The meme My First Seven Jobs has been showing up on social media a lot in the last couple of months. I had avoided it until I read an article about what your first seven jobs say about you, and then the exercise intrigued me. And hey, I need a Labor Day weekend post.
I am a little bit fuzzy on what constitutes a job. When your father drags you on some task, for which you are not being paid, I’m not counting that. And having looked at other people’s lists, I’m actually adding a couple that I would not otherwise have considered.
1. Newspaper delivery of the Press newspaper, Binghamton, NY. Six evenings plus Sunday morning for about two years, a job I inherited from my godparents’ grandson Walter. Used the money to join the Capitol Record Club and buy Beatles’ albums.
2. Babysitter. I did this less than a half dozen times, never for more than two kids, two boys who lived near my grandmother. I was pretty good at it, I seem to recall.
4. Page at the Binghamton Public Library, for seven months when I was sixteen, a job I inherited from my parents’ godson, Walter. Same Walter. Helped people with the microfilm machine and retrieved back issue magazines. When it wasn’t busy, read Billboard and Psychology Today.
5. Assembly line worker at IBM Endicott. I graduated from high school in January, then worked there from March until early September. I remember the boss wanted me to stay, but I was heading to college.
6. The box factory, which I did for two weeks, longer than either of my two predecessors.
7. Janitor at some department store in New Paltz. Being a janitor was also my eighth job, in Binghamton City Hall.
No, my first seven jobs did not include working in a coal mine. Nor did Lee Dorsey‘s. Or any of the members of Devo.
Back in 2010, the year it came out, I purchased Come and Get It: The Best of Apple Records. The CD was “the first commercially issued multi-artist compilation in the label’s history.” It didn’t cost the nearly $40 it’s now going for presently on Amazon, though you can get the MP3 for $9.50.
It’s a fun 21-track compilation of singles from 1968 to 1972, though not truly the “best of Apple.” For one thing, there are no Beatles songs, nor any of their solo material. Still, the Fab Four are well represented, often as songwriters and/or producers.
Those Were The Days / Mary Hopkin (1968, produced by Paul), or HERE. The debut 45 by Mary Hopkin was a huge hit, UK No. 1 for six weeks, #2 for 3 weeks in the US. I remember I purchased this 45 because, subsequently, I realized that I had THREE songs called Those Were the Days in my record collection, by Hopkin, Cream (the B-side of White Room), and the theme to the television show All in the Family.
Carolina In My Mind / James Taylor (1968, Paul on bass; George on backing vocals), from this eponymous debut album, a US single which hit #115 in 1969, then #67 in its 1970 re-release. This sounds quite different to me than his re-recording for Warner Brothers, which I have on his first greatest hits album.
Maybe Tomorrow / The Iveys (1968) Brought to Apple by then-Beatles roadie Mal Evans. #67 in the US, but a hit in Holland; the band soon changed its name to Badfinger.
Thingumybob / The Black Dyke Mills Band (1968, credited to Lennon/McCartney, written and produced by Paul) Paul’s theme tune for a 1968 British TV comedy-drama series.
King Of Fuh / Brute Force (1969) This single by New York songwriter was championed by John and George, but “the Fuh king” was therefore banned back in 1969, as one would expect.
Sour Milk Sea / Jackie Lomax (1968, written and produced by George; Paul and Ringo provide rhythm ) Eric Clapton plays lead guitar. I have the LP with this song.
Goodbye / Mary Hopkin (1969, credited to Lennon/McCartney, written and produced by Paul) Paul on thigh-slapping percussion. On some CD, I have Paul’s demo
That’s The Way God Planned It / Billy Preston (1969, produced by George, also guitar) Reaching No. 11 in the UK, but only #62 in the US. Keith Richards on bass, Ginger Baker on drums, and Eric Clapton on lead guitar. I remember first hearing the album – this is the title song – in the room of my friend Steve in Poughkeepsie in 1971. I went home and bought it on vinyl, where it got well worn. When I purchased The Best of Apple, I also bought the That’s The Way God Planned It CD.
New Day / Jackie Lomax (1969) An original non-album Lomax single co-produced with Mal Evans.
Give Peace A Chance / Hot Chocolate Band (1969, written by John; originally credited to Lennon/McCartney, but since changed) This completely re-worded British reggae version of John Lennon’s peace anthem
I continue to nag that Billy Preston should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
When I was in college at SUNY New Paltz, WAY back in the spring of 1972 (I think), I saw Billy Preston in concert, probably the second live concert of a “name” artist that I ever saw, after Seals & Crofts. He must have played in the Elting Gym. I took pictures, but from where I was seated, in the rafters, all I got was shadows and the backs of people’s heads.
You SHOULD know Billy Preston, keyboard player extraordinaire.
Wrote about him five years ago. Not much has changed since then, since he died about three months shy of his 60th birthday, on 06/06/06 from “complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications,” probably from drug use.
Well, there is one thing I learned in the last lustrum. From the Wikipedia:
Although the details did not become fully known to the general public until after his death, Preston struggled throughout his life to cope with his sexual orientation, and the lasting effects of the traumatic sexual abuse he suffered as a boy. Although his homosexuality became known to friends and associates in the music world… Preston did not publicly come out as gay until just before he died. This was reportedly partly due to the fact that Preston felt that his sexual orientation conflicted with his deeply held religious beliefs and his lifelong association with the church, so he remained “in the closet” until shortly before his death. Keith Richards’ autobiography, Life, mentions Billy Preston’s struggles with his sexuality.
As someone who grew up in the black church, I can imagine the internal struggle.
I continue to nag that he should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, under the Award for Musical Excellence category, which used to be the sidemen category.
Last time, I concentrated on songs Billy Preston played on other people’s records. This time, my favorite Billy Preston tracks, with links to all, and notation of chart action.
“At one point in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100.”
Robin, Barry, Maurice
It must be strange being the oldest brother of a musical powerhouse family and be the only one of the men still alive. So is the case with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees.
Barry, his older sister Lesley (later Evans, b. 12 January 1945), his twin brothers Maurice and Robin (b. 22 December 1949) and baby brother Andrew (b. 5 March 1958) were born in the UK. Their father, Hugh Gibb was a drummer and bandleader who married Barbara (Pass); the parents were English.
In the late 1950s, the three older boys formed a band, the Rattlesnakes, just before the family emigrated to Australia, where the boys continued to perform, as Barry was writing songs.
By 1975, the trio started developing a new sound. With their participation on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, they began to reach their highest commercial impact. “In 1977, they became the first and only songwriters to place five songs in the Top Ten at the same time.”
They wrote not only their own music but songs of many others, including massive hits for little brother Andy. “At one point in 1978, the Gibb brothers were responsible for writing and/or performing nine of the songs in the Billboard Hot 100. In all, the Gibbs [had] 12 [songs] making the Top 40… At least 2,500 artists have recorded their songs.”
The Bee Gees worked through the 1980s, together and apart, with some hits. Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw: “Even long after the Bee Gees’ success on the pop charts, they were still writing songs for other people, huge hit songs. Their talent went far beyond their moment of normal pop success.”
Maurice died suddenly, from an abdominal blockage, on 12 January 2003. Barry and Robin played sporadically together, until Robin died of pneumonia, triggered from liver cancer, on 20 May 2012, leaving Barry Gibb to keep the Bee Gees flame alive.
12. Spicks and Specks (#5 in Australia in 1966) – this shows up on their first Greatest Hits LP, but NOT the CD version. The song was used as the title of an Australian TV show last decade 11. Words (#15 US in 1968)- writer likes words 10. You Should Be Dancing (#1 US in 1976)- yes, I had this lime green leisure suit… 9. How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (#1 US for four weeks in 1971) – how indeed? 8. I Can’t See Nobody (B-side of Mining Disaster, #128 in US) – nice harmonies, bad grammar and all 7. New York Mining Disaster 1941 (#14 US in 1967 – the first international hit, and I’m fond of the story-song
6. I’ve Got To Get A Message To You (#8 US in 1968) terribly overdramatic, in a good way 5. To Love Somebody (#17 in 1967) – and the source material for some tremendous covers 4. World (UK, but not US, single, 1967) – I love how it’s soft, then becomes really raucous 3. Stayin’ Alive (#1 US for four weeks)- I went to the Tulip Festival this year, in Washington Park, Albany, and the woman at one of the booths asked what song one should be doing CPR to, and, of course, I knew. But obviously, I had failed The Daughter, who had never heard of the song. 2. Lonely Days (#3 US in 1971) – I always liked this because it keeps changing tempo; very Beatlesque. And there was this rumor that John Lennon sang on it, which proved to be untrue 1. Jive Talkin’ (#1 US for two weeks in 1975) – I LOVE the bass line of this song and the fact that it was the song that signaled the group’s resurgence
The only movies I’ve seen with Gene Wilder are The Producers, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask, Silver Streak, Stir Crazy, and one of my favorite movies ever, Young Frankenstein, which he co-wrote. They were all released between 1967 and 1980. But he was always excellent then and in a couple of episodes of Will and Grace early this century. Gene Wilder on The Truth | Blank on Blank | PBS Digital Studios, plus Evanier and Tom Straw remember.
The meme My First Seven Jobs has been showing up on social media a lot in the last couple of months. I had avoided it until I read an article about what your first seven jobs say about you, and then the exercise intrigued me. And hey, I need a Labor Day weekend post.
