Posts Tagged: rock music
Ry Cooder: Jesus on the Mainline
This post presented two problems. The first was that as I was putting it together I had this sinking feeling that I have failed in that I haven’t listened to enough Ry Cooder. The second was more immediate: Each clip I listened to was better than the one before. How could I choose which to feature?
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Deep Purple’s Jon Lord Dies at 71
Jon Lord, the founder and organist for Deep Purple, died July 16. Here is the beginning of his Wikipedia bio:
Jonathan Douglas “Jon” Lord (9 June 1941 – 16 July 2012)[1] was an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with Deep Purple, as well as Whitesnake, Paice, Ashton & Lord, The Artwoods and The Flower Pot Men. Lord’s solo albums often included orchestral works.
Lord is the third musician of note to die on July 16. Country legend Kitty Wells and bassist Bob Babbitt also passed away on that day.
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In-a-Gadda-da-Vida, Baby
On this day in 1968, Iron Butterfly’s In-a-Gadda-da-Vida entered the U.S. charts, where it sold 4 million copies. It was the band’s second album. The title means “in the Garden of Eden” in a language that has not yet been developed.
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Ringo Turns 72
A couple of weeks ago Paul McCartney celebrated his 70th birthday. Proving once again that even being a member of Beatles doesn’t stop the aging process, Ringo turned 72 on Saturday.
Here is Photograph, which was written by Starr and George Harrison. This site really doesn’t have enough traffic yet for a meaningful poll question, but here are two good ones anyway: What is your favorite non Lennon/McCartney Beatles song? What is your favorite post-Beatles song by members of the band?
Here is Ringo’s birthday greeting to Paul.
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Elvis and Andy Griffith
The passing last week of Andy Griffith led Phil Arnold, who runs ElvisBlog, to post an item on the links between the two icons. He described an appearance of Presley and Griffith on The Steve Allen Show in 1956, which apparently is well known. He noted it was not the first time the two shared a stage:
But, how many fans know that Elvis worked with Griffith a year before they appeared together on the Steve Allen Show? Early in his career, Griffith had some success as a singer. He took his singing and comedic talents on the road headlining his own show. Starting on July 25, 1955, Elvis joined Griffith and other performers for a series of nine concerts in Ft. Myers, Orlando, Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, and Tampa, Florida. Look at the line-up for these two July 31, 1955 shows at the Ft. Homer Westerly Armory in Tampa.
There are some very interesting graphics at the site.
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Elvis Presley: Heartbreak Hotel
The shows Elvis in relaxed mode during his 1968 comeback. The guitarist is Scotty Moore.
Here is a nice bio and a version of Long Tall Sally from 1956.
Peter Guralnick wrote an acclaimed two-part biography of Elvis. The second volume (Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, 2000) is one of the saddest books imaginable. Elvis comes across as a decent guy who was just unable to deal with what he had become. It gets grotesque, mentally and physically, towards the end. I’m sure the basic themes are similar in the fall of Michael Jackson.
The first volume of Guralnick’s bio is Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (1995).
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Forever Jimi
Don’t know why they did it, but Rolling Stone has reposted an interesting article on Jimi Hendrix from February 1992.
From the story:
Hendrix was also a pivotal figure in the continuum of American black music. Although marketed to white audiences as a rock & roll wild man and, in the beginning, widely rejected by the black community as such, Hendrix ambitiously recast the music of his forefathers and elders – Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Charlie Christian, Chuck Berry – into electrifying future soul and elegiac cosmic balladry. His experiments with funk rhythms, heavy blues, electronic-sound collages and sensually charged romantic pop, in turn, laid the foundation for later innovations in black rock and R&B by George Clinton, Miles Davis, Prince and Living Colour. At the same time, Hendrix set a new standard in stage outrage with his jaw-dropping act of rubber-limbed playing positions and blatant erotic suggestion.
It’s definitely worth reading.
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These United States: Honor Amongst Thieves
Here is an entertaining interview with These United States’ Jesse Elliott from Seven Days, an online publication in Vermont. Consequence of Sound reviews of the band’s recently released album.
This is from a review of the album, which is self-titled, at Philadelphia Weekly:
While TUS’ music has always retained Elliott’s penchant for narratives and storytelling, it has evolved from the euphoric honky-tonk and earnest Americana found on the band’s earlier albums to a mature, alt-country version of the Counting Crows, as exemplified on 2010’s What Lasts. With their eponymous album, the band not only retains plenty of honky-tonk and American balladry, but incorporates hints of ’60s garage and classic rock.
Here are The Great Rivers, Water & Wheat, Study the Moon and So High, So Low, So Wide, So Long.
Here is the band’s MySpace and Facebook pages and its site.
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