Kostas says: "Formed on an October night in 1976 following drinks at an Athens, GA, Chinese restaurant, the band played their first gig at a friend's house on Valentine's Day 1977. Naming themselves after Southern slang for exaggerated 'bouffant" hairdos, the newly-christened B-52s (Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson and Ricky Wilson) began weekend road trips to New York City for gigs at CBGB's and a handful of other venues. Making music that's full of quirks but also friendly and fun to dance to, the B-52s filter surf music, '60s pop, vintage soul, and low-budget sci-fi soundtracks through a pop culture kaleidoscope. Among the first American new wave acts to break through to mainstream visibility, the B-52s became one of the biggest success stories to emerge from the American underground in the late '70s. "
Read on follow the title link!
The B-52s - Big Bird - Live Dortmund 1983
The B-52’s- Own Private Idaho (1980)
The B-52’s - Roam!
The B-52's - Love Shack (Live on Letterman 1989) of course
THREE LITTLE FISHIES ~ The Smoothies ~ Hal Kemp & his Orchestra~ recorded on March 28,1939- released in May 1939~ Victor Records. The group originated as Babs & Her Brothers in the early 1930's and became The Smoothies in approx. 1938. As The Smoothies, they were the featured vocal group with Hal Kemp & his Orchestra and it was while with Kemp's orchestra that the song THREE LITTLE FISHIES was first introduced. The trio at this time consisted of Arlene "Babs" Johnson, Charlie Ryan and Little Ryan. Interestingly , when the trio was using the name Babs & Her Brothers, the "Babs" part was, at different times, being handled by Blanche Redwine, Rosalind Stuart, or a number of other female vocalists.
The up beat , THREE LITTLE FISHIES, was also recorded by Kay Kyser & his Orchestra on the Columbia Records label, also in 1939 and is probably the better known version of the song. However, The Smoothies version is still excellent.
THREE LITTLE FISHIES was composed by tenor saxophonist / vocalist / composer / lyricist, Saxie Dowell, who was a member of Hal Kemp's orchestra before forming his own orchestra around the end of 1939. He was also the composer of the well known novelty tune PLAYMATES. Band leader, Hal Kemp, was born on March 27, 1904 and passed away on December 21, 1940. While driving from The Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles to the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco on December 19th, Kemp was caught up in some heavy fog and was involved in a head-on collision. He died from his injuries two days later.
The Kemp Orchestra , vocalists, including The Smoothies, were now apart of the Art Jerrett Orchestra, as the Hal Kemp Orchestra was soon to be led by Jerrett , just a few months after Kemp's passing.
. . . .another visit to an album bought when it came out . . .I always adored the combination of Jack and his full blown musical outpouring with the poetic work of Pete Brown (Cream, Jack and so on and his own band Piblokto who I saw live back in the day . . . ) Visitors will recall the ‘Tailor’ referred to is the boutique owner and legendary seamstress and ex of Richard Thompson, Jeannie Franklyn who died in the car crash that killed her and Fairport Drummer 19 year old Martin Lambie. Jack’s album is dedicated to her
You do know about The Echo Line don’t you!? See the Guardian link below if you missed what our Thea is up to!
Hello friends!
There is a brand new song waiting for you today on The Echo Line.
It’s called Homescar.
It began with a beautiful message left on The Echo Line.
Someone told me about their husband, who’d had the outline of their face tattooed on his body. Not a portrait, the actual outline, drawn by a tattooist while they were lying together cuddled up on the floor.
He calls it their homescar. It’s a word borrowed from limpets. Those tenacious little creatures that travel out into the world and then return again and again to exactly the same place on their rock, eventually wearing a groove, a little hollow into it’s surface.
But the message wasn’t really about the tattoo. It was about a man’s struggle with anxiety and depression and the extraordinary joy and relief of seeing someone you love begin to emerge from a dark place. It was about celebrating this person’s husband and about having somewhere to return to.
I found it so moving. So I wrote a song.
Some of you heard Homescar during the October tour, just me, a guitar and a bow. This recording features my son on strings.
If you’re brand new here, The Echo Line is an ongoing project where people leave anonymous messages about their lives, I listen and sometimes I write songs in response. Those songs appear on a tiny little corner of the internet for a limited time and you can read all about the messages that inspired them as well. They’re not on streaming platforms and there’s nothing to buy or sign up for.
They’re just there to be heard. Until they’re not there any more.
And if you’re wondering why on earth I’m doing this, The Guardian published an amazing piece on The Echo Line, the stories people have entrusted to it and what happens when we really listen to one another.
A story from 1992 … It's fair to assume that some people hate their names. But what about rock bands? You can practically hear XTC’s Andy Partridge groan over the phone.
"I picked the name because I thought it was a pictogram for the group in 1975," says Partridge. "It was short, sharp, shocking. It was immediate gratification and wonderfulness. The letters were the right shape, it leapt out in print."
Alas, over time, Partridge says he realized that "we were stuck with one of those classic punny names that are great fun for a week and then you think, `Why did we choose that name?' You sober up and go, `Oh no! We're called that?' "
Nevertheless, XTC has carved out a reputation as an eclectic, clever pop band that tosses a lot of spicy ingredients into its sonic stew. And the English band currently has the biggest US hit of its career with "Nonsuch," the country's No. 1 college rock album.
"We do write catchy songs -- that's a disease with us," says singer-guitarist-songwriter Partridge. "But I have no concept of why anything on this record should be more in the public eye than anything on the last one. It's an enormous mystery to me. It keeps me wide-eyed, an ongoing naif. I'd kind of given up attempting to be popular a long time ago."
The album features "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead," a catchy tune about heroism and martyrdom and, like all XTC efforts, there are more than a few bits of pop brilliance on the disc. He appreciates the accolades, but none have gone to his head.
XTC - The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead
"I'm certainly out of my desire for fame, I'm rather out of the desire for fortune. I've realized that any fortune that might come my way will be like an accidental dollop of jam. I don't know what compels me because I've lost the 13-year-old's drive to be a Beatle-Monkee-Rolling Stone. Certainly, I've lost the hair that goes with the drive.
"All that kind of rock 'n' roll youth gang stuff has completely left me, and mix that with the other stuff that's left and it leaves a strange, smoky ghost in my life. Where one time I knew what I was chasing, now I don't, and the silly thing is I think the songs are actually getting better as the years go on."
"I feel no more like a rock 'n' roller than I do a brain surgeon," says Partridge. "When we were playing live, I felt as if we were howling out in the wilderness and no one was particularly listening. You can stir into that discontent a big pinch of stage fright that got worse and worse. I think my subconscious was telling me, `Look, you don't want to be doing this, so I'm going to make it difficult for you to do.' Also, there's the physicality of it. I'm not an athlete and I think you have to have an athlete's temperament to tour well. And I don't like reproducing old stuff over and over again for entertainment's sake. I think that's crass.
"I see nothing wrong with just being a record-making group," he continues. "I figure, you go into a store and buy a slice of our soul on disc. Why on earth would you want to see our carcass for any worship purposes or whatever?"
XTC-BOOKS ARE BURNING-THE LATE SHOW-BBC 2 - 9 JUNE.92
I had been featuring XTC’s Nonsuch quite a bit lately from Tripping Mantras and similar so this is to remind us (well YOU!- ED) of what a fine album it is . . . . .
From Grant McLennan’s first LP after the Go-Betweens split up. It could easily have been a Go-Betweens tune, especially with Amanda Brown adding vocals.
I’ve lived my life at 2 a.m I’ve drunk your poison wine
A beautiful version of “Paradise” as part of the tribute to John that aired October 3rd on, "Let The Music Play On": A Hardly Strictly Bluegrass broadcast, featuring many of our friends, including Bonnie Raitt , Patty Griffin and more
