Tuesday, February 24, 2009

This Date In Music History- February 24

Birthdays:

Michel LeGrand- jazz composer (1932)

Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones- (1942)

Joanie Sommers ("Johnny Get Angry") is 68.

Rupert Holmes is 62. He scored his own #1 with 1979's "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" and wrote the hit "Timothy" for the Buoys.

Michelle Shocked (1962)


They Are Missed:

In 2004, Estelle Axton, who helped create the legendary US soul music label Stax, died in hospital in Memphis, aged 85. Axton founded Stax with her brother 1959, and its roster later included Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG's and Isaac Hayes.

Born on this day in 1944, Nicky Hopkins, session piano player who worked with the Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, John Lennon, the Who and Small Faces. Hopkins died on September 6th, 1994.

Johnnie Ray, the 1950's teen idol, died of liver failure at the age of 63 in 1990. He scored over twenty US Top 40 singles between 1952 and 1960.

The late George Harrison was born in 1943.

Howie Epstein, former bassist with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, was found dead from a drug overdose in 2003. He was 47.


History:

In 1975, after nearly a two-year wait since Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin released Physical Graffiti. It goes to #1 on the Billboard album chart in a record-breaking two weeks.

Buddy Holly & the Crickets recorded the hit version of "That'll Be The Day" in 1957.

In 1956, police in Cleveland, Ohio enforced a 1931 ordinance that barred people under the age of 18 from dancing in public unless accompanied by an adult.

In 1992, the US Postal Service unveils two versions of its proposed Elvis stamp for fans to vote on. The younger Elvis would win and was issued on January 8, 1993.

The Beatles began filming their second, as yet un-named movie on New Providence in the Bahamas in 1965. The film would eventually be called Eight Arms to Hold You before producers finally settled on Help!

John Lennon's "Double Fantasy" LP was named Album Of The Year at the Grammy Awards in 1982. Kim Carnes' "Betty Davis Eyes" wins for Record Of The Year and Sheena Easton was named Best New Artist.

In 1969, the Jimi Hendrix Experience played their last British concert at London's Royal Albert Hall before breaking up.

The Byrds made their final live appearance in 1973 when they played at The Capitol Theatre, in Passaic, New Jersey.

Roberta Flack achieved her second Billboard #1 hit in 1973 with "Killing Me Softly With His Song.” The tune was inspired by singer Lori Lieberman after she saw Don McLean perform at The Troubadour in Los Angeles.

In 1976, the Eagles LP "Their Greatest Hits 1971 - 1975" became the first album in history to be certified platinum by the RIAA. The new certification represents sales of at least 1 million copies for albums and 2 million copies for singles. The Platinum award was originated in the early seventies because Gold status was achieved by most popular records in a very short period of time. The Eagles Greatest Hits album stayed on Billboard's Hot 200 chart for two and half years.

The Beach Boys recorded "Help Me Rhonda" in 1965, with guitarist Al Jardine singing lead vocal. The disc became their second Billboard #1 and stay on the chart for eleven weeks.

"Roxanne" was released by The Police in 1979.

In 1990, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman of The Byrds reunited to play "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" at the Roy Orbison All-Star Tribute Concert. A couple of months later, the trio would record four more songs for their upcoming Boxed Set, which also included the two songs from the tribute concert.

In 1963, The Rolling Stones take over as the Sunday house band at the Station Hotel, near London. They are paid £24 ($67) to entertain a crowd of 66 people.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Classic Rock Videos

The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love

Album Cover Art

Molly Hatchet - Lightning Strikes Twice 1989

Top 5 eBay Vinyl Record Sales

Week Ending 02/21/2009

1. 45rpm - Mr. Lucky "Born To Love You" / "Taking A Chance On Love" Stardom - $3,677.00 - Start: $9.99 - Bids: 23

2. LP - Misfits "Legacy Of Brutality" Plan 9 Pink Vinyl - $3,650.00 - Start: $1,919.00 - Bids: 4

3. LP - Nirvana "Bleach" Tupelo Test Pressing - $3,600.00 - Start: $24,999.99 - Bids: Best Offer

4. LP - The Beatles "Yesterday And Today" Butcher 1st State - $2,900.00 - Start: 2,900.00 - Bids: BIN

5. LP - Mystic Siva "self-titled" Private Press - $2,713.63 - Start: $9.99 - Bids: 22

Rare Northern Soul tops the list this week, with Mr. Lucky's 45 on Stardom bidding to well over $3.6k. At The half-way mark of that same dollar figure is "Legacy Of Brutality" from Misfits on pink vinyl, getting the #2 spot. Next, at exactly $3.6k, a test presssing of Nirvana's first LP sells on a Best Offer.

In the #4 spot, selling on a Buy-It-Now, a first state Butcher Block gets $2.9k. And last, one of the treasures of private press Psych, the self-titled record from Mystic Siva bids up past $2.7k.

As always, I want to thank Norm over at http://ccdiscoveries.blogspot.com/ for this great data.

Record stores try to get groove back

Always on the look out for great stories about vinyl and record stores, I hope that you find this story enjoyable:

BY TIMOTHY FINN • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • February 22, 2009


KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Tuesday used to be sacramental in the world of music. It was new-release day, the day faithful music fans stopped by their favorite record store to buy something they'd been waiting for weeks to hear or to discover something they hadn't heard.

Back then, record stores were the best places to hear new music and mingle with other music fans.

"Record stores used to be neighborhood hangouts," says Corky Carrel, who co-owns an online record store based near Kansas City. "You'd go in and browse and talk about music."

Tuesdays aren't the only days that aren't what they used to be -- for record stores or their customers.

Stores that sell new music are in a fight for their lives. The chains are dying. Independent stores are closing. The record labels are running out of ways to make money.

The stores that are surviving are performing balancing acts. Most rely heavily on the used record business: Buy it cheap, sell it cheap. Some have turned to niche marketing, selling new CDs to one or two refined segments of the music world. And others have been helped by the recent revival of what was once considered a relic: the vinyl record.

Steve Wilson remembers the good days.

Read the rest of the story here:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090222/ENT04/902220351

Oscars: “Slumdog” Scores Best Picture and Music Category Sweep

Slumdog Millionaire dominated at last night’s 81st Academy Awards, nabbing eight Oscars from its 10 nominations, including Best Picture. In addition to winning Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and a slew of technical awards, Slumdog also swept the major music categories as composer A.R. Rahman took home Oscars for both Best Original Song (”Jai Ho”) and Best Score.

In the musical introduction prior to the Best Original Song presentation, Rahman performed both his nominated songs, “Jai Ho” and “O Saya.” While the version of “O Saya” on the Slumdog soundtrack features M.I.A., the rapper did not perform at the Oscars, presumably because she has just given birth. The third nominee for Best Original Song, Peter’s Gabriel’s “Here on Earth” from Wall-E, was performed by John Legend after Gabriel boycotted performing at the ceremony due to the mandated shortened version of his song. In another of the ceremony’s music numbers, Beyonce joined host Hugh Jackman for a tribute to musicals of Hollywood and Broadway past.

read the rest of the story at:

SOURCE: Rolling Stone

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Classic Rock Videos

She Loves You - The Beatles

ELO Bassist Dies


On February 19, 2009, the rock and roll world lost an extremely talented musician when Electric Light Orchestra’s (ELO) bass player Kelly Groucutt passed away at the age of 63. In their heyday, ELO were one of the world’s biggest rock acts, adeptly blending lush orchestra arrangements with electronic and good old-fashioned rock and roll.

Groucutt was a member of a little known band called Sight and Sound before he was a member for ELO, he joined up with the band for the “Eldorado Tour.” His passion and talent quickly made him a fan favorite and distinctive vocals can be heard on such ELO cuts as “Night Rider” (1975), “Poker” (1975), and “Above The Clouds” (1976), among others.

His first appearance on an ELO album was 1975’s “Face The Music,” which featured the hits “Evil Woman” (#10) and “Strange Music” (#14 in 1976). He also played on the ELO albums “A New World Record” (1976), “Out Of The Blue” (1977), “Discovery” (1979), “Xanadu” (1980) and “Time” in 1981.

Groucutt released a self-titled solo project in 1982 called “Kelly,” which featured some of his fellow ELO bandmates. He remained with ELO until the beginning of the recording sessions for the 1983 “Secret Messages” album, but left the group due to his unhappiness with royalty payments. He sued band leader Jeff Lynne and the dispute was settled out of court.

Groucutt took part in many of the ELO spin-off groups including OrKestra, ELO Part 2 and The Orchestra. This talented musician leaves behind a wife and four children and his enthusiasm and passion will be missed by everyone who knew him.

Louisiana Guitarist Legend Eaglin Passes Away


The New Orleans R&B circuit lost a legend on February 18, 2009 when “Snooks” Fird Eaglin Jr. passed away from an apparent heart attack. His distinct guitar style ranged from a wide range of the Blues, Rock & Roll, Jazz, Country and even Latin and his singing style reminded some of Ray Charles.

Known as Blind “Snooks” Eaglin, he had the ability to play a wide array of songs and his ability to make tunes his own earned him the nickname the “Human Jukebox.” Eaglin claimed that his repertoire included over 2,500 songs and at his live shows, he did not prepare a set list, instead choosing to select songs that popped into his head at the time and taking audience requests.

Eaglin lost his sight shortly after his first birthday and was sickly as a child, spending years in and out of the hospital with a variety of illnesses. When he was five years old, his father gave his young son a guitar, which Eaglin quickly mastered; teaching himself to play by listening to the radio. His nickname ‘Snooks” is borrowed from an old-time radio character, the mischief-making Bobby Snooks.

At the age of eleven, Eaglin won a local radio talent contest, playing the “Twelfth Street Rag.” He dropped out of the school for the blind three years later to become a professional musician. He joined the Allen Toussaint-led Flamingoes in 1952, often playing both guitar and bass parts at the same time since the band had no bass player. He stayed with the group until they disbanded in the mid 1950’s.

For a musician with such a legendary career, his recordings and concerts were, to say the least, inconsistent. Eaglin played the clubs with Sugar Boy Crawford, Allen Toussaint and Dave Bartholomew and he recorded some country blues on Folkways in 1958. In the 1960’s Eaglin backed up Professor Longhair and recorded solo material on Imperial with Bartholomew producing.

After his Imperial sessions, Eaglin recorded alone at his home in 1964 for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and for the rest of the 1960’s he did no more recordings. He worked for another Swedish label Sonet in 1971 and his “Down Yonder” album was released in 1978. Eaglin also played guitar on the Wild Magnolia’s first record in 1973.

However, his best years were in the 1980’s when he signed with Black Top Records and between 1987 and 1999, Eaglin released four studio albums, a live album and appeared as a guest on albums by Henry Butler, Earl King and Tommy Ridgley.

Although in his later years Eaglin did not play many live shows, he was a staple at the Rock N’ Bowl in New Orleans and the New Orleans Jazz Fest. Rock and roll and specifically Louisiana will sincerely miss this legend and the “Human Jukebox.”

Album Cover Art

Let's continue our look at Molly Hatchet album covers, this time Molly Hatchet - Greatest Hits:

Defining moment: Drummer Max Roach politicises album cover art, September 1960

By Mike Hobart



The album shot of three young black men at the counter of an American diner, staring into the camera in a less than humble way was, in 1960, an open challenge to white America.

As the men wait to be served – by a white attendant – the album design for drummer Max Roach’s We Insist! clearly alludes to the sit-ins of the civil rights desegregation movement.

Frank Gauna’s design specifically refers to a sit-in that took place earlier in the same year, at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina.

On February 1 1960, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at the counter. They were refused service, but they were not ejected.

A contemporary newspaper photograph of the incident showed three of the students staring straight at the camera; the counter attendant was black. Within days, the store was engulfed by hundred of protesting desegregationists.

Jazz musicians had expressed broadly political sentiments on record before, but We Insist!, subtitled “Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite”, represented the first time that politics had been carried through so overtly from the music to the sleeve notes and cover art.

Racial segregation invested such mundane activities as eating lunch or sitting on a bus with momentous political significance. Jazz musicians often restricted their political leanings to aesthetic choices – an emphasis on rhythm, an accent on the blues, incorporating non-European musical elements – or to coded song titles that carried allusions to Africa. The Sonny Rollins tune “Airegin” is Nigeria spelled backwards, for example.

But We Insist! was brazen. Oscar Brown Jr’s lyrics spoke of slavery, South Africa and emancipation; and Roach’s music drew African and Afro-American folk traditions into the orbit of contemporary modern jazz; and jazz critic Nat Hentoff’s sleeve notes were unequivocal. In 1960, We Insist! was a provocation.

SOURCE: http://www.ft.com/

This Date In Music History-February 22

Birthdays:

Michael Wilton- Queensryche (1962)

Scott Phillips- Creed (1973)

James Blunt (1977)

Bobby Hendricks- Drifters (1938)


They Are Missed:

Papa John Creach, the 76-year-old violinist with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, died of heart failure in 1994.

In 2001, 61 year-old avant-folk guitarist John Fahey died after suffering complications following heart bypass surgery.

Florence Ballard of the Supremes died of cardiac arrest in 1976.

Andy Warhol, pop artist who produced and managed The Velvet Underground, designed the 1967 Velvet Underground And Nico 'peeled banana' album cover and The Rolling Stones 'Sticky Fingers' album cover, died in 1987.

Born on this day in 1936, Ernie K-Doe (1961 US #1 single with “Mother-in-Law”) K-Doe died on July 5, 2001.

The late Norman "Hurricane" Smith ("Oh Babe, What Would You Say") was born in 1923.


History:

In 1957, famed US dance instructor Arthur Murray reported that enrollment in his dance studios has increased ten percent since the "rock and roll craze" has swept the country.

In 1956, Elvis Presley entered the music charts for the first time with "Heartbreak Hotel."

In 1986, MTV dedicated a full 22 hours broadcast to The Monkees, showing all 45 episodes of the original Monkees TV series.

In 1958, Roy Hamilton's "Don't Let Go" becomes the first stereo single to reach the Billboard chart when it entered at #13.

Scottish group The Average White Band went to #1 on the US singles chart in 1975 with “Pick Up The Pieces,” the bands album AWB also went to #1 on the US chart.

Percy Faith started a 9-week run at #1 on the US chart in 1960 with “Theme From A Summer Place,” a #2 hit in the UK.

In 1969, the Beatles began their sessions for Abbey Road with a take of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."

In 1968, Genesis released their debut single, "The Silent Sun."

In 1956, today's issue of Billboard reviewed James Brown's debut single, a little song called "Please, Please, Please." "A dynamic, religious fervor runs through the pleading solo here," the magazine raves. "Brown and his group let off plenty of steam."

The Beatles formed their Northern Music Publishing Company. (now owned by Michael Jackson) in 1963. Their single "Please Please Me" spent its first week at #1 on the U.K. charts. Brian Epstein takes the boys out to dinner to celebrate.

This Bud’s For You- In 1979, Rolling Stone reported that Journey have entered into a sponsorship deal with Budweiser in one of the first instances of what will soon become standard music industry practice.

In 2001, the Sunday Mirror listed the Beatles as the biggest money-earners of 2000. Although they no longer exist, the band pulled in a tidy $50 million.

The Silhouettes topped Cash Box Magazine's Best Sellers Chart in 1958 with "Get A Job" after Dick Clark started playing it on his TV show, American Bandstand. The group got their name from the 1957 song by The Rays, (covered by Herman's Hermits in the 60's) and the inspiration for the tune came from writer Rick Lewis' mother, when she chided her son to "get up in the morning and go out and get a job."

In 1989, a category for Heavy Metal was included at the Grammys Awards for the first time. Metallica performed on stage, but the award went to Jethro Tull. Many audience members booed. Meanwhile, Bobby McFerrin won Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year for "Don't Worry, Be Happy," Tracy Chapman was named Best New Artist and Tina Turner won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Tina Live in Europe."

The film "Don't Knock The Rock," featuring appearances by Alan Freed, Little Richard and Bill Haley, opened at the Paramount Theatre in New York in 1957.

In 1986, Fine Young Cannibals had to postpone their appearance at a Boston nightclub after a tear gas bomb goes off in the venue. They finally came onstage and performed at 2 a.m.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Classic Rock Videos

The Beatles-You Really Got a Hold on Me

Album Cover Art

I'd like to continue our album cover art feature and go to where we left off before I was rudely interrupted by a computer issue. I have not seen a Molly Hatchet cover that I don't like, here is "Devil's Canyon" from 1996:


Music News & Notes

Fat Possum Releasing Al Green

If the president of Fat Possum Records gets his way, the classic 1970's recordings by Soul superstar Al Green will be introduced to a whole new generation of music listeners.

Matthew Johnson, the president of the record label, has recently licensed the entire Hi Records catalog which includes the classic Al Green recordings. The first three releases under this new deal will be remastered versions of Green's "Let's Stay Together," "I'm Still In Love with You" and "Al Green's- Greatest Hits." Expect the reissues to be in stores by the end of March.

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Snooks Eaglin Dies

R&B singer/guitarist Snooks Eaglin passed away on Wednesday from a heart attack at the age of 72.

Eaglin lost his sight shortly after his first birthday and he learned to play guitar by listening to the radio. He has been a fixture of the New Orleans music scene for more than 50 years.

Allan Tussaint told the New York Times, "He played with a certain finger style that was highly unusual. He was unlimited on the guitar. Folks would assume, 'I can do this or I can do that', but Snooks wouldn't. There was nothing he couldn't do. It was extraordinary."

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Eddie Money Musical

Eddie Money's musical, "Two Tickets to Paradise," is scheduled to premier June 4 at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center at Five Towns College on Long Island. The show will include hits from Money's career along with six new numbers, all telling the story of how Money went from police officer to rock star.

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Music Industry Gaffe

The music industry has found inventive ways to sabotage two of the most anticipated spring releases: U2’s five star-worthy "No Line on the Horizon" was leaked when Universal Music Group Australia made the album available prematurely; and iTunes Norway accidentally allowed Scandinavian Kelly Clarkson fans (and anyone with Web access) to download "All I Ever Wanted," even though it’s not being released until March 10th.

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Bjork Release

Bjork releases concert album and film boxed setIcelandic performer Bjork will release Voltaic, a boxed album and DVD set in celebration of her recent two-year tour in support of her Volta album, March 2 on the One Little Indian label. Offered in standard, deluxe, and limited edition vinyl versions, Voltaic features two CDs, one of remixes from the Volta album and the other featuring live performances, as well as two DVDs, a concert film and a collection of music videos.