birthday Archives - Page 35 of 50

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum is 70

My friends would muse about whether there really WERE 16 Vestal virgins.

Gary Brooker, the guy with the mustache, is the founder, keyboard player, and lead singer of the progressive rock group Procol Harum through its entire run (1967–1977, 1991–present).

I have three LPs by the group, all from 1972 or earlier. But I had a cassette greatest hits, which I absolutely loved before it wore out.

I now own a greatest hits album on CD which is a different collection. And it was on that disc I heard the song called Boredom, the B-side of the 1969 single The Devil Came From Kansas, for the very first time

It contains the lyrics:

Some say they will and some say they won’t
Some say they do and some say they don’t
Some say they shall and some say they shan’t
And some say they can and some say they can’t

This made me do a double-take, because I had written, many years ago, a song called Inconsistency, which rhymed “shan’t” and “can’t”.

“Brooker also toured with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in 1997 and 1999.”

My favorite Procol Harum songs:

8. Whiskey Train (1969). This is just a hard-rocking tune that is different from what I associate with the group.

7. In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence (1968, B-side of Quite Rightly So). Love the syncopation of the organ line.

6. Homburg (1967, #34 US, #6 UK).

5. Quite Rightly So (1968, #50 UK).

4. A Whiter Shade of Pale (1967, #5 US, #1 UK). The first big single. Vestal was a suburb of Binghamton, NY, my hometown. When I was 14, my friends would muse about whether there really WERE 16 Vestal virgins.

“In July 2009, [original Procol Harum organist] Matthew Fisher won a British court judgment awarding him 40% of the music royalties from 2005 onwards for 1967’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, which had previously gone 50% to Brooker for the music and 50% to [Keith] Reid for the lyrics.” Coincidentally, Fisher and I share a birthday.

3. Shine On Brightly (1968) Love this from the very first notes. Surprised it wasn’t a single.

2. Conquistador (1972, #16 US, #22 UK, with different B-sides). From Live In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. WAY better than the studio version.

1. A Salty Dog (1969, #44 UK). Maybe it’s a Pisces thing, but this song has viscerally affected me from the first hearing.
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Coverville 1080: Creedence Clearwater Revival and Procol Harum Cover Stories

John Fogerty is 70

Just last year, I wrote a lengthy piece about Creedence Clearwater Revival, a fine band. In it, I mentioned the continuing strife between lead singer/songwriter John Fogerty and the other living members of the group, plus his brother’s widow. As of December 2014, the lawsuits continue.

So I’m just going to link to some solo John Fogerty for his birthday number three score and ten:

With the Blue Ridge Rangers: Jambalaya (On The Bayou), #16 in 1973. This was #1 country hit in 1952 for Hank Williams.

Rockin’ All Over The World, #27 in 1975.

Almost Saturday Night, #78 in 1975.

The Old Man Down The Road, #10 in 1985.

Rock And Roll Girls, #20 in 1985. Its B-side,
Centerfield, #44 in 1985, was
honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

(All chart citations refer to the US Billboard pop listings.)
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John Fogerty and Sawyer Fredericks on The Voice finale, May 2015, singing a CCR medley. BTW, Sawyer is the area kid who won the competition.

Pete Townshend is 70

‘A little! That’s good. Love is universal. Limitless.’

As I’ve noted, I really enjoyed the Pete Townshend autobiography, Who I Am. It was a warts-and-all look at his family and other relationships, his music, and especially his not-always-appropriate behavior.

I’d previously noted my favorite songs by the Who. Here’s just a few Townshend solo songs, mostly from two albums, though I own at least eight of them, mostly on vinyl.

6. Give Blood, from White City – A Novel. As a long-time blood donor, I approve of the title, though that’s not what it’s about. In fact, the song’s construction was quite peculiar. From my second-favorite Townsend album.

5. Heart to Hang Onto, from Rough Mix. This is from the album Pete did with Ronnie Lane in 1976. During the recording of it, Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; he suffering from the disease for 21 years, before dying in 1997 at the age of 51.

4. Empty Glass, from Empty Glass. Back in the days when my friend Fred Hembeck was living in Rensselaer County, across the river from Albany County, I once took a bus to visit him. On the way there, I walked by some department store, and went inside, for some reason. (I THINK it was raining.) I found the Empty Glass album as a cutout. (If you’ve never seen a cutout album, it has a slit into the cardboard in the upper right corner.) In any case, I LOVED that album, and still do.

3. A Little Is Enough, from Empty Glass (#72 in US Billboard). Townsend himself prefers this song to the larger hit from this album (see below). Pete tells this story: “Meher Baba’s secretary Adi Irani made a visit to London around this time, I tried to get his advice. ‘My wife doesn’t love me anymore,’ I said. ‘What should I do?’ ‘She doesn’t love you at all?’ he wobbled his head as he spoke. ‘She said she loved me a little.’ ‘Ah!’ Adi clapped his hands and smiled. ‘A little! That’s good. Love is universal. Limitless. So even a little is enough.'”

2. Face the Face, from White City (#26 in the US). This is a loud, bodacious song, especially the percussion near the beginning, with a big band feel. Townshend’s daughter Emma Townshend sings some parts.

1. Let My Love Open the Door, from Empty Glass (#46 in the UK, #9 US). I got annoyed with Townshend for being such a scold with his public for thinking this was a romantic love song. He claimed that was a spiritual treatise, and that “Jesus sings” on the track. Incidentally, there was a remake of this song – the E cola mix – and like most of these musical makeovers, I think it’s a lesser effort, though it’s twice as long.

Skyping the sisters

I’ll tell you the truth; I’m not a big fan of Skype.

I’m pretty sure this is true: I haven’t seen my baby sister Marcia (she’s in the foreground, above, a tad younger), or, for that matter, sister Leslie, since shortly after my mom died in 2011. I know the Wife and the Daughter went down to North Carolina some period after that, but that was four years ago too.

Marcia and I talk on the phone, though there was a big gap from before Easter to late April, mostly to do with my busyness. We email, and we even text occasionally, though I’m not a great fan. Apparently Marcia and sister Leslie text all the time. I think my disincentive is that the messages are SO long on my not-really-made-for-texting device that I cannot read the whole thing; I end up emailing the message to MY email and reading them there, THEN replying.

I HAVE invited her up to visit from NC to upstate NY, but it hasn’t worked out yet.

Marcia’s decided we need to do the Skype thing. I’ll tell you the truth; I’m not a big fan of that, either. It looks weird to me, like selfies. BUT I see the value of the exercise.

We have a small tribe: me with my wife and daughter; Leslie, her daughter and son-in-law; Marcia and her daughter. Provisions must be made.

It’s Marcia’s birthday; happy natal day, baby sister.

Stevie Wonder is 65

One of the Spinners’ relatively few hits on Motown before they moved to Atlantic.

Since I’ve tried to list my favorite songs by an artist on his/her 70th birthday, and Stevie Wonder’s is five years away, what to do this year?

Fortunately, I found this nifty list of songs written, co-written, by Stevie for other artists. Occasionally (Whitney, Macca, and Jermaine, e.g.), Stevie also performs. These are listed, more or less, up to my favorite Stevie song first recorded by another artist; Stevie did subsequently cover a couple of these. LISTEN TO ALL.

First, though, a couple of cuts introduced to me by Chuck Miller recently:
1966 All I Do (Is Think About You) – Tammi Terrell (S.Wonder/C.Paul/ M.Broadnax)
1983 The Crown – Gary Byrd And The G.B. Experience (S.Wonder/G.Byrd) – also has a Stevie vocal.

1974 Perfect Angel – Minnie Riperton (S.Wonder) I had forgotten that the late Riperton was the mother of former Saturday Night Live cast member Maya Rudolph.
1990 We Didn’t Know – Whitney Houston (S.Wonder). I have only two Whitney albums and one has this song.
1974 Take A Little Trip – Minnie Riperton (S.Wonder)
1980 Let’s Get Serious -Jermaine Jackson (S.Wonder/Lee Garrett). This was the benefit of Jermaine staying with Motown when his brothers moved to Columbia/Epic. Have this on vinyl.
1975 I Can See The Sun In Late December – Roberta Flack (S.Wonder). The last six minutes of this 12-MINUTE SONG are probably extraneous, but I like it. Also, own this on vinyl.

1982 What’s That You’re Doing – Paul McCartney (S.Wonder/P.McCartney). Pauly can be pretty soulful (Lady Madonna, e.g.), but I was glad to see Stevie back in form; much of his 1980s output was disappointing.
1982 Try Jah Love – Third World (S.Wonder/M.McCully). The one song on this list I did not know was co-written by Stevie.
1970 It’s A Shame – the Spinners (S.Wonder/S.Wright/L.Garrett). One of their relatively few hits on Motown before they moved to Atlantic.
1974 Tell Me Something Good – Rufus (S.Wonder). Couldn’t find a studio version, but this pretty representative.
1967 Tears Of A Clown -Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (S.Wonder/H.Cosby/S Robinson). Also love the version by the English Beat, or The Beat.