Tag: music

What the heck is a Mungo Jerry?

“Ray Dorset is…Mungo Jerry…is Ray Dorset”

According to Wikipedia, the group name Mungo Jerry “was inspired by the poem Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer, from T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.” If you go to the Mungo Jerry website, you’ll read that “Ray Dorset is…Mungo Jerry…is Ray Dorset,” the fellow on the left in the photo. And looking at the list of all of the former members of the British group of the 1970s, that would be about correct.

The big hit was In the Summertime, which debuted on the charts on July 11, 1970, and went to #3. Here’s one video and here’s another.

Isaac Hayes would have been 70

Isaac Hayes was undoubtedly best known for composing and performing music for the soundtrack of the film Shaft


Isaac Hayes was one of those behind-the-scenes guys at the Memphis-based Stax Records in the 1960s. He co-wrote songs with David Porter for Sam (Moore) and Dave (Prater), Carla Thomas, and others. He was a producer and session musician.

Some of their songs for Sam & Dave (LISTEN!):
You Don’t Know Like I Know
Soul Man
When Something Is Wrong with My Baby
Hold On I’m Comin

Hayes himself became a recording star, with his second album, almost out of commercial necessity.  The label was reeling from the death of its big star, Otis Redding, in a plane crash in December 1967. Stax had leased some of its songs to Atlantic Records, for wider distribution, but somehow lost all of its back catalog to Atlantic in early 1968. Some labels might have decided to pick a small number of albums to release and promote; instead, Stax wanted a couple of dozen albums, in a throw-them-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks methodology.

From the Wikipedia:
[Hot Buttered Soul] is noted for Hayes’ image (shaved head, gold jewelry, sunglasses, etc.) and his distinct sound (extended orchestral songs relying heavily on organs, horns, and guitars, deep bass vocals, etc.)… Hayes re-interprets Walk On By (listen)… into a twelve-minute exploration. By the Time I Get to Phoenix (listen) starts with an eight-minute long monologue before breaking into song, and the lone original number, the funky Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic (listen) runs nearly ten minutes…

But he was undoubtedly best known for composing and performing music for the soundtrack of the film Shaft. “The title theme (listen), with its wah-wah guitar and multi-layered symphonic arrangement, would become a worldwide hit single, and spent two weeks at number one in the Billboard Hot 100 in November” 1971.

Here’s my Stax post from five years ago.

Unfortunately, the singer “was found unconscious and unresponsive in his home located just east of Memphis on August 10, 2008, ten days before his 66th birthday,” and died of an apparent recurrence of a stroke.

I remember Ike.

Favorite cover by original artist QUESTION

I’m really struck by Lesley Gore’s remake of You Don’t Own Me from the 2005 Ever Since album.

Sometimes, an artist will cover his/her/their own song. Frank Sinatra, among others, did it quite a bit over his long career.

What are YOUR favorite songs by the same artist? I’m not going to get too strict here. If you want to pick Layla, originally done by Derek and the Dominoes then subsequently unplugged by Eric Clapton, that’d be acceptable, since Derek WAS Eric. Speaking of Clapton, I prefer the live version of I’m So Glad from Goodbye Cream to the studio version on Fresh Cream.

I had this cassette of Procol Harum’s greatest hits and it included a live version of Conquistador, with an orchestra. Years later, when I got a similar CD, it had the studio version; not nearly as impressive.

Listen to Crying by Roy Orbison, a fine song, but the version by Orbison with k.d. lang makes me, well, cry.

I always preferred the remix Mustapha Dance by The Clash to its antecedent, Rock the Casbah.

Just listened to a Ladysmith Black Mambazo album. They do a couple songs from Graceland, Homeless and Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes, sans Paul Simon, but with Sarah McLachlan and Melissa Etheridge, respectively. Can’t find these online, unfortunately.

I’m really struck by Lesley Gore’s remake of You Don’t Own Me (this is a live take, not the version I really wanted from the 2005 Ever Since album), recognizable as the same song as the classic original, but different.

The “Elvis Is Dead” 35th anniversary meme

I wouldn’t mind: If My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

When I first started this blog, I would periodically fill out this questionnaire, or one like it for various musicians. I remember specifically doing one for Frank Sinatra. Since it’s the 35th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, and I’ve probably said all I have to say about him, I’ll do this piece which is actually somewhat similar to the one I did back in 2006, so I needed to find a few NEW titles! Thanks to SamuraiFrog who recently did this in honor of the Beach Boys.

Anyway: Answer the questions using only song titles from ONE artist.

Are you a man or a female?: Guitar Man

Describe yourself: Moody Blue

How are you feeling right now?: Puppet on a String

Describe the city you’re living in: Suspicious Minds

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?: Blue Moon

Your favorite form of transportation: Blue River

Your best friend: The Wonder of You

Your favorite color: Indescribably Blue

What’s the weather like?: Kentucky Rain (listen)

Your favorite time of the day: I Need Your Love Tonight

If your life were a TV program, what would it be called?: What’d I Say

Your current relationship: It Feels So Right

What gives?: I Really Don’t Want To Know; It’s Now or Never

I expect from the future: If Every Day Was Like Christmas

The way I would like to go: Let Yourself Go

I wouldn’t mind: If My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again

I fear: T-R-O-U-B-L-E; Steamroller Blues

My best advice right now: A Little Less Conversation (listen)

If I would change my name right now, it would be: Teddy Bear

My motto: Follow That Dream

Read Cheri’s E is for Elvis post, with music links.

Listen to Elvis Is Dead – Living Colour

 

Summer song: Summer, by War

Vocalist and founding member of War Howard Scott said that they were “cranking out gold records when” the Beastie Boys “were still in diapers.”

War was a long-running funk-rock band from southern California, who was commercially viable, at least into the 1990s. Eric Burdon, formerly of The Animals, was the lead vocalist on their first hit, Spill the Wine, back in 1970, but others took the reins shortly after that.

On the Billboard 100, the very peaceful tune called Summer, which was appropriately released on June 21, 1976, debuted on the chart on July 10 and spent 16 weeks there, eventually getting to #7. On the soul charts, it also started moving on July 10, and spent 14 weeks, reaching #4. It was declared a gold record, selling over 500,000 units.

Here is Summer, by War. The band “is not happy about being slighted for a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band was nominated but lost out… War is most annoyed about losing a spot to The Beastie Boys.

“Vocalist and founding member of War Howard Scott told TMZ, ‘We were cranking out gold records when they were still in diapers. How could the Beastie Boys get in before us when they sampled War’s music on their first album?! I’ll eat their platinum records!’ and added, ‘Felt like I was kicked in the back of my britches.'”
***
Sad to read about the death, at the age of 68, of composer Marvin Hamlisch. Writer Mark Evanier said: “I can’t recall ever hearing a bad word about Marvin Hamlisch, not even from Theater People… He was the guy who wrote the tunes for A Chorus Line, after all. And so many other fine works. The first time I saw him or heard his name was when he was Groucho’s pianist for those sad one-Marx shows near the end of the comedian’s career.” To paraphrase a song of his: Nobody did it better.

 

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial