Monday, December 31, 2018

Happy New Year!

Yeah, ok. Here's what happens.

I have a few lists of "The Best of 2018", and I play them. It doesn't stop the fact that 2019 is really really gonna suck. So enjoy '18 while you still can.




Sunday, December 30, 2018

Spirit In The Dark



Since this is my last post for 2018, I'm going to use it to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul.  Released in 1970, 'Spirit In The Dark' is her seventeenth studio album, as well as my favorite album by Sister Re. 














Friday, December 28, 2018

What You Haven't Heard

Pick a tune. Any tune,

Now see what's in the "recommened" list, and hit one. Go from there.

Let's see what we come up with.

Now, before we begin, I have to mention that today is the third anniversary of the death of  Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister. He got the diagnosis (cancer) two days after turning 70, and died two days later.

One of the deeper songs written by Lemmy, this is about all the people he has known who died of drug overdoses:

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Boogie Chillun



This album was recorded live in San Francisco in November of 1962, during a time when John Lee Hooker was playing in coffeehouses and billing his shows as "real folk blues".

There is no band... just Mr. Hooker and his electric guitar. 





















Sunday, December 23, 2018

Bah Humbug!



Once upon a time, Columbia Records asked Miles Davis to record a Christmas song for a compilation album called 'Jingle Bell Jazz'.  So Mr. Davis decided to get his Scrooge on, teaming up with Bob Dorough, who provided the vocals and the lyrics.  Mr. Dorough was something of a nerdy, aw-shucks performer... he's best known for singing and writing some of the songs from 'Schoolhouse Rock'... but Miles brought out his darker angels.  The result was 'Blue Xmas (For Whom It May Concern)'.

No.  Not 'Blue Christmas'.

'Blue Xmas'.

Not exactly what Columbia was looking for, with its disdain for the crass consumerism that is Chrismas in America, but to their credit, they did include it on the album.  Even used it as the closing song.

It's my kind of Christmas song.

Ho Ho Ho...  And folderol.












Friday, December 21, 2018

Lucky Us

Tonight's the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. But this year, the solstice will be an extra rare one, due to a couple of other cosmic events.

First off, this year's solstice coincides with a full moon, an event that Native Americans called The Long Night.

On top of that, the Ursid meteor shower will be visible tonight, with the best chance to spot a meteor coming just before dawn tomorrow.

It's almost as if the universe is celebrating the anniversary of the forming of Jethro Tull, named after the 18th-century inventer of the seed drill.

Or not. Probably just another coincidence.


Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Strange Days


There's a story about the song, 'Strange Days'.  According to John Densmore, it was written in response to a decision made by himself, Rob Krieger and Ray Manzarek to sell 'Light My Fire' to Buick so the song could be used in a TV ad.  When Jim Morrison found out, he threw a hissy fit... even threatened to burn a Buick on stage if the company didn't back out of the deal.

Buick backed out of the deal.

Morrison was also puzzled by how his bandmates could sell out so shamelessly.  He began pushing the idea that they all move to an island and start over again; that they try to go back to the "Rock 'n Roll garage", so to speak.    

As albums go, I was always partial to 'Strange Days' because it has the feel of the "garage".  Of course, it's hard to pick a favorite Doors album because they're all so damn good.














Sunday, December 16, 2018

Kismet




In December of 1969, King Crimson and The Nice opened up for the Chamber Brothers at Fillmore West in San Francisco.  During a sound check, the bassist for King Crimson and the keyboardist for The Nice started an impromptu jam session, and, as the keyboardist said, "Zap!  It was there!"

They agreed to get together, maybe even start a new band, once they were back in England. 

Keith Emerson was the man on the keyboards. 

The bass player was Greg Lake.

They would go on to recruit Carl Palmer, the drummer from Atomic Rooster.

Seems like some things are just meant to be. 













Friday, December 14, 2018

Rumor Has It.

Top spot on the Hot 100 today in 1968:


OK, animals. Impress me.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Another Music In A Different Kitchen



Thought I'd play the Buzzcocks since we lost Pete Shelley last week.  Released in 1978, 'Another Music In A Different Kitchen' was their debut album. 














Sunday, December 9, 2018

A Three-Fer

 

(Also known as not being able to decide who to feature...)

                                                                     


Neil Innes turns 73 today.  For those who don't recognize the name, Innes was one of the zany geniuses behind The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.  Later, Innes and Eric Idle would form The Rutles, a band that made a career out of parodying The Beatles.

















The Bonzos were also the only band besides The Beatles that was featured in the BBC TV film, 'Magical Mystery Tour', performing "Death Cab For Cutie" in the strip club scene.















Which brings me to the second part of this three-fer.

Yesterday was the anniversary of John Lennon's murder by a madman.  Hard to believe he's been gone for 48 years now.

Always was partial to this song by Mr. Lennon.





There's also this gem with Lennon and Zappa.  Yeah... and Ono too.





And that brings me to the third part.

December 4th was the day when Frank Zappa left this mortal coil.  He's been gone for twenty-five years.  Don't know if Zappa and The Mothers ever met up with the Bonzos back then, but they sure were kindred spirits. 

Zappa and The Mothers recorded this song in 1966.  It could have been written about life in the USA today.













Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Supertramp

 
 
Rick Davies - Vocals, keyboards
Roger Hodgson - Vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards 1970-1983
Dougie Thomson - Bass 1972-1988
John Helliwell - Horns
Bob Siebenberg - Drums
Mark Hart - Vocals, guitar, keyboards 1985-2002
Carl Verheyen - Guitar 1996-
Lee Thornburg - Horns 1996-
Cliff Hugo - Bass 1996-
Jesse Siebenberg - Percussion, keyboards 1996-

The group formed in London when Rick Davies broke up his band The Joint and placed an ad in a UK music paper looking for musicians to form a band. The group was financed by a Dutch millionaire named Sam Miesegaes, who put up the money after seeing Davies play in The Joint. Singing with A&M Records, they released their first (self-titled) album in 1970, and also played the Isle Of Wight Festival that year. Miesegaes pulled his financing in 1972, and the band settled on a new lineup, with just Davies and Roger Hodgson remaining as original members. Their third album, Crime of the Century, was a breakthrough, making #4 in the UK on the strength of hits "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right."

Davies and Hodgson did all the songwriting, and even though they wrote most of their songs separately, they agreed to share composer credit on all the songs, just like Lennon/McCartney or Jagger/Richards. Like the Lennon/McCartney arrangement, whoever wrote the song sang lead. Hodgson's song were spiritual and introspective: "Give A Little Bit," "The Logical Song," "Take The Long Way Home." Davies' were more pragmatic: "Goodbye Stranger," "Bloody Well Right," "Crime of the Century."

In 1979, Supertramp became one of the most successful bands in America, thanks to an album (Breakfast in America) that explored the country from the perspective of an Englishman. The band moved to California in the mid-'70s; Hodgson loved it and lived there permanently. Davies was less enthusiastic about California ("I don't think that's a place where anybody wants to settle down, not even Americans," he said), and moved to Long Island. Moving to America allowed them to keep a lot more of their income, as they would have been heavily taxed in England.

The band was originally called Daddy, but they changed it at the suggestion of their original guitarist Richard Palmer, who got the name from a 1910 book by the Welsh author W.H. Davies called The Autobiography of a Super Tramp.

There was a lot of personal tension between Davies and Hodgson, which came out in the open in a 1979 Melody Maker piece where they were both interviewed. "We've never been able to communicate too much on a verbal level," said Hodgson. "There's a very deep bond, but it's definitely mostly on a musical level."

Hodgson left the band in 1983 and released the solo albums In the Eye of the Storm (1984) and Hai Hai (1987). With two children, he spent much of the '90s focused on being a parent, and in 2010 he started touring again, happy to perform the hits he wrote with Supertramp. "I'm not one of the artists who has to say, Okay, you have to listen to my new stuff now," he said. "I'm in the service industry, and my job is to give people the most in the two hours that I'm with them."

Remarkably, Hodgson has never appeared with Supertramp since he left in 1983. The band has continued on with Davies at the helm (he owns the name), but any attempt to reunite Hodgson, even for a one-off performance, has always failed.

In 2010, Supertramp played Hodgson's songs on their tour, which Roger said violated a verbal agreement he made when he left. Hodgson says that he offered to perform some shows on the tour, but was rebuffed.
 
So without further ado, Ladies and Gents, I give you Supertramp:


Sunday, December 2, 2018