On This Day – Big Boy, Big Gone

Share this!!

On this day in 1974 the man who wrote That’s All Right covered so famously by Elvis died.

Arthur Big Boy Crudup was born in Mississippi in 1905. He became a blues singer and made his way to Chicago. He did not really do too well there as he was living in a packing crate when he was discovered by record producer Lester Melrose. Although he could barely make a living working solo in Chicago melrose saw something in Crudup. he introduced Crudup to Tampa Red and signed him to RCA Victor’s Bluebird Label.

His first recording session was in 1941. In some ways the start of his recording career which promised so much delivered so little. After each recording session he would have to return to the labour camp to get work to get enough money to live.

His records were selling but where were the royalties? He sued Melrose, but with no result. In the early 50s he even stopped recording altogether. Then, his songs were taken up by Presley. Surely, his fortunes would change now? Not a bit of it.

Still no royalties. So in 1971 he sued to get his hands on his royalties again. This time a cheque for $60,000 was written, but it was never signed………….

He was dead 3 years later, a poor man. The Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll, whose songs helped send Elvis to stardom, whose songs were recorded by so many rock artists died an honoured but poor man.

Share this!!
Posted in Departures, On This Day | Tagged as: , , , ,

On This Day – The Beatles Jam with Elvis

Share this!!

beatles and elvis On This Day   The Beatles Jam with ElvisOn This Day in 1965 the Beatles were on their second US tour. Brian Epstein was able to arrange a visit to meet Elvis in his Bel-Air home. The visit lasted some 4 hours and while Col Tom Parker an Epstein played pool the Fab Four and The Hips told stories and chatted. They also jammed together. Want a copy of that recording? Well, tough luck no one thought to turn a tape recorder on!

Here is an excerpt from the book The Beatles Anthology talking about meeting Elvis.

PAUL We met Elvis Presley at the end of our stay in L.A. We’d tried for years to, but we could never get to him. He was our greatest idol, but the styles were changing in favor of us. He was a pretty powerful image to British people. You’d look at photos of him doing American concerts, and the audience would not even be jumping up and down. We used to be amazed, seeing them sitting in the front row – not even dancing.

JOHN LENNON : When I first heard “Heartbreak Hotel,” I could hardly make out what was being said. It was just the experience of hearing it and having my hair stand on end. We’d never heard American voices singing like that. They’d always sung like Sinatra who enunciated well. Suddenly, there’s this hillbilly hiccuping with echo and all this bluesy background going on. We didn’t know what the hell Presley was singing about or Little Richard or Chuck Berry. It took a long time to work out what was going on. To us, it just sounded like great noise.

PAUL We tried many times to meet Elvis, Colonel Tom Parker, his manager would just show up with a few souvenirs, and that would have to do us for a while. We didn’t feel brushed off we felt we deserved to be brushed off. After all, he was Elvis, and who were we to dare to want to meet him? But we finally received an invitation to go round and see him when he was making a film in Hollywood.

GEORGE HARRISON Meeting Elvis was one of the high-lights of the tour. It was funny, because by the time we got near his house we’d forgotten where we were going. We were in a Cadillac going round and round along Mulholland, and we’d had a couple of “cups of tea” in the back of the car. It didn’t really matter where we were going – it’s like the comedian Lord Buckley says, “We go into a native village and take a couple of peyote buds, we might not find out where we is, but we’ll sure find out who we is.” Anyway, we were just having fun, we were all in hysterics. (We laughed a lot. That’s one thing we forgot about for a few years – laughing. When we went through all the lawsuits, it looked as if everything was bleak, but when I think back to before that, I remember we used to laugh all the time.) We pulled up at some big gates and someone said, “Oh yeah, we’re going to see Elvis,” and we all fell out of the car laughing, trying to pretend we weren’t silly, just like a Beatles cartoon.

JOHN It was very exciting, we were all nervous as hell, and we met him in his big house in L.A. – probably as big as the one we were staying in, but it still felt like “big house, big Elvis.” He had lots of guys around him, all these guys that used to live near him (like we did from Liverpool, we always had thousands of Liverpool people around us, so I guess he was the same.) And he had pool tables! Maybe a lot of American houses are like that, but it seemed amazing to us. It was like a nightclub.

RINGO STARR I was pretty excited. We were lucky because it was the four of us and we had each other to be with. The house was very big. We walked in, and Elvis was sitting down on a settee in front of the TV. He was playing a bass guitar, which even to this day I find very strange. He had all his guys around him, and we said, “Hi, Elvis.” He was pretty shy, and we were a little shy, but between the five of us we kept it rolling. I felt I was more thrilled to meet him than he was to meet me.

PAUL He showed us in. He just looked like Elvis – we were all major fans, so it was hero worship of a high degree. He said, “Hello, lads – do you want a drink?” We sat down and watched telly, and he had the first remote any of us had ever seen. You just aimed it at the telly and – wow! That’s Elvis! He was playing Charlie Rich’s “Mohair Sam” all evening – he had it on a jukebox.

JOHN He had his TV going all the time, which is what I do; we always have TV on. We never watch it – it’s just there with no sound on, and we listen to records. In front of the TV, he had a massive amplifier with a bass plugged into it, and he was up playing bass all the time with the picture up on the TV. So we just got in there and played with him. We all plugged in whatever was around, and we played and sang. He had a jukebox, like I do, but I think he had all his hits on it. But if I’d made as many as him, maybe I’d have all mine on.

PAUL That was the greatest. Elvis was into the bass, So there I was, “Well, let me show you a thing or two, El…” Suddenly he was a mate. It was a great conversation piece for me. I could actually talk about the bass, and we sat around and just enjoyed ourselves. He was great. Talkative. Friendly and a little bit shy. But that was his image. We expected that, we hoped for that.

JOHN At first we couldn’t make him out. I asked him if he was preparing new ideas for his next film and he drawled, “Ah sure am. Ah play a country boy with a guitar who meets a few gals along the way, and ah sing a few songs.” We all looked at one another. Finally Presley and Colonel Parker laughed and explained that the only time they departed from that formula – for Wild in the Country – they lost money.

PAUL She came in, and I got this picture of her as a sort of a Barbie doll – with a purple gingham dress and a gingham bow in her very beehive hair, with lots of makeup. We all said hello, and then it was, “Right, lads, hands off – she’s going.” She didn’t stay long. I can’t blame him, although I don’t think any of us would have made a pass at her. That was definitely not on – Elvis’s wife, you know! That was unthinkable – she didn’t need to be put away quite so quickly, we thought.

GEORGE I don’t remember even seeing Priscilla. I spent most of the party trying to suss out from the gang if anybody had any reefers. But they were uppers and whiskey people. They weren’t really into reefer smoking in the South.

JOHN It was nice meeting Elvis. He was just Elvis, you know? He seemed normal to us, and we were asking about his making movies and not doing any personal appearances or TV. I think he enjoys making movies so much, We couldn’t stand not doing personal appearances, we’d get bored – we get bored quickly. He says he misses it a bit.We never talked about anything else – we just played music. He wasn’t bigger than us, but he was “the thing.” He just wasn’t articulate, that’s all.

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

On This day – ‘Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy!

Share this!!

On 18th March 1967* my friend Pete Sowter came up to me in school and handed me a single. “You must listen to this, it’s great!” he said (or something similar, it is 42 years ago). He also Said that he had no idea what it was about but the singer wanted to kiss a man, not something that was common on records in 1967.

Like thousands of others Pete had misheard the lyrics on one of the best singles ever released, one that is rightly now regarded as a classic. ‘Purple Haze’ by Hendrix was released and was a massive hit, in the UK, in the USA it only reached the mid 60’s in the Billboard chart. Once again proving that the UK was undoubtedly far ahead of the States when it came to music in the 60s. (Apart from Zappa, Lou, The Captain, It’s A Beautiful Day, etc………)

* I had it in my mind that Purple Haze was released on 26 August 1967 and that is why I started this entry. It was not until I had finished it that I checked the date, oops! Now that I think of it it could not have been August ‘cos I was in school when Pete gave me the single. In August school would have been on holiday. I must check some of the other ‘On This Day’ events that I have gathered into a schedule for future use. Either that or I could change to title to ‘On This Day, Probably’.

Anyway, it is a great excuse to show a great video.

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , , , ,

On This Day – Bobby Darin Leaves Vegas For The last Time

Share this!!

bobby darin On This Day   Bobby Darin Leaves Vegas For The last TimeOn this day Bobby Darin finished performing at the The Las Vegas Hilton for the last time in 1973. He would be dead 4 months later after a heart operation.

Although not often remembered these days Darin was a versatile singer and actor. He was born with a heart condition that dogged him throughout his life but that did not prevent him from pursuing a glittering career. He is remembered as a rock ‘n’ roll singer (and for that dreadful single Splish Splash) and was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Songwriter’s Hall of fame in 1999.

He also moved into Jazz and is best remembered for a stunning version of Mack The Knife taken from Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht’s wonderful Threepenny Opera. There was time when ,after this move into ‘serious’ music that Darin was compared favourably to Sinatra.

He also showed talent as an actor being nominated for an Oscar, winning the French Film Critic’s Actors award (1963), and being awarded a Golden Globe as the Most Promising Newcomer (1962).

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , , ,

On This Day, Start Me Up

Share this!!

rolling stones On This Day, Start Me UpOn this day in 1995 Windows 95 was released and, as all us oldies, will remember the song used in the adverts was ‘Start Me Up’ by the Stones. Not one of their best, from the Tattoo You album it seems that the Glimmer Twins were paid £12,000,000 ($17,500,000).

It was a great marketing move by Bill Gates as we were warned about what we were getting. Now, what were the lyrics again? “You make a grown man cry”. (He should have warned us about Vista as well)

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , , , ,

On This Day – Wanna Buy a Record Player?

Share this!!

On this day, well nearly – actually on 22nd August 1906 – the Victor Talking Machine Company (New Jersey) started selling record players. The price was about $200 which must have been huge at the time. Records ranged from $1 to $7.

This was one of those pivotal moments in the history of popular music. There were some who said that it was the end of the world, culture available for the masses? A dreadful development. Having said that no Victrolar (that’s what it was called) and there would have been no James Blunt or Celine Dion and so the world would have been a better place. On the other hand, there would also be no Tim Fite, Nick Cave, Beefheart, Zappa, Patti, or Lou.

OK, on the whole it was a good thing.

J P Sousa (a renowned conductor) was off the mark when he said that recorded music would be the end of the amateur musician. About as right as the head of IBM predicting that there would only ever be 7 mainframe computers in the world, or the American politician (can’t remember his name) who said that the Japanese did not make things that the American public would want to buy…….

Share this!!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged as: , , ,

On This Day – Black Sabbath in London

Share this!!

On This Day in 1970 The band formerly Known as Polka Tulk performed at The Roundhouse in North London under their new name, Black Sabbath.

Polka Tulk comprised Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. Where the name really came from is a matter of debate some say it was named after a clothing sgop in Birmingham (Pulka Tulk Trading coompnay) or a brand of talcum powder. Personally I like the idea of the softest stuff on earth giving us the name of what would become the hardest (and loudest) band on earth.

Black Sabbath is Born

Polka Tulk became Earth and was a blues rock band, as were so many bands at the time, at least in the UK. The band was playing the usual set list of blues covers but was keen to expand their repertoire. So Geezer began writing some original songs. Again, the truth is shrouded in the mists of time (in other words I have not tracked down a direct quote) but it seems that Geezer was reading a lot of books by Denis Wheatley. Wheatley wrote about magic and the occult (as well as thrillers in which he displayed his pro-monachy, empire, and class sysyem bias. But on the positive side his books, like him, were verhemently anti Nazi). It was the Occult series that gripped Geezer.

He wrote a song called Black Sabbath and, apparently, as soon as they played it live on stage for the first time they knew that they were onto something. The crowd went wild.

The lyrics, the loudness, the fact that Ozzy could not sing at all made record companies wary of them. However, they toured and toured. They built up a great live reputation but, in what might have been a mistake, they did not play any London venues. This would appear to be because London venue owners did not realise that music existed outside the capital and Liverpool. This also meant that the music critics, all based in London, did not see much of them and gave them a hard time in print.

However, the truth was that they were building a large and growing following. The gig at the Roundhouse and the record deal were ininevitable and hugely succesful. The eponymous first album was released on 13th February 1970 on Vertigo.

Scary Ozzy

(I still do not understand how anyone could have been intimidated by BS in those days, have you seen the pictures? Ozzy is no more than a pimply, overweight, idiot – or is that a recent photo?)

Say what you like about Sabbath, and I do, Sabbath were an influencial band. They helped define Metal. They were voted the Greatest Metal Band of all time by MTV came second to led Zep in VH1’s 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Paranoid, the second album sold 4 million copies in the US (still with little air play) total sales in the Us are more than 15 million. Their first 5 albums all top ten hits and all sold in the millions.

61iMrMUQ6PL 300x268 On This Day   Black Sabbath in London

Buy it here!

If you like this blog please donate to support it.

pixel On This Day   Black Sabbath in London

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

On This day – The Dark Side Revealed!

Share this!!

On this day in 1972 Pink Floyd started a four-night residency (can a residency really be just 4 days?) at London’s Rainbow Theatre during which they premiered Dark Side of the Moon – and I continued to lose Floyd.

During the 4 night ‘residency’ Floyd showed the forthcoming album to the world. The press was, of course, rapturous. “Of course” because the press loved Floyd at the time, they could do no wrong. Even though they had subjected us to Meddle and the dreadful Atom Heart Mother.

Meddle was a muddle. There was always going to be a transition between the Barrett Floyd and the non Barrett Floyd and perhaps meddle came out too soon. Anyway it was a mess. Atom Heart, dear oh dear……… What can I say? The moment I remember shaking my head (not in a good rythmic way) to Floyd was at the Colston Hall in Bristol as they fried eggs on stage. It was at that point when I thought that Floyd had lost it as far as I was concerned. To go from the wonderful Saucerful, the magnificent Ummagumma, to bacon butties on stage……..

Anyway, Darkside was recorded in two sessions at the Abbey Road studios between May ’72 and March ‘3. It then sold squidilions of copies all over the world and other minor planets. They ascended to demi god status and ruled over the progressive musical universe until it imploded and they self destructed in a collision of mega egos.

I am really sorry to the die hard, or the Johnny come lately Floyd fans who disagree with me but “Set the Controls” YES, “Money” NO.

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , ,

Ten Great Albums that Turn 25 This year

Share this!!

By Doug Poe

(I saw this article by Doug which he wrote in 2018. What impressed me about it is that none of the Great Albums that he talks about rate as Great Albums as far as I am concerned. I admire Doug’s knowledge about music but it just goes to show how all our taste’s differ.

A little while ago I rewrote my top ten great albums and was interested how my present top ten list of great albums differs from the old ones – yes, I do have the old ones on file. Sad isn’t it?

Anyway, back to Doug’s article, links to Amazon for the albums)

Toronto can this season celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of its last World Series Championship, the second of its back to back titles coming at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies. That 1993 event was very important because of what happened the following season, when the officials at Major League Baseball canceled the World Series because of a work stoppage.

That 1994 fiasco involving the national pastime (the USA’s, that is) is just one of the reasons the preceding year was better, even beyond the realm of sports. Some great music came out in 1993, including dozens of influential albums from various genres of rock.

Here are ten of those records which should be celebrated on their twenty fifth anniversary this year.

Come on Feel the Lemonheads

Evan Dando and his group hit their peak with this disk, which included gems such as “Into Your Arms” and “Great Big No.”

Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur

Followed by Parklife and The Great Escape, this record was the first of the trio of life albums that showcased Britpop at its peak, helped along by singles such as “Sunday Sunday” and ” Chemical World. “

Unplugged by Neil Young

Most of the acoustic episodes organized by MTV were forgettable, but Young’s was so sharp that it helped rejuvenate his career.

Anodyne by Uncle Tupelo

As always Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar split the songs on the alt country band’s third album, but it is the former’s “New Madrid” that has endured as the best track.

Thirteen by Teenage Fan Club

These Scottish alternative rockers were just coming into their own in this record, highlighted by Gerard Love’s tribute to legendary songwriter Gene Clark.

Alapalooza by Weird Al Yankovic

Rather than visit the place Richard Harris called MacArthur where the cake was left out in the rain, Weird Al changed it to “Jurassic Park” here and even threw in a tribute to the home town of the Flintstones on “Bedrock Anthem.”

Dreamland by Aztec Camera

Fans desiring to hear Toddy Frame return to the sound of the debut album had to be pleased when their ears beheld “Spanish Horses”, “Black Lucia” and “Vertigo” on this record.

Transmissions from the Satellite Heart by the Flaming Lips

After five out of the mainstream releases, Wayne Coyne somehow scored a single with “She Don’t Use Jelly” from this album.

Where You Been by Dinosaur Jr.

As soon as J Mascis told us to start choppin’ he nabbed his band’s first big hit.

Tuesday Night Music Club by Cheryl Crow

She became a star with this debut by admitting that all she wanted to do was have some fun.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9988219

Share this!!
Posted in rock and blues | Tagged as: ,

Doug Fieger Writer of “My Sharona” Dies

Share this!!

Doug Fieger who fronted The KNack and who co-wrote their biggest hit “My Sharona” died today after a long battle against Cancer.

“My Sharona” was The Knack’s debut single and went on to be their biggest hit (most of us are hard put to remember any of the others). It was released in 1979 and was reported to be the biggest single of the whole of the 70s. As can be imagined a hit of that size without similar follow ups is a mixed blessing. Especially coming so early in their career it was something of an albatross, even if it was a golden one.

I really like the song. It is, of course, the second best pop single of all time. The best being Another Girl by the Only Ones…..

The Knack Live Play the Second best EVER Single

Copying is the HIghest Form of Praise….. HammerFall

NOW, The Best Single EVER

And Live

You know, I really must write about the songs that change lives. There are two examples here and there are so many. Any suggestions?

If you like this blog please donate to support it.

pixel Doug Fieger Writer of My Sharona Dies

Share this!!
Posted in On This Day | Tagged as: , , , , , ,