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John Hall was a singer/guitarist for the band Orleans. They had hits such as, "Still the One" and "Dance With Me". He left the group in 1977 and began a solo career with two hits which reached the top 100. "Crazy (Keep On Falling)" was the highest charting of the two reaching number 42 in the winter of 1981/82. He rejoined Orleans in 1985 and worked with them for another 12 years while continue to write for others as well. Always politically active, Hall ran for the House of Representatives in the state of New York and served one term from 2007-2011.
There were several southern rock bands that deserved more recognition during their time, but was left in the wake of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, and Marshall Tucker. Some of them were hard to classify because their orientation leaned beyond the boundaries of rock. Little Feat and Sea Levell fell into that category. One group that leaned into a soul/rock sound was Wet Willie. Much of that could be contributed to the harmonica/sax and lead vocals of Jimmy Hall.
Hall and drummer Lewis Ross started the band which at the time was called Fox in 1969, then a year later changed it to Wet Willie. They were always a popular band in the south, as they didn't rock quite as hard as Skynyrd, but their white soul conjured up images of a mix between them and a group from the Stax family of artists. They recorded a series of great albums, but never truly caught on to a nationwide audience outside of the single (and album), "Keep On Smiling" in 1974. They left a legacy of great albums, and from what I've been told legendary concerts. However, after record sales just wouldn't allow them to get another foothold in the business, they went separate ways in 1980.
After the band's demise in 1980, lead singer Hall took off on his own and released the album, "Touch You" which spawned the top 40 hit, "I'm Happy That Love Has Found You". He had another charting hit a couple of years later with, "Fool For Your Love" in 1982, but since has found a niche as a studio musician. A move to Nashville prompted him to meet up with a small but talented group of like minded blues musicians and he has released a series of top notch albums over the last 17 years. If you are a fan of his, you need to check them out as well. We, of course have his biggest hit single here but also a little taste of what he's been up to lately with a song from the 2007 release, "Build Your Own Fire"
Just like in the day to day life of millions of people, the artificial existence of those who are exalted in our media culture gives us many who have had lots of talent, but finds a way through mismanagement of their lives. It's easy to put the blame on the glare of the spotlights on their lives, but let's face it, more than a few of them were headed for a fall long before it actually occurred.
I bring for your consideration on Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns N' Roses. I personally think that Axl had one of the greatest rock voices of his generation, and one of the best in the history of rock. The album, "Appetite for Destruction" was one of the best (perhaps THE best rock album of the 80's if you only count American acts) rock albums of the 1980's. A whole decade of new wave, dance music, and hair metal was swept away from the mind of those wanting to hear rock on the top 40 by the distinctive sounds of Slash playing the opening riff to "Sweet Child O' Mine". Now, I'm not trying to be pollyanish here, many times from it's development, rock has always pushed the envelope when it comes to behavior their own and what they expected from the audience. Axel always seemed to be angry, and it came across in his lyrics. Instead of being cathartic however, it continued to spill out in his relationship with other band, his own band members, and finally his audience.
The band began in early 1985 as a combination of two bands. Axl and his school friend Izzy Stradlin from their group Hollywood Rose, and Tracii Guns, Ole Beich, and Rob Gardner from L.A. Guns. After just a couple of gigs, Beich was replaced by Duff McKagan and later by Slash. Within a year because of relentless touring, and being billed on some of the top places in the Hollywood strip scene, they were signed by Geffin records in 1986.
"Welcome to the Jungle" was actually the first single off of, "Appetite for Destruction", but the single and album had problems at first catching on. Again the relentless touring and the reception of the video of "Jungle" on MTV when it was first aired (at four in the morning) got the ball rolling. It was the release of "Sweet Child O' Mine", which was written for Axl's then girlfriend Erin Everly, that broke the group into wide acceptance. It reached number one in the late summer of 1988, and the re-release of "Welcome to the Jungle" as well as "Paradise City" went in into the top 10.
Gramm's real name is Louis Grammatico and was born in Rochester, New York. He began playing in local bands during the mid-60's eventually becoming lead man of the group Black Sheep who had the distinction of being the first American band signed by Chrysalis Records in 1973. The next year the group signed with Capitol and with the release of two more albums, and a gig opening for KISS on the east coast, things were certainly looking up. However, on Christmas Eve of 75, an accident involving their equipment truck brought things to an end as the group couldn't raise enough money to play live, and without that to support the albums, the band came to an end.
About a year before this, Gramm had met Mick Jones who was playing in the band Spooky Tooth. He had given the guitarist a copy of the first Black Sheep album. Now, looking for a singer for a new band he was putting together, contacted Gramm after hearing about the unfortunate circumstances with the truck and asked if he wanted to try out for this new group called Trigger. Grammatico got the lead spot, Grammatico became Lou Gramm, Trigger became Foreigner and they set about recording their first album. This began a long and fruitful role which netted nine top ten singles over the next ten years.
Jones and Gramm had a tempestuous relationship as band mates, and it was not a great surprise that both men chose to not only continue with the band, but to record separate albums. Gramm's album, "Ready or Not" made it to the top 40 on the strength of the single, "Midnight Blue". He closed out the decade with another single, "Just Between You and Me" which made it to the top ten.
Gramm finally left Foreigner in 1990 just to return two years later. He remained with the group until 2003. Having become a Christian in the early 90's during the time of stint in rehab, he formed a Christian rock band in 2009 with his brother Ben on drums.
Any artist that can stay in the game for over 50 years has my respect, and the group Golden Earring has done just that. Although the majority of their success has been initially in their homeland (the Netherlands), they have maintained a level of popularity that most other bands couldn't touch. They began as a pop band in 1961, and with their first top ten single in 1965, began a career which has brought 51 top forty singles in their homeland along with 32 albums, first in pop, then into a more mainstream rock sound.
Of those albums, eight of them has charted here in the states, two of them in the top 40 on the strength of two classic rock tunes. The first, "Radar Love" propelled the album, "Moontan" to #12 on the charts and almost a decade later, "Twilight Zone" did the same for the album "Cut". The best reason I can think of them not compounding successes here had to do with lack of great follow up songs. The last chart action they had here was in 1986 with the top forty single, "Quiet Eyes" in 1986
The history of girl groups on the pop/rock charts is woefully low compared to solo artists. There was a burst of activity in the early 60's, as groups like The Shrielles, The Ronettes, The Cookies under the producing hand of Phil Spector were all over the charts. Motown also had early success with groups like Martha & the Vandellas and of course, The Supremes. As the the rock and roll era morphed into the modern rock era, most groups involving all women were left behind. The early 70's brought the group Fanny and guitarist Suzy Quatro began to push the doors open, with The Runaways upping the ante in the latter part of the decade. (You are welcome to add the Wilson sisters and Heart into this discussion, but because the group has always had men in it, am not including them in this discussion). The Go-Go's seemed to split the difference between the 70's rock sound, with a 60's girl group sensibility.
They were formed in Los Angeles in 1978 and consisted of Belinda Carlisle (vocals), Jane Wiedlin (guitar), Margot Olavarria (bass), and Elissa Bello (drums). They began life as a west coast punk band, in fact for a brief time Carlisle was a member of the seminal LA punk band, The Germs, but she contracted a case of mono and left the band before playing a gig. Charlotte Caffey was added late in 78, and Gina Schock replaced Bello in 1979. Those changes also brought a change from straight up punk to a more power pop sound. In 1980 Olavarria left the band and replaced by Kathy Valentine.
They signed with I.R.S. Records in 1981, and their first album Beauty and the Beat, became a huge (and totally unexpected) hit. The first single, "Our Lips Our Sealed" went to number 20, but it was this song, written by Caffey, and recorded by the band originally in 1980 and released by Stiff Records in the UK that took off into the top 5. The album was hailed as a great new wave album that in reflection had much more to do with 70's style power pop, than any new wave artists. The next few years saw more hits, but the effects of tensions within the group, not to mention their ability to party just as hard as their male counterparts caused the output to suffer. All of the women have gone on to alternate between touring as a group, and solo projects, with Carlisle having the most success on the charts. If you are interested in knowing more about the history of girl groups, a great resource can be found here: http://www.girl-groups.com/
Rock music is almost always an amalgamation of the influences that come before it. There are those times that something fresh and truly innovative comes along, but for the most part music points as much to it's past as is does to it's future. The key is to put them together in combinations that sound fresh and exciting. There are times however, that a group or a song come along at a time that is totally out of time with the other music that goes on around it, and because of this is never quite as appreciated as it should be. This brings us to the Georgia Satellites.
The group was centered on singer Dan Baird, and guitarist Rick Richards, who formed Keith and the Satellites back in 1980 out of Atlanta. The band lasted for a few years when Barid and Richards formed The Georgia Satellites who went into the studio in early 1984 to record a demo. For various reasons the guys in the band decided it wasn't really going anywhere and by mid 84' had broken up.
Their former manager however, continued to promote the demo in his homeland of Britain. A small label in Yorkshire liked what they heard and released the demo as an EP called, "Keep the Faith". The media response in the UK inspired the group to reform and record an album. That album, "Georgia Satellites" became a huge hit in the US led by the number 2 single, "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"
If you were a music fan in the mid-80's, you can remember how different this sounded on the radio. Wedged in between the early days of hair metal, 80's dance, and the last vestiges of new wave, it was truly an anomaly. For those who were a bit older, it was easy to identify the Stones-like guitar riffs and the witty lyrics of Baird which showed he had been listening to a bit of Chuck Berry in his day. In the 70's this band would have had a lot greater success, but in the mid/late 80's, they were seen as a novelty and although the next album, "Open All Night", was almost as good as the debut, it didn't fair nearly as well and by the early 90's, the group was soldering on without Baird who had left for a solo career. For at least a short time in 1986 however, The Satellites reminded us about
When we left things yesterday, Peter Gabriel left to pursue a solo career. The band tried out around 400 singers to replace him before settling on Phil Collins. Over 30 years later, it's easy to think that the band's move to more pop oriented material was a sharp line between the two singers. This was far from the truth as several of the albums post-Gabriel were progressive in nature as well. "A Trick of the Tail" (1976), "Wind & Wuthering" (1976), and "Seconds Out" (1977--a live album). Of course, you can hear a gradual shift towards more pop sounds, but they would never totally leave their artsy roots. Looking back all of these years later, they were actually ahead of the curve. While the late 70's became a wasteland for many of the progressive rock heroes earlier in the decade, Genesis saw the writing on the wall and began a change to a sound that took the best parts of their prog roots and wedded them to a more pop structure.
Am not sure if his leaving hastened this change over, or vice versa, but by the album, "..And Then There Were Three" (1978), Steve Hackett had left as well leaving it down to a trio of Banks, Rutherford, and Collins. The 80's was when this lineup struck gold time and time again. Beginning with, "Follow You, Follow Me" (1978), they racked up seventeen top 40 hits through 1992, with the apex of this popularity coming between 1986 and 1988, which included, "Land of Confusion"
Although a big fan of 70's progressive rock, I always felt an detachment to Gabriel era Genesis. I've always found the latter era group to be more tuneful. To be fair, Peter Gabriel has also done better creatively in his solo career after leaving the group which helped launch his career. Despite what prog rock sympathizers might tell you otherwise, the 80's version could rock as well, and this song is a good example of it. Things began to slow down in the mid-90's, especially after Collins left in 93', and although there had been a couple of reunions since, 1997's, "Calling All Stations" wrapped it up for the group as a recording entity.
For those who just kept up with the top 40, the number one success of, "Centerfold" must have come as a bit of a shock, but in actually it was just a culmination of years of work
The group had it's beginnings at Worcester, Massachusetts as an acoustic blues band in 1967. John Geils (guitar, vocals), Danny Klein aka Dr. Funk (Bass), and Richard Salwitz aka Magic Dick (harmonica) made up the band under the name "Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels". It wasn't long however before they went electric and added drummer Stephen Jo Bladd, organist Seth Justman, and Peter Wolf who took over vocals which Geils devoted himself more to guitar, and the name changed to the J. Geils Blues Band then finally to J. Geils Band.
By 1970, they were signed to a contract and began a trek of over a decade where they churned out party blues/rock. During that decade they never had a top ten album with the exception of, "Bloodshot" in 1973, but always had strong sales overall, and a rabid following, especially in the northeast and mid-west. For many who were more into FM radio at the time, you might be surprised to know that the band also had six top forty songs before, "Centerfold", the best known being, "Musta Got Lost" in 1974, which reached number 12.
The song itself was written by Seth Justman and it and it's follow-up, "Freeze Frame" became top 5 hits here in the states. By 1983 however, Wolf left the band and Justman took over lead singing duties for one more album, and called it quits by 1985. They have since reunited from time to time most recently at the "Boston Strong" benefit concerts on May 30th for those injured in the Boston Marathon.
Stemming from an
"inflamation of his vocal cords," Smokey Robinson postponed his concerts
for the rest of May on Friday (May 10). Little Richard received
an honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from Mercer University in
Macon, Georgia Saturday (May 11). Meanwhile, Macon officials announced
Friday that Richard's boyhood home there will be moved to avoid being
demolished by a highway construction project. In its new location, the
home will become a neighborhood resource center. Doctors have ordered
Aretha Franklin to cancel performances in Chicago May 20 and
Connecticut May 26 so she can undergo an unspecified "treatment." The
announcement was made Monday (May 13). The 71 year-old's next scheduled
performance is June 22 in Clarkston, Michigan. This didn't keep the singer however from making an appearance on American Idol this past week. Judith Durham, lead
singer of the Seekers, suffered a brain hemmorhage Tuesday (May 14)
while the group was on tour in Melbourne, Australia. She was
hospitalized, but was described as "lucid and comfortable" as she
undergoes further tests. The group's 50th anniversary tour has now been
scrapped.
Songwriter
Ray Whitley, who gave us the Tams' "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy",
"What Kind Of Fool" and "I've Been Hurt" (the latter two also hits for
Bill Deal & the Rhondels), died Sunday (May 5) in Gainesville,
Georgia at the age of 69. Ray recorded a smattering of unsuccessful
singles himself and also wrote songs for-- among others-- Billy Joe
Royal, the Swinging Medallions, Joe South and Tommy Roe. He should not
be confused with the similarly-named country singer/songwriter who wrote
"Back In The Saddle Again." Bob Dylan did
not attend his induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Wednesday (May 15). He did issue a statement concerning the prestigious
membership, which allows only 250 members at a time. Said Bob, “I feel
extremely honored and very lucky to be included in this pantheon of
great individual artists who comprise the Academy of Arts and Letters. I
look forward to meeting all of you some time soon." A two-day
auction of artwork owned by the late Andy Williams brought in $46
million on the first day Wednesday (May 15) in New York. One painting
alone by Willem de Koonings garnered $9.7 million.
It's been dammed difficult at times to be a Rod Stewart fan. In the 70's he was one of the best singer-songwriters that rock music had to offer. His voice was outstanding, but it was the depth of his writing that kept you long after the music and voice grabbed you. Somewhere in the early 80's, he began to stray, seemingly enjoying his fame much more than his craft. Since the late 80's, he has been maddeningly inconsistent in his output, every now and then showing those glimpses of his past, but more often settling for the work of others...and don't even get me started on the "Great American Songbook" stuff. The release of his autobiography spurred him to pick up his guitar and for the first time since the early 90's, wrote almost an entire album full of material. This by itself piqued my interest.
What we have with "Time" is one of his best in a long, long time. The songs seems to veer from love songs to his current wife, to songs about the bad relationships along the way. Anyone who knows Rod's story knows he has a large truck full of those (failed relationships that is), and some of them are quite good, even doing what I thought was a great job with the Tom Waits songs, "Picture In a Frame"
My favorite song on the CD was, "Live the Life". Lyrically it's a bit sappy (although not so much when you compare it to the love songs), but for a brief moment we got the folky Stewart which harkened back to his early 70's output. The other songs veered more toward the adult contemporary which he has been doing for over 25 years now. Other highlights included, "She Makes Me Happy", "Brighton Beach" and "Beautiful Morning". If you don't mind springing for the CD with bonus tracks, it will be well worth your effort as two of the three songs, "Corrina Corrina" and "Legless" (which if you were a fan of Stewart with the Faces, the subject matter will give you a smile), are winners as well.
My wish however is that Rod would attempt at least one album which harkened back to his 70's output. Before you dismiss this as just a pipe dream on my part, all one has to do is look at what his friend Elton John has done over the last 10 years. At some point, Elton chose to go back to crafting music to suit himself rather than what the style of the day dictated. The result has been a series of albums that perhaps is not as good as his early 70's stuff, but harken back to that day. Rod is still in good voice, and my hope is that this is the beginning of a renaissance of a talent which, in it's day made him one of best. As it stands, this is better than anything he's done in 30 years. My hope is that this upward trend continues.
I have become a big fan of twitter. Those are naysayers who grouse about the massive amount of inane stuff posted, but have you looked at Facebook lately? I can assure you as well that most phone conversations are just as useless. We just live now in a newer generation of consumers, where idiocy can be broadcast world-wide. On the other hand, it can and is a powerful tool for getting information out quickly and for those who want to find people of like mind on any subject, in my case, older music.
There is software that allows you to not only see all of the activity on your twitter account at any time, but also to filter words. For instance, I have 60's music, and 70's music in my filter. Anytime anyone uses those words, anywhere in the world, I get to see it, this allows me to perhaps answer a question, or interject an opinion (which I'm full of those). A very useful tool for those who do not have a marketing budget.
It also allows me to see trends at times, and there are a couple that I find intriguing and/or amusing, and it gives me cause to address a couple of them, even though given the audience for this blog, I'm probably preaching to the choir.
The first trend is an odd interest in 70s porn music. First of all, in full disclosure, I've seen a few 70's porn flicks in my life, but cannot remember for the life of me any music in the background. It could have been that the movies I saw had such low standards for production that there was no thought to actually use any music, or was just so gobsmacked by what my eyes were seeing that my ears shut down to allow my vision to capture with the upmost clarity what was going on.
With so many of the tweets mentioning it's use, I figured that there must be something going on. So I put out a call to my twitter family to see if anyone could give examples. Either thinking that my mind had checked out early for the weekend, or just too embarrassed to admit it in public, there was no response.
Having struck out there, I went to You Tube (not to find porn...just to find the music. Perverts.) and found songs from an album called, "Porno Sonic", and a picture of Ron Jeremy on the front. Ron, who has come to the point in career where a woman will not get within a 10 inch...er...10 foot pole of his...well...uh...pole, has happily become the Gene Simmons of porn, allowing the likeness (just of his face thank God) to be put on any product that will get him some extra cash.
The following song is not only humorous, but gives a pretty good example of what those who never actually lived in the 70's, an idea of what this music was suppose to sound like
It says on the front of the cover that it was, "unreleased" 70's porno music. What audience the producers of this CD were marketing this for, I'm not sure. As far as I can remember this kind of music brought back visions of the 70's like Colt 45 malt liquor and shag carpeting. Just goes to show there is an audience for everything ...especially if that something didn't actually exist.
Which brings me to my second observation. I hate to break it to a couple of generations of men and women, but not everyone who grew up in the 60's grew their hair long, wore tie-die, and dropped acid. I hear all the time, "I SOOOO wish I could live back in the 60's where everyone got stoned, and there was so much LOVEEEE all the time.'
Let me put it to you straight, unless you were white, male and rich, the 60's (outside of the music) wasn't that cool of a place to be. I love Grace Slick's (singer from the Jefferson Airplane...Starship...etc.) comment on the subject of what it was like to in the "in" crowd; "If you can remember the 60's, you weren't there". I wasn't quite old enough for that era to be exactly in my wheelhouse (I was born in 1960), but can remember that growing hair beyond your collar was a sin, and those who did it, even in the mid-70's, were ostracized. There was a lot of experimentation with pot, but alcohol was the drug of choice, not only because it was more available, but because it was CHEAP. There were lame attempts a 60's fashion in my school, but few pulled it off. Thank God there were no pictures of me in my imitation Nehru jacket that I wore in 5th grade....
Why is there a need to always go back to the good ole' days anyway? There are many more answers to that question than I want to delve into in a blog, but just to say the reasons are legion. Our media however (many who are Baby Boomers themselves) has sanitized and sanctified the era to the point where much of the reality has left the building. This is not an anomaly with the 60's however. Growing up, if all I had was the radio and television to decide what the 50's were all about, than it would occurred to me that it would have ROCKED to been a teenager in the 50's. Thankfully I had
older siblings who reminded me that the decade wasn't all that hot either.
Having said that, what we are left with is how the music of a certain time relates to the good memories that we have, no matter which era we grew up in. It is natural for us to remember the fun times, but even for those times that were not so good, songs and artists frame the era that define our lives. To my younger readers, let me remind you that if your lucky, the music that defines you will be around 30, 40 or more years as well, but don't forget the reality of your life and times now, before the generation of your children or grandchildren attempt to redefine it as well.
The following is a short digest of the news of classic rock/pop. The first link is a fantastic story about the musicians behind the scenes of many of the classic soft pop/rock albums of the 70s.
The group ABBA never formally disbanded, but just slowly faded away in 1983 with the unfilled promise that the group had not stopped recording. The quartet had basically lost interest, as well as being lured by other new and interesting projects. Frida Lyngstad was the first to take advantage of this as she paired up with the Phil Collins' produced, "I Know There's Something Going On".
The other three members had one hit a piece in the US as well. Agnetha Falskog had a top forty hit in 1983, "Can't Shake Loose" (#29), and the team of Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson collaborated with Tim Rice to create the music for the musical, "Chess" . A single from that play "One Night in Bangkok" was recorded by Murray Head and reached number 3 on the charts in the spring of 1985.
Frida, who had never sung rock before was lead by Collins to record an album that was a bit more edgy compared to her work with ABBA. Having come from a background in jazz, this interested her. As you hear this single, Collins' drums almost dominate over the vocals, but the effect is a striking one. She was to collaborate with producer Steve Lillywhite for the album, "Shine". The album (if you can still find it) shows her pushing the envelope even further, but the album went nowhere. She continued to work in Europe, but wasn't heard of again in the states, until the world-wide renaissance, which began again in the 90's. She currently lives in Switzerland.
This is the first "Saturday Bus Digest". Hopefully we will be a one stop new source for your favorite artists and news of the past week. Included will be commentary on things that are related to music, rock and otherwise.
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Remembering George....
This past Thursday Nashville laid to rest one of the last links to old school country. In a very moving service at the Grand Ole Opry, his personal family, colleagues and fans came to say goodbye to the Possum.
I've never made any attempt to hide the fact that Country music isn't my favorite kind of music. However, from my earliest years I had a strong appreciation of the "hillbilly" music of my Daddy's day. He was older than most of the Dad's of my peers (he was 43 when I was born), so his link to Country music was through Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, and especially Hank Williams. He had a double set of Williams' biggest hits, and I can remember playing those albums, impressed by the total honesty and accessibility, yet poetic lyrics of the man. Although my tastes ran mostly to rock, the Country artists of the day impressed me for the same reason, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, George Jones, and especially Dolly Parton.
Watching the funeral I was reminded of how small and close knit this family of Nashville artists are. There is not a genre today that has such a family-like closeness. Much of that has to do with the fact that the vast majority of popular Country music historically has come from one city. That closeness also is felt by all who call Nashville home. Even if you are not a fan of Country music, there is a sense of pride by those who have "made it". At the same time the city is used to it enough to where many artists and stars have made this town their own because there is no fuss over them. It's not unusual to have lunch at the local Mexican restaurant with George and Nancy (which my wife and I have several times), or to go to the movies and be sitting next to Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman (we've done that as well).
George was different, but similar. His long time roots here not only made him an institution, but his story of redemption has also endeared him even more to the city. He never hesitated to give credit to his beloved wife Nancy for saving his life which allowed for a well deserved victory lap as the grand patriarch and standard bearer for "traditional" Country, and also made for some epic music. He wasn't afraid to mix it up with the newer generation as he became close friends to those in the New Traditionalist movement, such as Alan Jackson, Randy Travis and Garth Brooks. As that group moved aside for the likes of Brad Paisley and Kid Rock, he was willing to write and record with them as well.
So now he's gone, and there are very few from his generation still alive. Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton came several years after George. Willie Nelson is just a year younger, but he is as much a citizen of the world and a product of Austin Texas as to any real ties to Nashville. Watching the funeral Thursday reminds me of that thread of traditional country that still pervades in the genre, also it's not quite as easy to hear because of the strangulation caused by what is today's country radio. My hopes are raised though when you go on the streets of Broadway here in Nashville and not only hear the cover bands play George Jones, but when you slowly hear a return to the kind of songwriting that has more to do with heartbreak, and the joys and sorrows of life than partying on a dirt road or the sexiness of someone's tractor. When that happens, I may just start listening to Country music all over again.
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In case you missed it...here are some headlines from the past week in Rock and Roll.
Rick
Dees, the late “Tennessee” Ernie Ford and Rufus Thomas, the late Dewey
Phillips (the first DJ to play Elvis Presley) and Elvis’ “Memphis Mafia”
buddy, George Klein are being inducted Saturday (May 4) into the
Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame in ceremonies in Murfreesboro TN. It's
been learned that Don Shirley, best-known for his 1961 #40 pop
instrumental, "Water Boy," died of complications from heart disease
April 6 at his home in Manhattan. The Jamaican-born pianist was 86.
Glenn Frey was having a solid career as a solo artist by 1984. Perhaps not to the level of The Eagles, his previous group, but three top 40 hits gave promise to a brighter future. From his late teens, the Detroit native had been at first been in a succession of local groups, even singing backing vocals on the Bob Seger System's, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in 1968. Thinking that his future was not going to be in his hometown, he went to California and shortly teamed up with J.D. Souther, a fellow Detroit native and soon formed the group, "Longbranch Pennywhistle". Looking back now, the group looked like a potential who's who of great musicians. Doug Kershaw Ry Cooder, James Burton, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osbourn.
The group had no promotion at all, but the connections within the band and in their gigging throughout California would serve Frey well, as he would come into contact with Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. When the band finally folded, Ronstadt contacted him about playing in her backup band to support her nationwide tour in 1971. The band also consisted of Don Henley, Randy Mesiner, and Bernie Leadon. It wasn't long before the four chose to go on their own. It was thought in the music community that Leadon and Mesiner would be the leaders of this group since both had experience with name musicians, however it didn't take long for Henley and Frey to share songwriting duties and take leadership of the band called the Eagles.
The Eagles is arguably the most popular American band in the 70's. (Fleetwood Mac was 2/5ths American), but as time went on the friction between the members, especially the principal songwriters became too much and they went their separate ways in 1982. Frey's first solo album, "No Fun Allowed" produced two top 40 this, and "The Allnighter" continued the momentum it a song from the movie, "Beverly Hills Cop" to send him into the top 10.
The song written by Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey, the song was one of five singles off of the soundtrack and contributed to the 80's being considered THE decade for pop hits.
A couple of days ago, I asked my wife the question, "Was there a local band that everyone listened to when you were a kid". She is from Southern Mississippi, but was heavily influenced by music which came from New Orleans which is just 90 minutes to the West. Her answer was immediate, "Louisiana's LeRoux". I have to admit total ignorance to the group, which of course piqued my interest
They began from the remnants of a group called the Levee band in 1977, who had backed Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and Clifton Chenier. They first called themselves The Jeff Pollard Band, then Louisana's LeRoux (it would be later shortened to LeRoux). The group first consisted of Jeff Pollard (vocals, guitar), David Peters, (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Leon Medica (bass, backing vocals), Tony Haselden (vocals, guitars), Rod Roddy (keys, synths, vocals), Bobby Campo (horns, violin, percussion, vocals). They quickly scored a contract with Capitol and went to work on their first album.
That album, "Louisiana's LeRoux", spawned the single, "New Orleans Ladies" which reached #59 on the US charts, but at least in their home base, it became their signature song. They released a couple more well received albums, but it wasn't until the 1982 album, "Last Safe Place" that they hit big with the single, "Nobody Said It Was Easy" which reached the top 20 (#18) and it looked as thought the future was bright for the band.
However after a couple more singles which reached the bottom rungs of the top 100, Campo and Pollard both left the band. They faded from view until the 2000 release of the album, "Ain't Nothing But a Gris Gris" which showed a group that was still musically strong. You can check out their big hit, but at least for a generation of girls in the late 70's/early 80's this song became the band's theme.
You can read a lot more about this great band here: http://www.laleroux.com/
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Songwriter
Ray Whitley, who gave us the Tams' "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy",
"What Kind Of Fool" and "I've Been Hurt" (the latter two also hits for
Bill Deal & the Rhondels), died Sunday (May 5) in Gainesville,
Georgia at the age of 69. Ray recorded a smattering of unsuccessful
singles himself and also wrote songs for-- among others-- Billy Joe
Royal, the Swinging Medallions, Joe South and Tommy Roe. He should not
be confused with the similarly-named country singer/songwriter who wrote
"Back In The Saddle Again."
