music Archives - Page 223 of 269 - Ramblin' with Roger

May Rambling: Faraway fire; faux news; second chances

I was noting in particular two Billy Joel songs, ‘Get It Right The First Time’ from 1977 and ‘Second Wind (You’re Only Human)’ from 1985, and how I prefer the latter sentiment.

Chuck Miller has taken on the task of promoting the work of his “fellow Times Union community bloggers, until that day when the Times Union itself will restore the ‘Best of Our Blogs’ feature to the print edition of the paper.” And one of those “well-written articles” was mine. Merci, Chuck.

The specter of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory looms over the garment factory that collapsed last month in Bangladesh, killing more than [1100] workers… But the world is smaller than it was 102 years ago. Tragedies of this sort in the Third World aren’t engendered only by forces in their proximity, and they won’t be averted unless the responsibility for change is embraced globally. Also, Is Rana Disaster Bangladesh’s Triangle Fire? I wrote about the Triangle fire HERE.

Meryl’s quite reasonable concern: ‘truth’ is becoming ever-more elusive with advancing photoshop technology and our modern vehicles of ‘news resources’ and communication. Related: Since Twitter hasn’t built a correction feature, here are 3 things journalists can do instead. And Who’s The Biggest Liar?

Howard Kurtz’s Belated Comeuppance: The Media Critic’s Firing Comes After a Long History of Journalistic Abuses.

For New York State, I thought the effects of hydrofracking was only an upstate problem, but it appears Manhattan will have its own issues.

In What Ways Does The Culture Of Comics Have An Impact On How Business Is Done? Also, The Library of American Comics at 75 Titles (and counting): Moral rights, reprint rights.

Boston Marathon Runner & Psychiatrist Shares Personal Story of Patriots’ Day 2013; written by a cousin of a co-worker.

Harriet Quimby – the 1st US woman to get her pilot’s license.

Space Oddities and Sensations: Inspiring Teaching and Learning , featuring Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Rare footage of Helen Keller speaking with the help of Anne Sullivan.

I was playing my Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits, Volumes 1 & 2 on a car ride recently; his birthday is in May. I was noting in particular two songs, ‘Get It Right The First Time’ from 1977 and ‘Second Wind (You’re Only Human)’ from 1985, and how I prefer the latter sentiment. Melanie writes about the second time around. Also, practicing in pieces.

Richie’s road of death.

Ken Leviner.php — **Sitemeter for Ken Levine’s blog, Taken 1:46 pm, May 8, 2013**

I’m less interested Ken Levine won’t give Zach Braff one dime for his Kickstarter movie project than the sudden surge in his blog, from about 5000 hits a day, +/- 2000, to over 620,000 after that article, and over 96,000 for the followup. Levine also dissed the Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter, one that SamuraiFrog supported, BTW. There were a number of folks who dissed Braff, but supported the Veronica Mars effort, which otherwise could not have been made. Here’s Levine’s last word on the project, now that Braff has secured alternative funding. Also, another story on the controversy. Fascinated by the fact that this is what is considered controversial these days.

Al Capp: The Shame of Dogpatch.

Cathy Rigby played Peter Pan in Schenectady in April, and we declined to go. Now that I know that she’s retiring from the role after 3000+ performances, I wish I had gone.

Why McLean Stevenson quit MAS*H.

Ray Harryhausen, master of stop-motion animation, died this month. Mark Evanier has a nice Harryhausen story. Also, Ray was Steve Bissette’s hero. And here’s a short video you may recognize.

Don Rosa and the late Steve Gerber have been selected to receive the 2013 Bill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing. Both are heroes in their field, and it was Gerber’s blog that prompted mine.

K-Chuck Radio: Rest in peace, George Jones.

Mark Evanier is dealing with the first Mother’s Day after his mom died much better than I did with mine.

The newspaper misspells its own name in an article about winning awards.

Dustbury speculates why the IRS “Where’s my refund?” site was down last weekend.

2001: A Space Odyssey – Howard Johnson’s Children’s Menu (1968).

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek.

How ‘Star Wars’ Nerds sold Lucasfilm to Disney.

These re-made Disney DVD covers are scarily accurate.

Breakfast post: the weather, my niece’s new Kickstarter album

My niece Rebecca Jade is doing a Kickstarter for her new album!

My friend Dan has more than once labeled Ramblin’ with Roger as a “breakfast blog.” I still don’t know what that means, precisely. But I think the following post is more in keeping with what he’s talking about.

It was weird: the death toll in the Moore, OK tornado went from 37 to 51 to 91 to…24? I was watching a live feed on the Tuesday morning after the event from the OKC NBC-TV affiliate – the magic of the Internet – and they gave the 91 number, based on info they had gotten from the medical examiner’s office. Saw a lot of comments on Facebook about how the media was ghoulishly upping the numbers. I’ve often criticized them. but I don’t think that happened here, just a lot of multiple recordings of the same decedents by someone – the M.E.’s office perhaps. Then I get to see, Thank goodness, “ONLY 24 dead;” THAT is weird to read.

It’s interesting, too, that I actually worried a bit about people I don’t even know, such as Cheri and Dustbury, who are both fine.
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The forecast in Albany Tuesday was for severe weather. I was at Corporate (frickin’) Woods at the northwest edge of Albany and saw nothing. But people downtown were chatting about downpours and hail; we’re talking a distance of three miles away. I HAVE seen that before, where it’s dry at the Albany airport, but evidently had been pouring at my house. They had canceled my daughter’s soccer 5:30 pm practice, probably because of a severe weather watch from 1:40 pm to, I think, around 10 pm.

10 pm, practically on the dot, I heard rumbles of thunder, heavy-duty rain. The lightning and thunder at 1 a.m. woke me from a dead sleep, but happily, the Daughter can sleep through almost anything.

Wednesday, got to work late because I had my monthly allergy shot. The power was mostly out until after 11 a.m. No computer, no Internet, no phones. Nasty weather in the midday, but amazingly nice to and from work.

We are preparing our living room to be painted by my father-in-law starting on Thursday, with help from my wife on Friday, and eventually me on the weekend. The key now is moving all the stuff, a job in itself, and something I prefer to paint, which I hate because I just can’t see the difference while I’m working between, say, an off-white and a pale yellow.

My wife and her father painted the dining room three years ago. The three splotches of test colors have been on our living room wall ever since. I’ll miss them, almost.

If I had my druthers, we’d move out for four days while painting; the smell of even the newer paints bug me at night. Oh, well.
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My niece Rebecca Jade (pictured) is doing the Kickstarter thing for her new album. You can read all about it here. If I were to tell you she was really good, I would sound biased. But she is! Check out this review of a recent live performance of hers.

S is for Billy Strange

Billy Strange wrote music for Elvis Presley, arranged songs for Nancy Sinatra, and played on some Beach Boys recordings

When I was twelve or thirteen, I had a newspaper route, and thus, my own money, so I joined the Capitol Record Club. For those too young to remember, one would order on a postcard 12 albums for a penny, plus postage and handling; then I had to buy 10 or 12 more at full retail, plus P&H.

Ordering those first dozen albums, I got my first six Beatles albums, plus a Herman’s Hermit album. But what else should I select? One I picked at random was Goldfinger by Billy Strange. It turned out that it was an instrumental album featuring popular songs of the day, including the title tune [LISTEN] and a Beatles tune, I Feel Fine.

When I went to college in New Paltz (NY), I left most of my albums at my grandmother’s house back in Binghamton (NY); I had room in my dorm for only a couple dozen LPs, which were mostly my later Beatles and Beach Boys albums, the Band, Led Zeppelin, CSNY, and a few others. Then I went back to Binghamton one summer and discovered that some of my albums had been stolen. Unsurprisingly, my albums were arranged alphabetically, so I could tell at a glance that the albums were taken were artists starting with A, B, and S-Z, So I lost my early Beatles, Supremes, Temptations, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass…and Goldfinger by Billy Strange.

Listening to the Coverville podcast in the fall of 2012 about James Bond songs, I was pleased and startled to hear the last tune, The James Bond Theme, by Billy Strange. I hadn’t thought about him in decades.

As it turned out, William Everett Strange recorded a LOT of Bond music and more than a couple of Beatles covers. He wrote music for Elvis Presley, arranged songs for Nancy Sinatra, and played on some Beach Boys recordings, including the legendary Pet Sounds album. Unfortunately, Strange died on February 22, 2012, at the age of 81. In his honor, I went out and bought that Goldfinger album again; my, at 24 minutes, it is really short.

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 25-1

Bought this when I got a bunch of Beatles albums early on, and it’s been a touchstone since.

Now we are hitting those albums that matter the most to me. It should be no surprise that the Beatles show up, more than once.

25. Bill Cosby: Why Is There Air? (1965)
Answer: “To blow up volleyball, basketballs.” It’s how I could ‘”see” Lombard Street in San Francisco a couple of decades before visiting it in person. I learned that “traffic tickets are like savings bonds; the longer you keep them, the greater they mature.”

24. Paul Butterfield Blues Band: East West (1966)
The band with Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. Features a Monkees song (‘Mary, Mary’) and the classic jazz tune ‘The Work Song’.

23. Sly & The Family Stone: Stand (1969)
If I can’t put the greatest hits on the list, this is the album: ‘I Want to Take You Higher’, ‘Sing a Simple Song,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘You Can Make It If You Try’, and the title track, plus some interesting non-singles tracks, too.

22. Neil Young: After The Gold Rush (1970)
‘When You Dance, I Can Really Love’ was my song to the college girlfriend. Has a bunch of other good stuff too.

21. Led Zeppelin: I (1969)
I’m sure I mentioned how the day I first heard this album is seared in my memory. It was literally mind-altering.

20. George Harrison: All Things Must Pass (1970)
If I were to guess, in the day, which ex-Beatles album I would most enjoy, I would have picked John, or maybe Paul. Yet it was George’s triple album I played the most. OK, not so much that third LP jam, but the first two for sure. ‘What Is Life’, ‘Wah Wah’, and a lot more. BTW, my high school prom theme was the title of the album.

19. The Sound of Music movie soundtrack (1965)
I love this from the beginning – the nuns singing together, to the melancholy ‘Edelweiss’.

18. Supremes: Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland (1967)
A peculiarly-titled album in that most of their songs at that period were being written and produced by H-D-H. Besides the hits, the standout track is ‘Remove This Doubt’, later covered by Elvis Costello.

17. Lovin’ Spoonful: Daydream (1966)
Bought this when I got a bunch of Beatles albums early on, and it’s been a touchstone since. My 1998 visit to Savannah was ‘Jug Band Music’. The 1980 Democratic primary was ‘It’s Not Time Now’, with Jerry Brown singing, “I can’t seem to get a word in edgewise anyhow.” Lots more.

16. Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (1969)
From the glorious Merry Clayton vocals on ‘Gimme Shelter’ to the chorale on ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, it’s the most consistent Stones album. And the US and UK versions are the same, which was NOT always the case in the past.

15. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Deja Vu (1970)
Among other things, appreciated the near-democratic nature of the album: two songs each by the four, one by Stills-Young, and ‘Woodstock’ by Joni Mitchell.

14. Judy Collins: Wildflowers (1967)
Songs in Latin and French, plus the hit ‘Both Sides Now.’ But it is ‘Albatross’ that is the key song for me.

13. The Who: Tommy (1968)
I remember listening to this first rock opera when my father walked by, overheard, “We forsake you, gonna rape you,” and gave me that “What is that boy listening to?” look.

12. Beatles: A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
In the midst of the insanity of Beatlemania touring, Lennon & McCartney came up with seven great songs for the movie, plus six others for the album; my favorite from the latter group is ‘I’ll Be Back.’

11. Elton John: Elton John (1970)
His second album with classics such as ‘Your Song,’ ‘Take Me to the Pilot’, and ‘Border Song’.

10. Cream: Disraeli Gears (1967)
Interesting: ALSO the second album. ‘Strange Brew’, ‘Tales of Brave Ulysses’, ‘We’re Going Wrong’. Not to mention the shared vocals by Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton on ‘Sunshine of Your Love,’ which also features that ‘Blue Moon’ guitar riff.

9. The Band: The Band (1969)
ANOTHER second album. Slice of Americana from four Canadians, and one guy from Arkansas. ‘Rag Mama Rag’, ‘Up on Cripple Creek’ and much more.

8. Pete Seeger: Live at Carnegie Hall (1963)
Wrote about it HERE.

7. Woodstock movie soundtrack (1970)
It’s not just the litany of groups, some of which I’d never heard before, such as Santana. It’s even all the dialogue about the “brown acid,” the “kosher bacon,” and Max Yasgur getting a roar of applause just for saying, “I’m a farmer.” Saw the film twice in a row at the movie theater when it was first released, and I’m sure that had an effect on my appreciation of the triple LP.

6. Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965)
Ten common songs on the US and UK versions, and I like both collections.

5. Simon And Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
It was the duo in disintegration; ‘So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright’ was only tangentially about the architect. I wrote about “The Boxer’ and the title song on Art Garfunkel’s 70th birthday.

4. Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
The source of a lot of theological discussions in my circle of friends. You don’t have to agree with it to appreciate the songwriting and vocals.

3. Beach Boys: Pet Sounds (1966)
Speaking of religion, this album contains probably my favorite pop tune of all time, ‘God Only Knows.’ But it’s pretty much perfect from beginning to end. Paul McCartney gave copies to all his children as an example of great music.

2. West Side Story movie soundtrack (1961)
Seeing this movie was transformational. But it wasn’t just the story, it was the music. Quintet, the Tonight reprise, where the Jets and Sharks are preparing for the Rumble, Maria and Tony for their date, and Anita for her “private little mix” with Bernardo after the fight. Leonard Bernstein was right to get Stephen Sondheim to change one lyric of ‘Gee, Officer Krupke.’. Our family just saw the Albany High School production of the play, and my daughter is entranced by ‘America.’

1. The Beatles: Revolver (1966)
Still, this is my favorite album. From a kiddie song (‘Yellow Submarine’) to painful songs about loss (“Eleanor Rigby’, ‘For No One’), a most eclectic album, enriched by the three Lennon songs that had been purloined to make the US album Yesterday and Today. For my feelings about the last two songs on the album, read here.

That was fun; thanks to SamuraiFrog for the idea. But I won’t do the 1970s any time soon; too many to select from – the singer-songwriters from the early period, the mid-decade disco era, and the punk rock at the end, not to mention a LOT of Stevie Wonder. I think I’ll do, over time, the 1950s, 1990s, 1980s, and eventually the 1970s. Maybe by then, I’ll have enough 21st-century albums to try that period.

R is for Roger, redux

I’d been a fan of Roger Moore since I watched him as Beau Maverick on the television show Maverick.

As I’ve undoubtedly noted, the name Roger comes from the Germanic roots meaning spear bearer, specifically “famous with the spear.”

When you think of the first name Roger, who are the first people you think of? (I mean besides me, of course.) That was the question in this segment of the TV show Family Feud; I’m sorry it is incomplete.

Here’s a list of celebrities whose first names are Roger. The ones that immediately came to mind are some I mentioned three-and-a-half years ago when I last did R is for Roger, plus these that I inexplicably left off:

Roger Clemens – in 24 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros, he won the Cy Young as the best pitcher in his baseball league a record seven times and pitched a perfect game in 1994. He would have been a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 except for allegations of him using performance-enhancing drugs.

Roger Federer – the tennis player from Switzerland had spent 237 consecutive, and at this writing, 302 total weeks at number 1 in the ranking and has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles. He’s considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.

Roger Staubach – in an 11-season career, all with the Dallas Cowboys, the quarterback out of the Naval Academy had a Hall of Fame career. I wasn’t much a Cowboys fan, since they were/are rivals with my New York Giants; nevertheless, I always liked him personally.

Sir Roger Moore – I’d been a fan since I watched him as Beau Maverick on the television show Maverick, then as Simon Templar in the TV series The Saint. But, of course, he’s best known as Bond, James Bond, in seven movies. See his other credits.

Roger Waters – he was a founder member of the rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist, vocalist, and principal songwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, the album Dark Side of the Moon spent years on the charts; Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall were other hit albums. He has been performing The Wall all over the world without his former bandmates.

Roger B. Taney – he was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States (1836-1864), and the first Roman Catholic to sit on the Supreme Court. While he dealt with many other cases, I know him for just one: writing the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), that ruled that black people, who were considered inferior at the time the US Constitution was written, could not be considered citizens of the United States, whether slave or free.

Roger Williams – the theologian who left England, only to knock heads (figuratively) with the Puritans, and eventually founded the state of Rhode Island as a place of religious tolerance.

Roger Rabbit – he is the frantic, neurotic title cartoon character of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film also starred the live human Bob Hoskins, and Roger’s animated human wife Jessica, who is not bad; she’s just drawn that way.
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My review of the late Roger Ebert’s autobiography.

ABC Wednesday – Round 12