When the treacherous and unpredictable seas of art and commerce enervate even the most dauntless of our kind, itinerant scribes oft times find themselves in want of a home. A sufficiently peaceful harbor in which to moor their buffeted and battered vessels. ‘Tis then we weary wordsmiths seek out a major studio in hopes of procuring an overall deal.
Some of the Harry Nilsson article was originally posted on FEBRUARY 25, 2009 and Updated on February 28th, 2019. The Patty Faralla addendum is brand new. New photos in both.
Harry…
Covers of his songs were often more successful than his own, original, recordings. Ironically, the two biggest hits he ever had were written by Fred Neil, and Peter Ham.
That is sort of the story of Harry’s life …
He is probably the most underrated American songwriter of the last 50 years (other than me, of course), but his songs came from deeper than most writers are willing to dig.
“The Internet is a lot like ancient Egypt: people writing on walls and worshipping cats.”
In all my years in music, I never worked for a label. I wanted to. But I wanted to work only in A&R. Artists and Repertoire. They were the people who found the artists, who were liaison between the artist and label management, who groomed the performers and worked with them on the songs for their albums and maybe just the direction of focus. I knew a few A&R people in L.A. They loved it. They wouldn’t have done anything else. Most of them, when their A&R gigs ended, got out of the business because it was a sewer everywhere else. Sales? The pits. Promotion? Real work. Management? A path, most of the time, to disaster. I mean, A&R was where the adventure was. And is.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently released their latest ‘list’, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters” rollingstone.com). Let me repeat that title, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters”. Their descriptive line states “From Brill Building tunesmiths to Punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history.”
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There’s a Renaissance of sorts happening in the music business right now by which music we’ve lost track of, or have ignored outright, due to the current ubiquity of pop music is crawling out from the primordial ooze and is being reborn as something new. New masters, new packaging and/or new formats are moving in to replace the gaping hole left by marginilized MP3 files and the impending death of CDs.
It’s been one of those weeks. It started out promisingly, with great plans for every day of the week. I was sure that by today, I’d have a clean house, an empty inbox, and even maybe lose ten pounds.
“For some, Love is in the air, and hopefully, so are her legs.” – Bartlett Salazar
For the rest of you, the BobChart is here to make you feel better. Maybe single life is not all that bad. Maybe you are better off having dinner for one at the Lonely Table. Maybe these songs will bring a smile to your lips.
The BobChart reaches out to All the Lonely People…the ones who dread this Hallmark Holiday because the only love in their lives is either a dog or a cat or a half gallon of Häagen-Dazs Atomic Chocolate Ice Cream…not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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Hard to miss that’s it’s the Christmas season. Department, drug and clothing stores have all been playing Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, Bobby Helm’s “Jingle Bell Rock”, Wham’s “Last Christmas” and The Beach Boys “Little Saint Nick”, along with newer Christmas ditties from the likes of Neil Diamond, Taylor Swift, Michael Buble and the omnipresent “White Christmas” from der Bingle (aka Bing Crosby) for what seems like months already.
I love album covers! Not the shrunken down versions they use on CDs, I mean those gloriously creative (mostly) 12” vinyl record album covers. I was looking through my vinyl record collection the other day and marvelled at some of the amazing designs of some of the covers. Now, before we start delving into some classic album covers as well as a few personal favourites, a little history is in order, but don’t panic – there will not be a quiz later.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 