Music
08
Nov 11
Rickie Lee Jones: Born This Day in 1954
Rickie Lee Jones
November 8, 1954 – Still Rockin’
Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.
Rickie grew up in the wide open spaces of Arizona, a powerful imagery that would haunt much of her writing throughout her life. Her early childhood was spent in the company of imaginary friends. Her elder sister was married at the age of 15, while her elder brother was severely hurt in a motorcycle accident at the age of 16. The young Rickie Lee struggled socially, the itinerant outside, the family moving and changing schools every year or two. Luckily she was a gifted student, though teachers reported that she ‘daydreamed’ all day. It was hard enough being new, but having a name like ‘Rickie’ put her on the defensive in each new school. Like a boy named Sue, perhaps, Rickie got tough or died and her sense of self was indisputable. This uniqueness of character would eventually find a home on stage.
In 1977 she was noticed by rock journalist/attorney Stann Findelle who wrote about her in Performance Magazine and also helped her with some of her publishing. It was in 1978 that her faithful jack-of-all-trades on Westminster Avenue in Venice, offered to manage her, and in a few months had Bonnie Shiftman photographing her, Owen Sloan as her attorney, and major labels coming to see her three showcase performances, culminating in her being signed by Warner Bros. Records after a bidding war between three labels. The showcases were 30 minutes long, including “Easy Money”, “The Moon Is Made of Gold”, “Chuck E.’s In Love”, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as well as a few racy cover tunes. Warner Bros. knew Jones was “the real thing” and obtained a spot for her on Saturday Night Live the week of her release. They had also filmed what came to be an early music video — a twelve-minute, three-song movie, in which Jones was depicted as kind of girl next door street character. With Time magazine dubbing her “the Duchess of Coolsville” in its review of her first show, Jones’ image was solidified. Saturday Night Live portrayed her amidst garbage cans. Five months later she sold out two shows at Carnegie Hall.
Listen to “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” sung by Rickie (Song by Traffic):
05_The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys
Rickie Lee Jones: Chuck E.’s In Love
07
Nov 11
Al Hirt: Born This Day in 1922
Al Hirt
November 7, 1922 – April 27, 1999
Al Hirt was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million selling recordings of “Java”, and the accompanying album, Honey in the Horn (1963). His nicknames included ‘Jumbo’ and ‘The Round Mound of Sound’. Al was a member of The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Alois Maxwell Hirt was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of a police officer. At the age of six, he was given his first trumpet, which had been purchased at a local pawnshop. He would play in the Junior Police Band with the children of Alcide Nunez, and by the age of 16, Hirt was playing professionally, often with his friend Pete Fountain. During this time, he was hired to play at the local horse racing track, beginning a six-decade connection to the sport.
Hirt’s virtuoso dexterity and fine tone on his instrument soon attracted the attention of national labels and signed with RCA Victor Records. Hirt posted twenty two albums on the Billboard charts in the 1950s and 1960s. The albums Honey In The Horn and Cotton Candy were both in the Top 10 best sellers for 1964, the same year Hirt scored a hit single with his cover of Allen Toussaint’s tune “Java” (Billboard #4), and later won a Grammy Award for the same recording. Both Honey in the Horn and “Java” sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs.
His 1964 hit “Java” was used as the soundtrack to a recurring Muppet sketch that was performed on several variety shows as well as episode 122 of The Muppet Show.
06
Nov 11
Glenn Frey: Born On This Day
The Eagles - Original members: (L-R) Bernie Leadon, Don Henley, Randy Meisner, Glenn Frey
Glenn Frey
November 6, 1948 – Still Rockin’
Glenn Lewis Frey (pronounced Fry; born November 6, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Frey formed the Eagles after he met drummer Don Henley in 1970 and the two eventually joined Linda Ronstadt’s backup band for her summer tour.
The Eagles formed in 1971 and released their debut album in 1972. Glenn Frey would play guitar with the Eagles as well as piano and keyboards, and shared lead vocals with Don Henley. The Eagles broke up in 1980 after becoming one of the most successful bands of all time. Frey sang lead vocals on many Eagles hits such as “Take It Easy”, “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, “Tequila Sunrise”, “Already Gone”, “Lyin’ Eyes”, “New Kid in Town”, and “Heartache Tonight”.
Glenn Frey today
After the breakup of the Eagles in 1980, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album in 1982 and would go on to record such Top 40 hits like “The One You Love”, “Smuggler’s Blues”, “Sexy Girl”, “The Heat Is On”, and “You Belong to the City”.
As a member of the Eagles, Frey has won six Grammys, and five American Music Awards. The Eagles have sold over 120 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. As a solo artist and with the Eagles combined, Frey has released 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
Source: Wikipedia
03
Nov 11
SRV: Born On This Day
Stevie Ray Vaughn
October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990
Stevie Ray Vaughan would have been 57 years old today, October 3rd. His music, his amazing guitar playing, his style, are a milestone in music history. Not many people can listen to his music and not tap a foot or become lost in his Texas-fusion of blues and rock.
Truly one of the greats, he is ranked right up there with the best of the contemporary rock and blues musicians… Hendrix, Clapton, Richards, Page, Cooder, King, Allman, Santana, Beck, and a few others. I’d easily rank him in the top five rock and blues guitarists.
Although he died a tragic death in a helicopter crash, he lives on through his amazing music.
Listen to “Pride and Joy”
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Pride And Joy
Listen to “Little Wing”
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Little Wing
01
Nov 11
Lyle Lovett: Born On This Day
Lyle Lovett – b. Nov. 1, 1957
is an American singer, songwriter and farmer. He also acts a bit – and used to be married to Julia Roberts.
Lyle Lovett’s career bloomed late but by the time he signed a major recording contract he was nearly 30 years old and had years of experience playing cover songs and folk festivals.
Lovett’s quirky tunes, each of them a beguiling story in miniature, have helped define a new breed of singer-songwriter who exists outside traditional boundaries like folk and country.
Listen to “All My Love Is Gone”
Lyle Lovett_06_All My Love Is Gone
31
Oct 11
How do you really feel about it Pete?
Pete Townshend wrote an overwhelming majority of the songs for The Who. He's considered one of the all-time great rock guitar musicians.
LONDON — The Who’s Pete Townshend on Monday branded Apple Inc.’s iTunes a “digital vampire” that profits from music without supporting the artists who create it.
Townshend said that faced with the Internet’s demolition of established copyright protections, iTunes should offer some of the services to artists that record labels and music publishers used to provide. These include employing talents scouts, giving space to allow bands to stream their music and paying smaller artists directly rather than through a third party aggregator.
Listen to “Who Are You?”
The Who: Who Are You?
The guitarist was delivering the first John Peel Lecture, named in honor of the influential British radio broadcaster who died in 2004.
Townshend asked if there was any reason iTunes “can’t provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire” to make money.
ITunes declined to respond to Townshend’s comments.
Apple’s service is the market leader among legal download services, accounting for about three-quarters of music downloads.
Townshend said consumers, as well as the industry, needed to change their attitude to digital music.
“It would be better if music lovers treated music like food, and paid for every helping, rather than only when it suited them,” he said.
“Why can’t music lovers just pay for music rather than steal it?” he said.
19
Oct 11
Chuck Berry – 85 years young…
Legendary guitarist, singer and songwriter, Chuck Berry (b. Oct. 18, 1926) is 85 today and is often referred to at the King of Rock and Roll – or as John Lennon put it: “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’”
In the film Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll! Eric Clapton states ‘If you wanna play rock and roll – or any upbeat number – and you wanted to take a guitar ride you would end up playing like Chuck…because there is very little other choice. There’s not a lot of other ways to play rock and roll other than the way Chuck plays it; he’s really laid the law down…”
In 1992 Keith Richards told Best of Guitar Player “Chuck was my man. He was the one who made me say ‘I want to play guitar, Jesus Christ!’…Suddenly I knew what I wanted to do.”
Berry’s showmanship has been influential on other rock guitar players, particularly his one-legged hop routine, and the “duck walk”, which he first used as a child when he walked “stooping with full-bended knees, but with my back and head vertical” under a table to retrieve a ball and his family found it entertaining; he used it when “performing in New York for the first time and some journalist branded it the duck walk.
30
Aug 10
297 of 365: Jimi Hendrix Memorial
297 of 365: Jimi Hendrix Memorial, originally uploaded by James Milstid.
“Forever In Our Hearts — James M. “Jimi” Hendrix — 1942-1970”
This Hendrix family memorial gravesite is located at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, Washington. Although it’s only 10 miles from where I live, today is the first time I’ve ever visited it.
There were several people visiting, but there was a ten minute lull and I was able to grab several photos. Folks had left several ‘gifts’, ranging from flowers to Zig Zag rolling papers to chalk for leaving a message.
I did this in HDR and some fairly heavy tone mapping. It gave me the look I was after… almost postcardish. Today was a pretty drab day and the original looked pretty much like… well… a drab snapshot.
Greenwood Memorial Park – Renton, WA
August 29, 2010