ABC Wednesday Archives - Page 27 of 91

A for Are You Experienced -Jimi Hendrix Experience

American compilers often choose the singles to be included on the album, whereas the British saw the single and the album as separate entities.

I have the American version of the Jimi Hendrix Experience debut album, Are You Experienced, on vinyl, but it’s difficult to get to in the house. So I went to the public library and borrowed the CD, which has 17 songs, rather than the 11 on my LP. Not that all the other songs were unfamiliar.

What I’ve long known about the Beatles and Rolling Stones and Donovan and many other artists was also true of Hendrix. The US and UK versions were very different, even when the titles were the same. The picture at the top of the page was only vaguely familiar, but it is the original UK cover, which Hendrix didn’t particularly like. Note that the band’s name does not even appear.

Links are to music, but not every song is represented.

The UK/international version, released May 12, 1967, included:

Side one
1. “Foxy Lady” 3:22
2. “Manic Depression” 3:46
3. “Red House” 3:44
4. “Can You See Me” 2:35
5. “Love or Confusion” 3:17
6. “I Don’t Live Today” 3:58
Side two
7. “May This Be Love” 3:14
8. “Fire” 2:47
9. “Third Stone from the Sun” 6:50
10. “Remember” 2:53
11. “Are You Experienced?” 4:17

The original North American edition, released August 23, 1967, dumped Red House, Can You See Me, and Remember in favor of the singles Hey Joe, Purple Haze, and The Wind Cries Mary, even though they weren’t hits in the US, initially. American compilers often choose the singles to be included on the album, whereas the British saw the single and the album as separate entities.

Notice that even the same songs are slightly shorter on the American iteration. Hendrix liked this psychedelic cover far more.

Side one
1. “Purple Haze” 2:46
2. “Manic Depression” 3:46
3. “Hey Joe” (Billy Roberts) 3:23
4. “Love or Confusion” 3:15
5. “May This Be Love” 3:14
6. “I Don’t Live Today” 3:55
Side two
7. “The Wind Cries Mary” 3:21
8. “Fire” 2:34
9. “Third Stone from the Sun” 6:40
10. “Foxy Lady” 3:15
11. “Are You Experienced?” 3:55

Also on the CD are the B-sides of the UK singles Stone Free (Hey Joe), 51st Anniversary (Purple Haze), and Highway Chile (The Wind Cries Mary).

In any configuration, Are You Experienced is considered one of the best debut albums of all time.

ABC Wednesday – Round 20

Z is for words that start with Z

The only four letter word that I did not know but that had a definition was zarf

Bereft of an appropriate topic for the week, I went to the Wordfinder Words that Start with Z, which “can help you score big playing Words With Friends® and Scrabble®.”

I started with the one two-letter word, za: Shortening and alteration of pizza.
Our Living Language: When people speak casually of ordering a za, “pizza,” they are unwittingly producing an expression that language historians find interesting. Za derives from the full form pizza by a process known as clipping.

OK, I get it, but can’t say I really like it.

Moving on to the three-letter words:

zin: (informal) Zinfandel wine
I’ve used that, actually. And have drunk it.

zag: any of the short, sharp angles or turns of a zigzag pattern, as alternating with a zig; any sharp turn away from a straight course
No surprise that zig has a similar definition, both deriving from zigzag, which is shown above. I’ve only used the shorter words in variation, such as “I zigged when I should have zagged.”

zep: Chiefly New Jersey (See submarine sandwich)
Origin of zep – Possibly short for zeppelin (from its shape).

zek – An inmate of a Soviet labor camp.
From the Russian

zax -A tool similar to a hatchet, used for cutting and dressing roofing slates.
Origin of zax: Variant of sax, from Middle English, knife, from Old English seax; see sek- in Indo-European roots.
Which looks a lot like a variation of ax.

The only four-letter word that I did not know but that had a definition was zarf
-a small, metal holder, used in the Levant to hold a cup of hot coffee
-a chalicelike holder for a hot coffee cup, typically made of ornamented metal, used in the Middle East.
-an ornamental container designed to hold a coffee cup and insulate it from the hand of the imbiber
Origin of zarf: Arabic for receptacle, vessel, container

Interestingly, none of the Z words appear in my spellcheck. This is not to say that they are illegitimate, only uncommon. Check out the longer words that start with Z for yourself, see which ones you know, and improve your Scrabble® prowess.

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

ABC Wednesday Round 20: the last roundup?

ABC Wednesday will likely end with Round 20; certainly it won’t be run by me, or Denise, or assistant administrator Leslie.

One of the best things that happened for me, is figuring out what to post each week. I knew, at least, that one of the topics would be starting with whatever letter we were up to in ABC Wednesday.

About four (or five?) years ago, I became the administrator of the meme where one participates with others, literally from around the world, in sharing a picture, a poem, an essay, SOMETHING with the various letters of the alphabet. #20 may be the last round, starting the week of January 9. You are invited to participate, every week, or as you can. I do think it’s advantageous to do so weekly, as it generates a lot of comments for me. Note that we’re VERY flexible with the letter X, with Xmas or eXcellent.

As usual, our friend Troy has done the badge for the round.

ABC Wednesday was started nine and a half years ago by Denise Nesbitt. I’ve been participating since the letter K in Round 5, and became administrator some point later, though I really don’t remember when anymore. I assign who reads which posts, making sure somebody is writing the introductions (and writing them myself, when necessary) and inserting the link that allows everyone to participate.

Oh, speaking of that link thing, from InLinkz: I only use it once a week. So if someone I know, who has a Blogger/Blogspot blog wanted to get other people to link to THEIR blogs, for some reason, I could be talked into it. Or it can a WordPress blog. Like this one. I am inviting you, if you have a blog, to link it below. Because I can.

As noted, ABC Wednesday will likely end with Round 20; certainly, it won’t be run by me, or Denise, or assistant administrator Leslie, because we all are burnt out. Personally, I visit practically everyone who posts. But if someone wants to take over ABC Wednesday, email me at rogerogreen AT gmail DOT com. I’ll tell you what it entails. Heck, I might even participate if I don’t have to be in charge. And whether or not there’s an ABC Wednesday, I may continue my alphabetic journey twice a year.

Y is for the Year 2017 (ABC W)

August 21 – A total solar eclipse will take place.

No one really knows what will happen next year, though Bloomberg’s The Pessimist’s Guide to 2017 paints some scenarios.

We do know a couple of things about the year 2017, though, mostly anniversaries of past events. I was looking at Wikipedia and ITN source and note:

JANUARY 2017
15th anniversary – Launch of the Euro

FEBRUARY 2017
20th anniversary – Dolly the sheep was cloned

APRIL 2017
100th anniversary – USA declares war on Germany
30th anniversary – the Falklands invasion

JUNE 17
50th anniversary – The Six-Day War
20th anniversary – The Hong Kong handover

JULY 2017
80th anniversary – Amelia Earhart disappeared

AUGUST 2017
55th anniversary – Marilyn Monroe’s death
40th anniversary – Elvis Presley’s death
20th anniversary – Princess Diana’s death
August 21 – A total solar eclipse will take place. This will be the first total solar eclipse of the 21st century for the United States, and the first visible in the continental U.S. since February 26, 1979. Totality will occur along a path curving from Oregon to South Carolina and will last at most for 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds. The location and time of “greatest eclipse” will be on the western edge of Christian County, Kentucky, at 36.9715 degrees north and 87.6559 degrees west, occurring at 18:25 UTC.

SEPTEMBER 2017

45th anniversary – Israeli Olympic team killed
40th anniversary – Steve Biko’s death
September 15 – The spacecraft Cassini-Huygens, after having studied Saturn for 13 years, will be disposed of by plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere

OCTOBER 2017

October 26 – The collection of records established by the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 must be completely disclosed to the public.

DECEMBER 2017

50th anniversary – First human heart transplant

But for me, the biggie comes on Halloween. On 31 October 1517, the (Protestant) Reformation began with Martin Luther’s composition of his 95 Theses, which Luther started by criticizing the selling of indulgences. The Reformation was aided in no small part by the invention of the printing press.

2017 is a prime number. The last year that was prime was 2011, and the next one will be 2027.

Easter will be on April 16. There will be two times Friday is on the 13th, in January and October.

What do YOU anticipate for the year 2017?

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

X is for Xmas music (ABC W)

Crosby had a Christmas special, which aired AFTER HE DIED and he had Ziggy Stardust on?

It’s been long established that the term Xmas is not an insult to Christians, but rather that the X actually represents the cross, as I’ve noted here and undoubtedly elsewhere.

This is is going to be a list of some of my favorite Xmas music NOT otherwise represented in this blog this month, with links to each. Of course, “Christmas” songs are peculiar beasts, some of which don’t even mention the holiday – Let It Snow (X3) or Jingle Bells being obvious choices. And let’s not even talk about the theological implications.

Hamildolph – Eclipse 6 (a new one for me)

Christmastime is Here – Vince Guaraldi

Good King Wenceslas – Ames Brothers

Little Saint Nick – Beach Boys

Purple Snowflakes – Marvin Gaye. I song I had not heard until this season, yet I had, sort of.

The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole. One of my wife’s favorites, and Nat always reminds me of my mom

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love. Way better than the U2 version on A Very Special Christmas 1.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town – the Jackson 5

Linus and Lucy – Vince Guaraldi

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway – I miss Donny Hathaway

Snoopy’s Christmas – the reason I took such great exception to the Snoopy v Osama record is that it wasn’t THIS Snoopy

Child of Winter – Beach Boys. A 1974 single I discovered on one of those early 1970s Warner Brothers Loss Leaders

Mele Kalikimaka -Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters, which I think is a hoot

Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses, which reminds me of my pop music listening renaissance in the early 1980s

The Wexford Carol – Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss

The Christmas Waltz – Frank Sinatra, which is on some 4 CD Capitol singles box set

Getting Ready For Christmas Day – Paul Simon, from his 2011 album

Every valley shall be exalted – Lizz Lee and Chris Willis (with Mike E.) from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration

The Mistletoe and Me – Isaac Hayes – and I miss Isaac

Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth -Bing Crosby and David Bowie This was strange. Crosby had a Christmas special, which aired AFTER HE DIED and he had Ziggy Stardust on? Now, Bowie’s gone too.

Father Christmas -The Kinks

River – Joni Mitchell. Hey, it namechecks Christmas, and it reminds me of my late friend Donna

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder; Paul Young does a decent version on A Very Special Christmas 2, but it doesn’t hold an Advent candle to the original.

R.O. Blechman – CBS Christmas Message (1966)

The Bells of Christmas – Julie Andrews, from a Firestone (tire company) LP I still own. There’s an extended version of this which is less good

Winter Snow – Booker T & the MGs (starts at 2:30)

Slightly off topic:

In defense of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”

World’s First AI-generated Christmas Song Is the Stuff of Nightmares

Honest Trailers – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

The Korean War on Christmas

ABC Wednesday – Round 19