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Monday, January 31, 2011

The Jackson 5: I Want You Back (1970)

41 years ago today, the Jackson 5 reached No. 1 with, "I Want You Back" the first of four songs to reach that height. Originally intended for Gladys Knight and the Pips, this song exploded on the charts and gave boost to a two year string of top 10 songs. And oh by the way introduced us to little Michael....

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sunday Vault: Ace Spectrum (1974)


Ace Spectrum was a vocal group from New York and released three albums between 1974 and 1976. It's members were, Ed "Easy" Zant, Aubrey "Troy" Johnson, Elliot Isaac, and Rudy Gay. The only hit on the top 100 was 1974's "Don't Send Nobody Else"....hope your having a great Sunday.


Friday, January 28, 2011

Remembering Gladys Horton of the Marvelettes

We received word that Gladys Horton, co-founder of the Marvelettes died late Wed. evening of complications from a series of strokes. She was 66.

Gladys was only 15 when she founded The Casinyets with Georgia Dobbins and added Katherine Anderson, Juanita Cowart, and Georgeanna Tilliman. Wanda Young replaced Dobbins (due to her minister father being again them playing in clubs), and soon released, "Please Mr. Postman"

We honor her this morning by playing two of the biggest hits: "Please Mr. Postman" (#1 Sept. 61) and "Don't Mess With Bill" (#7 Jan. 66).

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Elvis Presley: Heartbreak Hotel (1956)

55 years ago, Elvis had his contract picked up by RCA and in a few weeks the first single, "Heartbreak Hotel" would be released and change his (and rock and roll's) destiny forever. Enjoy and have a great day today!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Rooftop Singers: Walk Right In (1963)



In the summer of 1962, Erik Darling put together a trio specifically to record an new version of the 1929 Gus Cannon blues song "Walk Right In". He recruited singer/guitarist Bill Svanoe and former jazz singer Lynne Taylor. The result was that on this day (Jan. 26), it reached #1 for two weeks on the top 100. 1963 turned out to be a very good year for them as they landed two more hits, "Tom Cat" (March #20) and "Mama Don't Allow" (July #55). In the era before the Beatles, folk music was at it's peak in popularity and the Rooftop Singers were considered a folk trio, however the music was more jazzy in flavor. The album "Walk Right In" was nominated for a Grammy and reached #15 for 20 weeks in the late winter/spring of 63. Taylor left the group the next year, and after two changes at vocals and another album, they folded in 1967.

Here are all three of the hits...hope you have a great day, and don't forget to listen to us on the Rock and Roll Omnibus at live365.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Happy 70'th to Neil, Aaron, and Ray!!

Three artists share 70'th birthday wishes today: Aaron Neville, Ray Stevens, and to one of the newest members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Neil Diamond. In their honor, we'll hear songs from each of them. Have a great day!




Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday Morning Vault: Sack dresses and The Accents Wiggle, Wiggle (1958)


The picture above is of a sack dress which evidently was in style in the 50's. Since I am not a fashion devotee (family and friends insert joke here), nor born before 1960, will have to take someone else's word on this monstrosity. Music has always touched on social commentary, moral sermonizing, or the latest fad. It could be fashion, a dance, a game (remember Pac-Man Fever?), or even a phrase.

Robert Draper Jr., Robert Armstrong, Billy R.Hood, James L. Jackson, Arvid Garrett and Israel L. Goudeau, Jr. made up The Accents. Draper was the lead singer, but at this time don't know any more about this band. It's only hit was in December 1958 and was called "Wiggle, Wiggle" (On charts for 12 weeks peaking at #51) . According to the song, all you needed was a sack dress and to "wiggle" where it counted. To my knowledge it's the only song written about this fashion fad, and if looks mean anything...there was a reason for that, however it's far from the last time a song implored a woman to um...wiggle. Hope you all have a great Sunday....

Friday, January 21, 2011

Just a video to warm you a bit.....

   It's cold here in Nashville, but am betting there are many places within the sight of this blog who are in a lot colder areas. We also have snow on the ground and above all of that, I have to see a dentist today (ugh!). With all of this in mind (not to mention it's a Friday), I bring a gift for you to help keep you warm today and through the weekend. Hope it's a great one for you!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Great news about the Omnibus!!!

We just got the dailies from Live 365 and out of 211 oldies stations we are number 93!! In these past 6 weeks we have been heard in 20 states here in the US and in 33 counties. Thanks SO much and not only keep listening, but get the word out about the BUS!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Happy 65th Dolly!!

A Short Note About Don Kirshner with clip from Rock Concert (1974)

There were many names that were of importance in the history of rock and pop that had nothing to do with musicianship, but of the business side of things. Don Kirshner was one of those. He became known first as co-owner of Aldon Music, who had under contract at various times, Carole King, Jerry Goffin, Neil Sedaka, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. He also helped launch the careers of Neil Diamond and Bobby Darin.

He also was the mastermind behind The Monkees and The Archies. This gave him a bit of a bad rep especially with the burgeoning rock crowd, due to the "fakeness" of the groups. (I would like to add here that Michael Nesmith has had quite a solid career, although he was not hired for his ability musically). Time has shown that although the groups were manufactured, Kirshner's ear for what sounded good and what would see was unerring.

For me (and perhaps many of you), he was best known for "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert". The 70's brought three solid rock and/or pop shows to the airwaves. ABC's "In Concert", NBC's "Midnight Special" and "Rock Concert". All three brought different things to the table. For my taste, I preferred Kirshner's show because they would book acts that were usually not on the others.

After it's folding up in 1982, he spent his last years doing consulting work and the like. What we'll finish with
a clip from "Rock Concert" in 1974.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Today in History: I Want To Hold Your Hand (1964)

Like many things in my early childhood, the time is foggy and the circumstances surrounding it murky. All I remember for sure is somewhere between 1966 and 67, my mom presented me with a 45rpm record of my very own. Am supposing upon reflection it was a gift to christen my new box record player. For those of you way to young to remember, it was truly in the shape of a box with the front having a mesh cover that hid the one tinny speaker. You could also close the lid and latch it for easy carrying, and the needles had a habit of breaking all of the time (probably from carrying it around..)

It's funny now to think of it because my mom's idea of Rock and Roll was Elvis and she really didn't like him all that much. We won't discuss what she (or my dad) thought of Little Richard or Chuck Berry. Anyway, someone had to have tipped her off to not only the Beatles, but to get me this specific record (I don't know who you are, but am eternally grateful). Carefully placing the record on the turntable and plopping the needle on the record (probably another reason for so many needles), the most beautiful music to my ears came out. The guitars!! The voices!! The falsettos!!

I had to play it again and again and again. The record was "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and although it had been a hit for several years and they had matured far beyond that particular recording, the fascination and love for The Beatles was born. Also instilled as time went on was a deep and abiding love for music in general as not only a hobby, but as a profession as well.

On this day, January 18, 1964, This song made it's US chart debut just 10 days after it's release opening at #45. It went on to spend 7 weeks at #1 and began the revolution of Rock music.

 

Monday, January 17, 2011

Show #3 of "The History of Rock and Pop" is on!!

Hey y'all...you can find the latest edition of "The History of Rock and Pop" on the station for the next week at 3pm, 10pm, and 6am Central time US. Here on the Omnibus.....

Sunday, January 16, 2011

From the Vaults: A.B. Skhy

A. B. Skhy was a group formed in California and consisted of Dennis Geyer (Vocals, Guitar), Howard Wales (keyboards), Jim Marcotte (bass) and Terry Anderson (drums). Wales would be associated with Jerry Garcia, playing one of the Greatful Dead's most known albums (American Beauty in 1970) and a duet album in 1971 (Hooteroll?).

The group recorded two albums, neither which charted, and only had one single the barely made it to the Top 100 in December of 1969. "Camel Back" was a nice slice of Booker T complete with 7 piece horn section, and organ. They recorded a second album, Ramblin' On in 1970, and then disbanded during the recording of a third. It's a great cut however, and it needs to be heard......so from the Omnibus to you...here is A.B. Skhy.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Today in Music History---American Pie (1972)


Today in 1972, American Pie hit #1 on the American charts. Don McLean had several more hits, but nothing would equal the impact of this song.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The music of our hearts: Mill Valley (1970)

You know, if I were to talk to any of you out there in blog land about music, we would eventually come to a song (or songs) that touch a part of your soul that no one else knows exists. Sometime it's connected with an event or a person, but when you hear the song, it sends you to another place and another time. The emotions connected with can put a smile on your face, bring tears to your eyes, or both.

According to her website: (www.ritaabrams.com), Miss Abrams (her name on the record), moved to Mill Valley CA to get away from the cold and gray of the northeast. On Christmas Day of 1969, she wrote a song for her kindergarten class to sing. A producer encouraged her to record it, and with the 3rd grade class of the Strawberry Point School she did just that. It reached #90 on the charts, which encouraged her to go into music full time. She has become very successful with two emmys, and 26 ASCAP awards among many others. She has also branched out into writing, greeting cards, and musical theater.

There are many songs that were not top 10 hits (or top 30 or top 100) that speak to people. "Mill Valley" is one of those songs. For those of us who have not lost our sense of hope, or longing, or child-likeness. It speaks to a place where all is peaceful, a place where things are as they should be. Some of us spend much if not all of our lives looking for Mill Valley. The fact is that all of us have that place in our hearts if it's not buried under the burdens of life to the point we can't recognize it any longer. Maybe it's too pollyannish to dream that the world could ever be peaceful, it is so easy to allow the anger and the angry to envelop, but I'm willing to give it a try. Besides, maybe living "Mill Valley" myself is the first step. Thanks Rita.....

Thursday, January 13, 2011

This day in 1968, Johnny Cash goes to prison.

Special thanks to the Gibson.com website and "This Week in Music"...you can see it here:
http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/spotlight-0113-2011/

Johnny Cash had his share of troubles and vices in his lifetime, but he never did prison time. Despite this, nobody in music history is more associated with the clink than the Man in Black. It’s interesting that Cash is much more tied to the struggles and frustrations of prison life than the legions of pop, rock and country music stars who have actually had to serve a sentence.

The legendary country singer first learned of prison life – particularly, life in Folsom State Prison – through the movies. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force Security Service in 1953, when his unit watched the film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison. It was that movie that inspired Cash to write one of his early songs, “Folsom Prison Blues,” in which he imagined what a prisoner felt like. After signing with Sun Records, “Folsom Prison Blues” became Cash’s second single – a #1 country hit and a Top 40 pop hit in 1955.
Although Cash had never been in prison, he apparently captured the feeling of being incarcerated perfectly. The song became very popular with those doing time, who wrote letters to the country star thanking him for writing the tune and sometimes asking him to come perform at their prisons. By 1957, he obliged some inmates, by performing at Huntsville State Prison. The event went over so well that Cash continued this practice, playing concerts at prisons around the U.S. He had the idea for recording a live album at one such show, although the proposal was rejected by the country executives at Columbia Records.

In the mid-’60s, Cash and Columbia each went through some difficult times. Toward the end of ’67, Cash was kicking his drug habit and seeking to turn his career around. Meanwhile, there was a shake-up at country portion of Columbia, leaving Bob Johnson (best-known for his work with Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel) as Cash’s producer at the label. Johnny dusted off his old idea for doing a concert album at a prison and Johnson jumped at the idea. He contacted both San Quentin and Folsom Prison, and the people at Folsom were the first to reply.

In early January of 1968, all of the performers that were going to be involved in the concerts made a trip to nearby Sacramento, California, to get settled and rehearse for a couple of days. The lineup included Cash, his wife June Carter Cash, his usual backing band The Tennessee Three (Marshall Grant, Luther Perkins and W.S. Holland), Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers – along with Johnny’s dad Ray and producer Johnson. The goals for the practice sessions weren’t just to hone the ensemble’s live sound, but to learn a new song. Cash had agreed to perform “Greystone Chapel,” written by Folsom inmate Glen Sherley.
On the morning of January 13, everyone traveled to Folsom to perform two shows – one at 9:40 a.m. and one at 12:40 p.m. – just in case the first one didn’t turn out quite right. At the morning show, Perkins did “Blue Suede Shoes” and the Statlers sang “This Ole House,” with each getting a great reaction from the crowd. But the explosion was yet to come.

Between the openers and the main attraction, MC Hugh Cherry instructed the prisoners not to cheer until Cash made his famous introduction. So, before a cafeteria full of inmates at about 10 in the morning, the country great took the stage to utter silence. Arriving at the microphone, he delivered his iconic, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” and the place howled with delight. Kicking off with “Folsom Prison Blues,” Cash led the musicians through an exciting and wildly varied set. They played raucous prison-themed tunes (“Cocaine Blues” and “25 Minutes to Go”), somber ballads (“The Long Black Veil,” “Send a Picture of Mother”) and goofy novelty tunes (“Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog,” “Joe Bean”). Johnny sang with June on their hit duet, “Jackson” and closed with Sherley’s “Greystone Chapel,” identifying the inmate just before the performance, to a huge response.

Cash and company, reacting to the energy of the crowd, had given one of the most intense performances of their lives. And, at 12:40, they had to do it all over again.

Recognizing that he had depleted his energy, Cash encouraged Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers to perform a few more songs at the start of the show. In turn, Cash clipped his performance a little shorter. Anyone who’s heard both shows (the full recordings were released in a 2008 box set) can vouch that the first performance is better, but that Johnny doesn’t give up on the second, even as his voice starts to go. It’s no wonder that the vast majority of tracks on the original album were taken from the first set. Only “Give My Love to Rose” and “I Got Stripes” were taken from the later concert. Yet, it’s indicative of Cash’s power, presence and passion that “Stripes” (played near the second show’s end) is one of the singer’s most thrilling performances.

Leaving the stage and the prison that day, Cash must have felt he had recorded something special. He would later claim that the inmates at Folsom, “were the most enthusiastic audience I have ever played to.”
The tapes that would become At Folsom Prison were mastered, edited and selected in a rather short period. By May of ’68, Columbia Records released the live album and its single (the live version of “Folsom Prison Blues”). For whatever reason, the label didn’t throw much promotion behind the release until the single began getting airplay on pop and country radio, and began scaling both charts. Soon its escalating popularity was dealt a setback.

Following the assassination of Robert Kennedy on June 5, most radio programmers refused to play a song with the line “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” Over Cash’s objections, a new version (with the line excised) was released to radio and continued its ascent. Before long, edited version of “Folsom Prison Blues” topped the country charts and hit the Top 40 on the pop charts. The album proved even more popular – topping the country album charts and peaking at #13 as a pop album entry. By the end of the year, At Folsom Prison had been certified gold (500,000 copies) and was the recipient of rave reviews.
As Cash had turned over a new leaf, his career began a new chapter. Of At Folsom Prison, the star said, “that’s where things really got started for me again.” The wild success of the live album caused ABC to offer him his own TV show and encouraged Columbia to sign off on another prison album, 1969’s At San Quentin – Cash’s first album to hit #1 on the pop charts.

At Folsom Prison remains a legendary album, with millions of copies sold and tons of praise heaped upon it. It is often ranked among the best albums ever recorded and, in 2003, earned a spot in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

How Listening to Good Music is Like Having Sex

Taken from "This Week" website:
http://theweek.com/article/index/210910/how-listening-to-good-music-is-like-having-sex

For some people, listening to music can release as much dopamine into the brain as cocaine.

A new study shows that a favorite piece of music can make your brain release dopamine, just like having sex, using drugs, or eating good food. Researchers at Canada's McGill University say their findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, will help us understand both our minds and our evolution better. Here's a look at what sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll have in common:

What exactly did the McGill team study?Valorie Salimpoor and her team had eight participants from a pool of 217 volunteers listen to a piece of instrumental music that consistently gave them "chills," and scanned their brains over the course of three listening sessions. They also measured the "chills" themselves, through changes in the subjects' temperature, skin conductance, heart rate, and breathing. The other 209 contenders were eliminated because they didn't reliably get goosebumps, or because they brought music with lyrics, which the McGill team avoided to keep the study focused on music.

So what did the participants want to hear?The most popular piece was Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," both the orchestral version and a techno dance remix. Other hits included Claude Debussy's "Claire de Lune" and the second movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. But participants didn't just pick classical: Punk, jazz, rock, and even bagpipe music made appearances, too.

How much happier does music make us?The participants' dopamine levels rose by up to 9 percent when they were listening to music they enjoyed, and "one person experienced a 21 percent increase," says Salimpoor. "That demonstrates that, for some people, it can be really intensely pleasurable." People who don't get chills also experience the rise in dopamine, says study co-author Robert Zatorre, as did the eight subjects when they listened to other participants' selections, but the rush wasn't as strong.

How does music compare to other pleasures?Studies involving psychoactive drugs like cocaine registered relative dopamine spikes of 22 percent and higher, Salimpoor says, and pleasurable foods can send dopamine levels up 6 percent.

What does this study say about music, and us?"Art in general has survived since the dawn of human existence and is found in all human societies," says Zatorre. "There must be some strong value associated with it." The study does show that music is important to humans, but not why, says Vicky Williamson at University of London. It's a starting-off point to explore "why music can be effectively used in rituals, marketing, or film to manipulate hedonistic states," says Salimpoor. We now know that dopamine can make you "like a crackhead for those sweet, sweet tunes you like," says Jeff Neumann in Gawker. Isn't that enough?

Monday, January 10, 2011

Welcome to the Bus!

Hi there!

    I expect several to visit the blog today so wanted to take a bit of space to explain what we're doing here. The "Rock and Roll Omnibus" was developed out of a desire to share the music of our past. Oldies radio for the most part have certain artists and songs that are chosen through focus groups and the like. Thanks to live365.com we are not under those constraints. There is a lot of music out there that isn't heard much anymore and we want to celebrate the popular and not so popular.

   The centerpiece of the broadcast will be a once a week show called, "A History of Pop and Rock", which will first look at the music that led to what we now know as rock and roll, then do a month by month look at the music and personalities that made it what it was. Show #1 has already been broadcast (also for this week as well), show #2 starts today. The times will vary and because of live365.com rules we cannot promote times here, however if you go to the site, there will be a schedule that will be of help. We plan on repeating 3 times a day...so stay tuned.

    In the future, there will be a website that will give you a chance to participate in the discussion, so please keep an eye out here and we'll get the word out. This will be a place to hear news about your favorite artists, my own commentary, and issues concerning the radio station. I'll try my best to post at least every other day, and I would appreciate your comments and questions. Thanks again for stopping by and keep rockin'....

    Just go to www.live365.com type in "Rock and Roll Omnibus" and listen to the best in oldies....

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Gerry Rafferty, Singer of "Baker Street " dies

This is taken from Entertainment Weekly:

“Baker Street” is easily the song most associated with Gerry Rafferty, who has died at the age of 63 after a long illness. Yet there was far more to the singer-songwriter than that sax-driven radio staple. In Rafferty’s long, if still sadly truncated career, he progressed from the U.K. folk circuit to worldwide rock fame. He also accrued a range of celebrity fans from Quentin Tarantino to the “Baker Street”-covering Foo Fighters.
Rafferty was born in Paisley, Scotland, on April 16, 1947. His father was a miner and a heavy drinker who had a habit of becoming violent when he returned from the pub. “There were lots of unhappy times spawned from that when I was a kid,” he later recalled. “His life was not great, his vision of the world was extremely narrow. It was an incredibly hard life.”

The teenage Rafferty formed a band called the Mavericks with his schoolfriend Joe Egan but the group struggled to find success and fell apart. In 1969, Rafferty attended a show by folk act the Humblebums and bonded with band member, and comedian-in-the-making, Billy Connolly. Connolly invited Rafferty to join the band. He recorded two albums with the Humblebums (The New Humbelbums and Open the Door) but the group split up when it became clear that Connolly’s ambitions lay more in comedy than music. “It was getting awkward on stage,” Rafferty would later recall. “When I did a solo piece, just voice and acoustic guitar, Billy would walk off stage. And his jokes were getting longer and longer while the songs were getting shorter and shorter. It made sense to part when we did.”
In 1971, Rafferty cut a solo album called Can I Have My Money Back? and then formed the pop-rock act Stealers Wheel with Egan. The band scored a huge hit with the track “Stuck in the Middle With You.” Later releases proved less successful and they too broke up in 1975.

Rafferty spent the next few years in limbo thanks to assorted legal problems. He returned in 1978 with the slickly honed set City to City, which propelled the singer-songwriter to stardom thanks to the chart success of “Baker Street.” While Rafferty’s next couple of albums (1979′s Night Owls and the following year’s Snakes & Ladders) were also fine collections, he would never repeat the commercial impact of that monster hit. Moreover, the singer-songwriter began to tire of the demands that fame had brought him. “It dawned on me that since “Baker Street” I had been touring the world, traveling everywhere and seeing nowhere,” he would recall. “It wasn’t difficult for to me walk away from the business. I could never live the 24-hour-day celebrity life.” The singer-songwriter also developed a drinking problem and after 1982′s Sleepwalking album, his releases and public appearances became sporadic.

Yet Rafferty continued to impact popular culture. He co-produced the Proclaimers’ U.K. hit “Letter to America” while “Stuck in the Middle With You” was used memorably by Quentin Tarantino in his debut movie, Reservoir Dogs. Then of course, there was, and is, “Baker Street”, a bona fide radio classic and one that seems destined to remain so for many years to come.

Jim Europe, the man behind the first great dance craze.

     For anyone who studies the early blues, the names of Vernon and Irene Castle are important ones. Although there is speculation about it's origins, there is no doubting that the Castle's brought the foxtrot to international popularity. So...why is this important? Well, several things. First of all, ragtime had gotten young people on the dance floor in a way that their parents found very disapproving. Secondly, the Castle's used the early blues as the basis for demonstrating the foxtrot, which allows a form of music that wouldn't normally been listened to by whites as a whole into mainstream society.

     We will look much deeper into the habit of 1950's record execs to take R&B songs by black artists and farm them out to their white singer. Given that, and given the times, it's easy to assume that the Castle's were taking ideas from the black south and make money off of them. However, this couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, I could blog just about how far ahead of their times they actually were. Both of them were animal rights advocates long before it became popular. They had an openly lesbian manager, and, at least for our blog today, an all black orchestra.....and this is where the story gets even more interesting.

     James Reece Europe was an African-American conductor who had made a name for himself with the forming of the all black musicians union, "The Clef Club", and at in 1913 was leading the Society Orchestra, which played for the many of the elite of New York. (exclusively with African-American musicians and songwriters)  It was at one of these gatherings that Irene and Vernon met Europe. Both were hugely impressed with the orchestra's ability to find the perfect tempo to any dance they chose. So impressed that they offered to hire Europe and the entire orchestra.  So the sound of the early blues (especially W.C. Handy's, 'Memphis Blues') was brought to high society due to the influence of Europe.  So the couple that brought blues music to high society through their dancing, were in turned were backed by the finest African-American band in the country.

      Vernon died in a plane accident during World War I in 1917. Irene, who was hugely influential in the 20's "flapper look" (compete with bob haircut), continued to make a mark everywhere she went, although her professional career was all but over with the death of her husband. (She was responsible for the design of the  original Chicago Black Hawks sweater...second husband was the owner of the team.)

     You can hear W.C. Handy's 'Memphis Blues' along with other songs that deal with the early influences of Rock and Roll, on "A History of Rock and Pop" on the Omnibus on www.live365.com. 

Monday, January 3, 2011

Never can say goodbye.....

    I approach this blog with a bit of sadness, and more than a bit of trepidation. Yesterday it had been reported that Chuck Berry had collapsed during a gig in Chicago. More info has come out that he had pushed himself a great deal during the weekend doing a couple of shows in New York for New Year's Eve and then moving on to the windy city.

     In this era of rock where the successful could make more than a lifetime's worth of money, it's hard to imagine someone who's 84 to even get on a stage much less play, sing (and let's not forget duckwalk) like Mr. Berry. However the work ethic portrayed by those from the golden age of rock and roll, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Little Richard, Bo Diddly and others is amazing. Of course, that's not to say that retirement would have been an option had they not been fleeced during the time of their greatest popularity and forced to make the bulk of their money on the road where they continue to this day.

      I'm not suggesting they stop performing. Every time Chuck Berry gets on stage he reminds us of his enormous influence. It's not a stretch to suggest that any man or woman who strapped on an axe, cranked up the volume and played until their fingers were blistered and bleeding were influenced either directly or indirectly the man.  And maybe because of that, it's sad to see incidences like this one. He has a once a month engagement at a club in St. Louis and plays to a full house every time. I suppose as long as he does that, the desire to perform, even beyond what is good for his health trumps everything. There are not many legends who's legacy is so solid that people will come to pay homage even when his talents are well past it's prime. Hail, Hail Rock and Roll..... 

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Bus is on the move!

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Bus!

It's the first day of 2011 and we are rolling out the Rock and Roll Omnibus. You can find us by going to live365.com and then type in the name of our station and it will bring us up and you'll be ready to roll!

Who are we? Well, we are lovers of rock and roll and it's history. We also thought it would be fun to share that love with those who share that passion. So that's what brought me to setting up the radio station and this blog. In the coming days and weeks, we will have a proper website for you to visit, so please be looking for that.

Among the great oldies you will hear, we are also starting today, "The history of Pop and Rock", which will take a look back the different streams of music that fed into what became rock and roll. Then we'll trace month by month the stories, personalities, and of course, the music that we love and cherish.

So....drop by and give us a listen. You can drop comments by at rockandrollomnibus@gmail.com . We here at the bus are not professionals, nor are we experts at any of the personalities. We are very aware that many of you have much more knowledge on certain musical subjects. So if you have something positive to add, please do and if we use your comments on air, you will certainly get credit for the info.

So join us here at the bus....we moving out and would like all of you along for the ride.