In honor of The One And Only Jerry Lee Lewis who, believe it or not, just turned 82 (!!) we take a little trip back. Sixty years back from the 8th to be exact, to an unassuming little building at 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee where something called “Great Balls Of Fire” has just been brought, red hot, into the Sun Studio.
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.”
This week Paul Revere of 1960s pop band Paul Revere & The Raiders passed away at the age of 76. He and his band were one of the second generation of pop stars who took the post-Elvis world by storm on the back of Beatlemania.
Last weekend I made the rounds doing promotion for my book – The Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia – to radio station CFRB and the cable TV show ‘On Da Grine TV’ during what was a particularly heavy media week in Toronto. The Toronto International Film Festival was in full swing promoting upcoming Hollywood fair and its glitterati. Had I been able to afford a publicist I’m sure they would have dissuaded me from trying to promote a music book during a movie festival. But I don’t have a publicist so I sallied forth and guess what? The festival had no effect on getting me media coverage.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 