Blank Generation
Feb 15, 2010 Uncategorized
There is no real reason to post this other than it refers to Blank Generation and my fave guitar player Robert Quine.
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On This Day – Max Sued
Jan 7, 2010 Uncategorized
On this day in 1970 Max Yasgur who owned the farm where Woodstock was sued by neighbours for damages caused by the rampaging hippies. The suits either totaled $25,000 0r $35,000. Eventually, they were settled. The finances of ‘Woodstock Ventures’ are a bit murky but it seems that although it was planned as a profit making venture (it only became a free concert after so many people turned up) but the some 80 lawsuits filed against them were paid from the profits of the film. The film also helped to settle their $1.4m debts.
The people who didn’t play Woodstock?
The Beatles, some say because the organisers would not also book
the Yoko Ono Band, some because Lennon could not get into the states because of visa difficulties.
The Doors because they thought it would not be worthy of them ‘a second class Monteray’.
Led Zepp ‘cos they did not want to be just another band on the bill.
Dylan was negotiating but his son became ill.
The Moody Blues decided to play a gig in Paris instead. That was either a really bad decision or an inspired one. Bad because of the loss of exposure good because more than most they relied on a good sound system when playing live and the sound at Woodstock was bad, very bad.
Missed opportunity?
Keef Hartley played Woodstock but did not make the film because their manager refused to give the rights away. Shame ‘cos KH was ‘my’ band in the 60’s and they deserved much better recognition.
Best way to experience Woodstock? Watch the film turn up the volume, sit in a tub of mud, and smoke your little smoke, drink your little drink, while I dance the night away…….(No FZ wasn’t there either)
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Tags: beatles, bob dylan, classic rock music, doors, john lennon, Keef Hartley, live music, moody blues, On This Day, rock and blues
Ronnie and Mick to Meet
Jan 5, 2010 Rants, Uncategorized
It would seem that the proposed Stones tour is still in danger of not going ahead because of fears for Ronnie Wood’s health.
As has been widely reported Ronnie has an alcohol problem and it is this that has cast a shadow over the proposed tour. Mick is, as we all know, heavily involved in the organisation and running of the tours. Micro managing them to a rediculous extent according to some reports from previous tours. In any event, he will want to be sure that Ronnie is up to it.
It should not be forgotten that they are also old friends and Mick must be concerned on a personal level. As for Ronnie 2009 has been a year that he must want to forget. He divorced his wife Jo towards the end of the year and moved in with his young girlfriend Ekaterina Ivanova. Since then he has moved out after a disagreement outside a restaurant in Surrey, allegedly, resulted in him choking her (maybe it was an inept attempt at the Heimlich maneuver squeezing the throat rather than the abdomen).
The daily Express was told “Mick and Ronnie will talk things through in the New Year. They are old friends and Mick will obviously do everything he can to help him. But when it comes to the Stones, Mick has a real eye for detail and always ensures things run like clockwork. He’ll need to be convinced that Ronnie is still up to the job. Hopefully everything will work out, as it would break Ronnie’s heart if the Stones had to perform without him.”
Although there would be all the old jokes about locking up your grannies if the Stones do tour I would love to see them on the road, again. My caveat would be that they should strip down the shows. Forget the pyrotechnics, let the music light up the stage. Their best album for some time was ‘Stripped’ and that was a very simple affair. Were they to do that and go back to their blues roots I would be first in the queue for tickets.
From Stripped, this is classic.
The highlight from the album was this, Told yer that they were still good playing blues…..
Tags: Ekaterina Ivanova, mick jagger, rock and blues, rolling stones, ronnie wood
Firefox is Great – I Hate Firefox!
Dec 4, 2009 Uncategorized
Hey,
I am back! (sorry) I love Firefox but it died on me last week, and being a technophobe I have been pushing random buttons ever since….
I missed Tina Turner’s birthday – among other things. But nothing important – other than a libelous tirade against Ike Turner – just as wel, really………..
Now that I am back I am off to play Foiotbal Manager 2008 (Bristol City is in the Premier but for how much longer………)
On This Day – Let the Hype Begin!
Oct 27, 2009 Uncategorized
On this day in 1975 Bruce Springsteen is featured on the cover of both Time and Newsweek. There follows much hype and adulation.
Undoubtedly a great performer and writer was the Boss’s hype really justified? Is any of the hype we are subjected to by the publicity departments ever justified?
One of the best bits of underground promotions was the ‘Clapton is God’ graffiti on the underground at Islington. I no longer know if I believe it was an official piece of promotion (often denied) or really was the out pouring of a fan (often claimed). Anyway, it worked.
The whole hype thing reminds me of a story about Mick Jagger. There was this queen of the groupies in L.A. She would sleep with all the big star’s and comment later “He was good, but he ain’t no Mick Jagger. One night she gets to go with Jagger. In the morning her comment? “He’s good, but he ain’t no Mick Jagger”.
On This day – The Beatles Hit our TV Screens
Oct 17, 2009 Uncategorized
On this day in 1962 The Beatles make it onto the small screen. They were on a local TV station “Granada” that broadcasts to the North West of England. The show is a local news programme with a magazine format called ‘People and Places’. On the programme they sang 2 songs live ‘Some Other Guy’ and ‘Love Me Do’. Sadly, there is no recording of the show or any of the other 4 appearances they made on local TV in 1962.
It now seems hard to believe that in 1962 singing 2 songs on a poxy little local TV show was a big deal for the Fab Four. 5 TV outings in 1962 then 30 in 1963, including their first on the BBC (13 April 1963, ‘625 Special’) things really began top pick up for the lads. By the way, their first appearance on US TV was not broadcast until 3rd January 1964. It was a performance of ‘She Loves You’ filmed by the BBC in August ‘64 and sold on to The Jack Paar Show.
Their second appearance on TV (for the same show) was recorded on 29th October and broadcast on 2nd November – by which time they were in Hamburg, for the second time.
Tags: beatles, beatles on tv, john lennon, On This Day, paul, paul mccartney, rock and blues
On This Day – I’m the Drummer in the Beatles, Aren’t I?
Sep 3, 2009 Uncategorized
On this day in 1968 Ringo came back and rejoined the Beatles to finish recording The White Album.
What you never knew he left? Few people did.
He discovered that McCartney had bee re-recording the drum parts on to of Ringo’s when he was not looking. Mr Starkey was not best pleased, as you can imagine and stormed off. He went on a Mediterranean cruise and after a couple of weeks he went back.
You can only surmise why he came back. No one else wanted a not very good drummer? The money was too good to resist? No pride? No matter, the Fab Four were back together (well Fab three and the other one).
In case you are wondering these are the tracks from The White Album that Ringo did not play on;
Back in The USSR (all the other 3 played drums on this…..)
Dear Prudence (much loved by Gordon Brown apparently, but he’s gone off it recently)
Wild Honey Pie
Blackbird (obviously)
Julia (equally obviously)
Mother’s Nature Son
Revolution 9
All a bit of a storm in a teacup really. In fact there were lots of tensions within the band. Perhaps the biggest source of tension was the way that the royalties and touring profits were divided between the band. Ringo and George 1.5% John and Paul 15 – 30%. Even given that J&P wrote most of the songs it seems very unfair.
Ringo was not the only Beatle to quit. Harrison left on January 10th, 1969. He was upset that while he had a growing number of songs that remained unrecorded The Beatles were concentrating John and Paul’s songs. he was also miffed that John no longer really spoke to the others preferring Yoko to to attend band meetings. John wanted to replace George with either Hendrix or Clapton (surely that was joke?). He also wanted to break the news to the press. No need, Harrison himself did that. However after a few days he was back in the fold.
Tags: beatles, classic rock music, On This Day, richard starkey, ringo starr, rock and blues
On This Day – Wanna Buy a Record Player?
Aug 23, 2009 Uncategorized
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…….
Tags: captain beefheart, classic rock music, On This Day, real rock and blues
Michael Jackson Worth More Dead Than Alive? (part 2)
Aug 10, 2009 Uncategorized
When I was doing my research for this post (I know, you are shocked that I do research) I was looking for information about the rights to MJ image. What I found were a couple of interesting news items, I use the term ‘news’ loosely.
The first was a tree stump in Sacramento that suddenly took on the appearance of Michael Jackson. I was going to include a photo but, to be honest it just looks like, well, a tree stump……….
The second was about a fence in the San Francisco Bay area. A family noticed this unusual pattern on their fence this week. Depending on the time of day, they say it looks like a face looking forward or to the side. And that it looks a lot like Michael Jackson. “The strangest thing, is that I was listening to Michael’s music,” says a family member who wants to remain anonymous, “I was thinking about Michael’s life and his death when I saw it. I was feeling his music emotionally. I looked to my side, out the window, and there he was.”
As you can see, there is quite an uncanny resemblance between The King of Pop and these planks of wood….
Mark Lester claimed that he was the father of Michael Jackson’s daughter. Am I the only one who thinks that it is sad that it would seem that the friends that MJ asked to donate were 1) his skin doctor and 2) a childhood star.
What I am getting at is that the dermatologist obviously played a large part in MJ’s sad life while Mark Lester was, like MJ, a child star who found adjusting to adult life difficult.
Whatever his faults, MJ was a sad person with problems and pressures that most of us will not know in our lives.
Oh yes, the image rights. It seems that the Jackson estate (for that read family and assorted lawyers) are going to settle deals about the image rights today. The rumour is that it will be just short of $100,000,000.
Just found another bit about MJ’s image. There is a tattoo site that says that tattoos of MJ are becoming popular, since he died. Before that apparently to display a tattoo of MJ invited attacks along the lines of ‘if you have a MJ tattoo you support pedophiles’.
Now, I hate tattoos. I can not think of anything worse that a young taught body bearing the image of a sex symbol and then seeing the same sagging, sun damaged body at 65.
However, If you have a MJ tattoo you do not necessarily support pedophiles, it just shows two things;
1. You lack foresight.
2. You like crap music.
Talking of which…………
Tags: classic rock music, michael Jackson, real rock and blues, rock and blues
White Denim
Aug 4, 2009 About and things, Uncategorized, rock and blues
I often read reviews of bands that refer to influences and there seems to be a settled list of arty influences claimed by most new bands with pretensions. That list includes Lou Reed (Velvet Underground), Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, The Doors, The Beatles. I usually ignore that bit of the review. When I read an article about White Denim some time ago I saw that one of them said “Zappa? yeah, but I think Beefheart has stayed with us more.” Now, that I could understand. That they would engage in a discussion about influences rather than just name check people was interesting.
Later I saw a review of the first album “Workout Holiday” which compared it with “Trout Mask Replica” (which, if you do not know is simply just the best rock album ever made, bar none). That, of course was rubbish, besides the reviewer was someone who’s judgment I did not trust. Then, in Mojo, there was a review of the second album “Fits”. In that it said that the comparison with “Trout Mask Replica” made on behalf of “Workout Holiday” was entirely justified. Now, here is a magazine I rate saying the same as the Sunday Times. I had to listen to White Denim.
Guess what?
The comparison between “Workout Holiday” and “Trout mask Replica” is entirely justified. These are not some lads trying to be The Magic Band. These are guys that seem to ‘get’ it. They are not reincarnations of Zoot Horn Rollo, The Mascara Snake, and Drumbo. They are their own people.
If you like the Captain you really should listen to the first album, you will not regret it.
Tags: captain beefheart, classic rock music, real rock and blues, rock and blues, white denim
