"Randy Scouse Git" - The Monkees (1968)

This is one of those songs that sometimes nag at your memory. You can almost hear it but not quite. I was trolling through the You Tube garden and ran across a title I didn’t recognize; which is this record. That was weird, because I remember the song completely. Just never stored the title I suppose.

The real reason I probably remember this song is because of the backstory to it; which involved The Beatles, who had thrown a party welcoming the Monkees to London in May 1967. This was the same time frame as the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards “Redlands” bust. I remember the news saying stuff like “but the American pop group The Monkees have stayed out of trouble while in London.”

   

Micky Dolnez came up with the title while watching the BBC show Til Death Do Us Part”; which was the precursor to our American series “All In the Family.” In this show the main character was a guy named  Alf Garnett who spent much of the shows insulting his son-in-law from Liverpool and calling him a “scouse”; which is is kind of a nasty term. Anyway, it made an impression on Dolnez; enough that he wrote his first song about it. That’s some powerful TV!

The Beatles threw a party at the Speakeasy; a popular London nightclub of the day. The song is really about the people at the party. From the opening line of “She’s a wonderful lady, but she’s mine…” it alludes to the people they met that night. The “wonderful lady” is Mama Cass Elliot; while “the four kings of EMI” are The Beatles themselves. The “disc  girl” is Samantha Juste, who later became Micky Dlonez’ wife. It’s interesting to note that this is kind of the same way in which Don McClean wrote “American Pie” about 4 years later.

This song was never released as a single; only on the album. The Monkees; as was the practice with most groups at the time; released several singles which were not on the LP’s; like “D.W. Washburn”, which was a favorite of mine.

Flag Day - 1960's TV Style

Today is Flag Day and I thought it might be cool to look back at the old TV sign offs. I always enjoyed the one with the jets streaking across the sky, but this one is pretty good. It showcases many of our nation's monuments, all while rolling the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner across  the screen. I wonder if they even teach it in school anymore?

Heritage is something which must be nurtured from one generation to the next. Tradition does not stay alive of it's own accord. Take the time today and look at our flag and think beyond the current state of politics. That is not the real America represented by the flag.

The flag has been temporarily high jacked. It won't be the first time; or the last. But it's the actual meaning of the stars and stripes which count most. The meaning of the red and white stripes and the stars on a field of blue. Keep that spirit alive and we can't lose. What was it that David Crosby once wrote? "Teach your children well...."

"Coney Island Baby" - The Excellents (1962)

With all of the cold weather slamming us lately I thought we all could use a break and head to the beach. While looking through the you tubes I ran across this "oldie but goodie" by The Excellents from 1962. Lou Reed also did an album called Coney Island Baby in the late 1970's or early '80's. I always thought he took the name from this song.

The Excellents were really the remnants of the Bronx based sextet known as The Premieres. Not having an amusement park on their beach, naturally they had to sing about ours in Brooklyn. And there was no way that a doo-wop group outta the Bronx was gonna cut a record about Brooklyn, and so they became the Excellents.

Brooklyn isn't the center of the earth; though it's close. The first time that I was in Italy I was kind of surprised to see that they had chewing gum called "Brooklyn Bridge". I was flattered. And even in the red light districts of France, Germany, Alexandria, Subic Bay and all the rest, there is always a Brooklyn Bar. We're everywhere!

Enjoy the song and sights and sounds of the past with this little video. Hope it carries you through the cold weather. Don't worry, spring is coming soon! I hope.

The Andy Griffith Show - "Opie the Birdman" (1963)

All the Andy Griffith shows are like treasures to me. They harken back to a simpler time, when there were lines not to be crossed. Though things were far from perfect in many respects, sometimes it’s still easy to long for the sepia toned days of our not too distant past. But the entire myriad of social issues aside, there was more of a civility in the air of the times. Even the struggles for Civil Rights were tangible evidence that, for the most part, people were at least trying to get in touch with their “better angels.” Contrasted with today’s sharply divided nation, those times were less complex, and we could at least imagine a way forward.

This first episode from the 1963 season of “The Andy Griffith Show” addresses responsibility, a word which is rapidly disappearing from our vocabulary. After getting a slingshot; which was every young man’s dream back in the “old days”; Opie is at first content with shooting tin cans and other inanimate objects. But soon he sets his sights on a bird in the tree in front of his house, and without thinking about the consequences of his action, kills it. He is heartbroken and filled with guilt and shame. The chirping of the baby birds; who are unable to fly yet; as they await the return of their mother to feed them, eats away at him.

Andy; in his usual calm way; let’s the boy feel the pain he has caused and makes him provide for the baby birds until they can fly on their own. When the time comes to let them go, Opie has learned several lessons from his transgression. Beginning at the 19 minute mark, Andy explains to Opie about letting go. And that’s something we all have to learn how to do at some point.

"Jimi Hendrix - A Brother's Story" by Leon Hendrix with Adam Mitchell (2012)

This will be the closest thing you will ever read to an autobiography of Jimi Hendrix. His brother, Leon, has done a wonderful job of putting into words the experiences of the 2 boys while growing up in Seattle, Washington. Leon and Jimi were born to parents who were so much in love with one another that they couldn’t stand to be together for very long. There were also 3 other children born to the couple; one a stillbirth; along with two boys; one blind and the other clubfooted. They were put up for adoption as a result of financial hardship. His mother was dead by the age of 33, and their father took over from there, doing the best he could.

As a child, Jimi (born James, but called “Buster” by his family after Buster Crabbe of the Flash Gordon Series) was always interested in sounds. Although they lived in a rundown home before being shuttled from foster homes to relatives to live, Jimi had an ear for the magic of music from a very early age. He and Leon used to string wires between the posts of their metal bed, noticing how the sounds changed in pitch according to length.

Alone with Leon, Jimi used to lie on the ground, gazing up at the nighttime sky, telling his brother about the constellations, and making up stories, many of which would become famous as songs later in his life. Songs like “Castles In the Sand” and “The Wind Cried Mary” are autobiographical and were written in his head even before he learned to play guitar. Even “Spanish Magic Castle” is rooted in Jimi Hendrix youth, named, as it is, for the Spanish Castle Ballroom, which was about an hour from his home. In the song it is said to be “half a day away” because that’s how long it took to get there in in the broken down car they used to get there.

Jimi’s first instrument; aside from the bed; was an old ukulele which he was allowed to keep when cleaning out a garage with his father, who did landscaping and odd jobs. It may only have had one string on it, but that was enough to cement young Jimi’s interest in music forever.

His next instrument was an old broken down acoustic guitar which he acquired from a woman down the street. Although it wasn’t much of a guitar, Jimi soon mastered it, playing the melodies to anything he heard on the radio. By this time he had heard electric guitars on the radio and decided he needed to get technical.

He bought a kit to electrify the acoustic guitar, but lacked an amplifier. So, he created one by wiring a cord to the stylus of his father’s record player, which allowed him to play his electrified acoustic guitar. The sound was distorted due to the speaker’s limited capacity, but may have been the catalyst for the sound he was one day to create.

Jim left Seattle to join the Army, serving in the 101^st Airborne. While in the service he played with several different buddies at the various service clubs on base.  After being Honorably Discharged he actually went on the road, playing the old Chitling’ Circuit; which was in its last days at the time; and even toured the Northwest, playing wherever he could, even with Tommy Chong in his band Tommy and The Vancouver’s; although it was Tommy Chong on lead guitar. You can listen to those records on You Tube.

He went on to play with Little Richard, but the arrangements were too tight for his agile mind; and as a result of conflicts with Little Richard; he left the band, headed for New York. His connection to Little Richard actually occurred several years before when Little Richard came to Washington to visit his Aunt, which was down the street from the Hendrix brothers and their Dad. Jimi was 17 at the time and still in high school, which he did not complete, withdrawing in his senior year.

By 1966, Chas Chandler, of the Animals, convinced Jimi to go to England with him, where he finally broke through with his innovative sound. It was there in 1967 that he recorded the iconic “Are You Experienced“ album which would catapult him to worldwide fame beyond his wildest dreams. Leon, and his Dad, first heard this album through the walls of their apartment one morning in May 1967. A neighbor was playing the record over and over. Leon, and his father were both dumbstruck. The music was unlike anything they had ever heard before.

After landing a job as an draftsman for Boeing, drawing the same nuts and bolts over and over again, Leon eventually joined his brother on the road in the late 1960’s, getting an education in life which was not available in school. He was also, when not on the road, becoming increasingly involved in the hustler’s lifestyle on the street, soon becoming acquainted with drugs; as well as dealing and stealing. A break in at a pharmaceutical plant landed him in jail with some of his friends. After bonding out, he returned home to accompany his brother on tour, as he awaited his trial for the robbery.

That trial never came when Leon’s lawyer advised him to join the Army in lieu of being sent to prison. It seemed like a good idea and he joined, knowing that he would be going to Vietnam. With his brother’s reputation shadowing him everywhere he went, the Army found him to be more trouble than he was worth. After enduring all the usual humiliations associated with boot camp; plus some extra “special treatment” for the crime of being Jimi Hendrix’ brother; Leon goes AWOL. This mistake eventually has him sent to prison for the violation of his plea agreement. It is while in prison that he learns of his brother’s death from other inmates who had heard it on the radio.

This is a very straight forward book which doesn’t shy away from the author’s own shortcomings, as well as deal with the issue of who was stealing his brother’s money.

Of great interest to me in this book, are the theories and plans which were underway by Jimi Hendrix at the time of his death. He had a theory about music, which was based on Einstein’s theory of relativity. That formula was E=mc squared. Hendrix’ formula for the relationship between light, color and sound was called Energy Sound Color Dynamics, and he expressed it in a formula, similar to Einstein’s; E=sc squared. We will never know where his musical ambitions would have taken us.

The book even delves into the financial struggles over Jimi’s estate, not only with the record companies, but within his own family. This is an excellent book, which shies away from nothing, and dispels many myths about the famed guitarist. Written with a love for his brother that the reader can actually feel, this may be the best and most personable biographies of Jimi Hendrix to date. Well done, Leon!

"A Bronx Tale" with Robert DeNiro and Chazz Palminteri (1993)

This is one of my favorite Robert DeNiro films. It was his first effort at directing a film, and is a poignant look at growing up in New York City during the 1960’s. Each neighborhood had its own fiefdom, usually composed of someone who was “connected” to the “mob” in some way. That person functioned as a sort of “peacekeeper” in his neighborhood, settling disputes and also collecting a fee from any illegal activities that might be going on in the area.  For the most part this system worked to everyone’s advantage, but every now and again, paths were crossed, and drama ensued. That is the story told in this remarkable film written originally as a play by Chazz Palminteri, who also wrote the screenplay for this movie, in which he plays the lead character of Sonny, the neighborhood “boss”.

Sonny runs things from the Chez Bippi, a bar located on the corner of 187^th Street in the Fordham Road section of the Bronx. This bar is the local hangout for the mob, a place where they can gather and feel comfortable. It is a separate world within a world, where working class people live and hold real jobs.  When Calogero , the 9 year old son of a local bus driver named Lorenzo Anello, played by Robert DeNiro, witnesses a gangland related shooting outside the bar; these two worlds collide in a very unexpected way.

After the shooting, Lorenzo quickly hauls his kid off the street to avoid being questioned by the police. When the child is forced to look over the suspects, he does the “right thing” by not telling the truth; or, as his father puts it, “You did a good thing for a bad man.” This confuses his son, who has grown to idolize Sonny, which in turn forms a division between father and son. When Sonny offers Lorenzo a job running numbers as a reward, Lorenzo turns him down, eschewing the easy money for his honest job.

As Calogero grows older he begins to work at the bar, without his father’s knowledge. Lorenzo is disapproving of the men who hang out at the bar, and the world they represent. He asserts that the real hero is the guy who gets up in the morning and goes to work to make an honest living. But this lesson is lost on his son, who sees the big, easy money being earned by the men at the bar. He soon becomes a part of their world, running errands, serving drinks, even rolling the dice for Sonny in a crap game.  When Lorenzo finds out that his son has been working at the bar, he confronts Sonny, reminding him that the boy is his son, and that as such, Sonny is way out of line with his interference in the raising of his family. This sets off an emotional conflict between the two men which never fully resolves itself.

The film is a multi-layered story of the years between 1960 and 1969, when things were changing so quickly it wasn’t always easy to keep pace with what was right, and what was wrong. It is also the story of a father and son in the grips of those changes. And it is also the story of a city rent by these changes.

As Calogero gets older he finds himself attracted to an African-American girl who goes to his school. With racial tensions between the Italians and Blacks at an all-time high, this is just another log on the fire for “C”, the name which Sonny has bestowed upon him, much to the chagrin of his father.

While  Calogero becomes more involved with his girlfriend, Jane, racial tensions arise in the neighborhood, and C’s friends become involved in the violence.  He is torn between his loyalty to his friends, and the conflicting advice  he receives from his father, and Sonny, on just about everything.

When tensions explode on a fateful night, it is Sonny who saves the boy from death. And when Sonny is later murdered in retaliation for another killing, it is Lorenzo who comes to his son’s aid, helping him to realize that all things are not as cut and dried and as they might seem at first. Life is complicated. And though both men had conflicting outlooks on life, they both wanted what each perceived to be the best for Calogero. It is only after Sonny’s death that Loenzo realizes the good within the dead man, who had tried to keep his son from following in his footsteps.

When Lorenzo shows up at Sonny’s funeral to pay his respects; more to his son’s friendship than to Sonny himself; Calogero realizes that Sonny was wrong when he said that “nobody cared.”

This is a flawlessly written, and directed, film by two of the best actors of the last 40 years. As usual, Robert De Niro has peppered the film with some of the greatest music of the 1960’s, ranging from Doo-Wop music to the sounds of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, Rhythm and Blues, and even some Eric Clapton thrown in. The whole movie is seamlessly drawn, and lingers on with the viewer long after the last credits have rolled. If you have never seen this film before, then you are missing one of the best.

"Telephone Road" by Rodney Crowell (2001)

This video is from Rodney Crowell's 2001 release of the "Houston Kid" album, which would turn out to be the beginning of a trilogy for Mr. Crowell. "Houston Kid" was followed with "Fate's Right Hand" in 2003, and then with the sensational album "The Outsiders", in 2005. This video starts off with a very young Dan Rather doing the weather report out of Houston during a hurricane in the late 50's, or early 60's.

The whole video is a veritable snapshot of life from when Mr. Crowell was a kid. Interspersed, as it is, with footage of his band recording, and performing, lends an urgency to the song, almost as if the artist wants you to step inside his head and share with you all of the things he has seen while growing up.

All three of the aforementioned albums were eventually distilled into Rodney Crowell's landmark autobiography, "Chinaberry Sidewalks", which was released in 2010. If you haven't read it, you are missing out on a real treat. And, if you have never been to one of Mr. Crowell's concerts, you are doubly deprived.

The Doors - "Live In New York"

The following review was posted on another blog two years ago. I'm a little under the weather today and need a day off, so I'm posting it here for the first time. The album was released in March 2010 and sparked some musical memories from my early teens. See you tomorrow!

My first run in with the music of The Doors came, unsurprisingly, through my transistor radio. It was alternately to be found either in my hand, held next to my ear, or in the spring and summer, strapped to the center of my bicycle handlebars.

One day, while delivering The New York Post, the transistor took on a life of its own. I had never heard a sound that imbedded itself so deeply and so quickly into my imagination. It was, I learned later, the insistent organ playing of Ray Manzerak backing the lead vocalist, Jim Morrison, on the new single “Light My Fire.” This recording would skyrocket up the charts to Number One, where it would remain for many weeks.

The record is a notable one in that it served as a ground breaker for future artists and releases to pass the 3 minutes and some odd seconds that comprised the world of Pop Music and AM radio formats at the time. The full version of “Light My Fire” ran over 11 minutes. It was originally pared down to 3 minutes or so before all the phone calls started pouring in to the radio stations. The listeners who had the album wanted to hear the full version. In various cities the song was trimmed according to the audience and the advertisers. Even in New York we only got about 7 minutes on AM. But this was the moment when the format was about to change.

Within a year of “Light My Fire” being released we had “MacArthur Park” written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Richard Harris. It was well over 7 minutes in length and remained at the top of the charts all summer. It is a signature song from a signature year. This influence did not go unnoticed by The Beatles who released “Hey Jude” in September of 1968. It was also over 7 minutes long.

The only Pop song I can think of that ran longer than 4 minutes prior to “Light My Fire” is “A Quick One” by The Who, which was the precursor to the rock opera “Tommy.”

The Doors went on to record a string of Pop hits, including “Wishful, Sinful”, “People Are Strange” and some longer tracks such as “When the Music’s Over.” The bands signature number “The End” later became the opening music for the film “Apocalypse Now.”

Originally blues based The Doors became caught up in the whirlwind of pop stardom. The constant pressure to have hit after hit and the rigors of life on the road put the group into a kind of rut. It’s hard to be creative when you’re racing from studio to plane to show after show. It’s even harder to retain sight of what you were originally trying to be.

And so it went with The Doors. They left us quite a bit of Pop hits and some classic stuff like “The End” but may have never left the Blues imprint that they desired to at the beginning.

The current release of “Live In New York” - a 6 CD boxed set recorded 18 months before Jim Morrison’s death in 1971 showcases the bands attempt to achieve this goal. In a series of shows at The Felt Forum the band performs blues standards by legendary bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf. Interspersed with these luminary songs are some of The Doors greatest hits, “Whiskey Bar”, “When the Music’s Over” , “Roadhouse Blues” and of course “Light My Fire.” Also of interest is the banter between Mr. Morrison and the audience.

Great sound for what was probably only an 8 track live recording. And I don’t know whether this will be received by some as a compliment or not, but in the final analysis, “Little Red Rooster” and all the other blues numbers sound like The Doors playing the blues. You can take this 2 ways- either they weren’t that great at the blues or that their unique sound simply overshadowed whatever they were likely to perform. I prefer the latter.

An interesting album from one of the era’s most influential bands, it’s worth a listen.

Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Donna

Can you believe that my old neighborhood of Kings Highway/Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn is in Zone A of Hurricane Irene? I hope everyone there is safe and dry. This is what it looked like in 1960, though officially the hurricane had been downgraded prior to hitting the city. Here's a link to the weather in the old neighborhood- Zip Code 11229, if case you no longer live there.

http://www.weatherstreet.com/local_forecast_files/Brooklyn-NY-11229.htm

The first hurricane I remember in Brooklyn was in 1960 and was called Hurricane Donna. It rained and howled for about 12 hours, then the skies opened up blue and fresh. There might have been a rainbow - but I'm not sure. Then it got dark again as the second half passed over. The funny thing is that Hurricane Donna formed on August 28th, 1960 and hit the east coast of the US at the tip of the Florida Keys, turning Northward on just about the exact path of this Hurricane Irene. Although it was a hurricane when it made landfall, by the time it hit New Jersey it was really just a tropical storm. But it was my first awarenwss of a hurricane at all, and so to me will always count as the first for me.

This is the boardwalk in Coney Island at 10 AM this morning - waiting for the rain...

"Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo

I was passsing through the living room the other night and heard this song on the TV and could not believe my ears. I just 13 years old in the fall of 1967 when this record came out. It blew me away, changing the way I would look at music forever. This was around the same time as Jimi Hendrix went to England, and part of the sound he absorbed in the creation of his own unique, and unmatched style.

But what really blew me away the other night was that this song is now a commercial for one of the big box stores! Not bad for grabbing the attention of baby boomers like myself. I happen to have this on my flash drive and listen to it often in the car. I posted the you tube for the benefit of those who don't know that the new Target commercial is a 44 year old song by Staus Quo! The lyrics by Francis Rossi are Psychedelic poetry at it's best. He claims to have written it while hiding from his wife and mother in law in the bathroom. This quote is from Wikipedia; "I wrote it on the bog. I'd gone there, not for the usual reasons...but to get away from the wife and mother-in-law. I used to go into this narrow freezing toilet and sit there for hours, until they finally went out. I got three quarters of the song finished in that khazi. The rest I finished in the lounge."

Listen to the bass runs. The only other bassists playing this style at the time were Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney and John Entwistle. Enjoy the video- the summer of love is back!

Pictures of Matchstick Men by Francis Rossi

When I look up to the sky
I see your eyes a funny kind of yellow
I rush home to bed I soak my head
I see your face underneath my pillow
I wake next morning, tired, still yawning
See your face come peeping through my window

Pictures of matchstick men and you
Pictures of matchstick men and you
All I ever see is them and you

Windows echo your reflection
When I look in their direction now
When will this haunting stop?
Your face it just won't leave me alone

Pictures of matchstick men and you
Mirages of matchstick men and you
All I ever see is them and you

You in the sky, you with this guy
You make men cry, you lie
You in the sky, you with this guy
You make men cry, you lie

Pictures of matchstick men and
Pictures of matchstick men and you
Pictures of matchstick men ....

George Harrison - They Say It's His Birthday!

It's hard to believe that George Harrison, my favorite Beatle, has been dead almost ten years this coming December. Always known as the "serious" Beatle, Mr. Harrison contributed quite a lot to the sucess of the band. And after they broke up, his last recording with The Beatles was done in July of 1969 for the "Abbey Road" album, he went on to establish a quiet, and varied career, touring the world with many different incarnations of a band. His most notable sucess came in the late 1980's when he teamed up with Jeff Lynne, of The Electric Light Orchestra, and old friend Bob Dylan, along with new friend Tom Petty, and an old influence, Roy Orbison, with whom the Beatles had toured Germany in 1962, to form The Traveling Wilbury's. They made two albums, one before Mr. Orbison passed away, for which he received a Best Vocalist Award, and the second one without him.

This song, "Handle me with Care", takes a hard look at the price of fame and fortune. The vocals are tight, and yet both Roy Orbison and George Harrison each come off as distinctly different vocalists in this song. That was the beauty of this band, it's sheer wealth of writing and performance talents, coupled with no egos. This was also a very unique band, centered as it was,around George Harrison, the man whose curiosity about a sitar on the set of the movie "Help" began a radical shift in pop music, as well as a resurgence in the Art of Yoga. We were lucky to have him for awhile. He would have been 68 years old today. Happy Birthday, George!

I hope that if you have the time, and inclination, you will take a few moments today to view the wealth of music that this quiet man left as a legacy. Here's a link to get you in the slip stream. It features George on his favorite instrument, the ukelele. The song is "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" by Ted Koehler. Mr. Harrison was a big fan of 1930's music, once responding to a news reporters question about what he had been listening to in his car that day with a very unexpected answer; "Barnacle Bill the Sailor and some Hoagie Carmichael." When asked if he was joking, he looked slightly annoyed as he answered, "No. are you?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5CkIniOcqs&feature=related

"Little Boy Blues - A Memoir" by Malcolm Jones

North Carolina in the 1950's and 60's was the South. You felt it the moment you got beyond Virginia in those racially charged days. I never thought I would be living there someday. And so it is no surprise that I am an avid follower of Southern memoirs. Rick Bragg is one that comes quickly to mind in connection with this genre.

In "Little Boy Blues" the author, Malcom Jones takes us on a similar path storywise, but his approach is different than any of the others I have read. He seems to have dug deeper in this chronicle of becoming a man. Not an easy task when raised in a home that rivals a Tennesse Williams creation.

A dysfunctional home is like a minefield. You learn the patterns and the signs early. Then you learn how to not trigger any explosions. This was the world in which Mr. Jones was raised.

His parents were vastly different people- his father was frequently absent for days, weeks, or months. His mother was a schoolteacher in Winston-Salem. The whole story takes place in a straight line from Winston-Salem through Statesville and on south to Charlotte and into South Carolina and a town called Lancaster. This line cuts right through where I live in North Carolina. And this lends an unusually realistic sense to the events portrayed.

With a understated style the author takes you with him on a journey of self discovery. Along the way you meet his Aunt and Preacher Uncle, who help raise him. And you come to understand the problems faced by a single mother in 1960's America.

Another interesting aspect to this book is the interplay between husband and wife and how it affects the author. Torn between love for one parent and respect for the other leaves a child cleaved in two. This type of childhood colors your world forever.