Pat Blythe – The Women of Blues Revisited – Part IV – Maggie & Janis

I have “moved” Janis Joplin from my Women in Rock series to this one. When I started the “Women of ……” series, I felt she had a foot in both camps. However, the more I listen to Joplin the more I realize her feet were far more firmly planted in the blues as her voice alone attests. There have been comparisons over the years between Maggie Bell and Janis Joplin. They are reminiscent of each other and that starts with the hair. Scotland is steeped in the blues (just listen to the pipes and some of the Celtic music) but the seeds were planted, and the roots run to the core of the earth, in the U.S.’s “deep south”. Keep in mind, much of the southern U.S. became home to the Scots fleeing the oppressive English in the late 1700’s. Combine that with the African “slave” songs….mix with oppressive heat and stir….so, sometimes I wonder, who exactly influenced whom?

JAIMIE VERNON – CODGER WARS

It was touch and go in the early part of 2016 for Classic Rock. Half the people that have ever made music in my lifetime died in the first 6 months. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but it looked like it was going to be up to The Rolling Stones to save the planet. Well, since the release of The Beatles documentary “Eight Days A Week” the geezers are rallying.

JAIMIE VERNON – THE BEATLE GOES ON

We live in a very unique time. Pop culture is such a big part of our everyday existence that we are able to watch a rare breed of genius rise and zenith in real time. It’s hard to imagine being there when Bach or Beethoven performed their most celebrated Sonatas and Symphonies for the first. It is so long ago that their stories and their music seem like stuff of myth – we don’t even have recordings just modern interpretations from the sheet music they left behind.

JAIMIE VERNON – POP HAS EATEN ITSELF

We’ve crossed the threshold, folks. We’ve moved from living through the age of modern pop culture to turning it into precious gallery art by way of hedge funds. We’re cynics looking for the next tulip bulb market to turn bullish and are willing to strip mine our own nostalgia to do it. It’s Boomers with money to burn wanting to freeze-dry their childhood memories – and be the envy of nerd culture everywhere. It’s the ultimate revenge by people who got beaten up at school for wearing bell bottom pants and locking themselves in their rooms, donning headphones, and spinning a fresh-out-of-shrink-wrap copy of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ until Mom & Dad called for them to come to dinner.

Pat Blythe: The Women of Blues Part Four – Maggie Bell

Pat Blythe continues her series The Women of Blues with this fourth installment on a Legendary Scottish singer….

Doug Thompson – “GOODNIGHT, FROM BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN BURBANK.”

                                                  

Every week we seem to be losing more and more of our show business icons.  Lesley Gore passed awhile back.  She was my first teenage crush.  I mentioned that to her the first time I interviewed her.  She let me down gently.

Doug Thompson: HAL BLAINE – DANCE TO THE DRUMMER MAN!

My last blog on January 26^th on “The Wrecking Crew” documentary went through the roof in terms of readership, so Boss Segarini tells me.  I think that’s mainly because Denny Tedesco, the Director of the documentary about the session musicians of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, re-posted it to his list of contacts.

JAIMIE VERNON – MEMORIES FADE

This week marked two important memorial milestones in Rock and Roll History. It was 51 years ago on February 9^th that the Beatles walked into the homes of America –and the world – via ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’. The other was the 56^th anniversary of the Day the Music Died – with Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper perishing in a plane crash on February 3, 1959 [in a sad coincidence, Holly’s bassist in The Crickets, Joe B. Mauldin passed away on February 7^th this year]. I’m of the generation that neither event was contemporaneous to me. I can only measure their importance by the impact crater they left on pop culture…and music specifically.

Doug Thompson – DOUG’S COOL YULE – MY “12 SONGS OF CHRISTMAS” LIST

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.

Doug Thompson:“I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

Anyone who knows their movie history, knows that rant comes from Peter Finch’s newscaster/commentator character Howard Beale in the movie “Network”.  Credit where credit is due.  Those words actually were written by the author of “Network”, Paddy Chayefsky.  Where am I going with this you may well ask?  Well, see I LOVE A GOOD RANT!  And that “Network” rant is one of the very best.  There are plenty more out there.  Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly trying to record a quick promo and not having the time…or Orson Welles losing his patience with a British director on a series of TV voice overs.