birthday Archives - Page 41 of 49

Jimmy Page is 70

I just ODed on Stairway to Heaven, I’m afraid. Still leaving it off the list would be an injustice.

ledzeppelin.kch — Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page

Noticed that, of the 18 folks inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than once, the list includes Crosby, Stills, Nash AND Young; three Beatles; and three guitarists for the Yardbirds: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.

Since I never bought a Yardbirds album until after the group broke up, I wasn’t really familiar with Page until the group that evolved from the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, came out with its first album in 1969.

Here’s an interesting, and applicable, quote of Jimmy Page about what “he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, from the very beginning:
“‘I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock, and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music.”

And so it was.

I’ve already discussed my affection for, and irritation with, Zeppelin, especially Page and vocalist Robert Plant, so I guessed I’d list my 20 favorite songs by the group, not the best ones necessarily. Except…

Strange that my affection for songs by Led Zeppelin usually depends on what I’ve listened to most recently. Except for the #20 song, the ranking here is fairly arbitrary.

Links are to all songs, which WERE working at the time of compilation. Citations are to the albums I, II, III, IV, Physical Graffiti (PG), and Houses of the Holy (HotH)

20. Stairway to Heaven (IV) – yeah, I know that it has that building energy, a great Page guitar intro, it’s technically impressive. But I just ODed on it, I’m afraid. Still leaving it off the list would be an injustice. You would think it was released as a single, but oddly, only as a promo.

19. Houses of the Holy (PG). Strangely left off the Houses of the Holy album, it shows up on the next album. I find the beat seems to change on me. Something about the groove is infectious.

18. Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You (I) – starts off as a sweet song, actually, that reportedly is a paean to Joan Baez, who had recorded a version. Then moves to the more plaintive, driving sections. Back and forth – think I like the schizoid nature of the performance.

17. Celebration Day (III) – bluesy in an off-balanced manner.

16. Trampled Under Foot (PG) – lives on the funky bottom. This was released as a single and actually got to #38 in 1975.

15. Immigrant Song (III) – a slab of unrelenting metal that starts a generally more quiet and reflective album. Notably, it has no guitar solo, which allowed it to be released as a single and get up to #16 in early 1971.

14. Gallows Pole (III) – I knew this song first as performed by Leadbelly. Love the guitar, and the musical interlude.

13. Rock and Roll (IV) – actually a loud blues number, and often used as the band’s concert opener. Only got to #47 as a single in 1972.

12. The Ocean (HotH)- a great outlet for the bass/drum combo of John Paul Jones and John Bonham.

11. Black Dog (IV) – “Hey hey, mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.” Went to #15 in early 1972.

10. In My Time of Dying (PG) – rather like putting church through the heavy metal grinder. At 11 minutes, their longest song

9. Whole Lotta Love (II) – a great hook, great vocals. Nicked a Willie Dixon song, which wasn’t uncommon for them. Tom Skulan of FantaCo used to describe the pronunciation of his last name from the second line of this song, “I’m gonna send ya back to schoolin'”. Their biggest single, it went to #4 in the beginning of 1970.

8. Communications Breakdown (I) – there is a guy named Lefty Brown who used to organize a mixed CD exchange. I started one of the discs with this song – this feels so urgent – followed by Barabajagal by Donovan, featuring Jeff Beck. I think they go well together.

7. The Battle of Evermore (IV) – a softer side of the group, with a mandolin (I think), which would have fit on the third album.

6. How Many More Times (I) – it’s a fascinating pastiche of rocking blues, which segues into some psychedelic thing. I remember my copy of the original LP listed the running time as 3:30, reportedly so that radio DJs would play it before realizing it was five minutes longer.

5. Kashmir (PG) – it has this exotic sound, peculiar meter, awash with strings and horns. I’ve seen this song on lists of the best LZ song, and it may well be.

4. What Is, and What Should Never Be (II) – like many of my favorite LZ songs, it changes moods, from contemplative to rocking.

3. Good Times, Bad Times (I) – the first song from the first album hooked me instantly. As a single in 1969, before the album was released, it got only to #80 on the charts.

2. Friends (III) – this is the second song on the album after Immigrant Song suggested that the group was going to have another album rather like the first two. Instead, they went into a more melodic direction which led to the album being their worst seller. But I always liked it a lot.

1. Four Sticks (IV) – the song drives about in hypnotic fashion, changing time signatures frequently, from 5/4 to 6/8 to who knows what. The lyrics are banal, but it’s the beat that hooked me.

Randy Newman is 70, tomorrow

For someone once best known for the misunderstood song Short People, Randy Newman has had a not bad career.

Did I ever tell my “I sorta met Randy Newman” story? Probably.

I was at the Poughkeepsie, NY train station in mid-May 2000, returning from a conference. There was a guy at the station, with a woman and two children, and he looked very much like Randy Newman. So I walked over to him, and said, “Excuse me.” And he said, “Randy Newman.”

This is what I wanted to say: “Wow, I’ve loved your music ever since [the #1 song, below.] I sure hope you get that Oscar you deserve [he has since gotten two, in twenty nominations]. You know, that damn song on Toy Story 2[When Somebody Loved Me [LISTEN], written by Newman, sung by Sarah McLaughlin] made me cry! I even like you in those Band-Aid commercials [he was appearing in at the time].”

But I was so thrown off by his response that all I said was, “Oh, OK.” Ah, a treppenwitz moment.

Not only did the prolific songwriter and film scorer finally get Oscars, both for songs he wrote for Pixar films, but he was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. He wrote, among MANY other songs, Mama Told Me Not to Come [LISTEN to his version], a big hit for Three Dog Night. Almost There [LISTEN] from the Disney animated film The Princess and the Frog, sung by Anika Noni Rose, is a recent song of his I’ve enjoyed.

For someone once best known for the misunderstood song Short People [LISTEN], not a bad career.

Here are 10 songs:

10. You Can Leave Your Hat On [LISTEN]– Sail Away (1972). It is a song that sounds sexy when performed by someone like Joe Cocker but seems somewhat sordid when Newman does it.

9. Feels Like Home [LISTEN] -Harps and Angels (2008). This was originally performed by Bonnie Raitt on his 1995 Faust album, but I’m glad he decided to perform it himself. He’s ambivalent about the tune becoming a wedding favorite.

8. Potholes[LISTEN] – Harps and Angels (2008). The song is based on an embarrassing true story told about Newman by one of his loved ones to another.

7. I’m Dreaming[LISTEN] -free download (2012). “With lyrics from the viewpoint of a voter who casts his ballot solely based on skin color, the song draws attention to something Newman has noticed and written about for 40 years: racism in America.”

6. Rednecks[LISTEN] -Good Old Boys (1974). Wikipedia describes this as “a simultaneous satire on institutional racism in the Deep South and the hypocrisy of the northern states in response.”

5. It’s Money I Love[LISTEN] – Born Again (1979). Bluesy tune that may have been the best song on that album.

4. I Love LA [LISTEN] – Trouble in Paradise (1983): Is this Newman’s affection for Los Angeles, or sarcasm? Maybe both.

3. Louisiana 1927[LISTEN] – Good Old Boys (1974). After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this became an unofficial hymn of the disaster, covered by several artists.

2. Dixie Flyer[LISTEN] – Land of Dreams (1988). A look at his childhood, one of his early attempts at autobiography.

1. Political Science [LISTEN]– Sail Away (1972). 40 years after it was released, still a stinging indictment of American xenophobia, all in two minutes.

Mom: still surprising me

My mom would have been 86 today.

My sister Marcia has been posting a number of photos on Facebook. Most of them were pictures I remember but hadn’t viewed in many years. Then there is this one; I’d never seen it before, as far as I can recall.

My mom married my dad when she was 23, and I suspect this shot predates that, but I have no idea of the provenance of the photo. Who took it? What was the occasion? I may never know. She does look lovely.

Gertrude (Trudy) Elizabeth Green, nee Williams, would have been 86 today.

Joni Mitchell is 70

I’m pretty sure I heard the CSNY version of ‘Woodstock’ first, but I prefer this more plaintive version by Joni Mitchell

Back when the Okie and I were married, I had the date of August 22, 1974, circled on our calendar for three months. We were going to see Joni Mitchell at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Comes the day, and Uthaclena and his girlfriend at the time were sitting in the front of the car, and the Okie and I rode in the back. The Okie took this opportunity to berate me for virtually everything I ever did wrong in our two years of marriage to that point, including things we had previously discussed and I THOUGHT had been long resolved. All the way from New Paltz to Saratoga Springs, some 105 miles and close to two hours away, to the SPAC parking lot, to our seats, when I figured it would finally stop; it did not, even as Tom Scott and the L.A. Express began to play.

Finally, I walked away and found a vacant seat in the theater. I had to move a couple of times because there were people wandering around with flashlights making sure the lawn-seat folks didn’t sneak into the amphitheater.

I went back to our seats at intermission, and she was crying greatly because they were going to boot her out of the concert. Someone had said she was sitting in his seat, and I had BOTH of our tickets; the staff had misread the other guy’s ticket, and the situation was resolved.

We listened to the rest of the concert and then returned home in stony silence.

She moved to Philadelphia a couple of months later, and at some point in the next year, one of us filed for divorce, while we exchanged rancorous correspondence.

Funny thing, though; over the next few years, we managed a truce, then pleasant conversations on the phone or by mail over the next few years.

In 1981, I went to visit her in Philadelphia. We talked, had a nice time. By coincidence, there was a concert nearby and we attended. It was, of course, Joni Mitchell.
***
Lyrics, plus snippets of all of her songs can be found at jonimitchell.com

Favorite songs -album on which it first appeared:

20. Shadows and Light – The Hissing of Summer Lawns
A moody song, even more so on the live album named for this tune.

19. Come In From The Cold [LISTEN] – Night Ride Home
“Back in 1957
We had to dance a foot apart”

18. Ray’s Dad’s Cadillac [LISTEN] – Night Ride Home
I may like this for the pair of possessives in the title.

17. Woman Of Heart And Mind [LISTEN] – For the Roses
The contrast of the music and some of the lyrics makes it very effective.

16. Trouble Child [LISTEN] – Court and Spark
Nice bass line, plus I like the way it segues into Twisted

15. All I Want [LISTEN]– Blue
“I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling”
And I definitely got that sensation.

14. Free Man in Paris [LISTEN] – Court and Spark
“I felt unfettered and alive”
That’s how it made me feel.

13. You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio [LISTEN] – For the Roses
The radio references I found quite clever, such as:
“If there’s no good reception for me
Then tune me out, ’cause honey
Who needs the static”

12. Raised on a Robbery [LISTEN] – Court and Spark
Atypical for Joni, this rocks.

11. Help Me [LISTEN] – Court and Spark
And in a coda to the main story above, my rebound relationship after the Okie, I made an unfortunate reference to this song. The relationship lasted six weeks and I wasn’t in another for nearly three years.

10. The Jungle Line [LISTEN] – The Hissing of Summer Lawns
I first heard this album at the house of my friend Jon and his girlfriend at the time, Sue. She was a huge Joni fan but wasn’t sure she liked this particular album. I said, “Well, then, give it to me.” I liked it, especially this song. She ended up keeping it.

9. Blue [LISTEN] – Blue
My late friend Donna George’s nickname for herself was Blue.

8. Court and Spark [LISTEN] – Court and Spark
I often go back and forth trying to decide whether Court and Spark [LISTEN], or Blue is my favorite Joni album.

7. Woodstock [LISTEN] – Ladies of the Canyon
I’m pretty sure I heard CSNY’s take first, but I prefer this more plaintive version.

6. The Circle Game [LISTEN] – Ladies of the Canyon
This is an early song that became a hit for Tom Rush, but I always preferred Joni’s.

5. Twisted [LISTEN]– Court and Spark
This is that Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross song from 1962 that was such a hoot when done by Joni, plus Cheech and Chong.
“So why should I feel sorry
If they just couldn’t understand
The idiomatic logic
That went on in my head”

4. Big Yellow Taxi [LISTEN] – Ladies of the Canyon
“They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot.”
Still true, unfortunately.
Love the giggle when she ends the song.

3. The Same Situation [LISTEN] – Court and Spark
Always thought this was one of the most devastating lyrics ever:
“You’ve had lots of lovely women
Now you turn your gaze to me
Weighing the beauty and the imperfection
To see if I’m worthy”

2. A Case of You [LISTEN] – Blue
“Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
I would still be on my feet.”
I love the guitar here.

1. River [LISTEN]– Blue
One of Donna George’s favorite songs. She was a huge music fan, so I was truly mystified one day when she said she had never heard the ‘Jingle Bells’ motif in this song until I mentioned it in passing.
***
Watch: Joni Mitchell in a Rare, Career-Spanning Interview from June 2013 (105 minutes)

The eldest niece is 35 (tomorrow)

Rebecca’s been busy with lots of jobs to make a living, but it is the music that really matters.

The best part of Rebecca Jade’s early growing up was that she lived not that far away. I was in New Paltz or Albany (NY), and she and her parents (my sister Leslie and her now ex-husband) were living in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, a couple-hour bus ride away. So I saw her a month after she was born, and then several times the next couple of years, including on her first and second birthdays.

Then they moved away, first to North Carolina, then to Puerto Rico for over six years, and I never made it down there, much to my regret, since the photos made their place seem beautiful. I’ve noticed, though, that when I did get a chance to see her – at my grandmother’s funeral, visiting New York City – there is photographic evidence that I was the one who was coloring with her or upon whose shoulders she sat. I’ve also mentioned that when RJ was three and four, she looks a lot like my daughter at three or four (or vice versa.)

She and her folks went to the San Diego, CA area, where I would visit as often as possible, but most often I’d see her at my parents’ house in Charlotte, NC. She is a dozen years older than Marcia’s daughter Alexandria, and she was a GREAT big cousin, just as Alex is a great big cousin to Lydia.

Even early on, Rebecca was interested in music, following in her mother’s footsteps. She was in some trio when she was about 16, and they even recorded some tracks. The problem was, and I say this not out of pride but in fact, she was the only one who could really sing.

Another thing was into was basketball. She was a star on her high school team, and a starter on her college team at U Cal Berkeley; I actually got to see her play live once when her team played in the NYC area. Of course, I made it to graduation from both HS and college.

She got married on 3/7/05, 37 being the uniform number of her husband Rico Curtis when he played football in college and subsequently. 5 was RJ’s uniform number in college.

Rebecca’s been busy with lots of jobs to make a living, but it is the music that really matters. She’s singing with so many different groups I have lost track; she’s quite eclectic. There’s Siren’s Crush, and the Soul Tones, and some jazz quartet.

She’s put out one album, thanks to Kickstarter, and is now working on a second one. Here’s her website. You can listen to a couple of cuts from her new project with Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact.

She recently wrote her mantra on Facebook: “When we aren’t constantly trying to achieve and even surpass our creative potential, or we choose to give in to mediocrity, a part of our soul is neglected.”

Happy birthday, Rebecca. I love you.