hiromi Lorraine Sakata, recordist
Additional Information 1966-67; 1971-73 2019 Field Wichita Lineman
(single) Glen Campbell
Additional Information 1968 2019 Country/Bluegrass Dusty in Memphis
(album) Dusty Springfield
Additional Information 1969 2019 Pop (1955-1975) Mister Rogers Sings: 21 Favorite Songs from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” Fred Rogers
Additional Information 1973 2019 Children's Cheap Trick At Budokan
(album) Cheap Trick
Additional Information 1978 2019 Pop (1976-1996) The Cleveland Symphonic Winds/Holst: Suite No. 1 in E-Flat, Suite No. 2 in F/Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks/ Bach: Fantasia in G (Special Edition Audiophile Pressing) (Telarc) Frederick Fennell
Additional Information 1978 2019 Technology Y.M.C.A.
(single) The Village People
Additional Information 1978 2019 Disco/Dance A Feather on the Breath of God Gothic Voices; Hildegard of Bingen, composer
Additional Information 1982 2019 Choral Private Dancer
(album) Tina Turner
Additional Information 1984 2019 Pop (1976-1996) Ven Conmigo
(album) Selena
Additional Information 1990 2019 Latin The Chronic
(album) Dr. Dre
Additional Information 1992 2019 Rap/Hip Hop I Will Always Love You
(single) Whitney Houston
Additional Information 1992 2019 Pop (1976-1996) Maria Schneider’s Concert in the Garden
(album) Maria Schneider
Additional Information 2004 2019 Jazz Percussion Concerto Colin Currie; Jennifer Higdon, composer
Additional Information 2008 2019 Classical/Opera Yiddish Cylinders from the Standard Phonograph Company of New York and Thomas Lambert Company Various
Additional Information 1901-1905 (circa) 2018 Pop (Pre-1955) Memphis Blues
(single) Victor Military Band
Additional Information 1914 2018 Pop (Pre-1955) Melville Jacobs Collection of Native Americans of the American Northwest Melville Jacobs
Additional Information 1929-1939 2018 Field Minnie the Moocher
(single) Cab Calloway
Additional Information 1931 2018 Jazz Bach Six Cello Suites Pablo Casals
Additional Information 1939 (circa) 2018 Classical/Opera They Look Like Men of War
(single) Deep River Boys
Additional Information 1941 2018 Gospel Gunsmoke Episode: The Cabin
(December 27, 1952) Various
Additional Information 1952 2018 Broadcast/Spoken Word Ruth Draper: Various monologues Ruth Draper
Additional Information 1954-1956 2018 Broadcast/Spoken Word La Bamba
(single) Ritchie Valens
Additional Information 1958 2018 Pop (1955-1975) Long Black Veil
(single) Lefty Frizzell
Additional Information 1959 2018 Country/Bluegrass Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Vol. 1: The Early Years
(album) Stan Freberg
Additional Information 1961 2018 Comedy/Novelty GO
(album) Dexter Gordon
Additional Information 1962 2018 Jazz War Requiem
(album) Benjamin Britten
Additional Information 1963 2018 Choral Mississippi Goddam
(single) Nina Simone
Additional Information 1964 2018 R&B Soul Man
(single) Sam & Dave
Additional Information 1967 2018 Pop (1955-1975) Hair (original Broadway cast album) Various
Additional Information 1968 2018 Musical/Soundtrack Speech on the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.
(April 4, 1968) Robert F. Kennedy
Additional Information 1968 2018 Broadcast/Spoken Word Sweet Caroline
(single) Neil Diamond
Additional Information 1969 2018 Pop (1955-1975) Superfly
(album) Curtis Mayfield
Additional Information 1972 2018 Musical/Soundtrack Ola Belle Reed
(album) Ola Belle Reed
Additional Information 1973 2018 Folk September
(single) Earth, Wind & Fire
Additional Information 1978 2018 Technology You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
(single) Sylvester
Additional Information 1978 2018 Disco/Dance She's So Unusual
(album) Cyndi Lauper
Additional Information 1983 2018 Pop (1976-1996) The Best of Schoolhouse Rock
(album) Various
Additional Information 1996 2018 Childrens The Blueprint
(album) Jay-Z
Additional Information 2001 2018 Rap/Hip Hop Dream Melody Intermezzo: Naughty Marietta
(single) Victor Herbert and His Orchestra
Additional Information 1911 2017 Pop (Pre-1955) Standing Rock Preservation Recordings George Herzog and Members of the Yanktoni Tribe
Additional Information 1928 2017 Field Lamento Borincano
(single) Canario y Su Grupo
Additional Information 1930 2017 Latin Sitting on Top of the World
(single) Mississippi Sheiks
Additional Information 1930 2017 Blues The Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas
(album) Artur Schnabel
Additional Information 1932-1935 2017 Classical/Opera If I Didn't Care
(single) The Ink Spots
Additional Information 1939 2017 Pop (Pre-1955) Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on International Organization
(4/25/45-6/26/45) Various
Additional Information 1945 2017 Broadcast/Spoken Word Folk Songs of the Hills
(album) Merle Travis
Additional Information 1946 2017 Country/Bluegrass How I Got Over
(single) Clara Ward and the Ward Singers
Additional Information 1950 2017 Gospel (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
(single) Bill Haley and His Comets
Additional Information 1954 2017 Pop (Pre-1955) Calypso
(album) Harry Belafonte
Additional Information 1956 2017 Pop (1955-1975) I Left My Heart in San Francisco
(single) Tony Bennett
Additional Information 1962 2017 Pop (1955-1975) King Biscuit Time Sonny Boy Williamson II and others
Additional Information 1965 2017 Broadcast/Spoken Word My Girl
(single) The Temptations
Additional Information 1964 2017 Pop (1955-1975) The Sound of Music
(album) various
Additional Information 1965 2017 Musical/Soundtrack Alice's Restaurant Massacree
(single) Arlo Guthrie
Additional Information 1967 2017 Folk New Sounds in Electronic Music
(album) Steve Reich, Richard Maxfield, Pauline Oliveros
Additional Information 1967 2017 Classical/Opera An Evening with Groucho
(album) Groucho Marx
Additional Information 1972 2017 Comedy/Novelty Rumours
(album) Fleetwood Mac
Additional Information 1977 2017 Pop (1976-1996) The Gambler
(single) Kenny Rogers
Additional Information 1978 2017 Country/Bluegrass Le Freak
(single) Chic
Additional Information 1978 2017 Disco/Dance Kenny Loggins
Additional Information 1984 2017 Pop (1976-1996) Raising Hell
(album) Run-DMC
Additional Information 1986 2017 Rap/Hip Hop Rhythm is Gonna Get You
(single) Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
Additional Information 1987 2017 Pop (1976-1996) Yo-Yo Ma Premieres Concertos for Violoncello and Orchestra
(album) Various
Additional Information 1996 2017 Classical/Opera The 1888 London cylinder recordings of Colonel George Gouraud George Gouraud
Additional Information 1888 2016 Technology Lift Every Voice and Sing Manhattan Harmony Four
Additional Information 1923 2016 Gospel Lift Every Voice and Sing Melba Moore & Friends
Additional Information 1990 2016 Gospel Puttin’ on the Ritz Harry Richman
Additional Information 1929 2016 Pop (Pre-1955) Over the Rainbow Judy Garland
Additional Information 1939 2016 Pop (Pre-1955) I’ll Fly Away Chuck Wagon Gang
Additional Information 1948 2016 Gospel Hound Dog Big Mama Thornton
Additional Information 1952 2016 R&B Saxophone Colossus
(album) Sonny Rollins
Additional Information 1956 2016 Jazz Giants vs. Dodgers Vin Scully
Additional Information 1957 2016 Sports Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs Marty Robbins
Additional Information 1959 2016 Country/Bluegrass Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery Wes Montgomery
Additional Information 1960 2016 Jazz People
(album) Barbra Streisand
Additional Information 1964 2016 Pop (1955-1975) In the Midnight Hour Wilson Pickett
Additional Information 1965 2016 R&B American Pie
(single) Don McLean
Additional Information 1971 2016 Pop (1955-1975) The Rise and-Fall of Ziggy-Stardust and the Spiders from Mars David Bowie
Additional Information 1972 2016 Pop (1955-1975) Their Greatest Hits The Eagles
Additional Information 1976 2016 Pop (1976-1996) All Things Considered (first ep.) various
Additional Information 1971 2016 Broadcast/Spoken Word Amazing Grace Judy Collins
Additional Information 1970 2016 Pop (1955-1975) The Wiz Original Cast
Additional Information 1975 2016 Musical/Soundtrack Treemonisha Scott Joplin, et.al.
Additional Information 1976 2016 Classical/Opera Wanted Richard Pryor
Additional Information 1978 2016 Comedy/Novelty We Are Family
(single) Sister Sledge
Additional Information 1979 2016 R&B Remain in Light Talking Heads
Additional Information 1980 2016 Pop (1976-1996) Straight Outta Compton
(album) NWA
Additional Information 1988 2016 Rap/Hip Hop Vespers Robert Shaw, et.al.
Additional Information 1989 2016 Classical/Opera Signatures Renee Fleming
Additional Information 1997 2016 Classical/Opera Let Me Call You Sweetheart
(single) Peerless Quartet
Additional Information 1911 2015 Pop (Pre-1955) Wild Cat Blues
(single) Clarence Williams Blue Five
Additional Information 1923 2015 Blues Statesboro Blues
(single) Blind Willie McTell
Additional Information 1928 2015 Blues Bonaparte's Retreat W.H. Stepp
Additional Information 1937 2015 Field Vic and Sade: Decoration Day Parade
(May 28, 1937) Various
Additional Information 1937 2015 Broadcast/Spoken Word Mahler Symphony No. 9 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Bruno Walter, conductor
Additional Information 1938 2015 Classical/Opera Carousel of American Music
September 24, 1940 George M. Cohan, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, et.al.
Additional Information 1940 2015 Pop (Pre-1955) Cry Me a River
(single) Julie London
Additional Information 1955 2015 Pop (1955-1975) The "Marshall Plan" Speech at Harvard
(June 5, 1947) George C. Marshall
Additional Information 1947 2015 Broadcast/Spoken Word Destination Freedom: A Garage in Gainesville/Execution Awaited
(September 25 and October 2, 1949) Various
Additional Information 1949 2015 Broadcast/Spoken Word Original Soundtrack from "A Streetcar Named Desire" Alex North
Additional Information 1951 2015 Blues Mack the Knife
(single) Louis Armstrong
Additional Information 1956 2015 Pop (1955-1975) Mack the Knife
(single) Bobby Darin
Additional Information 1959 2015 Pop (1955-1975) Fourth Quarter Radio Coverage of Wilt Chamberlin's 100-Point Game (Philadelphia Warriors vs. New York Knicks)
(March 2, 1962) Bill Campbell, announcer
Additional Information 1962 2015 Sports A Love Supreme
(album) John Coltrane
Additional Information 1964 2015 Jazz It's My Way
(album) Buffy Sainte-Marie
Additional Information 1964 2015 Folk Where Did Our Love Go
(single) The Supremes
Additional Information 1964 2015 Pop (1955-1975) People Get Ready
(single) The Impressions
Additional Information 1965 2015 R&B Mama Tried
(single) Merle Haggard
Additional Information 1968 2015 Country/Bluegrass Abraxas
(album) Santana
Additional Information 1970 2015 Latin Class Clown
(album) George Carlin
Additional Information 1972 2015 Comedy/Novelty Robert and Clara Schumann Complete Piano Trios
(album) Beaux Arts Trio
Additional Information 1972 2015 Classical/Opera Piano Man
(single) Billy Joel
Additional Information 1973 2015 Pop (1955-1975) Bogalusa Boogie
(album) Clifton Chenier
Additional Information 1976 2015 Folk I Will Survive
(single) Gloria Gaynor
Additional Information 1978 2015 Disco/Dance Master of Puppets Metallica
Additional Information 1986 2015 Pop (1976-1996) 2000 Years with Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
(album) Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner
Additional Information 1961 2008 Comedy/Novelty 3 Feet High and Rising
(album) De La Soul
Additional Information 1989 2010 Rap/Hip Hop A Charlie Brown Christmas
(album) The Vince Guaraldi Trio
Additional Information 1965 2011 Jazz A Program of Song
(album) Leontyne Price
Additional Information 1959 2012 Classical/Opera Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive
(single) Johnny Mercer
Additional Information 1944 2014 Pop (Pre-1955) Adagio for Strings
(single)
(November 5, 1938) NBC Symphony, Arturo Toscanini
Additional Information 1938 2005 Classical/Opera Address at West Point Military Academy
(April 19-20, 1962) William Faulkner
Additional Information 1962 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word Address to Congress ("Day of Infamy" speech)
(December 8, 1941) Franklin D. Roosevelt
Additional Information 1941 2006 Broadcast/Spoken Word Adeste Fideles
(single) Associated Glee Clubs of America
Additional Information 1925 2003 Choral The Adventures of Robin Hood
(May 11, 1938) Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Additional Information 1938 2005 Musical/Soundtrack After You've Gone
(single) Marion Harris
Additional Information 1918 2012 Pop (Pre-1955) Ain't Misbehavin'
(single) Thomas "Fats" Waller
Additional Information 1929 2004 Jazz Aja
(album) Steely Dan
Additional Information 1977 2010 Pop (1976-1996) Ali Akbar College of Music Archive Selections Ali Akbar College of Music
Additional Information 1960s-1970s 2003 Folk The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East
(album) The Allman Brothers Band
Additional Information 1971 2004 Pop (1976-1996) Allons a Lafayette
(single) Joe Falcon
Additional Information 1928 2007 Folk Also Sprach Zarathustra
(album) Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Additional Information 1954 2011 Classical/Opera America's Town Meeting of the Air
(May 8, 1941) George V. Denny, Jr.
Additional Information 1941 2009 Broadcast/Spoken Word Anthology of Folk Music
(album) Harry Smith
Additional Information 1952 2005 Folk Are You Experienced
(album) The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Additional Information 1967 2005 Pop (1955-1975) Arkansaw Traveler
(single) Eck Robertson
Additional Information 1922 2002 Country/Bluegrass Armistice Day broadcast
November 11, 1923) Woodrow Wilson
Additional Information 1923 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Around the World on the Phonograph Thomas Edison
Additional Information 1888-1889 2002 Technology Artistry in Rhythm
(single) Stan Kenton
Additional Information 1943 2011 Jazz At Folsom Prison
(album) Johnny Cash
Additional Information 1968 2003 Country/Bluegrass At Last
(single) Etta James
Additional Information 1961 2008 R&B At Sunset
(album) Mort Sahl
Additional Information 1955 2010 Comedy/Novelty Atlanta Exposition speech Booker T. Washington
Additional Information 1908 recreation 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word Azucar Pa' Ti
(album) Eddie Palmieri
Additional Information 1965 2009 Latin Bach B-Minor Mass
(album) Robert Shaw
Additional Information 1947 2003 Classical/Opera Bacon, Beans and Limousines
(October 18, 1931) Will Rogers
Additional Information 1931 2012 Broadcast/Spoken Word Bartok and Szigeti in concert at the Library of Congress Bela Bartok, Joseph Szigeti
Additional Information 1940 2002 Classical/Opera Barton Hall Concert at Cornell University
(May 8, 1977) The Grateful Dead
Additional Information 1977 2011 Pop (1976-1996) Be My Baby
(single) The Ronettes
Additional Information 1963 2006 Pop (1955-1975) Beethoven String Quartets Budapest Quartet
Additional Information 1940-1950 2003 Classical/Opera Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Op. 84
(single) Modesto High School Band (California)
Additional Information 1930 2005 Classical/Opera Begin the Beguine
(single) Artie Shaw & His Orchestra
Additional Information 1938 2012 Pop (Pre-1955) Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen
(single) The Andrews Sisters
Additional Information 1938 2008 Pop (Pre-1955) Bell Laboratories experimental stereo recordings Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski
Additional Information 1931-1932 2002 Classical/Opera The Benjamin Ives Gilman Collection Recorded at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago Benjamin Ives Gilman
Additional Information 1893 2014 Folk Black Angels (Thirteen Images from the Dark Land)
(album) New York Strings Quartet, George Crumb (composer)
Additional Information 1972 2010 Classical/Opera Black Bottom Stomp
(single) Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers
Additional Information 1926 2006 Jazz Black Snake Moan/Match Box Blues
(single) Blind Lemon Jefferson
Additional Information 1927 2014 Blues Blanton-Webster era recordings Duke Ellington Orchestra
Additional Information 1940-1942 2002 Jazz Blind Joe Death
(album) John Fahey
Additional Information 1959, 1964, 1967 2010 Folk Blue Moon of Kentucky
(single) Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys
Additional Information 1947 2002 Country/Bluegrass Blue Suede Shoes
(single) Carl Perkins
Additional Information 1955 2006 Pop (1955-1975) Blue Yodel (T for Texas)
(single) Jimmie Rodgers
Additional Information 1927 2004 Country/Bluegrass Blueberry Hill
(single) Fats Domino
Additional Information 1956 2005 Pop (1955-1975) Bo Diddley
(single) Bo Diddley
Additional Information ("Bo Diddley")
Additional Information ("I'm A Man") 1955 2011 Pop (1955-1975) Boas, Franz and George Herzog Interview Kwakwaka'wakw Chief Dan Cranmer
Additional Information 1938 2013 Field Body and Soul
(single) Coleman Hawkins
Additional Information 1939 2004 Jazz Boogie Chillen'
(single) John Lee Hooker
Additional Information 1948 2008 Blues Born to Run
(album) Bruce Springsteen
Additional Information 1975 2003 Pop (1955-1975) 'Boys of the Lough'/'Humours of Ennistymon'
(single) Michael Coleman
Additional Information 1922 2014 Folk Brilliant Corners
(album) Thelonious Monk
Additional Information 1956 2003 Jazz Broadcast from London
(September 21, 1940) Edward R. Murrow
Additional Information 1940 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Brother, Can You Spare a Dime
(single) Rudy Vallee, Bing Crosby
Additional Information 1932 2013 Pop (Pre-1955) Bubble Book (the first Bubble Book) Ralph Mayhew, Burges Johnson
Additional Information 1917 2003 Children's Burnin'
(album) The Wailers
Additional Information 1973 2006 Pop (1955-1975) The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart
(album) Bob Newhart
Additional Information 1960 2006 Comedy/Novelty Cajun-Creole Columbia releases
(single) Amédé Ardoin, Dennis McGee
Additional Information 1929 2003 Folk Caldonia
(single) Louis Jordan
Additional Information 1945 2013 Blues Call It Stormy Monday But Tuesday is Just As Bad
(single) T-Bone Walker
Additional Information 1947 2007 Blues Canal Street Blues
(single)
(April 5, 1923) King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
Additional Information 1923 2009 Jazz Canzone del Porter from "Martha"
(single) Edouard de Reszke
Additional Information 1903 2005 Classical/Opera Carnegie Hall Concert with Buck Owens and His Buckaroos
(album) Buck Owens and His Buckaroos
Additional Information 1966 2013 Country/Bluegrass Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert
(album) Benny Goodman
Additional Information 1938 2003 Jazz Casey at the Bat DeWolf Hopper
Additional Information 1915 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word Casta Diva from "Norma"
(single)
(December 31, 1928) Rosa Ponselle, Guilio Setti
Additional Information 1928 2007 Classical/Opera Castles in Europe One-Step (Castle House Rag)
(single) Europe's Society Orchestra
Additional Information 1914 2004 Jazz Cathy's Clown
(single) The Everly Brothers
Additional Information 1960 2013 Pop (1955-1975) Celia & Johnny
(album) Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco
Additional Information 1974 2013 Latin A Change is Gonna Come
(single) Sam Cooke
Additional Information 1964 2006 R&B Charles A. Lindbergh's arrival and reception in Washington, D.C.
(June 11, 1927) Charles A. Lindbergh, et.al.
Additional Information 1927 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Charleston
(single) Golden Gate Orchestra
Additional Information 1925 2004 Technology Cheap Thrills
(album) Big Brother and the Holding Company
Additional Information 1968 2012 Pop (1955-1975) A Child's Christmas in Wales Dylan Thomas
Additional Information 1952 2008 Broadcast/Spoken Word Chippewa/Ojibwe Cylinder Collection Frances Densmore
Additional Information 1907-1910 2003 Field Chopin Polonaise Op. 40, No. 1 ("Polonaise Militaire") Artur Rubinstein
Additional Information 1952 2006 Classical/Opera The Churkendoose Ray Bolger
Additional Information 1947 2008 Children's Coal Miner's Daughter
(single) Loretta Lynn
Additional Information 1970 2009 Country/Bluegrass Coat of Many Colors
(single) Dolly Parton
Additional Information 1971 2011 Country/Bluegrass Come Down Ma Evenin' Star
(single) Lillian Russell
Additional Information 1912 2011 Pop (Pre-1955) Command Performance (No. 21)
(July 7, 1942) Bob Hope
Additional Information 1942 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word Complete "Ring Cycle"
(album) George Solti, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Additional Information 1958-1965 2003 Classical/Opera The Complete Recordings Robert Johnson
Additional Information 1936-1937 2003 Blues Complete Village Vanguard Recordings
(album)
(June 25, 1961) Bill Evans Trio
Additional Information 1961 2009 Jazz Continental Harmony: Gregg Smith Singers Perform Music of William Billings
(album) The Gregg Smith Singers
Additional Information 1969 2011 Choral Coolidge Inauguration Ceremony
(March 4, 1925) Calvin Coolidge, et.al.
Additional Information 1925 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word Copland Conducts Copland: Appalachian Spring
(album) Aaron Copland
Additional Information 1974 2013 Classical/Opera Cradle Will Rock (original cast recording)
(album) Mark Blitzstein
Additional Information 1938 2002 Musical/Soundtrack Crazy
(single) Patsy Cline
Additional Information 1961 2003 Country/Bluegrass Crazy Blues
(single) Mamie Smith
Additional Information 1920 2005 Blues Crescent City Living Legends Collection New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation Archive/WWOZ New Orleans
Additional Information 1973-1990 2002 Jazz Cross of Gold speech William Jennings Bryan
Additional Information 1921 re-enactment 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Crossing Chilly Jordan
(single) The Blackwood Brothers
Additional Information 1960 2012 Gospel Cylinder recordings of Metropolitan Opera Lionel Mapleson
Additional Information 1900-1903 2002 Classical/Opera Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) Max Mathews, John L. Kelly, Jr., and Carol Lockbaum
Additional Information 1961 2009 Technology Damnation of Faust
(album) Boston Symphony Orchestra, et.al.
Additional Information 1954 2005 Choral Dance Mania
(album) Tito Puente
Additional Information 1958 2002 Latin Dancing in the Street
(single) Martha and the Vandellas
Additional Information 1964 2005 R&B Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
(single) Blind Willie Johnson
Additional Information 1927 2010 Gospel Daydream Nation
(album) Sonic Youth
Additional Information 1988 2005 Pop (1976-1996) D-Day radio address to the Allied Nations
(June 6, 1944) Dwight D. Eisenhower
Additional Information 1944 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word D-Day Radio Broadcast
(June 5-6, 1944) George Hicks
Additional Information 1944 2012 Broadcast/Spoken Word Dear Mama Tupac Shakur
Additional Information 1995 2009 Rap/Hip Hop Descargas: Cuban Jam Session in Miniature
(album) Cachao Y Su Ritmo Caliente 1957 2012 Latin Description of crash of Hindenburg
(May 6, 1937) Herbert Morrison
Additional Information 1937 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
(album) Firesign Theatre
Additional Information 1970 2005 Comedy/Novelty The Doors
(album) The Doors
Additional Information 1967 2014 Pop (1955-1975) Down by the Riverside
(single) Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Additional Information 1944 2004 Gospel Down-Hearted Blues
(single) Bessie Smith
Additional Information 1923 2002 Blues Drums of Passion
(album) Michael Babatunde Olatunji
Additional Information 1960 2004 Pop (1955-1975) Dust My Broom
(single) Elmore James
Additional Information 1951 2013 Blues Eagle Stirreth Her Nest Rev. C.L. Franklin
Additional Information 1953 2010 Broadcast/Spoken Word Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)
(single) The Penguins
Additional Information 1954 2004 R&B Edison Talking Doll cylinder (November 1888) n/a
Additional Information 1888 2011 Technology The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake
(album) Eubie Blake
Additional Information 1969 2006 Pop (1955-1975) Einstein on the Beach
(album) Phillip Glass, Robert Wilson
Additional Information 1979 2012 Classical/Opera El Manisero ("The Peanut Vendor")
(single) Rita Montaner, Don Azpiazu and His Havana Casino Orchestra
Additional Information 1927; 1930 2005 Latin Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book
(album) Ella Fitzgerald
Additional Information 1956 2003 Pop (1955-1975) Evangeline Special
(single) Iry Le Jeune
Additional Information 1947 2009 Folk Every Man a King speech
(February 23, 1935) Huey P. Long
Additional Information 1935 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Fall of the City ("The Columbia Workshop")
(April 11, 1937) Archibald MacLeish
Additional Information 1937 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman
(album) Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop, conductor; Joan Tower, composer
Additional Information 1999 2014 Classical/Opera Fascinating Rhythm
(single) Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire, George Gershwin
Additional Information 1926 2005 Pop (Pre-1955) Fascinating Rhythm
(single) Sol Hoopii
Additional Information 1938 2011 Folk Fear of a Black Planet
(album) Public Enemy
Additional Information 1990 2004 Rap/Hip Hop A Festival of Lessons and Carols as Sung on Christmas Eve in King's College Chapel, Cambridge
(album) King's College Choir
Additional Information 1954 2008 Choral Fibber McGee and Molly (Fibber's closet opens for the first time)
(March 4, 1940) Jim and Marian Jordan
Additional Information 1940 2007 Broadcast/Spoken Word Fifth Regiment March Thomas Edison
Additional Information 1888-1889 2002 Technology Fireside Chats Franklin D. Roosevelt
Additional Information 1933-1944 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word First Family
(album) Vaughn Meader, et.al.
Additional Information 1962 2013 Comedy/Novelty First Transatlantic Radio Broadcast
(March 14, 1925) WJZ New York, WRC Washington, D.C.
Additional Information 1925 2007 Broadcast/Spoken Word First official transatlantic telephone conversation
(January 7, 1927) W.S. Gifford, Sir Evelyn P. Murray
Additional Information 1927 2005 Technology Foggy Mountain Breakdown
(single) Flatt and Scruggs
Additional Information 1949 2004 Country/Bluegrass Fon der Choope (From the Wedding)
(single)
(April 4, 1914) Abe Elenkrig's Yidishe Orchestra
Additional Information 1914 2009 Folk For the Roses
(album) Joni Mitchell
Additional Information 1972 2007 Pop (1955-1975) Forever Changes
(album) Love
Additional Information 1967 2011 Pop (1955-1975) Fortunate Son
(single) Creedence Clearwater Revival
Additional Information 1969 2013 Pop (1955-1975) Four Saints in Three Acts
(album) Virgil Thomson
Additional Information 1947 2004 Classical/Opera The Four Seasons
(album) Louis Kaufman and the Concert Hall String Orchestra
Additional Information 1947 2003 Classical/Opera The Fred Allen Show
(October 7, 1945) Fred Allen
Additional Information 1945 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
(album) Bob Dylan
Additional Information 1963 2002 Folk 'Freight Train' and Other Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes
(album) Elizabeth Cotten
Additional Information 1959 2007 Folk Gang Busters Phillips H. Lord
Additional Information 1935-1957 2008 Broadcast/Spoken Word Giant Steps
(album) John Coltrane
Additional Information 1959 2004 Jazz Girl from Ipanema
(single) Stan Getz, et.al.
Additional Information 1963 2004 Pop (1955-1975) God Bless America (radio broadcast premiere)
(November 11, 1938) Kate Smith
Additional Information 1938 2002 Pop (Pre-1955) Goldberg Variations
(album) Glenn Gould
Additional Information 1955 2003 Classical/Opera The Goldbergs
(July 9, 1942) Gertrude Berg, et.al.
Additional Information 1942 2013 Broadcast/Spoken Word Goodnight, Irene
(single) Lead Belly
Additional Information 1933 2003 Blues GOPAC Strategy and Instructional Tapes Newt Gingrich, et.al.
Additional Information 1986-1994 2010 Broadcast/Spoken Word Graceland
(album) Paul Simon
Additional Information 1986 2006 Pop (1976-1996) Grand Ole Opry (first network radio broadcast)
(October 14, 1939) Roy Acuff, et.al.
Additional Information 1939 2002 Country/Bluegrass Green Onions Booker T. and the MG's
Additional Information 1962 2011 Pop (1955-1975) Guys & Dolls (original cast recording)
(album) Vivian Blaine, Stubby Kaye, Frank Loesser, et.al.
Additional Information 1950 2004 Musical/Soundtrack Gypsy
(album) Ethel Merman, et.al.
Additional Information 1959 2009 Musical/Soundtrack Gypsy Love Song
(single) Eugene Cowles
Additional Information 1898 2004 Classical/Opera Hallelujah
(single) Jeff Buckley
Additional Information 1994 2013 Pop (1976-1996) Harvard Vocarium record series W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams, et.al.
Additional Information 1930s-1940s 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word He Stopped Loving Her Today
(single) George Jones
Additional Information 1980 2008 Country/Bluegrass Headhunters
(album) Herbie Hancock
Additional Information 1973 2007 Jazz Heart Like a Wheel
(album) Linda Ronstadt
Additional Information 1974 2013 Pop (1955-1975) Heiftez (Jascha) Acoustic recordings for Victor Records Jascha Heifetz
Additional Information 1917-1924 2008 Classical/Opera He's Got the Whole World in His Hands
(single) Marian Anderson
Additional Information 1936 2003 Gospel Highlander Center Field Recording Collection Rosa Parks, Esau Jenkins, et.al.
Additional Information 1930s-1980s 2002 Field Honolulu Cake Walk
(single) Vess Ossman
Additional Information 1898 2003 Pop (Pre-1955) Hoodoo Man Blues
(album) Junior Wells
Additional Information 1965 2012 Blues Horses
(album) Patti Smith
Additional Information 1975 2009 Pop (1955-1975) Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings
(single) Louis Armstrong
Additional Information 1925-1928 2002 Jazz Hottest Women's Band of the 1940s
(album) International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Additional Information 1944-1946, released 1984 2011 Jazz How High the Moon
(single) Les Paul and Mary Ford
Additional Information 1951 2002 Pop (Pre-1955) Howl Allen Ginsberg
Additional Information 1959 2006 Broadcast/Spoken Word Hula Medley
(single) Gabby Pahinui
Additional Information 1947 2011 Folk I Can Hear It Now: 1933-1945
(album) Edward R. Murrow, Fred W. Friendly
Additional Information 1948 2011 Broadcast/Spoken Word I Feel Love
(single) Donna Summer
Additional Information 1977 2011 Disco/Dance I Have a Dream speech
(August 28, 1963) Martin Luther King, Jr.
Additional Information 1963 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word I Started Out as a Child
(album) Bill Cosby
Additional Information 1964 2009 Comedy/Novelty I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart
(single) Patsy Montana
Additional Information 1935 2011 Country/Bluegrass If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again
(single) Thomas Dorsey
Additional Information 1934 2007 Gospel Il mio Tesoro
(single) John McCormack, Walter Rogers
Additional Information 1916 2006 Classical/Opera I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
(single) Muddy Waters
Additional Information 1954 2004 Blues In the Mood
(single) Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
Additional Information 1939 2004 Jazz Indians for Indians
(March 25, 1947) Keshkekosh (a.k.a. Don Whistler)
Additional Information 1947 2011 Broadcast/Spoken Word Interview with James Baldwin
(September 29, 1962) Studs Terkel, James Baldwin
Additional Information 1962 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word Interviews with William "Billy" Bell, representing the Edward D. Ives Collection William "Billy" Bell, William, Edward D. ("Sandy") Ives
Additional Information 1956 2006 Field Ishi, cylinder recordings of Ishi
Additional Information 1911-1914 2010 Broadcast/Spoken Word It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
(single)
(May 30, 1952) Kitty Wells
Additional Information 1952 2007 Country/Bluegrass It's the Girl Boswell Sisters
Additional Information 1931 2010 Pop (Pre-1955) I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) Otis Redding
Additional Information 1965 2003 R&B The Jack Benny Program
(March 28, 1948) Jack Benny
Additional Information 1948 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Jazz at the Philharmonic
(album)
(July 2, 1944) Nat "King" Cole, Buddy Rich, Les Paul, et.al.
Additional Information 1944 2010 Jazz The Jazz Scene
(album) Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, et.al.
Additional Information 1949 2007 Jazz Jelly Roll Morton interviews (conducted by Alan Lomax) Jelly Roll Morton, Alan Lomax
Additional Information 1938 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Joan Baez
(album) Joan Baez
Additional Information 1960 2014 Folk Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight
(June 22, 1938) Clem McCarthy (announcer)
Additional Information 1938 2005 Sports John Brown's Body
(album) Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson, Raymond Massey
Additional Information 1953 2014 Broadcast/Spoken Word John the Revelator
(single) Golden Gate Quartet
Additional Information 1938 2005 Gospel Johnson (Guy B.) Cylinder recordings of African-American music Guy B. Johnson
Additional Information 1920s 2003 Field Johnson, Lyndon B. Presidential Recordings
(November 22, 1963; January 10, 1969) Lyndon B. Johnson
Additional Information 1963
2013 Broadcast/Spoken Word Jole Blon
(single) Harry Choates
Additional Information 1946 2005 Folk The Joshua Tree
(album) U2
Additional Information 1987 2013 Pop (1976-1996) Judy at Carnegie Hall
(album) Judy Garland
Additional Information 1961 2003 Pop (1955-1975) Just Because Frank Yankovic and His Yanks
Additional Information 1947 2012 Pop (Pre-1955) Kennedy Inaugural Ceremony John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Robert Frost, et.al.
Additional Information 1961 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Kind of Blue
(album) Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, et.al.
Additional Information 1959 2002 Jazz King James Version of the Bible Alexander Scourby
Additional Information 1966 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Kiss Me, Kate
(album) Original Cast Album
Additional Information 1949 2014 Musical/Soundtrack Ko Ko
(single) Charlie Parker, et.al.
Additional Information 1945 2002 Jazz LaGuardia reading the comics over the radio Fiorello LaGuardia
Additional Information 1945 2007 Broadcast/Spoken Word Laughing Song
(single) George W. Johnson
Additional Information 1896 (circa) 2013 Comedy/Novelty Leon Metcalf Collection Leon Metcalf
Additional Information 1950-1954 2009 Field Let's Go Out to the Programs
(single) Dixie Hummingbirds
Additional Information 1953 2011 Gospel Let's Stay Together
(single) Al Green
Additional Information 1971 2010 R&B Library of Congress Marine Corps Combat Field Recording Collection, Second Battle of Guam
(July 20-August 11, 1944) Alvin Joseph
Additional Informationy 1944 2009 Field Light's Golden Jubilee Celebration
(October 21, 1929) Thomas Edison (honoree)
Additional Information 1929 2005 Broadcast/Spoken Word Lincoln Mayorga & Distinguished Colleagues
(album) Lincoln Mayorga
Additional Information 1968 2014 Technology Listen to the Lambs
(single) Hampton Quartette
Additional Information 1917 2005 Field The Little Engine That Could Paul Wing
Additional Information 1949 2009 Children's Live at the Apollo
(album) James Brown
Additional Information 1963 2004 R&B Live at the Regal
(album) B.B. King
Additional Information 1965 2005 Blues Live at Yankee Stadium
(album) Fania All-Stars
Additional Information 1975 2003 Latin Live in Japan
(album) Sarah Vaughan
Additional Information 1973 2006 Jazz The Lone Ranger (Episode: "The Osage Bank Robbery")
(December 17, 1937) Earle Graser
Additional Information 1937 2006 Broadcast/Spoken Word The Lord's Prayer
(single) Emile Berliner
Additional Information 1890 2003 Technology Love Bridge Waltz Iry Le Jeune
Additional Information 1948 2009 Folk Lovesick Blues
(single) Hank Williams
Additional Information 1949 2004 Country/Bluegrass Lovey's Trinidad String Band recordings for Columbia Records (New York City Tour) Lovey's Trinidad String Band
Additional Information 1912 2002 Jazz Mal Hombre
(single) Lydia Mendoza
Additional Information 1934 2010 Latin Manteca
(single) Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, Chano Pozo
Additional Information 1947 2004 Latin Marine Band Concert album to help benefit the National Cultural Center
(album) United States Marine Band
Additional Information 1963 2006 Choral Oh Mary Don't You Weep
(single) The Swan Silvertones
Additional Information 1959 2014 Gospel Mary Margaret McBride
(January 25, 1943) Mary Margaret McBride, Hurston, Zora Neale
Additional Information 1943 2008 Broadcast/Spoken Word The Message
(single) Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
Additional Information 1982 2002 Rap/Hip Hop Messiah
(album) Eugene Ormandy, Richard Condie, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Philadelphia Orchestra
Additional Information 1959 2004 Choral Mingus Ah-Um
(album) Charles Mingus
Additional Information 1959 2003 Jazz The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
(album) Lauryn Hill
Additional Information 1998 2014 Rap/Hip Hop Mothership Connection
(album) Parliament
Additional Information 1976 2011 R&B Move On Up a Little Higher
(single) Mahalia Jackson
Additional Information 1948 2005 Gospel Music From the Morning of the World
(album) David Lewiston
Additional Information 1966 2007 Folk Music Time in Africa: Mauritania
(July 29, 1973) Leo Sarkisian, host
Additional Information 1973 2012 Broadcast/Spoken Word My Fair Lady (original cast recording)
(album) Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, et.al.
Additional Information 1956 2007 Musical/Soundtrack My Funny Valentine
(single) The Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker
Additional Information 1953 2014 Jazz My Man
(single) Fanny Brice
Additional Information 1921 2005 Pop (Pre-1955) National Defense Test
(September 12, 1924) John J. Pershing
Additional Information 1924 2006 Technology Native Brazilian Music
(album) Leopold Stokowski
Additional Information 1942 2006 Folk Navajo Shootingway Ceremony field recordings David McAllester
Additional Information 1957-1958 2007 Field NBC Radio coverage of Marian Anderson's recital at the Lincoln Memorial
(April 9, 1939) Marian Anderson
Additional Information 1939 2008 Classical/Opera Nevermind
(album) Nirvana
Additional Information 1991 2004 Pop (1976-1996) New Music Quarterly Recordings Series Henry Cowell, et.al.
Additional Information 1934-1949 2002 Classical/Opera New Orleans' Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band
(album) Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Additional Information 1964 2014 Jazz New San Antonio Rose
(single) Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
Additional Information 1940 2003 Country/Bluegrass New York Philharmonic debut of Leonard Bernstein
(November 14, 1943) Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic
Additional Information 1943 2011 Classical/Opera New York Taxi Driver
(album) Tony Schwartz
Additional Information 1959 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word A Night at Birdland (Vols. 1 and 2)
(album) Art Blakey
Additional Information 1954 2013 Jazz Night Life
(single) Mary Lou Williams
Additional Information 1930 2008 Jazz No News, or What Killed the Dog Nat M. Wills
Additional Information 1908 2008 Comedy/Novelty O Que e que a Bahiana tem
(single) Carmen Miranda
Additional Information 1939 2008 Latin Oh Happy Day
(single) Edwin Hawkins Singers
Additional Information 1969 2005 Gospel Oh, Pretty Woman
(single) Roy Orbison
Additional Information 1964 2007 Pop (1955-1975) OK Computer
(album) Radiohead
Additional Information 1997 2014 Pop (1996+) Okeh Laughing Record
(single) Bernardo, Lucie, Otto Rathke
Additional Information 1922 2003 Comedy/Novelty Oklahoma! (original cast recording)
(album) Rodgers and Hammerstein
Additional Information 1943 2003 Musical/Soundtrack Old fog horn (Kewaunee, Wisconsin) James A. Lipsky
Additional Information 1972 2005 Environment Old Soldiers Never Die (farewell address to Congress)
(April 19, 1951) Douglas MacArthur
Additional Information 1951 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's
(album) Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, et.al.
Additional Information 1960-1962 2012 Country/Bluegrass One O'Clock Jump
(single) Count Basie and His Orchestra
Additional Information 1937 2005 Jazz Only Visiting this Planet
(album) Larry Norman
Additional Information 1972 2013 Gospel Ory's Creole Trombone
(single)
(June 1922) Kid Ory
Additional Information 1922 2005 Jazz Othello (Broadway production)
(album) Paul Robeson, et.al.
Additional Information 1943 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Over There
(single) Nora Bayes
Additional Information 1917 2005 Pop (Pre-1955) Passamaquoddy Indian field recordings Jesse Walter Fewkes
Additional Information 1890 2002 Field Pattison Waltz Thomas Edison
Additional Information 1888-1889 2002 Technology Peace Be Still
(album) James Cleveland
Additional Information 1962 2004 Gospel Peace in the Valley
(single) Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys
Additional Information 1951 2006 Gospel Pet Sounds
(album) Beach Boys
Additional Information 1966 2005 Pop (1955-1975) Peter and the Wolf
(album) Serge Koussevitzky, et.al.
Additional Information 1939 2004 Children's Philomel: For Soprano, Recorded Soprano and Synthesized Sound
(album) Beardslee, Bethany
Additional Information 1971 2002 Classical/Opera Phonautograms Edouard-Leon Stott de Martinville
Additional Information 1853-1861 (circa) 2010 Technology Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor (Rachmaninoff) Leopold Stokowski
Additional Information 1929 2004 Classical/Opera Piano Sonata No. 2, "Concord Sonata"
(album) John Kirkpatrick
Additional Information 1948 2003 Classical/Opera Pictures at an Exhibition
(album) Rafael Kubelik, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, et.al.
Additional Information 1951 2003 Classical/Opera The Play of Daniel: A Twelfth-Century Drama
(album) New York Pro Musica, Noah Greenberg
Additional Information 1958 2008 Classical/Opera Poeme Electronique
(album) Edgard Varese
Additional Information 1958 2005 Technology Pony Blues
(single) Patton, Charley
Additional Information 1929 2006 Blues Pope Marcellus Mass (Palestrina) Roger Wagner Chorale
Additional Information 1951 2010 Classical/Opera Porgy and Bess (original cast recording)
(album) Todd Duncan, Anne Brown, et.al.
Additional Information 1940, 1942 2003 Musical/Soundtrack A Prairie Home Companion (first broadcast)
(July 6, 1974) Garrison Keillor
Additional Information 1974 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Precious Lord: New Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey
(album) Thomas A. Dorsey
Additional Information 1973 2002 Gospel President's Message Relayed from Atlas Satellite
(December 19, 1958) Dwight D. Eisenhower
Additional Information 1958 2012 Technology Problems of the American Home
(album) Billy Graham
Additional Information 1957 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word Purple Rain
(album) Prince
Additional Information 1984 2011 Pop (1976-1996) Radio broadcasts Ronald Reagan
Additional Information 1976-79 2007 Broadcast/Spoken Word Radio Coverage of the Funeral of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
(April 14, 1945) Arthur Godfrey, et.al.
Additional Information 1945 2014 Broadcast/Spoken Word Radio Free Europe
(single) R.E.M.
Additional Information 1981 2009 Pop (1976-1996) Ragtime compositions on piano rolls Scott Joplin
Additional Information 1900s 2002 Pop (Pre-1955) Ramones
(album) Ramones
Additional Information 1976 2012 Pop (1976-1996) Rank Stranger
(single) The Stanley Brothers
Additional Information 1960 2008 Country/Bluegrass Rapper's Delight
(single) Sugarhill Gang
Additional Information 1979 2011 Rap/Hip Hop Recordings of Asian elephants Katharine B. Payne
Additional Information 1984 2004 Environment Red Headed Stranger
(album) Willie Nelson
Additional Information 1975 2009 Country/Bluegrass Remarks by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong broadcast from the moon
(July 21, 1969) Neil Armstrong
Additional Information 1969 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word Respect
(single) Aretha Franklin
Additional Information 1967 2002 R&B The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Gil Scott-Heron
Additional Information 1970 2005 R&B Rhapsody in Blue
(single) Paul Whiteman Orchestra
Additional Information 1924 2002 Classical/Opera The Rite of Spring
(album) New York Philharmonic
Additional Information 1940 2002 Classical/Opera Ritter, Lawrence interviews with early baseball players n/a
Additional Information 1962-1966 2013 Broadcast/Spoken Word Roll Over Beethoven
(single) Chuck Berry
Additional Information 1956 2003 Pop (1955-1975) Rosina Cohen oral narrative from the Lorenzo D. Turner Collection Rosina Cohen, Lorenzo D. Turner
Additional Information 1932 2004 Field Rumble
(single) Link Wray
Additional Information 1958 2008 Pop (1955-1975) Sallie Gooden
(single) Eck Robertson
Additional Information 1922 2002 Country/Bluegrass (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
(single) The Rolling Stones
Additional Information 1965 2006 Pop (1955-1975) Saturday Night Fever
(album) The Bee Gees, et.al.
Additional Information 1977 2012 Disco/Dance Clifton's Crew
(single) Pat Bonner
Additional Information 1952-60 2005 Field Sesame Street: All-Time Platinum Favorites
(album) Various
Additional Information 1995 2014 Children's Second Hand Rose
(single) Fanny Brice
Additional Information 1921 2005 Pop (Pre-1955) See See Rider Blues
(single) Gertrude "Ma" Rainey
Additional Information 1924 2004 Blues Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
(album) The Beatles
Additional Information 1967 2003 Pop (1955-1975) Show Boat
(album) Victor Young, et.al.
Additional Information 1932 2005 Musical/Soundtrack Silver Apples of the Moon
(album) Morton Subotnick
Additional Information 1967 2009 Classical/Opera Sinews of Peace (Iron Curtain) speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri
(March 5, 1946) Winston Churchill
Additional Information 1946 2008 Broadcast/Spoken Word Singin' the Blues
(single) Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke
Additional Information 1927 2005 Jazz Sixteen Tons
(single) Tennessee Ernie Ford
Additional Information 1955 2014 Country/Bluegrass Smokestack Lightning
(single) Howlin' Wolf
Additional Information 1956 2009 Blues Some of These Days
(single) Sophie Tucker
Additional Information 1911 2004 Pop (Pre-1955) Songs by Tom Lehrer
(album) Tom Lehrer
Additional Information 1953 2004 Comedy/Novelty Songs for Young Lovers
(album) Frank Sinatra
Additional Information 1954 2002 Pop (Pre-1955) Songs in the Key of Life
(album) Stevie Wonder
Additional Information 1976 2005 R&B Songs of the Humpback Whale
(album) Roger Payne, Frank Watlington, et.al.
Additional Information 1970 2010 Environment Old Regular Baptists: Lined-Out Hymnody from Southeastern Kentucky
(album) Indian Bottom Association
Additional Information 1997 2014 Gospel 'Sorry, Wrong Number' ('Suspense')
(May 25, 1943) Agnes Moorehead, et.al.
Additional Information 1943 2014 Broadcast/Spoken Word Soul Folk in Action
(album) The Staple Singers
Additional Information 1968 2009 Gospel Sounds of Silence
(album) Simon and Garfunkel
Additional Information 1966 2012 Pop (1955-1975) The Sounds of the Earth Johan Sebastian Bach, Chuck Berry, et.al.
Additional Information 1977 2007 Other Sounds of the ivory-billed woodpecker Arthur Allen, Peter Paul Kellogg
Additional Information 1935 2008 Environment South Pacific
(album) Original cast recording
Additional Information 1949 2012 Musical/Soundtrack Southern States recording trip John and Ruby Lomax
Additional Information 1939 2002 Field Speech at the Democratic National Convention
(July 15, 1948) Harry S. Truman
Additional Information 1948 2007 Broadcast/Spoken Word Stand!
(album) Sly and the Family Stone
Additional Information 1969 2014 R&B Stand by Me
(single) Ben E. King
Additional Information 1961 2014 Pop (1955-1975) Stand by Your Man
(single) Tammy Wynette
Additional Information 1968 2010 Country/Bluegrass Star Wars (soundtrack)
(album) John Williams
Additional Information 1977 2004 Musical/Soundtrack Stardust
(single) Hoagy Carmichael
Additional Information 1927 2004 Pop (Pre-1955) Stars and Stripes Forever
(single) Military Band
Additional Information 1897 2002 Pop (Pre-1955) Steam locomotive recordings (6 Vol.: 1957-1977) O. Winston Link
Additional Information 1957-1977 2003 Environment Stormy Weather
(single) Ethel Waters
Additional Information 1933 2004 Pop (Pre-1955) Straighten Up and Fly Right
(single) Nat "King" Cole
Additional Information 1943 2005 Pop (Pre-1955) Strange Fruit
(single) Billie Holiday
Additional Information 1939 2002 Jazz Sun Records sessions Elvis Presley
Additional Information 1954-1955 2002 Pop (1955-1975) Suncook Town Tragedy
(single) Mabel Wilson Tatro
Additional Information 1930 2004 Field Swanee
(single) Al Jolson
Additional Information 1920 2004 Pop (Pre-1955) Sweeney Todd
(album) Stephen Sondheim
Additional Information 1979 2013 Musical/Soundtrack Sweet Lorraine
(single) Art Tatum
Additional Information 1940 2007 Jazz Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
(single) Fisk Jubilee Singers
Additional Information 1909 2002 Gospel Switched-On Bach
(album) Wendy Carlos
Additional Information 1968 2005 Technology Take Me Out to the Ballgame
(single) Edward Meeker
Additional Information 1908 2010 Pop (Pre-1955) Talking Union
(album) Almanac Singers
Additional Information 1941 2010 Folk Tanec Pid Werbamy ("Dance Under the Willows")
(single) Pawlo Humeniuk
Additional Information 1926 2005 Folk Tapestry
(album) Carole King
Additional Information 1971 2003 Pop (1955-1975) Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1, Op. 23, B-flat Minor
(April 25, 1943) Vladimir Horowitz
Additional Information 1943 2004 Classical/Opera Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1, Op. 23, B-flat Minor
(April 25, 1943) Arturo Toscanini
Additional Information 1943 2004 Classical/Opera Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto, No. 1
(April 11, 1958) Van Cliburn
Additional Information 1958 2012 Classical/Opera Ten Cents a Dance
(single) Ruth Etting
Additional Information 1930 2011 Pop (Pre-1955) Texas Sharecropper and Songster
(album) Mance Lipscomb
Additional Information 1960 2013 Blues That'll Be the Day
(single) The Crickets
Additional Information 1957 2005 Pop (1955-1975) The Audience with Betty Carter
(album) Betty Carter
Additional Information 1980 2012 Jazz The Band
(album) The Band
Additional Information 1969 2009 Pop (1955-1975) The Dark Side of the Moon
(album) Pink Floyd
Additional Information 1973 2012 Pop (1955-1975) The Shape of Jazz to Come
(album) Ornette Coleman
Additional Information 1959 2012 Jazz The Twist
(single) Chubby Checker
Additional Information 1960 2012 Pop (1955-1975) Theme from 'Peter Gunn'
(album) Henry Mancini
Additional Information 1958 2010 Musical/Soundtrack Theme from 'Shaft'
(album) Issac Hayes
Additional Information 1971 2013 R&B They Didn't Believe Me
(single) Harry Macdonough and Alice Green
Additional Information 1915 2013 Pop (Pre-1955) This Land Is Your Land
(single) Woody Guthrie
Additional Information 1944 2002 Folk Thriller
(album) Michael Jackson
Additional Information 1982 2007 Pop (1976-1996) Tiger Rag
(single) Original Dixieland Jazz Band
Additional Information 1918 2002 Jazz Time Out
(album) Dave Brubeck Quartet
Additional Information 1959 2005 Jazz Tipitina Professor Longhair
Additional Information 1953 2010 Blues Today!
(album) Mississippi John Hurt
Additional Information 1966 2009 Blues Tom Dooley
(single) The Kingston Trio
Additional Information 1958 2008 Folk Tom Dooley
(single) Frank Proffitt
Additional Information 1940 2008 Folk Tracks of My Tears
(single) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Additional Information 1965 2007 R&B Tristan und Isolde
(March 9, 1935) Metropolitan Opera
Additional Information 1935 2009 Classical/Opera Trout Mask Replica
(album) Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Additional Information 1969 2010 Pop (1955-1975) Trovadores Regionales
(single) Gregorio Cortez
Additional Information 1929 2004 Folk Tubby the Tuba
(album) George Kleinsinger, Paul Tripp
Additional Information 1946 2005 Children's Tumbling Tumbleweeds
(single) Sons of the Pioneers
Additional Information 1934 2010 Country/Bluegrass Tuskegee Institute Choir Sings Spirituals
(album) Tuskegee Institute Choir
Additional Information 1955 2004 Gospel Tutti Frutti
(single) Little Richard
Additional Information 1955 2009 Pop (1955-1975) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
(single) Emile Berliner
Additional Information 1890 2003 Technology U.S. Highball (A Musical Account of a Transcontinental Hobo Trip)
(album) Harry Partch and Gate 5 Ensemble
Additional Information 1946 2004 Classical/Opera Uncle Josh and the Insurance Agent Cal Stewart
Additional Information 1904 2006 Comedy/Novelty Uncle Sam Blues (on V-Disc) Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Eddie Condon's Jazz Band
Additional Information 1944 2008 Jazz United Sacred Harp Musical Convention in Fyfe, AL Alan Lomax, Shirley Collins
Additional Information 1959 2010 Gospel Variations for Orchestra
(album) Louisville Orchestra
Additional Information 1956 2005 Classical/Opera The Velvet Underground and Nico
(album) Velvet Underground and Nico
Additional Information 1967 2006 Pop (1955-1975) Vernacular Wax Cylinder Recordings at UC Santa Barbara Library Various
Additional Information 1890-1920 (circa) 2014 Field Vesti la giubba from "Pagliacci"
(single) Enrico Caruso
Additional Information 1907 2002 Classical/Opera Victor releases
(single) Bert Williams and George Walker
Additional Information 1901 2003 Musical/Soundtrack Victor Talking Machine Company sessions in Bristol, TN The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Stoneman, et.al.
Additional Information 1927 2002 Country/Bluegrass Voice of America interviews with Jazz musicians Willis Conover
Additional Information 1956 2010 Broadcast/Spoken Word Voices from the Days of Slavery American Folklife Center
Additional Information 1932-1975 2011 Broadcast/Spoken Word Wabash Cannonball
(single) Roy Acuff
Additional Information 1936 2005 Country/Bluegrass War of the Worlds ("Mercury Theatre of the Air")
(October 30, 1938) Mercury Theatre of the Air
Additional Information 1938 2002 Broadcast/Spoken Word We Hold These Truths
(December 15, 1941) Norman Corwin
Additional Information 1941 2004 Broadcast/Spoken Word We Shall Overcome
(album) Pete Seeger
Additional Information 1963 2006 Folk We're Only in It for the Money
(album) Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
Additional Information 1968 2005 Pop (1955-1975) Were You There
(single) Roland Hayes
Additional Information 1940 2013 Gospel West Side Story (original cast recording)
(album) Leonard Bernstein, et.al.
Additional Information 1957 2008 Musical/Soundtrack What'd I Say (parts 1 and 2) Ray Charles
Additional Information 1959 2002 R&B What's Going On
(album) Marvin Gaye
Additional Information 1971 2003 R&B When I Stop Dreaming
(single) Louvin Brothers
Additional Information 1955 2013 Country/Bluegrass When You Wish Upon a Star
(single) Cliff Edwards
Additional Information 1940 2009 Pop (Pre-1955) White Christmas
(single) Bing Crosby
Additional Information 1942 2002 Pop (Pre-1955) The Who Sings My Generation
(album) The Who
Additional Information 1966 2008 Pop (1955-1975) Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
(single) Jerry Lee Lewis
Additional Information 1957 2005 Pop (1955-1975) Who's on First? (first radio broadcast version)
(March 1938) Abbott and Costello
Additional Information 1938 2002 Comedy/Novelty A Wild and Crazy Guy
(album) Steve Martin
Additional Information 1978 2014 Comedy/Novelty Wild Tchoupitoulas
(album) The Wild Tchoupitoulas
Additional Information 1976 2012 R&B Wildwood Flower
(single) The Carter Family
Additional Information 1928 2006 Country/Bluegrass Will the Circle Be Unbroken
(album) The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Additional Information 1972 2005 Country/Bluegrass Winds in Hi-Fi
(album) Eastman Wind Ensemble with Frederick Fennell
Additional Information 1958 2003 Classical/Opera Wings Over Jordan
(May 10, 1941) Wings Over Jordan Choir
Additional Information 1941 2007 Choral WJSV (complete day of broadcasting)
(September 21, 1939) WJSV (Washington, DC)
Additional Information 1939 2003 Broadcast/Spoken Word World Series Game Four, New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
(October 5, 1941) Red Barber, Bill Corum, Bob Elson
Additional Information 1941 2003 Sports You Are My Sunshine
(single) Jimmie Davis
Additional Information 1940 2012 Country/Bluegrass You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song
(album) Ella Jenkins
Additional Information 1966 2007 Children's You're a Grand Old Rag (Flag)
(single) Billy Murray
Additional Information 1906 2003 Pop (Pre-1955) You're the Top
(single) Cole Porter
Additional Information 1934 2006 Pop (Pre-1955) You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
(single) The Righteous Brothers
Additional Information 1964 2014 Pop (1955-1975) | |||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 9 | https://mostlymusiccovers.com/2020/07/23/the-monkees/ | en | Mostly Music Covers | [
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cropped-headphones-original.jpg?w=400",
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/b6d14-monkees.jpg?w=320&h=212",
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/81549-davey2bjones.jpg?w=809",
"https://mostlymusiccovers.com/wp... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2020-07-23T00:00:00 | The Monkees This is an updated repost from Dec. 18, 2018 For a TV series that ran for only two years (1966-68) albeit 58 episodes, it has had a significant effect on music, even today. I recall 'sneaking' as my father was very much against us watching such "garbage" with two of my sisters to… | en | Mostly Music Covers | https://mostlymusiccovers.com/2020/07/23/the-monkees/ | The Monkees
This is an updated repost from Dec. 18, 2018
For a TV series that ran for only two years (1966-68) albeit 58 episodes, it has had a significant effect on music, even today. I recall ‘sneaking’ as my father was very much against us watching such “garbage” with two of my sisters to watch the shows on Saturday morning reruns. I tried watching a couple of episodes recently, it’s about a wacky group of guys struggling to make it in the music business, and apart from the music my father was not all wrong. However, for the time period it was great entertainment for tweens and teens especially and that demographic bought their records-lots of them. In fact about 75 million records to date. The demise of the silly TV show was due to a backlash regarding the ‘manufactured’ nature of the band itself and a change in the format in season two, the ratings dropped and that was it. The TV show was gone and all that was left was a lot of great songs and by now, an actual fully functioning band with the Monkeys themselves playing instruments and as always doing all the vocals.
Last Train to Clarksville written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart was the Monkees first Billboard #1 hit in November of 1966. Covered over 50 times here is a rendition from the Four Tops (1967).
The group consisted of Davy Jones, born David Thomas Jones (30 December 1945 – 29 February 2012) and the reason David Bowie changed his name from David Jones. Jones (vocals) was quite a good drummer but he was relegated to mostly tambourines and maracas. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his role as the Artful Dodger in the original London and Broadway production of Oliver (1964).
Davy Jones was also a recording artist having reached the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1965 with What are We Going to Do?.
The main man was Micky Dolenz, born George Michael Dolenz Jr. (March 8, 1945). Dolenz like Jones was a child actor (Circus Boy) who later formed a rock band and actually auditioned for the Monkees by singing Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode. The producers wanted him to play the lead singer and drummer in the band so he needed lessons to be able to fake it for the TV show but by the time the Monkees went on tour he was good enough to play on all the songs.
Peter Tork (Peter Halsten Thorkelson) February 13, 1942 – Feb. 21, 2019. Tork was auditioned for the show after his friend Stephen Stills was turned down for the role and thank goodness for that as we’d never would have had Crosby, Stills and Nash! Tork was an accomplished musician playing bass and keyboards among other instruments. None of the band played any instruments on the first two Monkees Albums, so Tork was left to ‘fake’ play on the TV show as the keyboard player.
Robert Michael Nesmith was born December 30, 1942, at age four his parents divorced and he then lived with his mother. In 1955, Bette Nesmith Graham (March 23, 1924 – May 12, 1980) invented was then known as “mistake out”, she later formed her own company and called it “White Out”. She sold the company to Gillette in 1979 for $47.5 million.
Nesmith was a legitimate musician and songwriter having penned Different Drum for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys in 1965. Apparently his blase attitude and wool hat from the audition was exactly what they were looking for, Nesmith was hired as the lead guitarist for the Monkees and also wrote several of their songs.
The Monkees next #1 song was I’m a Believer was written by Neil Diamond. Covered over 100 times this song had a grand resurgence after being used in the movie Shrek performed by ‘Smash Mouth’ (2001).
The last of their three #1’s was Daydream Believer (Dec. 1967) written by John Stewart (Kingston Trio). Featuring Davy Jones on lead vocals this song spent four weeks at the top and 16 weeks in the top 100. Anne Murray hit #3 on the Country Charts and #12 on Billboard in 1979 with a beautiful version, one of 60 covers. Here is the songwriter himself from 1971, John Stewart.
The list songwriters of the Monkees songs reads like a veritable who’s who of stars from that time period, in addition to those already mentioned are; Carole King and Gerry Goffin Pleasant Valley Sunday (1967) which reached #3. A lesser known song these days that reached #19 in 1968 was first released by the Monkees but actually first recorded by the Coasters, D.W. Washburn was written by the very successful pair of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Oh My My was written by Jeff Barry (who along with his wife Ellie Greenwich wrote dozens of hits including (Do Wah Diddy) and Andy Kim (Rock Me Gently). Others were; Carole Bayer Sager (“Arthur’s Theme”, Best That You Can Do), Neil Sedaka (Breaking Up Is Hard to Do), Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (Here You Come Again and dozens of other hits), Chip Douglas (The Turtles), Bill Martin (Puppet on a String), Denny Randell (Let’s Hang On by the Four Seasons), and Jack Nicholson, and yes I mean that Jack Nicholson who along with Bob Rafelson wrote Ditty Diego – War Chant from the Monkees psychedelic pop movie Head which was co-written by Nicholson as well and ranked as one of the top Movie Soundtracks of all time (Rolling Stone #25).
My favorite Monkees song is actually a cover of I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone (Nov. 1966) written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart who along with Don Kirshner deserve most of the credit for the Monkees sound and originally recorded by Paul Revere & the Raiders (May 1966).
Trivia. We know Chicago born Walter Koenig was cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the TV show Star Trek: The Original Series. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants so the accent came naturally to him. What I at least didn’t know was it was because of his resemblance to Davy Jones. The series creator deliberately sought out to have a Monkees or Beatles looking character to try and attract teenage girl viewers.
References: 1, 2, 3
A Spotify playlist of the Monkees greatest hit songs
If you like my blog, please consider clicking the ‘Subscribe’ button at the top of the home page. Remember to confirm the subscription when you get the first email. Confidentiality is assured unless you are a close friend or family member then all bets are off. While I can compile data from my blog it’s not tracking in terms of anyone’s identity. For past blog posts click on the menu on the right hand margin. Pass it along to a friend who might enjoy it as well! And many thanks as always for reading my blog! | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 49 | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/ | en | Psychobabble | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | [
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNeQ_JT1LY3sHfmjJ7qPs15Oi64BBzMdh7e725U61v-Bn8et3E3lcw98BhoN1HHuwEvo6Yndr2AyRfloxZ1dJJy0242MIHkKp0SDuQwcxW5ri7UFdERukTOmtQTVXz44hbtJxTlpLWBYoK6KUwpJ02mfrAX-mEzKZ-UcumouenlBrwBdKCm5okkNhdutk=s16000",
"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEir8klwFO1UBXU... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Mike Segretto (Psychobabble)"
] | null | Psychobabble: For Groovy Ghouls, Retro Rockers, & Kooky Cultists. | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/favicon.ico | https://psychobabble200.blogspot.com/ | Much like George Harrison, John Entwistle was an excellent and unique songwriter in a band with songwriters who rank among the top-five rock songwriters of all time. Sometimes you just can't win, but Harrison at least deserved the last laugh when The Beatles split and he released what is arguably the best Beatles solo album of all.
Entwistle couldn't quite boast the same thing, considering the extraordinary quality of Pete Townshend's Empty Glass, but I feel pretty comfortable calling Entwistle's solo debut, Smash You Head Against the Wall, second best. Here is a deep dark lake creepy crawling with The Ox's cynicism, macabre humor, multi-instrumental prowess, and quirky way with melody, as well as his often overlooked "is it me for a moment" sensitivity. Dig the melodies of "What Are We Doing Here?" and "Ted End". They are liable to draw tears.
Everyone thinks of Jimmy Stewart as a sanitized "oh gosh" icon of apple-pie Americana, but when you look at his body of work, there are a lot of disturbed characters in there. The voyeur and the sexually obsessive freak he played for Hitchcock are obvious examples, but even his George Bailey in that allegedly saccharine but actually coal-dark holiday classic It's a Wonderful life is scary and intense for most of the film. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 0 | https://ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/700/herstory-stone-poney-blues-dues | en | Linda Ronstadt Fans Discussion | https://storage.proboards.com/3378503/images/s0A4FTBrdYQEb1QhCIl0.ico | https://storage.proboards.com/3378503/images/s0A4FTBrdYQEb1QhCIl0.ico | [
"https://storage.proboards.com/forum/images/error/guest-login.png"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Visit our forum at: ronstadt.proboards.com | https://storage.proboards.com/3378503/images/s0A4FTBrdYQEb1QhCIl0.ico | https://ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/700/herstory-stone-poney-blues-dues | This Forum Is Hosted For FREE By ProBoards
Get Your Own Free Forum! | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 91 | https://www.thestageonbroadway.com/musiciancorner | en | Featuring Nashville Country Singers | [
"https://www.thestageonbroadway.com/themes/thestage/images/companylogo.png",
"https://www.thestageonbroadway.com/uploaded/artist/Art_1679618063_34.jpg",
"https://www.thestageonbroadway.com/uploaded/artist/Art_1468815372_46.jpg",
"https://www.thestageonbroadway.com/uploaded/artist/Art_1469201535_2.jpg",
"htt... | [] | [] | [
"Music corner in Nashville",
"Broadway beer bar",
"Live music"
] | null | [] | null | The Stage in Nashville is one of the most famous bars on Broadway, featuring performances from local artists every week. Get to know our Nashville country singers. | en | /favicon.ico | Musician's Corner Events | Nashville Broadway Music & Beer Bar | https://www.thestageonbroadway.com/musiciancorner | Rickie Lee Tanner
Rickie Lee Tanner grew up in Belton in a town with strong musical roots, just south of Kansas City. His grandfather was a professional guitarist and shared his love of country music classics with Rickie from a very early age. Rickie has been entertaining crowds of all sizes nearly his entire life, getting his start playing Opry shows in the Kansas City area when he was just a kid. In his late teens he began fronting bands that played in the smoke-filled bars, honky tonks and dance clubs all over the midwest. During his career Rickie has shared the stage with some of biggest names in country music. Rickie has brought his high-energy show to bars, clubs, fairs and festivals from Minnesota to Texas and nearly everywhere in between. Consistently logging over 150 shows per year.
Anna LaPrad
Anna recently achieved one of her greatest career accomplishments by releasing her second studio album, called “Storyteller.” The full-length album contains 12 tracks, all but one of which were written or co-written by Anna. She’s also playing on the road every chance she gets and is quickly growing her following all over the United States. “Who knows what will happen, I just pray about everything! I know that I was born to perform and everyday I count my blessings. I don’t know what God has in store for me, but I do know that He has blessed me with such a wonderful gift and it is my job to use it as He intended. I’m definitely learning what it means to pay your dues and I wouldn’t trade one single second of it for anything else in the world. Being able to wake up and do what I love doing is an amazing feeling. I can honestly say that I’m loving my life right now and where ever it may lead, I’m just here enjoying the ride.” - Anna LaPrad
Shane Chisholm
Shane Chisholm is a Canadian born award winning Country/Americana artist working out of Nashvile, TN .In addition to his 4 CCMA (Canadian Country Music Assosiation) awards Chisholm was voted Alberta's very first Male Artist of the Year from the Alberta Country Music Association and has received several nominations for CCMA Roots Artist of the year.
Shane was profiled in The American Publication "Country Weekly Magazine", received a 4 Star review in The UK's Maverick Magazine and nominated for Country Recording of the Year through the Western Canadian Music Awards.With a solid reputation as an interactive entertainer, you will alway find him leading sing-a-longs and various activities to invole the audience
Hali Hicks
Hali Hicks is already a well-known veteran resident and recording artist in Nashville.
Toting a Martin guitar, Hali is always at the ready to sing a song. She’s been singing since she was a toddler and started playing her guitar when she was 13. With many influences throughout her young but seasoned life, she could tell you about some all-time favorite performers of hers – such as LeAnn Rimes and Dolly Parton.
Being in Nashville brings a unique exposure and because there’s so much live music there she doesn't have much reason to listen to her iPod. However, she does have Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rebecca Lynn Howard in her iTunes lineup. When thinking about influences, what comes to her lips immediately is the indelible influence that her family has had on her life. Tender reverence is revealed as she speaks of the support and assistance she has received from her daddy, her mama, her grandmother (‘nanny’) and the rest of her family.
Her musical exploration of other artists began with an interesting mixture of styles. Her first cassette was given to her as a gift from her daddy - the LeAnn Rimes Blue album. She also recalls receiving The Essential Dolly Parton album later on. The first concert she attended was Carmen, a gospel concert. Her favorite band is Lynyrd Skynyrd (and thanks to her daddy, she can play some Skynyrd!) These early introductions are frequently evident in the tone and timbre of her vocal expressions.
Jered Ames Band
Born and raised in the Midwest, Jered grew up working on his grandparents farm where the transistor radio hanging in the barn was tuned to the local country station. The inspiring voices of George Strait, Alan Jackson, Mark Chestnutt, and more echoed off the walls every day.
His desire to play music was instilled by his grandmother. One of his earliest memories is sitting next to her at the piano while she taught him the notes on the keyboard. Guitar, drums, and singing naturally followed and he started a band before he was a teenager. His high school years were spent performing for friends and family at local restaurants and talent shows.
Jered’s musical endeavors progressed professionally once he moved to Chicago for college. While obtaining his bachelor’s degree at DePaul University, Jered moonlighted in various bands around the city. Over the years the genres of the groups he played with spanned from country to pop to rock.
He decided to form his own band in 2011. They performed anything from 90’s to current country hits. In addition to frequent shows at Bub City and like venues, his band played weekly ‘country night’ residencies at The Hard Rock Hotel and The Wit Hotel.
By 2015, the decision was made to move to Nashville. Before boxes were even unpacked, he was booked 5 nights a week at some of the most famous honky tonks on Broadway with a band of hand picked players. Drummer, Robert Blair (Kelly Pickler, Clay Walker, Aaron Tippin), guitarist Aaron Currie (Josh Turner, Craig Campbell), and Grammy nominated bassist Jeremy Middleton (Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen). Today, they have been playing 200+ shows a year in Nashville and as well as private engagements around the US.
Jered co-wrote the Canadian country music charting single, HUNT, for new artist Darcy John and he has also co-written songs for artists Luke Betchner and Ben Klick who are working on upcoming releases.
Currently, he is working on his debut EP release (2020) which will echo the 90's country icons he was inspired by growing up.
The Olson Band
The Olson Bros Band burst onto the country music scene in 2013 when the won the Battle of the Bands at Capital Lake Fair in Olympia and also won a national songwriting contest for their hit song "Sunrise" in the Texaco Country Showdown where they won $5000, a trip to Nashville to consult with a publishing company, and got introduced at The Grand Ol' Opry.
The band originated in Olympia, WA and is lead by singer/songwriters Luke and Isaac Olson. They are known for their tight brotherly harmonies and the fun energetic vibe they bring to their live show! They are currently playing shows all over the Northwest and Nashville, and are in the midst of a heavy 2018 tour schedule up in the Northwest where they play at country music festivals, weddings, concerts in the park, and Wineries.
They have had the opportunity to open for some big time acts recently including Craig Morgan, Justin Moore, Sammy Kershaw, High Valley, Adam Craig and the list goes on! The Bros have also recently been enjoying a little time on the radio waves throughout Washington for their new single "If I Find You” (which has garnered over 700,000 streams on Spotify).
Isaac and Luke love performing but also enjoy writing music and have spent some time writing songs down in Nashville, collaborating with some big name writers including Brandon Kinney (Who has written songs for Randy Houser, Craig Campbell, Cole Swindel and many other famous acts), Jodi Marr, and Canadian Country Star Johnny Reid. Their newest EP “A New High” released May 2018 and is available now on iTunes and Spotify!
Conner Sweet Band
Ever since I was a little kid, I have loved music--particularly country music. I come from a long line of singers and musicians, so I guess it's only natural that I would have a real passion for it. I love the styles of country legends such as George Jones, Johnny Cash, and George Strait. I also really enjoy modern music, and some of my favorites are Thomas Rhett, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan.
I currently spend my time writing and pursuing my dream of becoming a traditional country artist. I am a member of BMI in Nashville, and I have been blessed to write with some of the best writers in the business. I play regularly at venues around the Nashville area. You can find my first official music video, "Young and Dumb," on YouTube and Vimeo. I plan to release my debut EP this year.
I appreciate the support I get from my family, friends and fans. It means a lot. I hope to see you soon! Watch the site for news on upcoming events!
Troy Brooks Band
Troy Brooks holds the crowd in the palm of his hand any time he hits the stage. A true entertainer, he knows what any crowd wants and he delivers with a consistency seen only in the best of today’s artists. Ever since moving to Nashville, his raw energy and excitement on stage has turned heads in most of Music City’s clubs and bars, making him a crowd favorite. Any chance you get to see Troy Brooks perform, you’re guaranteed to not be disappointed. He gives 110% every time he hits the stage… check him out the next chance you get!
Blaine Holcomb
Soon after heading to St. Lawrence University to study Performance & Communication Arts, Blaine entered the Texaco Country Showdown, which is a nation-wide country music competition. He advanced to the regional finals and because of his performance, Blaine was recruited by the Fulton Chain Gang as their new lead singer. FCG is a New York State country band with a 20-year history. During his three years with FCG, Blaine opened for national acts like Justin Moore, Easton Corbin, and Josh Thompson. He reignited the band with fresh ideas and played a major role in the release of their first album, contributing five original songs while averaging 70 shows per summer. His experience with FCG was incredible and his band mates gave him the opportunity to develop his stage presence, singing, and songwriting, while also giving him valuable studio experience. Because of this, and with the support from his band mates, friends, and family, Blaine has decided to take his career to the next level and move to Nashville.
Kenny P
Soulful singer/songwriter, troubadour and live music enthusiast. Kenny P's original songs take the listener on a ride, through the years, from Cleveland to Arizona, to Nashville and back again.
Kenny P attended ASU, studying Music Theater and vocal performance. While in Arizona, he wrote and played music, adding to his very particular style as a singer/songwriter. Kenny P later moved back to Cleveland Ohio where he continued to evolve and perform as both an acoustic artist as well as the lead male vocalist of a popular Top 40, high energy cover band.
After a move to Nashville, with his wife, in 2015, Kenny P settled in playing music at the infamous honky tonks in Nashville, TN. He was a featured contestant on NBC’s The Voice in 2016, on Team Gwen, where he shared his strong vocals and edgy style.
Since living in Nashville, he has worked with accomplished guitar player, Paul Sgroi, to bring together and collaborate with a group of talented and versatile musicians. This group of good ol’ boys, known as “Buddy Row” brings together classic country, blues and southern rock with 4 part harmonies and a flair of jazz on lead guitar. Recently, you may have heard and seen Kenny P in Cleveland, Houston, Muscle Shoals, Bowling Green, Nashville, and more! The music he writes and performs has a blues and soul vibe with his personal touch of funk.
Shelby Lee Lowe
Shelby Lee Lowe is a Modern Country artist heavily rooted in Neo-Tradition. Listeners can quickly hear echos of Bakersfield blended with contemporary lyrical styles and Indie-Rock influence. As a singer-songwriter, Shelby puts enormous conviction into the songs he writes and performs, a princple only enhanced after graduating with a degree in Music Business from MTSU and signing his first publishing deal with Banner Music in Nashville, TN. In 2016 he released his self-titled debut record on Banner Music Records. The release signaled a national tour hitting venues from coast to coast and small towns in between. When off the road he filled his calender with co-writing with experiened hit-makers learning how to maneuver his way through the difficult obstacles of the music industry, all the while honing his craft and preparing himself for a long music career.
Mathew Barringer
Mathew was raised to never give up, work hard at everything he does, and to treat people with respect. He has used these values to further his music career. He has played among several successful establishments in Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and surrounding states. Although raised in a small town, Barringer is no stranger to the big city lights. He recently played in several locations in Nashville, Tennessee including The Bluebird Café, Honky Tonk Central, Full Moon Saloon, Back Alley Diner, Rippy’s Bar and Grill, and the Swingin’ Door Saloon. Not yet signed with a record label, Mathew Barringer hopes to accomplish his dream of being a professional country music singer someday. Mathew is always looking to improve himself and his talent. He is no stranger to life’s hardships and set-backs and uses these to fuel his motivation. Barringer is currently working on original music for his debut album which will be finished by the end of February.
Nick Smith
Every so often, a genuine and authentic voice cuts through the speakers that connects. Nick Smith is one of those voices... A country boy at heart, Nick grew up in the rural community of Enville, Tennessee, dreaming of the day he would make his way to Nashville to pursue music. Throughout high school and college, Nick played baseball, including a successful stint at Troy University. In 2005 he reconnected with his love for music, creating a band that played a variety of college towns in the southern United States. His reputation as a great singer and lively entertainer began to spread. In 2013, Nick kicked it up a notch, moving to Nashville to fulfill his lifelong dream of making it big in Country music.
Saluda Shoals
Saluda Shoals began in the spring of 2015 as an acoustic project between Henri Gates (Southwood) and Cassie Verhaeghe (Brushfires). Originally called Smoking Guns, the duo began writing music and performing nightly, quickly making a name for themselves. In January 2016 the band recruited some of Charleston's best musicians and shortly after began performing as Saluda Shoals. In the short time since its conception, Saluda Shoals has released a 5 song EP available at all major online stores and has won competitions and award nominations across the Southeast.
Nominated for four 2016 Independent Tone Awards:
- Best Country Artist
- Best Rock Artist
- Best American Roots Artist
- Best American Roots Original Song ("I Fall")
Nominated for Charleston City Paper Music Awards "Best Americana/Country Artist"
1st place winner of Wild Wing Cafe's "Last Band Standing" June 2016
1st place winner Palmetto Brewing's "Battle of the Bands" July 2016
"Saluda Shoals come out blazing with a nearly flawless blend of talent, energy and undeniable presence. Whether caressing your ears with a velvet ballad or curling your socks with a rousing rocker, the harmony and precision of Henri Gates and Cassie Verhaeghe delivers pure listening pleasure. In particular, one of their original songs, “Fight Dirty,” would be right at home on the current country or alternative hit charts and, frankly, outshine many of the songs currently there."
- Stan Massey, Chief Marketing Officer at Transcend Marketing
Jillian Eliza
Jillian Eliza, Country music singer/songwriter from Nashville TN, is not your average country artist. She packs a punch in her live performances as well as in the studio. Her engaging, clever, and sometimes heartfelt lyrics, paint a picture of her life that she hopes people can find relatable and see some of themselves through. Her sound has a fun unique take on a combination of all her influences Country, Rock & Roll, with a little sprinkling of Power vocalists, it sets her apart from many female artists.
Since her debut in the music industry, Jillian Eliza has climbed the ladder and her work ethic shows in her impressive resume. The past few years, she has shared the stage and opened up for Luke Combs, Brett Eldredge, Lee Brice, Travis Tritt, the late Joe Diffie, Granger Smith, Ashley Mcbryde, Midland, Wynonna Judd, Jordan Davis, Thompson Square, Jimmie Allen, Kip Moore, and many more!
Her first single 'Heartbreak' is available on all streaming platforms.
Kelsey Hickman
For many, a career is a choice. For country recording artist Kelsey Hickman, hers was pre-determined. “I was always meant to sing. From day one. I knew it, my parents knew it – everyone knew it.” No doubt those that have seen and heard Hickman perform will agree. Her spunk, passion and all-in approach to life spills over into her vocal and stage performances, which incorporate a mix of soulful heart and infectious dance part anthems. Resonant of her central Illinois upbringing, her style incorporates Hickman’s natural fun and flirty persona, but also draws from the pain of her past. Regardless of the tune, her goal remains the same. “I want to write and perform music that my listeners can connect with. If I’ve done that, I’ve done what I’ve been put on this earth to do.”
Bethany Lynn
Bethany lynn is a singer songwriter born in the state of rhode island. Coming from a musical family, it was no surprise she became interested in performing at a young age. Her father and uncle were both gigging multi-instrumentalists and luthiers at guild in westerly, ri; her sister, a theater performer and pianist, and her grandmother, a singer. Bethany had her first on stage solo at the age of 5. Unrestricted by fear, she started performing dinsey songs for parties and fundraisers. By the age of 9, bethany had already recorded her first professional demo cd. In her pre-teen years, bethany spent her time performing in various talent shows, choruses, school bands, and musicals. At the age of 13, she began learning guitar. Since then, bethany has won a plethora of vocal competitions, most recent being the 2019 wave 92.7 country throwdown. Aside from her solo career, she has fronted a great number of bands. In 2020 she opened for rodney atkins at the tia lee festival in fort pierce, florida. A year later, she produced and released her first single, “you knocked her up”, a comical country classic. Several months later, she produced and released her second single "long haired country boy". Since then, bethany continues to write and perform her own music. Her unique voice and songwriting style will take you back in time to the age of golden country music.
The Champagne Hangover
Ryan Scarbrough proves himself to be a Jack-of-all-trades. Though his specialty and main passion in life is drumming, Ryan also plays guitar, bass, as well as recording all of his own vocals.
His determination, enthusiasm, and sheer talent for playing the drums was noticed by long time friend, Kyle Cook, guitarist for Matchbox Twenty. Kyle immediately saw the potential and within a week placed Ryan as the drummer for one of the bands he was producing. After traveling all over the country, being featured on Conan, Good Morning America, and Jay Leno, he played for multiple bands as well as starting a few bands of his own. After a few years of touring with the country/rock band A Thousand Horses, Ryan has finally settled in Nashville, TN, referring to this city as his home and focusing on T.C.H., recruiting band members Derek Hanson for drums, longtime friend and lead guitarist Daniel DeMonico, and Thomas Banks for bass guitar. "I realized quickly after coming off the road to pursue my own thing I needed a band, it takes more than just one person to make a show happen", says Scarbrough.
Leigh Hutchins
Leigh Hutchins posted her first music video in September 2021 called Swamp Stomp. From there she wanted to venture out and do live gigs. She formed the band Leigh Hutchins & Breakin Steel this past January of 2022. The lead guitarist also does incredible on the steel guitar hence the name Breakin Steel. The bass player and drummer bring an awesome sound as well to compliment Leigh’s music. Since January they have had multiple gigs in the Murfreesboro/Smyrna area and they are booked every weekend until August in that area. Now, They are looking to expand towards closer to Nashville starting in August of 2022 and the Hermitage area as they have mastered all forms of genres including southern rock, classic and modern country, r&b, as well as some originals. Leigh Hutchins is on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. You can find her music videos on YouTube by searching the name Leigh Hutchins. There are 3 originals so far posted. Swamp stomp, Yodelay, and Summertime Round Here.
Emily Miller
Emily Miller is a multi-talented country artist hailing from West Chester, Ohio. Her dynamic voice has entertained audiences all across the South and Midwest. Emily has opened for country star Easton Corbin as well as Grammy winning bluegrass group, Sister Sadie. Her third single, “Prince Charming” was a featured song on the ABC original series, “Renee’s Bridal Takeover” where it received much praise from its viewers. Her active engagement with the audience allows everyone to feel connected with her easy going personality, catchy smile, and quick wit. She has a special way of telling stories through the melodies and words she sings. Emily has worked with some of the best in the business including Grammy Award winner Tammy Rogers King of The SteelDrivers and other industry professionals throughout Nashville exposing her to audiences she never dreamed of.
Emily’s last single of 2021, “Take the Trash Out,” was a captivating intro to what you can hear throughout her most recent EP (2/18/22) “They Say” which can be found on all music platforms. Playing over 200 shows a year, Emily shows no signs of slowing down.
Donny Van Slee
Raised off the west coast of Florida, singer/songwriter Donny Van Slee AKA Dr. Don realized at a young age that music was more than just a passion – it was his life’s art. After graduating high school in 2011, Donny started to perform at local restaurants, tiki huts, and breweries.
In 2018, Donny left his hometown to study at Palmer College of Chiropractic, located in Daytona Beach, Florida where he continued to perform live every weekend. Donny finally discovered Nashville, TN while road-tripping from Florida to Colorado to start a chiropractic internship.
After a few sent-out emails, the “World-Famous Tootsies Orchid Lounge” decided to grant him an audition. So, while Donny was driving back from Colorado to Florida to graduate from Chiropractor school he decided to pursue his music career and move to Nashville where he continues to write/release songs and perform at local venues around town.
Kaeden Franklin
When I was younger, my favorite time of day was practice time. As I grew older, that love grew with me and I now play music full-time.
I am thankful to be able to support my family by doing what I'm passionate about, and I will be making music 'til I take my last breath.
I pride myself in always evolving and striving for excellence. I am a multi-instrumentalist, and enjoy finding a tune on almost anything. I work diligently to hone my talents by practicing a wide variety of instruments. In order to keep my "skills" dusted off, It's always great motivation for me to have some good-natured competition with my fellow musicians and with myself. I aspire to give a dynamic performance like Chris Jansen, by playing several different instruments in one show.
In that same vein, I currently play with many different bands and artists all across the southeast States, performing in many different roles.
I am also studying to become a luthier and make other kinds of non-stringed instruments as well.
My biggest goals now are to play The Grand Ole Opry and Madison Square Garden.
Sean Lambert
Sean Lambert is a San Diego based vocalist, poet, multi-instrumentalist, song-craftsman, and lover of dancing... but not exactly a dancer... He's been playing the Tenor Saxophone as a gun for hire regardless of genre for years, playing for San Diego groups such as Boostive and Thee Sacred Souls. Traditional New Orleans Jazz has been the backbone of his influences as a vocalist and instrumentalist - improvisation is naturally what comes to him best when he conjures different energies in his live performances. Some would call Sal's style as Indie Soul or Alternative R&B, which is great for music lovers who are fans Phony Ppl and Tom Misch.
As a songwriter, Sean has looked towards indie-soul/ neo-soul artists such as Anderson .Paak, Thundercat, KAYTRANADA, and Terrace Martin for a well rounded West Coast vibe he tries to curate, while also throwing in artists like Gorillaz, Kendrick Lamar, and Oscar Jerome as major influences.
Sean Lambert's debut EP, "Off the Top" (1/1/21), was made in collaboration with producer, jtbs, and stands as a collection of different emotional energies encapsulated into a 23 minute experience. Each song on this laid back EP will cater to different ears regardless of your music taste, but the goal is to make you feel, and to make you move. Most, if not all of these songs were produced and written... well... off the top. There's no better way of putting it, and no better way it could've been done.
Justine Blazer
international producer, vocalist, songwriter, sync/TV composer, and recording artist. She is a member of The Recording Academy (GRAMMYS® Voter), the Country Music Association, the Americana Music Association, and the Audio Engineering Society.
Originally from Detroit, MI, and now based in Nashville, she has opened for the likes of Jason Aldean, Justin Moore, Lee Brice, Kathy Mattea, Regis Philbin, Lonestar, Bucky Covington, and more. Justine has also received endorsements from Luna Guitars, Dean Guitars, Ram Trucks, Chrysler Incorporated, Antares, RME, and Mojave Microphones.
Justine has won multiple awards, including the Josie Music Awards, Intercontinental Music Awards, World Songwriting Awards, Radio Music Awards, Indie Music Channel Awards, Global Music Awards, The Detroit Blues Challenge, Ram Trucks Battle of the Bands Winner, and she was a Finalist in the 2023 USA Songwriting Competition, among others.
She has been featured on various TV shows such as "American Super Group" on MTV, and her music has been synced and placed in TV shows and movies including "The Young and the Restless" on CBS, "A Treasure for Christmas" on Lifetime Network, and the Telly Award-winning movie "Hashtag Blessed" on Prime Video, Tubi, Redbox, and more. Her music video for her popular single, "Good Trouble," has been showcased on CMT and TCN.
Justine has been a GRAMMY® voter since 2020 and has attended the 64th and 65th GRAMMY Award Shows in Las Vegas and Los Angeles as a Balloted Artist.
Currently, Justine is actively performing live weekly all around Nashville, working on more TV/sync projects, producing and writing for various artists, and lastly, she is recording her 10th studio album, slated to be released in early 2024.
Lauren Kaye
Lauren Kaye is a singer and songwriter based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Originally from Ohio, Lauren made the big move down south to originally become an elementary school teacher. She taught 4th grade for 3 years until she realized she wanted to really give her dreams a go. Lauren sings full-time on Lower broadway in Nashville. Lauren also released her very first original single "On Read" to Spotify and Apple Music in October 2021, and another single "We Don't Have To Do This" in June 2022. She continues to perform all over Nashville, write songs, and release her own original music.
Jason McPhail
My name is Jason McPhail and I am a singer/songwriter living in Nashville by way of Shawnee, Oklahoma. I spent the last couple of years living life on the Emerald Coast in Northwest Florida where I met a ton of lifelong friends and had the opportunity to play music at some amazing venues on a consistent basis. My overall goal is to create music that will resonate with people in a real and authentic way. Be that a summer time feel good song, songs about heartache and struggle, songs that lift people up, or even songs that tell fictional/creative stories.
Chris Taylor
Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee and carrying on the musical traditions of East Tennessee. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist from a family of musicians and a rich musical heritage and deep love for the artwork. Inspired by all music, he has a sound all his own that is reminiscent of 70s rock, country, and soul.
Chris began his career playing in local bars, at local events, restaurants, open mics/jams, and pretty much anywhere else that would allow a young musician to perform. He quickly began to receive attention from local musicians and music fans for his natural ability to play, sing, and entertain.
Ian Bebon
Ian’s family on his mother’s side was always into music, especially country. He remembers listening to artists like George Strait, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Joe Diffie, and a lot of others with his grandfather and uncles. But it wasn’t until he was 18 that he truly leaned into music in a more personal way. He was signing up for classes to study marine biology in college, but before he hit submit, he hesitated. He realized he didn’t want to go down that route at all, he wanted to be a singer. In an instant, he changed the course of his life from the classic pipeline of going to college, getting a degree and then a job, and became the dreamer. This must have been scary for his parents to hear, but they made him a deal. He was to get some kind of degree to have a backup plan in case music didn’t work, and once he did that, they’d help him get to Nashville. He’s now been in Nashville for almost five years. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 88 | https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/devils-gulch | en | Did Jesse Jump Devil's Gulch? | http://www.southdakotamagazine.com/pub/photo/DevilsGulchcropSD.jpg | http://www.southdakotamagazine.com/pub/photo/DevilsGulchcropSD.jpg | [
"https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/pub/photo/new-banner-5-25-2018.jpg",
"https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/pub/photo/thumb/JulyAug24_fitbox_350x350.jpg",
"https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/pub/photo/close-icon-bg.png",
"https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/pub/photo/DevilsGulch.jpg",
"https://www.south... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Bernie Hunhoff"
] | null | Garretson, South Dakota is the home of Split Rock Creek and Devil's Gulch, where legendary outlaw Jesse James may have made a historic horseback leap while running from a posse after his gang robbed the Northfield, Minnesota bank. | http://www.southdakotamagazine.com/devils-gulch | Editor’s Note: This story is revised from the July/August 1994 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order a copy or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.
The sheer beauty of quartzite cliffs towering above Split Rock Creek are enough to attract visitors to northern Minnehaha County near Garretson. But the scenery is only part of the magic. Most come to see the spot where legendary outlaw Jesse James supposedly jumped an 18-foot-wide gorge in 1876 to escape a posse after robbing a Northfield, Minn., bank.
That same year, gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Custer's cavalry was obliterated by Indian warriors. And Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in a Deadwood saloon by Jack "Broken Nose" McCall. Considering all the goings-on in western Dakota Territory, Jesse James' flight through the region wasn't particularly important at the time. But James, a Missourian who turned to crime to support his family when he was refused amnesty from the Civil War, had a Robin Hood image to many pioneer Midwesterners who weren't especially fond of most bankers and railroaders, anyway.
He stole enough horses and scared enough people to create stories that have been passed down from generation to generation by Minnehaha County families, but the storytelling always returns to that 18-foot chasm over Split Rock Creek. Did he jump it? Like the No. Ten Saloon in Deadwood, only on a smaller scale, travelers come from around the world to take a gander. They look across the gulch and grin to one another. How could it be?
Local people are too honest to maintain that the jump absolutely occurred. There's room for doubt, they'll agree. But it could have happened. And they provide supporting evidence. In 1991, the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution built a cabin near the jump site and stocked it with memorabilia about the gulch and the James brothers — photos, news articles and other historical exhibits, all of which support the theory that Jesse may have jumped the gulch to safety.
Volunteers staff the cabin in the summer months and they do their best to answer questions, even from Japanese and European visitors. Foreigners are especially interested in the Jesse James legend. "A guy from Belgium asked me if I thought he could have jumped that and I told him sure, but it wasn't a Belgian horse," grinned Melvin ''Buck'' Jones, one visitor center volunteer. "He got a big kick out of that."
Elaine DeBates, another former volunteer, heard numerous family stories about the James brothers. "Local people are convinced of it from the stories that have been passed down." She said the terrain leading up to the gulch had changed since she came to the area in 1932. "When we first moved here, there were no trees and it was smoother. Now it is a lot rougher because of erosion," she told us when we visited in 1994.
Perhaps visitor center workers have a vested interest in perpetuating the myth. So we asked others in the Garretson community if the legend stands on solid ground.
We found Charles Bonte about a half mile southwest of the gulch. Bonte farmed and owned horses before he retired and moved to town, so he seemed a credible source. "A good horse could have made it if the rider took him up first and showed him the place," he said. "Otherwise he might have just slid into the creek."
Gregg Kringen, a farmer and horse trainer from rural Garretson, agreed. “Everybody thinks a saddle horse couldn't jump that. But if he was riding a good one he could have made it. If trees could talk, we'd know what really happened." Kringen said the terrain is so rough now that it makes the jump seem impossible. But he said old pictures of the gulch make the approach look reasonable.
To get a West River perspective, we called Dale Lewis of Martin, an expert on Old West lore and good horses. He thought the 18-foot jump was physically possible. "A big horse would be up to eight feet in length, and I would think he could jump twice his length," said Lewis. Human athletes can jump over 20 feet in a long jump, Lewis noted. "Horses have four-wheel drive, and they've got those strong back legs to leap with, so I would think a horse could jump at least that far. I bet it would scare the hell out of you. But if the posse was coming hard, maybe you'd be scared already."
So the legend continues. Did Jesse James jump the gulch when he escaped into Dakota Territory? If only cedar trees could talk.
If You Go…
When you visit Garretson to see Devil's Gulch, allow some time for other stops.
A walking tour of the gulch has been established which is about an hour or more in length. It is an opportunity to not only enjoy the scenery, but also learn about the wildflowers, trees and shrubbery of the river valley.
Don't let the peaceful river fool you. Some areas of the canyon are reported to be "near bottomless." Local people dropped 600 feet of plumb line just under the bridge and still could not find the bottom.
Camping, picnicking, hiking, canoeing and fishing are welcomed at Split Rock Park, a scenic spot highlighted by a waterfall of native blocks built by WPA workers in the 1930s.
On the south side of town, beautiful rock formations can be found in Palisades State Park. It may be one of South Dakota's best-kept camping secrets. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 87 | https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html | en | Linda Ronstadt’s Borderland | [
"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/12/29/travel/29ronstadt-slide-2FEN/29ronstadt-slide-2FEN-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Lawrence Downes"
] | 2013-12-29T00:00:00 | Taking a road trip with the singer through southern Arizona and northern Mexico, a region where her roots run deep. | en | /vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico | https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html | We are driving outside Naco, Ariz., near the Mexico border, on a two-lane blacktop under a half-moon and stars. The distant mountains are lost in shadow, and there’s not much to look at beyond the headlight beams and the rolling highway stripes.
In the middle seat of the minivan, Linda Ronstadt is talking about her childhood.
“We used to sing, ‘Don’t go in the cage tonight, Mother darling, for the lions are ferocious and may bite. And when they get their angry fits, they will tear you all to bits, so don’t go in the lion’s cage tonight!’ We had really good harmonies worked out for that.”
“We” is her sister, Suzy, and her brother Peter, who used to terrify her when she had to go to the woodpile at night.
“My brother would load me up as much as he could then he’d tell me, ‘There’s a ghost!’ and then he’d run and then — Aaaaaah!! — there’d be kindling spread all over the ground.” | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 51 | https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/events/pavilion | en | Bethel Woods Center for the Arts | [
"https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/events/data.image",
"https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/assets/img/bethel_default_thumb-875f0211b9.jpg",
"https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/events/data.image",
"https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/assets/img/bethel_default_thumb-875f0211b9.jpg",
"https://www.bethelwoodscenter... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | /favicon.ico | https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/events/pavilion | We are so proud to now offer camping during Pavilion concerts and festivals.
From May-October, guests can enjoy a variety of camping types on concert and festival days, all with stunning views of the Bethel Woods campus and surrounding landscape of the 1969 Woodstock festival site. | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 5 | https://thisistucson.com/life-entertainment/local/music/ronstadt-family-musical-dynasty-hitting-the-stage-in-tucson/article_fbc16324-4671-11ed-8691-1b4653c67598.html | en | Ronstadt family musical dynasty hitting the stage in Tucson | [
"https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/central.leetemplates.com/content/tncms/live/global/resources/images/logos/ds/400/tucson.com.png?_dc=Aug.Wed.2024",
"https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/custom/image/ab2eaa40-eda0-11ec-a70a-8b785d2aa199.png?resize=150%2C65 150w, https:... | [] | [] | [
"ronstadt family",
"linda ronstadt",
"p.d. ronstadt",
"michael ronstadt",
"bobby ronstadt",
"jewish family children's services",
"fox tucson theatre",
"entertainment"
] | null | [
"Cathalena E. Burch",
"Kelly Presnell",
"Arizona Daily Star",
"A.E. Araiza",
"Bobby Ronstadt",
"www.facebook.com"
] | 2022-10-12T15:00:00-07:00 | For the first time ever, five Ronstadt family ensembles will share the stage in a benefit concert for Jewish Family & Children's Services of Southern Arizona. | en | This is Tucson | https://thisistucson.com/life-entertainment/local/music/ronstadt-family-musical-dynasty-hitting-the-stage-in-tucson/article_fbc16324-4671-11ed-8691-1b4653c67598.html | Michael J. Ronstadt had an idea a decade ago to get all of the musical Ronstadt cousins, siblings, nieces and nephews together on a single stage for an evening of family music.
It never happened.
But some good ideas are worth hanging onto, waiting out the circumstances and conflicts until the timing is just right.
On Oct. 23, five ensembles of Ronstadts, four generations in all if you count the baby in Katie (Ronstadt) Arellano’s belly, will fill the historic Fox Tucson Theatre stage for “The Ronstadt Family in Concert: An evening celebrating a musical dynasty.” Linda Ronstadt, who lives in San Francisco and is battling Parkinson’s Disease, will not be performing, although she will be part of the multimedia presented during the concert.
“I wanted to kind of emulate the show that he envisioned,” Bobby Ronstadt said of his late cousin, Michael, who died in 2016.
The concert is presented by the Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona, whose chairman Ken Goodman was instrumental in organizing it.
Goodman said that he and Bobby Ronstadt first started talking about a Ronstadt family concert not long after his organization had hosted a fundraising concert with the Phoenix flamenco ensemble ¡FlaMÉXico! in 2019. About 700 people loosely filled the Fox that night, raising nearly $80,000 for Jewish Family & Children’s Services, which for the past 80 years has provided counseling services for victims of trauma and services for families and the elderly.
Goodman thought a Ronstadt family concert would be a great fundraising follow up, especially after his organization added refugee resettlement to its services. Working with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, JFCS to date has helped 55 refugees primarily from Afghanistan to resettle in Tucson and is now getting refugees from the Middle East, South America and Ukraine.
“We are all about people being safe and helping people with challenges in life,” said Goodman, who became chairman in 2019.
His idea for the Ronstadt family was “to get however many groups there are of Ronstadts … on one stage,” Goodman said.
He reached out to Bobby Ronstadt, who was on board from the start.
“There has never been a showcase of all the family groups,” Ronstadt said, adding that the chance for all of the Ronstadts to share the historic Fox stage was exciting.
“The Fox is a very special venue,” he said. “I find it exciting that we all get to play.”
Ronstadt reached out to his musical family members from both sides of the family — his uncle, Gilbert, who was Michael and Linda’s father; and his father, Edward, who had a dozen children including Bobby’s youngest brother, Tim, who will be part of the concert.
The Fox concert will feature five Ronstadt ensembles — the Kiko Jácome Trio featuring Linda’s older sister Susie’s son Kiko Jácome; Linda’s niece Mindy Ronstadt; the Ronstadt Brothers, Michael’s sons Michael G. and Peter Dalton; PD Ronstadt & the Company, with the Ronstadt brothers, Bobby Ronstadt and Bobby’s granddaughter Katie (Ronstadt) Arellano; and Never on Time, with Tim, his child Charlie Ronstadt, his niece Lupe (Ronstadt-Quiroz) Brown and two nephews by marriage, Mike Hartshorn and Tyler Kinzer.
“Our family tree is actually a forest,” Bobby Ronstadt joked, noting that there are 110 descendants of patriarch Federico Ronstadt, who came to Tucson when he was 14 in 1882.
Throughout the family’s 140-year Tucson history, music has been an anchor. Family gatherings always included family members “tuning up the guitars” and singing songs mostly in Spanish. In “Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands,” Linda Ronstadt’s just-released memoir with co-writer Lawrence Downes, she recalled that her father would sing the lead, joined by her aunts and uncles, then the cousins and friends.
“The music never felt like a performance, it simply ebbed and flowed with the rest of the conversation,” she wrote.
Until COVID, Bobby Ronstadt’s niece hosted “Third Sunday” family potlucks that always ended with music.
“By the end of the night we would be in the living room singing and ‘Volver, Volver’ would be the last song we’d sing,” he said.
The ranchera song has been a Ronstadt family tradition for decades and it will be the finale of the Oct. 23 concert. All five Ronstadt ensembles will share the stage along with family members called up from the audience to perform the song made famous by Vicente Fernández.
The Fox concert will be the first and probably only opportunity to see all of the Ronstadts on one stage, Bobby Ronstadt said.
“It’s really a once in a lifetime because I don’t think it would happen again,” he said. “It’s going to be the first and only concert like this.”
“This event has turned into, in my mind, a Tucson historic event,” added Goodman. “You’ve got the Ronstadt family and their history since the 1880s in Tucson. And you have the JFCS, which has been here 80 years. And then you have the Fox Theatre, a historic theater.” | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 45 | https://woodsonrva.com/author/woodsonrva/page/3/ | en | David Woodson | https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/661f723e84e9f06126eea1832c2c185d?s=200&d=identicon&r=g | https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/661f723e84e9f06126eea1832c2c185d?s=200&d=identicon&r=g | [
"https://woodsonrva.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/new-dj-daves-logorgb.png",
"https://woodsonrva.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/285066254_567080564783557_3687642628925228415_n.jpg?w=682",
"https://woodsonrva.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/289397654_582668123224801_8954329181418415774_n.jpg?w=768",
"https://w... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/vnYLnheNu6Q?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent",
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/b8jzt_xUEdM?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en&autohide=2&wmode=transparent",
"https://www.youtube.com/emb... | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"David Woodson"
] | 2022-07-01T06:24:14-04:00 | Read all of the posts by David Woodson on DJ Dave's Musical Musings | en | DJ Dave's Musical Musings | http://woodsonrva.wordpress.com | I describe the new single “Locks” by Sara Niemietz as hot, hip and happening indie rock. The song is now available for purchase and is the first track from an upcoming October 2022 Niemietz album release called “Superman.”
The “Locks” single and the remaining 13 other tracks from the new “Superman” LP are a collaboration between Sara Niemietz and her musical partner Linda Taylor. This dynamic duo merged their musical talents together over the past two years: Niemietz-Taylor are co-producers for “Superman” and co-wrote every song on their collaborative project.
Niemietz is a singer-songwriter, musician, actor and member of PostModern Jukebox, who has recorded 3 albums during her career. Taylor is a superb guitarist, composer, music producer and plays guitar on ABC TV show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Together, the Niemietz-Taylor team creates musical magic!
With the production of “Locks” and “Superman” by Niemietz-Taylor, the duo employed session musicians for their recordings. Personnel on all 14 songs include:
Sara Niemietz – vocals
Linda Taylor – guitars
Léo Costa – drums
Ed Roth – keyboards
Daniel Pearson – bass
Here are my thoughts about the new Niemietz-Taylor single. When I heard “Locks” for the first time, I responded back to Sara and Linda via email with the following reply: “The track is a good choice for a first single. It is a catchy, up-tempo groove. Excellent interplay with the drum, guitar and bass. I love the special effects with the switching of tune tempo. Outstanding vocals and harmonies. A Superb production. Pleasing to my ear.”
What does the co-producer team of Niemietz-Taylor have to say about their new single? I asked Sara and Linda about “Locks” and they answered my inquiry from two different continents.
Taylor’s answer came to me from her Los Angeles, California home, submitting a quote from an official press release on “Locks” and the “Superman” album: “The bluesy “Locks” captures the bittersweet side of getting through life challenges. Here, Sara’s rich and sultry vocals imbue the song with a sense of burnished hope befitting the lyrics. One choice passage reads: “Who’s that looking out from the mirror/A little bit leaner, meaner/She figured it out/Can’t believe what I see/It’s almost hard to believe/This other side of the street I’m standing on.”
My question for Niemietz: “Why did she and Taylor choose “Locks” as the first single to be released? Sara replied via email, on a bus somewhere in Austria, as she was touring with PostModern Jukebox last month: “We have new versions of some previously released songs on “Superman” but “Locks” was the first idea specifically for the album. It went through several re-writes and re-records before we found its heart. In fairness, it got a little beat up, but we weren’t willing to let it go. Now we find it just feels like the start, the start of the setlist, the start of the album, the opening chapter, it sets everything in motion and the obvious first single.”
Link for purchasing “Locks” single: https://tinyurl.com/saralocks
Sara’s official website: www.saraniemietz.com
Linda’s official website: www.lindataylormusic.com
As I mentioned above, “Locks” and all the songs on “Superman” were written and produced by Niemietz-Taylor. The album will feature five new studio versions of previously released singles of the past two years: “Come to Me”, “Superman”, “Lovely Lies”, “The Dimming”, and “GOODX3.” From these five existing songs, the last two have already become fan favorites for those who follow the Niemietz-Taylor musical pair.
Considering that Niemietz has recorded three excellent albums during her career, “Superman” promises to be a musical delight. The collaborative Niemietz-Taylor album is now available for pre-ordering from Bandwear. Link to purchase album is below:
For anyone searching for new music to purchase this summer, look no further than “Locks” and the upcoming “Superman” album from Sara Niemietz and Linda Taylor. I guarantee that you will not be disappointed. Rock on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
Graphic above by Julianne Woodson
What are the best songs played on Top 40 radio during the 70s that were not released as singles by record companies?
Obviously, there are no definitive answers to my question. If I asked the above inquiry to 100 folks, I would surely receive one hundred different responses.
With this latest music blog message, I will be revealing my top selections based on these factors: Growing up in Roanoke, Virginia, listening to WROV 1240 AM and then being employed by the legendary top 40 station, starting in 1974.
My regular radio listening started in the spring of 1967 after my parents gave me a transistor radio. I quickly discovered WROV and was hooked on their Top 40 format.
Then in the summer of 1967, I commandeered a desk-top tube radio from our kitchen and permanently kept this device in my bedroom. On most nights that summer, I would tune in 50,000-watt, clear channel AM radio stations, such as WLS 890 Chicago and WABC 770 New York.
When I started listening to the radio 55 years ago, I quickly realized that Top 40 stations aired only songs that were released as 45-rpm singles by record companies. The biggest album from the 1967 “summer of love” was “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by the Beatles. Since Capitol Records didn’t release any singles on the Fab Four album, there were no songs from the LP regularly played on Top 40 outlets.
It wasn’t until late 1968/early 1969, that I noticed Top 40 radio playing album tracks. The Beatles “White Album” came out during November 1968 but Capitol Records did not release any singles from the LP in America. However, many top 40 formatted stations played select cuts from the self-titled Beatles album.
On WROV Roanoke, they played three tracks from the Beatles “White Album.” First, the station aired “Back in the U.S.S.R” and then followed up with “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Rocky Raccoon.”
Above is an audio clip when I was a guest DJ for a My Fab Four segment on SiriusXM’s the Beatles Channel. Featured on this audio clip: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” & “Back in the USSR” from the “White Album.” Two of my four favorite Beatles songs of all-time.
Forward to the 70s. Most Top 40 stations were still on the AM band at the beginning of the decade. The emergence of FM radio in the late 60s and early 70s created challenges for existing AM radio stations.
Since music sounded 100% better on FM, ratings for AM Top 40 stations starting declining. To compensate for the competitive disadvantage AM Top 40 radio had against new FM signals, many long-standing AM outlets decided to tweak their traditional playlists.
Most Top 40 AM stations in the early 70s started playing the longer album version of songs rather than the shorter edited 45-rpm single record. Many of these AM outlets also embraced the playing of “non-single” album tracks on their hot rotation playlists.
Sometimes an AM Top 40 station playing an album track would result in a record company releasing a song as a 45-rpm single. This happened during my first job in radio at WROV in 1974.
During early September 1974, WROV music director Chuck Holloway started playing the song “Black Water”, which was a track from the Doobie Brothers “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits” album. After just a few spins on Holloway’s nighttime DJ air-shift, “Black Water” became an immediate hit in Roanoke.
Soon after, Phil Beckman at WQRK Norfolk and Buzz Bennett with KDWB Minneapolis added “Black Water” to their playlists. Finally, Warner Bros Records released the song as a single and the Doobie Brothers achieved their first number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 during March 1975. WROV received a gold record for being the first radio station to play and break “Black Water” as a hit song in America.
For the remainder of this message, I will be counting down what I consider to be the ten best classic Top 40 hits of the 70s. These were songs that received heavy airplay on WROV 1240 AM Roanoke, played as an album track and not released by a record company as a 45 RPM single.
My countdown of songs in this category is based solely on my experience of living in Roanoke, Virginia and listening to Top 40 WROV. The ten selections below are from my point of reference and are not meant to be a definitive listing of top album tracks aired on Top 40 radio in America during the 70s.
Before starting the countdown, here are some clarification points on non-single album tracks played on Top 40 radio:
Information on album tracks not released as 45 RPM singles pertains only to the United States.
Time frame for non-single songs is up to 24 months after an album was initially released.
Since only singles were eligible to appear on Billboard Hot 100, album tracks didn’t qualify to chart in the 70s.
Some songs that were originally album tracks only may have subsequently been released as a single, years or even decades after the first release of a song.
Later versions of singles could be in a variety of formats: 45 RPM, 12 Inch disc, Cassette, CD or Digital Download.
With the 2001 advent of iTunes, all songs on countdown can now be purchased as a digital single: via multiple Internet platforms.
While the album tracks from the countdown are associated with airplay on WROV, all of the selections are still well-known songs in the 21st Century. Most can be heard daily on various radio outlets: classic rock, classic hits, oldies and multiple SiriusXM channels in 2022.
A song just outside of my top 10 countdown is an album track that WROV played during 1976: “Turn the Page” from the Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band LP, “Live Bullet.” Two singles were released from the album: “Nutbush City Limits” and a medley of “Travelin’ Man/Beautiful Loser”
WROV’s Music Director and DJ Bill Jordan provides information below on why he decided adding “Turn the Page” to his station’s playlist in 1976: “I was music director during a pretty interesting time at WROV. We had morphed into sort of a Top 40/Album Oriented format, and readily played album cuts that “fit” the sound we wanted.”
Jordan continues, “A friend switched me on to Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page” from his “Live Bullet” album. We started playing it in very light rotation and it quickly exploded. Record stores couldn’t keep the album in stock.
In fact, “Turn the Page” became so popular that Capitol Records considered delaying the release of the “Night Moves” album. In 1977, Seger performed at the Salem Civic Center in his last show as an opening act for Black Sabbath.
“Turn The Page” brought the house down. Great times!”
It is now time for the countdown. The top ten radio hits of the 70s not released as 45 RPM singles:
10. Southern Man—Neil Young
From the “After the Gold Rush” album: Released September 19, 1970
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Terry Young 1973
Singles released from album: “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and “When You Dance, I Can Really Love.”
“Southern Man” is found on two albums: Neil Young’s 1970, “After the Gold Rush” LP and a live version on a live 1971 Crosby Stills Nash & Young album, “4 Way Street.” WROV DJ Terry “Motormouth” Young played this track on his 7 to midnight shift during the winter and spring of 1973. The fast-talking DJ went on bigger radio stations like WLEE Richmond and WCAU Philadelphia. Terry Young was also on SiriusXM’s 60s on 6 channel during the first part of this century.
9. Isn’t She Lovely—Stevie Wonder
From the “Songs in the Keys of Life” album: Released September 28, 1976
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Rob O’Brady 1977
Singles released from album: “I Wish”, “Sir Duke”, “Another Star” and “As.”
When Stevie Wonder’s album “Songs in the Key of Life” came out, many consumers wanted Tamla Records to release “Isn’t She Lovely” as a single. Wonder didn’t want his over six-minute song to be edited and refused to have his song cut up into a shorter 45-RPM record. Many Top 40 stations played the song anyway, including WROV. Rob O’Brady would often play Wonder’s album track on his morning drive show and announce that it was dedicated to his loyal listeners, fondly known as “O’Brady’s Ladies.”
8. Let It Flow—Eric Clapton
From the “461 Ocean Boulevard” album: Released July 1974
WROV DJs I Associate with Song: Chuck Holloway, Bart Prater & Rob O’Brady 1974
Singles released from album: “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Willie and the Hand Jive.”
While most Top 40 stations added “Willie and the Hand Jive” to their playlists after Eric Clapton hit number 1 with “I Shot the Sheriff”, WROV went in another direction. Music director Chuck Holloway added the album track “Let it Grow” to its hot rotation and aired in all day-parts. Clapton plays a dobro on this track and Yvonne Elliman provides backup vocals on this melodic tune.
7. South City Midnight Lady—The Doobie Brothers
From “The Captain and Me” album: Released March 2, 1973
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Bart Prater & Larry Bly 1973
Singles released from album: “Long Train Running” and “China Grove.”
“South City Midnight Lady” is quite different from most Doobie Brothers songs. The tune features a pedal steel guitar, strings and synthesizer. I distinctly remember WROV’s morning DJ Larry Bly playing the song regularly in the fall of 1973. However, I mostly associate this Doobie Brothers song with afternoon announcer Bart Prater. “South City Midnight Lady” was Prater’s favorite song that he played on WROV. The legendary Roanoke DJ played it regularly on the station between 1973 and 1981, before leaving to work at crosstown K92 FM.
6. The Chain—Fleetwood Mac
From the “Rumours” album: Released February 4, 1977
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Rob O’Brady 1977
Singles released from album: “Go Your Own Way”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun.”
Fleetwood Mac (FM) was hot on Top 40 radio in 1977 with four-top 10 singles. Fans wanted more songs to be played from the “Rumours” album and WROV obliged by adding a fifth song from the LP. “The Chain” is the only FM song from the album with writing credits from all five members (Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood. The band also regularly opens their concert tours by playing “The Chain.”
5. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding—Elton John
From the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album: Released October 5, 1973
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Chuck Holloway 1974
Singles released from album: “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Bennie and the Jets.”
“Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” was too long for a single release, but we played it at WROV in 1974 when I first started working for the station. Coming in at over 11-minutes long, this rock song was aired only after 7 pm and then up to 5 am the next morning. Chuck Holloway played it at least once every evening on his air shift. This medley of two songs from the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album, is a renowned musical masterpiece by the Bernie Taupin/Elton John duo.
4. I Heard It Through the Grapevine—Creedence Clearwater Revival
From the “Cosmo’s Factory” album: Released July 8, 1970
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Bill Thomas 1970
Singles released from album: “Travelin’ Band/Who’ll Stop the Rain”, “Up Around the Bend/Run Through the Jungle” and “Lookin’ Out My Backdoor/Long as I Can See the Light.”
Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) had 3-double sided top 5 hit singles from their “Cosmos Factory” album. In the fall of 1970, many Top 40 stations played CCR’s 11-minute cover version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” At WROV, the CCR album track only aired during night time air shifts. 7 to midnight DJ Bill Thomas played the album track on Roanoke’s top 40 outlet.
In 1972, CCR broke up and John Fogerty had a nasty falling out with his record company. Fantasy Records released an edited 3:53 version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” as a single. It peaked at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. Obviously, this version cuts out most of the outstanding instrumental ending with the Motown cover tune.
3. Maybe I’m Amazed—Paul McCartney
From self-titled “McCartney” album: Released April 17, 1970
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Jack Fisher 1970
Apple Records was in a quandary in April 1970: Paul McCartney officially confirmed that the Beatles had broken up, and the last Fab Four album, “Let it Be” was set to be released in May, along with the Beatles single, “The Long and Winding Road.”
On top of all that activity, a self-titled “McCartney” debut solo album, came out just a week after the news that the Beatles were history. It was then decided by Apple Records that no singles would be released from Sir Paul’s LP. That didn’t stop WROV from adding the album track “Maybe I’m Amazed” to its playlist. It was a midday favorite of legendary DJ Jack Fisher.
Forward to December 1976: an album by Paul McCartney & Wings was released called “Wings Over America.” This live LP featured a cover of “Maybe I’m Amazed” and it became the lead single from the album. This new rendition peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the spring of 1977.
2. Baba O’Riley—The Who
From the “Who’s Next” album: Released August 14, 1971
WROV DJ I Associate with Song: Dan Alexander 1971
Singles released from album: “Won’t Get fooled Again” and Behind Blue Eyes.”
The opening track from the 1971 “Who’s Next” album is “Baba O’Riley.” The song most music critics consider as the best ever recorded by the Who was not released as a 45-RPM single 51 years ago.
According to Wikipedia: “Baba O’Riley” appears in Time magazine’s “All-Time 100 Songs” list, Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.”
My fond memory of hearing this album track played on WROV: DJ Dan Alexander created comedy bits on his AM drive show, under the fictional character name of Marvin Meriweather. One morning just after Alexander started playing “Baba O’Riley”, Marvin shouts out the chorus refrain: “It’s only TEENAGE WASTELAND, they’re all WASTED.” It was truly a LOL moment for me.
Stairway to Heaven—Led Zeppelin
From the “Lead Zeppelin IV” album: Released November 8, 1971
WROV DJs I Associated with Song: Terry Young and Shane Randall 1973
Singles released from album: “Black Dog” and “Rock and Roll.”
My number 1 selection on the countdown is “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, which is the signature song by the English band. WROV’s Terry Young played the song every night in 1973, when he was employed by the station.
Composed by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, “Stairway to Heaven” is considered by many as the best rock song of all-time. This Led Zeppelin tune was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, voted as the third “Greatest Rock Song” by VH1, ranked #31 on the Rolling Stone “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” listing and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003.
Led Zeppelin didn’t release many singles during their career and their greatest song was only available as an album track during the 70s decade. Without a doubt, “Stairway to Heaven” is the number 1 song played on WROV/Top 40 radio in the 70s and not released as a 45 RPM single.
Now that I have submitted my top ten 70s album tracks that weren’t released as singles, I am curious to find out your opinions of this topic. What are your favorite songs on my countdown?
If you were living in the 70s and listened to Top 40 radio were any of the tunes listed above played on your home town station? Or maybe a Top 40 outlet in your community played different album tracks than the songs that I documented in this article?
Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts and comments below on what you consider to be the best album tracks that never were released as a 45 RPM record during the 70s. I look forward reading your responses. Rock on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
If you have lived in central or southwestern Virginia over the past 50 plus years, chances are you have heard music written by Tommy Holcomb. The Roanoke, Virginia native has created hundreds of musical TV/radio commercials, which have been aired throughout Roanoke/Lynchburg media markets, as owner of Tommy Holcomb Productions.
Holcomb musical talent is much more than just creating ads for clients. He is also a founding member of two successful Roanoke pop/rock/folk bands during the 60s, 70s and 80s: The Vikings and Woodsmoke. Holcomb’s journey creating music is renowned among those associated with history of the rich Roanoke music scene.
I had an opportunity to conduct a phone interview with Holcomb earlier this month, as we discussed a musical career spanning over 60 years. I have known Tommy since 1975. We first met at WROV 1240 AM Roanoke, when Holcomb was delivering a commercial that he produced to the radio station where I was employed.
Holcomb’s musical roots started the summer before his senior year at Patrick Henry High School in 1961. Tommy started a band named the Vikings, along with his fellow classmates Allen Nelms and Lane Craig.
After Nelms and Holcomb graduated from high school, the young adults left Roanoke to attend the University of Virginia (UVA). The Vikings occasionally played gigs together, when Nelms and Holcomb were in college at UVA between 1962 and 1966.
Upon graduation from college in 1966, Holcomb and Nelms returned to Roanoke and resurrected their Vikings band. One of the guys joining this new version of the band was the legendary WROV 1240 AM DJ Fred Frelantz. Another prominent person that was added to the Vikings was Joy Ellis in 1969.
For the next 7 years, the Vikings became the house band for the historic Coffee Pot Roadhouse restaurant and concert venue. The band signed a recording contract with London records during 1967.
During the early 70s, Holcomb’s Vikings band recorded a couple of albums before the group broke up in 1975. Forward to 1982, the Vikings came back together again and held a series of reunion concerts at Caesar’s Club in Roanoke. After the success of those shows, the band decided to resume performing live concerts.
Vikings band continued playing shows during the mid 80s, and the group changed their name to “Roanoke” when they signed a record contract in 1984. The following year, two singles were released but received limit airplay locally on the biggest Top 40 station in the Roanoke Lynchburg market: K92 FM 92.3. Consequently, these songs did not chart nationally.
The final ending for the band became reality in 1986, with the tragic, untimely death of group member Fred Frelantz. For a complete history of the Vikings band, I am providing a link to an article that Holcomb wrote for the Roanoker Magazine in 2006, that is reprinted via the WROV History Online Website.
The other band that Holcomb was associated with during the 70s is Woodsmoke. Along with Joy Ellis, the band was formed in 1975 and attracted a younger audience than patrons who came to attend Holcomb’s original Vikings band shows.
While Holcomb is known for his singing and playing in Roanoke bands since the 60s, he is not just a one trick pony. Equally as impressive is his creative talent writing music with Tommy Holcomb Productions.
In the field of advertising, Tommy has created hundreds of commercials featuring his musical genius. Before starting his own ad agency, Holcomb joined fellow Vikings band member Fred Frelantz, to work at Creative Advertising in Roanoke.
During his time at Creative, Holcomb wrote a musical jingle for Smartwear clothing store. Tommy enlisted his Vikings bandmates playing music and utilized Joy Ellis on vocals for the spot.
Much to the surprise of Holcomb, his Smartwear commercial actually won a national ad agency award in 1971. After his multiple success writing musical spots at Creative, Holcomb decided to launch out with his own ad agency.
Over the years, Holcomb has created many wonderful, catchy musical ads. Below is a Roanoke jingle medley, a compilation of various musical ads that Holcomb has produced.
Three years ago, Holcomb was honored by the Roanoke chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), with its Silver Medal Award. This AAF 2019 achievement recognized Tommy’s “outstanding lifetime contributions to advertising furthering the industry’s standards, creative excellence, and responsibility in areas of social concern.”
Tommy Holcomb doesn’t just write music for advertising. He also has written songs about and for the city of Roanoke.
Roanoke’s centennial happened in 1982 and Holcomb was commissioned by the Virginia City to write a song for the 100-year celebration. The composition is called “Roanoke Shining Through.” A YouTube video of this tune features paintings by Eric Fitzpatrick and photographs by Terry Aldhizer.
Another excellent tribute to Roanoke is a song written and performed by Holcomb called “Looking Back.” Tommy fondly remembers living in the “Star City of the South” during younger years.
During 2011, Holcomb tried his hand in radio and hosted a show called Retro Roanoke Radio (RRR) on Sunny FM 93.5. The format of the weekly program had Holcomb playing 60s/70s oldies, talking about Roanoke in the 20th Century, airing musical spots he created and interviewing pop/rock artists.
Some of the artists that Holcomb interviewed on RRR were Davy Jones, Melanie, Petula Clark, Anne Murray and Robbin Thompson.
For the past 15 years, Holcomb has been the Music Producer for the Miss Virginia Pageant. Seven years ago, Tommy wrote an orchestra score for one of Virginia’s official state songs: “Our Great Virginia” written by Mike Greenly. Miss Virginia contestants performed this arrangement during the 2015 pageant.
An excellent podcast I want to recommend is episode 3 of the Larry Dowdy Mic Side podcast, where the retired popular Roanoke area DJ interviews Holcomb. There is superb interchange of information provided by Dowdy and Holcomb with this Mic Side episode.
It is clear to me that Holcomb exemplifies humility, as he has woven an awe-inspiring tapestry of living experiences within the area of music.
As I reflect upon Holcomb’s music legacy, he has enriched the lives of countless Roanoke residents with musical magic. For over 60 years, Holcomb has continued to share his music talent with folks all across the Roanoke Valley and Southwestern Virginia.
Without a doubt, Roanoke continues to be blessed, receiving wonderful gifts of harmonies and melodies by this marvelous music man: Tommy Holcomb.
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
I am amazed by the popularity of one hit wonders, and how the topic brings back nostalgic memories for many folks. Three articles that I have written over the past couple of years, about 1969, 1970 and 1971 one hit wonders, are among my most viewed messages of all-time.
With this edition of my musical musings, I am concentrating on the best “one hit wonders” of 1972. I will be counting down the top songs in this category from 50 years ago.
I have fond memories listening to Top 40 radio during 1972. I turned 17 that year and lived in Roanoke County, Virginia. During daytime hours, I was a regular listener to a couple of local Top 40 AM radio stations: WROV and WBLU.
My go to station was legendary WROV 1240 AM, which was the top-rated radio outlet in Roanoke. The WROV DJs that I remember during 1972 include Bart Prater, Larry Bly, Dan Alexander, Ron Tompkins, Phil Beckman and Charlie Bell.
WBLU 1480 AM was the other Top 40 outlet in the Roanoke radio market. The only times that I listened to WBLU was traveling via school bus to and from Glenvar High School, and during an afternoon art class that I took during my junior year.
At sundown, WROV reduced their power and WBLU signed off the air, so I tuned in radio stations located hundreds of miles away from my Virginia home. Since radio waves changed on a nightly basis, I would listen to a variety of 50,000-watt, clear channel AM stations on any given night.
There were three main stations that I listened to during the nighttime: WLS 890 AM Chicago, WCFL 1000 AM and WABC 770 AM New York. On the Big 89 WLS, I remember DJs John Records Landecker, Fred Winston, Chuck Buell and JJ Jeffries. When tuning in WCFL, I would listen to Larry Lujack, Big Ron O’Brien and Bob Dearborn. With WABC, I regularly heard Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow) and Dan Ingram.
A Top 40 radio station that is memorable to me in 1972 was WAPE 690 AM Jacksonville. My family was on vacation in Florida during July ’72 and I talked my parents into letting me visit the WAPE studios that was located in Orange Park. Since it was my dream to become a DJ once I graduated from high school, getting to visit the “Big APE” was extremely exciting for me.
During my tour of WAPE, I got to meet music director and afternoon DJ Cleveland Wheeler, who gave me a quick look around the station. Then before leaving, Wheeler allowed me to view the “Big APE” main studio, where Larry Dixon was working his midday DJ shift.
My visit to WAPE was influential in my pursuit to make radio a career. Less than two years later, I landed a job with WROV Roanoke in April 1974. I was thankful that I had the opportunity to tour the “Big APE” during the summer of 1972.
What exactly is a “One Hit Wonder?” The basic definition: An artist has only one hit song on the national Billboard Hot 100 pop chart during their career. This music blog message pertains solely to hit songs within the United States.
To avoid any confusion, here are the criteria that I am using to define a one hit wonder:
No other songs from an artist ever peaking at number 40 or higher on the Billboard National Pop Chart. (Chart positions from number 40 to number 1).
One hit wonders vary from country to country. An artist may have just one hit in the United States but may have multiple hits in another country.
Regional hits are not taken into account: A second song must be a national hit and chart within the Billboard Top 40 pop survey.
Any songs peaking outside of the Top 40, are always excluded for consideration.
Songs that peak from numbers 41 through 100 on the national Billboard Hot 100 pop chart are never considered as second hits.
All documentation of chart positions I share below in this article comes from The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn. I proudly own a hard copy of this excellent reference manual, which I consider to be the ‘bible” handbook for music history with Top 40 radio.
When I started researching the topic of 1972 one hit wonders, I found some interesting data. There happened to be no artists with only one hit, among the 20 biggest songs from 50 years ago. Below are the top records for 1972, according to Billboard magazine:
1 “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” Roberta Flack
2 “Alone Again (Naturally)” Gilbert O’Sullivan
3 “American Pie” Don McLean
4 “Without You” Nilsson
5 “The Candy Man” Sammy Davis Jr.
6 “I Gotcha” Joe Tex
7 “Lean on Me” Bill Withers
8 “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” Mac Davis
9 “Brand New Key” Melanie
10 “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast” Wayne Newton
11 “Let’s Stay Together” Al Green
12 “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” Looking Glass
13 “Oh Girl” The Chi-Lites
14 “Nice to Be with You” Gallery
15 “My Ding-a-Ling” Chuck Berry
16 “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” Luther Ingram
17 “Heart of Gold” Neil Young
18 “Betcha by Golly, Wow” The Stylistics
19 “I’ll Take You There” The Staple Singers
20 “Ben” Michael Jackson
Before I start sharing my 1972 one hit wonders countdown, I need to correct inaccurate information on the topic. Some Internet sites erroneously give 1972 one hit wonder status to songs and artists with multiple Top 40 hits. Clearly, the two singles listed below ARE NOT 1972 ONE HIT WONDERS:
Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)—Looking Glass
One of my all-time favorite epic story songs from the 70s is actually a two-hit wonder. During the summer of 1972, “Brandy” was a number 1 song. Looking Glass had a follow up hit in 1973 with “Jimmy Loves Mary Ann” which peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100. If “Brandy” had truly been the only hit for Looking Glass, it would have made #1 on my 1972 one hit wonder countdown.
Layla—Derek & the Dominoes
It is absurd to place Eric Clapton as a one hit wonder. Clapton is the writer, singer and lead guitarist for the song “Layla” which was recorded under his band’s name of Derek & the Dominoes. The only 3-time member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, had 16 Top 40 solo hits, including covering his song “Layla” in 1993. The legendary guitarist also charted multiple top 40 hits, as a member of Cream and the Yardbirds. Absolutely, Eric Clapton is NOT a one hit wonder.
As I surveyed all true one hit wonders from 1972, I found 13 high quality singles that are on my countdown. These are songs that I deem to be culturally, historically, aesthetically significant, meaningful or relevant. Ahead of my countdown beginning, I want to share some extra songs that didn’t make my Baker’s Dozen listing.
Novelty records that were one hit wonders in 1972:
• Jungle Fever—The Chakachas
• How Do You Do—Mouth and Macneal
• The Delegates—Convention 72
Six-extra ’72 one hit wonders. These selections are all quality songs, that fell just outside of my Baker’s Dozen countdown:
White Lies Blue Eyes—Bullet
Small Beginnings—Flash
Easy Livin’—Uriah Heap
Run Run Run—Jo Jo Gunne
Hallelujah—Sweathog
Suavecito—Malo
Without further ado, here are what I consider to be the 13 best one hit wonders from 1972. My Baker’s Dozen countdown starts now:
13. Hot Rod Lincoln—Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #9, 69th Biggest Hit of 1972
Novelty tune. Commander Cody’s band combines country, rock, pop and western swing genres of music. Lyrics describe illegal auto racing in California.
12. Popcorn—Hot Butter
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #9, 28th Biggest Hit of 1972
First of two instrumental tunes on the countdown. Music composed by Gershon Kingsley. Conductor Stan Free utilizes a Moog synthesizer on this song.
11. Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues—Danny O’Keefe
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #5 Adult Contemporary #9 Hot 100 in 1972
Folk singer-songwriter from Spokane, Washington. Danny O’Keefe has written hundreds of songs recorded by other artists: most prominent include Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, John Denver, Jackson Browne and Glen Campbell.
10. Motorcycle Mama—Sailcat
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #12, 89th Biggest Hit of 1972
Southern rock band from Alabama. Song written by Sailcat member John Wyker. The group decided to break up in 1973, after “Motorcycle Mama” was their only Billboard Hot 100 chart success.
9. Day by Day—Godspell
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #8 Easy Listening, #13 Hot 100 in 1972
Cast from the Off-Broadway musical Godspell, are featured on this folk-rock ballad. Parables from the biblical book of Matthew provide lyrical content for this successful anthem.
8. Beautiful Sunday—Daniel Boone
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #15, 42nd Biggest Song of 1972
English pop musician. Daniel Boone named “Most Likable Singer” by Rolling Stone magazine in 1972. According to Wikipedia, “Beautiful Sunday” is the biggest selling single by an international artist in modern Japanese musical history.
7. Thunder and Lighting—Chi Coltrane
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #17, Cash Box #15, Record World #12
Pianist, singer-songwriter with rock and gospel music genres. American Chi Coltrane was known as “The First Lady of Rock” in the United States and the “Queen of Rock” throughout Europe during the 70s.
6. Sunshine—Jonathan Edwards.
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #4, 37th Biggest Song of 1972
Country folk-rock song. Jonathan Edwards was born in Aitkin, Minnesota. Opened up tours for the Allman Brothers Band and B.B. King after “Sunshine” became a hit tune.
5. Joy—Apollo 100
Peak Positions on Billboard Hot 100 #6, 71st Biggest Song of 1972
The second instrumental song on the countdown. “Joy” It is an up tempo contemporary rendition of a 1723 composition by Johann Sebastian Bach called “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”
4. Precious and Few—Climax
Peak Position of Billboard Hot 100 #3, 30th Biggest Song of 1972
Soft rock band from Los Angeles, California. Lead singer of Climax was Sonny Geraci, who also provided lead vocals on the song “Time Won’t Let Me” from his former band the Outsiders during 1966.
3. Bang a Gong (Get It On)—T. Rex
Peak Position of Billboard Hot 100 #10, 56th Biggest Song of 1972
Originally named Tyrannosaurus Rex, the English glam rock band shorten their name to T. Rex in 1969. Song written by front man Marc Bolan. Among one of the best glitter rock singles from the 70s.
2. The City of New Orleans—Arlo Guthrie.
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #18, 45th Biggest Song of Year
Late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman portrays a train ride from Chicago to New Orleans on the Illinois Central Railroad and their legendary “City of New Orleans” rail line. The song was written in 1971, after Amtrak took over servicing the famous railroad route from Illinois Central. Arlo Guthrie’s biggest Top 40 hit.
Hold Your head up—Argent
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 #5, 50th Biggest Song of 1972.
As a founding member of the Zombies, Ron Argent was keyboardist and a chief song-writer for his British rock band. He penned 3 of the Zombies biggest hits: “She’s Not There”, “Tell Her No” & “Time of the Season.”
In 1969, Ron Argent left the Zombies and formed a new rock band, named after himself: Argent. Three years later, the band released the album “All Together Now” which featured Argent’s only song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100: “Hold Your Head Up.”
Here is what legendary keyboardist Rick Wakeman proclaims in a Louder Sound Dot COM quote: “Rod (Argent) is a good friend, and I’m not just picking people because they’re my mates, I’m picking this because it’s brilliant. The organ solo in “Hold Your Head Up” is, for me, one of the finest organ solos on a record. It’s brilliantly put together, and from an era where you couldn’t go back and correct notes and redo things. It’s a true solo. A little work of art, so it has to go in. It’s just brilliant, so good.”
The first time that I heard Argent’s song was via radio, on WAPE Jacksonville and the Big APE played it multiple times the week I was on vacation in Florida (July ’72). I loved the song when it was a hit and still have fondness for the tune nearly 50 years later. Without a doubt, my top number 1 outstanding one hit wonder from 1972 is “Hold Your Head Up” by Argent.
Now that I have humbly submitted my countdown of 1972 one hit wonders, I am curious to find out your opinion on this topic. Obviously, I do not want to come across as authoritative with my critique. The songs that you feel are the best may be completely different from my selections.
What do you consider to be the best one hit wonders from 1972? There are no right or wrong answers. I welcome your thoughts.
I leave you with lyrics from a 1972 Mac Davis authored song, “I Believe in Music” that pop rock band Gallery covered during 1972: “Music is the universal language, and love is the key, to peace hope and understanding, and living in harmony.” Rock on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
Over the years, I have had many conversations about 70s disco music with friends or acquaintances. At some point during those types of musical discussions, I will ask the question: “What do you consider to be the best Top 40 disco hits of the 70s decade?”
Responses to my inquiries about the greatest disco hits will vary but many folks will choose multiple songs by the same artist, when selecting their favorite 70s disco tunes.
While there isn’t anything wrong with picking multiple songs from the same artist in a listing of the best disco songs from the 70s, I am choosing different methodology in coming up with my own compilation of superior disco singles.
For this music blog message, I will be counting down what I consider to be the 20 best disco singles by 20 different artists. Here are the rules and criteria that I have set forth for this musical exercise:
Each artist, group, band or singer will have just one song listed on the top 20 countdown.
All selections were hits on Top 40 radio and charted at number 20 or lower on the Billboard Hot 100.
I deem each of my selections to be culturally, historically, aesthetically significant, meaningful or relevant.
Song charted nationally on Billboard Hot 100 between 1975 and 1979.
The term “disco” is shorthand for the word discothèque, a French word for “library of phonograph records.”
Please note that I will not be giving a complete history of disco music with this message. For those who long for more information, there are multiple books, articles and links via the Internet on this topic.
Genesis of disco music wasn’t instantaneous but evolved during the first years of the 70s.
Below is a partial listing of Top 40 hits that were precursors to the formation of disco between 1971 and 1973.
Theme from Shaft—Isaac Hayes
Funky Nassau—The Beginning of the End
Rock Steady—Aretha Franklin
Jungle Fever—Chakachas
Soul Makossa—Manu Dibango
Superfly—Curtis Mayfield
Papa Was a Rolling Stone—The Temptations
Masterpiece—The Temptations
Love Train—The O’Jays
The Love I Lost—Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
During the first few months of 1974, a couple of proto-disco songs became hits on top 40 radio. Both tunes reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100:
Love’s Theme—The Love Unlimited Orchestra (Barry White)
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)—MFSB and the Three Degrees
During April 1974, I landed my first job in radio, working for Top 40 WROV Roanoke (1240 AM). For the next 18 months, I witnessed firsthand the tremendous growth of disco music at Roanoke’s top rated Top 40 outlet.
One of the most popular songs that I played during the summer of 1974 on WROV is “Rock the Boat” by the Hues Corporation. This up-tempo classic R&B/Soul tune was number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is considered by some music historians as the earliest disco song to be a mainstream hit.
Another landmark recording of disco music from the summer of 1974 is “Rock Your Baby” by George McCrae. Co-written and produced by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch of KC & the Sunshine Band, the song sold over 11 million copies worldwide.
Other Top 40 disco hits in 1974:
Never Can Say Goodbye—Gloria Gaynor
You’re the First, The Last, My Everything—Barry White
When Will I See You Again—Three Degrees
Kung Fu Fighting—Carl Douglas
It was during the summer of 1975 that I realized that disco music was going to be huge, when “The Hustle” by Van McCoy was the number 1 song in Roanoke and nationally on the Billboard Hot 100.
My radio station WROV had a remote broadcast at the Kings Inn, a nightclub on Salem Avenue in downtown Roanoke. I was engineer for this 3-hour remote and spun 45-rpm singles, which included all of the top 10 songs from the WROV playlist.
When I played Van McCoy’s number 1 hit during the first 15 minutes on the Kings Inn remote, just about every patron at the nightclub went on the dance floor to “do the hustle.” Because of the overwhelming positive response when I played the disco hit, Kings Inn management requested that I spin “The Hustle” a few more times before the remote was scheduled to end.
After I consulted with my fellow WROV staff members, I broke the station’s format and played “The Hustle” two other times that evening. Close to 100 percent of everyone in the building danced on my second and third plays of Van McCoy’s hit. Needless to say, disco music was alive and well in Roanoke that night at the Kings Inn.
The Royal Kings were the house band for Roanoke’s 70s premier nightclub, the Kings Inn. Photo is a scan from a Roanoke Times newspaper article, provided to me by band member Larry Wheeling, who is pictured above.
Other Top 40 disco hits in 1975:
Pick Up the Pieces—Average White Band
Lady Marmalade—LaBelle
Express—BT Express
That’s the Way (I Like It)—KC & the Sunshine Band
Fly, Robin, Fly—Silver Convention
Jive Talkin’—The Bees Gees
My time playing disco records ended in November 1975 as I accepted a full-time radio job with AM/FM combo WRIS 1410 and WJLM 93.5 Roanoke. However, I still tracked the genre of music listening to various Top 40 stations including WROV, WLS Chicago and WABC New York.
Before I reveal my countdown of supreme disco hits, I am sharing ten songs that I considered for the Top 20 but didn’t make the cut. These selections are listed in random order with no repeat artists:
Disco Inferno—The Tramps
Car Wash—Rose Royce
Miss You—Rolling Stones
Don’t Leave Me this Way—Thelma Houston
I Love the Nightlife—Alicia Bridges
Knock on Wood—Amii Stewart
Who Loves You—The Four Seasons
Turn the Beat Around—Vickie Sue Robinson
Ain’t No Stopping Us Now—McFadden & Whitehead
Ring My Bell—Anita Ward
All documentation of chart positions I share below, comes from The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn. I proudly own a hard copy of this excellent reference manual, which I consider to be the “bible” handbook for music history with Top 40 radio.
I now present what I consider to be the top 20 best disco songs from the 70s. As Casey Kasem used to say on his American Top 40 show, “Now on with the countdown.”
20. Best of My Love—The Emotions (1977)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 3rd Biggest Song of 1977
Written by Maurice White and Al McKay of Earth Wind & Fire. Won Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance. Billboard proclaims “Best of My Love” at number 1 on the “Top 40 Biggest Girl Group Songs of All Time” list.
19. More, More, More—Andrea True Connection (1976)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #4 Hot 100, 17th Biggest Song of 1976
Signature song for Andrea True. International hit. Excellent horn section on tune. Canadian alternative rock duo Len sampled “More, More, More” on their 1999 hit “Steal My Sunshine.”
18. Got to Give it Up—Marvin Gaye (1977)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 20th Biggest Song of 1977
Marvin Gaye’s first recording of disco. Falsetto vocals. Outstanding percussion instrumentation with R&B/Funk guitar riffs. Worldwide smash. Number 1 song on 3 Billboard charts.
17. Love Hangover—Diana Ross (1976)
Peak Positions on Billboard Hot 100: #1 Hot 100, 15th Biggest Song of 1976
Superb bass line. Tempo of song starts as ballad, changes to fast groove. Motown’s first disco hit. Fourth Billboard Hot 100 number 1 hit for Diana Ross as a solo artist.
16. Boogie Nights—Heat Wave (1977)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #2 Hot 100, 93rd Biggest Song of 1977
Funk/Disco international band. Two members from United States, three from European Countries and one Jamaican. “Always and Forever” and “The Groove Line” were two other smash tunes by Heat Wave.
15. Dancing Queen—ABBA (1977)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 12th Biggest Song of 1977
ABBA’s most recognizable and popular song. Inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015. Melodic tune and excellent vocal harmonies by Swedish quartet. Reached number 1 in 14 countries around the world.
14. Lowdown—Boz Scaggs (1976)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #3 Hot 100, 49th Biggest Song of 1976
Co-written by Boz Scaggs and David Paich. Song is categorized in multiple musical genres. R&B, Disco, Jazz and Yacht Rock. Won a Grammy Award for best R&B song.
13. Got to Be Real—Cheryl Lynn (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #12 Hot 100, 69th Biggest Song of 1979
Considered a one hit wonder. Cheryl Lynn was former gospel singer. Discovered on the Gong Show in 1976. Song inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
12. Ladies Night—Kool & the Gang (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #8 Hot 100, 35th Biggest Song of 1979
American Funk/R&B band. First of 3 top 10 hits for group during 1979/1980. An anthem for disco bars and nightclubs. Promoting female patrons to venues all across America.
11. We Are Family—Sister Sledge (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #2 Hot 100, 53rd Biggest Song of 1979
Siblings Debbie, Joni, Kim and Kathy Sledge from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lyrics express family solidarity. Signature song and biggest hit for Sister Sledge. Selected by the National Recording Registry/Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant” in 2017.
10. Shake Your Groove Thing—Peaches & Herb (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #5 Hot 100, 31st Biggest Song of 1979
A reformed Peaches & Herb duo formed in the 70s with new singer Linda Greene joining founding member Herb Fame. “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Reunited” were mega hits for the R&B/disco pair during 1979.
9. Shame—Evelyn “Champagne” King (1978)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #9 Hot 100, 64th Biggest Song of 1978
Singer born in The Bronx, New York City. Evelyn King had four Top 40 hits. None bigger than “Shame.” Song features excellent saxophone section and superb bass line. R&B/Funk smash single.
8. Get Down Tonight—KC & the Sunshine Band (1975)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 64th Biggest Song of 1975
The first of 5 number 1 hits on Billboard Hot 100 for South Florida band. Fast tempo. Excellent guitar solo. Superb mixture of R&B, funk and disco.
7. I Will Survive—Gloria Gaynor
Peak positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 6th Biggest Song of 1979
Lyrics have become an anthem for female empowerment. Inducted into Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2016. “I Will Survive” received a Grammy Award for “Best Disco Recording.”
6. Good Times—Chic (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 20th Biggest Song of 1979
Written by Chic band members Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers. Song has legendary bass line riff and is one of the most sampled tunes in music history.
Backing track from “Good Times” was used on the first Top 40 hip-hop hit, “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. Comes in at number 68 on Rolling Stone “Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
5. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough—Michael Jackson (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 91st Biggest Song of 1979
Produced by Quincy Jones and written by Michael Jackson. It was the biggest solo hit of the 70s by the “King of Pop.” Musically, it features a six-piece horn ensemble of saxophones, trumpets and trombone. A sterling string section also adds to the rich sound on this tune.
“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” was a world-wide hit, and helped pave the way for Jackson’s superstar status during the 80s. The singer received a Grammy Award for “Male R&B Vocal Performance” with this popular disco smash.
4. Heart of Glass—Blondie (1979)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 18th Biggest Song of 1979
Brilliant “New Wave” meets “Disco” mix by New York rock band. Magnificent combination of synthesizers, drum machine and guitar. Blondie’s singer Debbie Harry shines on vocals.
“Heart of Glass” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015. It was the first of 4 number 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 for the 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.
3. September—Earth Wind & Fire (1979)
Peak Positions of Billboard Charts: #8 Hot 100, 78th Biggest Song of 1979
“September” is a quintessential song with multiple genres of music: R&B, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Disco and Yacht Rock. Upbeat, feel-good groove. Philip Bailey and Maurice White share lead vocals on this successful song.
Highlighted by transcendent saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar and keyboards. Earth Wind & Fire’s most beloved song, was added to Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry list of sound recordings in 2018.
2. Stayin’ Alive—The Bee Gees (1978)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100, 4th Biggest Song of 1978
Coming in second on the countdown is my selection by the Bee Gees. Written by brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, biggest song from the “Saturday Night Fever” motion picture soundtrack. Great guitar hook with a pulsating beat.
“Stayin’” Alive” is one of the most iconic disco songs from the 70s. Rolling Stone ranks it at number 99 on their “Greatest Songs of All Time” listing. Placed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. This signature song from the Bees Gees, is my second-best disco single of the 70s.
I Feel Love—Donna Summer (1977)
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #6 Hot 100, 96th Biggest Song of 1977
When I think of the greatest disco artist from the 70s, there is only one person who fits that bill: Donna Summer. The “Queen of Disco” was one of the leading female vocalists during the disco era of music and then extending into the early 80s.
“I Feel Love” is one of the most influential songs of the 20th century. Music historians believe that the 1977 disco hit, had a major impact in the development of electronic dance music (EDM). Many who chronicle music history, consider the Donna Summer single to be the first ever recorded EDM song.
Summer’s ground breaking song also had a significant impact with other genres of music, such as New Wave, Punk Rock, Synth-Pop, House, and Disco, during the late 70s, early 80s and beyond.
Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte produced and co-wrote “I Feel Love” along with Donna Summer. The use of a Moog synthesizer, with a repetitive beat, gives the tune a hypnotic, rhythmic feel, that was popular on disco dance floors all across America.
Without a doubt, I proclaim that “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer is the most supreme disco hit from the 70s.
After I finished compiling information for the 20 songs listed above, I realized an interesting fact. Over the past 5 years, I have regularly played many of these songs at wedding receptions, class reunions and other similar events where I am hired for DJ gigs. My 20 selected disco tunes are still popular with those who want to dance.
Now that I have humbly submitted my countdown of the top 20 supreme disco songs of the 70s, I am curious to find out your opinion on this topic. Obviously, I do not want to come across as authoritative with my critique on what I consider to be the best disco songs. The songs that you feel are the best may be completely different from my selections.
I am asking for your opinion: What do you consider to be the best disco songs from the 70s? There are no right or wrong answers. I welcome your thoughts.
If you are a fan of 70s disco music, I welcome your comments below. I leave you with these lyrics by Alicia Bridges and Susan Hutcheson: “I love the nightlife, I got to boogie on the disco ’round.” Disco on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
What do you consider to be the best 45-rpm single in the category of epic story song during the golden age of Top 40 radio?
Many would select “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin as it is arguably one of the greatest classic rock songs of all-time. However, the most iconic tune from the “Led Zeppelin IV” album was never released as a 45-rpm single.
Another tune that some music critics would point out as the best epic story song would be “A Day in the Life” from the Beatles. Of course, there were no 45-rpm singles released from the 1967 legendary Fab Four, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album.
Although, “Stairway to Heaven” and “A Day in the Life” are outstanding epic songs that tell a story, neither song meets the criteria of being released as a 45-rpm single. Both legendary songs were only available for purchase on “long play” 33 1/3-rpm record albums.
The golden age of Top 40 radio (1965 to 1980) is the time period that I am using for selecting the best epic story songs. All selections were hits on Top 40 radio and charted at number 30 or lower on the Billboard Hot 100.
I will be counting down my favorite epic story songs into two silos. My first list will feature songs less than 5 minutes long. The second countdown will consist of selections over 5:00 in length.
In the early days of Top 40 radio, 45-rpm singles generally averaged under 3 minutes long. Eventually, record companies started releasing singles longer in length. “Like a Rolling Stone” from Bob Dylan was the first 45-rpm single over 6-minutes long and the iconic tune peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.
Three years later in 1968, there were two smash hit singles that broke the 7-minute mark. “MacArthur Park” by Richard Harris at 7:21 in length, peaked at number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
Then came the first 7-minute long single to reach the number 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100: “Hey Jude” by the Beatles. The song spent 9 weeks at the top spot in America and was the biggest selling single of 1968.
As the 70s decade started, some of the biggest top 40 hits were story songs that were 5-minutes or less in length.
Tie a Yellow Ribbon round the Old Oak Tree—Tony Orlando & Dawn
Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia—Vicki Lawrence
Me and Bobby McGee—Janis Joplin
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down—Joan Baez
Bad Bad Leroy Brown—Jim Croce
Some of the most superb epic top 40 hits during the 70s, just didn’t develop a good story line. Eric Clapton’s song “Layla” falls into this category. The Derek and the Dominoes summer of 1972 hit has excellent guitar playing but contains weak lyrical content.
For the remainder of this message, I will be counting down two sets of epic story songs. My first listing will be songs that are all 5-minutes in length or less. The second list will be comprised of singles over 5-minutes long.
All documentation of chart positions I share below in this article, comes from The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn. I proudly own a hard copy of this excellent reference manual, which I consider to be the ‘bible” handbook for music history with Top 40 radio.
With my two countdowns of epic story songs, I am sharing my personal favorites. Songs which I deem to be culturally, historically, aesthetically significant, meaningful or relevant. Now it is time to reveal my first countdown: Best epic story songs that are less than 5 minutes in length:
10. In the Ghetto—Elvis Presley
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1969: #1 Hot 100: 35th Biggest Song of Year
Describes the vicious cycle of poverty, violence and despair. With an inner-city Chicago newborn, growing to adulthood. Comeback hit for the “King of Rock and Roll.”
9. Take the Money and Run—Steve Miller Band
Peak Position on Billboard Charts for 1976: #11 Hot 100: 98th Biggest Song of Year
Message about two bandits being pursued by a detective. Couple heads to El Paso and then south, possibly to Mexico or beyond. Lead single from the “Fly Like an Eagle” album.
8. Eleanor Rigby—The Beatles
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1966: #1 Hot 100: 90th Biggest Song of Year
Baroque Pop. John Lennon and Paul McCartney lyrics are commentary on loneliness, isolation and despair. Double A-side single with “Yellow Submarine.”
7. You’re So Vain—Carly Simon
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1973: #1 Hot 100: 9th Biggest Song of Year
The signature song of Carly Simon. Describes a former lover who has a narcissistic personality disorder: Self-centered with vanity issues. Received Grammy Hall of Fame award in 2004.
6. Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)—Looking Glass
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1972: #1 Hot 100: 12th Biggest Song of Year
Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass has an engaging story: Brandy works in a seaport harbor town as a barmaid and the man she loves is a sailor. Unfortunately for Brandy, the seaman is never in port and honestly declared to her before leaving for the last time: “But my life, my lover and my lady is the sea.”
5. City of New Orleans—Arlo Guthrie
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1972: #18 Hot 100: 45th Biggest Song of Year
Late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman portrays a train ride from Chicago to New Orleans on the Illinois Central Railroad and their legendary “City of New Orleans” rail line. The song was written in 1971, after Amtrak took over servicing the famous railroad route from Illinois Central. Arlo Guthrie’s biggest Top 40 hit.
4. Harper Valley PTA—Jeannie C Riley
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1968: #1 Hot 100: 11th Biggest Song of Year.
Country singer-songwriter Tom T Hall created a most unusual story for this crossover Top 40 hit. The Harper Valley PTA meeting was a wild and wacky affair as an “unfit mother” addresses her concerns about the hypocrisy of multiple other members with the school organization.
3. A Boy Named Sue—Johnny Cash
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1969: #2 Hot 100: 36th Biggest Song of Year
Shel Silverstein’s lyrics about a father abandoning his son at age 3, with only a guitar and naming the boy Sue, became the biggest hit song for Johnny Cash. The Man in Black sings a colorful story line of the boy seeking revenge, fighting his father in a bar, and then finally making peace with his dad.
2. Cat’s in the Cradle—Harry Chapin
Peak Position on Billboard Chart 1974: #1 Hot 100: 38th Biggest Song of 1975
Grammy Hall of Fame award 2011. Harry Chapin’s signature song gives a sorrowful picture of a father neglecting his son as a child. When the son becomes an adult, he actually neglects his father, in the same exact way that his father treated him during childhood. This folk-rock song gives a baleful warning with outstanding lyrics.
Ode to Billie Joe—Bobbie Gentry
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1967: #1 Hot 100: 3rd Biggest Song of Year
My number 1 selection for short epic story songs goes to “Ode to Billie Joe” written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry.
Lyrics for “Ode to Billie Joe” are written in the form of first-person narrative, by a Mississippi Delta teenage daughter. The song begins on the 3rd of June, with the narrator having mealtime conversations with her parents and brother.
While most of the dinner conversation is on mundane activities and events, the mother shares the big news from Choctaw Ridge: “Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
The dinner conversations continue with various unrelated dialogue but an important fact is revealed. The daughter and Billie Joe may have been in a relationship and both may have been together “throwing somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge” just before Billie Joe’s death?
Bobby Gentry provided brilliant lyrics on “Ode to Billie Joe” and it is my favorite epic story song that is under 5 minutes long.
The ten songs from my first countdown above, include some of the most beloved hits from the golden age of Top 40 radio. Now is it time for my second countdown. These are the best epic story songs over 5 minutes in length:
10. Space Oddity—David Bowie
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1973: #15 Hot 100: 97th Biggest Song of Year
First released as a single in July 1969, same month as Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the moon. Before the creation of Ziggy Stardust. Story of Major Tom alone on a malfunctioning spacecraft, failing to receiving communications from ground control. Lost in space.
9. Papa Was a Rolling Stone—The Temptations
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1972: #1 Hot 100: It was #100 on Top Song Chart for 1973
With outstanding instrumentation by the Funk Brothers Motown band, the Temptations shine with this 1972 tale. A set of brothers ask their mother pointed questions on the topic of a dead father: The siblings never knew their father and have only heard bad things about the man’s character. Won 3 Grammy Awards in 1973.
8. Same Old Lang Syne—Dan Fogelberg
Peak Position on Billboard Chart 1980: #9 Hot 100: 79th Biggest Song of 1981
Dan Fogelberg wrote an autobiographical account of a Christmas visit to his parents’ home during the mid 70s. While shopping at a grocery store on Christmas Eve, Fogelberg meets an old girlfriend by chance and the two ex-lovers spend an afternoon drinking a 6-pack of beer and exchanging information on their separate life paths.
7. Taxi—Harry Chapin
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1972: #24 Hot 100: 85th Biggest Song of Year
This fictional narrative written by Harry Chapin involves a taxi driver on a rainy night in San Francisco. With the last fare of the night, the cabbie picks up a fancy woman, who requests to be driven to an affluent home. Eventually, the driver recognizes his passenger as an ex-lover. Interesting conversations ensue until completion of the fare.
6. Piano Man—Billy Joel
Peak Position on Billboard Chart: #4 Adult Contemporary: #25 Hot 100
Signature song for Billy Joel. Verses of the song are observations about the life of a piano player at a night club lounge bar. The narrative describes various patrons, most living with disappointment or unfulfilled dreams. Folks coming to hear a piano man and “to forget about life for a while.”
5. The Boxer—Simon & Garfunkel
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1969: #7 Hot 100: 42nd Biggest Song of Year
Paul Simon’s authored an excellent lament of a boxer living in New York City. Lyrics depict the struggles to overcome poverty and loneliness as well as the desire to succeed as a professional boxer. Rolling Stone ranks “The Boxer” as the second-best Simon & Garfunkel song of all-time.
4. Bohemian Rhapsody—Queen
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1976 & 1992: #9 Hot 100 & 18th Biggest Song of 1976: #2 Hot 100 & 39th Biggest Song of 1992:
Rock opera suite written by Freddie Mercury. Queen’s composition is about a young man who accidentally killed a man and is facing pending execution. While waiting for the death sentence to be carried out, the murderer mourns on being haunted by demons and selling his soul to the devil. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is considered one of the greatest classic rock songs ever made.
3. Hotel California—Eagles
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts 1977: #1 Hot 100: 19th Biggest Song of Year
One of the most iconic rock songs from the 20th Century is “Hotel California.” Co-written by Don Felder, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, the words depict both literal and symbolic interpretations of Southern California lifestyles from the 70s. Themes of good vs evil and light vs darkness are developed throughout the song. Eagles won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1977 with the band’s signature recording.
2. American Pie—Don McLean
Peak Position on Billboard Charts 1972: #1 Hot 100: 3rd Biggest Song of Year
“American Pie” is perhaps the most mis-interpreted song in pop/rock music history. This much we know: The 1959 plane crash deaths of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, is “the day the music died” according to Don McLean’s written masterpiece.
The author goes on to explore cultural changes within rock ‘n roll, proclaiming philosophical angst, disillusionment and disappointment with rock music created after 1959. McLean also includes the mention of multiple political events with his complex lyrics. “American Pie” comes in as my second favorite epic story single that is over 5 minutes long.
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald—Gordon Lightfoot
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #2 Hot 100: 36th Biggest Song of Year
Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot comes in with my number one epic story song of all-time with “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
The topic that Lightfoot wrote about is based on an actual historical event. On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald ship sank during a storm on Lake Superior, with the entire 29-man crew dying that day.
After reading an account of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking in a Newsweek magazine article from 11/24/75, Lightfoot came up with the lyrics to what became his biggest record. The song paints a haunting and poignant picture of the last voyage with the Great Lakes freighter.
Without any doubt, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot is my number 1 favorite epic story song from the golden age of top 40 radio.
Now that I have humbly submitted my thoughts on the best epic story songs, I am curious to find out your opinion on this topic.
Obviously, I do not want to come across as authoritative with my critique on what I consider to be the best epic story songs of all-time. The songs that you may feel are the best, maybe be completely different from my selections.
So I am asking for your opinion: What do you consider to be the best epic story songs from 1965 through 1980? There are no right or wrong answers. I welcome your thoughts.
Listening to music from the golden age of Top 40 radio will always have a special place in my heart. I fondly remember and cherish all of the epic story songs that I shared with you on this music blog message. Rock on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
What are the best videos and songs that Music Television cable channel (MTV) aired during their first full year of operation? Obviously, there are no definitive answers to my question.
However, I will be sharing what I consider to be the top 20 MTV songs and clips broadcast by the pioneer 24 hour-a-day music channel during their premiere year (August 1, 1981 – July 31, 1982).
During the first full year of MTV’s existence, the music video channel struggled as it was not available on most cable providers in the United States. It wasn’t until the third year of MTV that it became a major force and revolutionized the music industry.
MTV was launched the first day of August 1981. The new cable channel played music videos 24 hours-a-day and featured hosts known as video jockeys (VJs). These individuals gave information on the music clips played and provided news about the artists that aired on MTV.
The programming that MTV utilized during the first year was similar to AOR (Album Oriented Rock) or Top 40 radio formats. Initially, MTV played established artists but later became a venue for many new pop rock bands during the second and third years of operation.
According to Wikipedia, here are the first 10 videos aired by MTV on August 1, 1981:
* “Video Killed the Radio Star” The Buggles
* “You Better Run” Pat Benatar
* “She Won’t Dance With Me” Rod Stewart
* “You Better You Bet” The Who
* “Little Suzi’s on the Up” Ph. D.
* “We Don’t Talk Anymore” Cliff Richard
* “Brass in Pocket” The Pretenders
* “Time Heals” Todd Rundgren
* “Take It on the Run” REO Speedwagon
* “Rockin’ the Paradise” Styx
Videos for songs played within the first year of MTV must be judged differently than clips made during the 1983 to 1985 time period. Many of the early clips aired on MTV were of concert footage or live show performances. The production of concept videos soared after MTV’s debut and was a mainstay for the music TV cable channel during the 80s decade.
By 1985, there were many excellent created videos that made the MTV hot rotation. “Take On Me” by the Norwegian synth-pop band A-ha had a superb clip. The award-winning video used pencil-sketched animation and live-action footage combination called rotoscoping.
Another bodacious video clip from 1985 is “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits. Opening lyrics on the song are provided by guest vocalist Sting singing the promotional phrase of the video channel, “I Want My MTV.” The ground breaking clip was MTV’s, “Video of the Year” in 1986.
When MTV started on 8/1/81, the music TV channel aired many existing videos of songs that had been top 40 hits from either 1980 or the first 7 months of 1981.
Of the top 10 biggest records from 1981, only half of the songs had videos available that could be aired by MTV. Below are the Billboard top-rated songs of 1981:
1 “Bette Davis Eyes” Kim Carnes
2 “Endless Love” Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
3 “Lady” Kenny Rogers
4 “(Just Like) Starting Over” John Lennon
5 “Jessie’s Girl” Rick Springfield
6 “Celebration” Kool & the Gang
7 “Kiss on My List” Hall & Oates
8 “I Love a Rainy Night” Eddie Rabbitt
9 “9 To 5” Dolly Parton
10 “Keep on Loving You” REO Speedwagon
After the launching of MTV, most every major record company would produce some type of music video for new song releases. These record companies hoped that MTV would add their new song to its regular rotation of music clips.
Below are the ten biggest singles of 1982 according to Billboard and a selection from the videos MTV aired on their network:
1 “Physical” Olivia Newton-John
2 “Eye of the Tiger” Survivor
3 “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
4 “Ebony and Ivory” Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder
5 “Centerfold” The J. Geils Band
6 “Don’t You Want Me” The Human League
7 “Jack & Diane” John Cougar
8 “Hurts So Good” John Cougar
9 “Abracadabra” Steve Miller Band
10 “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” Chicago
One of the chief criticisms of MTV during its first 18 months of operation was the lack of music by Black artists being played on the cable TV channel. It wasn’t until March 1983, that Michael Jackson’s video for “Billie Jean” was added and became the first video by a Black artist to be aired in heavy rotation on MTV. Without a doubt, “Billie Jean” is the best video from the second year of MTV.
For the rest of this message, I will be counting down what I consider to be the best songs and videos that were aired on MTV during the first 12 months. My selections all were top 40 radio hits and peaked at number 20 or lower on the Billboard Hot 100 between August 1981 and July 1982.
Please note: I am not declaring that my picks are either the “best or greatest” that MTV played during its first year. The song choices are my personal favorites from this time period. I deem the top 20 songs to be culturally, historically, aesthetically significant, meaningful or relevant.
Chart information for my favorite Top 20 MTV song of the countdown comes from, “The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits” by Joel Whitburn. I consider Whitburn’s publication to be the “bible” of Top 40 music reference and still proudly own a hard copy of this excellent music guide.
As legendary DJ host Casey Kasem used to proclaim on his weekly American Top 40 show, “Now on with the countdown.”
20. Don’t Stop Believin’—Journey
Peak Positions of Billboard Charts: #9 Hot 100: 73rd Biggest Song of 1982
First of two Journey songs on countdown. Arena rock anthem of the 80s. Ranked at number 133 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” listing.
19. Leader of the Band—Dan Fogelberg
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 AC: #9 Hot 100: 35th Biggest Song of 1982
Dan Fogelberg wrote “Leader of the Band” as a tribute to his father Lawrence Fogelberg. One of two songs on my countdown by the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who died in 2007.
18. Waiting for a Girl Like You—Foreigner
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #2 Hot 100: 19th Biggest Song of 1982
This power ballad spent 10 weeks in the number 2 position on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever reaching the top of the chart. Thomas Dolby plays synthesizer on record-setting track.
17. The Night Owls—The Little River Band
Peak Position on Billboard Charts: #6 Hot 100: #9 Top Rock Tracks
Biggest Top 40 hit in the 80s for Australian rock band. “Man on Your Mind” and “Take It Easy on Me” were two other hits Little River Band had during the first year of MTV.
16. Who’s Crying Now—Journey
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #4 Hot 100: 56th Biggest Song of 1981
Written by Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain. First single released from the Journey’s most successful album “Escape.” Perry’s vocals are outstanding. Second song from the arena rock band on my countdown.
15. Heat of the Moment—Asia
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #4 Hot 100: 40th Biggest Song of 1982
Debut single from English progressive rock supergroup. Band members John Wetton and Geoff Downes wrote the signature song for Asia.
14. The Break Up Song (They Don’t Write Em)—Greg Kihn Band
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #15 Hot 100: 47th Biggest Song of 1981
Power pop rock band. First of three Top 40 hits. Greg Kihn Band also scored with “Jeopardy” and “Lucky” during the 80s on MTV.
13. Empty Garden—Elton John
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #13 Hot 100: 76th Biggest Song of 1982
Composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Tribute song to John Lennon, who was assassinated in New York City on December 8, 1980. Elton was friends with the former Beatle member, prior to Lennon’s death.
12. The Voice—The Moody Blues
Peak Position on Billboard Charts: #1 Mainstream Rock: #15 Hot 100
Second top 15 in 1981 hit for English progressive rock band. Along with “Gemini Dream” single, “The Voice” came from the Moody Blues comeback album, “Long Distance Voyager.”
11. Young Turks—Rod Stewart
Peak Position on Billboard Charts: #5 Hot 100: 48th Biggest Song of 1982
Rod Stewart changed musical sound on this hybrid pop/new wave/synthpop tune. “Young Turks” holds the distinction of being the first video aired on MTV containing breakdancing.
10. Fire and Ice—Pat Benatar
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #2 Mainstream Rock #17 Hot 100
Pre-eminent rock singer of the early 80s. Pat Benatar won a Grammy award in 1982 for Best Female Rock Performance with “Fire and Ice.”
9. Shake It Up—The Cars
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #4 Hot 100: 23rd Biggest Song of 1982
Danceable power pop rock describes the song written by Ric Ocasek. “Shake It Up” was one of the Cars biggest singles during the 80s.
8. Chariots of Fire—Vangelis
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100: #1 Hot Soul Singles: 12th Biggest Song of 1982
“Chariots of Fire” was an unlikely instrumental Top 40 hit. The song score was written by Vangelis and is featured in the British historical sports film Chariots of Fire. Melodic tune has been used on multiple Summer and Winter Olympic Game broadcasts since 1984.
7. Edge of Seventeen—Stevie Nicks
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #4 Mainstream Rock: #11 Hot 100:
Stevie Nicks wrote the song sub-titled “Just Like the White Wing Dove” as a result of two events happening the same week in December 1980: The death of her uncle Jonathan and the assassination of John Lennon. It is the first of two songs on my countdown by the Fleetwood Mac singer.
6. I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)—Hall & Oates
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #1 Hot 100: 15th Biggest Song of 1982
Daryl Hall and John Oates: Biggest duo of the 20th Century. Their song topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts in 1982. Knocked off “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John” out of number 1 position after a 10-week run.
5. 867-5309/Jenny—Tommy Tutone
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #4 Hot 100: 16th Biggest Song of 1982
Tommy Tutone is a two-hit wonder. “Angel Say No” peaked at number 38 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1980. 867-5309 was a popular phone number of music fans throughout the 80s decade.
4. Run for the Roses—Dan Fogelberg
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #3 Adult Contemporary #18 Hot 100
My second Dan Fogelberg countdown selection is a melodious song about various aspects of horse racing. “Run For the Roses” is from “The Innocent Age” album and is now considered as an unofficial theme song for the Kentucky Derby, which happens the first Saturday of May each year.
3. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around—Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #3 Hot 100: 59th Biggest Song of 1981
The coming together of Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty provided musical magic with their rock duet. From the debut Nicks “Bella Donna” solo album, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” was actually the 25th video played on MTV’s first day of operation, August 1, 1981.
2. Our Lips Are Sealed—The Go-Gos
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #20 Hot 100: 63rd Biggest Song of 1982
Debut single for 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band. Rolling Stone ranks 57th greatest pop song of all time. From the Go-Gos “Beauty and the Beat” album. “Our Lips Our Sealed” is my second favorite power pop rock single of the 80s.
1. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic—The Police
Peak Positions on Billboard Charts: #3 Hot 100: 79th Biggest Song of 1982
My top selection was written by the Police front man/bassist Sting in 1976 but wasn’t recorded until 1981 for the “Ghost in the Machine” album. The song is unique among Police music as the tune features Jean Alain Roussel on piano and synthesizer. Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland and Sting blend together a perfect pop song, that is truly magic for me. “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” is my pick for best song and video aired by MTV during the first year in business.
Now that I have my countdown of favorite first-year MTV songs and video that were hits on Top 40 radio, I am curious to find out your thoughts on this topic.
Obviously, I do not want to come across as authoritative with the critique of my favorite MTV videos and songs from 1981-1982. Your top selections maybe be completely different than my choices. There are no right or wrong answers, just various opinions about the music song videos MTV played during their first year in business.
“I Want My MTV” was the main promotional slogan from the music TV cable channel in the early 80s. MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore but I still can enjoy watching video clips 24/7 via YouTube and or the Internet.
I still have fond memories of MTV songs and videos from the first year: 1981-1982. Rock on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
How many individuals in America can claim the following: Being a teen dancer on American Bandstand when the show was aired from Philadelphia, and years later as a DJ, meeting the Beatles backstage at the band’s first American concert in Washington D.C. during February 1964? The only person that I know who fits this bill is Jack Fisher.
So just who is Jack Fisher? Born in Wilmington, Fisher is most prominently known as a premier DJ with WROV 1240 AM Roanoke, Virginia during the golden days of Top 40 radio. I consider the legendary WROV announcer to be among the “Mount Rushmore” of radio personalities who worked in the Roanoke radio market during the 60s and 70s.
I first met Fisher almost 46 years ago when I worked for WROV during 1975. I reconnected with him earlier this month and interviewed Fisher via phone from his current home of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Fisher was born in Wilmington, Delaware and was involved with a variety of athletic sporting activities during high school. He also loved listening to rock ‘n’ roll, dancing and attending concerts. His first taste of glory came during Fisher’s teen years at a TV show called Bandstand in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
During the early 1950s, WFIL TV in Philadelphia broadcasted a live daily program called Bandstand. During 1956, Dick Clark became permanent host of the program and in 1957, ABC picked up the show for its television network. Clark’s show was renamed American Bandstand with ABC’s distribution of the program for a national audience.
Within the first year of ABC’s takeover of American Bandstand, the show had a national teen dance contest. Fisher was a regular dancer on Clark’s TV show, and he entered the dance competition with a partner. The couple placed 4th place in the national dancing event.
The radio career of Jack Fisher started in the early 1960s at a small station in Georgetown, Delaware. Next up, Fisher moved to Portsmouth, Ohio and honed his skills at a bigger radio station. In late 1963, Fisher landed a major market job at Top 40 WEAM 1390 AM Washington, D.C.
On February 11, 1964, the Beatles performed their first American concert at the Washington Coliseum. Each of four DC Top 40 radio stations sent one of their DJs to emcee this debut Beatles show. With Fisher being the newest DJ hired at WEAM, he was “stuck” being the station’s representative for this historic concert event.
WEAM DJ Jack Fisher got to meet the Beatles backstage prior to this legendary first American concert. Fisher told me during our phone conversation that John, Paul, George and Ringo were all respectful to him. The Fab Four were also friendly to the other Washington DJs and media members before they embarked on stage for their DC show.
Obviously, meeting the Beatles was the most memorable event of Fisher’s employment in the DC radio market. Less than a year after starting at WEAM, Fisher was let go by the station. While searching for DJ jobs in major markets, it was actually in Roanoke, Virginia where Fisher finally found a permanent home for his radio career. In November 1964, Fisher was hired at work at WROV 1240 AM.
WROV dominated the Roanoke radio market. The station was small in radio power: transmitting only 1,000 watts in the daytime and 250 watts at night. Even though WROV’s coverage area was only 25 miles wide, the station totally controlled radio listenership within the Roanoke Valley.
Starting on the 7 pm to midnight DJ shift, Fisher quickly became one of WROV’s most beloved on-air personalities. Early in 1965, Fisher moved to the afternoon slot (2pm to 7pm) and he continued in that capacity for the next seven years.
One of the first bits that Fisher created after coming to WROV was a big promotional campaign to have the Beatles perform a concert in Roanoke. According to the WROV History online website, “Fisher embarked on a campaign to bring the Beatles to Roanoke. Though several local businessmen were eager to sponsor the event, it never came to be. But, the attempt gained Jack much notoriety in the market.”
Below is a WROV aircheck of Fisher making a phone call on air to try and speak to George Harrison of the Beatles. Courtesy of WROV History Website/Pat Garrett.
For a short time period in 1966, Fisher was paired with another popular WROV DJ Fred Frelantz and the two announcers shared co-hosting duties with an afternoon show. The “Fisher & Frelantz Fling” team were a dynamic duo: complimenting each other well, writing humorous skits and creating memorable parodies on their daily radio show.
From the WROV History website and Pat Garrett: below is a Jack Fisher/Fred Frelantz aircheck of the fictitious beautiful downtown Bonsack Christmas parade. Fisher and Frelantz are the emcees for this “event.”
The Fisher/Frelantz duo were also heavily involved within the Roanoke community representing WROV at numerous events. Between the two of them, they emceed nearly every music concert that was held in the Roanoke Valley during the mid to late 60s.
WROV sponsored concerts were normally held at one of two locations during Fisher’s first years employed by the station: Victory Stadium or the Salem Civic Center. During our phone conversation, Jack shared with me the most notable shows that he emceed were Paul Revere and the Raiders, James Brown, the Temptations, the Beach Boys, Wilson Pickett, Glen Campbell and Herman’s Hermits.
I found it interesting that when Herman’s Hermits first came to Roanoke for a concert, Fisher formed a bond with the band’s lead singer Peter Noone. Fisher and Noone stuck up a friendship and they continue to communicate with one another on a regular basis, 56 years after their first meeting in Roanoke.
The most memorable WROV event that Fisher participated in came during the summer of 1969. June is National Dairy Month and Fisher had lunch with a cow in the parking lot of Crossroads Mall in Roanoke.
Pat Garrett from the WROV History Online Website, describes Fisher’s event: “Jack arrived in a limousine decked out with a tuxedo, for his lunch with the cow. Jack remembers “A large long table was set up with the cow on one end and me on the other, the cow ate hay, I of course dined only on dairy products. Several thousand people attended this event.”
For almost 7 years, Jack Fisher was a prominent radio voice with WROV. By 1971, Fisher decided to switch careers. He left WROV to work for Brand Edmonds advertising agency. Even though Fisher no longer was employed by WROV, he left the station on good term.
Since Fisher was still in good graces with WROV station owner Burt Levine, he was asked occasionally to work some part time weekend gigs with WROV throughout the mid to late 70s. It was during one of these temporary gig jobs with WROV, that I first met Jack Fisher.
At WROV, I was hired to be a remote engineer by the Top 40 radio station. My responsibilities at the station included setting up equipment for remote broadcasts, running the soundboard and playing records, while a WROV DJ was in charge of announcing duties.
On Labor Day 1975, I was the engineer for a remote at Lowe’s and the DJ assigned to work with me was Fisher. It was a “solid gold holiday weekend” and I played all 50’s and early 60’s songs that day. I grew up listening to Fisher on WROV when I was younger, so it was a thrill being able to work with the legendary Roanoke DJ at that remote broadcast.
Into the 80s, Fisher continued to be associated with WROV with various assignments. By this time, ratings for the once dominant Roanoke Top 40 station had fallen and WROV owner Burt Levine hired two of his former DJs for help: Jack Fisher and Fred Frelantz.
Starting in March 1981, the dynamic duo of Fisher and Frelantz were back on the air at WROV: Hosting an “oldies” show once a month on Saturday afternoons. Fisher would begin the broadcast at 12 noon, and then Frelantz would join his DJ partner at 2 pm to close out the 6-hour show.
When Frelantz moved out of Roanoke in 1982, Fisher assumed hosting the once-a-month oldies show by himself. Three years later, Frelantz moved back to Roanoke and the “Fisher/Frelantz Fling” was back as a two-man-operation.
Unfortunately, the Fisher/Frelantz DJ partnership ended in June 1986, when Fred Frelantz died in an apartment fire. After this tragic death, Fisher once again hosted the oldies show as a solo DJ.
The WROV oldies show was continued by Fisher until he signed off for the last time on October 26, 1991. Below is an aircheck of Fisher’s final words on his oldies show. The clip is courtesy of the WROV History Online Website/Pat Garrett.
Once Fisher’s radio days had ended, he became involved in a project about American Bandstand. As the executive producer of the 1997 PBS TV documentary called “Bandstand Days”, Fisher utilized his knowledge about the dancers featured on Dick Clark’s TV show.
Nominated for an Emmy, Bandstand Days explores the origins, history and memorable experiences of dancers who performed during the Philadelphia days of American Bandstand. The documentary has footage of the TV show from 1957 and interviews some of the dancers from that era of the teen music program.
Jack Fisher has not slowed down during his retirement years. In 2016, Fisher co-wrote a book with Susan A. Sistare called “Blue Skies and Green Lights.” Fisher’s fictional account is billed as “a tale of music and magic of the 50s and 60s” and is loosely based on his real-life experiences with American Bandstand, the Beatles and radio stories about WROV Roanoke.
If you are looking for a light, easy and good read, I would recommend Fisher’s book. I enjoyed reading “Blue Skies and Green Lights” during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is available for purchased through Amazon.
One other activity that Fisher has been involved with since 2015 is teaching a class at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. As part of the Furman adult continuing education program, Fisher’s, “Music and Culture of the 60s” class explores how music and culture are tied together during the 60s decade. If I lived anywhere near South Carolina, I would love to take Jack’s course.
As I mentioned above, I spoke with Jack Fisher during a phone conversation earlier this month. After my interview with Fisher, I emailed the former DJ a list of six questions about important aspects of career and life experience highlights. Fisher’s responses to my questions are found below:
DJ Dave: What is your most memorable encounter with Dick Clark and your days as a dancer on American Bandstand as a teen?
Jack: “Bandstand was local TV show in Philadelphia from 1952 until it went national on ABC-TV in 1957, becoming American Bandstand. Dick Clark staged a jitterbug contest that was designed as a way to test the national TV audience response. There were many at ABC who thought a bunch of kids dancing on TV for two hours every afternoon would not work.
On the first day with in studio judges, my partner Dottie Horner and I won. There were 10 couples in a dance off over several weeks. Millions of votes by postcard came in proving that American Bandstand was a hit. Despite getting over a million votes, Dottie and I came in fourth.”
DJ Dave: Please describe what it was like meeting the Beatles backstage at their first American concert in Washington D.C. on February 11, 1964?
Jack: “The Beatles did their famous appearance on the Sullivan Show, Sunday February 9th, 1964. Two days later, the band performed their first live American show in Washington DC. I was doing 7 to midnight DJ shift on WEAM AM, the only 24-hour rocker in Washington. I along with 3 other jocks with other D.C. stations were invited to be at the concert.
They gave each of us Beatle Wigs and we stood at corners on the stage with the Beatles prior to the show. Backstage before the show we had access to the Beatles. Jack Alex from WEEL and I were talking to John Lennon, who said to us “we hope we can get two years out of this.” Knowing the fickle nature of the music business we replied “we hope so, it’s a tough business.”
DJ Dave: Working with fellow WROV Roanoke DJ Fred Frelantz must have been special? What made your broadcasting partnership flourish over the course of 20 plus years, until the untimely death of Frelantz in 1986?
Jack: “On the Fisher and Frelantz DJ partnership: This was a perfect pairing of two radio personalities. We instinctively were on the same page and we both were writers who created memorable bits. Just like the “Bonsack Christmas parade” segment we broadcasted together and is still talked about to this very day. Fred and I were just a great pairing. My friend and partner passed away in a fire during 1986. He was the best!”
DJ Dave: During the summer of 1969, you were part of a legendary DJ staff at WROV, working with Bart Prater, Fred Frelantz and John Cigna. Before leaving the station in 1971, you also worked with Larry Bly and Dan Alexander. How did a small station like WROV attract and keep legendary DJ talent during the golden age of Top 40 radio?
Jack: “1969 was a memorable year of course for music and news, men landed on the moon and of course there was Woodstock. The lineup that year at WROV was as good of a DJ staff that was ever assembled for the Roanoke radio market.
John Cigna, who came from 50k watt WOWO Fort Wayne, Indiana, held down morning drive. Fred Frelantz was doing mid days, I worked afternoon drive and Bart Prater had the 7 to midnight shift. Come on man, that was entertainment. Why did so many talented DJs like this lineup and later jocks like Larry Bly and Dan Alexander work at WROV? It was Burt Levine, the owner of the station. Burt spotted talent and let it happen.”
DJ Dave: What are two or three events, concerts or remote broadcasts that you participated in while working at WROV, that still are enduring or meaningful to you in 2021?
Jack: “During my full-time employment with WROV, I worked at most every event that was sponsored by the station. I had a great time with Beach Boys, Wilson Pickett, and let’s not forget the bomb with Tiny Tim! One of my favorites was the Temptations. After I introduced the Motown vocal group, bass singer Melvin Franklin took my microphone and thanked me for playing “My Girl” at the end of my WROV oldies show every week. That was special.”
DJ Dave: Can you tell me about the class that you have been teaching since 2015 at Furman University about the history of rock and roll?
Jack: “Currently I teach a class at Furman’s Life Long Learning class. THE MUSIC AND CULTURE OF THE 60S. During class time, I focus on a different year, discussing the music and major events that happened during that particular year. Each class demonstrates how music and culture influenced each other during the 60s decade.”
As I have chronicled highlights of Fisher and his important life events, it is clear he has woven a wonderful tapestry of living experiences within the rock and roll genre of music. Fisher’s stories of American Bandstand and the Beatles, as well as eventful radio DJ years with WROV Roanoke are fascinating, interesting and legendary.
Listening to WROV and Jack Fisher every afternoon when I was a teen still has a special place in my heart. I cherish and fondly remember Fisher as an excellent DJ during the golden age of Top 40 radio. Without a doubt, Jack Fisher remains a legacy within Roanoke radio history here in the 21st Century. Rock on!
To subscribe to my blog via email, please click the “Follow” button in the menu above.
What do artists like the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, the Association, the Turtles and the 5th Dimension all have in common? Each of these Southern California groups were hit makers during the mid to late 60s, with a refreshing brand of music called Sunshine Pop.
With my latest edition of DJ Dave’s Musical Musings, I will be counting down what I consider to be the best Sunshine Pop Top 40 singles from the 60s decade. My selections were all hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, during the golden age of Sunshine Pop (1965-1969).
What is Sunshine Pop? Wikipedia describes the type of rock music as, “cheerful, upbeat music which is characterized by warm sounds, prominent vocal harmonies, lush vocals, light arrangements and sophisticated productions. Rooted in easy listening and advertising jingles, sunshine pop acts combined nostalgic or anxious moods with an appreciation for the beauty of the world.”
Originating in California during the mid 60s, Sunshine Pop combined segments of folk-rock, soft pop, progressive rock, Baroque pop and Psychedelia. Some tunes in this category are slow grooves, but most songs featured breezy, up-tempo beats.
The term Sunshine Pop did not exist during the 60s so it is difficult to pin-point an exact beginning to this sub-genre of pop rock music. It appears that Sunshine Pop happened because of multiple musical influences as a wide range of musicians and record producers converged together around Los Angeles, California, during 1965 and 1966.
Some of the more instrumental players in the development of Sunshine Pop include:
The Beatles and “Beatlemania” permeates America in 1964
British Invasion bands other than the Beatles (1964-1965)
Folk rock bands like the Byrds/Roger McGuinn
Phil Spector Wall of Sound record producer
John Phillips of the Mamas & the Papas
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys
Pet Sounds album by the Beach Boys
Curt Boettcher Record Producer
The Wrecking Crew: Los Angeles session musicians
The Beatles are the most influential band of the rock era and they changed the course of musical history during the 60s. The band’s impact on all types of pop/rock music is legendary and their musical fingerprints are all over what now is called Sunshine Pop. “Good Day Sunshine” from the Beatles “Revolver” album is noteworthy for being influential with the California pop/rock sounds coming out of Los Angeles during this time period.
Obviously, the Beatles are not considered a Sunshine Pop band. However, the Fab Four did record similar types of songs during their career. Two examples that come to my mind are George Harrison’s, “Here Comes the Sun” from the Abbey Road album and the 1967 Baroque Pop | |||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 10 | http://www.rockmine.com/K_Cyclo/KCyclo5.html | en | Rockmine : The Ultimate Rock Cyclopedia. | [
"http://www.rockmine.com/K_Cyclo/BenEKing.GIF",
"http://www.rockmine.com/K_Cyclo/CKing.GIF",
"http://www.rockmine.com/K_Cyclo/FKing1.GIF"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | |||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 47 | https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/ | en | AFI’S 100 YEARS…100 MOVIES — 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION | [
"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=404753177081502&ev=PageView&noscript=1",
"https://www.afi.com/wp-content/themes/AFI/images/search_close.png",
"https://prdaficalmjediwestussa.blob.core.windows.net/images/2019/05/AFI-Logo.png",
"https://prdaficalmjediwestussa.blob.core.windows.net/images/2019/05/AFI-Logo.png",
... | [] | [] | [
"American Film Institute"
] | null | [] | null | AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition is an updated edition to AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, a list of the top 100 greatest American films of all time.
Honoring the 10th anniversary of this award-winning series, a jury of 1,500 film artists, critics and historians determined that CITIZEN KANE remained the greatest movie of all time.
The television special AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition originally aired June 20, 2007 on CBS. | en | https://prdaficalmjediwestussa.blob.core.windows.net/images/2019/09/favicon.ico | American Film Institute | https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/ | This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 69 | https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/jeff-hanna-101819036/ | en | Jeff Hanna - The Bob Lefsetz Podcast | https://i.iheart.com/v3/url/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcHJvZ3JhbXMvZTczYzk5OGUtNmU2MC00MzJmLTg2MTAtYWUyMTAxNDBjNWIxL2Y1ZWM4ZTNmLTYzYzEtNDM1YS05OTJjLWFlMmUwMTQ3NDAzMS9pbWFnZS5qcGc_dD0xNjg1NjM1MTQ4JnNpemU9TGFyZ2U?ops=contain(1200,630) | https://i.iheart.com/v3/url/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcHJvZ3JhbXMvZTczYzk5OGUtNmU2MC00MzJmLTg2MTAtYWUyMTAxNDBjNWIxL2Y1ZWM4ZTNmLTYzYzEtNDM1YS05OTJjLWFlMmUwMTQ3NDAzMS9pbWFnZS5qcGc_dD0xNjg1NjM1MTQ4JnNpemU9TGFyZ2U?ops=contain(1200,630) | [
"https://i.iheart.com/v3/catalog/podcast/43034875?ops=fit(480%2C480)",
"https://i.iheart.com/v3/catalog/podcast/28888454?ops=fit(480%2C480)",
"https://i.iheart.com/v3/catalog/podcast/29319113?ops=fit(480%2C480)"
] | [] | [] | [
"Jeff Hanna",
"The Bob Lefsetz Podcast",
"Talk",
"Radio",
"Listen",
"On Demand",
"iHeartRadio",
"iHeart"
] | null | [] | null | <p>Jeff Hanna has been in every iteration of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, from 'Mr. Bojangles' to 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' to 'Fishin' in the Dark' to their just released album 'Dirt Does Dylan.' We discuss all of these eras!</p><p>See <a href='https://omnystudio.com/listener'>omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p> | en | https://www.iheart.com/static/assets/favicon.ico | iHeart | https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/jeff-hanna-101819036/ | Jeff Hanna has been in every iteration of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, from "Mr. Bojangles" to "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" to "Fishin' in the Dark" to their just released album "Dirt Does Dylan." We discuss all of these eras!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 27 | https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/linda-ronstadt | en | Encyclopedia.com | [
"https://www.encyclopedia.com/themes/custom/trustme/images/header-logo.jpg"
] | [] | [] | [
"Get information",
"facts",
"and pictures",
"about Linda Ronstadt",
"at Encyclopedia.com",
"Make",
"research",
"projects",
"and school reports",
"about Linda Ronstadt",
"easy",
"with credible",
"articles",
"from our FREE",
"online encyclopedia and dictionary"
] | null | [] | null | Linda Ronstadt [1]: 1946—: Singer Linda Ronstadt [2] has released more than 35 albums during a career that has spanned nearly 40 years, with sales topping more than 50 million copies. | en | /sites/default/files/favicon.ico | https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/linda-ronstadt | Linda Ronstadt
Singer
For the Record…
Selected discography
Sources
Few performers in any medium have proven more daring than Linda Ronstadt, a singer who has made her mark in such varied styles as rock, country, grand opera, and mariachi. In the 1970s Ronstadt churned out a veritable stream of pop hits and heartrending ballads that delighted country and rock fans alike. Just when she seemed pegged as a pop idol, however, she turned her talents to opera—in The Pirates of Penzance and La Bohème —and to torch songs accompanied by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Almost every Ronstadt experiment has met with critical acclaim and, surprisingly, with fan approval and hefty record sales. Newsweek contributor Margo Jefferson attributes this success to Ronstadt’s voice, which she describes as having “the richness and cutting edge of a muted trumpet.” Jefferson concludes, “In a field where success is often based on no more than quick-study ventriloquism, Linda Ronstadt stands out. She is no fad’s prisoner; her compelling voice wears no disguises.”
Time reporter Jay Cocks calls Ronstadt “gutsy,” “unorthodox,” and a challenger of creeds. As the singer tells it, she developed a habit of rebellion early in life and stuck to it with singleminded determination. Ronstadt was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, the daughter of a hardware-store owner who loved to sing and play Mexican music. Ronstadt herself enjoyed harmonizing with her sister and two brothers—she was proud when she was allowed to take the soprano notes. At the age of six she decided she wanted to be a singer, and she promptly lost all interest in formal schooling. Aaron Latham, a classmate at Tucson’s Catalina High School, wrote in Rolling Stone that by her teens Ronstadt “was already a larger-than-life figure with an even larger voice. She didn’t surprise anyone by becoming a singer. Not that anyone expected her fame to grow to the dimensions of that voice. But the voice itself was no secret.”
Ronstadt attended the University of Arizona briefly, dropping out at eighteen to join her musician boyfriend, Bob Kimmel, in Los Angeles. With Kimmel and guitar player Kenny Edwards, Ronstadt formed a group called the Stone Poneys, a folk-rock ensemble reminiscent of the Mamas and the Papas and the Lovin’ Spoonful. The Stone Poneys signed a contract with Capitol Records in 1964 and released a single, “Some of Shelley’s Blues,” in early 1965. Their only hit as a group came in 1967, when “Different Drum,” a cut from their second album, made the charts. By that time, intense touring, drug abuse, and a series of disappointing concert appearances as openers for the Doors caused the Stone Poneys to disband. Ronstadt told Rolling Stone that her band was “rejected by the hippest element in New York
For the Record…
Full name Linda Marie Ronstadt; born July 15, 1946, in Tucson, Ariz.; daughter of Gilbert (a hardware-store owner) and Ruthmary (Copeman) Ronstadt. Education: Attended Catalina High School, Tucson, and the University of Arizona.
With Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards, formed group the Stone Poneys, 1964-68, had first Top 40 hit, “Different Drum,” 1967; solo artist, 1968—. Has made numerous concert tours in the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Sang at Jimmy Carter’s inaugural concert, 1977. Appeared as Mabel in The Pirates ofPenzance on Broadway, 1981, and in a feature film, 1983; appeared as Mimi in La Bohème off-Broadway, 1984.
Awards: Recipient of Grammy Awards for best female pop performance, 1975, best female pop performer, 1976, and (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) best country performance, 1987; recipient of American Music Award, 1978, and Academy of Country Music Award, 1987.
Addresses: Office —c/o Asher, 644 N. Doheny Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90069.
as lame. We broke up right after that. We couldn’t bear to look at each other.”
Ronstadt fulfilled her Capitol recording contract as a solo performer, turning out some of the first albums to fuse country and rock styles. On Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969) and Silk Purse (1970), Ronstadt teamed with Nashville studio musicians for an ebullient, if jangly country sound. The latter album produced her first solo hit, the sorrowful “Long, Long Time.” In retrospect, Ronstadt has called her debut period the “bleak years.” She was plagued by the stresses of constant touring, difficult romantic entanglements, cocaine use, and critical indifference—and to make matters worse, she suffered from stage fright and had little rapport with her audiences. “I felt like a submarine with depth charges going off all around me,” she told Time. Ronstadt eluded failure by moving to Asylum Records in 1973 and by engaging Peter Asher as her producer and manager. Asher collaborated with her on her first best-selling albums, Don’t Cry Now and the platinum Heart Like a Wheel.
Heart Like a Wheel was the first in a succession of million-selling albums for Ronstadt. By the mid-1970s, with hits such as “When Will I Be Loved?,” “Desperado,” “You’re No Good,” “Blue Bayou,” and “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” the singer had established herself as rock’s most popular female star. Stephen Holden describes Ronstadt’s rock style in a Vogue magazine profile. Her singing, according to Holden, combined “a tearful country wail with a full-out rock declamation. But, at the same time, her purity of melodic line is strongly rooted in folk.” A Time contributor elaborates: “She sings, oh Lord, with a rowdy spin of styles—country, rhythm and blues, rock, reggae, torchy ballad—fused by a rare and rambling voice that calls up visions of loss, then jiggles the glands of possibility. The gutty voice drives, lilts, licks slyly at decency, riffs off Ella [Fitzgerald], transmogrifies Dolly Parton, all the while wailing with the guitars, strong and solid as God’s garage floor. A man listens and thinks ’Oh my, yes, ’ and a woman thinks, perhaps, ’Ah, well …’”
A leap from rock to operetta is monumental; few voices could make it successfully. In 1981 Ronstadt astonished the critics and her fans by trilling the demanding soprano part of Mabel in a Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance. Her performance led Newsweek correspondent Barbara Graustark to comment, “Those wet, marmot eyes turn audiences on like a light bulb, and when her smoky voice soars above the staff in a duet with a flute, she sends shivers down the spine.” Ronstadt’s appearance as Mimi in La Bohème off-Broadway in 1984 was received with less enthusiasm by the critics, but the singer herself expressed no regrets about her move away from rock. “When I perform rock ’n’ roll,” she told Newsweek, “it varies between antagonistic posturing and to-the-bones vulnerability. I wanted to allow another facet of my personality to emerge…. I’ve gained confidence in knowing that now … I can handle myself in three dimensions, and even if I never use my upper extension except in the bathtub, I’ve gained vocal finish.”
That “vocal finish” was applied to yet another Ronstadt experiment—two albums of vintage torch songs, What’s New? and Lush Life, featuring the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Jay Cocks calls What’s New? a “simple, almost reverent, rendering of nine great songs that time has not touched…. No one in contemporary rock or pop can sound more enamored, or winsome, or heartbroken, in a love song than Linda Ronstadt. Singing the tunes on What’s New, or even just talking about them, she still sounds like a woman in love.” Stephen Holden writes, “One of the charms of Ronstadt’s torch singing is her almost girlish awe in the face of the songs’ pent-up emotions. Instead of trying to re-create another era’s erotic climate, she pays homage to it with lovely evenhanded line readings offered in a spirit of wistful nostalgia.” Holden adds that What’s New “revitalized Ronstadt’s recording career by selling over two million copies, and, coincidentally, defined for her generation the spirit of a new ’eighties pop romanticism.”
More recent Ronstadt projects have departed even further from the pop-rock vein. In 1987 the singer released Canciones de mi padre, an album of mariachi songs that her father used to sing. Newsweek critic David Gates calls the work “Ronstadt’s best record to date,” noting that “its flawless production is the only concession to Top 40 sensibilities. And Ronstadt … has found a voice that embodies not merely passion and heartache, but a womanly wit as well.” Ronstadt also earned several prestigious awards for her 1986 album Trio, a joint country-music venture with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. While Ronstadt will not rule out recording more rock, she seems far more fascinated by other forms and other, more remote, historical periods. Gates finds the raven-haired artist “the most adventurous figure in American popular music,” concluding that, at the very least, Ronstadt is “commendable in her refusal to bore herself.”
Selected discography
With the Stone Poneys
Evergreen, Capitol, 1967.
Evergreen, Volume II, Capitol, 1967.
Linda Ronstadt, the Stone Poneys, and Friends, Volume III, Capitol, 1968.
The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt, Capitol, 1976.
Solo LPs
Hand Sown … Home Grown, Capitol, 1969.
Silk Purse, Capitol, 1970.
Linda Ronstadt, Capitol, 1972.
Don’t Cry Now, Asylum, 1973.
Heart Like a Wheel, Capitol, 1974.
Different Drum, Asylum, 1974.
Prisoner in Disguise, Asylum, 1975.
Hasten Down the Wind, Asylum, 1976.
Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits, Asylum, 1976.
Simple Dreams, Asylum, 1977.
Blue Bayou, Asylum, 1977.
Retrospective, Capitol, 1977.
Living in the U.S.A., Asylum, 1978.
Mad Love, Asylum, 1980.
Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits, Volume II, Asylum, 1980.
Get Closer, Asylum, 1982.
What’s New?, Asylum, 1983.
Lush Life, Asylum, 1984.
For Sentimental Reasons, Asylum, 1986.
Prime of Life, Asylum, 1986.
Rockfile, Capitol, 1986.
’Round Midnight: The Nelson Riddle Sessions, Asylum, 1987.
Canciones de mi padre, Asylum, 1987.
With Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris
Trio, Warner Bros., 1986.
Sources
Books
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, Harmony Books, 1977.
Stambler, Irwin, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock, and Soul, St. Martin’s, 1974.
Periodicals
down beat, July, 1985.
Esquire, October, 1985.
Newsweek, October 20, 1975; April 23, 1979; August 11, 1980; December 10, 1984; February 29, 1988.
People, October 24, 1977; April 30, 1979.
Rolling Stone, December 2, 1976; March 27, 1977; October 19, 1978; November 2, 1978; August 18, 1983.
Saturday Review, December, 1984.
Time, February 28, 1977; March 22, 1982; September 26, 1983.
Vogue, November, 1984.
Washington Post Magazine, October 9, 1977.
—Anne Janette Johnson
Linda Ronstadt: 1946—: Singer
Linda Ronstadt has released more than 35 albums during a career that has spanned nearly 40 years, with sales topping more than 50 million copies. With a total of 13 platinum albums to her credit, she was the first woman ever to have four consecutive albums sell more than one million copies. Gaining fame by covering popular pop-rock songs, Ronstadt has also delved into opera, mariachi, Afro-Cuban, jazz, big band, and children's lullabies. She is known as one of the premier contemporary interpreters of the rock ballad.
Began Performing With Family
Ronstadt was born on July 14, 1946, in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in an upper-middle-class neighborhood with her sister and two brothers. Her father, who owned a large hardware store, was of Mexican and German descent, and her mother, a housewife, was of German, English, and Dutch descent. Her whole family was musically inclined. Her mother played the ukulele, and her father, who loved to sing his favorite Mexican songs, played the guitar. By the age of six, Ronstadt was singing harmony with her family.
As a child Ronstadt listened to her father's collection of Spanish-language albums, as well as to country and western, top 40, blues, and gospel. She first began performing as a teenager in local clubs and pizza parlors with her brother Pete and sister Suzie. She had a rebellious streak that did not serve her well during her years at Tucson's St. Peter and Paul Parochial School, where her attire was deemed too alluring and her talk of boys too direct. But by high school Ronstadt was focused on a future in music. After graduating from Catalina High School she enrolled in the University of Arizona, but lasted only a couple of months before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her musical career.
Ronstadt became romantically involved with Bob Kimmel, a Tucson native who occasionally played bass and guitar for Ronstadt and her siblings. Kimmel convinced Ronstadt to form a band with him in Los Angeles. In 1964 18-year-old Ronstadt agreed, and the two enlisted Kenny Edwards and formed the Stone Poneys. The band's entire—albeit short—history was a turbulent affair. Their first professional offer came from Mercury Records, which wanted to turn them into a surfer band called the Signets. The desired style was completely out of sync with their sound, which was much closer to the folksy Mamas and the Papas and Lovin' Spoonful, and the group rejected the offer.
At a Glance . . .
Born on July 14, 1946, in Tuscon, AZ; daughter of Gilbert and Ruthmary (Copeman) Ronstadt; two adopted children.
Career: Singer, 1964–.
Awards: American Music Awards, 1978; Grammy Awards, 1975, 1976, 1987 (with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton), 1988, 1989 (with Aaron Neville), 1990 (with Aaron Neville) 1992 (two awards), 1996; Academy of Country Music Award, 1987, 1988.
Address: Agent— Electra Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY.
Abandoned By Group, Began Solo Career
The Stone Poneys played at the Troubadour, a popular Los Angeles venue, where Ronstadt was approached by the promoter Henry Cohen to sign as a solo artist. Naively loyal to her band, she refused, but when the band finally split up, Ronstadt signed with Cohen and then convinced him to work with a reunited Stone Poneys band. The band ended up with a contract for three albums. The second album, Evergreen, Vol. 2, released by Capitol in 1967, included the single "Different Drum," written by Mike Nesmith, and the song reached the charts. Encouraged, Capitol sent the band on a promotional tour, but the trip was a failure. Working as an opening act for more popular groups, the Stone Poneys found themselves playing for audiences who didn't want to listen. Discouraged, Kenny Edwards left the band after the tour.
Ronstadt and Kimmel worked with pickup musicians to stage another tour, as the opening act for The Doors, but Kimmel soon jumped ship also, leaving Ronstadt holding an unfulfilled contract for a third album. Using session musicians, Ronstadt finally completed The Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. 3, released in 1968, but sales were abysmal. Still under contract with Capitol, Ronstadt released three consecutive solo albums, Hand Sown … Home Grown, Silk Purse, and Linda Ronstadt. Hand Sown … Home Grown revealed Ronstadt's lack of confidence and timid singing, but Silk Purse was an improvement, with such songs as "Lovesick Blues" and "Long, Long Time," which reached the top 30 in 1970. Linda Ronstadt contained several well-received singles, including "Rock Me on the Water" and "I Fall to Pieces."
The late 1960s and early 1970s were difficult times for Ronstadt. She went through a succession of managers, producers, and musicians, who did little to help her map out a clear plan for success. She was in debt due to the Stone Poneys' fiasco and was becoming exhausted from touring incessantly. During 1973 she opened for Neil Young and struggled with impatient fans waiting for Young's turn on stage. Ronstadt dealt with her worries, frustration, and significant stage fright with cocaine, but it was a habit she was able to quit following the tour.
Released Gold and Platinum Albums
Ronstadt's future began to take shape in 1973, when she signed with Asylum Records. She enlisted the services of producer Peter Asher, formerly of the British pop duo Peter and Gordon, who helped Ronstadt complete her next album, Don't Cry Now. Released in 1973, it became Ronstadt's first widely accepted album, and reached number 45 on the charts. The best-received cut was her highly acclaimed rendition of the Eagle's "Desperado." The success prompted Capitol to release a compilation of Ronstadt's earlier work, including several Stone Poneys' songs, a year later.
In 1973 Ronstadt found out she still owed Capitol another album. She completed her contractual obligation to Capitol in 1974 with the release of Heart Like a Wheel, which became her breakthrough album. With Asher as her sole producer and manager, Ronstadt put together a superb collection of country-rock cover tunes and contemporary songs that took the album, which went platinum, to number one on the charts. The singles "You're No Good" reached number one on the pop charts, and "I Can't Help It If I'm Still in Love with You," with harmony by Emmylou Harris, climbed to number two on the country and western charts. "When Will I Be Loved" reached number one on the country and western charts and number two on the pop charts. Riding on the popularity of Heart Like a Wheel, Ronstadt won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocalist. The success of the album made Ronstadt a household name, and seemed due to a combination of factors, including stronger, more assertive singing, and better song selection, musical arrangements, and production.
Of Heart Like a Wheel, Stephen Holden wrote in his Rolling Stone review: "The song lyric … underscores the essence of Ronstadt's vocal personality. No other pop singer so perfectly embodies the Western mythical girl/woman, heartbroken yet resilient and entirely feminine in the traditional sense. There is a throbbing edge to Ronstadt's honey-colored soprano that no other singer quite possesses. … the edge between vulnerability and willfulness that I find totally, irresistibly sexy."
Riding the wave of her widespread popularity, Ronstadt put out Prisoner in Disguise in 1975, which also went platinum. Covering Motown classics such as "Heat Wave" and "Tracks of My Tears," she also sang Neil Young's "Love is a Rose," which became a hit on the country and western charts. Despite its success, however, the album was criticized as merely a remake of Heart Like a Wheel. In 1976 Asylum released Ronstadt's Greatest Hits, Vol.1. Ronstadt's Hasten Down the Wind was her seventh solo album and the third to go platinum. Highlights of the album included covers of Buddy Holly's hit "That'll Be the Day" and Willie Nelson's "Crazy."
Ronstadt spent six months in 1976 touring around the United States as well as Europe. In January of 1977 she was invited to sing at Jimmy Carter's presidential inaugural. During that year Capitol released Retrospective, a selection of Ronstadt's pre-hit country-based songs. By the end of the year, she had released Simple Dreams, which sold over three million copies, reached number one on the charts, and produced multiple smash-hit singles. Ronstadt, who continued to benefit from Asher's production skills, proved her ability to cover a wide range of styles, with renditions of Dolly Parton's "I Will Never Marry," Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou," and Buddy Holly's "It's So Easy." Her feminine interpretation of the gritty, male-dominated lyrics of the Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice" and Warren Zevon's "Poor Poor Pitiful Me" were also noteworthy. In a testament to her willingness to play on the edge of acceptable genres, Ronstadt also included an old standard cowboy tune, "Old Paint," performed with simple acoustic guitar and a dobro.
Living in the U.S.A., released in 1978, received mixed reviews. Individual cuts were praised, but overall the album suffered from a lack of focus and direction. The following year Ronstadt produced Mad Love, an ill-advised attempt to incorporate contemporary tunes. Given her past success covering classics from a number of genres, Ronstadt's move to take on a production dominated by new wave and punk-influenced pop was a disappointment. Stereo Review's Noel Coppage suggested, "To put it in easy pop terms, Ronstadt's a melody singer and what this music needs is a beat singer." Of most interest on the album were the covers of older tunes, including Little Anthony and the Imperials' "Hurt so Bad" and The Hollies' "I Can't Let Go." Despite the critics' lukewarm reception of Living in the U.S.A. and Mad Love, Ronstadt's superstar status propelled both albums to platinum.
Moved Into New Territories
Ronstadt's 1982 release of Get Closer signaled the closing days of her place at center stage of the pop rock scene. Although still successful, it was her first album in nearly ten years that did not go platinum. Ronstadt's solution to her waning pop popularity was to switch genres completely. She moved from Los Angeles to New York and spent 1980 on stage as Mabel in a Broadway production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, and then appeared in the film version in 1983. In 1981 she began a working relationship with arranger-composer Nelson Riddle and his 46-piece orchestra. What's New, which sold more than two million copies, included traditional pop standards such as "I've Got a Crush on You" and "Someone to Watch Over Me." Lush Life and For Sentimental Reasons again paired Ronstadt with Riddle. She appeared on stage again in 1984 in a small-scale production of La Bohéme.
The single "Somewhere Out There," a duet with Aaron Neville that was featured in the animated children's movie An American Tail, put Ronstadt briefly back in the mainstream pop audience. When Riddle's untimely death ended their collaboration, Ronstadt once again switched musical directions, releasing her first Spanish-language album, Canciones de mi Padre ("Songs of my Father"). Created as a tribute to her Mexican heritage and her father's love of mariachi music, Ronstadt sings both corridos (story songs) and rancheras (folk dances). She released two more Spanish-language albums: Mas Canciones ("More Songs") in 1990, and Frenesi (Frenzy), a tribute to Afro-Cuban jazz. In 1987 Ronstadt collaborated with Harris and Parton to produce Trio, a much-anticipated album that the three had been trying to put together for several years. The three came back together in 1999 to release Trio II. Ronstadt again partnered with Harris in 1999 on the country-based Western Wall—The Tucson Sessions, a rough-cut recording completed mostly in Ronstadt's living room at her Tucson home.
Returned to Roots
Ronstadt returned to pop music in 1989 with Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind, and her reentry into the mainstream was loudly applauded. In his Audio review, Hector La Torre noted, "The more you listen to Cry Like a Rainstorm, the more you realize that of greater importance than Ronstadt's return to pop/rock is the enormous musical development that has taken place in this woman." La Torre applauded Ronstadt's astonishing vocal development during her 40 years in the business.
After taking time to develop her Spanish-language albums and produce for David Lindley, Jimmy Webb, and Neville, Ronstadt returned to her folk- and country-rock sound with Winter Light and Feels Like Home. In 1999 she released Dedicated to the One I Love, which covers old popular tunes such as "Be My Baby" and "In My Room," but this time reinterprets them as children's lullabies. The release of We Ran in 1998 features covers of John Hiatt's "When We Ran," Bruce Springsteen's "If I Should Fall Behind," and Bob Dylan's "Tom Thumb Blues." In 2002 Asylum released The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, favoring Ronstadt's biggest hits from her rock-pop albums.
Although she remains active with her music, Ronstadt, now in her fifties, has slowed down her singing and recording schedule. The mother of two children by adoption, Ronstadt has never married, although she has been linked romantically to former California governor Jerry Brown and film director George Lucas, among others. Ronstadt moved back home to Tucson to raise her children among her family in relative anonymity. She has claimed she does not own a television or computer, loathes the junk-food culture, and would much rather attend the opera than listen to modern rock or pop. With few exceptions, she has preferred to fill her home with live music, and has avoided recorded or digital formats. Her pride appears to be mostly centered in the work of her later years.
Selected discography
(With the Stone Poneys) We Five Sounds, Capitol, 1967.
(With the Stone Poneys) Evergreen, Vol. 2, Capitol, 1967.
(With the Stone Poneys) The Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. 3, Capitol, 1968.
Hand Sown … Home Grown, Capitol, 1969.
Silk Purse, Capitol, 1970.
Linda Ronstadt, Capitol, 1971.
Don't Cry Now (Gold), Asylum, 1973.
(Compilation) Different Drum, Capitol, 1974.
Heart Like a Wheel (Platinum), Capitol, 1974.
Prisoner in Disguise (Platinum), Asylum, 1975.
Hasten Down the Wind (Platinum), Asylum, 1976.
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (Platinum), Asylum, 1976.
(Compilation) Retrospective (Gold), Capitol, 1977.
Simple Dreams (Platinum), Asylum, 1977.
Living in the U.S.A. (Platinum), Asylum, 1978.
(Compilation) Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Platinum), Asylum, 1980.
Mad Love (Platinum), Asylum, 1980.
Get Closer (Gold), Asylum, 1982.
What's New (Platinum), Asylum, 1983.
Lush Life (Platinum), Asylum, 1984.
For Sentimental Reasons (Platinum), Asylum, 1986.
(Compilation) 'Round Midnight (Gold), Asylum, 1986.
Canciones de mi Padre (Songs of my Father) (Platinum), Asylum, 1987.
(With Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton) Trio (Platinum), Warner Brothers, 1987.
Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind (Platinum), Asylum, 1989.
Mas Canciones (More Songs), Asylum, 1990.
Frenesi (Frenzy), Asylum, 1992.
Winter Light, Asylum, 1995.
Feels Like Home, Asylum, 1995.
Dedicated to the One I Love, Elektra, 1996.
We Ran, Elektra, 1998.
(With Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton) Trio 2 (Gold), Asylum, 1999.
(With Emmylou Harris) Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, Asylum, 1999.
A Merry Little Christmas, Elektra, 2000.
(Compilation) The Very Best of Linda Ronstadt, Rhino, 2002.
Sources
Books
Dictionary of Hispanic Biography, Gale, 1996.
Pareles, Jon, and Patricia Romanowski, eds., The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, Rolling Stone/Summit Books, 1983.
Slonimsky, Nicolas, and Laura Kuhn, eds., Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Schirmer, 2001.
Periodicals
Audio, January 1990.
Billboard, December 4, 1993; August 21, 1999, p. 11.
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, November 7, 2002.
New Statesman, April 19, 1999, p. 39.
New Strait Times, March 27, 2002.
Popular Music and Society, Summer 1997, pp. 152-54.
Rolling Stone, January 16, 1975; March 27, 1975; October 19, 1978, pp. 50-59; July 13, 1995, p. 40. Stereo Review, May 1980.
U.S. Weekly, December 18-25, 2000, pp. 72-74.
On-line
"Linda Ronstadt," Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com (March 27, 2003).
Linda Ronstadt Homepage, http://www.ronstadt-linda.com (March 27, 2003).
—Kari Bethel
Ronstadt, Linda
Ronstadt, Linda , popular female rock vocalist; b. Tucson, Ariz., July 15, 1946. Linda Ronstadt combined folk, rock, and country music, along with the best material by young singer–songwriters and astutely chosen remakes of earlier pop hits, to become one of the most popular female rock vocalists of the second half of the 1970s. Always an eclectic singer, she spent her second decade on the pop scene exploring various musical genres, including reviving earlier pop standards with noted arranger Nelson Riddle to surprising success and exploring her own Mexican-American heritage.
Raised in Tucson, Linda Ronstadt was inspired to sing by a musically talented father. By age 14 she was singing with brother Pete and sister Suzi in local pizza parlors and clubs, occasionally accompanied by bassist-guitarist Bob Kimmel. After one semester at the Univ. of Ariz., she joined Kimmel in Los Angeles, where the two formed the Stone Poneys with local guitarist Kenny Edwards. Playing the region’s club circuit, the group signed with Capitol Records in 1966 and recorded two albums largely comprised of material written by Kimmel and Edwards, although their only major hit was Mike Nesmith’s “Different Drum.” After a third album, recorded with studio musicians, Ronstadt pursued a solo career, initially as a country singer. In 1970 she achieved a major hit with “Long, Long Time.” In 1971 her touring band coalesced around future Eagles Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Randy Meisner, who accompanied her on her self-titled solo album from that year, which produced a minor hit with Jackson Browne’s “Rock Me on the Water.”
Touring with Neil Young in early 1973, Linda Ronstadt reenlisted Kenny Edwards, who recruited songwriter-guitarist Andrew Gold for her new backup band. She recorded Don’t Cry Now with three different producers. The album included three songs written by John David Souther—the title song, “I Can Almost See It,” and “The Fast One”—and yielded minor hits with Eric Kaz and Libby Titus’s “Love Has No Pride” and “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” a major hit for the Springfields in 1962. One of the album’s producers, Peter Asher, became Ronstadt’s sole producer and manager through the 1970s; he produced the breakthrough Heart Like a Wheel, her final effort for Capitol Records. The album was an instant best-seller, yielding a top pop hit with “You’re No Good” (a minor hit for Betty Everett in 1963), a smash country hit with Hank Williams’s “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You),” and a smash country and pop hit with Phil Everly’s “When Will I Be Loved.” The album also contained Souther’s “Faithless Love,” Anna McGarrigle’s title song, and the Lowell George favorite “Willin’.”
Linda Ronstadt’s next album, Prisoner in Disguise, produced pop hits with covers of the Motown standards “Heat Wave” and “Tracks of My Tears” and a smash country hit with Neil Young’s “Love Is a Rose”; it also included Lowell George’s “Roll Urn Easy” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Hasten Down the Wind contained the major pop hit “That’ll Be the Day” (Buddy Holly’s biggest hit), the smash country hit “Crazy” (Patsy Cline’s biggest hit), and three compositions by Karla Bonoff, including the minor hits “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” and “Lose Again.” After completing a six-month tour of Europe and America in December 1976 and singing at President Carter’s inaugural the following January, Linda Ronstadt recorded Simple Dreams. The album sold more than three million copies and produced five hit singles: “I Never Will Marry” (a near-smash country hit), Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” (a smash pop and country hit), Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy” (a smash pop hit), Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” and the Rolling Stones’ “Tumblin’ Dice.”
During 1978 Linda Ronstadt attempted to record a trio album with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, but the hastily made recordings proved unsatisfactory for release. Ronstadt’s formula for success continued with Living in the U.S.A., which produced hits with cover versions of “Back in the U.S.A.” (Chuck Berry), “Ooh Baby Baby” (The Miracles), and “Just One Look” (Doris Troy). The album also contained J. D. Souther’s “White Rhythm and Blues” and Elvis Costello’s “Alison,” Ronstadt’s concession to the burgeoning New Wave movement. Mad Love was Ronstadt’s attempt to record in a more contemporary vein; she included three songs by Costello and three by Mark Goldenburg of the Los Angeles-based Cretones, but the hits were “How Do I Make You” and covers of “Hurt So Bad” (Little Anthony and the Imperials) and “I Can’t Let Go” (The Hollies). Her first album of new material in nearly 10 years to not sell a million copies, Get Closer, yielded moderate pop hits with the title cut and “I Knew You When,” and a major country hit with “Sometimes You Just Can’t Win.”
Linda Ronstadt abandoned rock music for the rest of the 1980s to pursue projects that helped establish her as an all-around entertainer. She appeared as Mabel in the Broadway production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and the subsequent movie version, in 1980 and 1983, respectively. In 1983, against the advice of then-boyfriend and former governor of Calif. Jerry Brown, Ronstadt performed at the Sun City resort in South Africa. Later in the year, in a daring career move that defied conventional music-industry wisdom, she recorded an entire album of Tin Pan Alley ballads, What’s New, with arranger-conductor Nelson Riddle, best known for his 1950s work with Nat “King” Cole and Frank Sinatra, and his 46- piece orchestra. Although the album yielded only a minor pop hit, the title song, it eventually sold more than two million copies and encouraged Ronstadt to record two more albums with Riddle, Lush Life and For Sentimental Reasons. She made her big-band debut at Radio City Music Hall in N.Y. with mixed results, and later played Las Vegas with the entire retinue. In late 1984 Linda Ronstadt performed the role of Mimi in a small-scale version of Puccini’s opera La Bohème at the Public Theater in N.Y. Despite the improved power and discipline of her voice, the performance was judged lackluster and disappointing by critics. In late 1986 Ronstadt scored a smash pop hit with James Ingram on “Somewhere Out There” from the animated movie An American Tail.
Finally, in 1987 Linda Ronstadt’s long-anticipated collaboration with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton was released on Warner Bros. Over the next year, Trio produced smash country hits with “To Know Him Is to Love Him” (a top pop hit for the Teddy Bears in 1958), “Those Memories of You,” Linda Thompson’s “Telling Me Lies,” and Parton’s “Wildflowers.” Lauded for its rich harmonies, exquisite lead vocals, and sympathetic arrangements, the album sold more than a million copies. Ronstadt next pursued a reawakened fascination with traditional Mexican music, mariachi music in particular, performing in Luis Valdez’s Corridos! Tales of Passion and Revolution for PBS television and recording the poignant Canciones de Mi Padre (Songs of My Father) for Elektra Records. The album sold astoundingly well for a foreign-language recording and inspired her to tour with mariachi bands in 1988 and 1992. The 1988 tour produced an award-winning PBS television show. She recorded two more albums of Mexican music, Mas Canciones (More Songs) and Frenesi (Frenzy), in the early 1990s.
Linda Ronstadt returned to contemporary music with 1989’s Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind. The album included four songs written by Jimmy Webb and four duets with New Orleans vocalist Aaron Neville. Three of the duets became hits: the pop smash “Don’t Know Much” and the near-smash “All My Life,” both top easy-listening hits; and “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby.” After nearly 40 years in the music business, Neville finally received widespread recognition as a result of the best-selling album. In the late-1980s and 1990s Ronstadt became recognized as a producer by supervising albums by David Lindley, Neville, and Jimmy Webb. She returned to her country-rock sound with 1995’s Feels Like Home, which featured Randy Newman’s title song, Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush,” and Tom Petty’s “The Waiting.”
Discography
THE STONE PONEYS: The Stone Poneys (1967; reissued as Beginnings, 1975); Evergreen, Vol. 2 (1967); Stone Pmeys and Friends, Vol. III (1968); Different Drum (1974); Stoney End (1972). LINDA RONSTADT: Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969); Silk Purse (1970); L. R. (1971); Heart Like a Wheel (1974); A Retrospective (1977); Rockfile (early Capitol material) (1986); Don’t Cry Now (1973); Prisoner in Disguise (1975); Hasten Down the Wind (1976); Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (1976); Simple Dreams (1977); Living in the U.S.A. (1978); Mad Love (1980); Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1980); Keeping Out of Mischief (1981); Get Closer (1982); What’s New (1983); Lush Life (1984); For Sentimental Reasons (1986); ’Round Midnight: The Nelson Riddle Sessions (1986); Prime of Life (1986); Canciones de Mi Padre (1987); Cry Like a Rainstorm—Howl Like the Wind (1989); Mas Canciones (1991); Frenesi (1992); Winter Light (1993); Feels Like Home (1995). THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE: Broadway Cast Album (1981). LINDA RONSTADT, DOLLY PARTON, AND EMMYLOU HARNCE: Trio (1987).
Bibliography
R. Kanakaris, L. R.: A Portrait (Los Angeles, 1977); V. Claire, L. R. (N.Y., 1978); M. Moore, The L. R. Scrapbook (N.Y., 1978); C. Berman, L. R. (Carson City, 1980).
—Brock Helander
RONSTADT, Linda
(b. 15 July 1946 in Tucson, Arizona), pop-rock superstar, songwriter, actress, and record producer who came out of the Los Angeles club scene in the 1960s to win Grammy Awards in rock, pop, country, and Latin music, becoming one of the most beloved singers of her generation.
Ronstadt was the third of four children born to Gilbert Ronstadt, a hardware store owner, and Ruthmary (Copeman) Ronstadt, a homemaker who was the daughter of Lloyd Copeman, a well-known inventor. Ronstadt grew up surrounded by music. She spent her free time listening to the radio and to records. When she was fourteen she formed a trio with her brother Mike and sister Suzie, called the New Union Ramblers. Cute and talented, she took center stage as the threesome performed in local clubs and coffee-houses, singing Mexican folk music, country songs, and popular folk songs. Ronstadt attended Catalina High School in Tucson.
In 1964, when she was eighteen, Ronstadt attended the University of Arizona briefly before moving to Los Angeles to launch her singing career at the invitation of Fred Kimmel, a Tucson friend who played rhythm guitar. Ronstadt arrived in the city with thirty dollars and a two-dollar bill with the corner torn off, a gift from her father for good luck. Naive and optimistic, she would later say that if she had realized how difficult it would be to earn a living as a musician, she would have stayed in Tucson. Still, in 1964 Los Angeles was exactly the right place for her—a mecca for aspiring musicians, attracting many artists who would become successful singers and musicians.
Ronstadt formed a trio with Kimmel and the keyboardist Ken Edwards, and they called themselves the Stone Poneys, after the Charlie Patton song "The Stone Poney Blues." Ronstadt, with her vibrant soprano voice and sexy waiflike beauty, was clearly the group's drawing card. With her raw and powerful voice and her instinct for lyrics, she shone above the others and soon attracted a cult following on the club circuit. Like other struggling musicians, Ronstadt was searching for a musical style and not finding it. A first chance to record came from Mercury Records, but the group turned down the offer, which would have renamed them the Signets and had them playing surfing music. Another offer came just for Ronstadt, but she did not want to sing solo. The Stone Poneys, who began as an acoustic rock band, did not jell as a pure rock act, because the group members were drawn in different directions musically. Ronstadt was more interested in country music, but the others were dubious of that musical style.
The Stone Poneys were booked into the Troubadour in West Hollywood, the "in" club where both rock stars and aspiring artists hung out, mingling with managers and promoters on the lookout for new talent. The band's stint at the "Troub" landed them a contract with Capital Records. In January 1965 the Stone Poneys recorded "Some of Shelley's Blues," their first single, for Capital Records, and the following year they recorded the album The Stone Poneys, which featured three Ronstadt solos. Their second album, Evergreen Volume II (1967), produced the group's only successful single, Ronstadt's rendition of "Different Drum," which had been written by Mike Nesmith of the Monkees. The song, a sad ode to lost love and breaking up, became the first of many Ronstadt hits.
By 1968 the song made number thirteen on the Billboard charts. At age twenty-one Ronstadt had her first hit record, but psychologically she was not prepared for success. She was insecure and felt that she was not an accomplished musician, and felt that she suffered from a lack of guidance. The group was constantly on the road opening for other bands and artists, such as the Doors, Alice Cooper, the Mothers of Invention, and Neil Young. With audiences un-sympathetic to the band's style of music, Ronstadt's self-confidence continued to wither. Artistic differences, dissatisfaction with being an opening act for other bands, and low pay of barely $100 per month were all factors in the breakup of the band. Ronstadt recorded another album, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys, and Friends, Volume 3 (1968), backed entirely by studio musicians.
Despite suffering from agonizing stage fright, Rondstadt made her first solo appearance at a popular Los Angeles club, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go. In spite of her shyness she established a rapport with the audience, gradually becoming accustomed to solo performances. She continued to make records for Capitol, such as Hand Sown … Home Grown (1969) and Silk Purse (1970), and she had a hit single, "Long, Long Time," in 1970. This tearjerker about romantic yearning and sadness brought her continuing fame as the singer who taught the baby boomers how to cry. Ronstadt recalled these solo years as bleak: she was constantly on the road opening for other bands, had no continuity in terms of backup musicians, and was taking drugs, including cocaine, to help her deal with her insecurities.
Ronstadt was a paradox: a beautiful, sexy singer with low self-esteem who struggled to find her musical style. Her love affairs often were more publicized than her music. Over the years she was linked romantically to her one-time manager John Boylan; the singer/songwriter John David Souther; the actor/producer Peter Brooks; the comedian Steve Martin; California's governor Jerry Brown, Jr.; and the producer George Lucas. She always maintained, however, that her career was her first love and priority. In 1972 Ronstadt found self-confidence and success with the manager/producer Peter Asher, who knew how to provide an instrumental setting for her voice. In 1973, with Asylum Records, the two released Don't Cry Now, which included the critically acclaimed "Desperado." Ronstadt was on her way to superstardom. In 1974 she had her first platinum album, Heart Like a Wheel. In 1975 she had her first number-one single, "You're No Good."
Ronstadt had been singing since the early 1960s, but in musical terms the 1970s are remembered as Ronstadt's decade. Her next four albums went platinum, selling more than one million copies each, making her one of the biggest rock stars of the era. Her popularity helped bring an end to the male domination of rock and roll, and she used her success to open doors for other female performers and to improve the status of women within the music industry. Although Ronstadt never married, she adopted two children.
In the following years she would go on to change musical directions many times, singing everything from opera to Mexican folk tunes, from Tin Pan Alley favorites to country-and-western songs, from pop tunes to children's lullabies. She has released more than thirty albums in as many years and has earned nine Grammy Awards.
Biographies of Ronstadt include Vivian Claire, Linda Ronstadt (1978); Connie Berman, Linda Ronstadt: An Illustrated Biography (1980); Mark Bego, Linda Ronstadt: It's So Easy (1990); and Melissa Amdur, Hispanics of Achievement, Linda Ronstadt (1993). Her place in the baby boom generation is noted in Joel Makower, Boom! Talkin' About Our Generation (1985). An interview with Ronstadt concerning her song "Long, Long Time" and her Troubadour days is Ron Rosenbaum, "Melancholy Baby," Esquire (10 Oct. 1985). Biographical information and Ronstadt's place in musical history are discussed in Susan Katz, Superwomen of Rock (1978); Mary Ellen Moore, Linda Ronstadt Scrapbook (1978); and Edith and Frank N. Magill, eds., Great Lives from History, American Women Series, vol. 4 (1995). A website with information about Ronstadt and her recording career is <http://www.ronstadtlinda.com>.
Julianne Cicarelli | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 84 | https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html | en | Linda Ronstadt’s Borderland | [
"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/12/29/travel/29ronstadt-slide-2FEN/29ronstadt-slide-2FEN-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Lawrence Downes"
] | 2013-12-29T00:00:00 | Taking a road trip with the singer through southern Arizona and northern Mexico, a region where her roots run deep. | en | /vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico | https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html | We are driving outside Naco, Ariz., near the Mexico border, on a two-lane blacktop under a half-moon and stars. The distant mountains are lost in shadow, and there’s not much to look at beyond the headlight beams and the rolling highway stripes.
In the middle seat of the minivan, Linda Ronstadt is talking about her childhood.
“We used to sing, ‘Don’t go in the cage tonight, Mother darling, for the lions are ferocious and may bite. And when they get their angry fits, they will tear you all to bits, so don’t go in the lion’s cage tonight!’ We had really good harmonies worked out for that.”
“We” is her sister, Suzy, and her brother Peter, who used to terrify her when she had to go to the woodpile at night.
“My brother would load me up as much as he could then he’d tell me, ‘There’s a ghost!’ and then he’d run and then — Aaaaaah!! — there’d be kindling spread all over the ground.” | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 72 | https://writewyattuk.com/ | en | writewyattuk | [
"https://writewyattuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/cropped-img_7035.jpg",
"https://writewyattuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/3f97b0d9-6f87-4c12-a51f-c43a3ed74ee6.jpg?w=768",
"https://writewyattuk.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/453484492_1692033794960237_8207382440719850483_n.jpg?w=720",
"https://writewyat... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | In which freelance writer Malcolm Wyatt jealously guards his own corner of web hyperspace, featuring interviews, reviews and rants involving big names from across the world of music, comedy, literature, film, TV, the arts, and sport. | en | writewyattuk | https://writewyattuk.com/ | I love reading around a subject while writing, and work on my book about The Jam has me not only returning to or finally delving into various other publications about the band, but also reliving the years around which they were together (1972 to 1982) and immersing myself in extra background concerning a Surrey patch barely half a dozen miles from my own Guildford roots.
And among the best biographies, appreciations, and invaluable first-hand accounts, I’ve devoured two books that until now sat on the shelf unread, finally thinking the moment was right.
My better half and I became foster carers in 2022, another key reason why I felt the time had come to tackle Paolo Hewitt’s memoir of his Woking children’s home days, The Looked After Kid and its follow-up, We All Shine On. And it’s fair to say both publications truly nail the subject – providing an extra layer of understanding to something I felt I already knew plenty about, a few key points on our own recent bumpy journey making more sense.
It’s not the right place to go into detail, but we’ve been on numerous county council-run courses regarding children in care and how to learn from all that and add your own positive life experiences to the mix, so as to best pass on some of that learning and understanding to less fortunate young people who miss out on basic building blocks along the rocky way.
We’ve spent valuable time getting to grips with the realities of all that, enriched by it all, and – for all the low points – gaining so much from the experience. Yet I felt I learned a little more from a skilled writer who’s been there and knows the subject so well, a Looked After Kid who somehow found his way out of the wild, wild wood, as an old friend might have put it.
In many ways, I reckon I’ve been the lucky one. Brought up in a solid working-class family with very little money to spare but always lots of love to go around, with plenty of friends and family I could count on. Paolo’s own background was much harder, personal circumstances and the bigger system letting him down time and again. However, he ultimately beat the odds, I feel, making his own positive impact, proving his own sense of worth and finding that love for himself.
For all our disparate beginnings, we have much in common, from shared geography to the cultural and sporting influences that inspired us going forward. Music and football clearly had a pull on us, and alongside Paolo’s enduring passion for all things Tottenham Hotspur and SSC Napoli, there’s a nostalgic appreciation of Woking FC too, his grounding there long before I became a late-Eighties Kingfield regular. As for the music, he first properly got to know The Jam just as they were making their first successful forays on the London scene and pretty soon followed suit, getting to know the chief songwriter along the way, a friendship developing. It seems it was rarely a cosy relationship. Complicated might be a better word. But there was plenty of love too, and he saw in the Weller family dynamic something missing from his own upbringing.
In a sense, Paolo – who turned 66 this week, just under seven weeks after a certain Paul Weller – got the writer’s life I felt I craved in my teens. I finally went down the regional journalism line in my late 20s after several years of office jobs and working for weekends, travel and holidays, until then making do with penning my own fanzines and scribbling away on the novels and scripts while going large on life experiences. Paolo’s own path took in the halcyon late Seventies, Eighties and Nineties days of the Melody Maker, the NME and further afield, writing on many subjects dear to my own heart. But there was always something else there driving him, and it would take him a long time to get to grips with his past and his beginnings.
And despite the picture I paint of my own relatively safe and certainly contented upbringing, I often wonder if Paolo’s early fate could have been mine. I revisit key parts of my mum’s life story, going back to Reading, Berkshire (notably losing her mum to TB when she was barely five, her dad soon marrying again, ultimately keeping the family together) and see a girl who could so easily have ended up in care and in an orphanage, maybe even shipped across the Commonwealth, possibly landing with non-deserving foster or adoptive parents. I also revisit key parts of my dad’s early years in Woking, and there are further elements there. From his days as a steam loco fireman through to 30-plus years as a postman and beyond, I think he was acutely aware that the break-up of his parents’ marriage might well have seen his destiny change for the worse. But here were a couple who stayed together long enough for him to find his own way. In fact, love overcame in both cases, my folks taking that on with their own family, the fate of us five Wyatt children (and the nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren that followed) testament to that.
Other parts of Paolo’s Burbank books similarly resonate, such as the tale of his good friend Des, who has a close link to a long-time friend of mine (and fellow Woking FC fan). I’ve since learned that Des had some of his happier later years in the village I grew up in. Then there are Paolo’s words about the first children’s home he knew, in the next village to my own, where I was meeting schoolmates around the Jam breakthrough years, not so long after his days there. Small world, and all that.
Back on the Woking front, so much of what I equate the town with today (my family links go back to the 1890s, my dad and Wyatt grandparents born and brought up there, my nan still on Arnold Road a century later) is encapsulated in Paul Weller’s songwriting. For me, songs like ‘Saturday’s Kids’, ‘That’s Entertainment’, ‘Town Called Malice’, ‘Liza Radley’, ‘Tales From The Riverbank’ and ‘Wasteland’ (without even delving beyond 1982) couldn’t be about anywhere else. Yet they clearly resonate with so many more outside our bubble (and I get that, in the way so many songs resonate with me that were written in – off the top of my head – Birmingham, Coventry, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Norwich, Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Belfast, Derry, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, New York, Toronto, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Te Awamutu…). Maybe it’s what Paolo called in our recent conversation (not without affection), ‘that small town mentality’. And while there’s very little about the rise of The Jam in The Looked After Kid and We All Shine On, those books are also integral in revealing more about a Place I Love – for all its negatives – and have got to know fairly well.
As for Paolo’s autobiographical forays into writing about the care system, they’ve served to make more sense of my own recent involvement on the edge of all that, giving added understanding as to what we’re occasionally dealing with, and that alone proves those publications invaluable for anyone wanting to grasp what it was like to grow up in care in the Sixties and Seventies. In fact, in any era.
It was only recently that we spoke for the first time, and for two blokes who’d never met there was a lot of reminiscing about old times and new, mostly drawn around similar influences, inspirations and mutual friends and acquaintances. Paolo is more geared towards scriptwriting these days, partly in recognition of realisation that so few authors make a living from their craft today. But we talked openly about all manner of things, not least on football, including recollections of Ken Oram and the Woking FC link (Paolo has his own blighted past with Woking FC, as readers of The Looked After Kid may recall) to Chelsea player turned trainer Harry Medhurst, Paolo’s championing of Spurs striker Martin Chivers in a brief audience with Peter Osgood as a kid, Alan Mullery and Jimmy Greaves’ fear of Millwall fans, and legendary cult hero Robin Friday (who he reckons he saw play at Woking in Hayes days… or hazy days, maybe), who had many of his best sporting moments at Elm Park, Reading, less than a five-minute walk from my mum’s childhood home.
Many of you will know Paolo co-wrote The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story with Oasis bass player Paul McGuigan (Mainstream Publishing, 1998), and later helped Martin Chivers with his autobiography, Big Chiv: My Goals In Life (Vision Sports, 2009). In fact, he mentions the latter in But We All Shine On, a side-story I feel neatly sums up that ‘living the dream’ mentality he has for his craft, recalling a first return to his children’s home in Woking, and the bedroom where he spent so much of his teen years.
He writes, ‘I looked at the wall on the right and remembered a picture I had hung on it of David Bowie. I recalled lying on the bed for hours looking at that pic of him as Ziggy Stardust, trying to work out what song he was playing at that exact moment in time, where he was, what he was thinking. I did the exact same thing with my poster of the Spurs centre forward, Martin Chivers.
‘In the picture, Martin was either receiving the ball or passing it. I spent hours wondering what game he was playing in and where the ball was going next, and was he about to score, and who was the opposition? I never did get the answer, but two years ago I met Chivers. My agent called me and said he wanted to write a biography and they were looking for a writer.
‘We met him at a hotel in London. I could hardly look at him. When my agent told him that he was a hero of mine, I actually blushed and looked away. I got to write the biography with him and throughout the whole time I spent with him in his car, I could never tell him about my past and what he meant to me.
‘Chivers once played for Southampton FC. In April 2009 we went there together to interview some of his old team-mates, get information. We caught the train from Waterloo. And it stopped at Woking. Burbank stood half a mile away. I could not believe it. For two minutes as Martin spoke, oblivious to my position I sat there thinking to myself, My God, if you had told me back in Burbank that at some point in my life I would be sat on a train in Woking with Martin Chivers, I would have thought you were mad.
‘As the train slowly slid out of the station I said a little prayer, one of thanks, one of gratitude, that life could be as wondrous as this. That book, his biography, started here in this bedroom.’
The day we spoke, Paolo’s young lad was at home, our conversation briefly curtailed as he made him a wrap for his lunch.
‘Jam or Brie?’ he asked.
‘Jam, please’ came a muffled voice in the background.
‘Well, there you go, Malcolm!’
There’s no getting away from it, is there.
‘There’s not, is there!’
Speaking of which, some subjects we steered clear of, other than conversational mentions of moments like him nipping upstairs to at Michael’s to see the band in the early days ‘with a disco underneath and a gambling club upstairs.’ Or Rick Buckler giving out Jam badges at the Nashville when they started making their big move on London. Or a brief mention of the ‘doddery old colonel’ who ran the Cotteridge Hotel in Woking, one of the band’s old drinking holes.
In response to mentions of the parts of town I knew best, he mentioned his own ’15-minute walk straight down the hill to Kingfield.’ But somewhere along the line there was a visit to the Civic Hall on my Guildford patch to see Dr Feelgood, Wilko Johnson’s guitar playing the inspiration needed for Paul to make that next step up (at a gig Paolo also attended).
In my 2002 edition of The Looked After Kid, a certain ‘PW’ – the musician who’s just released his latest solo album, 66, in a summer which will also mark that birthday milestone for Paolo – gets a dedication (referred to as ‘mio fratello’), but within a few years their friendship was behind them, something Paolo respectfully has no wish to air in public, despite this Cappuccino Kid being right up close and personal towards the end of the Jam years and into the Style Council era.
I stood little chance of getting Paolo to reveal much new there, on the record (so to speak), although not really for any other reason than he’s written so much in detail about the band already, starting in book form with authorised biography The Jam: A Beat Concerto (Omnibus Press / Riot Stories, 1983), before taking the story on in Paul Weller: The Changing Man (Bantam Press, 2007).
Both books I found indispensable. A Beat Concerto was the one I lapped up as a teen. In retrospect, it’s way too raw and came far too soon, the wounds still open. It certainly went down poorly with Bruce Foxton, judging by my correspondence with him in those years (part of which ended up in my first real interview for my Captains Log fanzine). Rick Buckler clearly felt the same way, and a decade later The Jam: Our Story (Castle Communications, 1993) saw a published response from the other two-thirds of The Jam that arguably re-opened those wounds, the Saxa to the fore.
As for The Changing Man, I do wonder if it’s healthy to write about someone you know so well. I’m sure Paolo has pondered on that. But for me, that biog and John Reed’s Paul Weller: My Ever Changing Moods (Omnibus Press, 1996) are so important in understanding the bigger picture. And there’s real insight on and love for the subject from Paolo, some of which was possibly overlooked by those seeking more salacious detail. As I said, complicated is the word, but I like to think Paolo and John’s books – written by insiders and outsiders, arguably – ultimately celebrate a unique talent and neatly examine where he came from and what makes him tick.
As for his Burbank books, I won’t go into too much detail (I am 22 and nine years, respectively, late with my reviews, after all), but in The Looked After Kid, Paolo re-examines his life from his 1958 arrival to his move to London and a writing career. It’s inspirational and heartening, and while it was probably lined up on bookshop shelves alongside more harrowing ‘Daddy, don’t’ books, it’s often funny, it’s entertaining, and it’s thought-provoking. As all good biographies should be, right? As Irvine Welsh put it, it’s ‘an uplifting story about refusing to give up on your dreams’.
It was certainly a brave book to write, no doubt emotionally exhausting for its author, but with time to dwell on it and plenty of praise following, a follow-up was somehow inevitable. And But We All Shine On did that wonderfully, Paolo providing not only great writing but also sensitivity, tracking down a few fellow children’s home friends then asking them about their lives, with often revealing, extremely open responses. Again, words like inspirational, powerful and moving don’t quite do it justice. In the wrong hands, it could have seriously misfired, but once more, there’s humour and colour, and there are fully formed characters you feel real affinity with. As poet and writer Lemn Sissay put it, ‘With his pen Paolo projects light on the darkest path as he seeks the family that never was and unravels a tragic, comical, magical and moving story.’
It turns out that plans are afoot (fairly advanced) to bring The Looked After Kid to the stage next. Meanwhile, Paolo is busy with his own writing and research, three scripts currently in circulation (‘two film scripts and a TV pilot… one about a tailor, one about Little Italy, one about a ten-year-old boy living with an alcoholic mother.’). Then there’s a project he first previewed on social media a while back, one which on his 66th birthday yesterday, he revealed a few more details about. As the man himself put it, he’s ‘going live’. I’ll let him explain…
‘Using seven of my books (on Oasis, Steve Marriott, Robin Friday, and others) plus stories from my music press past, I am going to put together a reading and take it out to the people. I’m currently talking to venues in Buckinghamshire, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, sorting out ticket prices and sales as we speak. Very much looking forward to it as well. Going to put a lot into this.’
Sounds like another winner to me. Regarding the music press days, we’re talking a ‘collection of stories about my work on the music press, 1979-90,’ Lot of big names there – Prince, Springsteen, Strummer, The Specials, to name a few.’ He initially looked to crowdfunding and was ‘very moved by the response I got’, but reckons he was ‘too lazy, should have pushed it more.’ This time he’s determined to get there though.
That timeline stretches from November ’79, to be precise, and that will ring a bell for Jam fans, his review on the (almost) secret ‘John’s Boys gig at the Marquee early that month carried in the following edition of Melody Maker and leading to a commission for a feature-interview with the band themselves soon after around their Manchester Apollo double dates. And that’s what’s been keeping him busy in the British Library lately, seeking out his music press features, reacquainting himself with his past works. It will certainly include some impressive copy, judging by my own memory of the many impressive interviews carrying his byline in the years that followed.
We did touch a little more on his Burbank days in conversation, how it was ‘probably 20 kids and three staff’ then, but now ‘three kids and 20 staff,’ a change he heartily commends. And then there were the nuggets of advice on understanding the ‘looked after child’, or in current parlance, ‘the child looked after’ (the child always comes first, you see). Above all else, when he recalls those days in Woking, he reckons it mostly involves happy memories and laughter now, and voyages of discovery, not least about being turned on to new avenues in music and recalling the enduring friendships that were carved out back then.
Which somehow reminds me of Only Fools and Horses, the regulars reminiscing after a drink-fuelled reunion night out, back at the Trotters’ flat, self-proclaimed midfield dynamo Del Boy recalling the school football team they had in The Class of ‘62.
‘We had Denzil in goal, we had Monkey Harris left-back… we had camaraderie…’
And Trigger cuts in, ‘Was that the Italian boy?’
Here’s to the next chapter, Paolo. Looking forward to our next catch-up.
For the latest from Paolo Hewitt, head to his website here. Meanwhile, if you have a story to share about seeing The Jam back in the day, or would like to pen an appreciation of the band and the impact they made on your life, and you’d like to be included in Solid Bond In Your Heart: A People’s History of The Jam (introduced on these pages in this feature), please drop me a line via thedayiwasthere@gmail.com
Do You Believe in the Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll? John Robb does, and I’ve got to realise in recent years that you don’t have to do quite so much preparation for a chat with this ever-entertaining Manchester-based, Fylde coast-born alternative music aficionado.
Throw in a few choice observations about glam, punk, post-punk and indie, for example, and you’re away, as audiences across the UK will soon experience for themselves.
The author, bass player/vocalist, journalist, presenter, pundit and all-round man about town is set for a 22-date tour celebrating his life in music, running from late March to early May, where he’s sure to discuss everything from recently released bestseller The Art Of Darkness – The History of Goth to being the first person to interview Nirvana, coining of the term ‘Britpop’, and no end of adventures on the post-punk frontline.
His latest press release throws in ‘many-faceted creature’ too, as well as ‘music website boss, publisher, festival boss, eco-warrior, vegan behemoth and talking head singer from post-punk mainstays The Membranes’. And regular readers here will recall we’ve chewed the fat on many of those fronts before, but this time we’re concentrating on that talking tour.
Growing up in Fleetwood and Blackpool before punk rock ‘saved him’, John formed The Membranes, the highly influential, forward thinking post-punk band whose more recent albums have attracted no lack of critical acclaim. But he’s never one to put all his Lovely Eggs in one basket, so to speak, and that always ran alongside his writing, formative days on the Rox fanzine leading to a breakthrough ’80s stint with the established rock press, thrashing out copy for Sounds, his CV including becoming somewhat instrumental in kick-starting and documenting the Madchester scene.
These days, his Louder Than War website is apparently the fifth most-read UK music and culture site, and like its founder it remains at the forefront of diverse modern culture. Also a talking head on Channel 5 music documentaries and regular TV and radio face and voice, and having also dabbled with his other band project, Goldblade, John’s always happy (and richly qualified) to pitch in on music, culture and politics, having become one of our leading in-conversation hosts, with his own successful YouTube channel and a rightly adored book and music festival, Louder Than Words, annually run on his Manchester patch.
Then there are the best-selling books, also including Punk Rock – an Oral History and The Stone Roses and the Resurrection of British Pop, plus 2021’s publication on leading eco-energy boss Dale Vince, Manifesto, my interviewee now working on his autobiography and collected journalism works, part of the process of that neatly entwined with his Do You Believe in the Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll? tour.
But don’t go thinking he has his own plush office space among the swank of modern Manchester, Nuevo Cottonopolis’ own JR clearly one not to get too anchored down in his work, laughing when I ask him if the seemingly ever-falling rain has confined him to his desk.
“My office is usually just a little posh café in town where I sit and type away, but I’ve been away a few days so I’m just catching up.”
He was in Guernsey the previous week, his first trip to the Channel Islands, but now he’s back, back spinning plates (borrowed from the café, maybe) while looking forward to those live dates, following the success of his last jaunt around the British isles, promoting The Art Of Darkness – The History of Goth.
“Because that book tour went really, a promoter got in touch and said I should go out and do a spoken word thing. I’ll still talk about that book as part of it, but also other stuff I’ve done, for instance that first Nirvana interview, growing up in punk rock in Blackpool, post-punk, and the very DIY nature of it.
“You know, the first gig we played, we’d never been plugged into an amp before, didn’t know what chords were, or anything, it was so fumbling, and lots of people can go, ‘Yeah, I remember doing that as well.’ It’s not just about me. There will be stories that people should recognise, because we’ve all been through that kind of phase, the way punk could just turn people into creatives, who had never previously been creative.
“It was so inspiring, and it will be good to tell that kind of story. The story of bands like the Pistols are really important, but it’s been told a million times, and one of the great things about punk is that it was people in small towns getting it all wrong that actually created something really interesting.”
I was thinking about this recently, be that getting it wrong or just going off at major tangents. For instance, Haircut One Hundred, with Nick Heyward heavily into The Jam and guitarist Graham Jones well into The Clash, but then they went somewhere completely different, helped create an iconic pop outfit. That’s just one example telling a different story, with punk the spark for that DIY approach, inspired kids getting out there and doing their own thing.
“Yeah, the DIY thing was brilliant. Before that, the stage was something locked away from you. I was really into glam rock before punk, including all those bands like Sweet and Mud that you’re meant to pretend you didn’t like now, but were all really ace. And of course, Bowie and T-Rex, but to have any idea of making music seemed to be so remote. Bowie seemed like he was from outer space and everyone else was from London, and in Blackpool both scenes seemed so far away.”
And the consensus seems to be that the prog scene was also out of reach, unless you were some kind of virtuoso guitar or keyboard wizard.
“I think that prog thing’s been over-played. For a lot of us, 12 or 13 growing up watching Top of the Pops, you didn’t really know those people even existed. It wasn’t something you couldn’t attain so much as something you were totally unaware of. The music we really knew about was glam rock, then when I started buying music newspapers in about ’74, we’d read about all these other bands, interviews with bands like Man or Budgie, thinking, ‘How do these people even survive if they’re not on Top of the Pops?’ Not knowing you can spend your whole life being in bands and still not get to that level.”
Are you working on your autobiography alongside this latest tour?
“Yeah, somebody’s asked me to do it, so I’ve started collecting stories. And I’ve got loads of stories.”
I don’t doubt it. Are you thinking the live dates are going to prick your memory on a few more tales?
“Oh yeah, I think so, and we’ll see which ones people will be interested in, and the way to make it all work, so maybe I’ll partially be trying that out as I go along. But there are loads and loads of good stories, being part of that Manchester scene and all those years writing for the music papers, later life adventures like being at the Berlin Wall when that came down, when the pickaxes came out, smashing it down… there’s tons of stuff to put in there.
“But people could go to one of these events and not have any idea who I was – which is totally cool – and still understand the stories, because they grew up in those times and have stories themselves, or if they’re younger it could be like watching an archaeological dig into a pop cultural past! Ha ha!”
It’s a fair point, that archaeological Time Team led by a lad from the Fylde coast who was there for a key part of our cultural history, overseeing Britpop. Madchester, the grunge scene and more, not least what was going on at the edge of Eastern Europe. You never had pretensions of being there in the first place, I’m thinking. How did that happen?
“Yeah, you can’t really say that yourself, can you. You just do your thing. And I guess, in a way coming from a place like Blackpool, you could never be cool. You weren’t hanging around with Vivienne Westwood. You’re too far away. It doesn’t really matter what you get into, you just follow your instinct, and often I’ve got into things on that basis… like Nirvana, before the first single.”
That debut release being a 1988 cover of Dutch rockers Shocking Blue’s 1969 track ‘Love Buzz’, on Seattle indie label Sub Pop, made record of the week by Sounds, who’d already carried that first interview with John.
“The few people that heard them were saying, ‘These are very good,’ and I’m going, ‘These are amazing!’ But I didn’t have any idea they were going to sell millions of records. They were just really great. It was more an instinctive thing.”
How do you look back on those Sounds days, and how long a spell was that?
“About five years, and the great thing about Sounds was… if you were writing about a new band in the NME, you’d have to check their midweek chart position first, whereas in Sounds, you’d just write about them. They’d say, ‘We’re not always into what you write about, musically, but we’ll just let you write about it.’ For us freelancers, that’s what made it a really brilliant paper. And what’s the point of having a freelancer on your paper if you don’t trust what they write about?”
Remind me how you got involved? I was – a few years later – this lad from the Surrey suburbs hoping to be spotted writing about indie bands for my Captains Log fanzine, London and South-East based. But in retrospect I wasn’t pushy enough to break into that world. I’m guessing there were mentors for you though that truly believed and pushed you, ultimately giving you that springboard.
“I had the fanzine, but also wrote for ZigZag. The weird thing is that I had a bit of a fallout with James Brown, who I’d known since he was 14, this kid writing a fanzine. But to sort of make up, he got me into Sounds. But it’s not like being a proper journalist, being a music journalist. It’s not like you go for a job interview. You kind of stumble into it. And in the end, if you’re a massive music-head and can write a bit, you’ll be a music journalist. It was never a career option… that’s why it’s funny now – although a lot harder as there’s a lot less money – that people say it’s not a career option. It never was a career option! Ha ha! It was always a very chaotic existence.”
Did you go straight from living in Blackpool to London, before settling in Manchester?
“I never lived in London. I went to Manchester… and stayed. But I’ve always moved around, couch surfing and so on.”
Do you think that, pre-punk days, the music papers would have entertained the idea of a writer living away from the capital?
“Well, I write about music from all over the world. I don’t have geographical boundaries. Being based in Manchester, it’s an obvious thing to say now that it’s a huge music scene. But even then, it was a cool music scene, and I felt close to that because I already knew people there, and there was always lots to write about.”
The Art Of Darkness – The History of Goth has done really well. And not only have you written a mammoth book there, but you also put in the legwork to sell it, with lots of public events and so on.
“You have to, really. Initially, it was self-released, because I fell out with about three publishers, as their idea of what the book should be about was different from mine. So I bought the book back off one of them, put it out itself. I had no idea how it was going to do. I thought, ‘If this flops, I’m going to lose quite a bit of money. But… then it went crazy, selling hand over foot, and I couldn’t keep up with it while I was on tour. Manchester University has a printing arm, though, and they took it over for me, because you don’t want to be on a train trying to get to the ferry for the Isle of Wight and trying to order 20 books for events. It’s so difficult. So they kind of took over, and it’s been a lot easier since, and just carried on selling. It’s way over 20,000 now. That’s a relief. Ha ha!
“And I like touring, so that’s a plus. I know how to do it, being in a band for years. I can arrange my own tours. I don’t have to wait for a book company to get me three Waterstones events. I can go out there, get in touch with record shops, venues, anyone who’s got a space, up and down the country. If they can cover certain costs, we can do it, and loads of people are up for it.”
It’s great sharing those stories at public events too, isn’t it, as I’ve found out with my Clash and Slade events. And you really have very little idea of what tales will come your way in those situations.
“Oh, I love that, and when I tour – all kinds of tours – I sit in with the merch. it’s nice when people buy stuff, because that keeps you going. But, you know what, it doesn’t really matter if they do – I just like to talk to people about music and stuff. My ideal gig – as well as sold out! – will be one where you get to chat to everybody who’s there, and hang out.”
At that point John mentions, by way of example, the second date of the tour, on March 23rd at Chorley Theatre, close to my patch.
“I haven’t been to Chorley since 1983, when I played a gig there. A pub, by the town square. I’ve got photographs of the gig that someone sent me, and I remember it very clearly. Luckily for a writer, I’ve got a photographic memory.”
Chorley has never really been seen as on the circuit, despite the odd memorable show, such as The Fall at Tatton Community Centre, just across town, where the audience included members of James, something Jim Glennie told me all about in a past interview.
“Well, the gig circuit was really ad hoc then. The venue campaign going on now is brilliant, and it’s really important. But I remember how ‘untogether’ gigs were in the ’80s, the person putting on the gig often younger than we were… probably not even allowed in the venue! Then they’d run out of money, collecting all the money, putting it in a plastic bag. It was super-DIY, wasn’t it. Ha ha!”
That grass roots image reminds me of you telling me about The Membranes playing upstairs at the Enterprise in Chalk Farm, London, on the evening of Live Aid in the Summer of ‘85, five weeks after my own visit to Dan Treacy’s Room at the Top happening there, catching That Petrol Emotion.
“Yeah, the only gig in town on the night of Live Aid, about 200 people crammed into a room that should have held about 130! There was a bar downstairs, and a massive crack appeared in the roof, so the landlady came and told us off! Somebody sent me pictures of it.”
I seem to recall from my own visit that the stage was no more than a step up from the crowd, the audience on the front row – the one in front of me – more or less linking arms to protect the band from stage invasions.
“Yeah, it must have been about three inches high. I’ll have to look back at the photos! And I never actually saw Live Aid, because I was playing that night. It’s like opposite ends of pop culture, musically – there were the bands that played Live Aid, and they were the diagrammatic opposite of our world, really.
“I’m not knocking it. I know Bob Geldof, he’s a good guy, and what he was doing was good. But as a piece of captivating entertainment, that’s different, isn’t it. Ha ha!”
And I’m guessing no one offered to transport The Membranes on Concorde to the next gig.
“Ha ha! No!”
You mentioned Chorley Theatre, a lovely venue that I know well, and there are lots on this tour that must jump out at you, such as the Music Room at Liverpool Philharmonic.
“That’s a really nice space, and it’s a slightly different circuit than what I’d normally do, so a lot of these are new venues to me. There’s towns on this tour I’ve never been to, although I’ve been to nearly every town in Britain. I’m looking forward to going to places like Pocklington and Selby, which I’ve passed but never been in.
“And when I go to any town on tour, we always look around, so there will be things about that town threaded into the talk. Like when we play in Norwich with the band, we go to this lookout tower, by the mediaeval walls, the Cow Tower. Every gig, I ask, ‘Anybody ever been to the Cow Tower?’ and people get really confused!”
That’s a late 14th century artillery blockhouse, pop kids. And talk of Norwich got me on to one of my favourite subjects, discussing various bands based there in the first half of the ’80s, chiefly The Farmer’s Boys, The Higsons, and Serious Drinking, and how there was supposedly no such scene until John Peel’s on-air patronage for those outfits created one.
“Yeah, a made-up scene, but the bands were good enough to make it worth that label. They all had cool, really catchy songs, and if those bands were going now, they’d be going really well. It’s funny now, looking back at that post-punk period – all the bands were kind of pioneers, treated as outsiders. Now you hear bands doing really well in the indie mainstream, like Yard Act from Leeds – they’d have been the sort of band that supported us in 1984 – quite quirky, really good, about 100 people liking them; but on today’s scene, they’ve had a No.2 album!”
Will you properly prepare for these live shows? Is there a framework you try to stick to? I can’t imagine you being too rigid on that. You’re more off the cuff, surely. I can’t imagine you getting lost in the headlights, but there must be moments when the mind goes blank.
“It never goes blank. I’ve been told to have some kind of structure though! I’ll probably have a setlist and just move around that. But I can’t learn it. I know Henry Rollins quite well, and seen him do his thing loads of times, and thought he was quite off the cuff, but he learns the whole thing, one end to the other. That to me is really impressive – how do you learn two hours of stuff? Stewart Lee is the same. He’s brilliant, and I asked him the same and he said he kind of learns most of it, although he goes off on those tangents. I’m impressed with that. I’d rather stand there two hours, off the cuff. Nearly everyone goes, ‘Oh my God, how can you do that?’ But I find it much easier to do that than learn it! And I like to change it every night.
“In Chorley, it’ll definitely have a Blackpool, Preston, Chorley and Lancashire line to it, but in Southampton I’d have a different version, alongside the main stories. It’ll be about the place I’m in, such as the music scene that came out of those towns and how those things connected with me. “And there will be two halves some nights, the first half my talk and the second half me in conversation with somebody then a Q&A with the audience, which is great – people could be asking me completely random stuff!”
At this point I suggest he gets local lad John Foxx along for an ‘in conversation’ at Chorley, letting on about Phil Cool getting in touch with me after I interviewed John, giving his side of a story that connected them in their school days.
“There are some weird crossovers, aren’t there! Like with Blackpool’s music scene. Jethro Tull went to my school, way before me, and when I interviewed Lemmy once, who also lived in Blackpool at one stage, I asked, ‘Did you ever meet Ian Anderson?’ And he said, ‘I didn’t know him that well, but yeah, I sold him my guitar… I wished I’d kept it!’ So when I interviewed Ian, I asked, ‘Did you buy a guitar off Lemmy?’ And he said yeah, remembering what he paid for it and everything. They both knew Roy Harper as well. He used to shout poetry at seagulls, and everyone was a bit scared of him! You wouldn’t think of those three being on the same time zone, but sometimes, in a very small town…
“And yet David Ball from Soft Cell and Chris Lowe from the Pet Shop Boys went to the same Blackpool school, and were one year apart, but never met each other.”
And what’s next for you, writing-wise, beyond the autobiography?
“I’m collating it now, putting little stories down, but I’m also writing a children’s book… kind of not for children! I wrote it in the pandemic, and about a month ago went back to it, thinking ‘This is actually pretty good!’ It’s about England… mythical England, it’s about nature, it’s pretty trippy, but kind of works as a book. It’s got Pan in there, running around Lancashire. It’s not going to be a bestseller, but someone who read it said it’s really evocative about nature. And because I still own my little book company, I thought I might put out a limited edition.
“I’m also still working on this green education project with Dale Vince, helping create green jobs. We’ve got the courses together now, so that’s closer to a launch point. There are so many projects going on, including a zero carbon project in Blackpool.
“I’ve said for some time that one thing Blackpool really needs is a university. Now they’re actually going to open a branch of Lancaster University in Blackpool, which is great. But I still think Blackpool needs it own university. Coming from around there you notice how snobby people really are about that. The university in Preston {UCLan} has done wonders for that area, it’s got a whole other vibe in the city centre, which you wouldn’t normally have.
“I went to Stafford Poly, which became Staffordshire University, in Stoke now. I went back a couple of years ago, and they gave me a doctorate. I only ever went to one lecture and got thrown out, but now I’ve finally got my degree, after 41 years!
“The weird thing is that Dale Vince went there at the same time. When I helped write his book for him, he told me he went to this ‘really boring polytechnic in the Midlands.’ Turns out it was the same one… and the same year! He obviously went to as few lectures as I did. We never met each other.
“Meanwhile, Blackpool wants me to be one of five representatives for a project in the House of Lords next month. That will be really cool. I’ve loads of ideas for all that. I don’t know how it’s supposed to work, how they choose where universities should be. But maybe we just need to cut the crap and make this all happen.
“I mean, why’s Blackpool not a city? I was in Brighton over the weekend, and it’s great, but it isn’t massively bigger than Blackpool. It’s going for city status too, but they won’t have it. Again, it’s snobbery. Living in Manchester now, I find every normal person loves Blackpool. And people like Ian Brown say, ‘You were so lucky growing up in Blackpool.’ They still go for day-trips.”
And while I’m on, I’ll mention how much I enjoyed my first visit to Louder Than Words last November. It was great to see Slade legend Don Powell, and there was a real buzz about the place. I just wished I had the time to fit in a few more events. Maybe next time.
“Ah, you should. And maybe we need Don back again too. We’d love that. Everyone loves him, and he loves going.”
For past feature-interviews with John Robb on this website, follow these links:
Journey to the Art of Darkness – talking The History of Goth with John Robb (Feb 25, 2023)
On the frontline, embracing the future – putting the world to rights with John Robb (Jul 9, 2021)
Fylde under nature – talking The Membranes’ new record and much more with John Robb (Jun 5, 2019)
Tripping the dark fantastic with The Membranes – in conversation with John Robb (Dec 1, 2016)
John Robb’s Do You Believe in the Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll UK tour 2024 dates: March – 22 Selby Town Hall; 23 Chorley Theatre; 27 Kendal Brewery Arts; 28 Sale Waterside; 29 Halifax Square Chapel. April – 10 Sheffield Leadmill; 11 Pocklington Arts Centre; 12 Buxton Pavilion Arts; 18 Worcester Huntingdon Hall; 19 Bristol Folk House; 20 Southampton The Attic; 21 Cambridge Junction; 22 Sudbury Quay Theatre; 23 Colchester Arts Centre; 24 Norwich Arts Centre; 26 Chester Storyhouse Garret; 27 Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room; 28 Leeds The Old Woollen. May – 1 Brighton Komedia; 3 London Woolwich Works; 4 London Soho 21; 9 Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms. For more information check out John Robb’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebooklinks.
In which we take our annual delve into the WriteWyattUK feature/interview archives, picking out a few choice quotes from the last 12 months
January
The Undertones, That Petrol Emotion and The Everlasting Yeah guitarist Damian O’Neill, on the rightly acclaimed an crann, in this case on the subject of ‘Malin Head Imminent’, conveying ‘happy childhood holiday memories at Slievebawn, Co. Donegal.’
“Yeah, most of the album is very introspective, looking back, and the music suits the mood, I think, especially on that – that’s one of the standout tracks. It builds and builds and has this lovely feel about it, this nostalgic look back to when we were kids, staying in this little green hut. Lovely memories.”
Legendary Jam drummer Rick Buckler, following the publication of The Jam 1982, co-written with Zoe Howe, regarding the affinity the Woking three-piece had with their devoted fanbase
‘A lot of that came from the very early days when we were playing the clubs. A lot of people twigged that if they got there in the afternoon, especially London shows and pubs, we’d be doing soundchecks at about three or four o’clock. They’d come along, get stuff signed, and just talk to us.
‘This was prior to us getting signed. And the first thing we did with the record company was sort a tour, which involved only London – the Red Cow, the Nashville, the Marquee, those sorts of places. John {Weller} wasn’t particularly keen on it. But it was something we did and carried on through to playing the larger shows.’
Singer-songwriter Sam Brown on how 2023 album Number 8 required a little thinking outside the (voice) box, mid-lockdown, alongside long-time friend/co-writer Danny Schogger
‘When I began experiencing difficulties with my voice, I started on a rigorous pursuit of answers. I worked with top voice trainers, here and in America. I saw reputed voice doctors, did speech therapy, hypnotherapy, therapy, therapy! Yoga, acupuncture, nutrition, crystal healing …
‘Nothing changed my inability to achieve pitch and closure simultaneously. A fundamental problem. Along with my voice, my creative impetus also disappeared. I didn’t play anything or write anything. I didn’t want to. It was upsetting, to say the least.
‘Long story short, we tried, and we did. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, and there were tears. Danny was amazingly patient, and we ended up with an album’s worth of tracks, the recording a wonderful revelation, all done on Skype and Zoom. Danny did most of the instrumental side of things in his home, I worked at home with my Melodyne programme, allowing me to sing something in any pitch then move it to where I wanted it … and tune it – essential!
‘It also meant I could add harmonies, double-tracking, etc. My brother Pete came on board at the mixing stage, fine-tuning what I’d done already. The end-result? Like nothing I’ve ever done before. In short, it’s all fake!’
February
Former Roachford frontman turned long-established solo artist Andrew Roachford, who also features with Mike + the Mechanics, on whether he still gets nervous before live engagements, and if he reckons such nerves are essential
‘Ah, always. Especially the first date. Even if you haven’t done it for a month or something, you still feel there’s a bit of rust and wonder, ‘How’s this gonna go down?’ It’s a weird thing that you get into this head trip, but I can’t remember many bad gigs, so I don’t know where that’s all coming from, because it always works out. But I think some artists say it’s because you care, and you want it to be the best.
‘I grew up listening to really great live performers and really appreciate a good live gig. I don’t want, you know, lukewarm – people going, ‘Oh, it was okay.’ It doesn’t work that way for me. I’m looking to have people leave there completely blown away and lifted. It’s quite a pressure I put on my own shoulders.’
Graham Gouldman, touring with his Heart Full of Songs show in 2023, on Jeff Beck, the songwriting legend and former 10cc star having first met the guitar hero – who died in January 2023 – and The Yardbirds, just after they recorded his song, ‘Heart Full of Soul’, in 1965. Jeff went on to record another of his songs, ‘Tallyman’, in 1967
‘I never really hung out with them. I was introduced to them by their manager, Giorgio Gomelsky. They were very nice and everything, but it was never like, ‘Let’s have a drink together.’ I’m not being detrimental to them. I was quite a shy boy anyway. They were very nice, and I’m eternally grateful to them, because they recorded my songs. And also because Jeff recorded ‘Tallyman’, so I’m really proud to have had an association with them and with him in particular. Like many others who have said it because of his untimely passing, he was quite simply the greatest guitarist in the world.
‘There’s no one that plays like him. I’ve worked with some of the greatest guitarists in the world. Most recently, Brian May, doing a record with him. He is a phenomenal guitar player but he himself acknowledges the fact that Beck is the greatest.’
Kent-based solo artist Marlody, discussing some of the darker subject matter on her stunning 2023 debut LP, I’m Not Sure At All
‘I wrote most of it when I was in the process of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a very tumultuous time for me, when going to sing and play piano was kind of like my therapy, really.
‘I never wrote the songs with the idea of sharing them, they were just for me. This was other people’s suggestions that I thought, okay, put them into the world. The only one I wrote with other people in mind was ‘Friends in Low Places’. I was doing a spark therapy group as part of my trying to get through my depression. And there were these people that I met there, some really struggling with loneliness and stuff. I wrote that song kind of thinking I would share it with them, but then I was too shy. But now I’ve put it out into the world, more people are going to hear it than the eight people that are in the group!’
Louder Than War supremo and Membranes/Goldblade frontman John Robb, on the subject of 650-page epic read, The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth, in which he concludes ‘goth is in rude health’
‘The art of darkness is all around us, reacting to the dystopian like it always has. Every generation is still dealing with its blues.
‘Culture blur continues – where it was once easy to stand out in the crowd, provocative clothing has become normalised, and those without tattooed skin are the exception. Piercings fall in and out of fashion and are no longer the signifiers of alternative culture. Black clothes are just another Friday night option, and skulls adorn everything from school bags to cereal packets. The dark side has become cartoon fun instead of a badge of the underground.
‘Yet beyond the mainstream’s meddling and cynical appropriation of the surface of a darkly attractive form, the post-punk alternative’s dark matter and energy are everywhere. Thankfully, the new dark ages still require a fitting soundtrack and the art of darkness is the only modern art that truly defines these dystopian end times.’
March
Steve Brookes, co-founder of The Jam, who saw plenty of praise for 2021 LP Tread Gently, on how – despite 45-plus years as a solo singer-songwriter – he’s still remembered for that early role, despite leaving the band in 1975, before they properly took off
‘I still get that, especially if I do a gig around Woking, these people that come out of the woodwork. People you’ve never met in your life come up to you and have these recollections of things {they feel} you were at that they were. They talk to you about it, and you think, ‘You know what, mate, I wasn’t there. You’ve got it all wrong. That was two years after I left the band, and you’re telling me you remember me doing something.’ But I don’t bother correcting them. It’s just too complicated. I’ll just say, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right,’ or ‘I don’t remember that, but you’re probably right,’ let them carry on!’
Eighties synth-pop icon Nik Kershaw, who now has nine solo albums behind him and continues to tour frequently, describing himself as a late developer, having first picked up a guitar when he was 15, inspired by a small screen feature on David Bowie just after the Ziggy Stardust era
‘I was just getting into music when I saw a documentary on Nationwide, which was like The One Show in the ’70s. It was literally a 20-minute documentary piece about Bowie on tour. He must have already released the Aladdin Sane album because he was doing songs from that. That would have been my first {Bowie} album, then I went back to Ziggy and Hunky Dory and all that.
‘I always wanted to be the centre of attention, and thought, ‘I want to be a famous racing driver’, ‘I want to be a famous footballer’, ‘I want to be a famous actor’ … Then Bowie came along, and it was, ‘I want to be a famous performer, singer-songwriter, whatever.’ Then a mate got an electric guitar and I used to go around his and every Sunday afternoon and he’d pretend he was Marc Bolan and I’d pretend I was Bowie, and we just sort of made a lot of noise together.
‘Then I got my first guitar and locked myself in my room, slowing down Ritchie Blackmore solos.’
Nigel Clark, busy as a solo artist and with Dodgy in 2023, on joining forces with bandmate and Dodgy co-founder Mathew Priest back in the late ‘80s
‘I answered an advert in a local paper, looking for a singer. I was just starting out, musically. I’d been doing it quite a few years, recording demos, and thought it was about time I got a band. I met Mathew that way, he was the drummer in the band, and we decided after about a year that we were really serious about it.
‘I went to America, travelling, came back and decided I was either going to live in New York or London. And he said, ‘I’ll come.’ So we did it together, which was brilliant. It would have been difficult on my own. I tried to always be Mr Overconfident, saying, ‘I’m going’ but it was a lot better and easier that I had someone with me.
‘When we first moved down in 1988, we lived in Battersea, and as someone into punk, the soundtrack to our first year in London was The Story of The Clash. Mathew knew The Jam more, so I kind of influenced him there. Then his mum and dad went travelling and we sort of inherited their records, which is when I got into Sly and the Family Stone, in a big way. I still think they’re probably the greatest band ever.
‘We were DJs as well. We bought a set-up and would go around colleges and places like that. So we knew what we liked, were vivacious in the music we wanted to listen to, and took on everything. There were things going on – techno, baggy, all that, but we were consuming Simon and Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, then The Beastie Boys, Neil Young. And when we first heard Crosby, Stills Nash and Young, that was it. I love harmony. I don’t think anything’s complete if you can’t sing a harmony. I listen to a lot of Townes Van Zandt these days, always sing harmony to him, thinking, ‘If I knew him …’
Stranglers frontman turned solo artist Hugh Cornwell, out and about with his band in 2023, on his current winning three-piece formula, alongside bass player Pat Hughes and drummer Windsor McGilvray, both lecturers at the ACM, Guildford, a stone’s throw from where The Stranglers formed
‘They’re very gifted, and between us we’ve managed to cover the keyboards option, because I don’t want to take keyboards with me on the road. What I’ve discovered is that because they’ve got such great voices, you can actually summon up a lot of the extra instruments from that, which is really nice. And on some of the old Stranglers songs – we can recreate them using the voices to supplement the guitars and bass, so there’s not so much missing as people would imagine.’
April
Go-to session brass player Terry Edwards on how important John Peel was to the cause with his breakthrough funk-punk outfit, The Higsons – who released Run Me Down – The Complete 2 Tone Recordings on limited-edition black vinyl in 2023 – fronted by The Fast Show co-creator turned author Charlie Higson, the legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ suggesting a Norwich scene that wasn’t really there until he mentioned it on air
‘Colin {Williams} heard him on the radio saying he lived in East Anglia and there didn’t seem to be any bands around there doing anything. So he wrote in and said, ‘We’re The Higsons, we’re supporting The Fall next week, if you want to come.’ We’d just done our very first demo. He said he couldn’t come to that, but he’d come to whatever the next one was, and we gave him a cassette of five tracks we’d done to eight-track, one of which was ‘I Don’t Want to Live with Monkeys’. He gave us a session on the back of that, out just before two of its tracks came out on a local compilation album {Norwich: A Fine City}.’
Ian Lynch on the Mercury Prize-shortlist nominated False Lankum, which won Lankum huge critical acclaim in 2023 and ended up on many end-of-year favourites’ lists, this scribe suggesting the exquisite ‘Clear Away in the Morning’ has elements of Richard and Linda Thompson style folk
‘The way we understand it, or the way we see it, is that we wouldn’t really call the music we make folk. The term isn’t used as much in Ireland anyway, but even traditional … we all know what traditional music is, and all know that what we make is not traditional music.
‘It’s obviously one strong element of what we do, but amongst many other things. But maybe it’s easier to let other people define and analyse to what degree those things are there. We just like making the music, we don’t try and pass all that down, you know.’
Ian’s bandmate Radie Peat, in the same interview, asked what she heard on Jean Ritchie’s 1963 take on ‘Go Dig My Grave’ that made her think it could work for Lankum
‘I just loved that song. I didn’t think it was going to work as a Lankum song for years, but I was tinkering with it, thought it would probably go on a solo album, then it just kind of floated up into my memory or my head or whatever, when we were getting together the material for this album.
‘Hearing the kind of stuff we were writing, I thought it would bring another element to it. It was very obvious it would fit, and it was really easy that day, trying to figure out what to do with it. It came together really fast. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s really obvious which songs are the right ones, and sometimes it’s not. You just have to work them all, see what jumps out.’
The iconic Pauline Black, of The Selecter, who brought us the splendid Human Algebra in 2023, on her long-time friendship with fellow 2 Tone star and sometime tour mate Rhoda Dakar, who won acclaim with her solo LP
‘We are good friends, and she’s an artist in her own right. It doesn’t serve either of us any good just to be lumped together as the women of 2 Tone, and yet people want to do that to us, so we rail against that. I can’t wait for her new album, Version Girl, to be out, because she’s really got the bit between her teeth at the moment.
‘We’ve learned from each other over the years, we’ve learned the pitfalls and we’ve learned how you negotiate everything, because everything was still skewed to a white male kind of musical fraternity. But you make your way in it. And we of course, have the music, which, if you’re dealing with more political or more social things, then we are in the firing line, if you know what I mean. It would be easier to pick us off than it would be, say, the late Terry Hall, or Suggsy, for instance.
‘When you have consistently been there, and really upholding, I think, those twin desires of what 2 Tone was supposed to be about – an anti-racist and an anti-sexist stance … So all power to her, and I think it’s absolutely wonderful that ladies, you know – ha ha! – of a certain age can be doing this.’
May
Musical archaeologist/vintage audio collector and Deeply Vale Festival creator Chris Hewitt explaining the premise behind his The Development of Large Rock Sound Systems book trilogy
‘When I first wrote, collated and published Volume 1 in 2020 it was to try and record the history of the PA industry and the companies that grew up as the demand for larger sound systems for larger festivals and larger indoor gigs increased.
‘Volume 2 was released to celebrate 50 years since the Pink Floyd at Pompeii film, which must have inspired many musicians and sound engineers to want to build a large sound system. By then I was researching chapters on particular companies in the pro audio industry and on particular vintage PA systems like the Led Zeppelin and the Pink Floyd Pompeii WEM systems.
‘Working on the Pistols’ Disney TV series recreations of classic Sex Pistols gigs in 2021 with various PAs brought me into researching Bowie/Ziggy and Ground Control at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, as that system had to be recreated for the film, so that led to the Bowie/Ground Control/Turner chapters.
‘When PA systems first started being toured as hire systems and used for festivals, it was an industry of mavericks, often described by people who were doing it as pirates setting sail on a ship and not really knowing where they were going. Hire companies and manufacturers came and went or got taken over, bought out and reinvented. Sometimes the hire companies were set up by bands wanting to get their equipment used when not on the road, like Colac Hire (Colosseum) and Britannia Row (Pink Floyd).
‘It usually started with someone building some bass bins and horns in their garage or building a mixer in their garden shed, and developed from there.”
June
Dave Wakeling, touring again with The Beat in 2023, on how he and sorely missed co-frontman Ranking Roger supported Queen on The Works tour in 1984 with their other major band project, General Public, whose first two LPs were reissued on vinyl this year
‘Oh, my heavens! We were thinking it was the Queen that had just done the song with David Bowie, kind of hip and dancy, so thought, ‘It’s a stretch but should be alright.’ But for the live show it was very much the heavy metal fans’ ‘let’s pretend he’s not gay’ show, which always stunned me. So we didn’t really go down that well. I think we went down a bit better in Dublin than other places, but even Birmingham was tough work.
‘At the end of the English run, I said, ‘We really can’t do any more, we’re going down terrible, they’re shouting at us, we’re not even doing our job warming the crowd up, because we’re not their flavour. I said I didn’t want to do the European part of the tour… and we didn’t – we got fired by the agency instead, U2’s agents too. I think it had been done as a favour, some bloke at Virgin was the brother-in-law of the drummer of Queen, although it didn’t really fit together and everybody knew that. But when the obvious became obvious and people were waving ‘fuck off’ fingers at us, I did what I thought was the decent thing, and I’m afraid we got punished for the favour.’
Steve Harley, who ended the year revealing his ongoing battle with cancer, talking about 2020 LP, Uncovered, and his fresh take on 1976’s ‘(Love) Compared To You’, complete with poignant third verse
‘Yes, the third verse at last! Ha! We went to Rockfield {Studios, South Wales} to record that, and it’s just strings – guitars, violin, viola, double bass, and a string quartet. No keyboards at all, no electric notes. And that’s how I’m touring, plugging this album, playing four or five songs from it. And the songs evolve, they develop, it’s really thrilling, and the band are such great players.
‘It’s funny how the muse comes and sits on your shoulder for inspiration. You can wait years. And with that third verse, I’d been trying to write it for many, many years, and then I was down at Rockfield in the sunshine at the beginning of July 2019, and I went out into the meadow. My dad died two weeks earlier, and he was being cremated at 8.30 in Bury St Edmunds, about 250 miles from where I was. I was in the meadow while someone was cooking breakfast, looking at the horses and the trees and just enjoying nature, thinking about my dad.
‘And when I walked back in at nine o’clock I said to my engineer and friend Matt Butler, who had been hassling me to write it, ‘I’ve got it. I’ve done it. What do you think of this?’ And he just said, ‘Spot on, well done.’ Very weird. My dad was passing through, yeah.
‘It needed a third verse. It was a bit of a cheap shot, just two verses and repeating one of them. What happened there?’
Style Council co-founder Mick Talbot, who has also featured with Dexys Midnight Runners and more recently guested with Stone Foundation, reminiscing about his music roots
‘We lived with my Nan and she played the piano. It was always essential to her. I remember, when we moved, she was a bit upset we couldn’t take the piano with us. We’d only been in this new place for a matter of days and a piano arrived, hired. She just felt every house should have one – more essential than hot water or central heating! I guess in her childhood that may have been, pre-telly and radio, the most compelling form of entertainment in the room.
‘She’d play by ear and I asked her to show me some things. She tried to, but said that because that was just from instinct, ‘I don’t know how much more I can show you.’ So she got me piano lessons. I didn’t really like the idea of that. I just went ‘no, I like it when it’s just magic.’
‘I could play a little bit by ear, but I did go to lessons for two or three years. It always felt like an interference to me. I was more focused on playing football than going to lessons, but most of it went in… so I’m a bit of a mixture, really.
‘We were in Tooting when we left the old piano behind, about three stops up the Northern Line. My mum listened to the pirate stations in the ‘60s, because they were playing the most soul, I suppose. She liked Tamla and all that.’
Former Carter USM frontman Jim Bob, an established solo artist for a quarter of a century now, on ‘The Prince of Wales’, the closing track of winning 2023 LP, Thanks for Reaching Out, after I suggested it carries elements of The Clash’s ‘Stay Free’
‘Yeah, and ‘Stay Free’ is another good example of that kind of song. But I was thinking of ‘Kooks’ and that idea that, ‘It doesn’t matter what happens, we’ve got each other.’ I always liked that, Bowie telling his kid, ‘If it comes to, we’ll just leave, we’ll walk. If you don’t like school, you can just leave. We’ll just set fire to the books,’ that sort of thing. In an adult way, if you’re having a bad day, it’s, ‘Let’s just go for a drink, forget about it for a bit.’
Do you see this as part three of an album trilogy that opened with 2020’s Pop Up Jim Bob?
“I think so. Because I’ve said that a few times, I’ve started to believe that’s the case. I don’t know how I’ll follow it. I can’t just do another exactly the same. I said this to someone the other day and said it more as a tongue-in-cheek thing, but it sounds sort of arrogant – if Pop Up Jim Bob was Ziggy Stardust and the second one was Aladdin Sane, this one’s Diamond Dogs… and then it’s Young Americans.’
July
The Nightingales drummer, co-writer, co-vocalist and tour manager Fliss Kitson, on how she first met Robert Lloyd, while performing alongside Cheri Amour in Norwich indie outfit Violet Violet
‘That was amazing, some of the best times ever. We were at sixth form and there was a battle of the bands’ competition. There were some boys that started a band to take part in it and we wanted to just beat the boys, so we started a band.
‘I was already having drum lessons, and a couple of my friends started to play the bass and guitar and stuff. We didn’t really know what we were doing. We were just having lots of fun. We didn’t win, but we did beat the boys! And we decided to carry on.
‘Some of the girls weren’t as passionate about it or didn’t want to spend that much time making music. They had other stuff they wanted to do. They went off and it was kind of me and Cheri, and we carried on. We had an amazing time… and that’s how I met The Nightingales. We got to support them and travelled around Europe and America and the UK with the ‘Gales. It was so much fun. We just loved it.’
August
Veteran singer-songwriter Wreckless Eric, making great music 46 years after debut single, ‘Whole Wide World’, on the release of 2023’s Leisureland, which I suggested captures a seaside feel and sense of Englishness, not just with a Beatles, Kinks and Who vibe, but also incorporating a little David Essex in That’ll Be the Day spirit
‘Oh, that’s a very underrated film, an incredible document from that time. You know, you can’t find it anywhere anymore. I thought that was a great film. That was the generation just before mine, but there are so many overlaps. I could relate to it – that post-war austerity was still lingering when I was growing up. But I didn’t want {this album} to be nostalgic. It is contemporary, I think.
‘My viewpoint is contemporary. I mean, the seaside is a fantastic thing. You have these places, and they have a grimy, darker side which is like, what you see is people enjoying themselves, middle-aged men taking their shirts off, their wives thinking, ‘You can carry this off, Mick!’ and they’re going, ‘Yeah, I can. I’ve taken my shirt off. Deal with it!’ I miss that kind of belligerence of the British holidaymaker.
‘But most people are really nice, and there’s something really sweet about people being on holiday and having a great time. You see all that, but behind there’s a whole world of everyday life. There’s seasonal employment, there’s minimum wage employment, there’s a lack of decent places for people to live because everywhere’s rented out for holiday accommodation and the odious AirBnB. And what you get with that is drug problems, and you get a town like Great Yarmouth.
‘Y’know, when everyone was going abroad for their holidays, those towns got incredibly run down, so you get asylum seekers there. ‘We’ll put them where nobody else wants to go.’ And it builds this hell on earth sometimes. It’s a strange dichotomy – on one hand you’ve got this jollity and joyful seaside experience, then you’ve got this awful, dark, other side to it. And to me, the thing that would really sum it up is the stagnant boating lake. They’ve actually filled in the stagnant boating lake in Cromer, made it into a crazy golf {course}.’
September
Slade drumming legend Don Powell, in an interview for the final chapter of Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade, on the band’s ‘wilderness years’ – returning from a long spell in America in ’77 and finding themselves at rock bottom, most of their audience having moved on, the loyalty of those who stuck by them seeing them through to a triumphant 1980 Reading Festival rebirth
‘I tell you what, Malc, it never deterred us. We were still giving them the same show. We were down in the dumps, and it was hard to get gigs, so we started doing those particular kinds of clubs. But we wanted to work, and still wanted to play shows. That was it, really. And it wasn’t until the Reading Festival {1980} came up that…
‘I remember Nod calling me. We hadn’t worked together for a couple of months, I think, but he told me we’d been offered Reading Festival, and we were killing ourselves laughing over the phone! But we felt we’d got nothing to lose. We got our gear together, with our equipment in the school room where we used to rehearse in Wolverhampton – just a classroom in a disused school. It was the local vicar who ran it, loaning the classrooms out for bands to rehearse in. I think it was about £4 or £5. We called him Holy Joe. He’d get his fiver, then he’d be up the pub on the corner, about 50 yards away. If you needed him to lock up, you’d find him in the pub!
‘That’s what we did when we were offered Reading. We just had a couple of rehearsals. And we’didn’t really have any passes. We were walking through with the punters, everyone saying, ‘What are you lot doing here?’ And we said, ‘Well, we’re playing tonight!’”
October
Undertones drummer Billy Doherty on how the band’s homesickness for Derry back in the day may have cost them in the long term
‘Well, I was bad, but John {O’Neill} was even worse – he was on another planet, really extreme. But I would say there was – particularly with me, John, and maybe to some point Mickey – always a reluctance to do it. But unfortunately, I left it too late to realise – and this is going back to 1981 – it is a business.
‘When the band got a {new} record deal and we signed to EMI, I decided I was leaving the band. I went over to England but didn’t go to the signing of the record deal with EMI – which was a really, really good deal. Then I realised I’d made a dreadful mistake, phoned the hotel where the signing was being done to try to speak to my manager, and said to Andy {Ferguson}, ‘I want back in the band.’ He was livid. He said, ‘Billy, do you realise we’re signing a contract here? You’ve left the band, now you want to get back in?’ It got really silly. Anyway, thankfully they allowed me back in again, and the rest is history.
‘Unfortunately, I found the whole kind of rock ‘n’ roll thing… I don’t sit well with it. I find it very uncomfortable. I realised you’ve got to tour and all that, and thankfully – now we’ve got bus passes and some of us are drawing down on the pension – we are exceptionally lucky that we get great support at shows. And I’m really humbled by it. It’s terrific.’
Danie Cox and Wendy Solomon, aka Gobby Holder and Jem Lea of treasured all-female tribute Slady on their raison d’etre, from another interview for Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade
Danie: ‘We do this entirely for the fans. That and the fun of it all. It’s really a truly special feeling being onstage in front of hundreds of people who have all come together in one room to celebrate their love of Slade. Seeing men and women of all ages, screaming out those songs, some even crying. Knowing that I’ve brought a special memory to people’s lives, as a vessel of the Slade experience. We don’t get critics at all really. We get the odd sexist comment or envious swipes, but that’s expected. We can’t make everyone as happy as we are.’
Wendy: ‘I agree it’s really special. It’s often about nostalgia for the fans, just capturing an essence of their youth through the songs, the atmosphere, the friends in the crowd. It’s pretty emotional at times and there is a real sense of poignancy underneath the joyous craziness of it all. The doubters are few and far between… and very lonely and sad…’
Performance poet and Slade’s own poet laureate, Paul Cookson, again for Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade, on his Lancashire village roots and how that impeded bids to see his favourite band for a few years
‘Being in Walmer Bridge, growing up … when you’re 12 or 13 and from a Methodist church family, none of us took the bus into town to gigs until we were 16 or 17. We’d be playing football and stuff like that. So the only time we were aware of them was on Top of the Pops, or Crackerjack, or Runaround, or Supersonic, or Lift Off with Ayshea. Or as guests on The Bay City Rollers’ show, with the Arrows, or whatever. Because there was nothing on telly, you’d watch every music programme.
‘The thing is, people today think we all dressed like them on Top of the Pops, but we were in browns and yellows. You couldn’t afford the clothing. I had a brown tank top with four stripes, which I thought was very glam, but I looked more like a liquorice allsort… and the fat one that you don’t like eating!
‘I saw them at a big disco place at Liverpool. Oscar’s, 1979. The stage wasn’t even 3ft high. A glitterball disco. They hadn’t yet come back into fashion. ‘We’ll Bring the House Down’ hadn’t come out, and they hadn’t done Reading {Festival}, but some of those songs they played at Reading [August 1980} they played that night, and there were loads of skinheads there, because they always had that following. The girl I was with had this handbag and they were sat around it, so I was a bit nervous, but then they were real gentlemen and said, ‘Here y’are, love!’ and handed it back.
‘I remember them playing ‘Wheels Ain’t Coming Down’. There was loads of dry ice, then they suddenly stopped, as there were two skinheads knocking seven bells out of each other. Noddy said, ‘Will you effin’ stop your effin’ fighting! We’re have to have effin’ fun, for eff’s sake!’ So these two guys stopped, and he said, ‘Right, we’ll effin’ carry on! One-two-three …’ Ha!
‘That was my first time. I was at college at Edge Hill in Ormskirk, and they played Liverpool once or twice over the next couple of years. And I once missed Noddy going into a record shop in Ormskirk, when that EP, ‘Six of the Best’ came out {1980}.
‘I remember walking into Ormskirk, and on the way back I looked in the record shop, having gone a different way into town, and it said, ‘Noddy Holder,’ written on cardboard, ‘appearing at 10 o’clock today.’ And it was 12 o’clock, and he’d gone! I thought that might be my last chance, but I’ve met him several times since…’
November
Veteran guitarist Andy Scott, who joined Sweet in 1970, at the beginning of their hitmaking run, the sole survivor from the classic four-piece, on his continued passion for songwriting and performing
‘The older you get, as a record producer… Well, I’m such a bad editor. When I say bad, I mean… if I don’t think an idea is anywhere near where it should be, it gets ditched straight away. So you have these moments where you spring up in the middle of the night and you write down some lyrics or you patter down to the studio area – which is on a gallery, because I live in a barn – and I pick up an acoustic guitar and hopefully record it on the phone before it goes completely.
‘In your dreams, the song’s magnificent. ‘Fox on the Run’ was one of those. It was my friend Kevin who found the original demo. He goes through my cassettes and stuff, where I’m almost whispering and just chunking the acoustic guitar. I wrote that one when living in a house near Heathrow Airport. I woke up in the middle of the night and didn’t want to wake my fairly new-born son and first wife, so I’m going {Andy whispers}, ‘I – I – I don’t want to know your name…’’
Legendary music photographer Gered Mankowitz on Christmas parties at his West London studio, with Slade frequent flyers, in another interview for Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade
‘When we had the studio in Great Windmill Street {Soho, pretty much throughout the ’70s, they’d come several times a year. We’d have a big Christmas party there. I’d cook a turkey and a ton of sausages, and we’d make a huge punch, famous for being an absolute killer punch. You had absolutely great sounds, and we invited people from all walks of life, and we’d invite Slade and their roadies, particularly Swinn {Graham Swinnerton}.
‘They arrived, one year, were almost the first there, and I’m at the door welcoming people, saying, ‘Great to see you, go right through, there’s food over there.’ After about 20 minutes, I managed to escape the door, went inside, and the turkey had gone, the sausages had gone, and Slade and the roadies were just sitting around. ‘Great grub!’ They cleaned us out in 20 minutes!’
Neil Sheasby, co-founder and bass player of Stone Foundation, whose tour diary, Bass Notes, was published to acclaim in 2023, on how – amid the 100% effort, drive and determination needed to break the band – an element of luck or fate was needed, in their case a chance meeting at a gig in Camden with Specials drummer John Bradbury, who invited the band on tour.
‘Good luck, fortune, yeah, and that night particularly. These were the early days of the internet and he was just searching, under the pretence it was going to be a Northern Soul night he was starting in London. And he probably did have that in mind. But he walked in, and it was just fortune that the night he had off – and he lived up the road from the Fiddler’s Elbow – we were playing and were the first thing that came up on his search. And in his mind what he really wanted was one of the choices for the support for the tour. He wanted a soul band rather than a ska band. And there we were.
‘My default setting was JB’s Allstars, rather than The Specials, so I was asking how Bill Hurley and Drew Barfield were and what they were up to. He was like, ‘Fucking hell, you remember all that?’ We just kind of bonded, y’know. Common ground, and thankfully we did our thing and he got it. It all unfolded and transpired that this was what he wanted to do, take us out, and that changed everything. For example, we’d never really played Scotland before, yet there we were at the SECC, and then could go back to Glasgow and sell something like King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.
‘All of a sudden, 10% to 20% of that crowd is going to get what you do. We’re forever thankful for that. Everyone focuses on the {Paul} Weller thing now, but that was a big full circle for me as well, from being a kid. Lynval {Golding} came into the dressing room, and I told him I was at the Rock against Racism gig they played with The Bureau at the Butts. He said, ‘God, man, we done it for the kids like you!’ It steers your path, really – your consciousness of racism or political stance. It influences you. That was 2011, but even at the time was, ‘Bloody hell, that’s mad!”
Daryl Easlea on the lesser-known stories he was keen to explore in Whatever Happened to Slade? When the Whole World Went Crazee, not least the Black Country four-piece’s late ‘60s emergence on the London scene, with the Gunnell brothers then Chas Chandler managing
‘As you know, they were sort of removed from the scene, but there was an association, you know – all the people Chas brought with him were the cream of the London scene. And if I hadn’t made contact with these people over the years… Chris O’Donnell is incredible, a sort of secret weapon. He went on to become Thin Lizzy’s manager, but started with the Gunnells and is still working now, at Live Nation. Such knowledge, and a lovely bloke.
‘When you join all that up, it’s like, ‘So that’s why the Gonzalez horn section was used!’ {on Slade in Flame} – because of the connection Chas had to know them and get them in. For me, finding out Steve Gregory played the flute on ‘How Does It Feel’…!
‘I looked at all the other books and referenced the work, making sure the crediting was there – the work Chris Selby’s done, that Dave Kemp did, and that amazing detail out there. But then {it’s about} bringing the bits to life around it, the context, and why they were there that night or what happened at that time.
‘Like seeing the horn section listed on the back of that record. To me, the thing that makes that record is the flute. When that flute’s doing the semaphore, who played that? I got Chris Thomas and various people to find Steve Gregory. We had this quick interview on the phone, just to say, ‘Yes, it was me.’ That’s what I wanted to do – treat {Slade} like another person would treat The Beatles or treat The Pink Floyd…’
That’s it for this year, with 731,000-plus reads to date at http://www.writewyattuk.com, half a million of those coming in the last half-dozen years and 85,000-plus of those coming this year… so thanks for your ongoing support, folks. The year 2023 also saw the publication of my second book (five years after my Clash biography), Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade, and the 12 months ahead also promise to be busy. Another gear change is expected, but expect several more feature/interviews and reviews here. Watch this space.
And until then, Happy New Year, one and all. Stay safe, keep the faith, and cheers again for checking out the WriteWyattUK website and my online social media links.
You can order Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Sladedirect via Spenwood Books or online via Amazon or try before you buy at your local library or order through your favourite bookseller. You can also track down copies in my old Surrey hometown at Ben’s Collectors’ Records, Tunsgate, Guildford, or closer to my current Lancashire base at Action Records, Church Street, Preston.
There’s a rather wonderful website out there listing more than 20 years of live performances for Noddy Holder, Jim Lea, Dave Hill and Don Powell, marking Slade’s evolution from their time with the bands that preceded the Black Country’s finest through to the final dates for the classic four-piece line-up.
I’ve lost myself in its pages many times, not least while writing, researching and editing Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade. Kudos there, as with so much detailed online information and history concerning this legendary outfit, to Chris Selby, who happens to remain on close terms with members of the group to this day and almost dismissively suggests he was just around ‘right time, right place’ to witness the band’s emergence and chart their progress. From newspaper cuttings to numerous hours scrolling through library archives, Slade fans have much to be thankful for regarding his painstaking research; with Don’s diaries also a great help along the way.
And this week is as good a time as any to skim through those archives in search of festive fixtures from the days of Dave and Don’s old band, The Vendors onwards, celebrating two decades of Christmas shows for an iconic West Midlands outfit forever associated with this magical time of the year.
I’ll start on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st December 1963, with The Vendors at Etheridge Youth Club, Bilston, then Claregate Boys Club, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, while Noddy’s fledgling outfit The Rockin’ Phantoms were doing their own thing the following lunchtime and the night after at regular haunt, the Three Men in a Boat in Bloxwich, before a Christmas Eve engagement at North Walsall Working Men’s Club.
The following December, 1964, The Vendors were getting bookings as The ’N Betweens, including a Sunday 20th show at the Ship and Rainbow, Wolverhampton, supporting Alexis Korner, and a Boxing Day bill with The Moody Blues at the Casino Club in Walsall, By then, Noddy was with Steve Brett and the Mavericks, also playing Walsall’s Casino Club (23rd), Nottingham’s Bridgford Beat Club (24th), and supporting Tony Dangerfield & the Thrills at the Ship and Rainbow (26th), both bands managing two more shows before the year out, each in Wolverhampton.
By Christmas Eve ’65, The ‘N Betweens were apparently managing appearances at both Harold Clowes Hall in Bentilee, Stoke-on-Trent and the Civic Hall, Brierley Hill, Dudley, ending the year with a New Year’s Eve show at Sneyd Lane Youth Club, Bloxwich. And the following Christmas Eve, 1966, both Nod and Jim now also on board – the classic four-piece in place – they were at Le Metro, Livery Street, Birmingham, finishing the year there a week later at the Silver Blades ice rink. And in December ’67 – when I was barely eight weeks old – they were between dates at the Bolero Club in Wednesbury (24th) and the Woolpack in Salop Street, Wolverhampton (26th), just a few days after a Dudley Zoo date with Jimmy Cliff. Oh, to have witnessed that.
According to the records, they returned to the Woolpack the following Christmas Eve, 1968, also squeezing in a visit across town at Club Lafayette, appearing with the Montanas, before a Boxing Day Bolero Club return, then playing Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Friday 27th with The Idle Race (Jeff Lynne now featuring prominently in Roy Wood’s old band) and The Evolution.
But while there were a pre-Christmas trip to the Bolero Club in 1969, the year they became Ambrose Slade, released their debut album, then with Chas Chandler taking over the reins shortened the name, they were regularly venturing further afield, playing Fisher’s Melody Rooms in Norwich with Eyes of Blond on Christmas Eve, before a Boxing Day return to the Ship & Rainbow (although they were also down for Annabel’s nightclub in Sunderland, that day, a third visit that year, the first two as Ambrose Slade), with Wolverhampton’s Park Hall Hotel and Dudley Zoo’s Queen Mary Ballroom that weekend.
Things had clearly moved on come the first Christmas of the ‘70s, two nights at Glasgow’s Electric Gardens the weekend before the festive break – by which time Play it Loud was in the shops – followed by a George Hotel date in Walsall on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day’s trip down to the Temple Club on Wardour Street, central London… albeit keeping it real with a Sunday 27th Connaught Hotel show in Wolverhampton.
By Christmas ‘71 we’re talking bona fide pop stars, on the back of first UK No.1, ‘Coz I Luv You’, Slade‘s engagements that festive season including Preston Public Hall (21st), Up the Junction in Crewe (23rd), and back on Wardour Street, this time at the Marquee (24th), finishing the year with a Friday date at The Boathouse, Kew Bridge (29th), the audience for the latter including Andy Scott and Mick Tucker of The Sweet.
In fact, Andy told me recently, “I remember dragging Mick, when I first joined The Sweet, down to the Boathouse at Kew. We walked in, went into the dressing room, and you could see they were getting ready to go on. I said, ‘Nice to see you,’ they went on, and we stood at the back somewhere. And it was like being in a war zone, the sound. They had that huge WEM PA system, which was like, I suppose, a good quality transistor radio turned up very loud. There wasn’t a hell of a lot of frequency differences. But the band themselves… I remember Mick and I both going, ‘Well, you know, that is full on energy!’”
December 1972 involved three London dates between the Sundown Centre, Brixton (a short-lived disco in a venue now better known as the Academy) and linked Sundown Theatre, Edmonton (better known as The Regal), up to the 18th, the final date added to cope with demand. But there were no festive dates listed in 1973, while ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ was at No.1, their third single to enter the charts at the top in that momentous year, a gap showing between November 20th’s European tour finale at Zirkus Krone in Munich and a January 9th US tour opener along with Jo Jo Gunne and Brownsville Station at the Spectrum, Philadelphia.
As for Christmas ’74, the schedule just shows Paris Olympia on December 16th – where French super-fan Gerard Goyer missed out, two days after his 19th birthday, as he was doing compulsory military service – and a TopPop performance in the Netherlands on the 29th, appearing with Mud, The Rubettes, George McCrae, ABBA and Carl Douglas… which all sounds a little bit frightening.
During their US exile, they appeared on Friday 19th December 1975 at The Centrum / Cherry Hill Arena, New Jersey, with Kiss and Steppenwolf, the first band majorly inspired by Slade, the other a key influence on the band at the tail end of the ’60s. And to see Slade ‘Bak ’Ome’ at Christmas you had to wait until December 1979, a private do at St Bart’s Hospital followed by a Goldsmiths College date then Camden’s Music Machine (13th), the latter venue becoming familiar to the Slade faithful (this being their fourth of eight dates at a venue at other times in its distinguished history known as Camden Palace and now Koko), before a Beau Sejour Leisure Centre engagement in Guernsey (22nd), a mixed bill also including West London punks The Lurkers. Times had certainly changed.
Daryl Easlea mentions the St Bart’s function in fellow 2023 arrival Whatever Happened to Slade? He writes, ‘Cutting engineer Phil Kinrade, a lifelong fan, was in hospital in December 1979 at St Barts in London’s Smithfield. Recovering from an operation, lying in bed, he kept thinking he could hear Slade playing in the distance. Worried, perhaps, that he may be hallucinating, Kinrade asked a nurse if he could hear Slade. It transpired the band were playing the hospital’s Christmas party.’
Meanwhile, Dave Hemingway, the former Housemartins drummer/vocalist who went on to feature with The Beautiful South and these days Sunbirds, told me that Goldsmith’s date was his second Slade show, while he was a student there in New Cross. ‘They played the students’ Christmas party when they were assumed to be past it – has-beens. Not a chance. The students’ hall they played had a really low roof, and was long and narrow, with Slade at one end, and I was lucky enough to be around ten yards from the front. I say lucky, but my ears were ringing for two days afterwards. They got a girl up on the stage and Noddy, Jim and Dave just rocked out at her while she danced.’
The following year saw them play Grimsby’s Central Hall on December 22nd, eight days before a Rotters Club engagement in Doncaster, that landing four months after their Reading Festival triumph, fortunes changing again.
That’s where it really came together, those next three Christmases all about celebrating with Slade and finishing the year in style, December ’81’s schedule climaxing at Newcastle’s City Hall (18th), Birmingham Odeon (19th) and Hammersmith Odeon (20th), while the following year also ended at those venues, two nights back in the capital (17th/18th) followed by a Birmingham return (19th).
And then came December 1983, Friday 16th’s Queen Margaret University date in Glasgow and Saturday 17th at Durham University followed by what proved to be Slade’s full UK live finale as the classic four-piece, at Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre on Sunday 18th, 40 years ago this week and a year to the day after my sole live sighting of the legendary Nod, Jim, Dave and Don line-up at Hammersmith, when I was barely 15.
There were set to be more, the Black Country’s finest returning to America three months later, supporting their friend Ozzy Osbourne. But they managed just four warm-up dates – one in Texas, two in Colorado, then finally at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, on Wednesday, March 28th. That was it, Jim collapsing in the dressing room after a performance, later diagnosed with hepatitis C. They returned home and never toured again, Noddy proving resistant to another bash, despite them finally making waves on the US charts, concentrating on sorting out his divorce, Slade’s final decade together confined to the studio and promo appearances.
In early December ’84, a 1985 tour was announced, but while they appeared on BBC children’s TV show Crackerjack! on Friday 14th, within a fortnight that tour was cancelled… and never rearranged.
I’ll head back here to Hammersmith Odeon on Saturday 18th December 1982. Backpacking around the world in 1990/91, I grew to understand how well known the support act, Cold Chisel, were in their native Australia, frontman Jimmy Barnes big news over there at the time. However, while reports suggest there was an impressive turnout from a fair dinkum expat/travelling fraternity, we were across the road soaking up the festive spirit in the Britannia instead.
As I put it in my introduction to Wild! Wild! Wild! heading up by train – Hammersmith bound – that night was ‘sketchy and vivid in equal measures.’ I shouldn’t have touched the ale, but the occasion commanded it, the clientele in the Fulham Palace Road boozer – lost to London by the end of the ’80s – that night ‘a motley mix of hippies, rockers, skins, punks and new wavers’, providing a cracking pre-gig vibe.
I wrote, ‘The first series of The Young Ones had just aired, and it seemed I was living it. A ginger-haired guy led the choir, his voice strong enough to secure the gig if Noddy rung in sick; a biker on the balcony poured beer on a stranger’s head below (getting little more aggro than a few swear-words); and a Vyvyan-like skinhead commanded, ‘Oi, hippie, buy me a pint!’ and his brazen request was granted.’ And I’d still love to know if anyone can name that red-haired ringmaster in the pub.
At the Odeon, the absolute power certainly registered, as did the sight of Santa-suited Nod and his scantily clad elves for the inevitable ‘MXE’ encore. And while my evening caught up with me on a packed Tube jolting back towards Waterloo, what a night that was… and thankfully there are more in-depth recollections of that show in Wild! Wild! Wild! A People’s History of Slade.
It wasn’t Slade’s first visit to the Odeon. In fact, there’s a testimony from Style Council/Dexys keyboard maestro Mick Talbot in the book about being there when they played there in mid-May 1974 (doing three nights on that occasion), when he was 15. A five-minute walk away – under the Hammersmith Flyover and beyond – there was also the Palais, where they filmed a scene for Slade in Flame in early September ’74, fan club member Steve Edwards among those recalling that appearance in the book, turning up both there and at the Rainbow Theatre (up on the Seven Sisters Road in North London) the previous night. Then there’s Trevor Brum, who mentions seeing them twice at the Odeon, something he managed at the Marquee too, as well as seeing them back at the Rainbow in ’77.
Lincoln lad Martin Brooks – nowadays with the Pouk Hill Prophetz tribute act – was also there, having first seen the band on home ground in late April ’78 at the Theatre Royal. As was Leeds-based regular attendee/commandeered roadcrew legend Nomis Baurley, on the scene since a March ’77 date at Sheffield City Hall, eventually amassing more than 100 Slade shows. And the same goes for fellow contributor Paul A. Smyth.
Dylan White, the London-based radio plugger and promo man responsible for getting Noel Gallagher on board for that ’96 Oasis cover of ‘Cum on Feel the Noize’ (and more recently getting plenty of acclaim for his own debut LP, Unfinished Business), has an association with Slade live dating back to the Palladium in January ’73… and he was also at the Hammy Odeon in ’74.
As for the aforementioned Gerard Goyer, he was there both nights in December ’82 for his fourth and fifth Slade shows (having also managed two Music Machine shows in 1980), taking a few photos too, his trip over from Paris by train and boat taking him three and a half hours, probably far less than those who came straight from a show in Glasgow that Thursday night.
I mentioned in my ‘Merry Xmas Everybody feature how that was Gavin Fletcher’s last Slade concert and author Bruce Pegg also enjoyed his night in the capital, in his case getting backstage with his US fiancée plus old friend Glenn Williams, later clambering out with Iron Maiden legend Bruce Dickinson and Girlschool drummer Denise Dufort, all five sharing a phone booth in a bid to keep warm while waiting on taxis. It was also Roy Capewell’s only chance to catch the classic Slade line-up.
As for Tony Roach, his recollections chime with mine. It was his last Slade show, and he recounted, ‘They were flaunting their heavy rock sound from Till Deaf Do Us Part, but it was regularly punctuated with Glam stompers like ‘Gudbuy T’ Jane’, ‘Mama Weer All Crazee Now’ and ‘Far Far Away’. Two immediate memories from that occasion: first, they were loud! You really did Feel the Noize. It vibrated through your ribcage like an earthquake. Second, the cross-section of the audience impressed me. There were kids and pensioners, hippy chick girls, black dudes, Japanese fans, middle-aged couples rubbing shoulders with Mohican-haired punks, Hell’s Angel types in studded biker leathers, dancing and joking with bovver-booted skinheads in denim and braces. Really, the most cosmopolitan crowd you could imagine, every one of them having a ball!
‘There wasn’t an ounce of trouble, just a groundswell of bonhomie which seemed contagious. The atmosphere in the audience itself was brilliant, let alone what was booming out from the stage… I’ve never seen anybody work an audience better than Noddy Holder. He teased us, he jested with us, he thrilled us. My God, that voice – like a pitch-perfect, melodic concrete mixer. If he stood next to the runway at Heathrow, he’d drown out the jet planes! Don Powell behind on the drums: immense, relentless. He had those trademark stick-of-rock stripey drumsticks and he was like a runaway juggernaut. Finally, twin imps springing in, out, up and down either side of Circus Ringmaster Noddy. Jim Lea gave a good impression of Spring-heeled Jack, playing his violin like a man possessed. And he was matched in energy by whirling dervish Dave Hill – resplendent in giant brimmed hat, bandolier and stack-heeled snakeskin boots. I remember him bouncing all over the stage that night, like Tigger on speed, his guitar breaks breath-taking.
‘All in all, it was the most exhilarating concert I ever attended. We were visited by a musical cyclone that evening, and I didn’t see a single person leaving who wasn’t smiling and dripping with sweat. A fantastic night.’
Fast forward a year and they were clearly still on top form, not least judging by a piece online this week from another Wild! Wild! Wild! Contributor, Ian Edmundson, co-author with Chris Selby of the six-book The Noize series. Marking four decades since that final full UK show, he said, “I have to feel really sorry for anyone who didn’t see the original line-up totally destroy an audience in 70 minutes and a dozen songs. You missed out.”
Simon Harvey was among those who made it to Liverpool. He was 11 when he first heard ‘Get Down and Get With It’ and fell in love with Slade, three years later seeing them live for the first time at London’s New Victoria Theatre in late April ’75, travelling in from home town Slough w | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 31 | https://wfuv.org/content/songs-about-drums-drummers-0 | en | Songs about Drums & Drummers | https://wfuv.org/themes/custom/wfuv/favicon.ico | https://wfuv.org/themes/custom/wfuv/favicon.ico | [
"https://wfuv.org/themes/custom/wfuv/logo.png",
"https://wfuv.org/sites/default/files/images/imported/music/ginger%20baker.jpg",
"https://wfuv.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/NYSlice-sq-300.png",
"https://wfuv.org/sites/default/files/inline-images/TicketGiveaways300x500-2.png",
"https://wfuv.org/theme... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Ginger Baker, who helped to bring drums into the spotlight of rock music as a member of Cream and Blind Faith, passed awa | en | /themes/custom/wfuv/favicon.ico | https://wfuv.org/content/songs-about-drums-drummers-0 | Ginger Baker, who helped to bring drums into the spotlight of rock music as a member of Cream and Blind Faith, passed away yesterday at the age of 80. We'll include his music in the mix along with your requests for songs that mention drums and drummers. Share your favorites and we'll bang out a set after 9am.
Here's what we played:
Florence + The Machine "Drumming Song"
The Ting Tings "Great DJ"
Richard Shindell "Arrowhead"
Citizen Cope "Let the Drummer Kick"
+
Cream "What a Bringdown" | |||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 33 | https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-andrew-gold-20110606-story.html | en | Andrew Gold dies at 59; musician, songwriter, arranger | https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8cb5546/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x263+0+44/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F45%2Fae%2F204ff709140038b3c61283931b35%2Fla-me-2011notables-zeisel | https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8cb5546/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x263+0+44/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F45%2Fae%2F204ff709140038b3c61283931b35%2Fla-me-2011notables-zeisel | [
"https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7442de5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x333+0+8/resize/320x213!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F10%2F67%2Ff1e7b4ce18ec3da2176fc16bf9d3%2Fla-me-2011notables-chamberlain 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Keith Thursby, Los Angeles Times",
"Keith Thursby",
"Los Angeles Times"
] | 2011-06-06T07:00:00+00:00 | Gold was a versatile musician who played several instruments and arranged music as a member of Linda Ronstadt's band in the 1970s. His 'Lonely Boy' hit the Top 10 in 1977. | en | /apple-touch-icon.png | Los Angeles Times | https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-andrew-gold-20110606-story.html | 1/46
A free-form sculptor, John Chamberlain crafted works from masses of crushed cars and automobile sheet metal. He was 84. Full obituary (Librado Romero / Associated Press)
2/46
A former dissident playwright, Havel was the revered first president of Czechoslovakia after it overthrew Communist rule in 1989. His slogan: “May truth and love triumph over lies and hatred.” He was 75. Full obituary (Petr David Josek / Associated Press)
3/46
Hubert Sumlin‘s snarling guitar helped define Howlin’ Wolf‘s sound. Though Sumlin never attained a fraction of the fame of his celebrated boss, he is revered by fellow blues musicians. He was 80. Full obituary
Notable music deaths of 2011 (Paul Hawthorne / Getty Images)
4/46
The daughter of stars Loretta Young and Clark Gable, Lewis wrote tenderly about her only meeting with Gable at age 15. Young, an unmarried, staunch Catholic, faked an adoption of Lewis, who did not learn the truth about her parentage until she was an adult. She had careers as an actress and a psychotherapist. She was 76. Full obituary (Jill Connelly / Associated Press)
5/46
Known as “Father Dollar Bill,” Father Maurice Chase handed out dollar bills on Los Angeles’ skid row, caring more about the gift of human love than about what his beneficiaries did with the money. He was 92. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
6/46
The Bruins point guard, who in 1964 helped John Wooden win his first national championship at UCLA, coached the team for four seasons. He was 69. Full obituary
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Harold Matosian / Associated Press)
7/46
The heavyweight champ had epic bouts with Muhammad Ali. In 1971 he became the first fighter to defeat Ali, then lost two rematches. In his 37 professional fights, “Smokin’ Joe” won 32 times. But he never accepted his 1-2 record against Ali. He was 67. Full obituary
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (AFP / Getty Image)
8/46
Matty Alou won the National League batting title in 1966 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He and his brothers Felipe and Jesus became the only trio of brothers to play outfield together in a 1963 game. He was 72. Full obituary.
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Diamond Images / Getty Images)
9/46
A legendary producer, director and impresario of the Geffen Playhouse, Gil Cates restored the luster to the Academy Awards telecasts, recruiting hosts such as Billy Crystal and Steve Martin. He was 77. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2011 (Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)
10/46
Erratic and mercurial, the Libyan leader fancied himself a political philosopher, practiced an unorthodox, deadly diplomacy and cut an at times cartoonish figure in robes and sunglasses and surrounded by female guards. He was 69. Obituary | Full coverage of Kadafi’s death | Photos: Kadafi through the years
Notable deaths of 2010 (John Redman / Associated Press)
11/46
The Native American activist was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that accused the federal government of cheating Native Americans in its management of Indian land, resulting in a record $3.4-billion settlement. She was 65. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times)
12/46
The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner was killed in a 15-car wreck in the IndyCar series’ season-ending race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was 33. Full obituary
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
13/46
Roger Williams was of the most popular instrumentalists of the mid-20th century and hit No. 1 on the pop charts in 1955 with his arpeggio-strewn “Autumn Leaves.” Between 1955 and 1972, he had 22 hit singles -- including “Born Free” -- and 38 hit albums. He was 87. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Lawrence Lucier / Steinway & Sons via Getty Images)
14/46
The Scottish singer-guitarist influenced rock and folk greats including Neil Young, Jimmy Page, Paul Simon and Pete Townshend, who credit Jansch’s effect on their music and celebrate his virtuosic playing and evocative songwriting. He was 67. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Jim Dyson / Getty Images)
15/46
Ralph Steinman died just days before the Nobel committee announced he had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. His heirs will still receive his share of the award because the Nobel committee did not know of his death. He and two others were honored for their work with the immune system. He was 68. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mike Groll / Associated Press)
16/46
Robinson owned Sugar Hill Records. The label released “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979. It’s considered the first mainstream hip-hop hit. She also had a solo hit with “Pillow Talk” in 1973. She was 76. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
17/46
He invented the first practical implantable pacemaker. The electrical engineer’s handmade device was named by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1983 as one of the 10 greatest engineering contributions to society in the previous 50 years. He was 92. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Bill Sikes / Associated Press)
18/46
The NFL Hall of Famer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers teamed with his brothers to create a dominant defensive front and led Oklahoma to back-to-back national college championships. He was 56. (J. Meric / Getty Images)
19/46
The Chicago bluesman, the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, performed with the founders of the art form: Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Son House, Tommy McLennan, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Joe Williams. He was the last of the bluesmen from his generation. He was 96. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Joe Brier / McClatchy-Tribune)
20/46
June Wayne founded the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles in the 1960s, where leading artists collaborated with professional printers to create high-quality prints. She was also a prolific artist in her own right. She was 93. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
21/46
Marshall Grant, who worked as Johnny Cash‘s road manager and played bass for him for more than two decades, helped create the singer’s famous sound. He was 83. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Wayne Risher / Associated Press)
22/46
Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist and educator, was the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health. She led the Red Cross relief efforts after 9/11. She was 67. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
23/46
The NFL player, who was the No. 1 draft pick from Michigan State in 1967, played for the Baltimore Colts, the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Oilers. Later, he appeared in popular beer commercials and acted in films and on TV. He was 66. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (John Gwillim / Associated Press)
24/46
The Oscar-nominated art director was best known for her work on “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” both directed by former husband Peter Bogdanovich. She also was an executive in filmmaker James L. Brooks’ company. She was 72. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
25/46
He became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and guided military and humanitarian efforts in the post-Cold War era of the 1990s. He was 75. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
26/46
The British painter, whose works are highly prized by collectors, created subjects in anguished, anti-erotic poses. He used impasto, a technique involving the thick application of paint, to create his highly textured portraits. He was 88. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Stephan Agostini / AFP/Getty Images)
27/46
Lillian Mobley, a tireless South Los Angeles activist, fought to establish the King/Drew hospital and its related medical school. Above, Mobley, right, looks on as Dr. George Locke greets Rep. Maxine Waters at King/Drew in 2004. She was 81. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
28/46
The comedy writer and producer created “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch. “ He also wrote the memorable theme-song lyrics for both the wacky tale of a shipwrecked “three-hour tour” and the story of the marriage between a “lovely lady” with three daughters and “a man named Brady” with three sons. Above, Schwartz in 2008 receives kisses from Florence Henderson, who played Mrs. Brady, and Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island.” He was 94. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2011 (Nick Ut / Associated Press)
29/46
The former first lady captivated the nation with her unabashed candor and forthright discussion of her personal battles with breast cancer, prescription drug addiction and alcoholism. She founded the widely emulated Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for the treatment of chemical dependencies. She was 93. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Anna Moore Butzner / Grand Rapids Press)
30/46
The internationally renowned American artist, whose work blurred the boundaries of painting, drawing and handwritten poetry, was recognized with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg as one of the three most important American artists to emerge in the 1950s. Above, the artist at the Louvre, where he designed and painted the ceiling of a large gallery of bronze sculptures last year. He was 83. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)
31/46
The saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band put his stamp on such Springsteen classics as “Born to Run” and “Rosalita.” He was known both for his full-throttle tenor sax work and his larger-than-life onstage persona as “the Big Man.” He was 69. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Hillery Smith Garrison / Associated Press)
32/46
Pratt was a former Black Panther whose 1972 murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he said he did not commit. He was 63. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
33/46
The singer gained fame with her 1974 hit, “Poetry Man.” She received wide acclaim for her self-titled album, which showed off her multi-octave range and musical versatility. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage in January 2010. She was 60. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
34/46
He was considered a living god by millions of Hindus. After declaring himself the reincarnation of a Hindu saint in 1940, he built a loyal following, including politicians and celebrities, despite allegations of sexual abuse. He leaves a trust worth billions of dollars. He was 84. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mustafa Quraishi / Associated Press)
35/46
The architect incorporated aerodynamic designs into his whimsical midcentury “Googie” coffee shops, including the original Norms on La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. and Pann’s in Westchester, to attract passing motorists. He was 94. Full obituary | Photos: “Googie” architecture
Notable deaths of 2010 (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
36/46
The developer of the Kendall-Jackson wine brand was a San Francisco lawyer who became a skilled wine merchant and titan of the industry. In recent years, Jackson owned winning racehorses, including Rachel Alexandra. He was 81. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times)
37/46
The legendary Norwegian runner became the face of the New York City Marathon, winning the race nine times. She also set four marathon world records. She was 57. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Roald Berit / AFP/Getty Images)
38/46
The biochemist won the 1976 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the hepatitis B virus, which causes severe liver disease and cancer. He later developed the vaccine that protects against it. He was 85. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Eddie Adams / Associated Press)
39/46
A prolific thinker and creator, he is credited with innovations in cable modems, interactive TV, airport metal detectors and the “packet switching” technology that helped lead to the Internet. Above, Baran receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Bush in 2008. He was 84. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)
40/46
The political reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist wrote more than four decades for the Washington Post, where he mentored countless colleagues. He appeared on “Meet the Press” some 400 times. He was 81. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
41/46
Frank Buckles, the last American veteran of World War I, drove ambulances in France and later spent years in an internment camp after Japan’s invasion of the Philippines in WWII. He was 110. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images)
42/46
The composer won five Oscars for films such as “Born Free” and “Out of Africa” and scored Bond films including “Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever” and “From Russia With Love.” His work on the Bond franchise put him in the forefront of music composers. He was 77. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Dave Hogan / Getty Images)
43/46
Grannis photographs documented California surf culture of the 1960s and ‘70s. His images helped popularize and immortalize the sport -- and the life behind it -- at a crucial point in its history. “His photos captured the real thing,” wrote surfing journalist Steve Barilotti. He was 93. Full obituary (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
44/46
The relatively unknown photographer documented L.A.’s beat culture and emerging arts scene, the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers and antiwar protests. He was 82. Full obituary (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
45/46
Sargent Shriver, a lawyer and Kennedy in-law, worked for JFK’s and Lyndon Johnson’s administrations. He launched social programs including the Peace Corps, Head Start and the Job Corps and led the “war on poverty.” Programs he created “still change people’s lives,” says daughter Maria Shriver. Above, with his wife Eunice in 1968. He was 95. Full obituary (Charles Harrity / Associated Press)
46/46
The British director earned Academy Award nominations for “Breaking Away” and “The Dresser.” “Bullitt” was Yates’ American directing debut. It starred Steve McQueen as a detective and featured a memorable car chase on the streets of San Francisco with McQueen at the wheel of a Mustang. He was 81. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Andrew Gold, a singer, songwriter and versatile musician who had a Top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy” and was a vital component of Linda Ronstadt’s pop success in the 1970s as a member of her band, has died. He was 59.
Gold died Friday in his sleep at his home in Encino, said his sister, Melani Gold Friedman. He had cancer but had been responding well to treatment, she said.
He played several instruments, did arrangements and sang on such Ronstadt albums as “Heart Like a Wheel” in 1974, “Prisoner in Disguise” in 1975 and “Hasten Down the Wind” in 1976. His versatility also made him a highly regarded session player for such folk-rock musicians as James Taylor, Carly Simon, Loudon Wainwright III and J.D. Souther as well as the producer of recordings by Stephen Bishop, Nicolette Larson and others.
“Andrew was so enormously talented it almost seemed effortless,” Ronstadt told The Times on Saturday. “He was a real cornerstone of those early records.”
He met Ronstadt as a high school student in the 1960s when her country-rock band the Stone Poneys performed at Oakwood School in North Hollywood. “He came up to talk,” Ronstadt said. “He was so bubbly and so smart and we were so impressed with what a good musician he was.”
After the Stone Poneys disbanded after their hit “Different Drum” in 1967, founding member Kenny Edwards teamed with Gold and singer-songwriters Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff to create the folk-rock band Bryndle.
In an email to The Times, Gold’s former high school classmate Waldman called him “an extraordinary guitarist, pianist, drummer and record producer.”
Bryndle got a record deal, but the album wasn’t released. The band broke up (but reunited in the 1990s). Edwards, who died in August, rejoined Ronstadt and Gold joined the band.
Gold was born Aug. 2, 1951, in Burbank to composer Ernest Gold and singer Marni Nixon. His father won an Academy Award for his score for the 1960 film “Exodus,” and his mother sang for Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady,” among others.
“It was clear from the beginning that I was going to be a musician,” he told The Times in 1977. “With those kind of influences at home what else could I do?”
Gold’s sister said he taught himself instruments by listening to the Beatles. “He could really pick up any instrument and play it,” she said. He lived in England with family friends for about a year as a teenager, she said, and recorded a single with another young musician.
Waldman said Gold “listened to everything under the sun and absorbed it with terrifying accuracy. It was something I always admired and found fascinating about him.”
Gold launched a solo career in the mid-1970s while still with Ronstadt’s band. “Lonely Boy” was a hit on his second album, “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” and the single “Thank You for Being a Friend” from 1978’s “All This and Heaven Too” reached No. 25 on Billboard magazine’s charts.
He recorded with English musician Graham Gouldman in the 1980s, then continued to write, record and work with a variety of artists. Gold also did commercial work and soundtracks, such as singing the theme to the NBC sitcom “Mad About You.” His last release was 2008’s “Copy Cat.”
In addition to his sister, who lives in Tujunga, and his mother, Gold is survived by his wife, Leslie Kogan; daughters Emily, Victoria and Olivia from his marriage to Vanessa Gold, which ended in divorce; and sister Martha Carr of North Hollywood.
Services will be private, but a public remembrance will be planned.
Keith.thursby@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writer Randy Lewis contributed to this report. | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 82 | https://www.popcultureclassics.com/monkees2018.html | en | PopCultureClassics.com | [
"https://www.popcultureclassics.com/grfx/monkees20181.jpg",
"https://www.popcultureclassics.com/grfx/monkees20182.jpg",
"https://www.popcultureclassics.com/grfx/monkees20183.jpg",
"https://www.popcultureclassics.com/grfx/monkees20184.jpg"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | THE MONKEES PRESENT: THE MIKE & MICKY SHOW
Concert Review -- June 6, Mountain Winery, Saratoga, Ca.
By Paul Freeman
On a cold June evening, in a lofty locale -- Saratoga, California's Mountain Winery --the audience's temperature rose dramatically, thanks to hot Monkee music.
The Monkees sprang to life in 1965 as a foursome. The current lineup features a titanic twosome -- Michael Nesmith and Micky Dolenz. On their first tour together as a duo, they display the real depth and breadth of the Monkee catalog.
This was a different kind of Monkees concert -- light on patter and shtick. No giant video screens. On this tour, it's all about the music. And the music is terrific. Even in a spacious outdoor venue like this one, the show achieved a warmth and intimacy.
No horns this time around, but extra stringed instrumentation builds an incredibly full sound with an Americana feel. Banjo, fiddle and pedal steel add exquisite ornamentation to many of the songs. And it's a killer band that's been assembled for this tour.
Yes, many of the smash hits are performed. But the emphasis is on eclectic rarities, including many tracks that were never released during the band's original incarnation. There are deep album cuts and tracks recorded in Monkee versions only as demos. Hidden gems galore -- many never previously performed live.
It's a show filled with unexpected delights, including many numbers with country, folk or psychedelic sensibilities. It allows Micky to display different sides of his talents and it's a great showcase for Nez's extraordinary songwriting gift.
Both men were in great voice at the Saratoga show and they demonstrated a pleasing vocal blend, when harmonizing. They appeared fit and ready to rock.
As the concert began, Micky and Mike strode to the stage from opposite wings. Nez in his sparkly shoes and Mr. Dolenz looking Johnny Cash-cool in a black long jacket and western hat. Nez played, among other guitars, his 12-string blonde, hollow-bodied Gretsch electric. Micky played a lot of acoustic guitar during the evening, as well as tambourine and maracas.
This tour is titled "The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show," so it was appropriate that the concert got off to a buoyant beginning with the surprise-filled, textured tune "Good Clean Fun," a Nez composition from the 1969 album "The Monkees Present."
They segued right into Hitsville for the next number, a rousing rendition of Boyce & Hart's "Last Train to Clarksville," The Monkees' 1966 smash debut single. The addition of banjo actually enhanced this electrifying classic.
Next up was Nez's tantalizingly twangy "Sunny Girlfriend," with its clever, biting lyrics, from the "Headquarters" album. His "Mary, Mary," with a sizzling Dolenz lead vocal, proved that Nesmith could write as commercially potent a tune as any coming out of Don Kirshner's hit factory. Featured on 1967's "More of the Monkees," the song had already been recorded by the Butterfield Blues Band and would later be covered by Run-D.M.C.
"You Told Me," from "Headquarters," was another irresistible Nesmith number with a great Nez vocal. It's the kind of spellbinding song that grips you instantly and makes you want to hear it again immediately.
They delivered a compelling version of the rocking flower power number "For Pete's Sake," another top track from the chart-topping "Headquarters," the third Monkees album and the first to more fully feature the band members' songwriting and instrumental skills. Micky served up another scintillating lead vocal on this one, which was written by Peter Tork and Joey Richards.
The rendition of "The Door into Summer," with chimey guitars, a winning Nesmith lead vocal and Dolenz's spirited harmony, sounded even better than on the original from 1967's "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd." The song was written by Chip Dougas and Bill Martin. Nez paid tribute to Martin, who passed two years ago. Martin co-starred with Nesmith in 1981's acclaimed, ground-breaking music and comedy video release "Elephant Parts." The title "The Door into Summer" was inspired by the Robert A. Heinlein science-fiction novel.
As the band launched into a smoking intro to the next number, Nez interrupted to shout to Micky that he'd just had a message from the late Bob Heinlein, who said he didn't want to be Micky's stepping stone. They then powered back into one of the greatest garage rock numbers of all time, Boyce & Hart's "(I'm Not Your} Steppin' Stone," a song that was covered not only by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, but by tons of punk groups, including Sex Pistols. From "More of the Monkees," the track became their first B-side to reach the Top 20 (with "I'm a Believer" as the A-side).
At that point, our two Monkee men seemed to have divergent notions of what came next on the set list. Nez amiably quipped, "You start off anything you want, Micky. I will follow you anywhere!"
What followed was one of the prettiest Nesmith tunes, "Some of Shelly's Blues." The Monkees' version eventually showed up on Rhino's "Missing Links, Volume Two." It was featured on Nez's 1973 solo album "Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash."
The duo gave a fond shout out to the departed David Jones and the missing-in-action Peter Tork, who's currently promoting his new album with his Shoe Suede Blues group.
"The Girl I Knew Somewhere" is another of Nesmith's remarkably infectious, mainstream pop tunes. It hit the Top 40 as a B-side, with "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" on the flip. The crowd cheered the crisp live version.
Mike and Micky served up an epic, swirling, trippy "Birth of an Accidental Hipster," a song penned by Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller for The Monkees' amazing, 2016 hit album "Good Times!" This performance really soared.
Another concert highlight immediately followed -- "St. Matthew." This is an outstanding Nez tune that hardcore Monkee fans will know from the Rhino "Missing Links, Volume Two" and "Listen to the Band" box set collections, as well as the label's 1995 expanded CD reissue of 1969's "Instant Replay" album, a trio album with Nesmith, Dolenz and Jones, after the TV show's cancellation and Tork's split from the band. Hearing it live was a real treat.
Nez joked that next up on his set list was "The Wall." No, there wasn't a detour into the realm of Pink Floyd, but it was time for Nesmith to momentarily leave the stage as Micky took the spotlight to offer a mind-blowing "Porpoise Song," a Gerry Goffin-Carole King bit of psychedelia featured in the 1968 Monkees cult film "Head," which was co-written by Jack Nicholson and directed by Bob Rafelson ("Five Easy Pieces").
Nez returned for another high point from "Head," his own righteously rocking "Circle Sky." It was another crowd favorite. A third number from the film, the lilting "As We Go Along," which Micky mentioned was penned by Carole King and Toni Stern, gave him the opportunity for one of his finest vocals of the night, sincere, disarming and memorable.
Dolenz and Nesmith then paid homage to Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, who wrote the glorious "Me & Magdalena" for "Good Times!" It was a beautiful vocal duet for the two Monkees, with lush guitar backing.
After intermission, an acoustic segment charmed the audience. Included was an engagingly jaunty "Papa Gene's Blues." The Nesmith number was the first song The Monkees learned, as the TV series was going into production. Many in the audience were singing along to this one.
Micky's energy and exuberant scatting made "Randy Scouse Git" a pleaser. He wrote that one, which was a big hit in the U.K.
"Different Drum" was given an alluringly laid-back tone that worked beautifully. That Nesmith tune was rejected by the TV series' music brain trust, so he peddled it to the Stone Poneys, whose soon-to-be-superstar lead singer Linda Ronstadt turned it into a huge record.
"Nine Times Blues" proved to be another Nesmith beauty. It's available on "Missing Links, Volume One." The three Monkees performed it on a post-TV series appearance on "The Johnny Cash Show." Nez also recorded it on his brilliant, pioneering, country rock album "Magnetic South" with his First National Band. On this night, a wistful, heart-melting melody, eloquent lyrics and a perfect performance lifted this love song to great heights.
On the Boyce & Hart tune "I'll Spend My Life with You," (from "Headquarters"), lovely harmonies made this gentle selection immensely appealing.
"Take a Giant Step" was an enchanter, an indelible Goffin-King song, this one from the band's debut album. "Auntie's Municipal Court" (written by Nesmith and Keith Allison, from 1968's "The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees") was another evocative winner, with a strong Dolenz lead vocal.
Heads bopped, feet tapped and the crowd sang out as Nez churned out a potent, hypnotic "Sweet Young Thing," one of the band's rock 'n' roll classics.
Micky's performance of "Goin' Down," as is always the case, brought elation, as he sang a soulful, swingin' jazzy, scatty, rhythmic version.
Next, Micky very capably took over Davy's lead singing chores on "Daydream Believer," before turning it over to the crowd for a mass vocal love fest.
Mike's country tune "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?" put the crowd back into toe-tapping mode. Then a whole new level was reached with an exhilarating performance of "Pleasant Valley Sunday," a Goffin-King song that's one of the era's best rock singles.
The entire crowd was on its feet by the time the band hit the opening notes of The Monkees' iconic "I'm a Believer." This place was packed with believers. At the song's conclusion, the crowd roared its approval.
The band left the stage, with Nesmith out there alone. He softly began strumming, playing the beginning of "Listen to the Band." The rest of the group marched back, joined him, creating a mounting crescendo through the rest of the song, a fitting climax to an unforgettable evening of Monkee music.
The night was a testament to Nesmith's Monkee-related songwriting. Lyrically, he could be playful, poignant, deep or quirky, depending on the needs of the song's theme. He has always demonstrated a gift for unique turns of phrase. His melodies can grab you instantly, as well as haunt you forever. And keep in mind, his Monkee material represents merely a very small percentage of his recorded work. If you want a further glimpse into the man's profundity, read his new memoir, "Infinite Tuesday." It offers insights, not only into his life, but into life in general.
Nez may be the main musical magnet, but charismatic Micky is a driving force. He clearly seems revitalized by this fresh format and exciting, previously untapped material. He has long kept the Monkee banner flying and has a new album, "Out of Nowhere," that features his new vocals on classic tunes, accompanied by an orchestra.
Backing The Monkees on this tour is an exceptional group of musicians, including Nez's son Christian Nesmith on guitar and backing vocals and Micky's sister Coco on background vocals and percussion. Both are strong contributors.
Every member of the band is truly impressive -- Circe Link, backing vocals; Wayne Avers, guitar, backing vocals; Rich Dart, drums, backing vocals, John Billings, bass; Alex Jules, keyboards, backing vocals; Pete Finney, pedal steel, guitar; Paul Kramer, fiddle, guitar, banjo.
It's clear they were all having a good time making diverse and dynamic music during the Saratoga concert. And the multi-generational audience shared their enthusiasm and sense of fun. A little girl, around seven years old, was singing along to even some of the more obscure tunes. For all those attending, it was a night to remember.
We're grateful that Nez reconsidered his decision to say goodbye to his live Monkee performances after a sentimental appearance with Micky and Peter at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre in 2016. This tour is a triumph.
The Monkees themselves deserve reconsideration. Weigh the entire body of work. They were too often facilely dismissed as a bubble gum act in the past. Yes, they made some of the best bubblegum records ever. But The Monkees' oeuvre is manifold, cutting across genre lines, sometimes cutting edge, even trailblazing. They introduced songs by some of the greatest songwriters of the time period. Hell, one of those songwriters was actually a member of the group.
It's time to admit it -- The Monkees stand among the most important and influential bands to emerge from the 60s (Hello, are you listening, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?) And they're still making top-notch music, 50 years after their creation.
Let's hope there's a Monkees Present Mike & Micky tour 2019. There are still tons of great songs to unearth, such as "Propinquity," "Salesman," "Tapioca Tundra," "While I Cry," "Don't Call on Me" and the anti-war song "Zor and Zam," to name but a few.
Meanwhile, in the very near future, these two Monkees may be comin' to your town... if you're extremely fortunate.
For those who don't have an opportunity to experience this show in person, let's hope that Nez and Micky have the good sense to record some of these historic performances for future release in broadcast, CD and/or DVD formats. These concerts are treasures!
Remaining 2018 dates for The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show include:
12 Paramount Denver, CO 14 Copernicus Center Chicago, IL 15 Rose Music Center Huber Heights, OH 16 Cain Park Cleveland, OH 18 Sony Center Toronto, ON Canada 19 Centre In the Square Kitchener, ON Canada 21 Keswick Theatre Philadelphia, PA 22 Beacon Theatre New York, NY 23 The Paramount, Huntington, NY 25 Count Basie Theatre Red Bank, NJ
Be sure to read our new interview with Micky:
http://popcultureclassics.com/micky_dolenz.html | ||||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 38 | https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-country-songs-1234986540/little-big-town-girl-crush-4-1235013671 | en | The 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time | [
"https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=6035310&c4=&cv=3.9&cj=1",
"https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://www.rol... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Rolling Stone",
"Rob Sheffield",
"Nick Murray",
"Will Hermes",
"Keith Harris",
"Jon Dolan",
"Maya Georgi",
"Richard Gehr",
"Reed Fischer",
"Jonathan Bernstein"
] | 2024-05-24T13:00:00+00:00 | We rank the greatest the classics, from Hank Williams to Taylor Swift, and more | en | Rolling Stone | https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-country-songs-1234986540/ | WHAT MAKES A great country song? It tells a story. It draws a line. It has a twang you can feel down to the soles of your feet. Some get mad, some get weepy, some just get you down the road. And these are the songs that map out the story of country music — from Hank Williams howling at the moon to Ray Charles giving “hillbilly” music an R&B makeover to Shania Twain taking her karaoke-cowgirl feminism worldwide, and much more.
In 2014, Rolling Stone launched Rolling Stone Country and inaugurated the new site with a list of the 100 Greatest Country Songs. Now, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RS Country, we’re expanding the list to 200 songs. The new list gave us more room to go deeper into the music’s rich history, including some aspects that didn’t get enough attention the first time around. We’re publishing our updated list at a time when a classic Tracy Chapman folk song can become a country Number One, and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is shining a light on the legacies of Black country artists like Linda Martell. Nearly a century after artists like the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and DeFord Bailey helped get the story started, the tradition keeps growing. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 60 | https://www.britannica.com/event/Selma-March | en | Selma March | Date, Route, Bloody Sunday, & Facts | [
"https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel/eb-logo/MendelNewThistleLogo.png",
"https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel/eb-logo/MendelNewThistleLogo.png",
"https://cdn.britannica.com/04/62204-004-9CE3214F/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Arm-arm-wife-March-1965.jpg",
"https://cdn.britannica.com/14/181514-004-7B92DA57/Selma-March-infog... | [] | [] | [
"Selma March",
"encyclopedia",
"encyclopeadia",
"britannica",
"article"
] | null | [
"Jeff Wallenfeldt"
] | 2015-01-07T00:00:00+00:00 | Selma March, political march led by Martin Luther King, Jr., from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery, that occurred March 21–25, 1965. The march became a landmark in the American civil rights movement and directly led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. | en | /favicon.png | Encyclopedia Britannica | https://www.britannica.com/event/Selma-March | Selma March
United States history
Selma March, political march from Selma, Alabama, to the state’s capital, Montgomery, that occurred March 21–25, 1965. Led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the march was the culminating event of several tumultuous weeks during which demonstrators twice attempted to march but were stopped, once violently, by local police. As many as 25,000 people participated in the roughly 50-mile (80-km) march. Together, these events became a landmark in the American civil rights movement and directly led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Voter registration in Selma
In 1963 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) endeavoured to register African American voters in Dallas county in central Alabama. The focus of those efforts was the county seat, Selma, where only about 1 or 2 percent of eligible Black voters were registered. Not only was the registration office open just two days per month, but cumbersome four-page forms and arbitrarily applied literacy tests were used to deter and prevent African Americans from obtaining the vote. In late 1964, as SNCC intensified its registration campaign in response to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, local law enforcement—led by the county’s militant segregationist sheriff, Jim Clark (who wore a button that read “Never!”)—resisted with increasing violence (including the use of electric cattle prods against demonstrators). When the Dallas County Voters League, the principal local civil rights organization, requested help from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma’s recently elected mayor, Joseph Smitherman, sought to prevent local law-enforcement officers from employing violence, fearing that bad publicity would work against his attempt to lure new industry to Selma.
Clark, however, failed to heed Smitherman’s directive. By early February 1965, with the SCLC’s organizing efforts in full swing, police violence had escalated and at least 2,000 demonstrators had been jailed in Dallas county. In January and February King pointed to the situation in Selma when he sought to persuade Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson to push for a voting rights act. Johnson, however, remained largely noncommittal. He hoped that court enforcement of the Civil Rights Act would bring about the necessary change, he doubted that there would be sufficient congressional support for a voting rights bill, and he was hesitant to further provoke white Southerners who were already up in arms over desegregation legislation.
On February 18, 1965, in Marion, the county seat of Perry county, near Selma, a state trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a young African American man, during a nighttime demonstration. After Jackson died of his wounds just over a week later in Selma, leaders called for a march to the state capital, Montgomery, to bring attention to the injustice of Jackson’s death, the ongoing police violence, and the sweeping violations of African Americans’ civil rights. On March 6, George C. Wallace, Alabama’s segregationist governor, forbade the march and ordered state troopers to “take whatever means necessary” to prevent it.
Bloody Sunday
Britannica Quiz
Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About the American Civil Rights Movement
In unilaterally scheduling the action for Sunday, March 7, King alienated a number of SNCC leaders, who resented the lack of a joint decision. Ultimately, they allowed their members to participate in the march as individuals, led by SNCC chairman John Lewis. When King’s father persuaded him to preach at Ebenezer Baptist Church (his home church) in Atlanta on Sunday, King initially rescheduled the march for Monday, March 8. He then chose to allow it to take place as originally planned so as not to discourage those who had already arrived on Sunday. His intention was to join the march later.
Before departing Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma on Sunday morning, marchers were reminded of their nonviolent tactics—that if they were halted, they should sit and pray until tear gassed or arrested. Led by Hosea Williams, one of King’s SCLC lieutenants, and Lewis, some 600 demonstrators walked, two by two, the six blocks to the Edmund Pettus Bridge that crossed the Alabama River and led out of Selma. At the east end of the bridge, the demonstrators encountered a force of sheriff’s deputies, deputized “possemen” (some on horseback), and dozens of state troopers. The marchers were told that they had two minutes to disperse. Williams asked to speak with the officer who had given the command. The officer responded that there was nothing to talk about, and moments later he ordered the state troopers to advance. In the tear-gas-shrouded melee that followed, marchers were spat upon, overrun by horses, and attacked with billy clubs and bullwhips. More than 50 marchers, including Lewis, were hospitalized.
Television cameras recorded the brutal assault and brought it into millions of American homes. Significantly, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) interrupted its telecast of Judgment at Nuremburg (1961), a film about the prosecuting of Nazi war criminals, to show the events in Selma, which became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Over the next 48 hours, demonstrations were held in some 80 U.S. cities in support of the marchers.
Turnaround Tuesday
King called on Americans of conscience to go to Selma to join the protest and restart the march. Thousands answered his call. Meanwhile, lawyers for the SCLC went to court in an attempt to prevent Wallace and the state from intervening again in the demonstration. While U.S. District Court Judge Frank Johnson, Jr., agreed to hear the petition, he also issued a restraining order forbidding any further demonstrations in the interim. On March 9 King led more than 2,000 individuals on a march to the bridge. Reluctant to violate the restraining order, however, he turned the procession around, after leading it in prayer, when state troopers ordered it to halt. That was not the last dramatic event of “Turnaround Tuesday.” That night three white clergymen who had traveled to Selma to join the protest were assaulted. One of them, Massachusetts Unitarian minister James J. Reeb, died of his wounds. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 62 | https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2019/11/ | en | Not a Blog | http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IMG_5353-e1573950945310-768x1024.jpg | [
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/themes/dark-shop-lite/images/facebook.png",
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/themes/dark-shop-lite/images/twitter.png",
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/themes/dark-shop-lite/images/westeros.png",
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablo... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/MKD0zdM_G5I?feature=oembed"
] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | null | The last stop on my October travels was Asbury Park, New Jersey, where I was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
I was born and raised in Bayonne, as most of my readers probably know by now, but I left New Jersey in 1966 for Evanston, Illinois, to start my college education at Northwestern University. I never really returned, except for visits… but I do visit often, since almost all of my family is still in Jersey, along with a few old friends, a lot of memories (mostly good, some less so), and a big piece of my heart. Also, New Jersey still has the best pizza in the world (New York and Connecticut are very close, though). You can take the boy out of Jersey, I guess, but you can’t take Jersey out of the boy.
Asbury Park is one of the iconic Jersey shore towns. When I was growing up, a lot of my friends and schoolmates spent their summers down on the Jersey Shore. If not at Asbury Park, then at Atlantic City, Seaside, Tom’s River, Keansburg, or one of the other shore towns. Splashing on the beaches, eating salt water taffy, strolling the boardwalks, riding roller coasters and other rides in the old amusement parks. Not me. We were projects kids, we did not even own a car, so we spent our summers in Bayonne, mostly. Water all around, but no beaches (though once or twice each summer we’d get to take an excursion boat from Brady’s Dock across the street from the projects to Rye Beach or Far Rockaway). The only amusement park I got to visit was Uncle Milty’s, right down First Street, where I could blow my allowance playing Skee-Ball… and would eventually land my first job, running the Tubs O’ Fun for the kiddies one summer. I think I got paid twelve dollars a week (in a pay envelope, with a ten and, yes, a two-dollar bill).
I had never been to Asbury Park before this visit, but I have to say, I was charmed by the place. The sand, the surf, the boardwalk… iconic old bars like the Stone Poney and the Wonderbar… lovely grand houses and old hotels, a downtown that felt like stepping back in time… all in all, a cool town to visit. And of course the awards ceremony was great fun. As a Mets fan, it was a great honor for me to be inducted by Ed Kranepool of the Amazin’ Mets of 1969, and Todd Frazier of the current squad… and to share the night with Jason Alexander, Harry Carson, Bart Oates, Martha Stewart, Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and many more incredible Jerseyites.
Before the ceremony, I was also thrilled to be able to meet a couple of my favorite Giants from the Superbowl champions of 1986, Harry Carson and Bart Oates. Bart actually let me try on his Superbowl ring! And Harry showed me his Hall of Fame ring, which was big enough for four of my fingers.
Having my family present for the induction ceremony made it even more special.
I am told the permanent home of the New Jersey Hall of Fame will be in American Dream, the new mega-mall that just opened in the Meadowlands across the parking lot from Giants Stadium. Yes, the former Xanadu, decades in the building. Meanwhile, there are plaques of us at Newark Airport. That’s cool. I like the idea of being on an airport wall down from the Boss.
Current Mood: bouncy
I try to get to New York City once or twice a year. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world, and my visits there are always half business, half pleasure.
On the business side, I check in with all my publishers (I have several), my agents (I have several), with my editors (past and present), with my friends and colleagues at HBO (past and present). I often do a signing, an interview, or some other sort of public event. On this most recent visit, Raya Golden and I did a signing down at Midtown Comics for her wonderful graphic novel of my unproduced pilot, STARPORT. We scribbled in hundreds of books, and afterwards sat down for a short interview.
Autographed copies of STARPORT may still be available from Midtown Comics in Manhattan. Or not. We signed a lot of stock, but I am not sure how long they will last. In any case, copies are certainly available from Santa Fe: https://jeancocteaucinema.com/product/starport-graphic-novel-pre-orders/
On the pleasure side… well, we often try to get to a Broadway show or two, but I was too busy this year. I did find time to get together with my friends Ellen Datlow and Mr & Mrs X for a pizza crawl through the wilds of Jersey in search of bar pies. This year we managed to hit the Landmark Tavern in Livingstone and the Star Tavern in Orange, both of which were amazing.
((And if you don’t know what a bar pie is, you don’t know pizza)).
I also combined business and pleasure with a dinner at the historic Keens Steakhouse with Kay McCauley, queen of agents, and my friends from Tor, publisher Tom Doherty and our Wild Cards editor, Diana Pho. http://www.keens.com/
Keens has been a Manhattan mainstay since 1885, famous for their fabulous steaks and mutton chops… and for the hundreds of clay pipes that adorn their ceilings and walls. In ye older times, no meal was considered complete without a bowl at its conclusion, and the regulars at Keens traditionally left their long, fragile “churchwarden” pipes at the restaurant, to be called for at need.
Keens still displays the pipes belonging to Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers,, Albert Einstein, George M. Cohan, J.P. Morgan, Stanford White, John Barrymore, David Belasco, Adlai Stevenson, Douglas MacArthur, “Buffalo Bill” Cody… and now me.
At the conclusion of the meal, Keens presented me with my own pipe and had me sign it.
My pipe will now join the other celebrity pipes in Keens display cases. And presumably I can call for it at need, the next time I visit New York City and have a hankering for a mutton chop and a bowl. Not that it’s likely to happen, since I don’t smoke. Never have.
And for that matter, Keens Steakhouse does not allow smoking these days, no more than any other Manhattan restaurant.
But it’s still a cool, and unique, honor. My thanks to Tom Doherty and Kay McCauley, who arranged it.
Current Mood: calm
Hard to believe (at least for me), but it’s been twenty years since A CLASH OF KINGS was first published, in 1999.
That being the case, however, we wanted to do something special to mark the occasion. And we have.
The anniversary edition of CLASH from Bantam is gorgeously and lavishly illustrated by Lauren K. Cannon, with black and white line drawings and full color plates. The new edition also contains a special introduction by Bernard Cornwell, father of Richard Sharpe and Uhtred son of Uhtred, a giant of historical fiction. You should be able to find a copy at your favorite local bookstore or from any good online bookseller.
If you’re an autograph collector, signed copies are available for $50 from https://jeancocteaucinema.com/product/a-clash-of-kings-the-illustrated-edition-pre-orders/
This new edition to A CLASH OF KINGS is a matched companion volume to the 20th Anniversary Illustrated Edition of A GAME OF THRONES, released in 2016. That one is also available, signed, from Beastly Books at the Cocteau.
With the holidays coming up fast, you might also wanted to check out some of the other goodies available from the Cocteau, where you’ll find titles by Diana Gabaldon, John Scalzi, Lee Child, Mary Robinette Kowal, Walter Jon Williams, Melinda Snodgrass, the late great Victor Milan, Leonard Maltin, Marko Kloos, Carrie Vaughn, Erica Jong, Janis Ian, Dennis Lehane, Richard Kadrey, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, the Suicide Girls, and many many many more.
And remember, ALL of our books are autographed.
https://jeancocteaucinema.com/shop/
Current Mood: happy
You cannot build a house all alone. Especially not a HOUSE OF THE DRAGON.
HBO recently announced a full-season ten-episode pickup for HOUSE, the first GAME OF THRONES successor show to go to series. The show is based on material from my imaginary history, FIRE & BLOOD. Ryan Condal wrote the pilot script and the series bible, and will serve as showrunner for the series, together with director Miguel Sapochnik.
Even Aegon the Dragon couldn’t conquer the Seven Kingdoms all by himself, however. He needed the help of his sisters Rhaenys and Visenya. Ryan and I had some great assistance as well, and I wanted to give a tip of the crown to three talented and hard-working young writers who helped to bring this one home. WES TOOKE was Ryan’s right hand man on COLONY, where he served as an executive producer and wrote thirteen episodes. CLAIRE KIECHEL is a young playwright out of New York who came to HOUSE OF THE DRAGON after stints on Netflix’s THE OA and HBO’s new WATCHMEN series. TI MIKKEL came to the show from my own Fevre River Packet Company, where she’s served as a writer’s assistant, helped in the development of a series of short films I hope to produce, and is spearheading the development of TUF VOYAGING as a television series… when she’s not working on her own novel.
Those unfamiliar with the way television works may wonder… if Ryan Condal wrote the pilot and the bible, what did Wes and Claire and Ti do? The answer is: a lot. They sat with Ryan every day in a writer’s room at HBO for months, talking story, going over drafts, giving notes, correcting errors (not that Ryan or I ever made any, no sir, not us), catching inconsistencies, discussing character and plot, offering ideas and suggestions, filling in gaps, breaking down the episodes to come and drawing up a roadmap for the first season and all the seasons to follow. The HOUSE OF THE DRAGON could never have been built without the help of Ti, Claire, and Wes, three terrific young storytellers. They have my thanks, and Ryan’s.
Current Mood: pleased
After Chicago, I moved on to Washington, D.C. with my faithful minion Sid. There, on the evening of October 17, the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation presented me with the 2019 Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination Award. Scott Shannon of Random House, my publisher, came down from New York to introduce me and help present the award, to my delight.
(It should be noted that there is another Arthur C. Clarke Award. That one is a juried award given in the UK for the best novel of the year. This award is not that award, though both of them are sponsored by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation).
I never had the honor of meeting Sir Arthur C. Clarke, but of course I read his work… pretty much all of his work, to the best of my recollection. Clarke was one of the giants of science fiction, and his stories and books had a profound influence on generations of writers who came after him. CHILDHOOOD’S END, A RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, “The Nine Billion Names of God,” “The Star,” 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT… the list goes on and on, a body of work that has few equals. He was also an articulate and progressive voice on the issues of the day, and an unfailing champion of science… something sorely needed in these troubled times. I am pleased and proud to be the winner of an award bearing his name.
Imagination is also sorely needed in these times, a subject I spoke about after receiving the award, while being interviewed by Alyssa Rosenberg, the arts and culture columnist for the Washington Post. This was the first time I’d met Alyssa, but I’ve been reading her for years; her columns about GAME OF THRONES were always accurate and insightful, and she conducted a terrific interview… albeit one that got somewhat dark towards the end, as I contemplated the future of our planet. Not a lot of laughs there, truth be told, but I hope we gave the audience some things to think about. Clarke was all about thinking.
I did not attend any baseball games in Washington, but it was a kick being in town when the Nationals won the pennant and punched their ticket to the World Series. The whole town was giddy. And we also enjoyed our visit to the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. It’s being renovated at the moment, so some exhibits were closed… but the remainder was just as wondrous as I recalled it from my last visit, years ago. The curators seemed somewhat surprised that I knew so much about the Bell X-1 and Friendship 7 and the various rockets on display. Hey, long before I set foot in Westeros, I was writing SF about starships, aliens, and distant suns. Pinto Vortando loves his rocket ships!
Thank you, Washington, for the warm reception, and thank you, Clarke Foundation.
Current Mood: thoughtful
On October 10, in the City of Big Shoulders, I was presented with the Carl Sandburg Literary Award at the annual gala sponsored by the Chicago Public Library Foundation.
It’s a lovely award, and quite an honor. Last year’s winners were Judy Blume and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Previous winners have included such luminaries as Alice Walker, Larry McMurtry, Margaret Atwood, Scott Turow, Isabel Allende, Roger Ebert, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Tom Wolfe, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Kurt Vonnegut, and many many others. That’s a club that I am thrilled and proud to belong to.
I was also happy to share the evening with the amazing Dr. Eve Ewing, who won the foundation’s 21st Century Award, along with 82 other writers from Chicago and the surrounding area, all of whom were brought on stage for a bow (among them were several folks from the SF world, including Mary Robinette Kowal and Alec Nevala-Lee).
The gala was lovely and the award prestigious, and I also got to meet Chicago’s new mayor. But the very best part of the evening was being told afterward that we had raised two-and-a-half million dollars for the Chicago Public Library.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment-and-culture/2019/10/9/20906847/george-r-r-martin-sandburg-award-chicago-public-library-game-of-thrones-humanities-festival
The day after the Sandburg dinner, I appeared at the Chicago Symphony as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. One of the most amazing things about that event was the way they sent out the invitations to it — by raven.
The birds did their job admirably, and a huge crowd attended. Once again I shared the stage with the incredible Eve Ewing, who did a terrific interview of me. But the fun started with our entrance. They took us down into the basement and stood us on a riser, and as the Spektral Quartet played the theme to GAME OF THRONES, Eve and I rose up dramatically from below through clouds of dry ice mist. Now if only I could persuade CoNZealand to do the same next August, when I emcee the Hugo Awards.
http://https://depauliaonline.com/43361/artslife/george-r-r-martin-gives-candid-look-at-what-informs-his-craft-during-chicago-humanities-festival/
After the two big events, I went up to Evanston one day to meet with the dean of the Medill School of Journalism on the Northwestern campus (quite a few changes since my day), and talk to some current Medill students, all of them impossibly young and formidably smart. Back in the Loop, I also met with some M.F.A. candidates from the Communications department about writing for television and film, and even sat down with the VISTA Volunteers now serving with Chicago Legal Aid… where I served as a VISTA from 1971-1973.
And of course I had to make a couple of visits to Greektown for saganaki and moussaka. Opaa! Opaa! Nobody sets fire to cheese better than the good folks at the Greek Islands.
Chicago remains one of my favorite cities in the world, and it was wonderful to return there for a few days. While I failed to find my lost youth, it was fun to revisit the scenes of the crimes and meet some of my successors. My thanks to the Chicago Public Library Foundation, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and Northwestern University for all their hospitality.
Current Mood: pleased
Tags: awards, writing | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 94 | https://www.mixonline.com/recording/classic-tracks/classic-track-american-dream-nitty-gritty-dirt-band-428242 | en | Classic Track: “An American Dream,” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band | [
"https://www.mixonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ct-dirt-bandjpg.jpg",
"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3f019e066233b19148b743095226eb43?s=50&d=mm&r=g",
"https://www.mixonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/SRV-1-353x199.jpg",
"https://www.mixonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023-09-05-dreamweave... | [
"https://www.youtube.com/embed/GFSiisBYZ3U?feature=oembed"
] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Robyn Flans"
] | 2016-10-02T04:00:00+00:00 | By Robyn Flans. The story behind “An American Dream," which put the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band back on pop radio after 10 years, was nothing less than a saga. | en | Mixonline | https://www.mixonline.com/recording/classic-tracks/classic-track-american-dream-nitty-gritty-dirt-band-428242 | Four studios from all around the country, an initial duet refusal, and the ultimate singing partner were all part of the “An American Dream” saga, which put the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band back on pop radio after 10 years.
While on tour with Louisiana’s LeRoux, NGDB had some time off, and as frontman Jeff Hanna put it, LeRoux members said, “Y’all have to go to Studio in the Country in Bogalusa, Louisiana.”
The band, with Hanna co-producing alongside Bob Edwards, took them up on the invitation. They had met Edwards, Al Kooper’s engineer, when Kooper wrote for Crawdaddy magazine—in addition, of course, to being one of the more influential musicians and producers of the era. Kooper had interviewed Steve Martin, who was Dirt Band manager Bill McEuen’s other client. Edwards then engineered some overdubs on the album preceding the An American Dream album at the Record Plant, in Sausalito, Calif.
At Studio in the Country—where everyone believes there was a Neve console and Studer multitrack—the band cut rhythm tracks for two songs for the An American Dream album: “New Orleans,” and the title track, “An American Dream.”
The NGDB rhythm section at the time included Merle Bregante on drums and Richard Hathaway on bass, in addition to founding member Hanna on guitar. LeRoux’s guitarist Tony Haselden laid down a lead guitar solo in which he incorporated a lick that NGDB multi-instrumentalist John McEuen showed him on the banjo. Hanna performed all the rest of the acoustic and electric guitar parts on the track.
Co-producer Edwards recalls an Electro-Voice RE20 or Sennheiser MD 421 on the bass drum, Shure SM57 on the snare, Sennheiser 421s on the toms (“or if I got real adventurous and tried condenser mics on the toms, they were probably 87s or Neumann KM 84s.”) an AKG 451 or 452 on the hi-hat, and AKG 414s on the overheads.
“The bass was undoubtedly taken direct,” Edwards says. “We miked the amp with a 421. Guitar amps generally would have some combination of an SM57 and 421, and maybe also an 87 used as a room mic, back a little bit to get a little room sound.”
Edwards says with the Neve board or any of the classic consoles, a lot of outboard gear wasn’t needed, but there were Pultec Equalizers in various models, UREI 1176 or Teletronix LA-3As or Teletronix LA-2As for compression. “Back then, reverb was EMT plates,” Edwards says.
A few months later, the team went to The Aspen Studio in Aspen, Colo., owned by manager Bill McEuen. ”Bill McEuen built the studio for the Dirt Band and to work on Steve Martin’s albums, who he also managed,” Edwards explains. “We also recorded the score for Steve’s The Man With Two Brains up there. That was really the Dirt Band’s home base, and several of the members lived there at the time.”
The Aspen studio had a Harrison console with VCA automation. “It worked great, but we were pretty much locked into using Neve or API mic pre’s as much as we could, just for the sake of consistency,” Edwards says. “Chances are on most of the overdubs we did up there, the signal path was through an external mic pre, which was probably an API or Neve, and through outboard gear. Bill had a great selection of Pultec equalizers and UREI and Teletronix compressors. We pretty much kept the sound and signal path the same as the other places we recorded. The chances are most of those overdubs were done through outboard mic pre’s and outboard equalizers.”
Edwards says The Aspen studio also had EMT 250 and 251 digital reverbs. “They weighed between 80 and 90 pounds and were about waist height and like R2-D2’s younger brother,” Edwards says with a laugh.
While there, they recorded Hanna’s lead vocal, Jimmie Fadden’s signature harmonica part and McEuen’s dobro, captured acoustically with a high-end condenser mic.
As with most of the records Hanna and Edwards produced together, with the exception of the Louisiana beginning on this one, they started in Aspen and continued in L.A. for overdubs. At Sunset Sound where there was the custom API DeMedio console, they overdubbed the late Bobby LaKind (from the Doobie Brothers) on percussion. He played a chime tree, conga and you can hear the güiro prominently throughout the track. Edwards is pretty sure they recorded Al Kooper on electric piano at Sausalito’s Record Plant.
Mixing was done back in Aspen; Edwards describes it as an incredible place to work.
“The front of the control room was this angled wall of glass about a story and a half tall, where if you were sitting at the console in the mix position and looking off to the right, you were looking at the back of Aspen Mountain,” Edwards recalls. “And if you were looking off to the left, you were looking up at Independence Pass. There were birds flying around and snow coming down and it was the top of the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide. Inspirationally, it was unparalleled and very comfortable.”
The song was done but Edwards and Hanna were looking at one another wondering what they were going to do about the missing female voice. Rodney Crowell’s version had Emmylou Harris on it and they were big fans of that recording. They asked their drummer friend Rick Shlosser for Nicolette Larson’s phone number.
“We asked Nicolette if she wanted to come in and sing on ‘American Dream,’ and she just turned us down. Well, we didn’t know her,” Hanna says in her defense. “For starters, we were not yet friends. We later became fast friends.”
They were stymied. They really wanted a female voice to go with Hanna’s.
“Bob looks at me and says, ‘What about Linda?’” Hanna recalls “‘Linda Ronstadt?!’ She was on the cover of Time magazine—literally the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll. Somehow I got Linda’s number; she had changed it a bunch of times.”
Hanna and Ronstadt went back all the way to 1967 when she was playing with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards in the Stone Poneys. Hanna recalls being at the session when they cut “Different Drum.” In 1975 Ronstadt had recorded a duet with member Jimmy Ibbotson on “Hey Good Lookin’” for their Symphonion Dream album.
“I call her up and it went like: ‘Hey Linda, Jeff Hanna.’ ‘Jeff, ahhhh! Are you in town?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Let’s have dinner.’ I said, ‘It’d be great to have dinner, but before we do that, how would you feel about coming into the studio and singing on this tune we’ve got?’ She said, ‘What’s the tune?’ I said, ‘American Dream,’ this tune that Rodney wrote.’ She said, ‘I love that song.’ That was great, I thought. She said, ‘When do you want to record it?’ I said, ‘How about tonight?’ She said, ‘I’ll be there in two hours.’”
Hanna recalls Ronstadt was taking karate at the time and showed up at Sunset Sound in her dojo outfit and “killed it in two takes.”
“The first take was perfect and she was self-critical like always: ‘Let me sing that bridge on the second take,’ and that was it,” Hanna says.
Edwards says they used a Neumann U 67 on her vocals. “That was the tried and true vocal mic for her,” he says. “Probably some EQ and compression on it. At Sunset Sound the console equalization was top notch, so we may have used that, or maybe some outboard gear, I honestly don’t remember. But for compression, probably a Teletronix LA-2A would be my guess.”
“And while she was there, we asked her to sing on another tune, ‘New Orleans,’ which had a call and response on it, and if you listen to that you can hear her clearly wailing,” Hanna adds. “And we had dinner and that was that.”
The postscript on the story was that Ronstadt endorsed the Dirt Band to her friend Nicolette Larson, who then sang on the band’s next single, “Make a Little Magic.” That single took the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to No. 25 on the Billboard charts in 1980, and the band has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 37 | https://numerogroup.com/blogs/stories/corbys-living-sound | en | Corby's Living Sound | http://numerogroup.com/cdn/shop/articles/Another_session_in_our_Living_Sound_studio_1960_s_copy.jpg?v=1629491453 | http://numerogroup.com/cdn/shop/articles/Another_session_in_our_Living_Sound_studio_1960_s_copy.jpg?v=1629491453 | [
"https://numerogroup.com/cdn/shop/articles/Another_session_in_our_Living_Sound_studio_1960_s_copy_400x.jpg?v=1629491453",
"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0573/1650/7846/files/Page_4_Corby_480x480.jpg?v=1629490489",
"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0573/1650/7846/files/Page_53_Corby_480x480.jpg?v=1629491191... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Izzy Fradin"
] | 2021-08-20T15:30:50+00:00 | A half-generation or more too old to go the way of full-on love beads, kaftans and impulsively imbibing Owsley Stanley’s fine-tuned lysergic acid diethylamide, the trio of Doug Cox, Denny Hardesty, and Steve Waltner nevertheless cut a swathe of sterling quality soft-psych, sunshine pop, garage-psych, frat rock, teener | en | //numerogroup.com/cdn/shop/files/NUMERO_LOGO_black.ai_32x32.png?v=1624292301 | Numero Group | https://numerogroup.com/blogs/stories/corbys-living-sound | A half-generation or more too old to go the way of full-on love beads, kaftans and impulsively imbibing Owsley Stanley’s fine-tuned lysergic acid diethylamide, the trio of Doug Cox, Denny Hardesty, and Steve Waltner nevertheless cut a swathe of sterling quality soft-psych, sunshine pop, garage-psych, frat rock, teener pop, and more, for their Southern California-based Corby Records across the late ‘60s. Performing together in various configurations since the dawn of the decade, the trio were immensely gifted musicians with a near psychic connection from their many years of collaboration: from folk duos passing the hat at coffeehouses, to pop-rockabilly combos, and chameleonically morphing with the sea changes of popular culture.
In February 1960, Steve Waltner was en route to Double Dubuque. “I just got the entertainment bug, and Wichita, Kansas, is probably not the place to try to get something to happen, especially in 1960. I hate cold weather, and at that point, New York and L.A. was really the only two major areas for this sorta stuff. So, I went west where it was gonna be warmer,” Waltner said. “I didn’t know a soul in California, I was just going out there to become the next Ricky Nelson!”
To appease his parents, Waltner enrolled at Pasadena City College, where he made some valuable connections and friendships during his time in the City Of Roses. “When I first got out to California I met Denny Hardesty. He was a guitar player, so he and I started working on songs that I was writing in his parents’ garage,” Waltner recalled. “He had a little tape recorder, and I had a little tape recorder. We’d go back and forth and put things together all the time. Y’know, trying to write a hit song, basically.” Hardesty also knew another two duck-tailed, greaser musicians, a rhythm guitarist and drummer, who further added to the madness, and soon the quartet—with Hardesty on lead guitar and Waltner on bass and lead vocals—were sketching out ideas for songs under the name The Altecs. Two custom singles, recorded at S&L Recorders in San Gabriel, circa 1961, were to come from this gestational period, with backing by The Altecs on both: Randy Robbins’ “Alarm Clock Blues” on Wilhelmina Records and Steve Wilson’s “Oh-De-Dum” on Pamela Records—both pseudonyms for Waltner.
A few short months after The Altecs formed, the third piece of the Corby puzzle came into view when Waltner pulled a card off the college bulletin board that said, “Looking For Guitar Player Who Sings.” Doug Cox was on the other end of the line and they quickly begin performing together as a Simon & Garfunkel-style folk duo under the name The Silverwoods. Waltner’s music career was about to take off, but so too was the situation in Vietnam. Hoping to avoid the PFC bodybag shuffle afforded draftees, Waltner enlisted in the Air Force and was stationed at Adair Air Force Station, outside Corvallis, Oregon. With neither the teen rockers, hit-seeking balladry, nor raw rockabilly from Waltner’s pen striking the consciousness of the public he began pondering an alternate attack.
“When this thing with the Air Force came up I continued working on [music]. It's when I was up [in Oregon] that I decided to just start doing our own thing. [Let’s quit] going to other record companies, start our own.” With some of his prior releases produced by his own dollar—despite being issued under supposed label names—Waltner (and his forever friends Cox and Hardesty) had little to lose, choosing to form Corby Records and Zulu Publishing as a three-way partnership, with Waltner as the linchpin.
But, why Corby? “[Cox] had a singing group when I first met him, [with] his sister and two other girls, and they called [themselves] Doug Corby & The Junior Misses,” Waltner said. “I’ve no idea where he came up with it, but I liked the name Corby. It just had a ring [to] me.” Upon proposing utilizing the name to Cox, he enthusiastically obliged. “We didn't have any formal agreement, but we were three best friends and there was a handshake-type thing.”
While based in Oregon, in addition to his own musical pursuits, Waltner began scouting regional talent. Corby’s first release by The Chancellor‘s (CR-200), was a duo of killer frat rock instros, pulled from the Pacific Northwest soil, a legendary breeding ground for frat, and the forthcoming wave of teenbeat and ’60s garage punk. KRKT jock Jim Hunter, based out of Albany, OR, waxed a novelty record originally penned as a poem by KFWB Hollywood radio DJ Bill Balance—which Waltner provided musical backing for—reflecting on ‘the teenage experience’ through somber recitation, “Just Being Young,” and paired it with a frat-bubblegum flip in “Sweet Lovin’” for their second release. Elsewhere Corby issued J. Michael & The Bushmen’s garage stomper “I Need Love,” and the sportcoat rock of “Moses” by future San Francisco psych combo Neighb'rhood Childr'n, when they were still going under the name The Navarros and based out of Medford, OR.
Steve Wilson—aka Steve Waltner—also cut a few early Corby sides, with a rollicking slice of surf-pop in “Out L.A. Way” and the folk-pop-rock of “Pretty Little Angel” (backed by The Bushmen on the latter, when Waltner was managing the Ben-Hur leather sandal’d and Fred Flintstone-inspired leopard print toga garb’d combo). During the three years Waltner was stationed in Oregon, “We pressed records at [Columbia Records Custom Pressing Dept. in Hollywood] and I promoted them all over the Northwest. I was up there, so I drove all over Washington, Idaho, and Northern California.”
After concluding his time with the Air Force, Waltner was primed and ready to return to The Big Orange and resume full-time work with his label partners. “When I moved back to California, that's when we actually got a studio,” Waltner said. San Gabriel’s S&L Recorders was owned by Harold Shock (the S of S&L) who, over Thanksgiving weekend of 1964, passed away after a tumble in his carport. Shock’s widow contacted Hardesty to inform them of the dire news, flecked with a bright silver lining for the future of the Corby label. “She told [Hardesty], ‘I know he would want you guys to have the studio,’” Waltner recalled.
“Our biggest drawback was, we felt we had talent to create stuff, but we didn't have the money to promote it. That's why most of our things we recorded with the idea of trying to get them leased to a major label, and we shopped them around,” Waltner recalled. And, on a few occasions, that idea marked bullseye well, despite not leading to tremendous sales. Waltner and Cox continued as writing partners into the later ’60s, issuing titles on different labels and under different names. In 1966, under the Deuces Wild they issued the instro “Keep On,” as Corby CR-211—today a modest Northern soul dancer—which was picked up by Vault Records stateside, Columbia in Canada, and garnered enough attention for the group to be selected to play alongside The Knickerbockers, James Brown, and Don Grady (aka Don Agrati, future Yellow Balloon bandmember) during a June of ’66 broadcast of Where The Action Is, filmed at the Newport Dunes on Newport Beach.
The following year, 1967, found the duo issuing a largely acoustic folk-rock ballad with Everly Brothers-influenced harmonies called “Soft Summer Breeze”—which this set cribs its name from—as two identical B-sides issued by two separate names, The Giant Crab and The Love’s Me Petal (for Corby and Roulette, respectively). On the Roulette release, interestingly, the A-Side, “Summer’s End,” is additionally a Corby re-cut of sorts, utilizing the backing track and melody from Ralph Geddes’ “Give Me Peace” (CR-209) from two years prior, with revised lyrics.
The original version of Geddes’ lonesome, E-Z surf, proto-psych masterclass with echoed guitar lines and bare, emotional openness closes Soft Summer Breezes: Corby’s Living Sound. Ralph Geddes, and his brother Paul, had long been around the revolving Corby-related studios, contributing to sessions, songwriting, and the like, after having both been members of actor/musician Aki Aleong’s instrumental surf outfit, Aki Aleong & The Nobles. (For those following the breadcrumbs, Aleong also went by the name Akim, of “Voodoo Drums” infamy, immortalized on N065, Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights.)
And of The Giant Crab? The name was initially one of the many for assorted Waltner/Cox compositions and releases, though having landed on KRLA with their first single “Listen Girl” b/w “Soft Summer Breeze,” Corby believed the group to have more legs than initially expected. So, after the first single was issued, Cox approached a Santa Barbara-based band he was acquainted with, Ernie & The Emperors, and asked if they would be keen to carry on with the name, to which they happily agreed. The Giant Crab quintet, comprised of two sets of Hispanic brothers, issued two further singles on Corby of fuzz-filled and horn-accented sunshine pop/psych-pop, led by the three Oroscos (Ernie, Raymond, and Ruben) and two Fricias (Dennis and Kenny) rounding out the lineup. Across a two-year span, after signing with UNI in 1968, the group released a further four singles and two full-length albums (which some of the Corby sides were re-recorded for), before some members evolved into the heavier combo Big Brother Ernie Joseph.
At the renamed Living Sound Recorders, Waltner’s prior emphasis on scouting local talent receded. Many of the releases issued simply originated via studio bookings, the golden-eared trio of Cox, Hardesty and Waltner being in the right place at the right time and proposing partnership after familiarizing themselves with a given band’s skills. And, to that end, the trio’s searching ears sought out lyrically complex, longing, frenetic, melodic and mellow compositions in equal measure, across folk-rock/soft psych (Bob Belche, The Morning Sun); the balladic, dreamy psychedelia primed for Swedish uber-collector Jorgen Johansson’s Fading Yellow series by J.C. Horton, and Alice (who later evolved into UNI act D.C. Hawk, and held in its ranks future Yankee Rose bassist Pete Currier); dark, Los Angeles garage-psych (Midnight Snack, Bedpost Oracle); tambourine-shakin’ soft garage-bubble-psych replete with cheap organ and elegiac jazz guitar lines (Leafy Wilson, backed by Bedpost Oracle); proto- power pop, Ronnie McFarlin’s ragged teen-pop and prescient country-rock more melodious than his latter-day, “Real People”-centric sides, and still had time to construct the lush, heartbroken, sunshine vibrations of Waltner’s “Can’t Make It Without You.”
After incorporating an additional partner which didn’t work out, and time generally taking its toll, Waltner sold his interest in Living Sound in 1970, moved to Santa Ana, and continued writing and recording, including mail-order demos for other artists done in his home studio. He’d later join the Scene III lounge trio, performing at local restaurants and bars when time allowed. Cox played with the KRLA Roadshow, produced and did arrangements for a variety of artists, started several labels each with a handful of releases including his own—Calico, Daisy, Sunbird, Utopia, etc.—and formed a new publishing company called Early Bird Music. Near the end of his initial music career of two-and-a-half decades starting in 1960, he also played for a few years backing up folk-pop almost-was Tim Morgon, whom he’d met when producing a session on him for Kapp Records ages back at Living Sound. But, once the constant sound of pounding drums lightly began fading from his consciousness, he realized he craved silence, not even peeking into the FM signal for a few years, focused purely on AM talk radio after decades into a raucous career. Today, the three partners in Corby Records remain close friends, and once again play music, but on a more hobbyist or personal edification basis.
Akin to the hand-like ‘C’ and ‘Y’ in the final Corby label logo grasping the ‘orb’—designed by his own hand, like the two before it—Waltner has held tight onto files, paperwork, tapes, and ephemera from this era throughout the decades, amassing an archive without which this compilation would not exist. Across a hard-won half-decade, Corby Records issued more than two dozen releases, quite notable for a ’60s indie upstart. They created a strong, impressive catalog, orbiting the fringe, only cracking the thin, brittle, outside edge of superstardom. With Soft Summer Breezes: Corby’s Living Sound, it’s now in your hands to grasp and cherish. | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 55 | https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/ | en | Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People of 2023 | [
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-27-at-4.20.14-PM.png",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Bill_Baer.jpg",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Bill_Baer.jpg",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Ste... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Washingtonian Staff",
"https://www.washingtonian.com/author/washingtonianstaff/#author"
] | 2023-04-27T00:00:00 | Here’s our list of the experts and advocates, outside the government, who are playing big roles in Washington’s policy debates. | en | https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/themes/washingtonian/favicon.ico | Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by. | https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/ | For our third annual edition of the Most Influential People Shaping Policy, we again sought out smart, innovative Washingtonians who care about issues and spend a lot of time thinking about them.
The selection process is not easy. Despite what the news says, there are a lot of people in Washington who care deeply about this country and advocate on behalf of changes and ideas they believe will make the nation better.
Our list is determined by several factors. We look for those who have deep subject-matter expertise and significant understanding of how the nation’s capital works, with the goal of getting action. We want people who understand the nuances and complexities of a particular issue area. And we focus on policy subjects we believe are of special relevance right now to our slate of elected officials.
We’ve tried to make choices across the ideological spectrum and avoid big-name “hired guns” whose influence often derives more from their communication skills and network than from their expertise in a particular area. We also didn’t include elected officials and Capitol Hill or administration staffers—the influencees, so to speak. Some people or organizations may strike you as having a harmful effect. We’re not passing judgment on whether every person’s influence is for the greater good. We want to highlight those who wield it.
Many of those selected have indeed served government in some capacity, such as Alexandra Veitch, who worked for former senator Barbara Mikulski but now helps YouTube with public policy. Or John Lettieri, a onetime GOP Hill staffer who today leads the Economic Innovation Group and pushes for better economic policies. We believe that the people we’ve highlighted possess special insight into how to get an issue elevated. We also think some of the names here are likely to land in government in the future, either because of their ambition to serve or because they’ll be tapped for their expertise.
Ultimately, every one of the influencers shares a drive to understand a policy issue and propel it forward. Washington has always been a city of thinkers. We’re confident these are among the best brains in the city.
—Catherine Merrill
Washingtonian President and CEO
To purchase a physical copy of our Influencers list, please email Samantha Simmons at SSimmons@washingtonian.com.
Antitrust
Experts who ensure that businesses are competing fairly and that mergers are in the public’s interest
Back to Top
Banking & Finance
People who advocate for stable and secure financial systems
Back to Top
Business & Labor
These advocates fight to keep our commerce strong for employers and employees
Back to Top
Civil Rights & Criminal Justice
Experts who help ensure that our country’s policies, laws, and programs are nondiscriminatory
Back to Top
Climate & Environment
From the impact of climate change to sustainable energy, these subject-matter pros advocate and promote policies that balance economic growth with our planet’s future
Back to Top
Economic Policy
Top local minds who advocate to make certain that our economic system works
Back to Top
Education
Leaders of the policy reforms shaping our country’s educational system at all levels
Back to Top
Energy
People who know the industry—from fossil fuels to renewables—better than anyone
Back to Top
Foreign Affairs
Understanding all corners of the globe, these experts help shape how America relates to the rest of the world
Back to Top
Good Government
Whether fighting for democracy or federal-employee benefits, these people care deeply about having our public system work effectively
Back to Top
Healthcare
Leading pros who know the ins and outs of healthcare policy, regulation, and access—and how those can help or hurt consumers
Back to Top
Immigration
Authorities on the legislative, legal, and administrative policies that shape our nation’s immigration system
Back to Top
Infrastructure & Transportation
Whether involving land, sea, or air, these experts fight for policies that help strengthen the backbone of our country
Back to Top
Legal Intelligentsia
Legal minds who put their brainpower behind helping our government work better
Back to Top
National Security & Defense
Leaders who help shape the policies that make our country safe and protected
Back to Top
Tech & Telecom
Beltway insiders helping advance Big Tech and telecommunications issues on Capitol Hill
Back to Top
Trade
These pros understand the details of agreements and regulations driving imports and exports, plus their impact on America
Back to Top
Voting Rights & Election Law
From redistricting to registration laws, these experts closely follow and advocate for changes to how we elect our public servants
Back to Top
Alphabetical List of Influencers
Photo Credits
Antitrust
Baer courtesy of Brookings Institution; DelBianco courtesy of NetChoice; Kovacic courtesy of George Washington University; Lynn courtesy of Open Markets; Schweppe courtesy of American Principles Project; Stoller by Sophia Lin
Banking & Finance
Baer and Childress courtesy of Bank Policy Institute; Berry courtesy of JPMC; Camper by Jeff Elkins; Giorgio and Romero Rainey courtesy of ICBA; Johnson courtesy of CBA; Klein courtesy of Brookings Institution; Nichols courtesy of ABA; Reilly courtesy of Barclays
Business & Labor
Andrews courtesy of Intel; Bahn by Farrah Skeiky; Bandla courtesy of Virgin Galactic; Bolten by Kevin Allen Photography; Bradley and Clark courtesy of U.S. Chamber Commerce; Buth courtesy of NCAA; Dodge courtesy of RILA; Duvall courtesy of AFBF; Glas by Melissa Robbins/Washington DC Headshots; Harris by Ian Wagreich; Kelley, Lamar, and Swonger by Jeff Elkins; Kelly courtesy of IAFF; Newhouse courtesy of National Association of Manufacturers; Rivkin by Gary Landsman; Rogers courtesy of AHLA; Samuel and Shuler courtesy of AFL-CIO; Stickney by Tejah Robinson; Taylor courtesy of SHRM
Civil Rights & Criminal Justice
Austin by Matt Mendelsohn; Dorothy Brown by Brent Futrell/Georgetown Law; Butler courtesy of Georgetown University; Cashin by Robyn Bishop; Chaney by Jeff Elkins; Cole by Molly Kaplan/ACLU; Johnson by Todd Franson; Katz by Scott Robinson; Pasco by Allison Shelley Photography
Climate & Environment
Friedman courtesy of New York Times; Gold courtesy of Holland/Knight; Walsh by Francis Chung/E&E News
Economic Policy
Clemente by VanRiper; MacGuineas by Kim Goldwein; Neely courtesy of American Council of Life Insurers; Owens by Laura Barisonzi; Rubin by Djenno Bacvic; Seidel by Damon Moritz/Stand Together; Spriggs courtesy of AFL-CIO staff
Education
deLaski courtesy of Education Design Lab; Hess courtesy of AEI; Kahlenberg by Bridget Badore; Pringle courtesy of National Education Association; Rees courtesy of NAPCS; Reeves courtesy of Brookings Institution; Rickard by Jessica Yurink Photography; Slover by Kimberly Goldwein Photography; Stout by Matthew Rakola; Weingarten courtesy of AFT
Energy
Andryszak by Lauren Ackil; Margheri by Scott Henrichsen/scottfoto.com; Matheson courtesy of NRECA; Wolff by Jeff Elkins
Foreign Affairs
Abramowitz by Sabine Gudath; Belcher by Laura Manariti; Brands and Schake courtesy of AEI; Brooks by Jody McKitrick; Donald courtesy of Center for American Progress; Flournoy courtesy of WestExec Advisors; Ignatius by Diana Walker; Keshap courtesy of USIBC; Rogin by Stephen Gosling; Singh by Katharine McKenny/creative director Wildwood; Wechsler courtesy of Atlantic Council
Good Government
Brian by Katie Jett Walls Photography; Liu by Liz Norwood/Norwood Photography; Ornstein courtesy of AEI; Potter by Casey Atkins/Campaign Legal Center; Richie courtesy of FairVote; Scherb by Jeff Elkins; Simon courtesy of Chelsea Bland for AFGE; Stier by Joshua Roberts
Healthcare
Dannenfelser by Victoria Stiles/EWTN; Eyles and Griffin courtesy of AHIP; Gostin courtesy of Georgetown Law; Gottlieb courtesy of AEI; Henry by Eli Turner Photography; Hoagland courtesy of Bipartisan Policy Center; Mitchell by Butch Ramsey; Parkinson courtesy of AHCA/NCAL; Patel courtesy of Brookings Institution; Rios by Patricia De La Rosa/pdelarosa.com; Schaefer courtesy of Heritage Foundation
Immigration
Adams by Timothy Devine Photography; Kelley courtesy of Furman University; Lawrence by PhotoMe Multimedia Productions; Meissner by Louis Tinsley
Infrastructure & Transportation
Adams courtesy of FedEx; Bolen courtesy of National Business Aviation Association; Burgeson and Calio courtesy of Airlines for America; Jefferies courtesy of AAR; Karol courtesy of Caterpillar; Lynch by Morgan Lewis; Vargas by DCEventPhoto
Legal Intelligentsia
Bakaj by Norwood Studio; Goss Graves courtesy of NWLC
National Security & Defense
Aguirre and Chadda courtesy of WestExec Advisors; Ben-Yehuda by Stacey Vaeth; Cordero courtesy of CNAS; De by Mayer Brown; Hoffman by Michael Lionstar; Jones, Kirk, and Lewis courtesy of CSIS; Rodman by Peter Cane; Scharre courtesy of Erin Scott; Talmadge by Claire Harvey
Tech & Telecom
Baker courtesy of CTIA; Bovard by Kama Photography; Branscome by Jen Packard; Fischer by Eli Sinkus; Huseman by Jeff Elkins; Jeffries by Dennis Drenner/Charm City Headshots; Johnson by Elliott O. Donovan; Lowe by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Redux; Manatos by Steven Purcell; Meservey courtesy of Substack; Petricone courtesy of Consumer Technology Association; Quick by Ronald Flores Photography; Quintenz courtesy of Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Rogin and Schruers courtesy of CCIA; Spalter courtesy of Broadband Association; Stegmaier by Reed Smith; Swisher by Philip Montgomery; Verdery by Ian Wagreich
Trade
Fussell courtesy of Holland Knight; Murphy courtesy of U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Perkins by D.A. Peterson; Pillsbury courtesy of Hudson Institute; Wallach courtesy of Rethink Trade | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 41 | https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-country-songs-1234986540/ | en | The 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time | [
"https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=6035310&c4=&cv=3.9&cj=1",
"https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-rollingstone-2022/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://www.rol... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Rolling Stone",
"Rob Sheffield",
"Nick Murray",
"Will Hermes",
"Keith Harris",
"Jon Dolan",
"Maya Georgi",
"Richard Gehr",
"Reed Fischer",
"Jonathan Bernstein"
] | 2024-05-24T13:00:00+00:00 | We rank the greatest the classics, from Hank Williams to Taylor Swift, and more | en | Rolling Stone | https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-country-songs-1234986540/ | WHAT MAKES A great country song? It tells a story. It draws a line. It has a twang you can feel down to the soles of your feet. Some get mad, some get weepy, some just get you down the road. And these are the songs that map out the story of country music — from Hank Williams howling at the moon to Ray Charles giving “hillbilly” music an R&B makeover to Shania Twain taking her karaoke-cowgirl feminism worldwide, and much more.
In 2014, Rolling Stone launched Rolling Stone Country and inaugurated the new site with a list of the 100 Greatest Country Songs. Now, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of RS Country, we’re expanding the list to 200 songs. The new list gave us more room to go deeper into the music’s rich history, including some aspects that didn’t get enough attention the first time around. We’re publishing our updated list at a time when a classic Tracy Chapman folk song can become a country Number One, and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter is shining a light on the legacies of Black country artists like Linda Martell. Nearly a century after artists like the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and DeFord Bailey helped get the story started, the tradition keeps growing. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 14 | https://www.arturia.com/community/artists | en | Arturia | [
"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=537532369685964&ev=PageView&noscript=1",
"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2100981640152117&ev=PageView&noscript=1"
] | [] | [] | [
"wavetable",
"vst",
"virtual",
"tone",
"tae",
"synthesizer",
"synth",
"studio",
"storm",
"stereo",
"sound",
"sonic",
"software",
"softsynth",
"soft",
"sequencer",
"sequence",
"sample",
"reverb",
"prophet",
"preset",
"plug-in",
"pitch",
"phaser",
"param eq",
"pad",
... | null | [] | null | Our Artists community Arturia has always had a strong connection to artists, so we've decided to show what goes on behind the scenes. Check what world... | en | https://www.arturia.com/community/artists | Our Artists community
Arturia has always had a strong connection to artists, so we've decided to show what goes on behind the scenes. Check what world renown musicians and producers have to say about their favorite Arturia products and how they use them. | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 16 | https://thebluemoment.com/2013/08/ | en | thebluemoment.com | [
"https://thebluemoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/joe-locke.jpg?w=255&h=407",
"https://thebluemoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/wadada-leo-smith.jpg?w=340&h=527",
"https://thebluemoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/odeon-nottingham.jpg?w=285&h=491",
"https://thebluemoment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | 10 posts published by Richard Williams during August 2013 | en | https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico | thebluemoment.com | null | A voice to remember
Maybe you’ve heard the sad news that Linda Ronstadt will never sing again. She announced it a week or so ago, letting the world know that Parkinson’s disease has taken her voice. Today I read an interview with her, in the International Herald Tribune, in which she tells Sam Tanenhaus about her illness and the other problems that have dogged her life in recent years.
Things were pretty different when I interviewed her for the Melody Maker in January 1971. She’d had her first hit with the Stone Poneys’ great “Different Drum”, she was already making solo albums for Capitol Records (Hand Sown… Home Grown and Silk Purse), and she was starting to move in the right kind of circles. But she was still a few years away from the superstardom that arrived when Peter Asher took control for the run of hit albums that began with Heart Like a Wheel.
She was smart, funny, serious about serious things, and completely beguiling. She told me how she’d made the move from her home in Tucson, Arizona in 1965, when she was 18, after a friend called from Los Angeles, saying there was a band out there for her to sing with. “I jumped into a car with my boyfriend, who played steel guitar, and we drove straight there. I think the boy went straight back. I never saw him again.”
A free spirit, then and always, but she was fretful about one thing. “I’ve had trouble finding material,” she said. “I don’t write. I’ve never been able to write even a paragraph. And I can’t do songs that have been done well by the people who wrote them.”
That changed, with Asher’s help. She turned out to be a wonderful reinterpreter of the very finest material. I didn’t really follow her through the years in which she collaborated with Nelson Riddle on albums of standards and then delved back into her Mexican roots, but I loved the recordings she made with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. The YouTube clip above is of an exquisite song from their second album, Trio 2, called “High Sierra”. It features Linda. She composed it, too. So she could write a paragraph, after all.
Joe Locke’s respite music
Joe Locke says his new album, Lay Down My Heart, is intended “to provide respite for folks who work hard every day and need an opportunity to slow down and be reacquainted with that certain something which eludes most of us in the midst of the whirlwind which is modern life”. We can all do with some of that from time to time.
After Bobby Hutcherson, who performs less frequently nowadays, Locke has a plausible claim to being thought of as the leading contemporary exponent of the vibraphone. In a recent post I wrote of being impressed by his playing on Centennial, Ryan Truesdell’s album of rediscovered Gil Evans arrangements, and by his solo on “The Barbara Song” in particular, and I was sorry to miss him in London recently, when he performed with the orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music. This new recording provides a clear sight of the 54-year-old Californian’s maturity and inventiveness.
It’s a quartet album, and although you probably wouldn’t be able to pick the pianist Ryan Cohan, the bassist David Finch and the drummer Jaimeo Brown out in an identity parade, that doesn’t always matter: their playing here is perfectly attuned to the leader’s conception, and sometimes, even in jazz, you don’t need to be original to sound sparklingly fresh.
The programme starts with a measured version of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” that sounds like the sort of intelligently soulful jazz that might result if you could get Milt Jackson guesting with the old Ramsey Lewis Trio. But it’s the ballads that are the core of the album, particularly a lovely treatment of “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, a definition of heartbreak from the repertoire of Bonnie Raitt; a reading of Bobby Troup’s “The Meaning of the Blues” that carries only the faintest echoes of the versions Gil Evans devised for Miles Davis’s trumpet (on Miles Ahead) and George Adams’s tenor saxophone (on There Comes a Time); and the slinkiest version of “Makin’ Whoopee” since Dr John and Rickie Lee Jones gave it a whirl a few years back.
I’m going to file this one next to Hutcherson’s Happenings, a 1967 album on Blue Note with a similar quartet format, featuring Herbie Hancock, Bob Cranshaw and Joe Chambers, ready for use on Sunday mornings and in times of stress. It’s not an album to challenge the listener (although a version of Frank Foster’s “Simone” has the darker, more convoluted intensity of some of Hutcherson’s other Blue Note quartet work — on Andrew Hill’s Judgment, say, or his own Oblique). On its own terms, however, it is perfectly satisfying. And, as promised, good for whatever ails you.
* The photograph of Joe Locke was taken by Joseph Boggess and comes from the sleeve of Lay Down My Heart, which is released on the Motema label.
Ten Freedom Summers / 1
Fifty years ago, a wholehearted embrace of American culture made even those of us 3,000 miles away feel we had a stake in the country’s destiny. So although we may have been neither American, nor black, nor even socially or economically disadvantaged, the March on Washington — which took place on August 28, 1963 — in some way felt as though it involved us, too, even if all we could do was cheer from the sidelines.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington DC this weekend to mark the anniversary. What I’ve been doing is reading my sometime colleague Gary Younge’s fine new book The Speech, which describes the process by which the Rev Martin Luther King came to write his “I Have a Dream” address, and listening to Ten Freedom Summers, a suite by the trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith. If you don’t already know the latter, this is a set of four CDs containing four and a half hours of music divided into 19 individual movements based on themes from the civil rights struggle, performed by Smith’s quartet/quintet and a nine-piece chamber ensemble. Recorded over a three-day period in November 2011 and released last year on the Cuneiform label, it was one of three finalists for this year’s Pulitzer Prize.
The titles of the individual pieces are sometimes suggestive — “Black Church”, “Democracy” — but usually more explicit in their references. “Dred Scott: 1857” is the first movement, referring to the Missouri slave who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom in that year. “Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott: 381 Days” is another. There are references in other titles to Medgar Evers and Emmett Till, to JFK and LBJ, to the Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall and to Malik Al Shabazz, better known as Malcolm X.
Unlike some of the music that accompanied the civil rights struggle, from John Coltrane’s miniature masterpiece titled “Alabama” (a threnody for the four black schoolgirls killed in the Birmingham church bombing in September 1963, barely a fortnight after the March on Washington) to Bob Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”, there is nothing in Smith’s work here that explicitly evokes his subject, no overt gestures that would indicate a relationship to his chosen titles. This does nothing to diminish its extraordinary power.
Smith, who was born 71 years ago in Leland, Mississippi, first came to notice at the end of the ’60s, as a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in Chicago, along with Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams and others. His bands included the Creative Construction Company, with Braxton and the violinist Leroy Jenkins, and New Dalta Ahkri, whose personnel included Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake and Anthony Davis. Along with other members of the AACM, he spent time in Paris in 1969 and became acquainted with the new generation of European free jazz musicians. His many recordings have appeared on the Kabell, Nessa, ECM, Leo and Tzadzik labels, as well as Cuneiform.
As a trumpeter, he had his own character from the beginning. If you wanted a shorthand description, I suppose you could say that he occupies the space between Don Cherry and Lester Bowie. But the originality and substance of his playing are more than enough to command the attention all the way through this mammoth undertaking, in which his is necessarily the dominant voice. I’ve always liked his tone, open or muted, and the crisp assertiveness of his phrasing, and the sense of poise he conveys.
The long-standing nature of his partnership with the pianist Anthony Davis, who appears here, is evident in the closeness of their dialogues. Like Smith, Davis is a quietly original musician who, in his own compositions as well as his playing here, demonstrates complete comfort with the idea of bringing together elements from African American and European musical practices. The basic group is completed by John Lindberg, an exceptional bassist, and two drummers, Susie Ibarra and Pheeroan Ak Laff, who alternate on some pieces and play together on others.
Sometimes Smith employs gestures immediately identifiable as drawn from jazz: “Thurgood Marshall and Brown vs Board of Education” finds Lindberg anchoring the piece with a slow-grooving funky bass figure, while the interplay between Davis and Ibarra on “The Little Rock Nine” is outstanding. Elsewhere the climate resembles that of classical chamber music: passages for flute, harp and strings in “Medgar Evers: A Love Voice of a Thousand Years’ Journey for Liberty and Justice” have a watercolour delicacy that reminds me of Toru Takemitsu. But more often it seems, to employ Duke Ellington’s phrase, beyond category. The chamber group — basically a string quartet plus harp, clarinet, flute, percussion and an extra violin — appears both by itself and with the quartet/quintet. So organic and unselfconscious is Smith’s writing that the frontier between the two groups disappears, as does the line between composition and improvisation.
The prevailing mood, not surprisingly, is soberly reflective. Even so many years after the events Smith is commemorating, there is much to reflect on. This is not a bruising experience; the writing and playing are characterised by a sustained lyricism. Nevertheless few will want to absorb all four and a half hours in at one sitting, and it may a take listener years to become as familiar with these individual pieces as with the much shorter jazz classics of earlier eras. But that doesn’t seem to matter. Smith’s work exists on its own terms, a marvellous tribute to its immense subject.
* The photograph of Wadada Leo Smith was taken by Steve Gunther and is from the booklet accompanying Ten Freedom Summers. Gary Younge’s The Speech is published by Guardian Books.
Where the Stones were fourth on the bill
If you look carefully at the top of the building in the photograph, you’ll see the faintest shadow of the long-gone neon sign that read ODEON. I took the picture on a rainy day a couple of winters ago, while passing through Nottingham, my old home town. How many of the hundreds of people walking along this pavement every day know that it was here, in this cinema on Angel Row, a hundred yards or so up from the Old Market Square, that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones played, in 1963 and ’64? And now it’s finally vanished. The demolition crew have done their job and the construction workers are in, filling the space with a building apparently intended to provide housing for students.
Buddy Holly played the Odeon in 1958: three shows on the night of March 8, during his only UK tour. I missed that one, being only 10 at the time (although I’d already saved up to buy the Crickets’ “That’ll Be the Day” on 78), but three years later I saw Cliff Richard and the Shadows, just after Brian Bennett took over from Tony Meehan on drums — a source of some regret, since Meehan was my first drumming hero. The screaming meant that not much could be heard. But at least Hank Marvin gave me my first sight of a Fender Stratocaster in action, and they were still doing the famous Shadows walk, much copied by we schoolboys in front of bedroom mirrors.
OK, I’ll own up: I missed the Beatles there — three times, on the first occasion with Roy Orbison — and the Stones. Absence of cash, I expect. I wouldn’t have been able to hear them above the hysteria anyway, although I’ve always kicked myself for not making it to the Stones’ show in October 1963, since it also featured the Everly Brothers, Little Richard and Bo Diddley, all of them above the Stones on the bill when the tour started. My friend Phil Long remembers Little Richard’s set: “One of the best I’ve ever seen. He jumped off the stage, ran all the way round the theatre, then got back on the stage and started taking his clothes off and throwing them to the audience… there was a riot.”
The most memorable concert I did manage to attend at the Odeon was on May 12, 1964, the fourth date of a 22-night package tour headlined by Chuck Berry, with support from Carl Perkins, the Animals, the Nashville Teens and King Size Taylor and the Dominos. It was great merely to see Chuck, who provided so many of us with the inspiration for our own bands, but he gave a pretty uninterested performance. He was accompanied by King Size Taylor’s excellent band, and I seem to remember that about half the set consisted of throwaway instrumentals; has any great songwriter ever taken a less obvious pride in his achievements? But it was enough to hear those guitar intros ringing out, and to witness his perfunctory demonstration of the duck walk.
Carl Perkins was not exactly spectacular, either, in his very short set. And so, curiously, the musical highlights were provided by two English bands. The Animals, of course, were excellent. “Baby Let Me Take You Home”, copied from “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” on Bob Dylan’s first album, was nudging the Top 20, and their act still had the R&B edge honed in Newcastle’s Club A Go-Go. But they also played their epic four and a half minute version of another song from Dylan’s debut: “House of the Rising Sun”. It hadn’t yet been released, or heard on the radio, and its arrangement — featuring Hilton Valentine’s arpeggiated guitar, Alan Price’s wailing Vox Continental organ and Eric Burdon’s baleful vocal — was nothing short of stunning. Five weeks later it would enter the charts, on its way to No 1.
It was the same with the Nashville Teens, whose set included John D Loudermilk’s “Tobacco Road”: another dramatic song, its structure and mood inspired by the compositions Willie Dixon provided for Muddy Waters and other blues stars. The group, from the Surrey stockbroker belt, did an enthusiastic job of impersonating the sound of the Chicago stockyards, and by July they were on their way to the UK Top 10. By August “The House of the Rising Sun” was on its way to No 1 in Billboard‘s Hot 100, while “Tobacco Road” topped out at No 14 in the US a month later. Heard for the first time in live performance, both made an immediate impression.
And now the Odeon has disappeared. I suppose it’s not exactly like losing the Cavern or the Marquee. But it would be nice, when they finished its replacement, if someone thought it worth putting up a plaque to remind passers-by of former glories. Buddy Holly, The Beatles. The Rolling Stones. The Everly Brothers. Little Richard. Bo Diddley. Chuck Berry. Not bad, eh?
A weekend with Booker T
It was a warm evening, and the air conditioning had packed up. An hour before midnight last Friday, Ronnie Scott’s Club was like a sauna. “That’s when it started to feel authentic,” Booker T Jones would say later. “Just like the places I used to play.” But the air-con failure wasn’t the only good omen.
When there’s a Hammond organ in the house, the best place to be is as close as possible to one of its Leslie speakers — those pieces of wooden furniture, the size and shape of a small refrigerator, containing rotating horns which, at the flick of a switch, provide the instrument with its distinctive and heart-stirring whirr and churn.
It’s a lesson I learnt during my teenage years, when the clubs were small and the stages were low and you could get up close to the likes of Georgie Fame, Graham Bond and Zoot Money. So I was extremely pleased when the maitre d’ at Ronnie’s led me to a seat at the side of the stage, a few feet away from one of the two Leslies hooked up to Booker T’s B3. What would normally have been a rather indifferent vantage point suddenly seemed like the best spot in the house.
Booker T Jones is one of my all-time heroes. Like many, I remember the thrill of hearing “Green Onions” for the first time; its special magic has never faded. And its B-side, a sinuous slow blues titled “Behave Yourself” (originally intended as the A-side), hinted at other dimensions of musicianship. As the years passed I discovered that every note he recorded was worth hearing. All the original MGs’ Stax albums, from Green Onions in 1962 to Melting Pot in 1971, contained something wonderful — and I’m very fond of the two reunions that followed Al Jackson Jr’s tragic death, Universal Language (Asylum, 1977) and That’s the Way It Should Be (Columbia, 1994), with Willie Hall, Steve Jordan and James Gadson replacing the peerless Jackson at the drums. Booker went on to prove, with Bill Withers’ Just As I Am in 1971, Willie Nelson’s Stardust in 1978 and the Blind Boys of Alabama’s Deep River in 1992, that he is a producer of marvellous sensitivity. He remained a wonderfully sympathetic sideman, too: for the proof of that, just listen to “Sierra”, a gorgeous song from Boz Scaggs’s 1994 album, Some Change.
So he’s someone I always look forward to seeing, and on Friday — at the second of four nights (and eight shows) on Frith Street — he delivered a 75-minute set that ranged through his entire history, from that imperishable first hit (recorded when he was a 17-year-old high school student) and the MGs’ great “Hip Hug Her” through Stax/Volt favourites like “I’ve Been Lovin’ You Too Long”, “Born Under a Bad Sign” and “Hold On, I’m Comin'” to pieces from his recent albums: “Hey Ya” from Potato Hole, “Walking Papers” and “Everything is Everything” from The Road From Memphis, and “Fun”, “Feel Good ” and “66 Impala” from the new one, Sound the Alarm. His three-piece band, recruited from the Bay Area, supplied plenty of energy and all the right licks. He sang a bit, in a range-limited voice, and played guitar on a few of the tunes. But when he let the Hammond and the Leslies rip on an encore of “Time is Tight”, the speaker horns spinning faster inside those plywood cabinets, I was somewhere close to heaven.
On Saturday afternoon he returned to the club for a question-and-answer session in front of an audience, showing himself to be a thoughtful and genial man. Sitting at the Hammond, he played snatches of “Green Onions” and “Ain’t No Sunshine”, and just a handful of bars from each was enough to send a thrill through his listeners. Among the things we were told was that Ray Charles’s “One Mint Julep” was the record which led him to conclude that the electric organ would shape his destiny. And there was an interesting answer to a question from my friend Martin Colyer (check his blog: http://www.fivethingsseenandheard.com), who wanted to know how he had come to play bass guitar on Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” in 1973. As part of his explanation, Booker told us that he had first been recognised in the Memphis music community through playing bass in the house band at the Flamingo Room on Beale Street, and at that stage — despite his proficiency on keyboards, oboe, clarinet, baritone saxophone and trombone — it was as a bass player that he originally expected to make his career.
Four years ago, when the magnificent Potato Hole came out, I interviewed Booker for the Guardian (it’s here, accompanied by Eamonn McCabe’s fine photograph, taken the same day). Meeting your heroes for the first time is always a perilous business, but I came away from the encounter feeling I now admired the man as much as the musician.
Some bits of the interview didn’t make it into the paper, for reasons of space, so here, for the first time, are his remarks on a couple of topics. First, I asked him whether, as a teenage musician with an inquiring mind in the clubs of Memphis, he’d been familiar with the generation of gifted local modern jazz players that had included the saxophonists Frank Strozier and George Coleman, the trumpeter Booker Little and the pianist Harold Mabern. His answer was unexpectedly illuminating.
“I did,” he said. “They were two or three years ahead of me. Same town, same neighbourhood. I knew who they were. We went through the same doors. But I reached a day, one day, I don’t remember exactly when it was, that I had to ask myself, ‘Can I do this? Will I, in my lifetime, be able not only to play the music but live the lifestyle? Is that who I am?’ I realised, no, it’s not who I am. That’s who Jimmy Smith is, or John Coltrane. I don’t have the resolve, I don’t have the discipline. But even if I did, is that me? No, because I also like to play piano and guitar and trombone and I like to arrange and I also like country music and classical music — so I’m somebody else. I’m not that. And I stopped the pursuit at an early age.
“It broke up some friendships that I had, but I knew it was the right thing for me to do. A very close friend said to me, ‘What are you doing, man? How can you go over to Stax and play that stuff? Is it the money?’ If I’d been hanging out with a Sonny Stitt, that’s what he would have said to me. It was like a club, almost. I talked to Herbie Hancock about it, and to the bass player Stanley Clarke, and I know I couldn’t have done it. I’d have been able to get the technical chops, with practice, but I couldn’t have lived the lifestyle.”
So instead of another Memphis bebopper, we got a man capable of creating something like the arrangement of Willie Nelson’s “Georgia On My Mind”, its wonderful simplicity capped by a coda in which the rhythm and strings are joined by a horn section, vamping gently through the fade-out. He was delighted when I mentioned it as a special favourite.
“I’m so glad you said that,” he responded, “because it took so much time and money to put that on, but I could not get away from the inclination to do that. We went through the whole song with just the band and some strings, but at the very end I just needed to do that. It was expensive — a full complement of horns, and I don’t think we did any other songs at the session. It was an indulgence. At the time it wasn’t a big-selling record. It was a little bit of a struggle and I really appreciate that you like it.”
Even when he adds a horn section to the budget, however, the idea of excess is completely alien to Booker T’s temperament. He is a musician whose presence guarantees a measure of restraint and economy, the hallmarks of all those wonderful MGs records. “I don’t think it could have been any four guys,” he said of the band with whose name his own will be forever linked. “The one thing we had in common was a commitment to making the music simple and funky. It never got so complicated that it was inaccessible to most people. Not to say that complex music isn’t accessible or beautiful, but one way to access beauty is through simplicity.”
On the way out of Ronnie Scott’s on Friday night I bumped into Bryan Ferry, who was with three of his four sons and their girlfriends. He had taken them to listen to a musician he himself had first seen on the legendary Stax/Volt tour in 1967. Now that’s my idea of good parenting.
Lee Konitz: the improviser at 85
No musician interrogates a song more thoroughly than the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz: separating its components, wiping off the accumulated dirt and scraping away the rust, holding the bits up to the light, examining them from all angles, and then reassembling them in a more interesting form. He was doing it in 1947, when he made his first recordings with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, aged 20. He is still doing today, halfway through his ninth decade.
He’s featured on a new CD, Costumes Are Mandatory, released on the HighNote label and recorded in August 2012 with a quartet under the leadership of the pianist Ethan Iverson, noted for his work with the trio The Bad Plus. The bassist Larry Grenadier and the drummer Jorge Rossy complete the group. Together with two other albums released in the past couple of years, Live at Birdland (ECM), recorded in December 2009 with Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, and Enfants Terribles (Half Note), made in June 2011 with Bill Frisell, Gary Peacock and Joey Baron, it provides a view of a great artist in his final years, his work subject to the changes imposed by time and the ageing process.
The late work of a long-lived great artist is always interesting and can provide a fascinating distillation of his or her career-long preoccupations. Sometimes the reduced powers are physical, sometimes they are mental. The painter Willem De Kooning was suffering from a form of Alzheimer’s disease when, in his eighties, he produced a series of strange, pale, almost luminous canvases that seemed like the ghosts of his former work. Fortunately, any reduction in Konitz’s powers is purely physical; the articulation might not be as swift, but the intellect is as sharp as ever.
No longer the fleet-footed musical athlete of his youth, when he and his fellow saxophonist Warne Marsh leapt with such alacrity over the high hurdles set for them by their mentor, the pianist Lennie Tristano, now Konitz deploys his reduced powers to different ends. The last of his strength is being spent on searching his material — almost always drawn from the standard American songbook — for new connections, new angles, new avenues of approach.
My best memory of Konitz is also one of my best memories of music, full stop. It comes from about 30 years ago, and a night at a short-lived jazz club called the Canteen on Great Queen Street in Covent Garden, occupying premises that had formerly been Blitz, the headquarters of the New Romantic movement, would later become a discotheque and now house a lap-dancing club. The Canteen, although ultimately unsuccessful in its attempt to rival Ronnie Scott’s, was for a while a very good place to hear such people as Esther Phillips, Chet Baker and Lee Konitz.
On the night in question Konitz was accompanied by an excellent British rhythm section: the pianist (and composer) Bob Cornford, the young bassist Paul Morgan and the experienced drummer Trevor Tompkins. What I remember most vividly is that one complete set was taken up by a treatment of “On Green Dolphin Street”, the Hollywood film theme composed by Bronislau Kaper in 1947 and rescued just under a decade later by Ahmad Jamal, who was responsible for its subsequent popularity among jazz musicians. Konitz started out by improvising unfamiliar and seemingly arbitrary phrases, inviting the other three musicians to go along with him as he gradually allowed these shreds of melody to take new forms, uncovered the connective tissue between them. This mesmerising process reached its apogee when, after much feinting and seeming disgression, Kaper’s theme gradually began to emerge and was stated for the first time as the piece ended. It was like watching a film of an explosion being run backwards in super slow motion.
He does something similar, at a more compressed and less exalted level, on the version of “What’s New” included in Costumes Are Mandatory, allowing Iverson to lead the way, before entering with a phrase from the theme which is quickly deformed into a series of glancing allusions to the original tune, inventing their own sense as they go along. This is something that used to be called “thematic improvisation”, and it is almost a lost art. His distinctive tone — which once proposed an alternative to the all-pervasive influence of Charlie Parker — may be more fibrous and less robust than in his youth or his prime, and the comparison with Live at Birdland and Enfants Terribles indicates that time is having an inevitable effect, but it remains the perfect vehicle for his thoughts.
Konitz, of course, was a member of Miles Davis’s famous 1948 nonet, the Birth of the Cool band, and another personal memory of his playing comes from 1991, when he appeared at London’s South Bank with a band billed as Re-Birth of the Cool, an attempt by another original member, Gerry Mulligan, to recreate those celebrated sessions. Lew Soloff played Davis’s parts, and the other original present was Bill Barber, the tuba-player. For me, the outstanding impression was left by the way Konitz approached the project: he was the only one not interested in honouring the past by recreating it note-for-note but was intent on playing as though more than 40 years had passed and the world had moved on.
Working as a soloist for hire suits him because it presents him with a constant variety of challenges. That is how he has operated throughout his career, which has never been short of recorded documentation, from those early sides with Thornhill, Davis, Tristano and Stan Kenton through his own albums on Atlantic and Verve, his fascinating and fearless encounters with Martial Solal, Elvin Jones, Albert Mangelsdorff, Kenny Wheeler and countless others, to this most recent crop of albums. As a body of work, it offers not just a vast quantity of great music but a salutary lesson in the value of living in the present.
* The photograph of Konitz at the top is a detail from the cover of the 1955 Atlantic album Lee Konitz with Warne Marsh, taken by William Claxton. The lower photograph is a detail from the cover of Costumes Are Mandatory, taken by John Rogers. For those who want to know more, I thoroughly recommend Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser’s Art by Andy Hamilton, published by the University of Michigan Press in 2007.
“Thanks for the song, Mr Knight…”
Those are the words spoken by Leonard Cohen over the final notes of one of the tracks on his 1992 album, The Future, and they came to mind when I read something Sharon Robinson, Cohen’s songwriting and singing partner for the past three and a half decades, said during the course of an interview in last Saturday’s FT magazine.
The interviewer, Philippe Sands, reminded Robinson that she had joined Cohen’s band in 1979 “as a classically trained pianist (having studied at the California Institute of the Arts) with a serious interest in R&B and soul, the likes of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding”.
Her response was interesting. “He likes to bring that flavour into some of his music,” she said.
It reminded me of a track from The Future, one that has always been among my favourite Cohen recordings: a cover version of Frederick Knight’s “Be For Real”, a glorious, gospel-drenched deep soul ballad delivered with a very proper sense of how to treat such material: i.e. with the utmost respect.
Cohen doesn’t do many cover versions, and he knew that you don’t mess with a song like “Be For Real”. He used a great Los Angeles rhythm section — Greg Phillinganes on keys, Paul Jackson Jr on guitar, Freddie Washington on bass guitar, James Gadson on drums and Lennie Castro on percussion — and a warm but never overbearing arrangement for backing voices and strings by David Campbell. Everything about it, including the dead-slow tempo, serves the quality of the song.
It had been recorded once before, by Marlena Shaw in 1976 on a Blue Note album called Just a Matter of Time. Produced by Bert DeCoteaux and Tony Silvester, Shaw’s version is pretty good, although she twists the melody more than necessary in her efforts to be expressive. In 1996, unaccountably, it was absolutely murdered by the Afghan Whigs as part of the soundtrack to Ted Demme’s Beautiful Girls, otherwise one of my favourite films. (It’s here, but I wouldn’t listen to it if I were you.) This is a song that is best left to sing itself, as I discovered when I heard Knight’s original demo a few years ago.
The composer’s version is hidden away on a four-CD compilation, not for sale to the general public, called East Memphis Music: The Hits, compiled and circulated inside the business in 1988 by the Stax publishing company’s then licensees, Irving Music and Rondor Music. Almost all of the 80 tracks are the well known versions of the songs from which the publishers were trying to extract additional life: Carla Thomas’s “B-A-B-Y”, Otis’s “Dock of the Day”, Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming”, the Staple Singers “Respect Yourself”, and so on. Frederick Knight’s “Be For Real” is the exception that, from my point of view, makes the whole exercise worthwhile.
You might remember Knight from his days as a Stax artist, a period which yielded his big hit with “I’ve Been Lonely For So Long” in 1972 and the not quite as successful “I Betcha Didn’t Know That” three years later. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944, and after Stax fell apart his only real claim to fame came when he wrote “Ring My Bell” for Anita Ward in 1979, at the height of the disco boom.
His version of “Be For Real” is clearly a demo, and that’s part of its charm. A piano that hasn’t been tuned lately, a Hammond B3 dialled into a deep church setting, a bass guitar, a drummer who seems to have left everything except his basic snare and kick drum combo at home, and falsetto backing vocals that could well be Knight himself overdubbed a handful of times, every voice and instrument performing — and recorded — with the maximum of restraint and no tricks: that’s all it takes to render the classic version of this glorious, timeless song.
I’m sorry I can’t give a link to it. As far as I know (and I hope someone will pop up to prove me wrong), it has never been commercially available. It’s not on either of the two Knight albums that go for exotic prices on Amazon. But there’s a copy of East Memphis Music: The Hits for sale here at http://www.discogs.com at what seems to me to be a reasonable price; if I were you, I wouldn’t hesitate, even if the package as a whole contains dozens of tracks you already possess. And if anyone reading this is in a position to put forward material for Aretha Franklin’s next album, then her version, appropriately produced, is the only one I can think of that might live on equal terms with the original.
A staircase on 86th St
Ray Barretto’s “El Watusi” was one of my favourite 45s of 1963, a sudden blast of exoticism amid the green shoots of Mersey Beat and New Wave R&B (as the emergent soul music was briefly known). Hispanic voices harangued each other over a basic Latin piano vamp and strategic handclaps. Eventually the rest of the band joined in: riffing violins, jaunty flute, the scrape of a guiro, a rattle of timbales and, of course, Barretto’s congas. There was no song, no lead vocal. The record faded out with the music stripped back again to piano and handclaps and the verbal exchanges still in full spate. I hadn’t a clue what the voices were saying, but it didn’t matter. To a 16-year-old in England it represented a slice of Spanish Harlem street life, two and a half minutes of riveting authenticity.
It was released in the UK on the Columbia label, EMI having picked up the rights via a deal with Roulette, on whose Tico imprint it was issued in the US, and it became an enduring Mod favourite. Roulette was Morris Levy’s company, and Tico was run by George Goldner. Both men were notorious for their connections, but between them they were responsible for a fair proportion of the great pop music that came out of New York in the pre-Beatles era. Teddy Reig, who had produced Charlie Parker’s Savoy sessions for the equally notorious Herman Lubinsky and Count Basie for Roulette, got the producer’s credit for “El Watusi”, which was recorded in October 1962 in the ballroom of New York’s Riverside Plaza Hotel, a very ornate bulding on West 73rd Street which had originally been a Masonic club. Now the record has been very nicely reissued by the Malanga label on a CD coupling two LPs by Ray Barretto y su Orquesta: Charanga Moderna and La Moderna de Siempre, both recorded in the same year and at the same venue.
This gives me an excuse to write about the first time I saw Barretto in person, at a club called the Corso at 205 East 86th Street, off the corner of 3rd Avenue, half a dozen blocks below East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or El Barrio. From 1970 to 1985, a period encompassing the start and the flowering of the salsa era, the Corso was perhaps New York’s principal rendezvous for lovers of Latin music, as the Palladium had been in the 1960s. Its owner, a restaurateur and club owner named Tony Raimone, had bought it in 1968 and was soon persuaded by Pete Bonet, one of Barretto’s singers (and one of the voices on “El Watusi”), to institute a musical policy appealing to the city’s Cuban and Puerto Rican expatriates.
It was a great success. By the time I got there in 1974 the club — up a steep flight of steps, above a restaurant — was featuring three bands nightly, five nights a week, and was packed with dancers from the Latin community, the sort of people who hadn’t needed to take lessons in order to dance to a clave rhythm.
I was in New York on assignment from Island Records’ Chris Blackwell, who had made a deal with Jerry Masucci of Fania Records, the hot new salsa label. Blackwell wanted me to scope out the possibilities for UK releases and tours. I was there for a week, and just about every night I ended up at the Corso, leaning against the long bar at the back of the dance floor and absorbing some wonderful music while marvelling at the fluency and inventiveness of the dancers, young and old. Among the bands I saw there were that of the young pianist Larry Harlow and two excellent charanga outfits, Tipica ’73 and Tipica Ideal. Among the clearest memories is that of one of the speciality acts who performed between the sets: a tall, lithe woman wearing a top-to-toe catsuit in black lace who performed sinuous dance routines in partnership with what I think was a boa constrictor, at least 10ft long. I’m not sure you’d be able to find that sort of entertainment very easily now.
Good times at the Corso came to an end in the spring of 1985, the night the NYPD completed a sting and nabbed Tony Raimone, along with his son and his nephew. Over the preceding months an undercover agent had been buying heroin from them — about $5m of the stuff at street prices — in transactions made at another of Raimone’s establishments, further along 86th St. The final deal took place in the restaurant downstairs from the Corso. The cops pounced, and that was that. The dancers had to find another home.
I kept the handbill above as a souvenir of a wonderful experience, one we came close to replicating in West London the following year when Hector Lavoe and his brilliant orchestra played a one-off gig at the old Nashville Rooms on North End Road, with the marvellous Professor Jose Torres on piano. It was a sensational night, and a few months later Ray Barretto himself arrived with Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco and the rest of the Fania All Stars to play at the Lyceum, a much bigger gig, with Steve Winwood as a special guest.
It would be another 10 years before salsa found its place in UK dance culture. But if you’re browsing a second-hand vinyl store and you see a copy of one of the compilations I put together for Island’s budget-price HELP label at that time, Salsa! and Salsa Live!, don’t hesitate: just snap it up. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 34 | https://www.nicholsschool.org/alumni/in-memoriam | en | Nichols School | [
"https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/1425/logo/master-logo-white.png",
"https://bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/1425/photo/orig_photo1012988_6796807.png",
"https://www.nicholsschool.org/ftpimages/1425/link/large_link1584476_159978.jpg",
"https://www.nicholsschool.org/ftpimages/1425/link/large_link158430... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"John Hickey",
"Buffalo News"
] | null | Nichols School lists names of community members who pass on this page and
in the alumni magazine Toaxnoes. | en | //bbk12e1-cdn.myschoolcdn.com/ftpimages/1425/site/1501/favicon/Black-Baud-Favicon.ico | https://www.nicholsschool.org/alumni/in-memoriam | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 61 | http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/artists/monkees.html | en | Seasons In Your Mind: The Monkees | http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/favicon.ico | http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/favicon.ico | [
"http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/images/pagetop.jpg",
"http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/images/rule-grey(header).jpg",
"http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/images/offsite.png",
"http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/images/offsite.png",
"http://www.seasonsinyourmind.com/singles/45spot.jpg",
"http://www.seasonsin... | [] | [] | [
"Monkees",
"Michael Nesmith",
"Beatles",
"Rolling Stones",
"Joan Baez",
"Grateful Dead",
"Velvet Underground",
"Fillmore East",
"Carnegie Hall",
"Woodstock",
"Monterey",
"WABC",
"Ed Sullivan",
""
] | null | [] | null | General rock/folk music reference 1965-1971, including events, concerts, festivals, movies, radio, and tv all based on seasons of the year. Discover more. | ../favicon.ico | null | Did They Or Didn't They? Ever since the Pre-Fab Four made their debut on TV, cries were heard "they aren't even musicians—all fake." Well, that was BS. Mike was a guitarist and songwriter—had several singles prior to joining. Peter was a journeyman folkie in NYC. Davy was a stage singer in England. And Mickey could sing and picked up the drums pretty quickly. They all hung out in Laurel Canyon with Stills, Mitchell, and others. It is true that the powers at Colgems wouldn't let them play on the first album. The Boyce & Hart penned songs were performed by The Candy Store Prophets, whilst the others featured studio cats like Burton, Campbell, Taylor, and Blaine. The second album, released without their knowledge, included recordings left over from the debut. Peter did get to play on the album. Don Kirshner, the "creative genius" behind the group was fired. By the third album, they were playing their own instruments (with some studio assistance). On the 4th album, they also relied on studio cats to fill out the sound. By the end—with only two Monkees left—they just sang and let studio musicians do the rest. If you want to know exactly who played what on what and where, click the Wiki link at the bottom. The info comes direct from the remastered CDs. Those CDs contain a lot of previously unreleased tracks featuring the guys playin' and singin' for yer enjoyment. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 36 | https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/tag/travels/ | en | Not a Blog | http://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IMG_5353-e1573950945310-768x1024.jpg | [
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/themes/dark-shop-lite/images/facebook.png",
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/themes/dark-shop-lite/images/twitter.png",
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/wp-content/themes/dark-shop-lite/images/westeros.png",
"https://georgerrmartin.com/notablo... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | en | null | Another Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year looms just ahead. Where the hell does all the time go?
I did take a few days off for the holidays, I confess. Shame on me, I guess. But now I am back in the salt mine, working… working on so many bloody things, my head may soon explode. Yes, WINDS OF WINTER, yes, yes. And HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, season two. And several of the other successor shows that we’re developing with HBO. (Some of those are moving faster than others, as is always the case with development. None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon. A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf. All the changes at HBO Max have impacted us, certainly). We are also still developing the Wild Cards tv series for Peacock, based (largely) on FORT FREAK. And I have Wild Cards books to edit. Oh, and did I forget WINDS OF WINTER? No, of course I didn’t. But if I ever did, I know you folks will remind me.
There’s also the railroad, the bookstore, and the theatre. Thankfully, I have great people doing most of the work on those.
I was on the road, in New York City and Chicago, from late October through the middle of November, promoting the new illustrated book, RISE OF THE DRAGON. I was doing a series of blog posts about the trip, you will recall. The interview with David Anthony Durham, the visit to Kevin Smith’s theatre in Jersey, my appearance on the Colbert Show. You can find links to all of those down below.
I wasn’t FINISHED, though. I also did a talk with Neil Gaiman at the Symphony Space in NYC. I cannot link to that one, alas. There were reporters present, however, and there have been a number of stories online about our discussion about adaptations… a subject we both have strong opinions on. Neil and I talked about a lot of things as well. It was a fun event. I had dinners with Vincent d’Onofrio and Joe Tracz and my friends at Tor/ Macmillan and Random House/ Bantam as well, and saw a few Broadway shows (DEATH OF A SALESMAN, THE MUSIC MAN, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and SIX, fyi). Then I flew off to Chicago for a presentation at Northwestern… which DOES deserve its own post, so I will try to get to that soon.
Since I do not travel with a computer, I returned home to 2000 emails. Took me a while to catch up, even though 1500 of them were spam.
I taped all the games the Jets and Giants played while I was on the road, and tried to avoid hearing the scores (not entirely successfully). Turns out both teams did pretty well while I was travelling (and not watching). Since I have been back, however… well, this past week the G-Men lost a heartbreaker to the Vikings, and the Jets failed to turn up for their game against the Jags. (Please, Mike White, get well soon). Life is meaningless and full of pain. Clearly, the Football Gods hate me. Maybe they are pissed off about WINDS being so late too…
I meant to say a few words about some TV shows and movies we’ve enjoyed. I can see why THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN is getting so much acclaim, even though there aren’t any banshees in it. Brilliant performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. A powerful story, one I will long remember… but damn, so sad. I see people calling it a comedy. Really? OK, but that’s dark humor. Parris and I have also been enjoying EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO. Not a new show, I gather, but it was new to us. (So much good TV right now). I hope there’s more coming of that one. We were very happy to hear that SANDMAN has been renewed for a second season. Took them long enough, but better late than never. And watching WHITE LOTUS 2 on HBO made me want to go visit Sicily… but I won’t, not until WINDS is done and delivered, I promised.
We also watched some holiday favorites. Several versions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, A CHRISTMAS STORY, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. And yes, I get it, life would really have been horrible for a lot of people if George Bailey had never been born… but hey, am I the only one who thinks that Potterville looks a lot livelier at night than Bedford Falls?
We haven’t seen the new AVATAR yet, but it’s high on our list. So is BABYLON, though that one is getting mixed reviews.
Oh, and awards season is at hand, and congratulations are due to HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and Emma d’Arcy for their Golden Globes nominations, and to Milly Alcock, Matt Smith, and the show for the Critic’s Choice Award nods. Well deserved. Finger and toes crossed for all of them. But hey, when the Emmy nominations come out, I will be hoping that Paddy Considine, Steve Toussaint. Olivia Cooke, and Emily Carey get some love as well. They were all extraordinary.
I also want to thank all my fans and readers, who made RISE OF THE DRAGON such a success. We have been hitting bestseller lists all over the world, I am pleased to say. I hope all of you enjoyed the art as much as I did. (And if you have not snagged a copy yet, autographed copies are still available from Beastly Books in Santa Fe. The Strand in NYC may have some signed copies left as well, though I would not bet on that).
Current Mood: busy
I am back in the Land of Enchantment, as of the day before yesterday. I’ve been away for three weeks or thereabouts, in New York City, New Jersey, and finally Chicago. I don’t lug a laptop around with me when I travel; on the road, I am only reachable by phone or text. Which helps keep me sane, but it did mean that I had 2,000 emails waiting for me when I got home. I am still digging out.
The trip… three weeks, I said, but at times it felt more like three months. My latest book, the illustrated Targaryen history RISE OF THE DRAGON, was released on October 25, so I had a lot of promotion to do. My sisters and their children and grandchildren and spouses still live in New Jersey, so I needed to see them too. The last time I got back east was in 2019, before the pandemic started. I had meetings with my publishers and agents and editors, and some meals with old friends.
I am not one for writing long trip reports… and this one would need to be VERY long. It was that kind of trip. Joy and sadness, tragedy, love, a lot of work. Highs and lows, and so much to do, it really took it out of me. I will tell you about much of that, but not right now, and not all at once. I think I will make a series of small blog posts, rather than doing one enormous one. The things that happened… well, it would not feel right to mush them all together.
Let me start with the original reason for the trip: the release of RISE OF THE DRAGON.
Rather than a traditional book tour, which could have taken months I did not have, we launched RISE with a virtual event at the Random House offices in New York City. I was thrilled to have David Anthony Durham interviewing me. David is one of my Wild Cards writers, and much much more. He’s written epic fantasy, historical fiction, westerns, YA books, and he has beenpart of the team on every one of prequels we have been developing for HBO for the last year and a half. Good guy, terrific writer.
If you missed our talk, no problem — it is online now.
I am pleased to report that RISE OF THE DRAGON is doing very very well, hitting numerous bestseller lists here and abroad.
(I will post more about my events in New York and New Jersey and Chicago in the days to come, once I’ve caught up on some of those damned emails).
Current Mood: tired
Yes, it’s true. I will be heading to San Diego for Comicon at the end of the month, for the first time in… ah… a bunch of years.
That’s not news to most of you, I know. There have already been a raft of stories out there about HBO’s plans for promoting HOUSE OF THE DRAGON at Comicon (which plans are pretty mind-boggling, by the way), and my name has popped up in a good many of them. So I’m not revealing any secrets here, but I can confirm. I’ll be joining the HOUSE OF THE DRAGON panel in Hall H, together with showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik and eleven of our cast members. I will be as excited to meet them as you are. I was not able to visit the Hot D sets, so this will be the first time I have met any of them… well, aside from Matt Smith, who I did meet for about two minutes in the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel at a previous Comicon, but he was the Doctor at the time, not Daemon Targaryen, and that’s not at all the same.
I will also be doing a couple of signings at San Diego. One for my publisher, Bantam Spectra/ Random House. I will be signing copies of FIRE & BLOOD and my other novels. And one for Marvel Comics, with Paul Cornell, to promote the new Wild Cards graphic novels that Paul has scripted. Raya Golden, ace minion, art director, and illustrator, will be travelling with me, and she’ll be on hand to sign copies of STARPORT, the graphic novel she adapted and illustrated from an old unproduced television pilot of mine (which may come back to life as a feature film, but that’s a tale for another day). This being Comicon, where the crowds are immense, all these signings will be capped and strictly limited, so if you want me to scrawl on one of your books, join the queue early.
(Sorry, I will NOT sign while walking the floor, eating lunch, or taking a piss in the men’s room. Don’t ask, okay?)
In June 2021, I went to Chicago for a week to accept an honorary doctorate from Northwestern. Aside from that, this will be the first time I have left home since the pandemic struck in March 2020. I am looking forward to it… but, truth be told, I am also a tad anxious. I have managed to avoid getting covid so far, knock wood… but if this Comicon is like the last one I went to, I am going to be in one big room with 150,000 other people, some of whom may not have been as careful as we have. That could be a challenge. Yes, I am fully vaccinated and double boosted, but that’s true of a number of friends of mine, who have still contracted omnicron despite that. (Mild cases, mostly, but still).
I do not want covid, not even a mild case, so please be advised, I will be doing all I can to prevent that. I will be masked almost all the time. I will not be shaking hands, sorry. Or even bumping fists. You can take my picture when I am signing your book, but stay on your side of the table, please. No selfies. No hugs. In past years, I was always glad to do all that, to make myself available to my readers, but these are not normal times. Once covid goes away for good — if it ever does — perhaps I will be able to do all that again. But not now. I cannot get sick. I have too much work to do.
I ask for your understanding.
And I hope all of us have a great time in San Diego, regardless of these challenges.
Current Mood: anxious
The last stop on my October travels was Asbury Park, New Jersey, where I was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
I was born and raised in Bayonne, as most of my readers probably know by now, but I left New Jersey in 1966 for Evanston, Illinois, to start my college education at Northwestern University. I never really returned, except for visits… but I do visit often, since almost all of my family is still in Jersey, along with a few old friends, a lot of memories (mostly good, some less so), and a big piece of my heart. Also, New Jersey still has the best pizza in the world (New York and Connecticut are very close, though). You can take the boy out of Jersey, I guess, but you can’t take Jersey out of the boy.
Asbury Park is one of the iconic Jersey shore towns. When I was growing up, a lot of my friends and schoolmates spent their summers down on the Jersey Shore. If not at Asbury Park, then at Atlantic City, Seaside, Tom’s River, Keansburg, or one of the other shore towns. Splashing on the beaches, eating salt water taffy, strolling the boardwalks, riding roller coasters and other rides in the old amusement parks. Not me. We were projects kids, we did not even own a car, so we spent our summers in Bayonne, mostly. Water all around, but no beaches (though once or twice each summer we’d get to take an excursion boat from Brady’s Dock across the street from the projects to Rye Beach or Far Rockaway). The only amusement park I got to visit was Uncle Milty’s, right down First Street, where I could blow my allowance playing Skee-Ball… and would eventually land my first job, running the Tubs O’ Fun for the kiddies one summer. I think I got paid twelve dollars a week (in a pay envelope, with a ten and, yes, a two-dollar bill).
I had never been to Asbury Park before this visit, but I have to say, I was charmed by the place. The sand, the surf, the boardwalk… iconic old bars like the Stone Poney and the Wonderbar… lovely grand houses and old hotels, a downtown that felt like stepping back in time… all in all, a cool town to visit. And of course the awards ceremony was great fun. As a Mets fan, it was a great honor for me to be inducted by Ed Kranepool of the Amazin’ Mets of 1969, and Todd Frazier of the current squad… and to share the night with Jason Alexander, Harry Carson, Bart Oates, Martha Stewart, Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and many more incredible Jerseyites.
Before the ceremony, I was also thrilled to be able to meet a couple of my favorite Giants from the Superbowl champions of 1986, Harry Carson and Bart Oates. Bart actually let me try on his Superbowl ring! And Harry showed me his Hall of Fame ring, which was big enough for four of my fingers.
Having my family present for the induction ceremony made it even more special.
I am told the permanent home of the New Jersey Hall of Fame will be in American Dream, the new mega-mall that just opened in the Meadowlands across the parking lot from Giants Stadium. Yes, the former Xanadu, decades in the building. Meanwhile, there are plaques of us at Newark Airport. That’s cool. I like the idea of being on an airport wall down from the Boss.
Current Mood: bouncy
I try to get to New York City once or twice a year. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world, and my visits there are always half business, half pleasure.
On the business side, I check in with all my publishers (I have several), my agents (I have several), with my editors (past and present), with my friends and colleagues at HBO (past and present). I often do a signing, an interview, or some other sort of public event. On this most recent visit, Raya Golden and I did a signing down at Midtown Comics for her wonderful graphic novel of my unproduced pilot, STARPORT. We scribbled in hundreds of books, and afterwards sat down for a short interview.
Autographed copies of STARPORT may still be available from Midtown Comics in Manhattan. Or not. We signed a lot of stock, but I am not sure how long they will last. In any case, copies are certainly available from Santa Fe: https://jeancocteaucinema.com/product/starport-graphic-novel-pre-orders/
On the pleasure side… well, we often try to get to a Broadway show or two, but I was too busy this year. I did find time to get together with my friends Ellen Datlow and Mr & Mrs X for a pizza crawl through the wilds of Jersey in search of bar pies. This year we managed to hit the Landmark Tavern in Livingstone and the Star Tavern in Orange, both of which were amazing.
((And if you don’t know what a bar pie is, you don’t know pizza)).
I also combined business and pleasure with a dinner at the historic Keens Steakhouse with Kay McCauley, queen of agents, and my friends from Tor, publisher Tom Doherty and our Wild Cards editor, Diana Pho. http://www.keens.com/
Keens has been a Manhattan mainstay since 1885, famous for their fabulous steaks and mutton chops… and for the hundreds of clay pipes that adorn their ceilings and walls. In ye older times, no meal was considered complete without a bowl at its conclusion, and the regulars at Keens traditionally left their long, fragile “churchwarden” pipes at the restaurant, to be called for at need.
Keens still displays the pipes belonging to Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers,, Albert Einstein, George M. Cohan, J.P. Morgan, Stanford White, John Barrymore, David Belasco, Adlai Stevenson, Douglas MacArthur, “Buffalo Bill” Cody… and now me.
At the conclusion of the meal, Keens presented me with my own pipe and had me sign it.
My pipe will now join the other celebrity pipes in Keens display cases. And presumably I can call for it at need, the next time I visit New York City and have a hankering for a mutton chop and a bowl. Not that it’s likely to happen, since I don’t smoke. Never have.
And for that matter, Keens Steakhouse does not allow smoking these days, no more than any other Manhattan restaurant.
But it’s still a cool, and unique, honor. My thanks to Tom Doherty and Kay McCauley, who arranged it.
Current Mood: calm
I received a number of awards and honors during last month’s trip to London, Dublin, and Belfast. I want to say a few words about all of them… but not all at once and not all today. I will address them all individually, and in no particular order.
Starting with the last, then… on the day before we left Ireland to return home to the Land of Enchantment, I was awarded the Burke Medal for “Outstanding Contribution to Discourse Through the Arts” by the College Historical Society at Trinity College, Dublin, the oldest surviving undergraduate society in the world.
The society’s auditor told me, “The College Historical Society, more commonly known as the Hist, is dedicated to the promotion of discussion and thought. Founded by Edmund Burke in 1770, the Society retains a deep interest and affinity to the field of social activism and continues its tradition of elevating civic discourse in the College. For 250 years the Society has recognised the efforts of great women and men who promote discussion and discourse. Pattie Smith, Sinéad O’Connor, W.B. Yeats, Natalie Dormer, Dame Hillary Mantel, Bob Geldof, and Ralph Fiennes have received the Burke Medal.”
That’s pretty heady company. I am very pleased and proud to be numbered among them. And for a noble reason — promoting discussion and discourse. In times like ours, when the toxic mobs on the internet seem to set the tone for debate, that is needed more than ever.
The medal itself was struck from the same molds that the Hist has been using for centuries. The president mentioned to me that he’d noted I had once won the Bram Stoker Award (as indeed I have), and that the medal they were giving me had once been awarded to Bram Stoker himself. I think that is so cool. Here’s a look:
In awarding the medal, the Hist said, “As a celebrated author, your exploration of difficult themes has inspired countless people worldwide to examine, more-closely, the fabric of our society. Through you, the reader has encountered new concepts, ideas, and emotions. From the magical children’s tale The Ice Dragon and the dark yet playful “A Night at the Tarn House” to the unprecedently popular A Song of Ice and Fire your work has made you a global phenomenon. And with your rise to greater prominence has come an increase in public dialogue around the major themes of your work. Your sublime writings have engendered intense debate on duty and honour, faith and cowardice, parricide and governance in readers world-wide. Our former member Oscar Wilde wrote that “It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection”. Through your art the general public have explored new themes, new ideas, and bettered themselves. This is precisely the contribution to public discourse that the Burke Medal aims to recognise.”
Since the Hist is devoted to discourse and discussion, those so honored are expected to say a few words. I was glad to do so. The good folks at Trinity recorded my speech and the Q&A that followed. YouTube has it up for those who are interested and could not be in Dublin to attend… but be warned, I got into some pretty heavy current issues in this one, not just my own life and writing and the world and SF and fantasy (though of course I touched on those as well).
Current Mood: pleased | ||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 0 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Poneys | en | Stone Poneys | https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico | https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico | [
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/icons/wikipedia.png",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-tagline-en.svg",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Contributors to Wikimedia projects"
] | 2005-08-15T01:30:40+00:00 | en | /static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Poneys | American folk rock band
Stone Poneys (also the Stone Poneys, Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys, and The Stone Poneys With Linda Ronstadt) were a folk rock trio formed in Los Angeles, consisting of Linda Ronstadt on vocals, Bobby Kimmel on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Kenny Edwards on lead guitar. Their recordings include Ronstadt's first hit song, a cover of Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum". The group featured Ronstadt showcasing an eclectic mix of songs, often from under-appreciated songwriters, requiring a wide array of backing musicians.
The band released three albums: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. All three albums were reissued in CD format in the 1990s in the US. The first two albums were reissued in Australia in 2008.
History of the band
[edit]
Early meetings
[edit]
Linda Ronstadt first met Bobby Kimmel as a teenager in 1960 while performing gigs in and around Tucson, Arizona, with her older brother Peter and older sister Suzi (under the name The Three Ronstadts, among others). The three Ronstadts joined with Kimmel and a local banjo player named Richard Saltus, performing locally as The New Union Ramblers. Kimmel, who was six years older than Linda, was impressed with the strong voice and enthusiasm of the fourteen-year-old. He relocated to Southern California around 1961 and wrote regularly to cajole Linda into joining him throughout her high school years at Catalina High School.[1] Kimmel had already met and befriended Kenny Edwards shortly before Linda's arrival in Los Angeles, and they had started writing folk-rock songs together.
Making the band
[edit]
in December 1964, after dropping out of Tucson's Catalina High School, and completing a semester at the University of Arizona, Linda Ronstadt decided to move to the Los Angeles area to join Bobby Kimmel and form a band.[2] Ronstadt described Kimmel's vision of the band: "It was going to be five people. We had an electric autoharp and a girl singer, and we thought we were unique in the world. And it turned out The Jefferson Airplane and The Lovin' Spoonful had beaten us."[2] The group trimmed down to a trio that called themselves The Stone Poneys. Their (misspelled) name came from Delta blues singer Charley Patton's 1929 song, "The Stone Pony Blues" (also known as "Pony Blues").[3]
The band was discovered by a couple of music industry executives while rehearsing at a soul food restaurant called Olivia's, located in Ocean Park, a community between Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Olivia's was famous for its food and performers, including The Doors.[2] In 1965, they recorded the Johnny Otis song "So Fine" and several others. Mike Curb, who at that time was working for Mercury, produced the sessions. The record company wanted them to change the group's name to "The Signets" and sing surf music, which the trio chose not to do.
Instead, The Stone Poneys became a leading attraction on the Los Angeles club circuit, with Ronstadt usually performing on stage in a miniskirt and bare feet.[4] They worked intimate clubs like The Troubadour in Hollywood, where they were opening for such musicians as Odetta and Oscar Brown Jr.;[2] The Insomniac in Hermosa Beach, where they often appeared with The Chambers Brothers;[4] and The Bitter End in Greenwich Village.
One night at The Troubadour, the band's first manager, Herb Cohen, told Kimmel in front of Ronstadt: "Well, I can get your chick singer recorded, but I don't know about the rest of the group". Linda Ronstadt called this "the beginning of the end",[5] although this occurred even before they were signed to Capitol Records and Ronstadt insisted that she would not record without the band.[2] The Stone Poneys broke up briefly in this time period, and Cohen tried to connect Ronstadt with Frank Zappa to make a demo, and also with Jack Nitzsche, but nothing ever materialized (she and Zappa – who were both being managed by Cohen in this time period – would later make a radio commercial for Remington brand electric shavers that was rejected by the company).
Record deal
[edit]
After the Poneys reformed, Cohen introduced Linda, Kenny, and Bobby to Nick Venet (also known as Nik Venet) at The Troubadour. Venet signed the band to Capitol Records in the summer of 1966. Ronstadt recalls of the signing: "Capitol wanted me as a solo, but Nick convinced them I wasn't ready, that I would develop. It was true."[2] In a late 1966 article in Billboard, Venet discussed the formation of a new record label under Capitol called FolkWorld specifically to promote folk-rock artists. Although the FolkWorld concept was never realized, The Stone Poneys became the lead act in the stable of folk-rock performers that Venet was signing and producing in this time period.[6]
The three albums by The Stone Poneys were produced by Nick Venet. The band's original songs were credited to Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards, although subsequent CD reissues removed Edwards' name from most of the credits. BMI's website now credits all original Kimmel-Edwards songs to Kimmel alone, resulting in "Back Home" being Edwards's lone songwriting credit with the Stone Poneys.
The first album, simply called The Stone Poneys, was more folk than rock and featured relatively few lead vocals by Ronstadt; it received little notice. The band again broke up briefly between the first two albums; but, as related by Kenny Edwards, Nick Venet told the band: "'We can make another record, we can make this happen. If we're going to do anything with this, we've got to make something that sounds commercial and get on the radio."[6]
Hit song and further stresses
[edit]
For the second album, Evergreen, Volume 2, the songs were in more of a rock vein; and Ronstadt was moved firmly into the lead vocalist position, with only occasional harmony vocals. The album includes the band's only hit song, "Different Drum". The original recording by The Stone Poneys of "Different Drum" was quite similar to the recorded version by The Greenbriar Boys from their 1966 album Better Late than Never!; but as Kenny Edwards recalls: "That's when Nik Venet sort of took an executive position and went, 'This could be a hit song, and we need to sort of have an arranger arrange it.' So none of us actually played on the record version of that."[6] (A live performance of "Different Drum" in the earlier style survives, however.) The original album version of "Different Drum" from 1967 had a slightly longer run time (2:46) from the single edit (2:35), owing to a repeat of the harpsichord break in the middle of the song. All versions of the song reissued after that time have been the single edit although listed with the longer run time.
This was not the only instance of the male band members being pushed out of the recording studio. Ironically, one of the few songs on the second album to feature harmony vocals, "Back on the Street Again" was a duet by Ronstadt and songwriter Steve Gillette (though Ronstadt's voice was clearly on top); Gillette remembers from the session: "[T]here was a scuffle and some noise just outside the door. When we opened it, there was a sad and for some, tearful scene in which it became clear that Kenny [Edwards] and Bobby [Kimmel] had not been notified of the session, and had heard about it indirectly and showed up full of anger at the betrayal. Capitol really did try to break the group up.” [6]
The very success of "Different Drum" spelled the effective end of The Stone Poneys as a band: Almost immediately, they started to become known as "Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys". Also, unlike the other 45s, which had been released solely under the name of the band, the "Different Drum" single also included in small letters: "Featuring Linda Ronstadt". As Edwards recalls: "From the record company's point of view, immediately they wanted to push Linda as a solo artist. And frankly, Linda's taste in songs was really growing away from what Bobby was writing.... So there was a spontaneous growth toward her being a solo artist."[6]
A series of club dates throughout the United States to support the second album followed. Ronstadt remembers opening for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village as one of her worst experiences with the band: "Here we were rejected by the hippest element in New York as lame. We broke up right after that. We couldn't bear to look at each other."[2]
Emergence of a star
[edit]
During work on the band's third album, in early 1968, Kenny Edwards departed for India. After "Different Drum" hit the charts, Bob Kimmel and Linda Ronstadt rounded up some more musicians, and the reformed Stone Poneys began touring with The Doors.[7] Doors frontman Jim Morrison didn't endear himself to Ronstadt; she recalled: "We thought they were a good band, but we didn't like the singer".[8] After this tour, Kimmel also left the band.
Linda Ronstadt gamely moved forward and, effectively a solo artist already, started taking control of her career. She gathered more sophisticated material for the new album, including three songs by Tim Buckley that would become standout cuts on that album. "Tim used to live in a house that I lived in too, and we both used to move in and out ... that is, we stayed there alternately. It was the house he wrote about in 'Morning Glory', which I call 'The Hobo'. That was the 'fleeting house.'"[3] Buckley was among those in the group photograph that appeared on the back cover of the third album.
Although their final album still appears to be in the name of the band, the album name, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III was purposefully vague, without a specific artist's name. Even the two singles from the album were released under different names, though Linda Ronstadt now had the burden of the Capitol recording contract: "See, The [Stone] Poneys were taken off the books after the second album. Since it was a hit, they made royalties off it. But I didn't. I paid all by myself for the third album, which was expensive, and it put me severely in the red by the time I started recording my first solo album."[2]
Later incarnations
[edit]
By late 1967, Linda Ronstadt began recruiting musicians to assist in the studio and also on the road. One of the first was an old friend from Tucson, Shep Cooke. He had already turned down Ronstadt's invitation to join Stone Poneys twice (in 1966 and also in early 1967); when she asked him again in late 1967: "Something told me I'd better not decline a third time. 'Different Drum' was climbing up the charts, and I couldn't refuse. So I joined the Stone Poneys in November 1967."[9] Another latter-day member of Stone Poneys was Kit Alderson, who would later help train Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in the guitar and autoharp, respectively, for their work in the 2005 Johnny Cash/June Carter Cash biopic film Walk the Line. By November 1968, a different group of musicians were billing themselves as The Stone Poneys. Joining Ronstadt was guitarist John Forsha – who was also a session player on the band's first two albums – drummer John Ware, bassist John Keski, steel guitarist Herb Steiner, and drummer Bill Martin.[3]
Purists might contend that these Stone Poneys were not the real band, only backing musicians for Linda Ronstadt; however, they were still being billed as Stone Poneys, and many of the musicians still view themselves as "ex-Stone Poneys". Shep Cooke fondly remembers his time with the band: "We rehearsed like crazy, finished the third Stone Poney album, toured the entire country for 2½ months, played on Joey Bishop's and Johnny Carson's TV shows*, went crazy for lack of sleep, and parted company (after the last gig in late 1968) reasonably good friends but a little disillusioned about 'the big time'."[9]
(*There was never a Tonight Show Stone Poneys appearance aired. Ronstadt first appeared on the late night talk show in 1969. Her second appearance wasn't until 1983.)
Post break-up
[edit]
Despite the lack of big hits, Linda Ronstadt was becoming increasingly well known following the success of "Different Drum", and in 1969 she officially went solo with her album Hand Sown...Home Grown. However, beginning in the mid-1970s, Kenny Edwards recorded and toured with Linda for about 10 years. In 2007, Linda Ronstadt reconnected with Bob Kimmel in Tucson and sang harmony vocals on one of Kimmel's songs, "Into the Arms of Love" that was included on a CD released that year by his new band, BK Special.
Albums and singles
[edit]
Official Capitol releases
[edit]
On the first two albums, most of the songs were written by Bob Kimmel and Kenny Edwards. Under the guidance of producer Nik Venet and Capitol, the group recorded their first album in the fall of 1966, The Stone Poneys, which was released in January 1967. The album is notable for its precise strong-voiced harmony vocals. The disc's one and only single release "Sweet Summer Blue and Gold" received no airplay and failed to chart anywhere. (The first album is now mainly known by the name of the 1975 reissue, The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt).
The second album, Evergreen, Volume 2 was released in June 1967. On this album, Linda Ronstadt sang lead vocals on almost all songs. The exception was the title track, which has a psychedelic rock feel. Kenny Edwards was the vocalist on "Part One", while "Part Two" was an instrumental that featured fine sitar work (also by Edwards).
The band hit pay dirt with Michael Nesmith's "Different Drum"[10] (written and copyrighted in 1965 prior to Nesmith joining The Monkees), the second 45 (following "One for One") from the new album. The band's version of "Different Drum" hit the Billboard pop chart on November 11, 1967 and stayed in the Hot 100 for 17 weeks, getting as high as No. 13. The song also reached No. 12 on the Cash Box survey. The song has been a staple on oldies radio ever since and remains one of Linda Ronstadt's most popular recordings.[11] Its parent record slid up Billboard's main album chart to No. 100 and lasted for a respectable 15 weeks on that chart.
Their third album was titled Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (released in April 1968); at this point, Capitol was promoting Linda Ronstadt rather than the band, and only Linda's picture was on the cover. Like its predecessor, the album had two singles: "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water" b/w "Carnival Bear" (released under the name Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys) which stalled at No. 93 on the Hot 100; and "Some of Shelly's Blues" b/w "Hobo" (released under the nameStone Poneys, Featuring Linda Ronstadt) which, like the album, did not chart in the US, but did reach No. 94 in Canada.[12] "Some of Shelly's Blues" was another Michael Nesmith song. The album ended with the Laura Nyro song, "Stoney End", which turned out to have been aptly named (although the song was not written for The Stone Poneys).
"So Fine" single
[edit]
After "Different Drum" became a hit, Mike Curb pulled out two of the recordings he had produced back in 1965, "So Fine" and "Everybody Has His Own Ideas", and decided to release them in 1968 as a 45 on his label Sidewalk, which was a Capitol subsidiary. The single was put out without the knowledge of Capitol – or Mercury either, for that matter, who had paid for the recording session. Capitol record company executives were understandably furious, and the single was immediately pulled from the market.[13] Thus, this disk has become one of the rarest Linda Ronstadt collectables, bringing as much as $144 (in a 2007 eBay auction).[14]
Reissues
[edit]
In the early 1970s, the Pickwick record label licensed several Stone Poneys tracks from their Capitol albums. Five of these songs were included as Side 2 on a dual compilation album called Back on the Street Again (catalog number SPC-3245), with Side 1 consisting of five songs by David Clayton-Thomas that are taken from solo albums that he was recording while serving as the lead singer for Blood, Sweat and Tears. Other than the title song and "Different Drum", the Stone Poneys songs on this album are relatively obscure tracks that have hardly appeared at all on Ronstadt's compilation albums over the years: "Song About the Rain", "I've Got to Know" (also known as "I'd Like to Know") and "New Hard Times".
Apparently somewhat later, Pickwick released Stoney End (catalog number SPC-3298) under the name Linda Ronstadt & The Stone Poneys. The only song included on both of the Pickwick albums is "Different Drum"; the other tracks on this album are mostly familiar songs like "One for One" and "Some of Shelly's Blues", as well as their recording of the 1960s classic "Let's Get Together". (The album was released on the heels of the successful reissue of the version by The Youngbloods in 1969).
In 1974, prior to the release of Heart Like A Wheel, Capitol issued a Linda Ronstadt compilation titled Different Drum, which featured five Stone Poney tracks and five songs from Ronstadt's first three solo albums. Aside from the title track, the four Stone Poneys tracks were remixed tracks from the third Stone Poneys' album, all featuring Ronstadt solo: "Hobo," "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water", "Some Of Shelly's Blues", and "Stoney End".
Eight years after the release of the band's first album (in March 1975), it was reissued by Capitol under the name The Stone Poneys Featuring Linda Ronstadt, as a result of the multi-platinum success Linda Ronstadt had in 1974-75 as a solo artist with the No. 1 album Heart Like A Wheel. The song listing in the reissue highlighted Ronstadt's three solo performances (she also sang solo on one verse in a fourth song that was not so identified). As a result, the largely unknown first album by The Stone Poneys was more widely available in the 1970s and 1980s than the subsequent albums that featured the band's more familiar songs.
In 1995, Capitol briefly issued the three Stone Poneys albums as individual CD releases. These releases were removed from the catalog within a few years.
In 2008, the Australian label Raven released The Stone Poneys, a 27-track "two-fer" CD featuring the first two Stone Poneys albums plus four tracks from their third album.
Linda Ronstadt has claimed dissatisfaction with the arrangements of the three Stone Poneys albums many times over the years, but Capitol has continually made money through reissues of the early material in numerous configurations. Also, in addition to their hit song "Different Drum", several of the other Stone Poneys tracks have been featured in many of Linda Ronstadt's compilation albums over the years, such as "Hobo", "Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Stoney End".
Unreleased material
[edit]
The now deleted Linda Ronstadt Box Set included the initial release of "Everybody Has His Own Ideas" besides the original 45; otherwise, the only Stone Poneys music made available on CD has been the songs on the original three albums, which has left many songs such as "Carnival Bear", from a 1968 single that never appeared on any of the albums, without any available issue. Even the three song "fragments" that open the third album – which total barely 1½ minutes – have never been reissued as full songs.
Discography
[edit]
Albums
[edit]
Title Details Peak
chart
positions US
[15] The Stone Poneys
Released: January 30, 1967
Label: Capitol
Format: LP
— Evergreen, Volume 2
Released: June 12, 1967
Label: Capitol
Format: LP
100 Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III
Released: April 29, 1968
Label: Capitol
Format: LP
—
Singles
[edit]
Title Year Peak chart positions Album US
[16] "Sweet Summer Blue and Gold" 1967 — The Stone Poneys "One for One" — Evergreen, Vol. 2 "Different Drum" 13 "Up to My Neck in Muddy Water" 1968 93 Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III "Some of Shelly's Blues" —
Promotional singles
[edit]
Title Year Album "So Fine" 1967 Non-album single
References
[edit]
Regarding Reference No. 1 – This article erroneously listed Arizona State University (which is located in Tempe, not Tucson) instead of Tucson's University of Arizona as the college that Linda Ronstadt attended for one semester in the fall of 1964. Archived enrollment records from U of A confirm this. | ||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 75 | https://www.billboard.com/photos/best-album-covers-of-all-time-6715351/ | en | The 100 Best Album Covers of All Time | [
"https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=6035310&c4=&cv=3.9&cj=1",
"https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Best-Album-Covers-of-All-Time-billboard-1548.jpg?w=875&h=583&crop=1",
"https://www.billboard.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-billboard-2021/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif",
"https://w... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Joe Lynch"
] | 2023-08-07T14:00:03+00:00 | The 100 greatest album covers of all time, from Elvis Presley to Public Enemy to Lana Del Rey. | en | Billboard | https://www.billboard.com/photos/best-album-covers-of-all-time-6715351/ | Music isn’t just about the music. Yes, the sounds are certainly the most essential element, but a lot of other things go into making an album a classic. Almost since the full-length album format began, cover art has been a key piece of the puzzle, adding visual interest (and occasionally a physically interactive component) to a work of art.
From the fold-out gatefolds of the vinyl era to pull-out liner notes in CD jewel cases to the small icon on a digital player, cover art has changed over the years, but it still helps define how we look at a particular album. Some go for the less-is-more approach, while others are stuffed with a kaleidoscope of imagery for fans to pore over and decipher. You might see photographic portraits, paintings, sketches, collages or nearly nothing at all. The artist might appear front and center, or perhaps they take a backseat entirely, letting evocative imagery pull the listener into their world. Some album covers are arguably better known than the music inside, having been parodied in pop culture, lauded with awards, used in advertisements or hung up in art museums. It all began in 1939 when Alex Steinweiss, a graphic designer who worked at Columbia Records, realized that the label could sell more copies of an album if the cover caught the consumer’s attention. It worked, and soon became an indispensable part of the creative process when crafting (and marketing) an album.
We’ve rounded up a list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time, reaching as far back as the 1930s and running through the birth of rock n’ roll, the start of hip-hop and beyond, right up to present day. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 20 | https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/12-31-97/mus.htm | en | Tucson Weekly: Family Ties (December 31 | [
"https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/images2/filler.gif",
"https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/images2/ad.gif",
"https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/images2/juke.gif",
"https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/images2/filler.gif",
"https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/12-31-97/hedmus.gif",
"https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/images2/... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"wil gerken",
"nathan hendler",
"doug floyd",
"amy burnham"
] | null | A look at Tucson's musical Ronstadt family, through the eyes of a member of the clan. | null | John Ronstadt Reminisces About His Family's Long Musical History In The Old Pueblo.
By Chelley Salmon
WHEN FRED RONSTADT started Club Filarmónico Tucsonese, Tucson's first philharmonic band in 1896, he began a musical legacy that continues in Tucson today. Most famous, of course, is Fred's granddaughter Linda; but Tucsonans may not be aware of all the other musical members of the Ronstadt family. The gift of music has been passed down through the generations. Linda's father, Gilbert, played guitar and was considered the best singer among Fred's four sons.
After Linda recorded the song "High Sierra" (on Feels Like Home) with her cousin John, she was quoted in a Weekly article as saying, "John's the one now who's generally considered the 'prettiest' voice in the family. He's really in tune. He's a good harmony singer."
John recalls stories of their Aunt Louisa, better known as Louisa Espinel, an internationally renowned singer and performer in the 1930s. "She was the half-sister of my father, Edward," he remembers. "She opened for the Temple of Music and Art in 1927. Around that time she'd been performing all over the country, then she went to Spain and studied music of all different regions. In her performances, she would come out in the native costumes of each region that she was singing about. She traveled all around the world doing concerts like that...she was the first major star in the Ronstadt family." He notes that in her time, she was comparable to Linda. In 1946, Louisa published a collection of Mexican folk songs, Canciones de Mi Padre, as a tribute to her father Fred. Forty years later, her niece Linda followed suit by performing and recording a similar collection for her father, Gilbert.
Music has been in the Ronstadt family as far back as John can remember: "My father played sousaphone, piano and organ. Music was always in the house from a very early age. There was a lot of influence from Mexican music...and classical. My father loved classical--he played Beethoven and Bach all the time. I can still remember my grandfather playing guitar and flute...I can almost remember the sound of his voice."
Just as other members in his famous family, John, 48, has also demonstrated his musical versatility. In addition to singing with 'Round Midnight, a well-known local jazz group, he also plays guitar and sings with the Ronstadt Cousins. The singing trio of cousins was formed about seven years ago with Michael, who also plays guitar, and Bill, on bass. Prior to that, Bill and John played for several years in a group called Sunshower.
The Ronstadt Cousins, known for their rich, three-part harmonies, play enough musical variety to please any audience. Although a large part of their repertoire includes the regional cowboy and western ballads, as well as the Mexican songs of their fathers and grandfathers, they also sing classics and standards of all generations, not to mention Latin, classic rock and roll, country, bluegrass and folk.
"We do a lot of the Mexican trio songs with the (Ronstadt) Cousins," explains John. "I love singing the Mexican songs. The harmony and just the mood are so haunting to me. My dad and I sing them together...they are really special to me."
After Linda's brother Michael was hired as an elementary-school music teacher, the Cousins recorded a children's album, Little Song A-Singing In My Heart, in 1995. It was a labor of love for John and Michael, who've been entertaining their children's classes for several years.
John smiles as he speaks of the experience: "Playing for the kids was really a treat. Elementary school kids are some of the best audiences you'll ever find."
The Cousins also recently recorded a tune for Linda's next album, along with Linda's sister Suzy, brother Peter and his daughter Mindy. Somewhat hesitant to describe the song, John hints instead, "It's called 'The Dreams of the San Joaquin'--it's a very simple song, but hard to label. It sounds like a Spanish song but it's not, although some lyrics are sung in Spanish."
John still remembers the early days of listening to Linda sing in the New Union Ramblers, with her siblings. Did he ever suspect that Linda would become the star she is today? "When I heard Linda singing with the Stone Poneys in the mid-1960s, I knew they were great. I guess one of the last times I heard her singing in Tucson was at Sanders, a little coffee house on Sixth Street. She had just gotten together with this new guitarist, Kenny Edwards. He was just an incredible guitar player. I never heard anyone play finger-picking style that way before. Actually, right after that they went over to the Troubadour and played their night there, and they got signed (with Capitol in 1966). I thought they could make it easily at that time." But he didn't think Linda was the only one: "When I first heard them singing together, I always thought that Suzy was going to be the one to become a big star. Suzy has a great timbre to her voice...it must be in the genes."
John, one of 12 children, notes that half of his siblings play at least one instrument. He tells of Ronstadt family gatherings that typically include 40 to 60 people, where "everyone in the family can carry a tune, some playing piano or different instruments.
"At Christmas, we pass out words for carols and we all play and sing." He continues, "Whenever there's any group of us together, the instruments will come out. It's like a free-for-all...the family blend is outrageous. That's the special thing, the blend."
The Ronstadt Cousins perform Thursday and Friday nights at Kennedy's Pub, 9155 E. Tanque Verde Road. | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 3 | 22 | https://www.vulture.com/article/elton-john-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html | en | All 378 Elton John Songs, Ranked | [
"https://assets.nymag.com/media/components/customer-alert-banner/alert.svg",
"https://assets.nymag.com/media/components/customer-alert-banner/double_chevron.svg",
"https://assets.nymag.com/media/components/customer-alert-banner/close_x.svg",
"https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/a23/3b0/de053c356ef00519c6a5dc9c7cd... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Shana Naomi Krochmal"
] | 2023-06-22T10:42:50.816000-04:00 | We ranked every Elton John song (all 377 of them) from worst to best. Turns out his biggest competition when making new music is his own back catalogue. | en | Vulture | https://www.vulture.com/article/elton-john-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html | The biggest obstacle to creating a ranked list of every Elton John song ever is Elton John himself.
The 76-year-old songwriter hasn’t just set a curve for success against which other artists’ best songs can be judged. He’s destroyed the very idea of a curve. Half a century ago, he released a total of seven LPs (including one double album!) in just shy of four years, all co-written with lyricist Bernie Taupin and often composed and recorded in a matter of hours or, at most, days. And they were good. Very good. Elton John is as bold and excellent a first proper debut for a new artist as has maybe ever been released. Honky Château is the album equivalent of the most perfectly paired French red wine and mellow weed; Tumbleweed Connection is solid Americana on par with anything you’d hear from a Yankee in the 20th century. Madman Across the Water levies a scorched-earth rebuke of critics. And Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the mind-melting double-disc epic that could stand in for an encyclopedia entry on “music of the 1970s.” They’re the kind of albums that other artists would eat a feathered boa to pull off once, let alone back to back to back.
John’s trajectory from seeming overnight success in 1970 to dangerous near-overexposure happened at a dizzying pace, though he’d put in the work before that; he was classically trained at London’s Royal Academy of Music and played in blues bar bands since he was a teen. The boisterous, flamboyant front man could often be mistaken for the ringleader of a one-man circus. He created offhand feuds almost faster than new hits, alternately pumping up and then trashing his friends and peers (including Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, and even Princess Diana), along with more than a few hotel rooms, along the way. Through it all, he waited anxiously for the other shoe to drop. Asked about any new album, he’d predict it to be both the biggest success ever and quite likely to fall right out of the bottom of the charts. “I never feel as if I’ve really arrived,” he complained in 1975. He frequently mused about how he’d handle the inevitable fall from grace, the coming apocalypse when he would be out of favor and fashion — and when his late pivot to disco (and an untimely trial separation from Taupin) finally broke his Midas touch, he spiraled spectacularly for a good stretch of the 1980s and early ’90s.
Not every one of his best songs was a hit, or even a single. John famously argued on several occasions against releasing some of his most enduring tunes, notably “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” to radio. Luckily the good ear and good sense of his label — or more often rogue radio DJs — prevailed, sending unexpected tracks rocketing up charts. But still, his catalogue is so deep that there are several dozen songs where the line between ubiquity and universality has blurred over time. Take for example the way that a song like “Tiny Dancer” could skip across the surface of a lake when it was released in 1971 only to make a true splash because of an emotional needle drop in Almost Famous almost 30 years later. And then 20 years after that, the same “blue jean baby” was capable of inspiring Britney Spears to return to the recording studio in 2022 to team up for “Hold Me Closer.” All it took was a lyrical fragment and a couple emoji on Instagram to immediately spur a fan frenzy.
When things are really trucking along, you don’t know where exactly an Elton John song is going to go — sometimes he’ll change course musically two or three times in one tune, as on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road opener, “Funeral for a Friend,” or when “Madman Across the Water” skates from eerily beautiful harmonics to crashing drums and dissonance. His lifelong mind meld with Taupin yields songs about both nothing identifiable (“Take Me to the Pilot,” which even Taupin admitted was about “fuck-all”) and, as in the alienating big city of “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters,” something deeply specific — and also somehow universal. Taken collectively, his now six-decade career as a working musician encompasses an insouciant rebelliousness against being boxed in to any one genre and a cheeky, often annoying tendency to dash off formulaic soundalike songs (“No Shoestrings on Louise” and “Crocodile Rock,” I’m scowling at both of you) as if to prove he could have been in numerous other famous rock bands if only he’d deigned to bother.
Sometimes he’s less inspired — or worse, and for so many years, coked out and drunk seemingly beyond mortal comprehension — and it quickly becomes obvious he’s phoning it in. When Taupin’s words veer from the poetic and bizarre back to bitter (as with “Dirty Little Girl”), especially during the 1980s on tracks like “Poor Cow,” the misogyny is glaring and can drag down otherwise serviceable tunes. And while “Border Song” — which became their breakthrough work as struggling songwriters when it was covered by Aretha Franklin — stands the test of time, there are a handful of tracks where these two white guys from England making songs about racial inequality (sometimes, like “Slave,” written in first person) feels absurdly out of touch, if not offensive.
Nevertheless, perhaps miraculously, and despite an unprecedented effort to kill himself and his career in myriad ways, John has survived — physically, mentally, financially, creatively. He has a weekly Apple Music radio show on which he enthusiastically supports emerging artists, he without fail digs up archival material to put out for album rereleases and in support of indies on Record Store Day, and he had a No. 1 dance-chart hit in both of the past two years, with Spears and, in 2021, with Dua Lipa. He’s made more than 35 studio albums and has seemed hellbent on extending his retirement tour seemingly forever.
In order to attempt the basically impossible task of stack ranking nearly 400 Elton John songs, I considered each song holistically, inclusive of the lyrics even though they are almost never written by John himself. He’s unquestionably an album artist, not a singles man, but when separated out from the LP track listing, the best and worst individual efforts became more and more obvious. A bad Elton song, relatively speaking, is forgotten almost before you finish hearing it even if it’s generically competent. A great Elton song transcends time and sometimes literal space to reach through and clench a fist around your lungs, even if it can be harder to explain why than to just sing along at the top of your lungs. The median point (“Candle in the Wind,” by my math) is commercially dominant, patently emotionally manipulative, and yet somehow still heartfelt. And, despite the blitz of greatest hits from the 1970s, when allowed a moment to breathe, almost every new album of the last decade has at least a couple songs that are as finely crafted as, and often more emotionally honest than, those from a half century ago.
What’s not in this ranking: B-sides. Often what doesn’t make the cut of an album release is left behind for a reason or because there are many softballs lobbed in the writing-and-demoing process before zeroing in on a banger. In John’s case, he had such a heavy early output that though he and Taupin wrote copiously and quickly, the complete songs usually ended up somewhere. So while there are technically hundreds of B-sides to be found on Spotify or in the indices of older biographies, most of them released only as the LPs enjoyed at least one if not multiple remastering and reissues, I have not included them. Live versions or demos aren’t separate entries (but they do count toward a song’s overall ranking, and John’s Live in Australia album is itself a master work). Most soundtrack efforts — largely instrumental or voiced by others — were not included, unless they were recorded by John and nominated for an Oscar. I also omitted remix and tribute albums made by other artists and smaller features by Elton John on other artists’ albums.
On sources: A shout-out to EltonJohn.com, which has added at times significant archival material to its own master discography as each album was lovingly re-issued. John’s memoir, Me, is a great read and the rare autobiography in which the author routinely calls his own work out for being shit when it was (and even sometimes when it wasn’t). It was also helpful for tracking at which point the drugs truly overtook the creative process. Also recommended for detail on the 1970s era: Tom Doyle’s Captain Fantastic.
Enough of all that — let’s start at the bitter end.
368–378. Leather Jackets — all of it (1986)
Nothing I can write about John’s 1986 album, Leather Jackets, can beat his own excoriating review in his autobiography: “It was about as unmitigated a disaster as anything I’ve ever released … There was no getting around the fact that Leather Jackets had four legs and a tail and barked if a postman came to the door.” (This seems unfair to dogs, honestly.) He added: “[It] wasn’t an album so much as an exercise in trying to make music while taking so much cocaine you’ve essentially rendered yourself clinically insane.”
While Elton squarely accepted blame for breaking his long-standing rule about keeping drugs out of the studio, the melodies do nothing to redeem Taupin’s lyrics. This is the rare album of his that has not one redeeming track, so I’m placing these songs in an 11-way tie for last and will simply quote the worst lyric from each in lieu of further description, which they do not merit:
“Leather Jackets”: “Is Memphis for real or just a song?”
“Hoop of Fire”: “Don’t pretend you wouldn’t spend some time in a hoop of fire.”
“Don’t Trust That Woman”: “A woman half crazy, oh then again lazy.” (This one is not Bernie’s fault — it’s a cowrite with Cher and Elton, who hated it so much he resuscitated an old nom de tune, Lady Choc Ice, to take the rest of the blame.)
“Go It Alone”: “The cards that always cheat the hearts / The spades you play just dug my grave.”
“Gypsy Heart”: “You come and go, just like the rain.”
“Slow Rivers” (with Cliff Richard): “Shallow waters never sank so low.”
“Heartache All Over the World”: “Girls, girls, girls, have pity on me.”
“Angeline”: “Bite me, Angeline, let me use you like a sex machine, Angeline.”
“Memory of Love”: “Why conceal you still feel / the need to push and shove me.”
“Paris”: “Art has its price.” (This is maybe, maybe, the least awful.)
“I Fall Apart”: “This fool’s suffered gladly, each and every day.”
367. “Soul Glove,” Ice on Fire (1985)
The lyrics are only compelling if you imagine them being spoken aloud by Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: “Slip into my soul glove / Pull it on, we got a tight fit / Oh never take it off / And baby if the seam’s rough / And honey if the skin’s soft / You and me we go together.”
366. “Shakey Ground” (with Don Henley), Duets (1993)
Just Googled “Elton John duet Shakey Ground why” and there were no results.
365. “Johnny B. Goode,” Victim of Love (1979)
Why not open Victim of Love, your 13th studio LP — a disco album written and produced by Peter Bellotte for which you helicoptered in to record a few lead vocals in less than a day — with an eight-minute Chuck Berry cover? Why fucking not?!
364. “If You Were Me” (with Chris Rea), Duets (1993)
Chris Rea, a British guitarist who has actually sold some 30 million records worldwide despite being all but unknown in the U.S., does nothing here to really introduce himself, and his buddy Elton doesn’t help.
363. “Japanese Hands,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
The Orientalism here is so strong it’s tough to dig down to whether it’s actually any good as a song. (It’s not.)
362. “Born Bad,” Victim of Love (1979)
“There ain’t no use denying / It was me / Who put you through this misery.” He said it.
361. “Warm Love in a Cold World,” Victim of Love (1979)
Elton said he made Victim of Love in part because he was still furious his American label hadn’t released A Single Man’s “Song for Guy” — a lengthy instrumental with only one lyric — to radio and was eager to finish the overall deal. But he also admitted an album made “in bad faith” wasn’t likely to overcome its ill intent, and this is nothing if not a bad-faith song.
360. “Grow Some Funk of Your Own,” Rock of the Westies
The lyrics on this one are as cringe as the title: “Along came a señorita / She looked so good that I had to meet her.”
359. “Live Like Horses,” The Big Picture (1997)
There’s a reason Bernie Taupin hates The Big Picture with a fiery passion. To his credit, Elton comes closer to belting here in 1997 than he has in a while (not counting The Lion King, I guess), but it doesn’t make the song good. There’s a duet version with Luciano Pavarotti that’s not much better.
358. “Hymn 2000,” Empty Sky (1969)
Literally no one needed Elton John to try to be another Bob Dylan, and his warbling here (and whistling courtesy of the studio tape operator) makes less sense than the lyrics.
357. “Candy by the Pound,” Ice on Fire
Even this cloyingly sweet song takes a beat to slander an ex-girlfriend who won’t leave him/Bernie alone. Sure.
356. “Take Me Back,” 21 at 33
“Open up your heart, little girl, and take me back.” This is not a credible plea on any level.
355. “January,” The Big Picture
“January is the month that cares.” Self-care, no matter the time of year, means respecting Bernie Taupin’s dislike of The Big Picture.
354. “They Call Her the Cat,” Peachtree Road
This is certainly no “Honky Cat.”
353. “Slow Down Georgie (She’s Poison),” Breaking Hearts
“The reputation of the woman you’re dating’s ’bout as nasty as the Berlin Wall.” Come on.
352. “Ball and Chain,” Jump Up! (1982)
One of my least favorite John songs simply because it feels so lazily cliché. It’s still catchy, though, and if you listen very closely, there’s some Pete Townshend on acoustic guitar.
351. “The Scaffold,” Empty Sky (1969)
There’s a very unexpected lively chorus — with harmony — that stands out amid the rest of the early Empty Sky songs, which are almost demos for future work, but it’s not really unexpected in a good way. The lyrics here — “The buckshee hangman swears for open crypts to silence” — presage decades of fans left puzzling through Taupin’s hodgepodge of classical references and utter nonsense.
350. “Dixie Lily,” Caribou (1974)
One of their least impressive country crooners.
349. “Solar Prestige a Gammon,” Caribou (1974)
Anytime you’re listening to Caribou and muttering “What the fuck is happening,” just remember, as Taupin said of making this album, “There was more snow inside than outside.”
348. “If the River Can Bend,” The Big Picture (1997)
Vaguely Paul Simon in his Graceland era, but nowhere near that.
347. “I’ve Seen the Saucers,” Caribou (1974)
It genuinely hurts my heart that after “Take Me to the Pilot” they even bothered making another track about the possibility of meeting aliens. This is so literal it could be a Doctor Who teleplay. And not a good episode, either.
346. “First Episode at Hienton,” Elton John (1970)
It’s hard not to hear this as a sort of creepy ode to one of Bernie’s many youthful loves — his own early memoir is a recounting of his various jobs on and off the family farm and the series of young women he desperately hoped might sleep with him — and it’s only weirder for the wobbly use of a theremin throughout.
345. “Stinker,” Caribou (1974)
Even with “The Bitch is Back,” John and Taupin knew Caribou was a mess — so much so that they suggested at one point that this song become the album title. “Tell me what your hound dogs think,” goes one solicitous lyric. (What’s baffling is that by the time this album was released, the Elton John train was moving so fast that it still sold outrageously well.)
344. “Li’l ’Frigerator,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
Would I be so angry at this (undeniably terrible) song if it didn’t land in the emotional aftermath of the great “Breaking Hearts (Ain’t What It Used to Be)”? I don’t know, but it’s awful no matter where it pops up. Actual lyric: “Why, li’l ’frigerator, you’re so cold.”
343. “Pain,” Made in England (1995)
Elton really does what he can here vocally, but with a refrain like “You’re all I ever wanted / I’m pain!” there’s not much hope.
340, 341, 342. “Thunder in the Night,” “Spotlight,” and “Street Boogie,” Victim of Love (1979)
A three-way tie. Burying these tracks in the middle of Victim of Love can’t hide the fact that they are all egregiously awful, almost interchangeably so. “Thunder in the Night” is the least convincing attempt by a narrator to care that he’s been left by a woman for many good reasons. From there we roll right into “Spotlight,” a Saturday Night Fever wannabe so tepid I nearly forgot that I do unironically love a disco clap, and then slide into “Street Boogie,” which tries desperately to evoke a cool cat roller skating with a boom box but instead sounds like a Sesame Street reject. Cocaine is, as they say, a helluva drug, and this trio is caked with it.
339. “I’ve Got 2 Wings,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
A classic Bernie Taupin dilemma: Are these lyrics, from 2016’s Wonderful Crazy Night, about some elusive fleeting observation he’s spun into an operatic tale or simply batshit nonsense? T-Bone Burnett and Taupin showed John YouTube footage of the real-life preacher Elder Utah Smith, who in fact did preach with a pair of paper wings on his back — while playing electric guitar. That backstory doesn’t quite make the song gel, but it explains a little.
338. “Princess,” Jump Up! (1982)
This song positions John as a former “prisoner” who is “set free” by love: “You’re one fine lady / You’re my princess.” This is an example of the division of labor between John and Taupin causing more confusion than harmony. It’s not that it’s impossible to imagine John found some kind of love with one (or more!) women at a time when he publicly identified as bisexual; on the other hand, we know from his own many candid recountings since that he … probably wasn’t doing that. So what the hell is this song — or at least Bernie — trying to tell us?
337. “I Am Your Robot,” Jump Up! (1982)
This song sounds like it was programmed by an AI, and approximately 75 percent of the lyrics are literally just the title words with some crunchy synth. This and “Princess” are both very repetitive, so I’d like to assert now that the only way they could possibly be redeemed is if his next pop-reboot megamix made better use of them.
336. “Recover Your Soul,” The Big Picture (1997)
This sounds like a sign to skip ahead to the next song: “Find your feet and your fortune can be told.”
335. “In Neon,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
“Candle in the Wind” has never been my favorite; this sounds like its half-hearted outtake.
334. “Love’s Got a Lot to Answer For,” The Big Picture (1997)
“I just can’t sleep with this feeling anymore,” it goes, but at an emotional and musical pace so slow I fell asleep.
333. “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again,” 21 at 33 (1980)
Would’ve made a good Kenny Rogers song. That should be a compliment, but this isn’t a Kenny Rogers song.
330, 331, 332. “Guilty Pleasure,” “Tambourine,” “The Open Chord,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
Another three-way tie, this time between paint-by-numbers Elton John album closers. I’m sorry. I love this man’s work so much I’m relistening to every song in his catalogue (again! multiple times!), but I have no way to distinguish these tracks from each other. No one will ask you to turn the music off, but nobody will want you to turn it up. For “Tambourine,” see “Guilty Pleasure,” except this one is from a tambourine’s POV. Literally. For “The Open Chord,” also see “Guilty Pleasure,” except this one goes over a rom-com montage about a couple who met in church.
329. “Blue Wonderful,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
One of those songs that inexplicably has too many syllables in every single line. “It’s very Californian,” John explained (or tried to), “full of electric guitars, very West Coast–y” — but it floats away just as easily on a breeze of forgettable melodies.
328. “A Good Heart,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
The second single off 2016’s unremarkable Wonderful Crazy Night did help keep John’s streak going on Billboard’s adult contemporary chart. It starts off with some throwback harpsichord but meanders its way through a middling rise-and-fall chorus and key-changing bridge.
327. “Lady What’s Tomorrow,” Empty Sky (1969)
John said he and Taupin “hadn’t even bothered to try to sell” this very early effort off 1969’s Empty Sky, heavily influenced by Leonard Cohen, back when they were largely composing songs for other acts. But the studio manager liked it and urged them to try writing more for themselves. It’s not particularly inspiring in retrospect, just more of Bernie’s weird nostalgic songs about young brothers on a farm and not particularly rescued by John’s subtle and inventive organ work underneath.
326. “Sails,” Empty Sky (1969)
The problem with Empty Sky is that it’s so hard to see the promise buried underneath what, especially in retrospect, sounds like a bit of a soup of other contemporary artists. This could have been a lesser Frampton song, or mid-catalogue Beatles or Stones, but mostly it’s out of sight out of mind.
325. “Old Friend” (with Nik Kershaw), Duets (1993)
This is no way to treat an actual old friend who was with you in the dark days of “Nikita,” on which Nik Kershaw also appears. If you listen to Elton John’s Apple Music Rocket Hour weekly show, which leans heavily on curating new artists, you know he actually has outstanding taste and a stellar ear for young talent. Even if he was right that Kershaw was gifted, you can’t tell in this duet.
324. “Dear God,” 21 at 33 (1980)
A musically beautiful ballad that makes almost no sense in the context of Elton John’s life in 1980.
323. “True Love” (with Kiki Dee), Duets (1993)
It’s an actual goddamned tragedy that Kiki Dee and Elton John didn’t make a full album with each other considering how much time they spent together and how much fun they actually had. Alas, this song is not fun. How do you cover Cole Porter and turn in a less gay and bouncy track than you might have when you were still in the closet 17 years earlier?
322. “Poor Cow,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
At a certain point, pinning down who is the subject and who is the object of the misogyny in this song becomes dizzying. On the other hand, you could almost make an argument that with a few lyric tweaks this could be Taupin and John cracking down on how Brits talk about Meghan Markle.
321. “Island Girl,” Rock of the Westies (1975)
I truly don’t know where to start with this song, which is ostensibly about a Jamaican sex worker in New York City (I’m assuming, based on the reference to her six-foot-three height, that she is a trans woman). “Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s world,” John sings in the midst of a patois-laden chorus. (This was a No. 1 song in the U.S.)
320. “Belfast,” Made in England (1995)
Producer Paul Buckmaster, reunited with John on Made in England for the first time since A Single Man, jumps right back into the deep end of the orchestra — and then adds a surprise dancing jig to the end of this otherwise very schlocky tribute to the brave people of Ireland.
319. “Jamaica Jerk-Off,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Because the chateau they’d used for two albums running was booked, the band spent a week or two trying to make Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in Kingston, Jamaica, where the Stones had famously recorded. They were plagued by some unfortunate culture clash of island time, missing equipment, a union strike at the adjacent record-printing factory — all yielding perhaps too much time sitting around getting stoned and writing songs, including many of the eventual standouts on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road but also this clunker-slash-revenge diss track. On the upside, when the band finally retreated back to France they had enough songs for a double album — and they brought the weed with them.
318. “When I Think About Love (I Think About You)” (with P.M. Dawn), Duets (1993)
I have more questions than answers about this song off 1993’s Duets. Did P.M. Dawn’s Attrell Cordes write it for a duet with Elton? Did they just dust it off and go in and see how it went? Did anyone bother asking why at all?
317. “Did He Shoot Her?,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
“Did he shoot that girl that used to be mine?” Bernie. What.
316. “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Done with gusto, but not done well.
315. “Blessed,” Made in England (1995)
I want to say something cutting here about how this is a kinda-creepy song about an unborn child, but Elton John’s later-in-life joy in being a father is so pure and now that’s what I’m thinking about instead and I can’t be too snarky. (Still, this song isn’t great.)
314. “The Power” (with Little Richard), Duets (1993)
After Elvis Presley, Little Richard might be the artist young Elton John most revered: “Elton John was born [the] night” he saw Little Richard live in 1962, he writes in third person in his own memoir. But this watery pop gospel doesn’t begin to do justice to that influence.
313. “Wicked Dreams,” The Big Picture (1997)
The aggressive lyrics all but challenging someone to a nighttime rendezvous don’t match the soft-rock music.
312. “Tell Me What the Papers Say,” Ice on Fire (1985)
I’m just going to say it: A lot of Ice on Fire is probably Margaret Thatcher’s fault. By then she’d sucked all the fun out of being British.
311. “In the Name of You,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
John called this a “Little Feat-ish” throwback, and it does sound pleasingly out of time, like something that should be played over a scene of someone driving through American farm fields — or maybe a missing track from A Star is Born sung by Bradley Cooper.
310. “Cold,” Made in England (1995)
There are more key changes than a song this forgettable needs.
309. “Answer in the Sky,” Peachtree Road (2004)
A little on the nose, boys, even though I don’t think it’s meant to actually be a gospel record.
308. “Claw Hammer,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
There’s a touch of early 1980s Elton here — “my Peter Gabriel moment, probably,” John calls it, “because he used so many different instruments.” But mostly it makes me want to listen to the criminally underrated The Fox again.
307. “Too Young,” Ice on Fire (1985)
“You’re too young to love me / And I’m too old for you / At least that’s what they tell us.” Um? (I’d like to think George Michael heard this and thought, Oh, I can do that, and then busted out “Father Figure,” which does this creepy theme better.)
306. “House,” Made in England (1995)
A confusingly childish song, so simple you keep waiting for it to surprise you, but it never does.
305. “I Stop and I Breathe,” Peachtree Road (2004)
This mid-’90s feel-good rocker arrived a decade too late.
304. “Looking Up,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
“It’s the 2016 version of ‘I’m Still Standing,’” John said in a track-by-track companion piece for Tidal. “It’s about my life. It’s a really joyous song about being happy.” The joy comes through, as does a heavy dose of jukebox classic rock. But there’s none of his earlier reference point’s casual cheer, and maybe that makes sense for a man in his 70s. You’d stand and bop along with this band over barbecue at a street festival, but I doubt you’d be shook, rattled, or rolled.
303. “Turn the Lights Out When You Leave,” Peachtree Road (2004)
This song, about a defeated man who won’t bother to keep fighting even if she’s still “pretty in that lacy little dress,” is a serviceable country-western sad-sack tune but not a particularly inspired one.
302. “Indian Sunset,” Madman Across the Water (1971)
Some of Taupin’s first-person storytelling reads a lot more cringe today, and this is a prime example. That said, it’s the only song on this list that Eminem sampled for a posthumously released remix of a Tupac song (“Ghetto Gospel”), so make of that what you will.
301. “Since God Invented Girls,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
This song is too dirty to blame on Brian Wilson.
300. “High Flying Bird,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
Sleepy and sweet but ultimately unremarkable.
299. “I Can’t Steer My Heart Clear of You,” The Big Picture (1997)
Given the full operatic treatment of a 1970s Elton album, this might feel very different.
298. “Please,” Made in England (1995)
“Please, please, let me grow old with you” is a surprisingly sweet refrain, but it doesn’t save this song from sounding like it’s one part happy-hour line-dancing lesson, two parts lounge act.
297. “I’m Your Puppet” (with Paul Young), Duets (1993)
This is not the worst but nowhere near the best on Duets. That’s all I have to say about it.
296. “Latitude,” Made in England (1995)
“It’s just the weather and me,” John sings on this dour, plodding waltz.
295. “Slave,” Honky Château (1972)
Would a song written from the point of view of an enslaved person by two white British guys make it onto an album today? Of course not. Especially not one where the narrator refers to himself and his brothers as “slave.” This is a slow, sweet-sounding country song full of hate for the colonel overseer and the narrator’s dreams of a time when they might burn down the whore house where he spends his days as they work in the fields. But it’s still Elton John singing it. (The “alternate fast version” that accompanies the album in many places on streaming is even more fever-pitched and confusing.)
294. “Little Jeannie,” 21 at 33 (1980)
One of many songs from this era that just seem to drag on.
293. “All That I’m Allowed,” Peachtree Road (2004)
An unusually trudging cadence, the kind of lyrics that end up sounding like a middle-school poem, and the early-’80s weak R&B vibe (on 2004’s Peachtree Road!) isn’t helping.
292. “Man,” Made in England (1995)
A relative standout on the very middling Made in England, but it’s still weighed down by borderline incoherent lyrics defending … the worthiness of man. Men. #NotAllMen. “Man stumbles on his own belief,” sings John. “Don’t lose hope if you can.”
291. “Teacher I Need You,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
If you’re looking for an uncomfortably sexy song about a teacher, there’s always George Michael’s “One More Try.” I don’t know that it was in any way inspired by this one, but it’s actually good.
290. “Dirty Little Girl,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Presumably from some real creep’s POV, this might be the most blatantly misogynistic song in the Taupin-John catalog. It’s hard to rock out to this relentless series of promises to “grab that bitch by the ears / Rub her down, scrub her back.”
289. “White Lady White Powder,” 21 at 33 (1980)
When this was recorded, Taupin was largely off the hard stuff, though his musical partner singing the deadly obvious lyrics was definitely not. “Sometimes the lyrics he gave me felt quite pointed,” John admitted later. “I had the brass balls to sing it as if it was about someone else.”
288. “You’re So Static,” Caribou (1974)
Peak ladies’ man Bernie Taupin lyrics — “Them women, oh they’re gonna slice your pie” — but the best of the melodies here start to sound borrowed from John’s own catalog. And even after repeated listens I can’t decide if “static” is an insult or a compliment.
287. “Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future),” Rock of the Westies (1975)
Takes a left turn at the intersection of hard drugs and Frampton and never quite comes back.
286. “Hard Luck Story,” Rock of the Westies (1975)
An early rare album track not written by Taupin, which in retrospect should have been more of a warning sign.
285. “Feed Me,” Rock of the Westies (1975)
It feels like a different kind of ’70s in this jazzy rock song, and not in a good way. The lyrics are demented — “I feel like a carcass, white like a marrow bone” — but the arrangement is insistently groovin’ along.
284. “Restless,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
A little too Dire Straits for my taste, even though buried down a layer is some biting social commentary: “We feed ourselves lies and then we scream for action.”
283. “Georgia,” A Single Man (1978)
There’s something acutely missing in this weirdly romanticized idea of southern Georgia: Bernie’s obsession with the messy actual history of the American South. This comes off like a forced tourism tune.
282. “Reverie,” A Single Man (1978)
A minute-long instrumental interlude that largely serves as a prelude to the much more affecting “Song for Guy.”
281. “Sartorial Eloquence,” 21 at 33 (1980)
“Your lifestyle shows / In the clothes you chose / Sitting pretty in the masquerade.”
280. “Freaks in Love,” Peachtree Road (2004)
The wallflowers at gay prom deserve better than this slow-jam arrangement. Imagine if it were an amped-up crazed rocker like “Take Me to the Pilot.”
279. “Grimsby,” Caribou (1974)
Bafflingly not commissioned as a tourism-board ode to a small seaside English town, but probably better for everyone that they could just move on from this.
278. “Your Starter for …,” Blue Moves (1976)
This instrumental opener to 1976’s Blue Moves is fine, but it’s no “Funeral for a Friend” and is basically unnecessary given it’s followed by the exceptional “Tonight.” I’ve never been so mad at an intro track just for existing.
277. “Give Me the Love,” 21 at 33 (1980)
The hook is serviceable. That’s about it.
276. “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Jump Up! (1982)
A book report, more or less, about all the reasons war — in particular the Great one — is hell. This was actually released as a single, though that version did not include the giant church-organ swell.
275. “One More Arrow,” Too Low for Zero (1983)
The upper end of John’s register here is a real struggle, but the classic Taupin storytelling almost sells it through.
274. “Who Wears These Shoes?,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
“I feel like an old jukebox / Playing the same song all the time.”
273. “Passengers,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
This one is trying to do a lot. It’s inspired by a South African folk song — the most famous singer of which, Phineas Mkhize, is credited here as a co-writer — apparently in some soft protest of apartheid, and yet it also sounds a bit too much like an imitation of generically African accents.
272. “This Town,” Ice on Fire (1985)
Now we’re stuck in a cheap ’80s comedy. And Sister Sledge is on backing vocals (really).
271. “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” (with Marcella Detroit), Duets (1993)
The track first appeared on Detroit’s Jewel and is a more lively pair-up than much of Duets — but it’s a far cry from the Marvin Gaye–Tammi Terrell original.
270. “Cry to Heaven” Ice on Fire (1985)
A Very Sad Song About War and the depressingly low expectations of life in a small English town, but set to a driving ’80s raw synth beat — which is exactly as disconcerting as you’d think. “No birthday songs to sing again / Just brick and stones to give them.”
269. “The Camera Never Lies,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
It’s a relief to hear piano tinkling in the foreground of this mix even if it’s not exactly a standout.
268. “Whitewash County,” The One (1992)
Taupin likes to check in periodically to see if the American South is as corrupt and racist as he remembers, and at this point — yup.
267. “The North,” The One (1992)
For every Taupin joint about the American South, there’s a song about the North — the English North. It was rough up there for a lad, and he’s not done reminiscing about it.
266. “Pinky,” Caribou (1974)
A drowsy easy listen you forget almost as soon as it’s gone. Chiffon.
265. “No Shoe Strings on Louise,” Elton John (1970)
My least favorite Elton genre is “wrote a song that could have appeared on another artist’s album just to prove it wasn’t so hard,” and in this case he admits he had the Rolling Stones squarely in his sights. Well done, I guess. It’s as enjoyable as any generic Stones track from this era.
264. “Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes,” Songs From the West Coast (2001)
Very determined to tell an epic story — “Take my red shoes / I can’t wear them anymore” — but it never quite lands. The song is earnest and well intentioned (John has said it was about Ronald Reagan’s inaction during the AIDS epidemic), but it doesn’t live up to its heavy task.
263. “Midnight Creeper,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
Love a light blues rocker about a stalker. What kills me is there are some damned brilliant throwaway lyrics in here, from “Tina Turner gave me the highway blues” to “second cousin to a son of a gun,” but they’re pretty wasted on the actual song.
262. “Born to Lose” (with Leonard Cohen), Duets (1993)
This Ted Daffan song — most famously sung by Ray Charles — is an odd vehicle for Cohen’s deep growl, especially when John comes in and transforms the track into something better resembling a … Christmas slow dance.
261. “All the Nasties,” Madman Across the Water (1971)
The arrangement is upbeat, almost a light gospel. As in “Madman,” Elton is speaking directly to the “nasties” — the critics and their questioning, real or perceived, and also probably an imaginary bogeyman keeping a secret locked up tight. It’s (now) a fairly obvious musing on what would happen were he to come out publicly: “If it came to pass that they should ask / What would I tell them?” “Not a single person seemed to notice what I was singing about,” he said later. It’s not a great song, but it’s arguably the gayest of his early tracks and it’s mostly been forgotten. There aren’t any significant covers to note, but if you go listen to the Killers’s “All These Things That I’ve Done,” you can hear how similar those final refrains are.
260. “I Don’t Care,” A Single Man (1978)
Elton’s cocktail for A Single Man was a heavy mix of coke, brandy, and weed. This probably makes sense as a bold defiant statement given enough of all three of those.
259. “Understanding Women” The One (1992)
It was right around this track when Elton’s queerness became more of an accepted backstory instead of a defiant flamboyance — he told Rolling Stone that year he was “comfortably gay” — and his lyrical collaboration with Taupin was similarly a given. But that introduced its own new dissonance. This song isn’t good — the ocean-wave sound effects here are way too Miami Vice, for one — but the tiresome, almost whiny lyrics about how difficult it is to be a straight dude make even less sense than they ever did.
258. “Saint,” Too Low for Zero (1983)
I do really like the vocal climb John does over the course of this even when it’s a bit of a stretch.
257. “Go On and On” (with Gladys Knight), Duets (1993)
Stevie Wonder wrote, produced, arranged, played all the instruments, and sang backup on this one with Gladys Knight, which gives it a serious leg up on most of the awful Duets. And yet it’s just not that great, a generic mishmash and certainly not the kind of banger you’d hope these three could belt out together.
256. “Circle of Life,” The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1994)
One of three songs from The Lion King soundtrack nominated for an Oscar, and we have no information about whether it received more or less votes than “Hakuna Matata,” but it wasn’t the winner. Compared to the cast recording, this studio version is … fine. But the original animated sequence of the 1994 film was genuinely jaw-dropping, and in comparison, John’s feels every inch the AC hit and awards bait it became. Musically the melodramatic vibe is a knock-off of “The One,” released two years before, which is far better.
255. “Beauty in the Bones” (with Jimmie Allen), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
This track is catchy and melodic and poppy but probably a better calling card for Allen than a memorable musical moment for either artist. “I just wanted to learn from him and do things his way to experience something new,” John wrote of their in-studio time together for Duets.
254. “Gulliver/It’s Hay Chewed” (Reprise Version), Empty Sky (1969)
For all that Empty Sky wanders after the opening title track, it mostly does so succinctly — until it hits this seven-minute rambling ballad. This is the John we’ll hear later on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Sure he can make a big sound and then do something totally different — now it’s a jazz interlude! Now there’s some Chuck Berry–like solo guitar! — and then back into a groovy reprise of … every other track on the album. It’s almost like a badly edited montage of exciting scenes from his future career.
253. “One of Me” (with Lil Nas X), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
If any young performer is truly an heir to John, it’s Lil Nas X. The joy, the fuckery, the fashion. (“He has balls of steel,” John says.) This remix of Nas’s track only brings John’s contribution forward a tiny bit — it’s forgivable if only because it’s hard to imagine the two won’t continue to get up to no good in the future.
252. “Nothing Else Matters” (with Miley Cyrus, Watt, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, and Chad Smith), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
The Lockdown Sessions is an album seemingly because eventually John had recorded enough songs during the pandemic to make up an album. And that’s fine! Good for him. He and Taylor Swift, overachievers to the very end. But — and I can’t believe I’m saying this here either — where folklore and evermore were cohesive COVID-era songwriting efforts, Lockdown is a channel-flipping melange best meant for a random Elton John playlist. For example, Miley Cyrus crushes the vocals here, and just for variety there’s also Watt, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, and Chad Smith woven in. But why? This is like an alternate universe where Gal Gadot produced an MTV tribute performance.
251. “The End Will Come,” The Big Picture (1997)
The production isn’t doing this song any favors. The lyrics and melody aren’t actually awful; it’s just a bit hard to tell through all the effects.
250. “The Greatest Discovery,” Elton John (1970)
It takes far too long to reveal this song is actually about the narrator receiving the great and apparently very impressionable gift of — wait for it — a baby brother. And unlike the spare perfection of “Sixty Years On,” the dramatic arrangement doesn’t seem warranted. Just a bit weird.
249. “Wonderful Crazy Night,” Wonderful Crazy Night (2016)
The third collaboration with producer T Bone Burnett sounds like it was ordered from Elton John Central Recordings — it’s almost never bad, but it’s rarely all that great. John says that when recording it in 2015 — with his touring band, for the first time in ten years — he wanted something brighter than the world outside. “The news was just relentless misery: I wanted something light and fun, a sense of escape, lots of bright colors and 12-string guitar.” The album that session produced is damnably, solidly upbeat, and the title track is the strongest of the batch. For any other artist it would be pretty good, but for Elton it feels a bit too much like background noise to be exciting.
248. “Love Letters” (with Bonnie Raitt), Duets (1993)
I can think of dozens of songs I would kill to hear these two sing together. This is not one of them.
247. “Victim of Love,” Victim of Love (1979)
“If the title track had come on at Studio 54,” Elton insisted, “I would have danced to it.” It’s the only real sign of life on his otherwise moribund 1979 album, but that’s truly faint praise.
246. “Street Kids,” Rock of the Westies (1975)
What kills me about 1975’s Rock of the Westies is you can almost hear where a song like this should have a clear throughline to, say, “Saturday Night’s All Right (for Fighting)” and instead the second the track ends you’ve forgotten all about it.
245. “Empty Sky,” Empty Sky (1969)
The title song for John’s first recorded album (it wouldn’t be released in the U.S. until six years later) comes in like a Jefferson Airplane but fails to inspire any real heights for its eight-and-a-half-minute runtime. John and Taupin have said they were aiming for a Rolling Stones–esque dramatic entrance and were deliriously happy with the results. Luckily for John’s “overnight success” narrative, most people never heard this until he’d made much more of a name for himself.
244. “Medley: Yell Help/Wednesday Night/Ugly,” Rock of the Westies (1975)
“I wanted to make the band a little more raucous,” said John of this album, which by all accounts was cut after peak (or nadir) cocaine-fueled weeklong rehearsals. The Elton train continued to move so fast at this point that the album itself almost didn’t matter — it premiered at No. 1, his second in a row to do so, an event he celebrated by trying to kill himself (again), a swan dive into his pool dramatized in the film Rocketman.
243. “Duets For One,” Duets (1993)
When you apparently need to close out an exceedingly not-great collaborations album with a solo song … (It’s not great, but it’s better than almost all of the other tracks.)
242. “Mansfield,” Songs From the West Coast (2001)
Bucking a lifetime of precedent, Taupin and John wrote this album in the same room at the same time, but all that really proves on this song is they should go back to their corners.
241. “After All” (with Charlie Puth), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
NME said this pop ballad could have been on The Lion King soundtrack, and I really can’t top that except to add it could also have been on a Peter Cetera album.
240. “Teardrops” (with k.d. lang), Duets (1993)
If you don’t remember 1993, it would be hard to explain why a discofied Womack & Womack song should be covered by Elton John and k.d. lang; to be fair, it only made slightly more sense at the time.
239. “Lies,” Made in England (1995)
“The young lie with their guitars / The old lie for a little respect” is a great lyric, but as with much of 1995’s Made in England, the one-word title here tells the truth about the simplicity of the song.
238. “Dark Diamond,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
A decent rocker with Stevie Wonder on harmonica.
237. “Too Many Tears,” Peachtree Road (2004)
There’s a sneakily powerful chorus hiding in this song, which is otherwise like a slow-roll version of history in the style of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
236. “Elderberry Wine,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
Bernie Taupin really loves women, y’all (except during the 1990s when all his lyrics were about hating them). He loves them when he’s got them and after they’ve gone, and this is a solid upbeat rocker for a song that’s really about being left behind. Elton sounds good and sells it well, but then it’s just gone in the wind.
235. “Learn to Fly” (with Surfaces), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
Feel-good light funk. John’s genuine passion for younger acts comes through on his Apple Music radio show, and that includes a broad assortment of British and American pop-rock styles and singers that you might not think in a million years are qualified to share his rarified air — but you aren’t mad when they do.
234. “Love Her Like Me,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Honestly pretty creepy, but Bernie Taupin’s imagination is detailed as he describes how his fantasy of a woman is more powerful than reality. But, like, in a rockin’ way: “You may have her in the real world but if you could only see / How we rock this room in the twilight zone.”
233. “Orbit” (with SG Lewis), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
S.G. Lewis’s heavy disco grooves are a suitably swoony backdrop for John’s vocals, which are unfortunately a bit muted here — ultimately making the track feel more like some light thumpa-thumpa you’d yell-talk over at a middling gay bar on a Saturday afternoon.
232. “Long Way From Happiness,” The Big Picture (1997)
It’s only fair to note that this is from The Big Picture, Bernie Taupin’s least favorite album they ever made together (yes, he insists it’s even worse than Leather Jackets). I don’t think it’s terrible or nearly that bad, but it’s a bit of an artifact. By 1997, American rock had long moved on from this soft, breathy big-bass vibe.
231. “The Pink Phantom” (Gorillaz featuring Elton John and 6lack), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
More a feature than a duet, but John’s emphatic vocals here pair well with the Gorillaz pulsating sound. Compared to the other hodgepodge tracks on The Lockdown Sessions it’s probably the coolest, but maybe a bit too cool for school.
230. “The Cage,” Elton John (1970)
A welcome, seemingly straightforward blues rocker that actually makes little sense — “Have you ever lived in a cage / Where you live to be whipped and be tamed” — but doesn’t take anything away from John’s self-titled first real album. There’s an unnecessary electronic instrumental bridge before the horns come smashing back in for a groovy good time, but soon enough you’re back to bopping around.
229. “Son of Your Father,” Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
A little more wah-wah, harmonica, and gospel backing vocals, yet somehow — compared to the stellar tracks on either side of 1970’s Tumbleweed Connection — it comes off feeling like filler. On this album, though, even John and Taupin’s just-okay song has more grit and wail than anything else in sight.
228. “The Big Picture,” The Big Picture (1997)
If this had more theremin, it could have been on a very early Elton John album without raising an eyebrow. It just feels a little late for 1997.
227. “Holiday Inn,” Madman Across the Water (1971)
When you bring your lyricist on tour with you, you get an album with multiple tracks about the road-weary schedule of a rock band crisscrossing America. This is somewhere between “Piano Man” and “On the Road Again” (that would be a great medley, actually). If nothing else, it’s great to see John’s life captured during slightly simpler times.
226. “Made in England,” Made in England (1995)
A bouncy feel-good chorus belies a few sharp elbows from Taupin in the bridge: “You can still say ‘homo’ / And everybody laughs / But the joke’s on you.”
225. “It’s Getting Dark in Here,” Peachtree Road (2004)
Fine, but on the very same album is a very similar song (“Weight of the World”) that is ten times better.
224. “Look Ma, No Hands,” Songs From the West Coast (2001)
This song wants to be good, and this album was pretty warmly received at its release exactly because of tracks like this. But it’s a touch too clever — “it takes a silver tongue to have the Midas touch” — to read true.
223. “Rotten Peaches,” Madman Across the Water (1971)
Technically the first of a two-part song story (picked up in “Have Mercy on the Criminal” on Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player), this track probably has the most egregious examples of John’s twangy Americana accent creeping in, but there is a certain determined doom and gloom to the peach metaphor that just works. Also, I am pretty sure this is the first name-check cocaine receives on an Elton record.
222. “Return to Paradise,” A Single Man (1978)
A little cheesy with its slow-dance island vibes, including Ray Cooper on marimba, but beautifully orchestrated.
221. “Monkey Suit” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
The story behind The Union is nearly as good as the album itself, which is very, very good. Forty years after a young Elton John looked out at the Troubadour audience to see one of his heroes staring back at him, they reunited — helping lift Russell out of a late-life struggle on the edge of poverty — for a dream collaboration fusing the strengths of both powerhouse musicians. The Union is John’s first legitimately great album of the aughts, and while this is the least great song on it — it’s a bit too on the nose and a little Robert Palmer to boot — at least it gets your foot stomping again.
220. “Hearts Have Turned to Stone” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
One of two solo writing credits for Russell on The Union (the other, “If It Wasn’t For Bad,” scored a Grammy nom), and this is unquestionably his song, though Elton still turns in some honky-tonk piano solos. Russell deserves to take center stage at least once here, but it’s also not quite as satisfying as the true two-handers.
219. “Susie (Dramas),” Honky Château (1972)
A monster of a bass line (courtesy of Dee Murray and John’s left hand) propels this standard-issue funk rocker into a deep-chested mid-album throb.
218. “Blues for Baby and Me,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
Sweet-sounding radio rock, almost like a Carpenters song that got lost.
217. “Goodbye,” Madman Across the Water (1971)
A very melancholy sign off for Madman, an otherwise rocking album.
216. “Sweet Painted Lady,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Spiritually, this sounds like a sequel to “Honky Cat,” another New Orleans–esque story song about a lady of the night.
215. “The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34),” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
And here’s the dangerous boyfriend to our “Sweet Painted Lady.”
214. “Part-Time Love,” A Single Man (1978)
The most overtly poppy single off A Single Man. Don’t worry, it still has a disco backbeat and a gospel choir and a guitar solo — the whole kitchen sink.
213. “Tell Me When the Whistle Blows,” Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
Will I ever get out of this small town?, worries the Brown Dirt Cowboy, “a long lost and lonely boy” who’s “just a black sheep going home.”
212. “I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford),” Rock of the Westies (1975)
Musically this up-tempo narrative about Jesse James (kinda) feels like a leftover from a few albums back, even if it’s not nearly as strong as its ilk on Madman or Caribou. But compared to the other uneven tone of Rock of the Westies, it’s identifiably an Elton John joint.
211. “Just Like Noah’s Ark,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
After the slide guitar, at the very end of the track, one of Elton’s dogs barked along in perfect time with the cowbell, and they left it in (along with the laughter of his indulgent human; the easygoing Ryan Adams Heartbreaker-era influence here is strong).
210. “Billy Bones and the White Bird,” Rock of the Westies (1975)
A more Yellow Brick–like arrangement and lyrics — “take the wheel, I hear the timbers creakin’” — but the ship seems to be struggling under its own weight. The weight of cocaine in the captain’s quarters, that is.
209. “One Horse Town,” Blue Moves (1976)
A disco backbeat and orchestral runs laid under a rocker with a heart like “Rock and Roll Madonna.”
208. “Texan Love Song,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
This is a charming little ditty about two long-haired freaks who come through small-town Texas; get called fairies, communists, and hippies; and are threatened with being (at best) run out of town. I cannot believe it hasn’t been on the soundtrack of a big gay movie or even a not-gay art movie.
207. “Never Too Old (to Hold Somebody)” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
A bit of a pep talk set to music.
206. “Out of the Blue,” Blue Moves (1976)
A six-minute interlude on a double album that sounds like an intermission break with the Who. Okay, sure.
205. “Between Seventeen and Twenty,” Blue Moves (1976)
The backstory of the lyrics here is the most Fleetwood Mac drama, with Taupin openly wondering about whether the band’s bass player is sleeping with his wife (spoiler: He is). In a song like this, with Elton voicing such personal dilemmas, the line between the songwriter and the performer blurs even further.
204. “Ego” (1978)
Originally written with Taupin for Blue Moves but released only as a single between that and Elton’s A Single Man, “Ego” is a melodic but pointed diss track dedicated to “the Jaggers and Bowies of this world — and especially to Mr. McCartney,” Elton later said bitingly. “I’m not in it for the bread / I’m in it for the gravy, honey.” (I know I said I’m not ranking B-sides, but if I were going to include any, it would be the one for “Ego,” a track called “Flintstone Boy” that is a very forward call for tolerance of your local drama queen. “He got trouble / But he ain’t got joy,” Elton sings.)
203. “Chasing the Crown” 21 at 33 (1980)
After two albums of a trial separation in which the duo both made music with other people but never quite hit the same highs, Bernie’s back, baby, for three songs on 21 at 33. The LP title is a reference to the total number of albums, studio and otherwise, that John had put out by his Jesus birthday. It’s hardly the best work they’d done together, but it’s somehow reassuring to know how easily they could slip back into their own ways.
202. “Voyeur,” The Diving Board (2013)
The most adult-contemporary-leaning track on The Diving Board, this one features the rare appearance of a vocal cut so clean you can hear the hint of John’s lisp in his evasive (but not creepy) meditations on what you might learn anew from looking back over the years at your love. I think. Bernie’s not quite as senseless than he was in his early days, but sometimes it’s less a narrative and more a vibe, you know?
201. “And the House Fell Down,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
A solid driving melody with lyrics that make an appropriate amount of sort of nonsense — “I put the clock in the drawer ‘cause I’ve canceled out the time” — but you quickly find yourself singing along to.
200. “Two Rooms at the End of the World,” 21 at 33 (1980)
What sounds a lot like an epic assertion of Bernie and Elton’s lifelong partnership, break be damned. And like the other reunited tracks on 21 at 33, it crackles at a different frequency than John’s other co-writes.
199. “Social Disease,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
What would have been a brilliant B-side to “Teenage Idol,” this is a clever ditty about a broke mess of a man who’s having a real good time getting bombed for breakfast, dinner, and tea.
198. “The Best Part of the Day” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
A rare track from The Union that sounds more like a feature for Russell than a duet — and closer to a Bernie-Elton leftover from The Captain & The Kid. There’s a catchy melody, but it doesn’t fit.
197. “Religion,” Too Low for Zero (1983)
“A working girl who loves the Lord” is the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold story filtered through Taupin — you bet your ass they managed to make that rhyme with a line about a “compact Ford.”
196. “Madness,” A Single Man (1978)
Sounds like a sinister missing song from The Who’s Tommy, except for whatever evil force it is that “turns good men bad.” Not as good on that theme as “Ticking” from Caribou is.
195. “Kiss the Bride,” Too Low for Zero (1983)
This album was where Elton met Renata Blauel. When they got impulse-married while making its follow-up, someone played this out the window of the mansion where the paparazzi waited. (It’s a wedding song like how Panic! at the Disco’s “Sins Not Tragedies” is a wedding song — about a man who is not the groom but who still wants to, well, you get the idea.) You may recognize a bit of this from the Dua Lipa duet, too.
194. “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?,” Jump Up! (1982)
It’s almost too on the nose to say a song with this title presaged the hard turn we took from disco hedonism to the AIDS epidemic. This pays homage to the time of the Four Tops, but it would be very Ryan Murphy to play this over a Halston montage.
193. “Crazy Water,” Blue Moves (1976)
A little heavy handed on the fishing metaphors over a funky disco guitar riff, but a lively one.
192. “On Dark Street,” The One (1992)
Working couple’s blues with a little bit of a disco backbeat and some wild key changes.
191. “Crocodile Rock,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
Confession: I hate this song, which was Elton’s first No. 1 single in both the U.K. and U.S. I hate it because it’s a joke — and it’s meant to be, an homage-slash-mockery of “all the rock ’n’ roll records of the 1960s.” But to me, instead of a brilliant send-up, it’s too easy, a cheap derivative. It’s evidence of Elton’s genius that he can toss off a song that precisely mimics a decade of musicology, that he can barely seem to care what he’s lispily singing about, and that he can still walk away with a decades-long hit (at the time I wrote this rant it had 225 million streams on Spotify). Still, to his credit and for all of you who love it so much, there were three times I really enjoyed it: when he played it with Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show; in Rocketman when it’s used as a stand-in for his first performance at the Troubadour, leading the whole crowd to levitate and sing along; and in the live broadcast of his 1979 Russian concerts, when he transitions into a few lines of “Back in the USSR,” a song he was explicitly told not to cover during his show. If you’re going to write a joke track this well, you should at least end it with an international incident. If you’d rather enjoy that punk spirit, check out “Screw You (Young Man’s Blues),” a bonus cut from the album that is similarly a genre-mash song, but at least it’s rebel rock.
190. “Candle in the Wind,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
The story of this song has overtaken the tune itself several times over, but to me it will always be the Medium Place, so we’re putting it right smack in the middle, half the songs above and half below. The original was written quickly. John’s diary entry from that day lists his achievements, in staccato, as: “Got up. Tidied house. Watched football on TV. Wrote ‘Candle in the Wind.’ Went to London. Bought Rolls-Royce. Ringo Starr came to dinner.” It wasn’t released to radio in the U.S. yet still forced Taupin to spend years insisting he wasn’t creepily obsessed with Marilyn Monroe. (“It could have been about James Dean,” he swore, though for his 21st birthday Elton had gifted him a Marilyn dress in a glass case; take that, Kim.) A live version from Australia recharted massively in 1986. And then Princess Diana died, not long after she and Elton had patched up their friendship after a bit of a falling out. Richard Branson rang to say people were leaving lyrics from the song in her memorial books and asked Elton to consider a new version to be sung at the memorial service. It had been a shit summer of 1997 for Elton already — the last time he and Diana had seen each other was when they were sitting at their good friend Gianni Versace’s funeral just a month before — but Bernie obliged with less-ribald words and Elton, though stressed, showed up at Westminster Abbey and then went directly into the recording studio to deliver what became essentially the biggest single record of all time (only Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” released before pop charts even existed, has a legit claim of beating it). Even though the single was intended to raise money for Diana’s charities, the longer it stayed on the charts, the more uncomfortable Elton became, seeing it weekly on Top of the Pops “as if people were somehow wallowing in her death,” he later wrote. “It seemed unhealthy to me.” Elton has enjoyed three generations of friendship and connection to the Royal Family — the fun ones, starting with Princess Margaret and continuing through to Harry and Meghan — but he’s fully retired the revised version of the song.
189. “Shoulder Holster,” Blue Moves (1976)
A tight little murder rocker about a woman who avenges her man’s betrayal but perhaps not without regrets, or so the narrator hopes: “Don’t judge a man by his misdemeanor / You may be sorry when his light goes out.” Marred by some bright sax runs, but if you like it when Haim and T-Swift get revenge, there’s a bit of this in that DNA.
188. “Heart in the Right Place,” The Fox (1981)
“The queen of the sly line / I feed on your fame.” This almost sounds like a Dire Straits song, but this time not in a bad way.
187. “Just Like Belgium,” The Fox (1981)
Again, you can hear the Taupin right off the bat: “The Brussels museum where we piled on the front steps like stray cavaliers.” A little nostalgia and some specific memories built into a somewhat sensical but always lyrical story, and the title phrase is sticky sweet and quick to earworm..
186. “Emily,” The One (1992)
Such a gothic song for a ’90s rocker.
185. “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (with RuPaul), Duets (1993)
Unlike other tracks on Duets, somehow a club remix with RuPaul of the Kiki Dee classic does make sense even if you don’t remember 1993 — maybe because, unlike the other guest stars on this album, Ru only became more famous after this appearance. (Credit where it’s due: Elton’s great mood in this video is probably at least in part because he and his now-husband David Furnish had recently started dating.)
184. “Spiteful Child,” Jump Up! (1982)
One of five Bernie Taupin tracks on Jump Up!, an album Taupin counts among his least favorite, though it’s hardly the worst outing for Elton and a variety of songwriters. I like to imagine this song is about Elton’s longtime manager and first boyfriend, John Reid (“Watching you tear your hair out is gonna be the best part”), though I have absolutely no evidence that it is.
183. “Runaway Train” (with Eric Clapton), The One (1992)
What’s a song in the ’90s without Eric Clapton? He even gets to sing. (This is also on the Lethal Weapon 3 soundtrack, which tells you everything else you need to know.)
182. “Big Dipper,” A Single Man (1978)
Two years after his big Rolling Stone coming out, Elton seems ready to dispense with all but the loosest of metaphors. This Big Easy slow-funk come-on is short on subtlety — “he’s got his own Big Dipper / And won’t be needing yours.” In other great (?) ideas, he also includes the lads from his newest binge-shopping acquisition — an ownership stake in the Watford Football Club — on backup.
181. “Sweat It Out,” The One (1992)
Not the most pointed (or best) song he ever did about Margaret Thatcher (that would be the excellent B-side, “Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher”), but a bit hard to miss the target of ire in this more political track.
180. “Cold As Christmas (In the Middle of the Year),” Too Low for Zero (1983)
This album, his first in four releases fully co-written with Bernie Taupin again, feels more like Bernie’s divorced-dad blues, but it’s beautifully written and produced: “I call the kids on the telephone and say there’s something wrong out here / It’s July but it’s cold as Christmas in the middle of the year.”
179. “Goodbye Marlon Brando,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
“Say goodbye to Jackie Collins” is maybe not the cultural indictment I imagine it was meant to be in 1988, but “I need to put some distance between overkill and me” — plus some screaming guitar solos from o.g. Davey Johnstone — makes the point well enough that the times they were a-changin’.
178. “Heavy Traffic,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
This is a song written by some men (also including Johnstone) who knew exactly how much fun it would be live. It has a little Paul Simon vibe to it, but years ahead.
177. “I Must Have Lost It on the Wind,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
It’s ironic that Taupin has been writing wistful, nostalgic lyrics since he was barely out of his teens, but they sound appropriately well earned here many decades later.
176. “Whipping Boy,” Too Low for Zero (1983)
A simplistic stand-your-ground quick jive, but there’s something in it where you can hear the young Elton and Bernie trying like hell to make it through their 30s.
175. “Hold Me Closer” (with Britney Spears) (2022)
First listen: WTF am I hearing? Twentieth listen: Can’t stop, won’t stop. If anyone were to lure Britney Spears back into a recording studio thousands of miles away to lay down a wildly varied series of standalone lyrics — from “Tiny Dancer,” “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” and “The One” — and her signature kitty-cat vocalizations, it was apparently Elton John. And we should be glad he did, not just because a world without Britney megamixes is a sad version of our universe no one, especially Sir Elton, should have to suffer through. “She’s been away so long,” he told the Guardian. “There’s a lot of fear there because she’s been betrayed so many times.” The song was a No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance hit, inspiring more twirly Instagram videos and a pledge from John to consider making this new style of collab an annual summer treat and giving him a 51-year span of top-ten Billboard hits across his career. But will it hold up if it turns out to be the only return this blue-jean queen makes to music?
174. “I Can’t Keep This from You,” Peachtree Road (2004)
I wish Elton John had recorded this song 30 years earlier. I want to know what he would have sounded like singing it: Bold? Defiant? Shy? Cocky? He’s not even singing about being queer so much as having a long-time pine for someone. But it would have, as they say, hit different then.
173. “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters (Part Two),” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
A literal sequel to a classic, but it’s now a brassy, sassy time in New York, especially compared to their first scary dark days in the big city.
172. “Wrap Her Up,” Ice on Fire (1985)
There are two ways to interpret this song. One is as a straight-up shitty, sexist list of interchangeable ladies that Bernie and/or Elton would like to take home and have their way with. The other is as an absolutely unhinged Wham rap camp romp with a bridge as nonsensical as Madonna’s “Vogue” — Nancy Reagan and Linda Lovelace make appearances — except sung along with George Michael. Get all the way to the end and you win a prize: You’re done.
171. “Town of Plenty,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
Some three years and a voice-altering throat surgery later, John came back from the nadir of Leather Jackets with a strong comeback contender, Reg Strikes Back. His buddy Pete Townshend joins him again for this more typically upbeat if not wholly remarkable John rocker — a homage to a town of plenty “with no media.” (The album cover features a pile of hats and clothes collected to auction off at Sotheby’s post-divorce.) There are a lot of old friends from previous bands who join up for this outing, but it’s the addition of three backup singers throughout that deepens the sound the most.
170. “Burning Buildings,” Breaking Hearts (1984)
More like “Breaking Hearts (Is Hard to Do)” than anything else on the album. This is Elton at his Billy Joel best.
169. “Satellite,” Ice on Fire (1985)
It’s Bernie’s space world; we all just drop in and visit occasionally. It’s getting mellow as fuck up on his ship.
168. “Durban Deep,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
It took another bit to stick, but John was sober — and essentially stranded in the middle of rural Denmark — when he made Sleeping with the Past, and he was still energized from recapturing his groove with Reg Strikes Back. The sound is very much of the late 1980s but meant to evoke favorites from the 1960s; tracks like “Durban Deep” are as much about a mood as anything else.
167. “Healing Hands,” Sleeping With the Past (1989)
This was the first of three big singles from Sleeping With the Past and helped push the album to be Elton’s biggest U.K. seller up to that point. It’s the beginning of some legitimately feel-good power-rock efforts and does more than hold its own in that genre.
166. “Step into Christmas” (1973)
Without this one-off I can’t imagine we’d ever have gotten Love, Actually. The song is deliberately compressed to sound like a Phil Spector track, and a video John made for the Gilbert O’Sullivan Show in 1973 features a rare cameo from Bernie mimicking Ray Cooper on bells.
165. “A Word in Spanish,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
Bernie playing dumb about how Spanish works shouldn’t be this charming, but somehow Elton pulls it off.
164. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (1975)
Half of a bet between Elton John and John Lennon, this cover was most memorably performed at Madison Square Garden and features Lennon on guitar and backing vocals. The Elton-ification of the Beatles song is solid but not particularly revelatory; it’s jarring to hear him slide back from a country twang to an almost Liverpudlian accent. One of the best anecdotes in John’s memoir is about getting so high with Lennon that they refused to answer the hotel-room door when Andy Warhol showed up, sure he’d have a camera in hand and presumably ruin whatever lost weekend they were determined to have.
163. “Dear John,” Jump Up! (1982)
A very spirited opener to Jump Up!, a lively album full of sparkly pop-rock about breakups and Elton’s second LP with Geffen Records. This track is like if Robert Palmer recorded an even peppier version of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” It’s fucking catchy, though.
162. “Whispers,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
About as adult contemporary as Elton gets, but there’s something sincere here that I always loved. Also, you can hear how quickly he’s moved from playing acoustic pianos to the electronic Roland, and it’s not terrible.
161. “The Captain and the Kid,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
Fittingly, this is the first album cover on which Taupin also appears — astride a horse, of course. (The son of a farmer, Bernie spent a couple decades, starting in the 1990s, at his Santa Barbara ranch riding in local shows.) This tune closes out their second joint memoir, rather than opening it, but they’ve lived up to their promise: “No lies at all / just one more tale.”
160. “Stones Throw From Hurtin’,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
The vocals are heavily processed — almost to the point of being unrecognizable — but the bones of this song are good, which is probably why Wynonna Judd’s version is better.
159. “American Triangle,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
“It’s a cold, cold wind,” John sings on the excellent chorus with Rufus Wainwright on backup vocals. The full track, about the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, isn’t as consistently powerful as its refrain, but at its best it’s deeply emotional.
158. “Breaking Down Barriers,” The Fox (1981)
The Fox was the first album John made for Geffen Records, which promised him complete artistic creative license, and it is a great step forward from his messy, coked-out quasi-disco period. It’s criminally underrated and not much of a commercial success, but the 1980s version of John finally crystallized here. He’s a little more bitter, but he’s also taking himself seriously again.
157. “I Never Knew Her Name,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
The Taupin-John wedding band is back.
156. “Birds,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
If only Ryan Adams hadn’t turned out to be such an asshole, it would be easier to revel in the obvious ways he and Elton influenced each other.
155. “When a Woman Doesn’t Want You,” The One 1992)
This could have really gone either way, especially given some of the other extreme lowlights of their ball-and-chain songs past, but instead this is a real Bonnie Raitt–ish tribute to respecting a woman’s wishes. The irony, I’m assuming, is deliberate: “You gotta play it straight / When a woman doesn’t want you.”
154. “Sleeping with the Past,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
This song by Taupin could easily be from a woman’s perspective, or maybe it’s Elton finally and more comfortably singing about loving complicated men.
153. “Old ’67,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
Taupin pulls no punches at their by now old old-man routine — like a Tennessee Williams play, they say. “It’s amazing / That we can get together at all / For in between the saddle and the grand piano / We can read the writing on the wall.”
152. “A Woman’s Needs” (with Tammy Wynette), Duets (1993)
It’s hard not to think that had Elton John been less controversially queer, we would have heard him duet with every powerhouse female vocalist, including country music’s finest. But maybe, as Tina Turner may have reported, he wasn’t as easy a song partner as one might have hoped. This is a solid duet, but the slide guitar is doing a lot of the work.
151. “Val-Hala,” Empty Sky (1970)
A bit of a Nick Drake vibe carries Taupin’s gentle, almost romantic take on Thor. Plus John plays harpsichord. An early hint of brilliance.
150. “E-Ticket” (with Eddie Vedder), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
Eddie Vedder’s contribution to this sometimes jarring juxtaposition of collaborations is solidly Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player. John likened this collection to his days in the 1960s as a studio session player, and while this track is nothing like the others, in a streaming-singles world, it’s just two good dudes excited to jam together.
149. “Club at the End of the Street,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
Do I love this song because videos with animated extras — especially singing or dancing cats! — were a formative part of my MTV age or because even as a youngster it seemed quite obviously queer? Maybe it’s just because it has a nice throwback vibe to it (those “Kokomo” backing vocals!).
148. “Lady Samantha” (1969)
There’s more momentum on this track than in most of the early songs put together — it “felt like a breakthrough,” John once said — and it was a good choice for John’s first live BBC appearance. It was also a top-ten hit in the U.S. when covered by Three Dog Night.
147. “Always Love You” (with Young Thug and Nicki Minaj), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
John said a Minaj collab was a “bucket list” goal, and he saves what is probably the best new hook of the entire Lockdown collection for her. What happens from there feels predictable — everyone gets a rap verse and sometimes a secondary hook layered under it — but each time it circles back to “I will always love you / Even if you let me go,” it amps up like a key change.
146. “Western Ford Gateway,” Empty Sky (1970)
A short and sweet country song, it would have fit well on a later LP like Honky Château or Madman Across the Water. The Band was a major influence on John’s early work, and you can hear that here.
145. “Blue Avenue,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
Beautifully layered with just a few new tricks up its sleeve.
144. “Original Sin,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Clever without being cutesy, this tale of love as old as time is one of the best on the album.
143. “Shoot Down the Moon,” Ice on Fire (1985)
Would you like to have your heart stomped on? Or consider the regret you have for how you’ve treated the ones you love most? Here you go. “We can build a bridge between us / But the empty space remains.” If I had a time machine, I’d take all the ballads from the mid-’80s records and make one long depressing but beautiful album out of them.
142. “Amazes Me,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
It’s good to hear John get his gospel back here.
141. “Cold Heart (PNAU remix)” (with Dua Lipa), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
The idea of this — longtime John remixers PNAU tackle not just “Rocket Man” but three less well-known John tracks, as sung by Dua Lipa — was at first a bit of a baffling pivot for John in 2021, but it quickly proved itself to be an earworm-y, chest-thudding return-to-society dance hit.
140. “I Want Love,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
John’s refreshingly unsentimental vocal delivery is persuasively performed in the video by Robert Downey Jr. (as directed by 50 Shades of Grey’s Sam Taylor-Johnson), and the song was eventually nominated for a Grammy.
139. “Tower of Babel,” Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
“Jesus don’t save the guys / In the Tower of Babel,” John sings here as he dodges and weaves through the guitar lines of Davey Johnstone.
138. “Legal Boys,” Jump Up! (1982)
The first co-write for Elton and Tim Rice, later his longtime and much-lauded movie-musical and Broadway partner. Originally drafted as part of the Thom Bell sessions but revived for Jump Up! the next year, where it thematically fits the divorce themes found elsewhere on the album except with far more dash and verve. It’s exactly the right amount of bitter and biting and melodic. “Oh they’ll let us know the cost,” he sings of the only ones in a divorce who come out ahead: the lawyers.
137. “Carla/Etude - Fanfare - Chloe,” The Fox (1981)
A gorgeous and fully orchestrated etude from The Fox that stretches over 11 minutes and into two other movements, the first a synth fanfare and the second a full-throated rocker featuring a series of heartbroken and heartbreaking questions to a desperate lover. Genuinely and weirdly welcome after Elton interpreted artistic freedom as the right to make truly terrible albums, and then beautifully revived for the massive Australian tour of 1986. It’s not included on that release but can be seen (thank God) on YouTube.
136. “Salvation,” Honky Château (1972)
“When we went to record Honky Château we thought ‘Salvation’ would be the single,” John said, and the song fits squarely in their “Burn Down the Mission” and “Border Song” oeuvre, almost possible to play as a triptych. “What we need are willing hands,” John sings. “You must feel the sweat in your eyes.”
135. “I Need You to Turn To,” Elton John (1970)
The harpsichord-led accompaniment hearkens back to John’s first album, but there’s a clear leap forward here — sonically it’s edited down to essentials versus the earlier kitchen-sink approach. The waltzing troubadour construction hints at “Streets of Laredo,” a John and Taupin fave. “I had barely touched a harpsichord before we hired one for ‘I Need You To Turn To,’” John said. “It was a really hard instrument to play, but I did it.”
134. “Elton’s Song,” The Fox (1981)
Written with Tom Robinson and only later included on 1981’s The Fox, Elton would call this his “first gay song that I actually recorded as a homosexual song” — that is to say without any coyness or cover from Taupin. The video even reflected the theme — a boy’s crush on an older guy — though Elton doesn’t actually appear himself.
133. “The Wasteland,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
John evokes Robert Johnson’s devilish crossroads dilemma here and channels the sound of it, too.
132. “Country Comfort,” Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
Exactly as advertised, including sing-along refrains you’ll feel like you have always known even if you’re hearing it for the first time. If this could be slotted into any jukebox still playing “Sweet Home Alabama,” we’d all be better off.
131. “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” (with Glen Campbell), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
Are you going to begrudge John the chance to go back into Abbey Road and lay down some piano and vocals for his favorite sad song by the late Glen Campbell about having Alzheimer’s? Neither am I.
130. “Bitter Fingers,” Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
One of many songs on Captain Fantastic that’s just about writing songs, and yet sounds like it’s about something far bigger and more important.
129. “A Town Called Jubilee,” The Diving Board (2013)
A gospel chorus weighs in for the third cut on The Diving Board, which is really an album that should be listened to straight through for maximum melodic-layering appreciation. Bernie’s back in a dusty western and John’s singing like he’s right there with him, tickling out a piano flourish with a tilt of his hat. The sound and songs here are so consistent and wholly realized it’s almost as if they made a movie without the picture, something like Crazy Heart but gayer. (Thankfully Elton’s ego doesn’t extend to overestimating his onscreen acting ability.)
128. “A Dream Come True” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
Russell’s in the driver’s seat here and sounds like a real comeback king creating the soundtrack to the montage of his triumphant return. “Somehow I know that you’re a dream come true,” he sings like a man 40 years younger; when he says “life is good,” you believe him. Following The Union, which went to No. 2 on the Billboard rock chart and No. 3 on the 200, Russell not only got to tour “places Leon said he’d never seen the inside of in decades” but also got a new record deal, toured on his own, and played right up until his death in 2016. “If you didn’t see him,” John later wrote, “I’m sorry: you missed out.”
127. “This Song Has No Title,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Among the best of the too-clever ditties, in this case in clear tribute to the best of the Sgt. Pepper’s–era Beatles. Elton’s piano work here dances by so quickly and smartly it’s easy to miss how brilliant it is.
126. “Oscar Wilde Gets Out,” The Diving Board (2013)
The second track of The Diving Board — John’s second collab with producer T Bone Burnett and the first solo studio album John had made in seven years — kicks it up a small but serious notch by adding in a bass (Raphael Saadiq) and drums. They accompany John and his piano in this Taupin-penned story of a very specific incident in the gay writer’s difficult life: his release from prison after being imprisoned for sodomy. “It has a sadness to it, which, you know, is the story of Oscar Wilde,” John said. Still, the bridge breaks into a livelier if bitter barroom bounce, evoking Wilde’s flashy comebacks.
125. “Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll),” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
If you’re gonna talk shit about somebody’s sister, do it this well.
124. “Postcards from Richard Nixon,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
From the opening notes of The Captain & the Kid, sequel to the dual-autobiographical Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, there’s a reassuring sonic and storytelling familiarity. Bernie and Elton are back with the story of their own partnership, picking up where they left off, relatively speaking — on a “big red bus” doing promo while Richard Nixon’s saying, “I gotta go, but you can stay.”
123. “When Love Is Dying” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
Just a little torch song in the middle of an Americana album. “Nobody told me how to fight a world of hurt / Somebody help me now” is a bruiser coming from Russell’s mouth, but it still begs to be belted out. Somebody cover this gem!
122. “Where to Now St. Peter?,” Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
If this song appeared on a Mumford & Sons album today, it wouldn’t sound out of place. You can almost feel John not being able to keep himself from writing a perfect pop hook and then burying it in a concept album about the American West.
121. “Better Off Dead,” Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
A whimsical roundabout melody circling the darkest of themes (again): “You’re better off dead / If you haven’t yet died.”
120. “Gone to Shiloh” (with Leon Russell, featuring Neil Young), The Union (2010)
A dirge-y heartbreaker with guest star Neil Young that reimagines the Civil War through the eyes of a young man off to fight for the titular Union.
119. “Merry Christmas” (with Ed Sheeran), The Lockdown Sessions (2021)
Unexpectedly sincere and sweet. Of all The Lockdown cuts, it’s the most deliberately commercial, designed specifically for the U.K. singles chart (where it of course entered at No. 1). It’s a short, jolly, upbeat, and slightly wistful holiday tune — with a tiny COVID twist of the knife suspended amid snowflakes and jingle bells: “Know there’s been pain this year, but it’s time to let it go,” Sheeran sings, just before John belts back, “My God, you look beautiful.”
118. “Shine on Through,” A Single Man (1978)
The first track from the pointedly named A Single Man — written not by himself but, for the first time, without Bernie — was actually produced as part of Elton’s shelved sessions with classic Philadelphia soul producer Thom Bell the year before and co-written by Gary Osborne. We can thank Bell for finally saying to Elton’s face what was becoming clear on earlier albums: His falsetto needed work, or at least less time in the foreground; the strength of the ballads this time around, mostly in a lower register, seem to reflect that advice. Unlike with Bernie, Elton and Gary tended to write music and lyrics in the same room at the same time, and the overall result yielded more personal, if less magical, songs. The cover art — Elton in a funereal formal suit, posed on the Long Walk leading to Windsor Castle — was a not particularly subtle sign that unlike in the manic decade before, Elton was now making more of his own choices.
117. “Sacrifice,” Sleeping with the Past (1989)
This track is a bridge to the 1990s Elton John “Circle of Life” tracks — just a solid and sincere rock ballad. (You may recognize it from Sinead O’Connor’s excellent cover or that hook from the Dua Lipa megamix.)
116. “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore,” Songs from the West Coast (2001)
The video for this standout track (starring Justin Timberlake as Elton, basically) kickstarted John’s collaboration with David LaChapelle, whom he also hired to design his Las Vegas show, the Red Piano, and it could have led to Timberlake being cast in Rocketman had it not taken so long to actually get made. It takes the whole album to get Taupin and John sounding like they are completely on the same page, but when they finally hit their stride, it’s as good as ever. “It ended up being a very Californian-sounding record,” John said, “as if the warmth gets into your bones and relaxes you, and the sunlight somehow glows in the music you make.”
115. “Nikita,” Ice on Fire (1985)
John later talked about how this song was inspired in part by the KGB agent assigned to him during his 1979 trip to the USSR — with whom he slept with during their long train travel between cities (because why not?!). Nikita is clearly a Russian man’s name, even though the music video treatment allowed a cool blonde woman to stand in as the object of his affection, a border guard on the cold side of the Cold War. (Listen closely and you can hear George Michael, still in his Wham days, singing backup.)
114. “Simple Life,” The One (1992)
Finally totally sober — post-rehab for alcohol, drugs, bulimia, and other addictions, like fame — Elton John came out with this song from The One, which I’d count as the true comeback moment of his career. The big ’90s sound is solid and grounded, and the flourishes seem intentional rather than like a fancy distraction.
113. “Eight Hundred Dollar Shoes” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
“You came to town in headlines and $800 shoes” is the perfect self-recrimination.
112. “Cage the Songbird,” Blue Moves (1976)
A beautiful, early Buckingham-Nicks sound that is supposedly about the end of Edith Piaf’s life and the slow twilight of fame. Blue Moves itself is a bit of a lost album, having seemingly suffered from Elton’s big Rolling Stone coming-out moment and the backlash that followed. But it’s musically and lyrically stronger than its predecessor, Rock of the Westies, and was the last true Taupin-John collaboration for many years.
111. “Stolen Car” (with Stevie Nicks), Duets (1993)
In the liner notes to the Duets album, John writes, “Stevie and I sound like an old married couple having an argument,” and he means it as the compliment it should be. This would have fit in well on any of the sans-Bernie 1980s albums — the lyrics aren’t exactly poetic, but the delivery of both parts is a good old-fashioned barn fire.
110. “Fascist Faces,” The Fox (1981)
A scathing indictment of casual indifference to politics (I think?) from Taupin with a driving rock beat and a properly used gospel choir on the chorus, welcome after the de rigeur application during the disco days.
109. “Talking Old Soldiers,” Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
The spare piano accompaniment showcases John’s soulful delivery and Taupin’s succinct storytelling, a crisp monologue from the point of view of (what else?) an old soldier sitting at a bar, sorting through his memories of friends and days gone by. It’s timeless — could be any fighter from any war in any country left to his own long survival.
108. “The Ballad of Blind Tom,” The Diving Board (2013)
Back in Bernie’s history books — this one’s about Thomas Wiggins, a composer and performer born a slave in the 19th century — but unlike some other efforts in a similar lane, the lyrics and melody rumble through a tight four-minute story that makes you want to learn more. (Start here.)
107. “Roy Rogers,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
A catchy and unexpectedly effective homage to TV westerns, also well covered by Kacey Musgraves on the 2018 Restorations collection.
106. “It Ain’t Gonna Be Easy,” A Single Man (1978)
It almost sounds five years early, better suited to American rock ballads in the 1980s, with a lonely sharp guitar solo befitting a Hollywood drama (think: Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer”). The lyrics aren’t groundbreaking, but they showcase a more involved-sounding Elton on vocals.
105. “Finish Line” (with Stevie Wonder), Duets (1993)
Despite nearly a half-century of friendship, Wonder and John had never done a proper duet together. “Stevie sounds like he’s 19 again,” John wrote in the liner notes. (If you haven’t read John’s stellar memoir, Me, it might be worth it just for the story he tells about Stevie Wonder … snowmobiling.) Between the two men, they’ve eked out more than a dozen cat’s lives, and earned every second of the soulful heights this song hits.
104. “Chameleon,” Blue Moves (1976)
Both Bernie and Elton were in a breakup-song kind of mood on Blue Moves, with their longest relationships cracked up in the wake of Westies. This smooth rocker has a soft, wounded underbelly, full of confusion over love that’s clearly gone off track.
103. “Mexican Vacation (Kids in the Candlelight),” The Diving Board (2013)
Taupin, who was 62 when The Diving Board was released, seems to have been enjoying a certain later-in-life domestic bliss as surely as John was. There’s a foot-stomping grin of a heartbeat to John’s piano riffs, too, content but happy.
102. “I’m Gonna Be a Teenage Idol,” Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (1973)
A cheeky tribute to his friend Marc Bolan — who John later called “the perfect pop star” and a “great role model” — “Idol” is a self-aware but more serious first-person song seemingly directed at critics than “Going to Kill Myself” (though it would have made a great A-side to it).
101. “In the Hands of Angels” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
The Union closes with a thank you from Russell to John in the form of this song, because as he told Rolling Stone: “I wanted to give him something for doing this for me: ‘What can I give this guy? He has ten of everything.’ I went in and sang it, two keys too high. Then I did it again, lower. That’s the take on the album.” Cameron Crowe filmed the recording session, because of course he did. It’s hard but not impossible to find the doc online — and worth it.
100. “Take This Dirty Water,” The Diving Board (2013)
This is what it sounds like when absurd natural talent and decades of experience yield a track that seems to be almost effortlessly well executed. It’s not the best or most famous song he’ll ever make, but it’s still better than almost anything else that’s been recorded.
99. “Harmony,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
This Beatles-esque good-bye to a long double album, also released as the B-side to “Bennie and the Jets,” was never officially a single but did get a lot of play at radio stations, especially those that counted fan requests in their own chart numbers. A briefly available video assembled for the song’s 40th anniversary includes rare Super 8 footage shot on Elton’s mile-high party plane, including Stevie Wonder and many others.
98. “I Should Have Sent Roses” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
“I didn’t know how to love you, though I loved you so much.” A pretty perfect slice of acute lovelorn regret.
97. “I’ve Seen That Movie Too,” Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Begging for a smoke-filled cabaret version or cover, maybe by Sam Smith. At its core, though, it’s a perfect example of the often-forgotten mid-album track — heads above almost anything else out there, emotional and cinematic and crisply orchestrated.
96. “The Fox,” The Fox (1981)
This title track closes out the album with exactly the right amount of harmonica, of backing vocals, of carefully composed couplets: “It’s an evergreen affair, as tradition taunts the fox / Into the hunter’s waiting lair.”
93, 94, 95. “Dream #1, #2, and #3,” The Diving Board (2013)
The three “Dream” interludes on The Diving Board — all improvised piano-only passages — serve as perfect nocturnal bridges carrying us through this underrated album.
92. “Can’t Stay Alone Tonight,” The Diving Board (2013)
A classic country-western spin around the sawdust-strewn dance floor: “Things have to change / And they might.” There’s a pleasant simplicity here that calls back to “I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues,” but John’s general happiness shines through even the wistful lyrics.
91. “Heels of the Wind,” The Fox (1981)
“How come it gets so disturbing / When two ships pass in the storm?” Maybe because when they finally collide again you get a song like this, one of four from Taupin on this open marriage of an album.
90. “I Don’t Wanna Go on with You Like That,” Reg Strikes Back (1988)
More than any other track off the struggling Reg Strikes Back, this song feels like he’s remembered how to do it and make it look easy — a bittersweet but not totally twisted breakup tune, maybe best known for its whoa-ohs.
89. “Shooting Star,” A Single Man (1978)
Somehow this sounds both like the Carpenters and a Donna Summer “On the Radio” rip. But it’s a great tragic little song about being in love with someone whose fame takes them away from you.
88. “Idol,” Blue Moves (1976)
Could have been the B-side to George Michael’s “Kissing a Fool,” or maybe Michael borrowed more from Elton than even he admitted. Based on Elton’s own recounting of his sad later-career encounter with Elvis, this is almost certainly his love letter to the King That Was. After a brutal critique of his fading looks, the song ends with the ultimate knife-twist: “I have to say, I like the way his music sounded before.”
87. “Crystal,” Too Low For Zero (1983)
I’m not totally sure this song is about coke, but with a title like that why wouldn’t it be? It’s also catchy as hell.
86. “Boogie Pilgrim,” Blue Moves (1976)
A bluesy state-of-the-times lament, with an organ, deep horn line, and falsetto chorus filled in by a Baptist choir.
85. “Tinderbox,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
“Lately we’ve been getting more roll than rock,” The Captain & the Kid warn in this pointed couples-therapy self-assessment, presumably of Elton and Bernie’s relationship, though it gets a bit heated at points. “We’ve gotta climb out of the other one’s pocket / Or we’re gonna burn out on this beautiful rocket.”
84. “Where’s the Shoorah?,” Blue Moves (1976)
“Amoreena” all grown up, including a gospel chorus. Evocative, emotional, quietly wrenching
83. “There’s No Tomorrow” (with Leon Russell), The Union (2010)
The most gospel track of the album also features one of its few pure electric-guitar solos. But it feels a bit repetitive.
82. “The Bridge,” The Captain & the Kid (2006)
An almost but not quite maudlin contemplation of the inevitability of death. Unlike the jokey dark humor of their youth, this one’s deeply serious: “On a distant beach your song can die / On a bitter wind, on a cruel tide.” John’s voice here sounds raw, almost his age, a vivid plea to be heard or hear himself.
81. “If There’s a God in Heaven (What’s He Waiting For?),” Blue Moves (1976)
This harks back to earlier, Honky Château–era John rockers, organ, and deep thoughts.
80. “Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!),” Blue Moves (1976)
A real “you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here” end to Blue Moves, which is at heart a moody double album. Back to the blues-rock bars we go with a little disco beat thrown in, but it’s still Saturday night here in this club.
79. “Curtains,” Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
Folksy and simple, almost like a yearning Nick Drake song that returns the young protagonists of Captai | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 0 | 77 | https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html | en | Linda Ronstadt’s Borderland | [
"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/12/29/travel/29ronstadt-slide-2FEN/29ronstadt-slide-2FEN-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Lawrence Downes"
] | 2013-12-29T00:00:00 | Taking a road trip with the singer through southern Arizona and northern Mexico, a region where her roots run deep. | en | /vi-assets/static-assets/favicon-d2483f10ef688e6f89e23806b9700298.ico | https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/travel/linda-ronstadts-borderland.html | We are driving outside Naco, Ariz., near the Mexico border, on a two-lane blacktop under a half-moon and stars. The distant mountains are lost in shadow, and there’s not much to look at beyond the headlight beams and the rolling highway stripes.
In the middle seat of the minivan, Linda Ronstadt is talking about her childhood.
“We used to sing, ‘Don’t go in the cage tonight, Mother darling, for the lions are ferocious and may bite. And when they get their angry fits, they will tear you all to bits, so don’t go in the lion’s cage tonight!’ We had really good harmonies worked out for that.”
“We” is her sister, Suzy, and her brother Peter, who used to terrify her when she had to go to the woodpile at night.
“My brother would load me up as much as he could then he’d tell me, ‘There’s a ghost!’ and then he’d run and then — Aaaaaah!! — there’d be kindling spread all over the ground.” | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 81 | https://kids.kiddle.co/Linda_Ronstadt | en | Linda Ronstadt facts for kids | [
"https://kids.kiddle.co/images/wk/kids-robot.svg",
"https://kids.kiddle.co/images/wk/kids-search-engine.svg",
"https://kids.kiddle.co/images/thumb/e/e5/Linda_Ronstadt_1976.jpg/300px-Linda_Ronstadt_1976.jpg",
"https://kids.kiddle.co/images/thumb/3/32/Zangeres_Linda_Ronstadt_op_Schiphol%2C_Bestanddeelnr_928-897... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | Learn Linda Ronstadt facts for kids | en | /images/wk/favicon-16x16.png | https://kids.kiddle.co/Linda_Ronstadt | Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award. Many of her albums have been certified gold, platinum or multiplatinum in the United States and internationally. She has also earned nominations for a Tony Award and a Golden Globe award. She was awarded the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Latin Recording Academy in 2011 and also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award by the Recording Academy in 2016. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014. On July 28, 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities. In 2019, she received a star jointly with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their work as the group Trio. Ronstadt was among five honorees who received the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements.
Ronstadt has released 24 studio albums and 15 compilation or greatest hits albums. She charted 38 US Billboard Hot 100 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40, ten reached the top 10, and one reached number one ("You're No Good"). Ronstadt also charted in UK as two of her duets, "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram and "Don't Know Much" with Aaron Neville, peaked at numbers 8 and 2 respectively and the single "Blue Bayou" reached number 35 on the UK Singles charts. She has charted 36 albums, ten top-10 albums, and three number 1 albums on the US Billboard Pop Album Chart.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists in diverse genres, including: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bette Midler, Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Carla Bley (Escalator Over the Hill), Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Warren Zevon, Gram Parsons, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Earl Scruggs, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums and has sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. Christopher Loudon, of Jazz Times, wrote in 2004 that Ronstadt is "blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation."
Ronstadt reduced her activity after 2000 when she felt her singing voice deteriorating. She released her final solo album in 2004 and her final collaborative album in 2006 and performed her final live concert in 2009. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease but later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. Since then, Ronstadt has continued to make public appearances, going on a number of public speaking tours in the 2010s. She published an autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, in September 2013. A documentary based on her memoirs, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, was released in 2019.
Early life
Linda Maria Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona, on July 15, 1946, the third of four children of Gilbert Ronstadt (1911–1995), a prosperous machinery merchant who ran the F. Ronstadt Co., and Ruth Mary (née Copeman) Ronstadt (1914–1982), a homemaker.
Ronstadt was raised on the family's 10-acre (4 ha) ranch with her siblings Peter (who served as Tucson's Chief of Police for ten years, 1981–1991), Michael, and Gretchen. The family was featured in Family Circle magazine in 1953.
Ronstadt family history
Ronstadt's father came from a pioneering Arizona ranching family and was of Mexican descent with a German male ancestor. The family's influence on and contributions to Arizona's history, including wagon making, commerce, pharmacies, and music, are documented in the library of the University of Arizona. Her great-grandfather, the engineer Friedrich August Ronstadt (who went by Federico Augusto Ronstadt), immigrated first to Sonora, Mexico and later to the Southwest (then a part of Mexico) in the 1840s from Hanover, Germany. He married a Mexican citizen, and eventually settled in Tucson. In 1991, the City of Tucson opened its central transit terminal on March 16 and dedicated it to Linda's grandfather, Federico José María Ronstadt, a local pioneer businessman; he was a wagon maker whose early contribution to the city's mobility included six mule-drawn streetcars delivered in 1903–04.
Ronstadt's mother Ruth Mary, of German, English, and Dutch ancestry, was raised in Flint, Michigan. Ruth Mary's father, Lloyd Groff Copeman, a prolific inventor and holder of nearly 700 patents, invented an early form of the electric toaster, many refrigerator devices, the grease gun, the first electric stove, and an early form of the microwave oven. His flexible rubber ice cube tray earned him millions of dollars in royalties.
Career summary
Establishing her professional career in the mid-1960s at the forefront of California's emerging folk rock and country rock movements – genres which defined post-1960s rock music – Ronstadt joined forces with Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards and became the lead singer of a folk-rock trio, the Stone Poneys. Later, as a solo artist, she released Hand Sown ... Home Grown in 1969, which has been described as the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. Although fame eluded her during these years, Ronstadt actively toured with the Doors, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, and others, appeared numerous times on television shows, and began to contribute her singing to albums by other artists.
With the release of chart-topping albums such as Heart Like a Wheel, Simple Dreams, and Living in the USA, Ronstadt became the first female "arena class" rock star. She set records as one of the top-grossing concert artists of the decade. Referred to as the "First Lady of Rock" and the "Queen of Rock", Ronstadt was voted the Top Female Pop Singer of the 1970s. Her rock-and-roll image was as famous as her music; she appeared six times on the cover of Rolling Stone and on the covers of Newsweek and Time.
In the 1980s, Ronstadt performed on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for her performance in The Pirates of Penzance, teamed with the composer Philip Glass, recorded traditional music, and collaborated with the conductor Nelson Riddle, an event at that time viewed as an original and unorthodox move for a rock-and-roll artist. This venture paid off, and Ronstadt remained one of the music industry's best-selling acts throughout the 1980s, with multi-platinum-selling albums such as Mad Love; What's New; Canciones de Mi Padre; and Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. She continued to tour, collaborate, and record celebrated albums, such as Winter Light and Hummin' to Myself, until her retirement in 2011. Most of Ronstadt's albums are certified gold, platinum, or multi-platinum. Having sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide and setting records as one of the top-grossing concert performers for over a decade, Ronstadt was the most successful female singer of the 1970s and stands as one of the most successful female recording artists in U.S. history. She opened many doors for women in rock and roll and other musical genres by championing songwriters and musicians, pioneering her chart success onto the concert circuit, and being in the vanguard of many musical movements.
Career overview
Early influences
Ronstadt's early family life was filled with music and tradition, which influenced the stylistic and musical choices she later made in her career. Growing up, she listened to many types of music, including Mexican music, which was sung by her entire family and was a staple in her childhood.
Ronstadt has remarked that everything she has recorded on her own records – rock and roll, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachi – is all music she heard her family sing in their living room or heard played on the radio, by the age of 10. She credits her mother for her appreciation of Gilbert and Sullivan and her father for introducing her to the traditional pop and Great American Songbook repertoire that she would, in turn, help reintroduce to an entire generation.
Early on, her singing style had been influenced by singers such as Lola Beltrán and Édith Piaf; she has called their singing and rhythms "more like Greek music ... It's sort of like 6/8 time signature ... very hard driving and very intense." She also drew influence from country singer Hank Williams.
She has said that "all girl singers" eventually "have to curtsy to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday". Of Maria Callas, Ronstadt says, "There's no one in her league. That's it. Period. I learn more ... about singing rock n roll from listening to Maria Callas records than I ever would from listening to pop music for a month of Sundays. ... She's the greatest chick singer ever." She admires Callas for her musicianship and her attempts to push 20th-century singing, particularly opera, back into the bel canto "natural style of singing".
A self-described product of American radio of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronstadt is a fan of its eclectic and diverse music programming.
Beginning of professional career
At age 14, Ronstadt formed a folk trio with her brother Peter and sister Gretchen. The group played coffeehouses, fraternity houses, and other small venues, billing themselves as "the Union City Ramblers" and "the Three Ronstadts", and they even recorded themselves at a Tucson studio under the name "the New Union Ramblers". Their repertoire included the music they grew up on – folk, country, bluegrass, and Mexican. But increasingly, Ronstadt wanted to make a union of folk music and rock 'n' roll, and in 1964, after a semester at the University of Arizona, the 18-year-old decided to move to Los Angeles.
The Stone Poneys
Main article: Stone Poneys
Ronstadt visited a friend from Tucson, Bobby Kimmel, in Los Angeles during Easter break from college in 1964, and later that year, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, decided to move there permanently to form a band with him. Kimmel had already begun co-writing folk-rock songs with guitarist-songwriter Kenny Edwards, and eventually the three of them were signed by Nik Venet to Capitol in the summer of 1966 as "the Stone Poneys". The trio released three albums in a 15-month period in 1967–68: The Stone Poneys; Evergreen, Volume 2; and Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III. The band is widely known for their hit single "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith prior to his joining the Monkees), which reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as number 12 in Cashbox magazine. Nearly 50 years later, the song remains one of Ronstadt's most popular recordings.
Solo career
Still contractually obligated to Capitol Records, Ronstadt released her first solo album, Hand Sown ... Home Grown, in 1969. It has been called the first alternative country record by a female recording artist. During this same period, she contributed to the Music from Free Creek "super session" project.
Ronstadt provided the vocals for some commercials during this period, including one for Remington electric razors, in which a multitracked Ronstadt and Frank Zappa claimed that the electric razor "cleans you, thrills you ... may even keep you from getting busted".
Ronstadt's second solo album, Silk Purse, was released in March 1970. Recorded entirely in Nashville, it was produced by Elliot Mazer, whom Ronstadt chose on the advice of Janis Joplin, who had worked with him on the Cheap Thrills album. The Silk Purse album cover showed Ronstadt in a muddy pigpen, while the back and inside cover depicted her onstage wearing bright red. Ronstadt has stated that she was not pleased with the album, although it provided her with her first solo hit, the multi-format single "Long, Long Time", and earned her first Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance/Female).
Touring
Soon after she went solo in the late 1960s, one of her first backing bands was the pioneering country-rock band Swampwater, which combined Cajun and swamp-rock elements in their music. Its members included Cajun fiddler Gib Guilbeau and John Beland, who later joined the Flying Burrito Brothers, as well as Stan Pratt, Thad Maxwell, and Eric White, brother of Clarence White of the Byrds. Swampwater went on to back Ronstadt during TV appearances on The Johnny Cash Show and The Mike Douglas Show, and at the Big Sur Folk Festival.
Another backing band included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, who went on to form the Eagles. They toured with her for a short period in 1971 and played on Linda Ronstadt, her self-titled third album, from which the failed single, Ronstadt's version of Browne's "Rock Me on the Water", was drawn. At this stage, Ronstadt began working with producer and boyfriend John Boylan. She said, "As soon as I started working with John Boylan, I started co-producing myself. I was always a part of my productions. But I always needed a producer who would carry out my whims." Also in 1971, Ronstadt began talking with David Geffen about moving from Capitol Records to Geffen's Asylum Records label.
In 1975, Ronstadt performed shows with Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Toots and the Maytals. In these shows she would sing lead vocal on numerous songs including the Eagles' Desperado while singing background and playing tambourine and acoustic guitar on others.
Several years before Ronstadt became what author Gerri Hirshey called the first "arena-class rock diva" with "hugely anticipated tours" she began her solo career touring the North American concert circuit.
Being on the road took its toll both emotionally and professionally. In a 1976 Rolling Stone interview with Cameron Crowe, Ronstadt said, "they haven't invented a word for that loneliness that everybody goes through on the road. The world is tearing by you, real fast, and all these people are looking at you. ... People see me in my 'girl-singer' suit." In 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "People are always taking advantage of you; everybody that's interested in you has got an angle."
There were few "girl singers" on the rock circuit at the time, and they were relegated to "groupie level when in a crowd of a bunch of rock and roll guys", a status Ronstadt avoided. Relating to men on a professional level as fellow musicians led to competition, insecurity, bad romances, and a series of boyfriend-managers. At the time, she admired singers like Maria Muldaur for not sacrificing their femininity but says she felt enormous self-imposed pressure to compete with "the boys" at every level. She noted in a 1969 interview in Fusion magazine that it was difficult being a single "chick singer" with an all-male backup band. According to her, it was difficult to get a band of backing musicians because of their ego problem of being labeled sidemen for a female singer.
Collaborations with Peter Asher
Ronstadt began her fourth solo album, Don't Cry Now, in 1973, with Boylan (who had negotiated her contract with Asylum Records) and John David "J.D." Souther producing most of the album's tracks. But needing someone willing to work with her as an equal, Ronstadt asked Peter Asher, who came highly recommended to her by James Taylor's sister Kate Taylor, to help produce two of them: "Sail Away" and "I Believe in You".
The album featured Ronstadt's first country hit, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", which she had first recorded on Hand Sown ... Home Grown – this time hitting the Country Top 20.
With the release of Don't Cry Now, Ronstadt took on her biggest gig to date as the opening act on Neil Young's Time Fades Away tour, playing for larger crowds than ever before. Backstage at a concert in Texas, Chris Hillman introduced her to Emmylou Harris, telling them, "You two could be good friends," which soon occurred, resulting in frequent collaborations over the following years. Meanwhile, the album became Ronstadt's most successful up to that time, selling 300,000 copies by the end of 1974.
Asher turned out to be more collaborative, and more on the same page with her musically, than any producer she had worked with previously. Ronstadt's professional relationship with Asher allowed her to take command and effectively delegate responsibilities in the recording studio. Although hesitant at first to work with her because of her reputation for being a "woman of strong opinions (who) knew what she wanted to do (with her career)", he nonetheless agreed to become her full-time producer and remained in that role through the late 1980s. Asher attributed the long-term success of his working relationship with Ronstadt to the fact that he was the first person to manage and produce her with whom there was a solely professional relationship. "It must be a lot harder to have objective conversations about someone's career when it's someone you sleep with," he said.
Asher executive produced a tribute CD called Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011, on which Ronstadt's 1976 version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" appears among newly recorded versions of Holly's songs by various artists.
Vocal styles
Ronstadt captured the sounds of country music and the rhythms of ranchera music – which she likened in 1968 to "Mexican bluegrass" – and redirected them into her rock 'n' roll and some of her pop music. Many of these rhythms and sounds were part of her Southwestern roots. Likewise, a country sound and style, a fusion of country music and rock 'n' roll called country rock, started to exert its influence on mainstream pop music around the late 1960s, and it became an emerging movement Ronstadt helped form and commercialize. However, as early as 1970, Ronstadt was being criticized by music "purists" for her "brand of music" which crossed many genres. Country Western Stars magazine wrote in 1970 that "Rock people thought she was too gentle, folk people thought she was too pop, and pop people didn't quite understand where she was at, but Country people really loved Linda." She never categorized herself and stuck to her genre-crossing brand of music.
Interpretive singer
Ronstadt is considered an "interpreter of her times", and has earned praise for her courage to put her "stamp" on many of her songs. Nevertheless, her hits were criticized in some quarters for being cover songs. Ronstadt herself has indicated that some of her 1970s hits were recorded under considerable pressure to create commercially successful recordings, and that she prefers many of her songs that were non-hit album tracks. An infrequent songwriter, Ronstadt co-composed only three songs over her long career.
Ronstadt's natural vocal range spans several octaves from contralto to soprano, and occasionally she will showcase this entire range within a single work. Ronstadt was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums (fourteen certified million selling, to date). As for the singles, Rolling Stone pointed out that a whole generation, "but for her, might never have heard the work of artists such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, and Chuck Berry."
Others have argued that Ronstadt had the same generational effect with her Great American Songbook music, exposing a whole new generation to the music of the 1920s and 1930s – music which was pushed aside because of the advent of rock 'n' roll. When interpreting, Ronstadt said she "sticks to what the music demands", in terms of lyrics. Explaining that rock and roll music is part of her culture, she says that the songs she sang after her rock and roll hits were part of her soul. "The (Mariachi music) was my father's side of the soul," she was quoted as saying in a 1998 interview she gave at her Tucson home. "My mother's side of my soul was the Nelson Riddle stuff. And I had to do them both to reestablish who I was."
In the 1974 book Rock 'N' Roll Woman, author Katherine Orloff writes that Ronstadt's "own musical preferences run strongly to rhythm and blues, the type of music she most frequently chooses to listen to ... (and) her goal is to ... be soulful too. With this in mind, Ronstadt fuses country and rock into a special union."
By this stage of her career, Ronstadt had established her niche in the field of country-rock. Along with other musicians such as the Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Swampwater, Neil Young, and the Eagles, she helped free country music from stereotypes and showed rockers that country was okay. However, she stated that she was being pushed hard into singing more rock and roll.
Most successful female singer of the 1970s
Author Andrew Greeley, in his book God in Popular Culture, described Ronstadt as "the most successful and certainly the most durable and most gifted woman Rock singer of her era." Signaling her wide popularity as a concert artist, outside of the singles charts and the recording studio, Dirty Linen magazine describes her as the "first true woman rock 'n' roll superstar ... (selling) out stadiums with a string of mega-successful albums." Amazon.com defines her as the American female rock superstar of the decade. Cashbox gave Ronstadt a Special Decade Award, as the top-selling female singer of the 1970s.
Her album covers, posters, magazine covers – her entire rock 'n' roll image – were as famous as her music. By the end of the decade, the singer whom the Chicago Sun Times described as the "Dean of the 1970s school of female rock singers" became what Redbook called "the most successful female rock star in the world." "Female" was the important qualifier, according to Time magazine, which labeled her "a rarity ... to (have survived) ... in the shark-infested deeps of rock."
Although Ronstadt had been a cult favorite on the music scene for several years, 1975 was "remembered in the music biz as the year when 29-year-old Linda Ronstadt belatedly happened."
With the release of Heart Like a Wheel—named after one of the album's songs, written by Anna McGarrigle—Ronstadt reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart; it was also the first of four number 1 Country Albums, and the disc was certified double-platinum (over two million copies sold in the U.S.). In many instances, her own interpretations were more successful than the original recordings, and many times new songwriters were discovered by a larger audience as a result of her interpretation and recording. Ronstadt had major success interpreting songs from a diverse spectrum of artists.
Heart Like a Wheel's first single release, "You're No Good" – a rockified version of an R&B song written by Clint Ballard, Jr. that Ronstadt had initially resisted because Andrew Gold's guitar tracks sounded too much like a "Beatles song" to her – climbed to number 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box Pop singles charts. The album's second single release, "When Will I Be Loved" – an uptempo country-rock version of a Top 10 Everly Brothers song – hit number 1 in Cashbox and number 2 in Billboard. The song was also Ronstadt's first number 1 country hit.
The album's critical and commercial success was due to a fine presentation of country and rock, with Heart Like a Wheel her first of many major commercial successes that would set her on the path to being one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Ronstadt won her first Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance/Female for "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" which was originally a 1940s hit by Hank Williams. Ronstadt's interpretation peaked at number 2 on the country chart. The album itself was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy.
Rolling Stone put Ronstadt on its cover in March 1975. It was the first of six Rolling Stone covers shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz. It included her as the featured artist with a full photo layout and an article by Ben Fong-Torres, discussing Ronstadt's many struggling years in rock n roll, as well as her home life and what it was like to be a woman on tour in a decidedly all-male environment.
In September 1975, Ronstadt's album Prisoner in Disguise was released. It quickly climbed into the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart and sold over a million copies. It became her second in a row to go platinum, "a grand slam" in the same year (Ronstadt would eventually become the first female artist in popular music history to have three consecutive platinum albums and would ultimately go on to have eight consecutive platinum albums, and then another six between 1983 and 1990). The disc's first single release was "Love Is A Rose". It was climbing the pop and country charts but "Heat Wave", a rockified version of the 1963 hit by Martha and the Vandellas, was receiving considerable airplay. Asylum pulled the "Love Is a Rose" single and issued "Heat Wave" with "Love Is a Rose" on the B-side. "Heat Wave" hit the Top Five on Billboard's Hot 100 while "Love Is A Rose" hit the Top Five on Billboard's country chart.
In 1976, Ronstadt reached the Top 3 of Billboard's Album Chart and won her second career Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her third consecutive platinum album Hasten Down the Wind. ..... It also included an interpretation of Willie Nelson's ballad "Crazy", which became a Top 10 Country hit for Ronstadt in early 1977.
At the end of 1977, Ronstadt surpassed the success of Heart Like a Wheel with her album Simple Dreams, which held the number 1 position for five consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It sold over 31⁄2 million copies in less than a year in the U.S. alone – a record for a female artist. Simple Dreams spawned a string of hit singles on numerous charts. Among them were the RIAA platinum-certified single "Blue Bayou", a country-rock interpretation of a Roy Orbison song; "It's So Easy" – previously sung by Buddy Holly – , a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Tumbling Dice", and "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", a song written by Warren Zevon, an up-and-coming songwriter of the time. The album garnered several Grammy Award nominations – including Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for "Blue Bayou" – and won its art director, Kosh, a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, the first of three Grammy Awards he would win for designing Ronstadt album covers. In late 1977, Ronstadt became the first female recording artist to have two songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten at the same time. "Blue Bayou" was at No. 3 while "It's So Easy" was at No. 5.
Simple Dreams became one of the singer's best-selling international-selling albums as well, reaching number 1 on the Australian and Canadian Pop and Country Albums charts. Simple Dreams also made Ronstadt the most successful international female touring artist. The same year, she completed a concert tour around Europe. As Country Music magazine wrote in October 1978, Simple Dreams solidified Ronstadt's role as "easily the most successful female rock and roll and country star at this time."
Also in 1977, she was asked by the Los Angeles Dodgers to sing the U.S. National Anthem at game three of the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Time magazine and "rock chick" image
Ronstadt has remarked that she felt as though she was "artificially encouraged to kinda cop a really tough attitude (and be tough) because rock and roll is kind of tough (business)," which she felt wasn't worn quite authentically. Female rock artists like her and Janis Joplin, whom she described as lovely, shy, and very literate in real life and the antithesis of the "red hot mamma" she was artificially encouraged to project, went through an identity crisis.
By the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's image became just as famous as her music. In 1976 and 1977, she appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time, respectively. The Rolling Stone cover story was accompanied by a series of photographs of Ronstadt in a skimpy red slip, taken by Annie Leibovitz. Ronstadt felt deceived by the photographer, not realizing that the photos would be so revealing. She says her manager Peter Asher kicked Leibovitz out of the house when she visited to show them the photographs prior to publication. Leibovitz had refused to let them veto any of the photos, which included one of Ronstadt sprawled across a bed in her underpants. In a 1977 interview, Ronstadt explained, "Annie [Leibovitz] saw that picture as an exposé of my personality. She was right. But I wouldn't choose to show a picture like that to anybody who didn't know me personally, because only friends could get the other sides of me in balance."
Her 1977 appearance on the cover of Time magazine under the banner "Torchy Rock" was also upsetting to Ronstadt, considering what the image appeared to project about the most famous woman in rock. At a time in the industry when men still told women what to sing and what to wear, Ronstadt hated the image of her that was projected to the world on that cover, and she noted recently how the photographer kept forcing her to wear a dress, which was an image she did not want to project. In 2004, she was interviewed for CBS This Morning and stated that this image was not her because she did not sit like that. Asher noted, "Anyone who's met Linda for 10 seconds will know that I couldn't possibly have been her Svengali. She's an extremely determined woman, in every area. To me, she was everything that feminism's about." Qualities which, Asher has stated, were considered a "negative (in a woman at that time), whereas in a man they were perceived as being masterful and bold". Since her solo career had begun, Ronstadt had fought hard to be recognized as a solo female singer in the world of rock, and her portrayal on the Time cover did not appear to help the situation.
In 1978, Rolling Stone declared Ronstadt "by far America's best-known female rock singer." She scored a third number 1 album on the Billboard Album Chart – at this point equaling the record set by Carole King in 1974 – with Living in the USA. She achieved a major hit single with "Ooo Baby Baby", with her rendition hitting all four major singles charts (Pop, AC, Country, R&B). Living in the USA was the first album by any recording act in music history to ship double-platinum (over 2 million advance copies). The album eventually sold 3 million U.S. copies.
At the end of that year, Billboard magazine crowned Ronstadt with three number-one Awards for the Year: Pop Female Singles Artist of the Year, Pop Female Album Artist of the Year, and Female Artist of the Year (overall).
Living in the USA showed the singer on roller skates with a newly short, permed hairdo on the album cover. Ronstadt continued this theme on concert tour promotional posters with photos of her on roller skates in a dramatic pose with a large American flag in the background. By this stage of her career, she was using posters to promote every album and concert – which at the time were recorded live on radio or television.
Ronstadt was also featured in the 1978 film FM, where the plot involved disc jockeys attempting to broadcast a Ronstadt concert live, without a competing station's knowledge. The film also showed Ronstadt performing the songs "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me", "Love Me Tender", and "Tumbling Dice". Ronstadt was persuaded to record "Tumbling Dice" after Mick Jagger came backstage when she was at a concert and said, "You do too many ballads, you should do more rock and roll songs."
Following the success of Living in the USA, Ronstadt conducted album promotional tours and concerts. She made a guest appearance onstage with the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Community Center on July 21, 1978, in her hometown of Tucson, where she and Jagger sang "Tumbling Dice". On singing with Jagger, Ronstadt later said, "I loved it. I didn't have a trace of stage fright. I'm scared to death all the way through my own shows. But it was too much fun to get scared. He's so silly onstage, he knocks you over. I mean you have to be on your toes or you wind up falling on your face."
Highest-paid woman in rock
By the end of 1978, Ronstadt had solidified her role as one of rock and pop's most successful solo female acts, and owing to her consistent platinum album success, and her ability as the first woman to sell out concerts in arenas and stadiums hosting tens of thousands of fans, Ronstadt became the "highest-paid woman in rock". She had six platinum-certified albums, three of which were number 1 on the Billboard album chart, and numerous charting pop singles. In 1978 alone, she made over $12 million (equivalent to $54,000,000 in 2022) and in the same year her albums sales were reported to be 17 million – grossing over $60 million (equivalent to $269,000,000 in 2022).
As Rolling Stone dubbed her "Rock's Venus", her record sales continued to multiply and set records themselves. By 1979, Ronstadt had collected eight gold, six platinum, and four multi-platinum certifications for her albums, an unprecedented feat at the time. Her 1976 Greatest Hits album would sell consistently for the next 25 years, and it was certified by the RIAA for seven-times platinum in 2001 (over seven million U.S. copies sold). In 1980, Greatest Hits, Volume 2 was released and certified platinum.
In 1979, Ronstadt went on an international tour, playing in arenas across Australia to Japan, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, and the Budokan in Tokyo. She also participated in a benefit concert for her friend Lowell George, held at The Forum, in Los Angeles.
By the end of the decade, Ronstadt had outsold her female competition; she had five straight platinum LPs – Hasten Down the Wind and Heart Like a Wheel among them. Us Weekly reported in 1978 that Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Carly Simon had become "The Queens of Rock" and "Rock is no longer exclusively male. There is a new royalty ruling today's record charts."
She would go on to parlay her mass commercial appeal with major success in interpreting The Great American Songbook – made famous a generation before by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald – and later the Mexican folk songs of her childhood.
From rock to operetta
In February 1980, Ronstadt released Mad Love, her seventh consecutive platinum-selling album. It was a straightforward rock and roll album with post-punk, new wave influences, including tracks by songwriters such as Elvis Costello, the Cretones, and musician Mark Goldenberg who played on the record himself. As part of the album's promotion, a live concert was recorded for an HBO special in April. A partial soundtrack for this special (omitting most of the Mad Love tracks) was released as her first official live album in February 2019.
She also made the cover of Rolling Stone for a record-setting sixth time. Mad Love entered the Billboard Album Chart in the Top Five its first week (a record at that time) and climbed to the number 3 position. The project continued her streak of Top 10 hits with "How Do I Make You", originally recorded by Billy Thermal, and "Hurt So Bad", originally a Top 10 hit for Little Anthony & the Imperials. The album earned Ronstadt a 1980 Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female (although she lost to Pat Benatar's Crimes of Passion album). Benatar praised Ronstadt by stating, "There are a lot of good female singers around. How could I be the best? Ronstadt is still alive!"
In the summer of 1980, Ronstadt began rehearsals for the first of several leads in Broadway musicals. Joseph Papp cast her as the lead in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, alongside Kevin Kline. She said singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a natural choice for her, since her grandfather Fred Ronstadt was credited with having created Tucson's first orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, and had once created an arrangement of The Pirates of Penzance.
The Pirates of Penzance opened for a limited engagement in New York City's Central Park, eventually moving its production to Broadway, where it became a hit, running from January 8, 1981, to November 28, 1982. Newsweek was effusive in its praise: "... she has not dodged the coloratura demands of her role (and Mabel is one of the most demanding parts in the G&S canon): from her entrance trilling 'Poor Wand'ring One,' it is clear that she is prepared to scale whatever soprano peaks stand in her way." Ronstadt co-starred with Kline and Angela Lansbury in the 1983 operetta's film version; this was her only acting role in a motion picture (her other film appearances, such as in the 1978 drama, FM, being concert footage as herself). Ronstadt received a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the film version. She garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and The Pirates of Penzance won several Tony Awards, including a Tony Award for Best Revival.
As a child, Ronstadt had discovered the opera La bohème through the silent film with Lillian Gish and was determined to someday play the part of Mimi. When she met the opera superstar Beverly Sills, she was told, "My dear, every soprano in the world wants to play Mimi!" In 1984, Ronstadt was cast in the role at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. However, the production was a critical and commercial disaster, closing after only a few nights.
In 1982, Ronstadt released the album Get Closer, a primarily rock album with some country and pop music as well. It remains her only album between 1975 and 1990 not to be officially certified platinum. It peaked at number 31 on the Billboard Album Chart. The release continued her streak of Top 40 hits with "Get Closer" and "I Knew You When" – a 1965 hit by Billy Joe Royal – while the Jimmy Webb song "Easy For You To Say" was a surprise Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit in the spring of 1983. "Sometimes You Just Can't Win" was picked up by country radio, and made it to number 27 on that listing. Ronstadt also filmed several music videos for this album which became popular on the fledgling MTV cable channel. The album earned Ronstadt two Grammy Award nominations: one for Best Rock Vocal Performance/Female for the title track and another for Best Pop Vocal Performance/Female for the album. The artwork won its art director, Kosh, his second Grammy Award for Best Album Package.
Along with the release of her Get Closer album, Ronstadt embarked on a North American tour, remaining one of the top rock-concert draws that summer and fall. On November 25, 1982, her "Happy Thanksgiving Day" concert was held at the Reunion Arena in Dallas and broadcast live via satellite to NBC radio stations in the United States.
In 1988, Ronstadt returned to Broadway for a limited-run engagement in the musical show adaptation of her album celebrating her Mexican heritage, Canciones De Mi Padre – A Romantic Evening in Old Mexico.
Artistic aspirations
Ronstadt has remarked that in the beginning of her career she "was so focused on folk, rock and country" that she "got a bit bored and started to branch out, and ... [has] been doing that ever since." By 1983, her estimated worth was over $40 million mostly from records, concerts and merchandising.
In the early 1980s, Ronstadt was criticized for accepting $500,000 to perform at the South African resort Sun City, violating the cultural boycott imposed against South Africa because of its policy of apartheid. At the time, she stated, "the last place for a boycott is in the arts" and "I don't like being told I can't go somewhere". Paul Simon was criticized for including her on his 1986 album Graceland, recorded in South Africa, but defended her: "I know that her intention was never to support the government there ... She made a mistake. She’s extremely liberal in her political thinking and unquestionably antiapartheid."
Ronstadt eventually tired of playing arenas. ..... She wanted "angels in the architecture" – a reference to a lyric in the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" from Graceland. (Ronstadt sang harmony with Simon on a different Graceland track, "Under African Skies". The second verse's lyrics pay tribute to Ronstadt: "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona. ..."). Ronstadt has said she wants to sing in places similar to the theatre of ancient Greece, where the attention is focused on the stage and the performer.
Ronstadt's recording output in the 1980s proved to be just as commercially and critically successful as her 1970s recordings. Between 1983 and 1990, Ronstadt scored six additional platinum albums; two are triple platinum (each with over three million U.S. copies sold); one has been certified double platinum (over two million copies sold), and one has earned additional certification as a Gold (over 500,000 U.S. copies sold) double-disc album.
Jazz/pop trilogy
In 1981, Ronstadt produced and recorded an album of pop standards (later marketed in bootleg form) titled Keeping Out of Mischief with the assistance of producer Jerry Wexler. However, Ronstadt's displeasure with the result led her, with regrets, to scrap the project. "Doing that killed me," she said in a Time magazine interview. ..... Nonetheless, Ronstadt had to convince her reluctant record company, Elektra, to approve this type of album under her contract.
By 1983, Ronstadt had enlisted the help of 62-year-old conductor Nelson Riddle. The two embarked on an unorthodox and original approach to rehabilitating the Great American Songbook, recording a trilogy of traditional pop albums: What's New (1983—U.S. 3.7 million as of 2010); Lush Life (1984—U.S. 1.7 million as of 2010); and For Sentimental Reasons (1986—U.S. 1.3 million as of 2010). The three albums have had a combined sales total of nearly seven million copies in the U.S. alone.
The album design for What's New by designer Kosh was unlike any of her previous disc covers. It showed Ronstadt in a vintage dress lying on shimmering satin sheets with a Walkman headset. At the time, Ronstadt received some chiding for both the album cover and her venture into what was then considered "elevator music" by cynics, but remained determined to record with Riddle, and What's New became a hit. The album was released in September 1983 and spent 81 weeks on the Billboard Album Chart and held the number three position for a month and a half (held out of the top spot only by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down) and the RIAA certified it triple platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S. alone). The album earned Ronstadt another Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and critical raves, with Time magazine calling it "one of the gutsiest, most unorthodox and unexpected albums of the year."
Ronstadt faced considerable pressure not to record What's New or record with Riddle. According to jazz historian Peter Levinson, author of the book September in the Rain – a Biography on Nelson Riddle, Joe Smith, president of Elektra Records, was terrified that the Riddle album would turn off Ronstadt's rock audience. Ronstadt did not completely turn her back on her rock and roll past, however; the video for the title track featured Danny Kortchmar as the old beau that she bumped into during a rainstorm.
What's New brought Riddle to a younger audience. According to Levinson, "the younger audience hated what Riddle had done with Frank Sinatra, which in 1983 was considered 'Vintage Pop'". Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teenagers undid in the mid-60s. ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print." What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook.
In 1984, Ronstadt and Riddle performed these songs live, in concert halls throughout Australia, Japan, and the United States, including multi-night performances at historic venues Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and Pine Knob.
In 2004, Ronstadt released Hummin' to Myself, her album for Verve Records. It was her first foray into traditional jazz since her sessions with Jerry Wexler and her records with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, but this time with an intimate jazz combo. The album was a quiet affair for Ronstadt, giving few interviews and making only one television performance as a promotion. It reached number 2 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart but peaked at number 166 on the main Billboard album chart. Not having the mass distribution that Warner Music Group gave her, Hummin' To Myself had sold over 75,000 copies in the U.S. as of 2010. It also achieved some critical acclaim from the jazz cognoscenti.
"Trio" recordings
In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
In January 1986, the three eventually did make their way into the recording studio, where they spent the next several months working. The result, Trio, which they had conceived ten years earlier, was released in March 1987. It was a considerable hit, holding the number 1 position on Billboard's Country Albums chart for five weeks running and hitting the Top 10 on the pop side also. Selling over three million copies in the U.S. and winning them a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, it produced four Top Ten Country singles including "To Know Him Is to Love Him" which hit number 1. The album was also a nominee for overall Album of the Year, in the company of Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, and Whitney Houston.
In 1994, the three performers recorded a follow-up to Trio. As was the case with their aborted 1978 effort, conflicting schedules and competing priorities delayed the album's release indefinitely. Ronstadt, who had already paid for studio time—and owed her record company a finished album—removed Parton's individual tracks at Parton's request, kept Harris's vocals, and produced a number of the recordings, which she subsequently released on her 1995 return to country rock, the album Feels Like Home.
However, in 1999, Ronstadt, Parton, and Harris agreed to release the Trio II album, as was originally recorded in 1994. It included an ethereal cover of Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" which became a popular music video. The effort was certified Gold (over 500,000 copies sold) and won them a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for the track. Ronstadt co-produced the album with George Massenburg and the three women also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Country Album.
Canciones de Mi Padre
Main article: Canciones de Mi Padre
At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released Canciones de Mi Padre, an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician Rubén Fuentes.
These canciones were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the University of Arizona published a booklet by Luisa Espinel entitled Canciones de mi Padre. Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from Sonora. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American. Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family. In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, "Lo siento mi vida" – a song that she included on Hasten Down the Wind. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer Lola Beltrán as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, father of Chicano music, would often serenade her as a child.
Canciones de Mi Padre won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.
Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled Canciones de mi Padre, in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in La bohème, for a limited-run engagement. PBS's Great Performances aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program.
Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as Canciones De Mi Padre, but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released Mas Canciones, a follow-up to the first Canciones. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled Frenesí. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in La Pastorela, or A Shephard's Tale, a musical filmed at San Juan Bautista. It was written and directed by Luis Valdez. The production was part of the PBS Great Performances series.
In December 2020, it was announced that Canciones de Mi Padre had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Returning to the contemporary music scene
By the late 1980s, while enjoying the success of her big band jazz collaborations with Riddle and her surprise hit mariachi recordings, Ronstadt elected to return to recording mainstream pop music once again. In 1987, she made a return to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Somewhere Out There", which peaked at number 2 in March. Featured in the animated film An American Tail, the sentimental duet with James Ingram was nominated for several Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and achieved high sales, earning a million-selling gold single in the U.S. – one of the last 45s ever to do so. It was also accompanied by a popular music video. On the heels of this success, Steven Spielberg asked Ronstadt to record the theme song for the animated sequel titled An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, which was titled "Dreams to Dream". Although "Dreams to Dream" failed to achieve the success of "Somewhere Out There", the song did give Ronstadt an Adult Contemporary hit in 1991.
In 1989, Ronstadt released a mainstream pop album and several popular singles. Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind became one of the singer's most successful albums – in production, arrangements, sales, and critical acclaim. It became Ronstadt's tenth Top 10 album on the Billboard chart, reaching number 7 and being certified triple-platinum (over three million copies sold in the U.S.). The album also received Grammy Award nominations. Ronstadt included New Orleans soul singer Aaron Neville on several of the album's songs.
Ronstadt incorporated the sounds of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Tower of Power horns, the Skywalker Symphony, and numerous musicians. It included the duets with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" (Billboard Hot 100 number 2 hit, Christmas 1989) and "All My Life" (Billboard Hot 100 number 11 hit), both of which were long-running number 1 Adult Contemporary hits. The duets earned several Grammy Award nominations. The duo won both the 1989 and 1990 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal awards. Ronstadt's last known live Grammy Award appearance was in 1990 when she and Neville performed "Don't Know Much" together on the telecast. ("Whenever I sing with a different artist, I can get things out of my voice that I can't do by myself", Ronstadt reflected in 2007. "I can do things with Aaron that I can't do alone.")
In December 1990, she participated in a concert held at the Tokyo Dome to commemorate John Lennon's 50th birthday, and to raise awareness of environmental issues. Other participants included Miles Davis, Lenny Kravitz, Hall & Oates, Natalie Cole, Yoko Ono, and Sean Lennon. An album resulted, titled Happy Birthday, John.
Return to roots music
Ronstadt released the highly acclaimed Winter Light album at the end of 1993. It included New Age arrangements such as the lead single "Heartbeats Accelerating" as well as the self-penned title track and featured the glass harmonica. It was her first commercial failure since 1972, and peaked at number 92 in Billboard, whereas 1995's Feels Like Home was Ronstadt's much-heralded return to country-rock and included her version of Tom Petty's classic hit "The Waiting". The single's rollicking, fiddle-infused flip side, "Walk On", returned Ronstadt to the Country Singles chart for the first time since 1983. An album track entitled "The Blue Train" charted 10 weeks in Billboard's Adult Contemporary Top 40. This album fared slightly better than its predecessor, reaching number 75. Both albums were later deleted from the Elektra/Asylum catalog. Ronstadt was nominated for three Lo Nuestro Awards in 1993: Female Regional Mexican Artist of the Year, Female Tropical/Salsa Artist of the Year, and her version of the song "Perfidia" was also listed for Tropical/Salsa Song of the Year.
In 1996, Ronstadt produced Dedicated to the One I Love, an album of classic rock and roll songs reinvented as lullabies. The album reached number 78 in Billboard and won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Children.
In 1998, Ronstadt released We Ran, her first album in over two years. The album harkened back to Ronstadt's country-rock and folk-rock heyday. She returned to her rock 'n' roll roots with vivid interpretations of songs by Bruce Springsteen, Doc Pomus, Bob Dylan, and John Hiatt. The recording was produced by Glyn Johns. A commercial failure, the album stood at 57,897 copies sold at the time of its deletion in 2008. It is the poorest-selling studio album in Ronstadt's Elektra/Asylum catalog. We Ran did not chart any singles but it was well received by critics.
Despite the lack of success of We Ran, Ronstadt kept moving towards this adult rock exploration. In the summer of 1999, she released the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, a folk-rock-oriented project with Emmylou Harris. It earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for the Best Contemporary Folk Album and made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart. Still in print as of December 2016, it has sold 223,255 copies per Nielsen SoundScan.
Also in 1999, Ronstadt went back to her concert roots when she performed with the Eagles and Jackson Browne at Staples Center's 1999 New Year's Eve celebration kicking off the December 31 end-of-the-millennium festivities. As Staples Center Senior Vice President and general manager Bobby Goldwater said, "It was our goal to present a spectacular event as a sendoff to the 20th century", and "Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt are three of the most popular acts of the century. Their performances will constitute a singular and historic night of entertainment for New Year's Eve in Los Angeles."
In 2000, Ronstadt completed her long contractual relationship with the Elektra/Asylum label. The fulfillment of this contract commenced with the release of A Merry Little Christmas, her first holiday collection, which includes rare choral works, the somber Joni Mitchell song "River", and a rare recorded duet with the late Rosemary Clooney on Clooney's signature song, "White Christmas".
Since leaving Warner Music, Ronstadt has gone on to release one album each under Verve and Vanguard Records.
In 2006, recording as the ZoZo Sisters, Ronstadt teamed with her new friend, musician and musical scholar Ann Savoy, to record Adieu False Heart. It was an album of roots music incorporating pop, Cajun, and early-20th-century music and released on the Vanguard Records label. But Adieu False Heart was a commercial failure, peaking at number 146 in the U.S. despite her touring for the final time that year. It was the last time Linda Ronstadt would record an album, having begun to lose her singing ability as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy, but initially diagnosed as Parkinson's disease, in December 2012. Adieu False Heart, recorded in Louisiana, features a cast of local musicians, including Chas Justus, Eric Frey and Kevin Wimmer of the Red Stick Ramblers, Sam Broussard of the Mamou Playboys, Dirk Powell, and Joel Savoy, as well as an array of Nashville musicians: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sam Bush, and guitarist Bryan Sutton. The recording earned two Grammy Award nominations: Best Traditional Folk Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Ronstadt contributed to the compilation album We All Love Ella: Celebrating the First Lady of Song – a tribute album to jazz music's all-time most heralded artist – on the track "Miss Otis Regrets".
In August 2007, Ronstadt headlined the Newport Folk Festival, making her debut at this event, where she incorporated jazz, rock, and folk music into her repertoire. It was one of her final concerts.
In 2010, Ronstadt contributed the arrangement and lead vocal to "A La Orilla de un Palmar" on the Chieftains' studio album San Patricio (with Ry Cooder). This remains her most recent commercially available recording as lead vocalist.
Retirement
In 2011, Ronstadt was interviewed by the Arizona Daily Star and announced her retirement. In August 2013, she revealed to Alanna Nash, writing for AARP, that she has Parkinson's disease and "can no longer sing a note." Her diagnosis was subsequently re-evaluated as progressive supranuclear palsy. Her memoir Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands was published in 2022.
Selected career achievements
On April 10, 2014, Ronstadt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July 2019, Ronstadt was selected as a Kennedy Center Honoree. On May 7, 2022, during the International Mariachi Conference, the Tucson Music Hall at the Tucson Convention Center was officially renamed as The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.
As of 2019, Ronstadt has earned three number-one pop albums, 10 top-ten pop albums, and 38 charting pop albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts. She has 15 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, including four that hit number one. Ronstadt's singles have earned her a number-one hit and three number-two hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 10 top-ten pop singles and 21 reaching the Top 40. She has also scored two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and two number-one hits on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Rolling Stone wrote that a whole generation "but for her, might never have heard the work of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, or Elvis Costello."
She has recorded and released over 30 studio albums and has made guest appearances on an estimated 120 albums by other artists. Her guest appearances included the classical minimalist Philip Glass's album Songs from Liquid Days, a hit classical record with other major pop stars either singing or writing lyrics (Ronstadt's two tracks on the album saw her singing lyrics written by Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson). She also appeared on Glass's follow-up recording 1000 Airplanes on the Roof. She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland, where she sang a duet with Simon, "Under African Skies". In that song, there is a verse dedicated to Ronstadt, her voice and harmonies and her birth in Tucson, Arizona. She voiced herself in The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow" and sang a duet, "Funny How Time Slips Away", with Homer Simpson on The Yellow Album.
Ronstadt has also appeared on albums by a vast range of artists including Emmylou Harris, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, J. D. Souther, Gram Parsons, Bette Midler, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, the Eagles, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman, Hoyt Axton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Ann Savoy, Karla Bonoff, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Valerie Carter, Warren Zevon, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman (specifically his musical adaptation of Faust), Nicolette Larson, the Seldom Scene, Rosemary Clooney, Aaron Neville, Rodney Crowell, Hearts and Flowers, Laurie Lewis and Flaco Jiménez. As a singer-songwriter, Ronstadt has written songs covered by several artists, such as "Try Me Again", covered by Trisha Yearwood; and "Winter Light", which was co-written and composed with Zbigniew Preisner and Eric Kaz, and covered by Sarah Brightman.
Her three biggest-selling studio albums to date are: her 1977 release Simple Dreams, 1983's What's New, and 1989's Cry Like A Rainstorm, Howl Like The Wind. Each one has been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for over three million copies sold. Her highest-selling album to date is the 1976 compilation Greatest Hits, certified for over seven million units sold as of 2001. Ronstadt became music's first major touring female artist to sell out sizeable venues; she was also the top-grossing solo female concert artist for the 1970s. She remained a highly successful touring artist into the 1990s, at which time she decided to scale back to smaller venues. In the 1970s, Cashbox magazine, a competitor of Billboard during that time period, named Ronstadt the "#1 Female Artist of the Decade". "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" included Heart Like a Wheel (1974) at number 164 and The Very Best Of Linda Ronstadt (2002) at number 324. The 2012 revision kept only the compilation, but raised it to the place once occupied by Heart Like a Wheel.
Ronstadt's album sales have not been certified since 2001. At that time, Ronstadt's U.S. album sales were certified by the Recording Industry Association of America at over 30 million albums sold; however, Peter Asher, her former producer and manager, placed her total U.S. album sales at over 45 million. Likewise, her worldwide albums sales are in excess of 100 million albums sold, according to the former president of Warner Bros. Records, Joe Smith, now a jury member of the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Her RIAA certification (audits paid for by record companies or artists for promotion) tally as of 2001 totaled 19 Gold, 14 Platinum and 7 Multi-Platinum albums. She was the first female in music history to score three consecutive platinum albums and ultimately racked up a total of eight consecutive platinum albums. Her album Living in the USA was the first album by any recording artist in U.S. music history to ship double platinum (over two million advanced copies). Her first Latin release, the all-Spanish 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre, stands as the best-selling non-English-language album in American music history. As of 2013, it had sold over 21⁄2 million U.S. copies.
Ronstadt has served as producer on albums from various musicians that include her cousin, David Lindley, Aaron Neville and singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb. She produced Cristal – Glass Music Through the Ages, an album of classical music using glass instruments with Dennis James, where she sang on several of the arrangements. In 1999, Ronstadt also produced the Grammy Award-winning Trio II. She has received a total of 27 Grammy Award nominations in various fields that include rock, country, pop and Tropical Latin, and has won 11 Grammy Awards in the categories of Pop, Country, Tropical Latin, Musical Album for Children and Mexican-American. In 2016, Ronstadt was again honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences with the Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
She was the first female solo artist to have two Top 5 singles simultaneously on Billboard magazine's Hot 100: "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy". By December of that year, both "Blue Bayou" and "It's So Easy" had climbed into Billboard's Top 5 and remained there for the month's last four weeks. In 1999, Ronstadt ranked number 21 in VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll. Three years later, she ranked number 40 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women in Country Music. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Ronstadt at No. 47 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Personal life
In the early 1970s, Ronstadt briefly dated fellow musician J. D. Souther, who co-produced her Don't Cry Now album. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Ronstadt's private life became increasingly public. It was fueled by a relationship with then-Governor of California Jerry Brown, a Democratic presidential candidate. They shared a Newsweek magazine cover in April 1979, as well as the covers of Us Weekly and People magazine.
In 1983, Ronstadt dated comedian Jim Carrey for eight months. From the end of 1983 to 1988, Ronstadt was engaged to Star Wars director and creator George Lucas.
In December 1990, she adopted an infant daughter, Mary Clementine Ronstadt. In 1994, she adopted a baby boy, Carlos Ronstadt. Ronstadt has never married. Speaking of finding an acceptable mate, in 1974 she told Peter Knobler in Crawdaddy, "... he's real kind but isn't inspired musically and then you meet somebody else that's just so inspired musically that he just takes your breath away but he's such a moron, such a maniac that you can't get along with him. And then after that it's the problem of finding someone that can stand you!"
In the late 1980s, after living in Los Angeles for 30 years, Ronstadt moved to San Francisco because she said she never felt at home in Southern California. "Los Angeles became too enclosing an environment", she says. "I couldn't breathe the air and I didn't want to drive on the freeways to get to the studio. I also didn't want to embrace the values that have been so completely embraced by that city. Are you glamorous? Are you rich? Are you important? Do you have clout? It's just not me and it never was me." In 1997, Ronstadt sold her home in San Francisco and moved back to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona, to raise her two children. In more recent years, Ronstadt moved back to San Francisco while continuing to maintain her home in Tucson.
In 2009, in honor of Ronstadt, the Martin Guitar Company made a 00–42 model "Linda Ronstadt Limited Edition" acoustic guitar. Ronstadt appointed the Land Institute as recipient of all proceeds from her signature guitar.
In 2013, Simon & Schuster published her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, as well as the Spanish version, Sueños Sencillos – Memorias Musicales.
In August 2013, Ronstadt revealed she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, leaving her unable to sing due to loss of muscular control, which is common to Parkinson's patients. She was diagnosed eight months prior to the announcement and had initially attributed the symptoms she had been experiencing to the aftereffects of shoulder surgery and a tick bite. In late 2019, it was reported her doctors had revised their diagnosis to progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease commonly mistaken for Parkinson's due to the similarity of the symptoms.
Ronstadt describes herself as a "spiritual atheist".
Political activism
Ronstadt's politics received criticism and praise during and after her July 17, 2004, performance at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. Toward the end of the show, as she had done across the country, Ronstadt spoke to the audience, praising Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about the Iraq War; she dedicated the song "Desperado" to Moore. Accounts say the crowd's initial reaction was mixed, with "half the crowd heartily applauding her praise for Moore, (and) the other half booing."
Following the concert, news accounts reported Ronstadt was "evicted" from the hotel premises. Ronstadt's comments, as well as the reactions of some audience members and the hotel, became a topic of discussion nationwide. Aladdin casino president Bill Timmins and Michael Moore each made public statements about the controversy.
The incident prompted international headlines and debate on an entertainer's right to express a political opinion from the stage and made the editorial section of The New York Times. Following the incident, many friends of Ronstadt's, including the Eagles, immediately cancelled their engagements at the Aladdin. Ronstadt also received telegrams of support from her rock 'n' roll friends around the world like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and Elton John. Amid reports of mixed public response, Ronstadt continued her praise of Moore and his film throughout her 2004 and 2006 summer concerts across North America. ..... Her remarks drew international headlines. In an August 14, 2007, interview, she commented on all her well-publicized, outspoken views, in particular the Aladdin incident, by noting, "If I had it to do over I would be much more gracious to everyone ... you can be as outspoken as you want if you are very, very respectful. Show some grace".
In 2007, Ronstadt resided in San Francisco while also maintaining her home in Tucson. That same year, she drew criticism and praise from Tucsonans for commenting that local city council's failings, developers' strip mall mentality, greed and growing dust problem had rendered the city unrecognizable and poorly developed.
In August 2009, Ronstadt, in a well-publicized interview to PlanetOut Inc. titled "Linda Ronstadt's Gay Mission", championed gay rights and same-sex marriage, and stated "homophobia is anti-family values. Period, end of story."
On January 16, 2010, Ronstadt converged with thousands of other activists in a "National Day of Action". Ronstadt stated that her "dog in the fight" – as a native Arizonan and coming from a law enforcement family – was the treatment of illegal aliens and Arizona's enforcement of its illegal immigrant law, especially Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's efforts in that area.
On April 29, 2010, Ronstadt began a campaign, including joining a lawsuit, against Arizona's new illegal-immigration law SB 1070 calling it a "devastating blow to law enforcement ... the police don't protect us in a democracy with brute force", something she said she learned from her brother, Peter, who was Chief of Police in Tucson.
Ronstadt has also been outspoken on environmental and community issues. She is a major supporter and admirer of sustainable agriculture pioneer Wes Jackson, saying in 2000, "the work he's doing right now is the most important work there is in the (United States)", and dedicating the rock anthem "Desperado" to him at an August 2007 concert in Kansas City, Kansas.
National arts advocacy
In 2004, Ronstadt wrote the foreword to the book The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to American Folk Music, and in 2005, she wrote the introduction to the book Classic Ferrington Guitars, about guitar-maker and luthier Danny Ferrington and the custom guitars that he created for Ronstadt and other musicians such as Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, and Kurt Cobain.
Ronstadt has been honored for her contribution to the American arts. On September 23, 2007, she was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, along with Stevie Nicks, Buck Owens, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On August 17, 2008, Ronstadt received a tribute by various artists, including BeBe Winans and Wynonna Judd, when she was honored with the Trailblazer Award, presented to her by Plácido Domingo at the 2008 ALMA Awards, a ceremony later televised in the U.S. on ABC.
In 2008, Ronstadt was appointed artistic director of the San José Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival. On March 31, 2009, in testimony that the Los Angeles Times termed "remarkable", Ronstadt spoke to the United States Congress House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies, attempting to convince lawmakers to budget $200 million in the 2010 fiscal year for the National Endowment of the Arts.
In May 2009, Ronstadt received an honorary doctorate of music degree from the Berklee College of Music for her achievements and influence in music and her contributions to American and international culture. Mix magazine stated that "Linda Ronstadt (has) left her mark on more than the record business; her devotion to the craft of singing influenced many audio professionals ... (and is) intensely knowledgeable about the mechanics of singing and the cultural contexts of every genre she passes".
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1971 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female "Long, Long Time" Nominated 1976 Album of the Year Heart Like a Wheel Nominated Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female Nominated Best Country Vocal Performance, Female "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" Won 1977 Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female Hasten Down the Wind Won 1978 "Blue Bayou" Nominated Record of the Year Nominated 1981 Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female "How Do I Make You" Nominated 1983 "Get Closer" Nominated Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Get Closer Nominated 1984 What's New Nominated 1986 Lush Life Nominated 1988 Album of the Year Trio (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Nominated Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal Won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Somewhere Out There" (with James Ingram) Nominated 1989 Best Mexican-American Performance Canciones de Mi Padre Won 1990 Best Female Vocal Pop Performance Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind Nominated Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals "Don't Know Much" (with Aaron Neville) Won 1991 "All My Life" (with Aaron Neville) Won 1993 Best Tropical Latin Album Frenesí Won Best Mexican-American Album Mas Canciones Won 1997 Best Musical Album for Children Dedicated to the One I Love Won 2000 Best Country Album Trio II (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Nominated Best Contemporary Folk Album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (with Emmylou Harris) Nominated Best Country Collaboration with Vocals "After the Gold Rush" (with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris) Won 2007 Best Traditional Folk Album Adieu False Heart (with Ann Savoy) Nominated 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Won 2021 Best Music Film Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice Won
In 1981 the album In Harmony: A Sesame Street Record won the Grammy for Best Album for Children. Ronstadt was one of the various artists featured on the album. The Grammys were awarded to the producers, David Levine and Lucy Simon.
Latin Grammy Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award Won
Primetime Emmy Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1989 Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program Canciones de Mi Padre (Great Performances) Won
Tony Awards
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1981 Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical The Pirates of Penzance Nominated
Golden Globe Awards
1983 – Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical or Comedy, Linda Ronstadt in The Pirates of Penzance
Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1983 Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical The Pirates of Penzance Nominated
Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
2007 – Inducted for her significant impact on the evolution and development of the entertainment culture in the state of Arizona
Academy of Country Music
1974 – Best New Female Artist
1987 – Album of the Year/ Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
Country Music Association
1988 – Vocal Event of the Year / Trio, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris
American Latino Media Arts
2008 – Trailblazer Award for Contribution to American Music
Lo Nuestro nominations
1989 – Regional Mexican Female Artist, Regional Mexican Album (Canciones de Mi Padre), and Crossover Artist
1992 – Regional Mexican Female Artist
1993 – Tropical Female Artist, Regional Mexican Female Artist, and Tropical Song ("Perfidia").
Kennedy Center
2019 Kennedy Center Honoree
Discography
Main articles: Linda Ronstadt albums discography and Linda Ronstadt singles discography
Studio albums
Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (1968) (with the Stone Poneys)
Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969)
Silk Purse (1970)
Linda Ronstadt (1972)
Don't Cry Now (1973)
Heart Like a Wheel (1974)
Prisoner in Disguise (1975)
Hasten Down the Wind (1976)
Simple Dreams (1977)
Living in the USA (1978)
Mad Love (1980)
Get Closer (1982)
What's New (1983)
Lush Life (1984)
For Sentimental Reasons (1986)
Trio (1987) (with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton)
Canciones de Mi Padre (1987)
Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind (1989)
Mas Canciones (1991)
Frenesí (1992)
Winter Light (1993)
Feels Like Home (1995)
Dedicated to the One I Love (1996)
We Ran (1998)
Trio II (1999) (Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton)
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (1999) (with Emmylou Harris)
A Merry Little Christmas (2000)
Hummin' to Myself (2004)
Adieu False Heart (2006) (with Ann Savoy)
Videography, filmography and stage appearances
Main article: List of Linda Ronstadt performances
$
See also | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 17 | https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/5192/all | en | Artist: Michael Nesmith | [
"https://secondhandsongs.com/art/logo.png",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/art/logo.png",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/picture/589237?x=0&y=266&w=665&h=665&c=0",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/art/amazon.png",
"https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=secon08-20&l=ur2&o=1",
"https://secondhandsongs.com/pictur... | [] | [] | [
"Michael Nesmith",
"Covers",
"Cover Songs",
"Samples",
"Tributes",
"Music"
] | null | [] | null | Michael Nesmith covered Conversations, In the Still of the Night, Sweet Young Thing, You Told Me and other songs. Michael Nesmith originally did Keys to the Car, You Told Me, Conversations, Sweet Young Thing and other songs. Michael Nesmith wrote Different Drum, Listen to the Band and Some of Shelly's Blues. | en | /art/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png | https://secondhandsongs.com/artist/5192/all | Discover The Original
SecondHandSongs is building the most comprehensive source of cover song information. | |||||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 2 | http://www.richieunterberger.com/cyrus.html | en | Liner Notes for Cyrus Faryar's "Cyrus" | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Richie Unterberger"
] | null | Liner Notes for Cyrus Faryar's "Cyrus" | null | By Richie Unterberger
His name might not be known to the general music fan, but throughout the 1960s, Cyrus Faryar moved in the inner circle of folk and folk-rock without quite managing to break through to stardom himself. In the early 1960s, he'd been in the Whiskeyhill Singers, a folk group also including ex-Kingston Trio member Dave Guard and esteemed singer Judy Henske (who went on to a notable solo career of her own). After their sole album (also reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice Music), he joined the Modern Folk Quartet, who recorded a couple albums for Warner Brothers at the end of the folk boom (also, as it happens, reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice).
Like many other young folk groups, the MFQ went into folk-rock, but were only able to make a few singles in their new incarnation before disbanding. The MFQ's Jerry Yester went on to produce the Association with the Lovin' Spoonful, record psychedelia as part of a duo with his then-wife Judy Henske, and form the band Rosebud with Henske. Another MFQ alumni, Chip Douglas, joined the Turtles and produced the Monkees; yet another ex-MFQer, Henry Diltz, became one of rock music's most renowned photographers. Faryar, meanwhile, went on to play on sessions by the likes of Fred Neil and Linda Ronstadt & the Stone Poneys, and produce the Firesign Theatre. And, in the early 1970s, he finally got to record his own pair of singer-songwriter albums for Elektra, about a decade after his recording debut.
Why had it taken this long for Faryar to step into the solo spotlight? "I think, partly, because I didn't promote myself aggressively," Cyrus says from his Hawaii home today. "I was basically content to be a part of something. I didn't feel that real drive to be a star, just happy whatever it was that the band was able to do was so much of an expansion of one's individual abilities. It's an old chestnut, the sum is greater than the parts. And being in the MFQ satisfied a lot of that. I mean, I always had a personal enthusiasm for songs that the MFQ never do. I've always loved the blues and stuff like that. But I kind of set it off to one side. I think what happened is at some point there was an hiatus in the MFQ's career, and Jac Holzman, who had become a friend, just said, 'Hey, you wanna make an album?' And I said, 'Sure.' A few things came together. It was not much of my doing, to tell you the truth."
"I think he always felt most comfortable in a group," agrees Holzman, Elektra's founder-president. "The reason those albums happened was because of Ron Jacobs, who had a company called Watermark Productions. [He] said that they would produce the records and pull the people together with my approval, if I was interested in going forward. Ron Jacobs was a famous boss jock in L.A. at that time., [and] has since gone back to be a big DJ in Hawaii, from which he had originated. But the reason those albums happened was because Ron Jacobs and I agreed to do them."
Faryar had actually already contributed to an Elektra project, as the narrator of the 1967 astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds; he would also be the voice of the Indian guru on the early-'70s Elektra comedy record A Child's Garden of Grass. "There was a studio built into my house, it was part of an outgrowth of an arrangement made with Watermark, which was Ron Jacobs and some others," he elaborates. "They met in my living room and decided they would do a joint venture. My contribution would be my home as a recording studio, 'cause I had a big old living room. The atmosphere, the idea, of having a recording studio which was sort of hidden in your living room, where it was this comfortable, non-sterile place, was very appealing to them. And the bathroom was the echo chamber. They made some other records too; they initiated the recording of [the jazz fusion group] Oregon. They began at my house; they were called Music to begin with. They would come and stay at my house and practice. Child's Garden of Grass was recorded at my house." None other than Harrison Ford did carpentry work on the studio, long before his ascent to stardom as a Hollywood film actor.
"I went back to Hawaii for a month or two to work on my own album, and wrote a few songs," resumes Cyrus. "As I left the house, there was rock'n'roll coming out of my living room, and I was pleased to get away to something peaceful. Because in a way, they kind of took over the house a little bit. And while I was in Hawaii that month, [the songs] kind of came together. They were there in bits and pieces, and became assembled into sort of a reality. There are any number of my own songs which I declined [to put on the album], which I thought, well, that's not a complete song. The ones that seemed to fit the mold stayed, and the incomplete songs just parked someplace. There's a great song called 'Papaya Smoothie'—god knows where it is now."
The album was cut in Faryar's studio with backup from friends, including drummers Mike Botts and Russ Kunkel, and bassist Brian Garafalo. Other sidemen of note in the supporting cast included Oregon's Collin Walcott, Ralph Towner, and Paul McCandless; pianist Craig Doerge, a member of Rosebud alongside Cyrus's old cohorts Judy Henske and Jerry Yester; the Dillards' Rodney Dillard, who played dobro on "Brother, Friend"; guitarist Dick Rosmini; and Alex Hassilev of the Limeliters, who was by the this time himself working as a producer in his own home studio (one of the first in Los Angeles), and who composed the electronic score for "Springtime Bouquet." Faryar himself produced the record, though as he modestly notes, "There really wasn't too much to it, because it was so much a collaborative effort. I just happened to be the singer and the guitar player, and everybody else was involved. I didn't feel like I was the captain of the ship commanding; I just wasn't the boss. Everybody who was there, [the] musicians, were really there as friends to help me realize my musical dream. So it was about as ego-less an experience as you could hope to find. It was just great, and it really fit the whole context of being in your living room."
With its gentle tone, oft-languid feel, and Faryar's vocal ease with the low notes, the record is rather in the style of '60s folk-rocker Fred Neil, with whom Cyrus had worked as a sideman on the classic Fred Neil album. There were, however, some eccentric production touches that added a layer of eerieness, such as the saw on "Companion," the glass harmonica on "Evergreen (Earth Anthem)" and "Kingdom," the stormy effects at the close of "Ratte's Dream," and the ARP synthesizer on "Springtime Bouquet." "I think it was Paul Beaver who had the ARP, it was a very primitive early oscillator device," remembers Faryar. "It was huge, this wonderful, big black thing full of wires, and you had to keep plugging and unplugging to get every change of sound. Alex [Hassilev] was there patching things, and we said, 'get a sound,' and I'd say, 'that's great!' And he'd say, 'You like that, wait a second.' And he would quickly change it to something [else]. So we wandered through that, finally captured some and settled on them, and just laid it on there, quite sort of spontaneously."
Cyrus also thinks that on 'Companion,' Collin Walcott "played an esraj, an Indian stringed instrument, which I was told was originally made with the gourd being a human skull. I thought that was pretty trippy. We used a more modern version, which was just wood, or a gourd of some kind. But it's a goofy, weird, strange stringy sound, which Collin loved to play, and we had a lot of fun with that."
Though most of the material on Cyrus was written by Cyrus, he did opt for a few songs from outside sources. "Kingdom" was penned by his wife of the time, Renais Faryar. "Evergreen (Earth Anthem)" was the work of Bill Martin, with whom Faryar had been acquainted since his '60s folk days, when Martin was working with future Association member Russ Giguere; Martin would later co-author the script for the movie Harry and the Hendersons. "I Think He's Hiding" had been on Randy Newman's first album, and was here sung with help from a three-dozen-strong chorus of friends, including David Crosby, Henry Diltz, Cass Elliott, folk legend Bob Gibson, Renais Faryar, famed producer Paul Rothchild, Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys, and Simone & Marijke Posthuma of the Fool (who had done some design work for the Beatles' Apple company and also recorded as a band, Faryar having produced a rare Fool single on Mercury). "Everybody just belted it out in my living room," Cyrus fondly recalls. "In lieu of payment, I ordered a couple of dozen pies and ice cream."
If there's any regret Cyrus has about his maiden solo effort, it's that some of the songs were sweetened with strings (conducted and arranged by Kirby Johnson, who did similar work on albums from the time by Van Dyke Parks, Ry Cooder, Little Feat, and Carly Simon). "The first album, when I first gave it to Jac Holzman, it bothered him," he recalls. "There were some songs...when I listen to it myself, I understand why, because taken from a certain point of view, it's rather a lot about transcending mortality and going across the great divide, which was a bit disturbing. Jac insisted—and I caved in—upon having violins, some overdubs, some strings to sweeten it. So the strings and overdubs went on, and made it less disturbing. They, to my particular taste, didn't add anything. They just softened some of the edges, which the powers that be found a little too edgy. I have original mixes which are much cleaner and purer." But overall, he was happy with the experience—"playing in the studio in my own home with my friends was the best possible fun."
Also fun was the press party to launch the album's promotion. "Instead of being downtown someplace at some club, we did it at my house, which made sense, 'cause the album was recorded at my house," says Faryar. "We tented the carport and the area between the house and the top of the driveway, and then we laid any number of oriental rugs on the ground. My friend Anton ordered a couple of pounds of caviar, a stage was put up, and we had quite a blast. People sat on the pillows"—150 of them, made specially for the occasion—"ate caviar, there was a lot of laughter and merriment. And if I'm not mistaken, it spent my entire promotional budget," he laughs. "That was my abiding impression, that whatever modest sums had been set aside for any promotion were blown up in one great night. Everybody left and said 'that was really unusual and really swell,' and then it disappeared into memory. That's what I think happened."
Whether because the promotional budget had been spent or not, Cyrus was not a big seller. That did not, however, prevent Faryar and Elektra from recording a follow-up album soon afterward, Islands, also reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice Music. -- Richie Unterberger
unless otherwise specified.
HOME WHAT'S NEW MUSIC BOOKS MUSIC REVIEWS TRAVEL BOOKS
LINKS ABOUT THE AUTHOR SITE MAP EMAIL RICHIE BUY BOOKS | |||||||
4334 | dbpedia | 2 | 8 | https://musicdayz.com/fact/95984/ | en | Fact #95984 | http://musicdayz.com/images/logo.png | http://musicdayz.com/images/logo.png | [] | [] | [] | [
"",
"music history",
"musicdayz",
"music archive",
"music facts",
"music recordings",
"rock history",
"pop history",
"jazz history",
"blues history",
"music development",
"music from",
"music trivia"
] | null | [] | null | The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band plays the first of thirteen nights at Doug Weston's Troubadour Club, Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA. Also on the bill is The Sunshine Company. | en | /favicon.ico | Musicdayz | http://musicdayz.com/fact/95984/ | When:
Short story:
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band plays the first of thirteen nights at Doug Weston's Troubadour Club, Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA. Also on the bill is The Sunshine Company.
Full article:
The Troubadour Story - by Johnny Black
WHEN THE SUN goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard, there's really only ever been one place to be and that's inside Doug Weston's legendary Troubadour Club.
The Troubadour, of course, wasn't always legendary. Hell, it wasn't even always on Santa Monica. When Weston opened it as an unassuming Los Angeles coffee house in 1957, the building stood on La Cienega. When there was music, it tended to be jazz. On a good night you might hear Horace Silver coaxing 'Senor Blues' out of the ivories for the assembled beatniks. It was 1961 before Weston moved The Troubadour to 9081 Santa Monica Boulevard, where audiences could soar up to 300 people.
Today, strolling in off the boulevard through The Troubadour's double doors, the little joint's history smacks you right in the kisser as you scan those rows of pictures on the wall of the bar, proudly displaying many of the internationally renowned artists whose careers started right here, often playing for free. There's The Byrds, of course, and isn't that Elton John? Aren't those The Eagles? Look, up there, Linda Ronstadt? Phew! Damned if that lot doesn't look like Guns'n'Roses, but now we're getting way ahead of ourselves. Cue the tinkling harp, cue the long slow dissolve...
As the 60s was kicking in, the place was always jammed on Monday nights. That was the night of the weekly Hootenanny session, where a parade of future folk stars like Judy Collins or Phil Ochs would perform a couple songs each free of charge simply to get a foot on the ladder. As rock photographer Henry Diltz recalls, "You'd see ten to fifteen acts on Monday nights. The place would be packed with agents, managers and record company people."
By the mid-60's though, the folk scene was undergoing a radical change. Diltz still vividly remembers, "Jim McGuinn showing up at the Troub one night and singing Beatles songs all by himself." Up to that point, McGuinn had been, like all the Troub regulars, a traditionalist folkie. His decision to play Beatles songs – electric music – in that hallowed location was viewed by some as tantamount to treason.
Not too long after, McGuinn returned to the Troubadour with another singer, Gene Clark. The pair were looking to form a band but needed a third harmony voice. David Crosby was on stage and, within minutes, Clark turned to McGuinn and said "That's the other voice." McGuinn was reluctant, knowing Crosby from Greenwich Village, but a little later that night in the stairwell beneath Weston's office, the trio harmonised together for the first time. "That sound rang clear," he says, "and we were off and runnin'."
The trio went on to become the core of The Byrds and, from their blend of jangling guitars, Dylan tunes and close harmonies, the blueprint for folk-rock was created. Intriguingly, Weston himself at first resisted the new wave, expressing dismay when The Modern Folk Quartet showed up one night toting amplifiers. He was soon converted though, and could be heard regaling one and all with the details of how he had invented the term folk-rock.
By 1966, The Troubadour's reputation for staging the best music in town had made it an essential watering hole for visiting celebrities like the painter David Hockney and the writer Christopher Isherwood. These were the nights of Buffalo Springfield, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and The Stone Poneys. The Poneys were fronted by a young girl from Tucson, Linda Ronstadt, and it was in the wake of their two-week 1965 residency at The Troub that they secured a deal from Capitol Records A&R man Nik Venet.
Ronstadt's memories of the club all seem to be good ones. "The Troubadour was like a café society. Everyone was in transition. No one was getting married, no one was having families, no one was having a particular connection ... so our connection was the Troubadour. It was where everyone met, where everyone got to hear everyone else's act. It was where I made all my musical contacts, and found people who were sympathetic to the musical styles I wanted to explore. We used to sit in a corner of The Troubadour and dream."
According to Jackson Browne, however, "I don;t think there was ever a songwriter's scene around The Troubadour. It was like Bob Dylan said, 'You probably call it folk music, but it's not.' It wasn't folk music at The Troubadour and nobody thought of it as folk. People came in with a full band. They'd come and they'd get record deals and they'd go. A lot of them were real corny, and flashy too. If you hung out there long enough, you could almost chart someone's progress. You'd see them one day by themselves, and the next day with two or three people they'd be forming a band. Like J.D. souther and Glenn Frey began playing there as a duo, and eventually you'd hear J.D. go up there by himself. And then a couple of weeks later Glenn would be in rehearsal with these other guys and they'd become The Eagles."
How very true. With Linda Ronstadt in her corner, watching and learning from the mistakes of country rock trailblazers like The Burritos and the Nitty Grittys were the members of that future megastar band that did not yet exist – The Eagles. One of them, Glenn Frey, harboured a more jaundiced view of the club than most. "The Troubadour, man, was and always will be full of tragic fucking characters. Has-beens and hopefuls. Sure, it's brought a lot of music to people but it's also infested with spiritual parasites who will rob you of your precious artistic energy. I was always worried about going down there, because I thought people would think I had nothing better to do. Which was true."
But, as another Eagle, Don Henley, recalls, "The Troubadour was the first place I went when I got to LA. The first night I walked in, I saw Graham Nash and Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt was standing there in a little Daisy Mae kind of dress. She was barefooted and scratching her ass. I thought 'I've made it. I'm here. I'm in heaven'."
Ronstadt confirms Henley's recollection. "The Troubadour was where I'd met Bernie Leadon and where I met Glenn Frey, who was in a group called Longbranch Pennywhistle with my boyfriend at that time, John David Souther. Don Henley came to town with a band from Texas called Shiloh and, one night, I was walking through the performing part of the club on my way to the bathroom when I heard Shiloh playing 'Silver Threads And Golden Needles', and using the exact guitar break off my album, Hand Sown. Right after that, we needed a band, so I hired Don and Glenn."
A slot supporting Ronstadt at The Troub, was the first big break for another unknown young hopeful trying to break through in the late 60s – Jackson Browne. "The Troub was the only place you could go and showcase for record companies," he remembers. "You went there on Mondays just to try and get a job. You signed onto this list at 4pm and, if you were lucky, you might get to sing three or four songs that night. Monday was also industry night at the bar, so you had a lot of actors, agents, record executives and beautiful women around. It was a teeming scene, and people like (David) Crosby were always flying in and out with girls."
Indeed they were. In the words of Susan Smith, a waitress at the time, "You had to wear a diaphragm just to walk through. The semen potential in the bar was so intense it was enough to get you pregnant just standing there." Or, as self-confessed groupie Eve Babitz neatly encapsulated it, you could "smell the sex" even from outside those double doors.
Jackson Browne eventually moved right into the club, sleeping in the kitchen. As Babitz tells it, Browne would stroll nonchalantly out of the kitchen, get himself a beer and stroll back in again, nodding to regulars like Jim Morrison, actor Harry Dean Stanton or comedian Steve Martin as if he owned the place. Arlo Guthrie seemed to lust endlessly after the waitresses, reckoned to be easily the hottest serving wenches in Los Angeles, but the merest flutter of Jackson's long eyelashes above those high cheekbones left Woody's boy in the dust. Janis Joplin could be spied, drinking alone, clad in nightdress and feather boa. Van Morrison glowered from the darkest corners.
There was one fondly-remembered night when Doug Dillard, unaccompanied, sang the opening line of 'Amazing Grace'. Seconds later, he was joined from across the bar by a perfect top harmony from Ronstadt. By the time their entwined voices had hit the second verse, David Crosby, Gene Clark and Jackson Browne were chiming in too – perfect five part close harmony a cappella.
As folk singer Jim Croce recalled, by this time, "The Troubadour was one of the most unique and respected places to play. There would be Cadillacs and Porsches parked outside, and inside it was one big, wild party. People would be doing drugs and trying to get picked up, while young talent was being revealed on its stage. There was no club that was more influential during the 60s and 70s for promoting new talent than The Troubadour. If you were lucky enough to get a gig there, then you had a shot at getting discovered and getting signed to a recording contract."
In the summer of 1968, young Canadian songstress Joni Mitchell blew into Los Angeles, taking the town by storm with an astonishing four-night sell-out at The Troub as her first gig in the city. Loudon Wainwright III, starting out on his career, remembers those days. "It was full of songwriters and musicians. You could see Phil Ochs there. Roger Miller used to hang out there. Roger McGuinn would come in and out. Bobby Neuwirth, The Band, who were all living out in Malibu then..."
Tying in nicely with the release of her debut LP on Reprise Records, Mitchell opened at The Troubadour on June 4, 1968, and played every night up to the 16th, causing an immediate sensation. "David (David Crosby) set it up so that when the album finally came out, everyone in LA was aware of Joni Mitchell," recalled her manager Elliot Roberts. "The first club date we played, at The Troubadour, was standing room only for four nights, two shows a night."
Success at The Troubadour was, for Mitchell as for many others, the start of success everywhere.
As the sixties stumbled towards the seventies, country-rock began to usurp folk-rock, but The Troubadour remained at the heart of this new music. By the time Poco made their debut at Troubadour in November 1968, Doug Weston had become a very shrewd operator indeed. Rather than simply pay a talented young performer for a gig, he instituted a system whereby he would give them a break by showcasing them at the club but, in return, they were committed to play for him in later years if and when they became famous. As a result, he could always present top names in the club despite its tiny audience.
Don McLean, of 'American Pie' fame, was one of many snared by Weston's technique. "My contract with The Troubadour was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Weston would sign you for five years and pay the same amount for every performance – $1000. Sure, in 1970 this was good money but, when I became No1 all over the world, I still had to play his goddamned lousy club because he had me under contract."
Fairport Convention, when they played a week-long residency in September 1970, were paid $500 but, because they were also given unlimited access to the bar, discovered at the end of the week that they owed Weston $1,500. Nevertheless, their axe maestro Richard Thompson remembers it fondly. "The LA Troubadour was fun. Everyone who played there had to sign to do three or four engagements ...and of course you wanted to play there the first time, but a lot of people got famous in the meantime and had to go back to the Troubadour to fulfil this terrible obligation. But it was quite a place, it was great hang-out for folkies."
Watching the Fairports from out front was confirmed regular Loudon Wainwright III. "The first time I laid eyes on Richard was at the Troubadour. I remember him drunk, with his head down on the table at he bar at the Troubadour, the only time in my life I've ever seen him drunk."
Legend holds that it was in The Troubadour that Thompson was asked by The Eagles if he'd consider joining them, a move which could have radically re-shaped rock history. "Don Henley says that I was asked to join, but I don't remember being asked," says Thompson, adding that, "I'd have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans."
It was also during that 1970 stint, on 4 September, that some of bassist Dave Pegg's chums, who just happened to be in LA, popped in. "Zeppelin came down," remembers Fairport singer Simon Nicol, "and it was all Peggy and Bonzo, Old Firm Night. Neither Mattacks nor I spent much time on stage once they got down, we were supernumeraries. I remember Mattacks' silver sparkle Gretsch bass drum jumping forward three or four inches on Bonzo's first strike."
Inevitably, something of a guitar duel developed between Jimmy Page and Richard Thompson, with Thompson evidently claiming the honours and, after a lengthy jam, both bands headed for the bar again. "Peggy was involved in some serious drinking contest with Bonham and Janis Joplin," remembers Thompson. "It ended when they found Bonham two days later stark naked by a swimming pool and the rest of the band had gone to Hawaii."
Eve Babitz, who reckons to have spent virtually every night of the five years between 1968 and 1972 in the Troub bar, once characterised owner Doug Weston as "a snaggletoothed, greedy son of a bitch who didn't understand artists", adding that he "rarely came downstairs into the bar because, people said, he was upstairs cackling over his good fortune."
Nevertheless, even a partial listing of the significant rock moments that occurred in his club would take many pages and one of them involves Don McLean. During one of his reluctant stints at the club in 1972, he was seen by a young folksinger, Lori Lieberman, who found herself mesmerised by his rendition of 'American Pie'. "I thought he was just incredible," she says. " He was singing songs that I felt pertained to my life at the time. I went home and wrote a poem and showed it to these two men I was working with at the time – Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox."
The trio transformed the poem into 'Killing Me Softly With His Song', which provided an international number one smash for Roberta Flack the following year.
It is also said, for example, that Gram Parsons' song 'Juanita' was inspired by a girl he met at The Troubadour. West Coast music mogul David Geffen is reputed to have struck his deals with Joni Mitchell, The Eagles and Jackson Browne in the bar here. It was in the Troubadour too that The Eagles allegedly attempted to woo Richard Thompson away from Fairport Convention to join their fledgling band. This was where, in July 1969, James Taylor made his live solo debut, and on 25 August 1970, Elton John played his first US gig at The Troubadour.
Doug Weston, owner of Los Angeles legendary Troubadour club on Santa Monica Boulevard, paid Elton John's trio a meagre $500 for a week of gigs. "We'd flown to Los Angeles," explained Elton later, "thirteen hours over the pole in this jumbo jet, and we arrived to find this bloody great bus ... 'Elton John has arrived!' and all that sort of thing ... and it took another two hours to get to the hotel. Once we'd booked in, we were hustled out again and off to the Troubadour where The Dillards were appearing ... they were incredible, just knocked me out completely."
Then, the night before the first show, Elton's manager Ray Williams found him "sulking – and petrified." Convinced that he was too inexperienced to play for a sophisticated LA crowd, Elton was in a state of panic. "He said he wasn't going to play The Troubadour date," remembers Williams, "and was getting on the first plane home. I basically had to fight with him."
Luckily, Williams prevailed but Elton's anxiety wasn't reduced when he arrived at The Troubadour to find that "It was packed to the brim with people from the record industry, who expected me to come on with this 15-piece orchestra and reproduce the sound of the album, which had recently been released there." So, when a still-terrified Elton finally hit the little stage (introduced by Neil Diamond) that Tuesday night, he was seen by Beach Boy Mike Love, Bread leader David Gates and singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, not to mention such luminaries as Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein and Henry Mancini.
Robert Hillburn of the L.A. Times remembers Elton's shaky opening. "He started going through his songs in a somewhat distant, businesslike manner. He looked scared, keeping his eyes on the piano." The ultra-cool Troubadour crowd virtually ignored the unknown Brit until, four numbers into the set, Elton snapped. Composer Don Black, also in the house that night, recalls that "He stood up, kicked away his piano stool and shouted 'Right! If you won't listen, perhaps you'll bloody well listen to this!' Then he started pounding the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis." By the end of the set, America was Elton's for the taking.
Rolling Stone magazine rated that night as one of the all-time greatest rock performances and, the following morning Elton received a telegram from Bill Graham, the country's most important promoter, offering him $5,000 to play at the Fillmore East in New York – the largest sum ever offered to a first time act.
In retrospect, Elton has said, "I think the start of all the success was the Troubadour thing. It was just amazing. It's an incredibly funky little place, the best club of its kind anywhere, and all it is is some wooden tables and chairs and good acoustics."
Another performer who stepped, petrified, onto the stage of The Troubadour was Carole King, when she debuted her album Tapestry here on 18 May 1971. "Back then," explains her producer Lou Adler, "performing was a real chore for Carole – she just didn't like it." She was also understandably nervous about stepping back into the limelight so soon after her previous album, Writer, had sold a miserable 6,000 copies. "Carole was squeezing my hand so hard," says Adler, "I knew she was churning on her way up to the stage." It was a different story, however, when she came off, and Tapestry went on to become the most successful rock album ever.
26 Feb 73 : Springsteen's first Troubadour appearance was a six song set at a Hoot night, of which the L.A. Free Press said "It was Bruce Springsteen who made the crowd collision, the stepped on toes, the smoke-pained eyeballs, the walk away from the TV set all worthwhile ... never have I been more impressed with a debuting singer than I was with Bruce Springsteen on Monday night."
The next few years at the Troub seem more memorable for superstar escapades than for music. By far the most celebrated incident took place on 12 March 1974. Separated from Yoko Ono, John Lennon was working in LA with Harry Nilsson on the album Pussycats. As Nilsson recalled it, "We'd stopped by Tower Records and bought a copy of my favourite song at the time, 'I Can't Stand The Rain' by Ann Peebles." Moving on to The Troubadour, the pair glugged down numerous Brandy Alexanders, whereupon, "We ended up singing 'I Can't Stand The Rain' at our table, and we got the whole place rocking. There was nobody performing. But some guy, I think it was Jack Haley Jr, kept going 'Shhhh!' And Peter Lawford was getting uptight. Finally, the act was about to begin, with The Smothers Brothers and we were going 'Shhh!' to them.'
According to another source, Nilsson then began priming Lennon with lewd comments he might direct at the hapless comics. "During our first set, I heard someone yelling something about pigs," remembers Tommy Smothers. "It was fairly disgusting.... The heckling got so bad that our show was going downhill rapidly."
When the now drunken and abusive Lennon, with a tampon taped to his forehead, posed the question "Do you know who I am?", to a sassy Troub waitress, she knew the answer. "Yeah, you're an asshole," she replied, "with a Kotex on his head." Before long, fists were flying.
"My wife ended up with Lennon's glasses because of the punches that were thrown," says Smothers.
"All of a sudden," said Nilsson, "a bunch of bodyguards came over and pounced on us."
The fun wasn't over yet, though, because according to Tommy Smother, Lennon then "went outside and kicked the car parker." Despite his superstar status, Lennon was overpowered by the bouncers and unceremoniously dumped onto the sidewalk. The Smothers Brothers, appropriately, had the last laugh.
Equally embarrassing, but in a different way, was the scene that erupted in March 1975 when Rod Stewart's long-standing English girlfriend Dee Harrington turned up unexpectedly at the club to find Rod drooling over blonde starlet Britt Ekland. When a somewhat nonplussed Ekland discreetly retreated to a distant table, Harrington presented Rod with an ultimatum – her or me. Rod chose her, and one of the great superstar romances of the seventies was officially on.
By the mid-seventies, The Troubadour was exerting such a stranglehold on LA's laid-back scene that Whiskey A Go Go owner Elmer Valentine formed a partnership with producer Lou Adler and manager Elliott Roberts to start a new club, The Roxy on Sunset Strip, whose clear objective was to break the Weston monopoly.
The ploy worked. The Troubadour faltered, stumbled and nearly fell. Hoping to find a new identity, the club flirted disastrously with punk. After fans of The Bags rampaged through the venue overturning tables, a petition got up by those funky waitresses resulted in Weston turning the tables on the punks and banning their music. When Weston convinced Jackson Browne to play a benefit for the ailing club in 1977.
Even though it looked as if the end was nigh, The Troubadour remained influential. Shortly after Tom Petty got his first taste of skinny-tie power poppers The Knack at The Troub in 1978, the band was signed by an A&R man who had also spotted them in the club.
Come the summer of 1979, Weston took a gamble and started booking heavy metal acts. By that autumn, the venue was rising again as a hard rock showcase.
Weston immediately endeared himself to his new musical partners by deciding that he had the right to tape and sell their Troubadour performances without their permission. On 8 November 1979, three bands (The Sweethearts, Snapp and Blow-up) scheduled to play refused to take the stage. Sterling Haug of The Sweethearts explained, "He hadn't told us he was planning to tape us and every time we asked what he was going to do with the tapes we got a different answer."
Tactful as ever, Weston retorted that, "When an individual with as much perception as myself decides to honour those pipsqueaks by recording them instead of pissing on them, the first thing they should do is kneel and kiss my ass. If they're good enough, I record them without charging them anything, just as a gift to them. Some renege at the last minute, after I've gone to all the trouble of hiring a truck and getting the sixteen-track recorder down to the club. If there is no deal on paper, then it must be fair, because we will negotiate later, when I can decide what is equitable."
In 1985, Guns'n'Roses landed their first residency at the Troub. In the audience was Geffen Records A&R man Tom Zutaut, and he vividly remembers the show. "Axl Rose was the most charismatic, electrifying performer I'd ever seen. The musicians were amazing. Everything about the band was right." Slyly feigning indifference to flummox other A&R touts, Zutaut left after a few songs but rang the band early the next day to offer the contract which made them world superstars.
These days, with a more eclectic booking policy than ever, you're just as likely to see tomorrow's stars in The Troubadour as you ever were. Metal, indie and acoustic all represented and booker Lance Hubp says "From a business perspective we'll book anything that makes sense and, from a musical perspective, anything that I believe in."
So next time you're standing out there on Santa Monica Boulevard watching that red ball of fire sink slowly in the west, you know where to go. Just check first that you don't have a tampon taped to your head.
Thanks : Barney Hoskyns, Art Fein, Patrick Humphries, Tim Perry, Ed Glinert, Dave Walker, A.M.Nolan, Joe Smith, Mary Ellen Moore, Connie Berman, Bob Shannon, John Javna, Danny Somach.
© Johnny Black, 1997 | ||
4334 | dbpedia | 1 | 3 | https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-andrew-gold-20110606-story.html | en | Andrew Gold dies at 59; musician, songwriter, arranger | https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8cb5546/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x263+0+44/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F45%2Fae%2F204ff709140038b3c61283931b35%2Fla-me-2011notables-zeisel | https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8cb5546/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x263+0+44/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F45%2Fae%2F204ff709140038b3c61283931b35%2Fla-me-2011notables-zeisel | [
"https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7442de5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/500x333+0+8/resize/320x213!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F10%2F67%2Ff1e7b4ce18ec3da2176fc16bf9d3%2Fla-me-2011notables-chamberlain 320w,https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Keith Thursby, Los Angeles Times",
"Keith Thursby",
"Los Angeles Times"
] | 2011-06-06T07:00:00+00:00 | Gold was a versatile musician who played several instruments and arranged music as a member of Linda Ronstadt's band in the 1970s. His 'Lonely Boy' hit the Top 10 in 1977. | en | /apple-touch-icon.png | Los Angeles Times | https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-andrew-gold-20110606-story.html | 1/46
A free-form sculptor, John Chamberlain crafted works from masses of crushed cars and automobile sheet metal. He was 84. Full obituary (Librado Romero / Associated Press)
2/46
A former dissident playwright, Havel was the revered first president of Czechoslovakia after it overthrew Communist rule in 1989. His slogan: “May truth and love triumph over lies and hatred.” He was 75. Full obituary (Petr David Josek / Associated Press)
3/46
Hubert Sumlin‘s snarling guitar helped define Howlin’ Wolf‘s sound. Though Sumlin never attained a fraction of the fame of his celebrated boss, he is revered by fellow blues musicians. He was 80. Full obituary
Notable music deaths of 2011 (Paul Hawthorne / Getty Images)
4/46
The daughter of stars Loretta Young and Clark Gable, Lewis wrote tenderly about her only meeting with Gable at age 15. Young, an unmarried, staunch Catholic, faked an adoption of Lewis, who did not learn the truth about her parentage until she was an adult. She had careers as an actress and a psychotherapist. She was 76. Full obituary (Jill Connelly / Associated Press)
5/46
Known as “Father Dollar Bill,” Father Maurice Chase handed out dollar bills on Los Angeles’ skid row, caring more about the gift of human love than about what his beneficiaries did with the money. He was 92. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
6/46
The Bruins point guard, who in 1964 helped John Wooden win his first national championship at UCLA, coached the team for four seasons. He was 69. Full obituary
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Harold Matosian / Associated Press)
7/46
The heavyweight champ had epic bouts with Muhammad Ali. In 1971 he became the first fighter to defeat Ali, then lost two rematches. In his 37 professional fights, “Smokin’ Joe” won 32 times. But he never accepted his 1-2 record against Ali. He was 67. Full obituary
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (AFP / Getty Image)
8/46
Matty Alou won the National League batting title in 1966 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He and his brothers Felipe and Jesus became the only trio of brothers to play outfield together in a 1963 game. He was 72. Full obituary.
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Diamond Images / Getty Images)
9/46
A legendary producer, director and impresario of the Geffen Playhouse, Gil Cates restored the luster to the Academy Awards telecasts, recruiting hosts such as Billy Crystal and Steve Martin. He was 77. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2011 (Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)
10/46
Erratic and mercurial, the Libyan leader fancied himself a political philosopher, practiced an unorthodox, deadly diplomacy and cut an at times cartoonish figure in robes and sunglasses and surrounded by female guards. He was 69. Obituary | Full coverage of Kadafi’s death | Photos: Kadafi through the years
Notable deaths of 2010 (John Redman / Associated Press)
11/46
The Native American activist was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that accused the federal government of cheating Native Americans in its management of Indian land, resulting in a record $3.4-billion settlement. She was 65. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times)
12/46
The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner was killed in a 15-car wreck in the IndyCar series’ season-ending race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was 33. Full obituary
Notable sports deaths of 2011 (Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images)
13/46
Roger Williams was of the most popular instrumentalists of the mid-20th century and hit No. 1 on the pop charts in 1955 with his arpeggio-strewn “Autumn Leaves.” Between 1955 and 1972, he had 22 hit singles -- including “Born Free” -- and 38 hit albums. He was 87. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Lawrence Lucier / Steinway & Sons via Getty Images)
14/46
The Scottish singer-guitarist influenced rock and folk greats including Neil Young, Jimmy Page, Paul Simon and Pete Townshend, who credit Jansch’s effect on their music and celebrate his virtuosic playing and evocative songwriting. He was 67. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Jim Dyson / Getty Images)
15/46
Ralph Steinman died just days before the Nobel committee announced he had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. His heirs will still receive his share of the award because the Nobel committee did not know of his death. He and two others were honored for their work with the immune system. He was 68. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mike Groll / Associated Press)
16/46
Robinson owned Sugar Hill Records. The label released “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979. It’s considered the first mainstream hip-hop hit. She also had a solo hit with “Pillow Talk” in 1973. She was 76. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
17/46
He invented the first practical implantable pacemaker. The electrical engineer’s handmade device was named by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1983 as one of the 10 greatest engineering contributions to society in the previous 50 years. He was 92. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Bill Sikes / Associated Press)
18/46
The NFL Hall of Famer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers teamed with his brothers to create a dominant defensive front and led Oklahoma to back-to-back national college championships. He was 56. (J. Meric / Getty Images)
19/46
The Chicago bluesman, the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, performed with the founders of the art form: Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Son House, Tommy McLennan, Sonny Boy Williamson, Big Joe Williams. He was the last of the bluesmen from his generation. He was 96. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Joe Brier / McClatchy-Tribune)
20/46
June Wayne founded the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles in the 1960s, where leading artists collaborated with professional printers to create high-quality prints. She was also a prolific artist in her own right. She was 93. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)
21/46
Marshall Grant, who worked as Johnny Cash‘s road manager and played bass for him for more than two decades, helped create the singer’s famous sound. He was 83. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Wayne Risher / Associated Press)
22/46
Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist and educator, was the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health. She led the Red Cross relief efforts after 9/11. She was 67. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
23/46
The NFL player, who was the No. 1 draft pick from Michigan State in 1967, played for the Baltimore Colts, the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Oilers. Later, he appeared in popular beer commercials and acted in films and on TV. He was 66. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (John Gwillim / Associated Press)
24/46
The Oscar-nominated art director was best known for her work on “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” both directed by former husband Peter Bogdanovich. She also was an executive in filmmaker James L. Brooks’ company. She was 72. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
25/46
He became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and guided military and humanitarian efforts in the post-Cold War era of the 1990s. He was 75. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
26/46
The British painter, whose works are highly prized by collectors, created subjects in anguished, anti-erotic poses. He used impasto, a technique involving the thick application of paint, to create his highly textured portraits. He was 88. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Stephan Agostini / AFP/Getty Images)
27/46
Lillian Mobley, a tireless South Los Angeles activist, fought to establish the King/Drew hospital and its related medical school. Above, Mobley, right, looks on as Dr. George Locke greets Rep. Maxine Waters at King/Drew in 2004. She was 81. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
28/46
The comedy writer and producer created “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch. “ He also wrote the memorable theme-song lyrics for both the wacky tale of a shipwrecked “three-hour tour” and the story of the marriage between a “lovely lady” with three daughters and “a man named Brady” with three sons. Above, Schwartz in 2008 receives kisses from Florence Henderson, who played Mrs. Brady, and Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island.” He was 94. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2011 (Nick Ut / Associated Press)
29/46
The former first lady captivated the nation with her unabashed candor and forthright discussion of her personal battles with breast cancer, prescription drug addiction and alcoholism. She founded the widely emulated Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for the treatment of chemical dependencies. She was 93. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Anna Moore Butzner / Grand Rapids Press)
30/46
The internationally renowned American artist, whose work blurred the boundaries of painting, drawing and handwritten poetry, was recognized with Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg as one of the three most important American artists to emerge in the 1950s. Above, the artist at the Louvre, where he designed and painted the ceiling of a large gallery of bronze sculptures last year. He was 83. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Christophe Ena / Associated Press)
31/46
The saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band put his stamp on such Springsteen classics as “Born to Run” and “Rosalita.” He was known both for his full-throttle tenor sax work and his larger-than-life onstage persona as “the Big Man.” He was 69. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Hillery Smith Garrison / Associated Press)
32/46
Pratt was a former Black Panther whose 1972 murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years behind bars for a crime he said he did not commit. He was 63. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
33/46
The singer gained fame with her 1974 hit, “Poetry Man.” She received wide acclaim for her self-titled album, which showed off her multi-octave range and musical versatility. She had suffered a brain hemorrhage in January 2010. She was 60. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
34/46
He was considered a living god by millions of Hindus. After declaring himself the reincarnation of a Hindu saint in 1940, he built a loyal following, including politicians and celebrities, despite allegations of sexual abuse. He leaves a trust worth billions of dollars. He was 84. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Mustafa Quraishi / Associated Press)
35/46
The architect incorporated aerodynamic designs into his whimsical midcentury “Googie” coffee shops, including the original Norms on La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. and Pann’s in Westchester, to attract passing motorists. He was 94. Full obituary | Photos: “Googie” architecture
Notable deaths of 2010 (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
36/46
The developer of the Kendall-Jackson wine brand was a San Francisco lawyer who became a skilled wine merchant and titan of the industry. In recent years, Jackson owned winning racehorses, including Rachel Alexandra. He was 81. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times)
37/46
The legendary Norwegian runner became the face of the New York City Marathon, winning the race nine times. She also set four marathon world records. She was 57. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Roald Berit / AFP/Getty Images)
38/46
The biochemist won the 1976 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering the hepatitis B virus, which causes severe liver disease and cancer. He later developed the vaccine that protects against it. He was 85. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Eddie Adams / Associated Press)
39/46
A prolific thinker and creator, he is credited with innovations in cable modems, interactive TV, airport metal detectors and the “packet switching” technology that helped lead to the Internet. Above, Baran receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Bush in 2008. He was 84. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)
40/46
The political reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist wrote more than four decades for the Washington Post, where he mentored countless colleagues. He appeared on “Meet the Press” some 400 times. He was 81. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
41/46
Frank Buckles, the last American veteran of World War I, drove ambulances in France and later spent years in an internment camp after Japan’s invasion of the Philippines in WWII. He was 110. Full obituary
Notable deaths of 2010 (Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images)
42/46
The composer won five Oscars for films such as “Born Free” and “Out of Africa” and scored Bond films including “Goldfinger,” “Diamonds Are Forever” and “From Russia With Love.” His work on the Bond franchise put him in the forefront of music composers. He was 77. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Dave Hogan / Getty Images)
43/46
Grannis photographs documented California surf culture of the 1960s and ‘70s. His images helped popularize and immortalize the sport -- and the life behind it -- at a crucial point in its history. “His photos captured the real thing,” wrote surfing journalist Steve Barilotti. He was 93. Full obituary (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
44/46
The relatively unknown photographer documented L.A.’s beat culture and emerging arts scene, the civil rights movement, the Black Panthers and antiwar protests. He was 82. Full obituary (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
45/46
Sargent Shriver, a lawyer and Kennedy in-law, worked for JFK’s and Lyndon Johnson’s administrations. He launched social programs including the Peace Corps, Head Start and the Job Corps and led the “war on poverty.” Programs he created “still change people’s lives,” says daughter Maria Shriver. Above, with his wife Eunice in 1968. He was 95. Full obituary (Charles Harrity / Associated Press)
46/46
The British director earned Academy Award nominations for “Breaking Away” and “The Dresser.” “Bullitt” was Yates’ American directing debut. It starred Steve McQueen as a detective and featured a memorable car chase on the streets of San Francisco with McQueen at the wheel of a Mustang. He was 81. Full obituary
Notable film and television deaths of 2010 (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Andrew Gold, a singer, songwriter and versatile musician who had a Top 10 hit in 1977 with “Lonely Boy” and was a vital component of Linda Ronstadt’s pop success in the 1970s as a member of her band, has died. He was 59.
Gold died Friday in his sleep at his home in Encino, said his sister, Melani Gold Friedman. He had cancer but had been responding well to treatment, she said.
He played several instruments, did arrangements and sang on such Ronstadt albums as “Heart Like a Wheel” in 1974, “Prisoner in Disguise” in 1975 and “Hasten Down the Wind” in 1976. His versatility also made him a highly regarded session player for such folk-rock musicians as James Taylor, Carly Simon, Loudon Wainwright III and J.D. Souther as well as the producer of recordings by Stephen Bishop, Nicolette Larson and others.
“Andrew was so enormously talented it almost seemed effortless,” Ronstadt told The Times on Saturday. “He was a real cornerstone of those early records.”
He met Ronstadt as a high school student in the 1960s when her country-rock band the Stone Poneys performed at Oakwood School in North Hollywood. “He came up to talk,” Ronstadt said. “He was so bubbly and so smart and we were so impressed with what a good musician he was.”
After the Stone Poneys disbanded after their hit “Different Drum” in 1967, founding member Kenny Edwards teamed with Gold and singer-songwriters Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff to create the folk-rock band Bryndle.
In an email to The Times, Gold’s former high school classmate Waldman called him “an extraordinary guitarist, pianist, drummer and record producer.”
Bryndle got a record deal, but the album wasn’t released. The band broke up (but reunited in the 1990s). Edwards, who died in August, rejoined Ronstadt and Gold joined the band.
Gold was born Aug. 2, 1951, in Burbank to composer Ernest Gold and singer Marni Nixon. His father won an Academy Award for his score for the 1960 film “Exodus,” and his mother sang for Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady,” among others.
“It was clear from the beginning that I was going to be a musician,” he told The Times in 1977. “With those kind of influences at home what else could I do?”
Gold’s sister said he taught himself instruments by listening to the Beatles. “He could really pick up any instrument and play it,” she said. He lived in England with family friends for about a year as a teenager, she said, and recorded a single with another young musician.
Waldman said Gold “listened to everything under the sun and absorbed it with terrifying accuracy. It was something I always admired and found fascinating about him.”
Gold launched a solo career in the mid-1970s while still with Ronstadt’s band. “Lonely Boy” was a hit on his second album, “What’s Wrong With This Picture?” and the single “Thank You for Being a Friend” from 1978’s “All This and Heaven Too” reached No. 25 on Billboard magazine’s charts.
He recorded with English musician Graham Gouldman in the 1980s, then continued to write, record and work with a variety of artists. Gold also did commercial work and soundtracks, such as singing the theme to the NBC sitcom “Mad About You.” His last release was 2008’s “Copy Cat.”
In addition to his sister, who lives in Tujunga, and his mother, Gold is survived by his wife, Leslie Kogan; daughters Emily, Victoria and Olivia from his marriage to Vanessa Gold, which ended in divorce; and sister Martha Carr of North Hollywood.
Services will be private, but a public remembrance will be planned.
Keith.thursby@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writer Randy Lewis contributed to this report. |