I love how the Americans start celebrating Halloween way back in September it seems! The picture sites I visit certainly start sharing pumpkin pictures back then but for the UK we celebrate over one weekend if you're lucky.
It is today but most trick or treating was done on Saturday! I guess its about children but the films shown on TV (Halloween anyone?!?) seem hackneyed and hollow . . . . . . hey ho!
It REALLY isn't an American invention or tradition we might even establish that it is European and certainly British church dates mark the occasion (All Hallows Eve) but the notion of Trick or Treating seems especially American and it has passed to us now in recent years but the economic build up to the day for over a month is another ludicrous commercial con equal only to Christmas here.
For years we would have celebrated Guy Fawkes Day on the 5th November but the wind has gone out of the sails now there too as Halloween takes over . . . . bonfires and Firework Night as my family called it with spuds baking in the open garden fire and treacle toffee and Parkin sliced cake (maybe a Northern thing here) was part of our family's tradition that I looked forward to always remembering to bring the rabbit in from the madness and explosions, looking out for Hedgehogs and mindful of those who loud bangs and huge in some cases were less of a 'treat'!
Nice piece from Kostas over at Urbanaspirines this morning (here!) on the re-issue of the Sonic's first deluxe 2 CD edition Daydream Nation and the classic 'Dirty'!
I think I may have posted this band before but covered here from the Best of Island Records and remastered comes a band I saw live at The Who Live at The Oval (in support of Bangladesh) and I loved this sound and their quasi- spiritual songs . . . . . The Who were to prove a different story ENTIRELY!
All I recall at that early in the day but oddly there were vast clouds of smoke drifting across the cricket ground and I couldn't quite work out what precisely was on fire . . . . . . . . curiously after a while I didn't really care! Strange huh?
Here from Rockasteria (Plain & Fancy to you and me!)
Of course the story goes that by the time The Who came on things had been influenced rather heavily by copious quantities of beer and the highlight for yours truly as I made my way towards the stage to get closer was that I got hit on the head with an empty pipkin* of beer!
It didn't make an awful lot of difference to be fair but I was younger then!
The text by Kevin Rathert, dated May 2, 2017, over at Rockasteria is well worth a read
The Band:
Quintessence
*Phil ‘Shiva Shankar’ Jones - Vocals, Keyboards, Hand Drums
Well this made my day! I haven't played much Leon Redbone for a while ( I think I have everything since Double Time and since his death (at 167 according to him!) this may explain why I had put him on the shelf for a while but thanks to Jeremiah and Silent Way I have played little else this morning. I LOVE this stuff! I defy it not to cheer you up! It always does for me and frankly we all need some of this! Polly Wolly Doodle All the Day!
This concert is classic Redbone and many of my favourite songs by him . . . . . he can do no wrong so thanks to everyone over at HQ and especially the Boss, Jeremiah and all the 'assistants'! ;)
01 - Intro 02 - Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) 03 - Stage Banter 04 - I Ain't Got Nobody 05 - Step It Up and Go 06 - Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight 07 - My Good Gal's Gone Blues 08 - You Drive Me Crazy 09 - Stage Banter 10 - My Blue Heaven 11 - Stage Banter 12 - Diddy Wah Diddy 13 - Stage Banter 14 - Sweet Sue, Just You 15 - Stage Banter 16 - Love Letters In The Sand 17 - Stage Banter 18 - Police Dog Blues 19 - Stage Banter 20 - Shine On, Harvest Moon 21 - Stage Banter 22 - Polly Wolly Doodle
Jerry Lee Lewis High School Confidential Don't Knock The Rock UK TV Show
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935 - October 28th 2022) was an American rock and roll and country music singer and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 24 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2003, they listed his box set All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology number 242 on their list of "500 greatest albums of all time."
Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, and began playing piano in his youth with his two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. His parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano. Influenced by a piano-playing older cousin Carl McVoy (who later recorded with Bill Black 's Combo), the radio, and the sounds from the black juke joint across the tracks, Haney's Big House, Lewis created his style from black artists who were unable to play to white audiences, mixing rhythm and blues, boogie-woogie, gospel, and country music, as well as ideas from established "country boogie" pianists like recording artists Moon Mullican and Merrill Moore.
Soon he was playing professionally.
Lewis played at clubs in and around Ferriday and Natchez, Mississippi, becoming part of the burgeoning new rock and roll sound and cutting his first demo recording in 1954. He made a trip to Nashville around 1955 where he played clubs and attempted to drum up interest, but was turned down by the Grand Ole Opry as he had been at the Louisiana Hayride country stage and radio show in Shreveport. Recording executives in Nashville suggested he switch to playing a guitar.
Lewis travelled to Memphis, Tennessee in November 1956, to audition for Sun Records. Label owner Sam Phillips was away on a trip to Florida, but producer and engineer Jack Clement recorded Lewis's rendition of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" and his own composition "End of The Road".
During December 1956, Lewis began recording prolifically, both as a solo artist and as a session musician for such Sun artists as Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. His distinctive piano playing can be heard on many tracks recorded at Sun during late 1956 and early 1957, including Carl Perkins' "Matchbox", "Your True Love", "You Can Do No Wrong", and "Put Your Cat Clothes On", and Billy Lee Riley's "Flyin' Saucers Rock'n'Roll".
Until this time, rockabilly had rarely featured piano, but it proved a highly influential addition and rockabilly artists on other labels soon also started working with pianists.
Lewis's own singles advanced his career as a soloist during 1957, with hits such as "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls of Fire", his biggest hit, bringing him to national and international fame, despite criticism for the songs' overtly sexual undertones which prompted some radio stations to boycott them. In 2005, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
Lewis would often kick the piano bench out of the way to play standing, rake his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent, sit down on the keyboard and even stand on top of the instrument. His first TV appearance, in which he demonstrated some of these moves, was on The Steve Allen Show on July 28, 1957, where he played the song "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On." He is also reputed to have set a piano on fire at the end of a live performance, in protest at being billed below Chuck Berry.
His dynamic performance style can be seen in films such as High School Confidential and Jamboree. He has been called "rock & roll's first great wild man" and also "rock & roll's first great eclectic." Classical composer Michael Nyman has also cited Lewis's style as the progenitor of his own aesthetic.
~ SOURCE: Wikipedia
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (Don't Knock The Rock UK TV Show)
I discovered Jerry Lee Lewis as a schoolboy when my friend Maurice (Townshend) returned from the Army when he came home on furlough and had discovered bands by American squaddies he had met I guess and he played me this guy and somebody called Ray Charles!
It wasn't until much later thanks to Art Teacher and then Education Officer at MOMAO and lead guitarist of The Jet Rink Band (local rockers!) my old friend Ian Cole who played me loads of country sides Jerry Lee recorded and I was struck by how much varied stuff he actually recorded and loved that country sound. It's there you can really hear how good a [painist he actually was if you think he just banged the heck out of it! He will be missed . . . . . nobody ever quite like him and
NOBODY CUTS THE KILLER!!!
Mick Fleetwood on drums and Keith Richards with The Killer - You're Cheating Heart
A legendary photographic project and then book and then a legendary film this is covered in a brilliant article from Aquarium Drinkard and is well worth checking out (see link above)
"In 1967, author and historian Michael Lesy was earning his master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin when he stumbled across a collection of late-19th-century photographs at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The photos were taken by Charles Van Schaik, a professional photographer who lived in a small Wisconsin town called Black River Falls in the 1890s. The macabre nature of Schaik’s photos intrigued Lesy, who began contacting local museums to dig up newspapers from the same period. Pairing the images with their corresponding news articles, Lesy uncovered an unprecedented reign of madness in Black River Falls from 1890 to 1900, previously lost to time. Lesy presented his findings as his doctoral thesis at Rutger’s University, which was eventually published into a book in 1978, titled Wisconsin Death Trip."
As I did at the earlier Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour shows I saw (Milwaukee, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans), some quick next-morning thoughts on last night’s show. With — bonus — an early recording! I’ll do it again after tonight’s show.
The more things stay the same, the more they change. Last night’s show had the same setlist as the last one I saw in New Orleans back in March (minus one non-Bob song). Same band and stage arrangement. Same Bob too. But for all that similarity, it felt quite different.
For one, it’s a slower, more meditative performance now — and it wasn’t exactly a punk show before! Most of the uptempo songs have been paced down. “False Prophet” in particular has lost most of the bite I loved so much in New Orleans. What works better though, is the near-solo piano openings to several songs: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” “To Be Alone with You,” and “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Hearing these, you could envision what it might be like for Bob to hit the road solo, just him and the ivories taking his piano-man routine from town to town. I’d go.
Take a listen to all three songs’ piano openings from last night’ show, before the band kicks in (thanks to Brian for getting me a tape so fast!):
Those are some things that changed since the spring, but here are some things that almost changed…but didn’t:
Guitarist Bob Britt. At the London show two nights earlier, he was nowhere to be seen onstage. I assumed illness (Covid?), but the rumor circulating last night, which I can’t verify, was that he had to fly back to the U.S. for some corporate gig. Gotta be more to the story though; I find it unlikely Dylan just lets his band members leave whenever they want now.
The tour’s opening show in Oslo saw two changes that didn’t stick. Most notably, “When I Paint My Masterpiece” was played as a trio with the two Bobs and Donnie Herron on violin. The other band members left the stage. The arrangement showed potential, but didn’t really land. Dylan must not have thought so either, as it was gone by night two. You can hear it here.
Also gone: Dylan playing guitar. He’d opened most shows on the most recent U.S. tour with a few minutes of instrumental guitar on “Watching the River Flow,” but dumped it after the first night in Europe. Too bad. It didn’t sound great on bootlegs, admittedly, but I’m sure Bob strumming away was fun to see live.
Dylan opened at least one show recently with a short instrumental snippet of “Oh Susannah.” You can hear it here. Whatever he played last night didn’t sound like “Oh Susannah” to me, but it did sound like more than ambient noodling. Can anyone ID it?...
I know it was a while ago now but largely because I said I would and I always try to keep my promises here is Self Esteem [Rebecca Lucy Taylor, 36] singing her new single 'F***ing Wizardry"! I loved this version and the lighting and the band and especially the outfits . . . . . . . . !
Self Esteem - Wizardry! Live on The Graham Norton Show
"Ringo’s second LP was surprisingly a country LP recorded in Nashville with all the studio greats. It didn’t get much love at the time, but it’s actually not bad Ringo obviously doesn’t have great voice, but his voice has personality to spare, and he has a feel country music. "
Bought this when it came out as all of the Beatles work . . . . . . . . my favourite signature drummer
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