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T-Bone Walker was born 112 years ago today

T-Bone Walker performing at London's Hammersmith Odeon

Photo by David Redfearn

T-Bone Walker was born 112 years ago today.

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound.

Born in Linden, Texas, of African-American and Cherokee descent, Walker's parents, Movelia Jimerson and Rance Walker, were both musicians. His stepfather, Marco Washington, taught him to play the guitar, ukulele, banjo, violin, mandolin and piano.

Early in the 1900s, the teenage Walker learned his craft among the street-strolling string bands of Dallas. His mother and stepfather (a member of the Dallas String Band) were musicians, and family friend, Blind Lemon Jefferson, sometimes joined the family for dinner.

Walker left school at age 10. By 15, he was a professional performer on the blues circuit. Initially, he was Jefferson's protégé and would guide him around town for his gigs. In 1929, Walker made his recording debut with a single for Columbia Records, "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity River Blues," billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone.

Oak Cliff was the community he lived in at the time and T-Bone a corruption of his middle name. Pianist Douglas Fernell was his musical partner for the first recording. By age 25, Walker was working and the clubs in Los Angeles' Central Avenue, sometimes as the featured singer and guitarist with Les Hite's orchestra.

By 1942, with his second album release, Walker's new-found musical maturity and ability had advanced to the point that Rolling Stone claimed that he "shocked everyone" with his newly developed distinctive sound upon the release of his first single, "Mean Old World," on the Capitol Records label.

Much of his output was recorded from 1946–1948 on Black & White Records, including his most famous song, 1947's "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad).” Other notable songs he recorded during this period were "Bobby Sox Blues" (a #3 R&B hit in 1946) and "West Side Baby" (#8 on the R&B singles charts in 1948).

Throughout his career, Walker worked with top notch musicians, including trumpeter Teddy Buckner, pianist Lloyd Glenn, Billy Hadnott (bass) and tenor saxophonist Jack McVea. From 1950-54, he recorded for Imperial Records, backed by Dave Bartholomew.

Walker's only record in the next five years was T-Bone Blues, recorded over three widely separated sessions in 1955, 1956 and 1959 and finally released by Atlantic Records in 1960. By the early 1960s, Walker's career had slowed down, in spite of a hyped appearance at the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 with Memphis Slim and prolific writer and musician, Willie Dixon.

Yet, several critically acclaimed albums followed, such as I Want a Little Girl, recorded for Delmark Records in 1968. Walker recorded in his last years, from 1968–1975, for Robin Hemingway's Jitney Jane Songs music publishing company.

Persistent stomach woes and a 1974 stroke slowed Walker's career down to a crawl. He died of bronchial pneumonia following another stroke in March, 1975 at the age of 64.

Chuck Berry named Walker and Louis Jordan as his main influences. B.B. King cites hearing Walker's "Stormy Monday" record as his inspiration for getting an electric guitar. It was also a favorite of the Allman Brothers Band. Walker was admired by Jimi Hendrix who imitated Walker's trick of playing the guitar with his teeth. Duke Robillard is a current guitarist keeping the blues style of Walker alive.

Here, Walker performs at Jazz at the Philharmonic in the UK, 1966

Papa John Creach was born 105 years ago today

Papa John Creach, 1974

Photo by Jim Summaria

Papa John Creach was born 105 years ago today.

Creach was a blues violinist who played for Jefferson Airplane (1970–1975), Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Starship — The Next Generation, the San Francisco All-Stars (1979–1984), The Dinosaurs (1982–1989) and Steve Taylor. Creach was also a frequent guest at Grateful Dead concerts.

Born at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, Creach began playing violin in Chicago bars when his family moved there in 1935, and later joined a local cabaret band, the Chocolate Music Bars, and toured the Midwest with them.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1945, he played in the Chi Chi Club, spent time working on an ocean liner, appeared in several films and performed as a duo with Nina Russell.

In 1967, Creach met and befriended drummer, Joey Covington. When Covington joined the Jefferson Airplane in 1970, he introduced them to Creach, who was invited to join Hot Tuna. Although regarded as a session musician, he would remain with the band for the next four years, before leaving in 1974 to join Jefferson Starship and record on their first album, Dragonfly. Creach toured with Jefferson Starship and played on the band's hit album, Red Octopus, in 1975.

Around 1976, Creach left to pursue a solo career. Despite this, he was a guest musician on the spring 1978 Jefferson Starship tour. A year later, Creach renewed his working relationship with Covington as a member of the San Francisco All-Stars, as well as with Covington's Airplane predecessor, Spencer Dryden, as a member of The Dinosaurs.

He also continued with occasional guest appearances with Hot Tuna, and was on stage at the Fillmore Auditorium in 1988 when Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen of Hot Tuna were reunited with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick for the first time since Jefferson Airplane disbanded.

In 1992, he became one of the original members of Jefferson Starship — The Next Generation and performed with them until suffering a heart attack during the 1994 Northridge earthquake on January 17, 1994.

As a consequence of the heart attack, Creach contracted pneumonia, from which he died a month later at the age of 76. Jefferson Starship performed a benefit concert to raise money for his family after his death and released tracks from their performances as the album Deep Space/Virgin Sky.

Here, Creach and Hot Tuna perform “Papa John's Down Home Blues” in 1988 at the Fillmore

John Fogerty is 77 years old today

John Fogerty performs during the 2014 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at Fair Grounds Race Course, New Orleans

Photo by Jeff Kravitz

John Fogerty is 77 years old today.

A musician, songwriter and guitarist, Fogerty is best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), and as a solo recording artist.

Born in Berkeley, California, Fogerty is the younger brother of the late Tom Fogerty. He attended El Cerrito High School along with the other members of CCR and took guitar lessons from Berkeley Folk Festival creator/producer, Barry Olivier.

Inspired by rock and roll pioneers, especially Little Richard and Bo Diddley, John and his brother, Tom Fogerty, joined Doug Clifford and Stu Cook in the late 1950s to form the band, Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets, in El Cerrito, California.

After signing with the jazz label, Fantasy, in 1965 they became The Golliwogs and released a few singles that were largely ignored.

Fogerty was almost drafted in 1966, instead joining an Army Reserve unit. He served at Fort Bragg, Fort Knox and Fort Lee. He was discharged from the Army in July, 1967. In the same year, the band changed its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

At this time, he took his brother's place as lead singer for the band. By 1968, things started to pick up for the band. The band released their eponymous debut album and also had their first hit single, "Susie Q". Many other hit singles and albums followed, beginning with "Proud Mary" and the album Bayou Country.

John Fogerty, as writer of the songs for the band (as well as lead singer and lead guitarist), felt that his musical opinions should count for more than those of the others, leading to resentments within the band. These internal rifts, and Tom's feeling that he was being taken for granted, caused Tom to leave the group in January, 1971.

The two other group members, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford, wanted a greater role in the band's future. Fogerty, in an attempt to keep things together, insisted Cook and Clifford share equal songwriting and vocal time on the band's final album, Mardi Gras, released in April, 1972.

This album included the band's last two singles, the 1971 hit "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" and "Someday Never Comes," which barely made it into the Billboard Top 20.

Cook and Clifford told Fogerty that the fans would not accept "Mardi Gras" as a CCR LP, but he said, "My voice is a unique instrument and I will not lend it to your songs." He gave them an ultimatum: either they would do it or he would quit immediately. They accepted his ultimatum, but the album received poor reviews.

It was a commercial success, however, peaking at #12 and achieving gold record status. It generated weaker sales than their previous albums. The group disbanded shortly afterwards. The only reunion with all four original members would be at Tom Fogerty's wedding in 1980.

John, Doug and Stu played a 45 minute set at their 20th class reunion in 1983, and John and Doug would reunite again for a brief set at their 25th class reunion in 1988.

John Fogerty began a solo career, originally under the name, The Blue Ridge Rangers, for his 1973 LP debut. Fogerty played all of the instruments on covers of others' country music hits, such as "Jambalaya" (which was a Top 20 hit).

After performing country and western tunes, he released a rock single in late 1973, also as The Blue Ridge Rangers. The two John Fogerty penned songs were "You Don't Owe Me" and "Back in the Hills" (Fantasy F-710). In early 1974, Fogerty released two rock tunes on a seven-inch single. The two songs were the vocal "Comin' Down The Road" b/w the instrumental "Ricochet."

His second solo album, John Fogerty, was released in 1975. Sales were slim and legal problems delayed a followup, though it yielded "Rockin' All Over the World," a Top 40 hit for Fogerty in North America.

Fogerty's solo career re-emerged in full force with 1985's Centerfield, his first album for Warner Bros. Records (which took over co-ownership of Asylum's contract with Fogerty). Centerfield went to the top of the charts and included a Top 10 hit, "The Old Man Down The Road." The title track is frequently played on classic rock radio and at baseball games to this day. But that album was not without its legal snags.

Two songs on the album, "Zanz Kant Danz" and "Mr. Greed," were believed to be attacks on Fogerty's former boss at Fantasy Records, Saul Zaentz. "Zanz Kant Danz" was about a pig who can't dance, but would "steal your money."

When Zaentz responded with a lawsuit, Fogerty issued a revised version of "Zanz Kant Danz" (changing the lead character's name to Vanz). Another lawsuit (Fantasy, Inc. v. Fogerty) claimed that "The Old Man Down The Road" shared the same chorus as "Run Through the Jungle" (a song from Fogerty's days with Creedence to which Fantasy Records had owned the publishing rights).

Fogerty ultimately won his case when he proved that the two songs were wholly distinct compositions. Fogerty then countersued for attorney fees (Fogerty v. Fantasy). After losing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Fogerty won his case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled the trial court has discretion in awarding fees to defendants or plaintiffs.

In 1990, Tom Fogerty died of AIDS (specifically from a tuberculosis infection) at the age of 48, having contracted HIV from blood transfusions for back ailments.

John Fogerty has mentioned that the darkest moments in his life were when his brother took the record company's side in their royalties dispute, and the fact that when his brother died, the two of them were not speaking to each other.

Fogerty traveled to Mississippi in 1990 for inspiration and visited the gravesite of blues legend, Robert Johnson. There he realized that Robert Johnson was the true spiritual owner of his own songs, no matter what businessman owned the rights to them. It was then that Fogerty decided to start making a new album and to perform his old Creedence material regularly in concert.

It was at this time visiting the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church cemetery that Fogerty met Skip Henderson, a New Jersey vintage guitar dealer who had formed a nonprofit corporation, The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, to honor Johnson with a memorial marker.

Fogerty subsequently funded headstones for Charlie Patton, James Son Thomas, Mississippi Joe Callicott, Eugene Powell, Lonnie Pitchford and helped with financial arrangements for numerous others.

Here, Fogerty performs “Proud Mary” at Farm Aid, 1997

Jerry Douglas is 66 years old today

Jerry Douglas, New York City, 2007

Photo by Frank Beacham

Jerry Douglas is 66 years old today.

Douglas is a renowned resonator guitar and lap steel player and record producer. In addition to his thirteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1,600 albums.

As a sideman, he has recorded with artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Phish, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, Keb' Mo', Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello and Johnny Mathis, as well as performing on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. He has been part of such notable groups as The Whites, New South, The Country Gentlemen, Strength in Numbers and Elvis Costello's "Sugar Canes."

As a producer, he has overseen albums by Alison Krauss, the Del McCoury Band, Maura O'Connell, Jesse Winchester and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Along with Aly Bain, he serves as Music Director of the popular BBC Television series, "Transatlantic Sessions."

Since 1998, Douglas has been a member of Alison Krauss and Union Station, touring extensively and playing on a series of platinum-selling albums. When not on the road with Krauss, Douglas tours with his band in support of his extensive body of work.

Douglas lives in Nashville with his wife, Jill. The couple have four children.

Here, Douglas performs “Little Medley”

Ian Fleming, English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer, best known for his James Bond series of spy novels, was born 114 years ago today

Ian Fleming, English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer, best known for his James Bond series of spy novels, was born 114 years ago today.

Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917.

Educated at Eton, Sandhurst and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing. While working for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, Fleming was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units, 30 Assault Unit and T-Force.

Flemings wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail and depth of the James Bond novels. He wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952. It was a success, with three print runs being commissioned to cope with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two short-story collections followed between 1953 and 1966.

The novels revolved around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having sold over 100 million copies worldwide.

Fleming also wrote the children's story, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, and two works of non-fiction.

Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously. Other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming's creation has appeared in film 25 times, portrayed by seven actors.

Gordon Willis, cinematographer, was born 91 years ago today

Photo by Bill Hamill

Gordon Willis, cinematographer, was born 91 years ago today.

Willis is best known for his work on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather series, as well as Woody Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan.

His fellow cinematographer, William Fraker, called Willis' work "a milestone in visual storytelling,” while one critic suggested that "more than any other director of photography, Willis defined the cinematic look of the 1970s: sophisticated compositions in which bolts of light and black put the decade's moral ambiguities into stark relief.”

When the International Cinematographers Guild conducted a survey in 2003, they placed Willis among the ten most influential cinematographers in history.

Willis died of cancer on May 18, 2014, ten days before his 83rd birthday, in North Falmouth, Massachusetts.

On his death, ASC president Richard Crudo said: "He was one of the giants who absolutely changed the way movies looked. Up until the time of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, nothing previously shot looked that way. He changed the way films looked and the way people looked at films."

Gladys Knight is 78 years old today

Gladys Knight and the Pips, 1973

Gladys Knight is 78 years old today.

Known as the "Empress of Soul," Knight is a singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian and author. She is best known for the hits she recorded during the 1960s and 1970s, for both the Motown and Buddah Records labels, with her group, Gladys Knight & the Pips.

The most famous incarnation of “The Pips” also included her brother, Merald "Bubba" Knight, and her cousins, Edward Patten and William Guest.

Born in Oglethorpe, Georgia, Knight first achieved minor fame by winning Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV show contest at the age of seven in 1952. The following year, she, her brother Merald, sister Brenda and cousins William and Elenor Guest formed a musical group called The Pips (named after another cousin, James "Pip" Woods).

By the end of the decade, the act had begun to tour, and had replaced Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest with Gladys Knight's cousin, Edward Patten, and a friend. Gladys Knight & the Pips joined the Motown roster in 1966, and, although regarded as a second-string act, scored several hit singles.

They included "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (recorded first by Marvin Gaye but released a year later), "Friendship Train" (1969), "If I Were Your Woman" (1970), "I Don't Want To Do Wrong" (1971), "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" (1972) and "Daddy Could Swear (I Declare)" (1973).

In their early Motown career, Gladys Knight and the Pips toured as the opening act for Diana Ross and The Supremes. Gladys Knight stated in her memoirs that Ross kicked her off the tour because the audience's reception to Knight's soulful performance overshadowed her. Berry Gordy later told Gladys that she was giving his act a hard time.

The act left Motown for a better deal with Buddah Records in 1973, and achieved full-fledged success that year with hits such as the "Midnight Train to Georgia" (#1 on the pop and R&B chart), "I've Got to Use My Imagination" and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me."

In the summer of 1974, Knight and the Pips recorded the soundtrack to the successful film, Claudine, with producer Curtis Mayfield. The act was particularly successful in Europe, and especially the United Kingdom.

However, a number of the Buddah singles became hits in the UK long after their success in the U.S. For example, "Midnight Train to Georgia" hit the UK pop charts Top 5 in the summer of 1976, a full three years after its success in the U.S.

During this period of greater recognition, Knight made her motion picture acting debut in the film, Pipe Dreams, a romantic drama set in Alaska.

Knight and the Pips continued to have hits until the late 1970s, when they were forced to record separately due to legal issues, resulting in Knight's first solo LP recordings — Miss Gladys Knight (1978) on Buddah and Gladys Knight (1979) on Columbia Records.

Signing with Columbia Records in 1980 and restored to its familiar quartet form, Gladys Knight & the Pips began releasing new material. The act enlisted former Motown producers, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, for their first two LPs — About Love (1980) and Touch (1981). During this period, Knight kicked a gambling addiction to the game baccarat.

In 1987, Knight decided to pursue a solo career, and she and the Pips recorded their final LP together, All Our Love (1987), for MCA Records. Its lead single, "Love Overboard," was a hit. After a successful 1988 tour, the Pips retired and Knight began her solo career.

Here, Knight and the Pips perform “Midnight Train to Georgia”

Barry Commoner was born 105 years ago today

Barry Commoner in a classroom at Washington University, St. Louis, 1971

Photo by Jack Fahland

Barry Commoner was born 105 years ago today.

A biologist, college professor and politician, Commoner was a leading ecologist and one of the founders of the modern environmental movement. He ran for president of the United States in the 1980 U.S. presidential election on the Citizens Party ticket. He served as editor of Science Illustrated magazine.

Born in Brooklyn, Commoner received his bachelor's degree in zoology from Columbia University in 1937 and his master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 1938 and 1941, respectively.

In the late 1950s, he became well known for his opposition to nuclear weapons testing, becoming part of the team which conducted the Baby Tooth Survey. It demonstrated the presence of Strontium 90 in children's teeth as a direct result of nuclear fallout.

Commoner went on to write several books about the negative ecological effects of atmospheric (i.e., above-ground) nuclear testing. In 1970, he received the International Humanist Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

In Poverty and Population, he wrote that rapid population growth of the developing world was the result of standards not being met. He argued that it is poverty that “initiates the rise in population” before leveling off — not the other way around.

Developing countries, he wrote, were introduced to the standards, but were never able to fully adopt them, thus not advancing and limiting their population growth. He described the reason why developing countries were still “forgotten” was due to colonialism. Developed countries were, and economically remain, “colonies of more developed countries.”

Because Western Nations introduced innovations such as roads, communications, engineering and agricultural and medical services as a part of using and exploiting the developing nation’s labor force and natural resources, the first step towards a “demographic transition” was met, but other stages were not, he wrote.

This did not happen, Commoner wrote, because the wealth that these developing countries created did not stay. It was “shipped out,” so to speak, and enabled the wealthier nations to achieve the different "levels of demographic transition,” while the colonies continued on without achieving the second stage, which is population balancing.

In his 1971 bestselling book, The Closing Circle, Commoner suggested that the American economy should be restructured to conform to the unbending laws of ecology. For example, he argued that polluting products (like detergents or synthetic textiles) should be replaced with natural products like soap, cotton and wool. This book was one of the first to bring the idea of sustainability to a mass audience.

Commoner suggested a left-wing, eco-socialist response to the limits to growth thesis, postulating that capitalist technologies were chiefly responsible for environmental degradation, as opposed to population pressures.

One of Commoner's lasting legacies is his four laws of ecology, as written in The Closing Circle in 1971. The four laws are:

1. Everything is connected to everything else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all.

2. Everything must go somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown.

3. Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, wrote Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system"

4. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

Commoner died on September 30, 2012 in New York City.

On this day in 1937 — 85 years ago — the government of Germany started the company that built the Volkswagen

On this day in 1937 — 85 years ago — the government of Germany, then under the control of Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, formed a new state-owned automobile company, then known as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH.

Later that year, it was renamed simply Volkswagenwerk, or "The People's Car Company." Originally operated by the German Labor Front, a Nazi organization, Volkswagen was headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany.

In addition to his ambitious campaign to build a network of autobahns and limited access highways across Germany, Hitler's pet project was the development and mass production of an affordable yet still speedy vehicle that could sell for less than 1,000 Reich marks (about $140 at the time). To provide the design for this "people's car," Hitler called in the Austrian automotive engineer, Ferdinand Porsche.

In 1938, at a Nazi rally, the Fuhrer declared: "It is for the broad masses that this car has been built. Its purpose is to answer their transportation needs, and it is intended to give them joy." However, soon after the KdF (Kraft-durch-Freude)-Wagen ("Strength-Through-Joy" car) was displayed for the first time at the Berlin Motor Show in 1939, World War II began and Volkswagen halted production.

After the war ended, with the factory in ruins, the Allies would make Volkswagen the focus of their attempts to resuscitate the German auto industry.

Volkswagen sales in the United States were initially slower than in other parts of the world, due to the car's historic Nazi connections as well as its small size and unusual rounded shape.

In 1959, the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach launched a landmark campaign, dubbing the car the "Beetle" and spinning its diminutive size as a distinct advantage to consumers. Over the next several years, VW became the top-selling auto import in the United States. In 1960, the German government sold 60 percent of Volkswagen's stock to the public, effectively denationalizing it.

Twelve years later, the Beetle surpassed the longstanding worldwide production record of 15 million vehicles, set by Ford Motor Company's legendary Model T between 1908 and 1927.

With the Beetle's design relatively unchanged since 1935, sales grew sluggish in the early 1970s. VW bounced back with the introduction of sportier models such as the Rabbit and later, the Golf.

In 1998, the company began selling the highly touted "New Beetle," while still continuing production of its predecessor. The latest Beetle continues in production today. After nearly 70 years and more than 21 million units produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30, 2003.

Thanks History.com

Walker Percy, writer, was born 106 years ago today

Walker Percy on the dock at Bogue Falaya, his family home in Covington, La.

Photo by Christopher R. Harris

Walker Percy, writer, was born 106 years ago today.

Percy devoted his literary life to the exploration of "the dislocation of man in the modern age."

A Southern author from Covington, Louisiana, Percy’s interests included philosophy and semiotics. He is known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.

Percy’s work displays a combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility and deep Catholic faith. A neighboring boy his own age, Shelby Foote, became Percy’s lifelong best friend. As young men, Percy and Foote decided to pay their respects to William Faulkner by visiting him in Oxford, Mississippi.

But when they arrived at his home, Percy was so in awe of the literary giant that he could not bring himself to speak to him. He later recounted how he could only sit in the car and watch while Foote and Faulkner had a lively conversation on the porch.

In 1961, Percy published his first novel, The Moviegoer. He later wrote of the novel that it was the story of "a young man who had all the advantages of a cultivated old-line southern family: a feel for science and art, a liking for girls, sports cars and the ordinary things of the culture, but who nevertheless feels himself quite alienated from both worlds, the old South and the new America."

Subsequent works included The Last Gentleman (1966), Love in the Ruins (1971), Lancelot (1977), The Second Coming (1980) and The Thanatos Syndrome in 1987. Percy also published a number of non-fiction works exploring his interests in semiotics and Existentialism, the most popular work being Lost in the Cosmos.

Percy taught and mentored younger writers. While teaching at Loyola University of New Orleans, he was instrumental in getting John Kennedy Toole's novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, published in 1980. It was more than a decade after Toole committed suicide due to his despondence over not being able to get his book recognized. It later won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

In 1987, Percy, along with 21 other noted authors, met in Chattanooga, Tennessee to create the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Percy died of prostate cancer in 1990, eighteen days before his 74th birthday.

Woman Smoking At The Window

Self portrait by Diana Sosnowska

UK photographer Diana Sosnowska carefully staged this self-portrait taken in the artist’s former apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the eve of the pandemic’s spread throughout the UK in 2020.

Inspired by midcentury fashion and aesthetics, the photographer references the paintings of Edward Hopper and pays tribute to his 1961 work, "A Woman in the Sun."

Like Hopper’s piece, the central figure gazes outside the frame while illuminated by the muted light of the bleak grey horizons, both literal and metaphoric.

Junior Parker was born 90 years ago today

Junior Parker, 1958

Junior Parker was born 90 years ago today.

A Memphis blues singer and musician, Parker is best remembered for his unique voice which has been described as "honeyed" and "velvet-smooth."

"For years, Junior Parker deserted down home harmonica blues for uptown blues-soul music,” a music journalist wrote.

Parker sang in gospel groups as a child and played on the various blues circuits beginning in his teenage years. His biggest influence as a harmonica player was Sonny Boy Williamson, with whom he worked before moving on to work for Howlin' Wolf in 1949.

Around 1950, he was a member of Memphis's ad hoc group, the Beale Streeters, with Bobby 'Blue' Bland and B.B. King. In 1951, he formed his own band, the Blue Flames, with the guitarist, Pat Hare. Parker was discovered in 1952 by Ike Turner, who signed him to Modern Records.

He put out one single on this record label, "You're My Angel." This brought him to the attention of Sam Phillips, and he and his band signed onto Sun Records in 1953. There they produced three successful songs: "Feelin' Good" (which reached #5 on the U.S. R&B chart), "Love My Baby" and "Mystery Train," later covered by Elvis Presley.

For Presley's version of "Mystery Train," Scotty Moore borrowed the guitar riff from Parker's "Love My Baby," played by Pat Hare. "Love My Baby" and "Mystery Train" are considered important contributions to the rockabilly genre.

Later in 1953, Parker toured with Bobby Bland and Johnny Ace, and also joined Duke Records. Parker and Bland headed the highly successful Blues Consolidated Revue, which became a staple part of the southern blues circuit.

He continued to have a string of hits on the R&B chart, including the smooth "Next Time You See Me" (1957); re-makes of Roosevelt Sykes' song "Driving Wheel" (1961), Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago," Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used to Do" (1963) and Don Robey's "Mother-in-Law Blues" (1956); plus his own "Stand by Me" (1961).

His success was limited after he left Duke in 1966. He recorded for various labels, including Mercury, Blue Rock, Minit and Capitol.

Parker died on November 18, 1971 at age 39 in Blue Island, Illinois during surgery for a brain tumor.

On his 1974 album, Explores Your Mind, Al Green dedicated his original version of the song "Take Me To The River" to Parker, who he describes as "a cousin of mine who's gone on, and we'd kinda like to carry on in his name."

Here, Parker performs the original “Mystery Train,” 1953

Junior Parker with Elvis Presley and Bobby Blue Bland, 1956

Vincent Price was born 111 years ago today

Vincent Price was born 111 years ago today.

Price was an actor, well known for his distinctive voice as well as his serio-comic performances in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Price was the youngest of the four children of Vincent Leonard Price, Sr., president of the National Candy Company, and his wife, Marguerite Cobb Price. His grandfather, Vincent Clarence Price, invented "Dr. Price's Baking Powder," the first cream of tartar baking powder and secured the family's fortune.

In 1933, Price graduated with a degree in art history from Yale University, where he worked on campus humor magazine, The Yale Record. After teaching for a year, he entered the University of London, intending to study for a Master's degree in Fine Arts. Instead, he was drawn to the theater, first appearing on stage professionally in 1934. His acting career began in London in 1935, performing with Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre.

In 1936, Price appeared as Prince Albert Victor in the American production of Laurence Housman's play, Victoria Regina, starring Helen Hayes in the title role of Queen Victoria. Price's first venture into the horror genre was in the 1939 Boris Karloff film, Tower of London.

The following year he portrayed the title character in the film, The Invisible Man Returns, a role he reprised in a vocal cameo at the end of the 1948 horror-comedy spoof, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

In 1946, Price reunited with Tierney in two notable films, Dragonwyck and Leave Her to Heaven. There were also many villainous roles in film noir thrillers like The Web (1947), The Long Night (1947), Rogues' Regiment (1948) and The Bribe (1949), with Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner and Charles Laughton.

In the 1950s, Price moved into horror films, with a role in House of Wax (1953), the first 3-D film to land in the year's top ten at the North American box office. His next roles were The Mad Magician (1954), the monster movie, The Fly (1958), and its sequel, Return of the Fly (1959).

A witty raconteur, Price was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, where he once demonstrated how to poach a fish in a dishwasher. Price was a noted gourmet cook and art collector. He also authored several cookbooks, in particular, A Treasury of Great Recipes (with his second wife), and hosted a cookery TV show, Cooking Pricewise.

Price died of lung cancer on October 25, 1993, at UCLA Medical Center at the age of 82.

Ramsey Lewis is 87 years old today

Ramsey Lewis is 87 years old today.

A jazz composer, pianist and radio personality, Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records so far in his career.

Born in Chicago, Lewis began taking piano lessons at the age of four. At 15, he joined his first jazz band, The Cleffs. The seven-piece group provided Lewis his first involvement with jazz. He graduated from DePaul University.

Lewis would later join Cleffs drummer, Isaac "Redd" Holt, and bassist, Eldee Young, to form the Ramsey Lewis Trio. The trio started as primarily a jazz unit and released their first album, Ramsey Lewis and the Gentlemen of Swing, in 1956.

Following their 1965 hit, "The In Crowd" (the single reached #5 on the pop charts and the album #2) they concentrated more on pop material. Young and Holt left in 1966 to form Young-Holt Unlimited and were replaced by Cleveland Eaton and Maurice White.

White left to form Earth, Wind & Fire. He was replaced by Morris Jennings in 1970. Later, Frankie Donaldson and Bill Dickens replaced Jennings and Eaton. Felton Crews also appeared on many 1980's releases.

By 1966, Lewis was one of the nation’s most successful jazz pianists, topping the charts with "The In Crowd," "Hang On Sloopy" and "Wade in the Water." All three singles each sold over one million copies.

Many of his recordings attracted a large non-jazz audience. In the 1970s, Lewis often played electric piano, although by later in the decade he was sticking to acoustic and using an additional keyboardist in his groups.

In 1994, Lewis appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album, Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, alongside other prominent jazz artists, Herbie Hancock and Roy Ayers.

In addition to recording and performing his music, Lewis has also hosted radio programs, including the former weekly syndicated radio program, Legends of Jazz, which created in 1990.

In 2006, a well-received 13-episode, Legends of Jazz television series, hosted by Lewis, was broadcast on public TV nationwide and featured live performances by a variety of jazz artists including Larry Gray, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joey Defrancesco, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea, Kurt Elling, Benny Golson, Pat Metheny and Tony Bennett.

Lewis still lives in Chicago, the city of his musical roots. He has seven children, fourteen grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Here, The Ramsey Lewis Trio live…

Rachel Carson, environmental writer, was born 115 years ago today

Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Rachel Carson, environmental writer, was born 115 years ago today.

Carson was a marine biologist and conservationist whose book, Silent Spring, and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. Her widely praised 1951 bestseller, The Sea Around Us, won her a U.S. National Book Award. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, and the reissued version of her first book, Under the Sea Wind, were also bestsellers. This sea trilogy explores the whole of ocean life from the shores to the depths.

Late in the 1950s, Carson turned her attention to conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result was Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people.

Although Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides. It also inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter.

Here is a video on Carson’s “Silent Spring”

Isadora Duncan, dancer, was born 145 years ago today

Photo by Arnold Genthe

Isadora Duncan, dancer, was born 145 years ago today.

Born in California, Duncan lived in Western Europe and the Soviet Union from the age of 22 until her death at age 50. She performed to acclaim throughout Europe after being exiled from the United States for her Soviet sympathies.

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was a contributing factor towards her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France, when she was a passenger in an Amilcar. Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.

In her early years in the San Francisco area, Duncan attended school but, finding it to be constricting to her individuality, she dropped out. As her family was very poor, both she and her sister gave dance classes to local children to earn extra money.

In 1896, Duncan became part of Augustin Daly's theater company in New York. She soon became disillusioned with the form. Her father, along with his third wife and their daughter, died in the 1898 sinking of the British passenger steamer, SS Mohegan.

Duncan’s different approach to dance was evident in her early classes, in which she “followed [her] fantasy and improvised, teaching any pretty thing that came into [her] head.”

A desire to travel brought Duncan to Chicago where she auditioned for many theater companies, finally finding a place in Augustin Daly's company. This job took her to New York City where her unique vision of dance clashed with the popular pantomimes of theater companies.

Feeling unhappy and limited with her work in Daly’s company and with American audiences, Duncan decided to move to London in 1898. There she found work performing in the drawing rooms of the wealthy and inspiration from the Greek vases and bas-reliefs in the British Museum. The money she earned from these engagements allowed her to rent a dance studio to develop her work and create larger performances for the stage.

From London, Duncan traveled to Paris, where she drew inspiration from the Louvre and the Exhibition of 1900. One day in 1902, Loie Fuller visited Duncan’s studio and invited Duncan to tour with her. This took Duncan all over Europe creating new works using her innovative dance technique.

Duncan’s style consisted of a focus on natural movement instead of the rigid technique of ballet. She spent most of the rest of her life in this manner, touring in Europe as well as North and South America, where she performed to mixed critical reviews.

Duncan became quite popular for her distinct style and inspired many visual artists, such as Antoine Bourdelle, Auguste Rodin and Abraham Walkowitz to create works based on her.

Duncan disliked the commercial aspects of public performance, like touring and contracts, because she felt they distracted her from her real mission — the creation of beauty and the education of the young. To achieve her mission, she opened schools to teach young women her dance philosophy. The first was established in 1904 in Grunewald, Germany.

This institution was the birthplace of the "Isadorables" – Anna, Maria-Theresa, Irma, Lisel, Gretel, Erika, Isabelle and Temple (Isadora's niece) – Duncan’s protégées, who would go on to continue her legacy. In 1914, Duncan moved to the United States and transferred the school there.

A townhouse on Gramercy Park was provided for its use, and its studio was nearby, on the northeast corner of 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue, which is now Park Avenue South.

Otto Kahn, the head of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. gave Duncan use of the very modern Century Theatre at West 60th Street and Central Park West for her performances and productions, which included a staging of Oedipus Rex, which involved almost all of Duncan's extended entourage and friends.

Duncan wrote of American dancing: “let them come forth with great strides, leaps and bounds, with lifted forehead and far-spread arms, to dance.” Her focus on natural movement emphasized steps, such as skipping, outside of codified ballet technique. Duncan also cites the sea as an early inspiration for her movement.

By the end of her life, Duncan's performing career had dwindled and she became as notorious for her financial woes, scandalous love life and all-too-frequent public drunkenness as for her contributions to the arts. She spent her final years moving between Paris and the Mediterranean, running up debts at hotels.

Duncan spent short periods in apartments rented on her behalf by a decreasing number of friends and supporters, many of whom attempted to assist her in writing an autobiography. They hoped it might be successful enough to support her.

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was a contributing factor towards her death in an automobile accident in Nice, France, at the age of 50. On the night of September 14, 1927, Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar automobile of a French-Italian mechanic Benoît Falchetto, whom she had nicknamed "Buggatti.” Her silk scarf draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.

As The New York Times noted in its obituary: "Isadora Duncan, the American dancer, tonight met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera. According to dispatches from Nice, Miss Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement."

The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous.”

Here is a short video of Isadora Duncan dancers

A personal story about Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Humphrey: A Personal Story

Many of you have probably never heard of Hubert Humphrey. But he was the 38th Vice President of the United States under Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s and, before that, was a longtime U.S. Senator from Minnesota. He ran against and lost the presidency to Richard Nixon in 1968.

Humphrey was born 110 years ago today.

By today’s incredibly low standards, he was not a bad politician. He became known for his advocacy of liberal causes (such as civil rights, arms control, a nuclear test ban, food stamps and humanitarian foreign aid).

But, Humphrey was also known for his love of television cameras, microphones and long-winded, witty speeches. The reason I bring all of this up is because Humphrey was one of those “coming of age” politicians for me. One where I first learned that all we see on TV is not true.

One funny Humphrey story was when Jim Covington, my mentor in shooting 16mm film at WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., taught me a trick.

Humphrey, as vice president, was coming into a small South Carolina airport and no other press people were there. Even in those days, the Secret Service wouldn’t let a lone cameraman near the vice president.

So Covington rigged several microphones on stands in Humphrey’s view as he got off the plane. Only one of the microphones, the one connected to our camera, was operative. Sure enough, the bait worked. Humphrey saw the row of microphones and was lured over to have a “press conference.”

Covington got his one-man, exclusive interview with the vice president using that little deception.

Humphrey had a consistently cheerful and upbeat demeanor in public, and his forceful advocacy of liberal causes led him to be nicknamed "The Happy Warrior" by many of his Senate colleagues and political journalists. For a while, as a naïve kid, I actually believed that nickname.

That is until the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a bizarre week by anyone’s standards. I somehow found myself in a small room with the then presidential nominee. Suddenly, the happy warrior wasn’t so happy anymore.

Humphrey started cursing and letting out a string of expletives that was startling to anyone who had previously bought the “Happy Warrior” image. This South Carolina kid was totally stunned. In that very instant, any notion of truth in politics was over for me. Forever!

Later, while working at NBC, I was assigned to Humphrey’s funeral in Minnesota. All I remember was the 20 degree below zero temperature outside. My beard froze, I had trouble breathing and thought for a few minutes that I would die. I have never been so cold before or since that day.

Then, I remembered Humphrey’s steamy language in the little room in Chicago and could only smile at the grand irony of the moment.

Humphrey, in death, had gotten the last laugh.

On this day in 1937 — 85 years ago — the Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco with Marin County, California, officially opened amid citywide celebration

Traffic crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco for the first time on opening day, May 27, 1937

On this day in 1937 — 85 years ago — the Golden Gate Bridge, connecting San Francisco with Marin County, California, officially opened amid citywide celebration.

Named for the narrow strait that marks the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed from January, 1933 to May, 1937.

When the bridge opened — at 4,200 feet — it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. From the beginning, the bridge's location posed challenges for its construction, not least because of its proximity to the mighty San Andreas Fault, which passes from north to south through the San Francisco Bay area.

In addition, the tumultuous waters of the strait posed grave dangers for the underwater construction work necessary to build the bridge. Still, the engineer, Joseph Strauss, waged a tireless 16-year campaign to convince skeptical city officials and other opponents of the controversial project.

On the bridge's opening day, he triumphantly exclaimed:

"The bridge which could not and should not be built, which the War Department would not permit, which the rocky foundation of the pier base would not support, which would have no traffic to justify it, which would ruin the beauty of the Golden Gate, which could not be completed within my costs estimate of $27,165,000, stands before you in all its majestic splendor, in complete refutation of every attack made upon it."

By 6 a.m. on May 27, 18,000 people were lined up on both the San Francisco and Marin sides. In all, some 200,000 showed up that day. At the appointed hour, a foghorn blew and the toll gates opened, releasing the earliest arrivals, who rushed to be the first to cross. Many schools, offices and stores were closed and the day was designated "Pedestrian Day." The next day, the bridge opened to vehicular traffic.

Across the country in the White House, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed the bridge open to the world, and by the end of the day, more than 32,000 vehicles had paid tolls and crossed.

Here is a video on the building of the bridge

Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon, was born in Maryland on this day in 1894 — 128 years ago

Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon, was born in Maryland on this day in 1894 — 128 years ago.

Hammett left school at age 13 and took a series of low-paying jobs, eventually landing at Pinkerton's detective agency. He worked as a detective for eight years and turned his experiences into fiction that set the mold for later writers like Raymond Chandler.

Hammett's deadpan description of violent or emotional events came to be known as the "hard-boiled" style of detective fiction.

Hammett published short stories in his characteristic deadpan style, starting in 1929 with Fly Paper. He published two novels in the same style that year, Red Harvest and The Dain Curse.

The following year, he published The Maltese Falcon, which introduced detective Sam Spade. The novel was filmed three times: once in 1931; once in 1936 under the title, Satan Met a Lady, starring Bette Davis; and again in 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart.

Hammett became involved with playwright Lillian Hellman (author of The Children's Hour in 1934 and The Little Foxes in 1939), who served as the model for Nora Charles in his 1934 comic mystery, The Thin Man. The book was made into a movie the same year, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, and the characters of Nick and Nora Charles inspired several sequel films.

Hammett and Hellman remained romantically involved until Hammett's death in 1961.

The Maltese Falcon with star, Humphrey Bogart

The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett.

Directed by John Huston, the film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his "femme fatale" client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut.

The Maltese Falcon was Huston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Fred Sexton, who died in 1995, was the artist and sculptor of the Maltese Falcon, the statuette prop for the film. Sexton taught art and headed the Art Students League in Los Angeles between 1949 and 1953. Sexton made “preliminary sketches” for the Maltese Falcon prop on a “manila envelope,” and then sculpted the model for the prop in clay. During visits to the film set, the prop was “shiny and black.”

The "Maltese Falcon" itself is said to have been based on the "Kniphausen Hawk," a ceremonial pouring vessel made in 1697 for George William von Kniphausen, Count of the Holy Roman Empire. It is modeled after a hawk perched on a rock and is encrusted with red garnets, amethysts, emeralds and blue sapphires. The vessel is currently owned by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and is an integral piece of the Chatsworth House collection.

A 45-pound metal prop known to have appeared in the film was sold at auction on November 25, 2013 for over $4 million, including the buyers fee.

On Sept. 24, 2010, Guernsey's auctioned a four pound, 5.4 ounce resin falcon for $305,000 to a group of buyers that included actor Leonardo DiCaprio and billionaire Stewart Rahr, owner of pharmaceutical and generics wholesaler, Kinray. The prop was discovered at a flea market in New Jersey in 1991 by Emmy-winning producer/director Ara Chekmayan.

The Maltese Falcon is considered a classic example of a MacGuffin, a plot device that motivates the characters of the story but otherwise has little relevance.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Maltese Falcon 56th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Bruce Cockburn is 77 years old today

Bruce Cockburn is 77 years old today.

A Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter, Cockburn has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, he spent some of his early years on a farm outside Pembroke, Ontario. His first guitar was one he found around 1959 in his grandmother's attic. He used to play it along with radio hits.

Cockburn was a student (but did not study music) at Nepean High School, where his 1964 yearbook photo states his desire "to become a musician." He attended Berklee School of Music in Boston for three semesters in the mid-1960s.

In 1966, he joined an Ottawa band called The Children, which lasted for about a year. In the spring of 1967, he joined the final lineup of The Esquires. He moved to Toronto that summer to form The Flying Circus with former Bobby Kris & The Imperials members, Marty Fisher and Gordon MacBain, and ex-Tripp member, Neil Lillie.

Cockburn's first solo appearance was at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1967, and in 1969 he was the headliner. In 1970, he released his first, self-titled, solo album. Cockburn's guitar work and songwriting skills won him an enthusiastic following.

His early work featured rural and nautical imagery, Biblical metaphors and the conviction that heaven is close despite hardship. Raised as an agnostic, early in his career he became a devout Christian. Many of his albums from the 1970s refer to his Christian belief, which in turn informs the concerns for human rights and environmentalism expressed on his 1980s albums.

His references to Christianity in his music include the Grail imagery of 20th century Christian poet Charles Williams and the ideas of theologian Harvey Cox.

While Cockburn had been popular in Canada for years, he did not have a big impact in the United States until 1979, with the release of the album, Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws.

"Wondering Where the Lions Are," the first single from that album, reached #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. in June, 1980, and earned Cockburn an appearance on NBC's hit TV show, Saturday Night Live.

Through the 1980s Cockburn's songwriting became first more urban, more global and then more political. He became heavily involved with progressive causes. His growing political concerns were first hinted at in three discs: Humans, Inner City Front and The Trouble with Normal.

These concerns became more evident in 1984, with Cockburn's second U.S. radio hit, "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" (#88 in the U.S.) from the Stealing Fire album. He had written the song a year earlier, following a visit to Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico that were attacked before and after his visit by Guatemalan military helicopters. His political activism continues to the present.

Cockburn has travelled to many countries (such as Mozambique and Iraq), played numerous benefit concerts and written songs on a variety of political subjects ranging from the International Monetary Fund to land mines. His internationalist bent is reflected in the many world music influences in his music, including reggae and Latin music.

Here, Cockburn performs “The Last Night of the World”

On this day in 1963 — 59 years ago — Bob Dylan released his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The record transformed him from a popular local act to a global phenomenon

Bob Dylan with girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, 1963

Though birthday celebrations have been going on all week, it was on this day in 1963 — 59 years ago — that Bob Dylan released his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The record transformed him from a popular local act to a global phenomenon.

"Of all the precipitously emergent singers of folk songs in the continuing renascence of that self-assertive tradition," wrote journalist and critic Nat Hentoff, "none has equaled Bob Dylan in singularity of impact."

Dylan's impact on the folk scene stemmed at first from his mastery and idiosyncratic performances of a vast repertoire of traditional folk songs. His devotion to the music of the great Woody Guthrie is what brought Bob Dylan to New York in the first place, and his "Song To Woody" was one of only two original numbers on his widely ignored debut album, Bob Dylan (1962).

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, on the other hand, included only two non-original tunes, and the speed with which Dylan's own songs from that album were added to the repertoires of other musicians is what really turned him into a household name.

In the summer of 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary turned the opening track of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan into an international pop hit. "Blowin' In The Wind" gave most future Bob Dylan fans their first exposure to his songwriting talents, and soon his work had found its way into nearly every genre of popular music via cover versions by artists like Sam Cooke, Johnny Cash and the Byrds.

But the impact of the best-known songs on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan — "Blowin' In The Wind," "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" — was not nearly as great as the impact of Dylan's fundamental approach to music.

By writing nearly all of his own material, and writing it from a distinctly personal point of view, Dylan created a template that would alter the course of many careers other than his.

As John Lennon once said in discussing The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which reached the Beatles in their Paris hotel fully a year after its release, “I think it was the first time I ever heard Dylan at all... And for the rest of our three weeks in Paris, we didn't stop playing it."

Thanks History.com

Dorothea Lange was born 127 years ago today

Thirteen-year old sharecropper near Americus, Georgia, July, 1937

Photo by Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was born 127 years ago today.

Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Her photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.

Born of second generation German immigrants on May 26, 1895, at 1041 Bloomfield Street, Hoboken, New Jersey, Lange was named Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn at birth. She dropped her middle name and assumed her mother's maiden name after her father abandoned the family when she was 12 years old — one of two traumatic incidents early in her life.

The other was her contraction of polio at age seven which left her with a weakened right leg and a permanent limp. "It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me and humiliated me," Lange once said of her altered gait. "I've never gotten over it and I am aware of the force and power of it."

Lange was educated in photography at Columbia University in New York City in a class taught by Clarence H. White. She was informally apprenticed to several New York photography studios, including that of the famed Arnold Genthe.

In 1918, she moved to San Francisco and by the following year she had opened a successful portrait studio. She lived across the bay in Berkeley for the rest of her life.

In 1920, she married the noted western painter Maynard Dixon, with whom she had two sons. With the onset of the Great Depression, Lange turned her camera lens from the studio to the street. Her studies of unemployed and homeless people captured the attention of local photographers and led to her employment with the federal Resettlement Administration (RA), later called the Farm Security Administration (FSA).

In December, 1935, she divorced Dixon and married economist Paul Schuster Taylor, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Taylor educated Lange in social and political matters, and together they documented rural poverty and the exploitation of sharecroppers and migrant laborers for the next five years — Taylor interviewing and gathering economic data, Lange taking photos.

From 1935 to 1939, Lange's work for the RA and FSA brought the plight of the poor and forgotten — particularly sharecroppers, displaced farm families and migrant workers — to public attention. Distributed free to newspapers across the country, her poignant images became icons of the era.

Lange died at age 70 on Oct. 11, 1965.

Lange on her 1933 Ford Model C four door wagon, 1936. Her camera is a Graflex 5 x7 series D.

Photo by Rondal Patridge

Doretha Lange's "Migrant Mother"

The woman in the photo is Florence Owens Thompson. In 1960, Lange spoke about her experience taking the photograph:

“I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction.

I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed.

“She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.”

After Lange returned home, she told the editor of a San Francisco newspaper about conditions at the camp and provided him with two of her photos.

The editor informed federal authorities and published an article that included the photos. As a result, the government rushed aid to the camp to prevent starvation.

Miles Davis was born 96 years ago today

Miles Davis, 1955

Photo by Tom Palumbo

Miles Davis was born 96 years ago today.

A jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader and composer, Davis is widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. With his musical groups, Davis was at the forefront of several major developments in jazz. They included bebop, cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz and jazz fusion.

His album, Kind of Blue, is the best-selling album in the history of jazz. On November 5, 2009, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan sponsored a measure in the U. S. House of Representatives to recognize and commemorate the album on its 50th anniversary.

The measure also affirms jazz as a national treasure and "encourages the United States government to preserve and advance the art form of jazz music." It passed, unanimously, with a vote of 409–0 on December 15, 2009.

As an innovative bandleader and composer, Davis has influenced many notable musicians and bands from diverse genres. Many well-known musicians rose to prominence as members of Davis's ensembles.

They included saxophonists Gerry Mulligan, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, George Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Dave Liebman, Branford Marsalis and Kenny Garrett; trombonist J. J. Johnson; pianists Horace Silver, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Kei Akagi; guitarists John McLaughlin, Pete Cosey, John Scofield and Mike Stern; bassists Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller and Darryl Jones; and drummers Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Jack DeJohnette and Al Foster.

Davis’s influence on the people who played with him has been described by music writer and author Christopher Smith: “Miles Davis' artistic interest was in the creation and manipulation of ritual space, in which gestures could be endowed with symbolic power sufficient to form a functional communicative, and hence musical, vocabulary. [...] Miles' performance tradition emphasized orality and the transmission of information and artistic insight from individual to individual. His position in that tradition, and his personality, talents, and artistic interests, impelled him to pursue a uniquely individual solution to the problems and the experiential possibilities of improvised performance.”

In 1986, the New England Conservatory awarded Miles Davis an Honorary Doctorate for his extraordinary contributions to music.

Davis died in 1991 from the combined effects of a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure in Santa Monica, California at age 65.

Here, Davis performs “Round About Midnight,” 1967

Miles Davis performs "All Blues" in Milan, Italy, 1964

Miles Davis performs Live Electric and Brutal in Berlin, 1973

Photo by David Gahr

The first copies of the classic vampire novel, Dracula, by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appeared in London bookshops on this day in 1897 — 125 years ago

The first copies of the classic vampire novel, Dracula, by Irish writer Bram Stoker, appeared in London bookshops on this day in 1897 — 125 years ago.

A childhood invalid, Stoker grew up to become a football (soccer) star at Trinity College, Dublin. After graduation, he got a job in civil service at Dublin Castle, where he worked for the next 10 years while writing drama reviews for the Dublin Mail on the side.

Stoker met the well-respected actor, Sir Henry Irving, who hired him as his manager. Stoker stayed in the post for most of the next three decades, writing Irving’s voluminous correspondence for him and accompanying him on tours in the United States.

Over the years, Stoker began writing a number of horror stories for magazines, and in 1890 he published his first novel, The Snake’s Pass. Stoker would go on to publish 17 novels in all, but it was his 1897 novel, Dracula, that eventually earned him literary fame and became known as a masterpiece of Victorian-era Gothic literature.

Written in the form of diaries and journals of its main characters, Dracula is the story of a vampire who makes his way from Transylvania — a region of Eastern Europe now in Romania — to Yorkshire, England. The vampire preys on innocents there to get the blood he needs to live.

Stoker had originally named the vampire, “Count Wampyr.” He found the name Dracula in a book on Wallachia and Moldavia written by retired diplomat William Wilkinson, which he borrowed from a Yorkshire public library during his family’s vacations there.

Vampires — who left their burial places at night to drink the blood of humans — were popular figures in folk tales from ancient times, but Stoker’s novel catapulted them into the mainstream of 20th century literature. Upon its release, Dracula enjoyed moderate success. When Stoker died in 1912, none of his obituaries even mentioned Dracula by name. Sales began to take off in the 1920s, when the novel was adapted for Broadway.

Dracula mania kicked into even higher gear with Universal’s blockbuster 1931 film, directed by Tod Browning and starring the Hungarian actor, Bela Lugosi. Dozens of vampire-themed movies, television shows and literature followed, though Lugosi — with his exotic accent — remains the quintessential Count Dracula.

John Wayne, actor who came to epitomize the American West, was born 115 years ago today

John Wayne, actor who came to epitomize the American West, was born 115 years ago today.

Born Marion Michael Morrison, his family moved to Glendale, California, when he was six years old. As a teen, he rose at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and after school he played football and made deliveries for local stores.

When he graduated from high school, he hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. However, after the school rejected him, he accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

In the summer of 1926, Wayne’s football coach found him a job as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed by John Ford. Ford started to use Wayne as an extra, and he eventually began to trust him with some larger roles.

In 1930, Ford recommended Wayne for Fox’s epic Western, The Big Trail. Wayne won the part, but the movie did poorly and Fox let his contract lapse. During the next decade, Wayne worked tirelessly in countless low-budget western films, sharpening his talents and developing a distinct persona for his cowboy characters.

Finally, his old mentor, John Ford, gave Wayne his big break, casting him in his 1939 western, Stagecoach. Wayne played the role of Ringo Kid, and he imbued the character with the essential traits that would inform nearly all of his subsequent screen roles. He had a tough and clear-eyed honesty, unquestioning valor and a laconic, almost plodding manner. After Stagecoach, Wayne’s career took off.

Among the dozens of Westerns he appeared in — many of them directed by Ford — were memorable classics like Tall in the Saddle (1944), Red River (1948), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Bravo (1959) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). In all these films, The Duke, as he was known, embodied the simple, and perhaps simplistic, cowboy values of decency, honesty and integrity.

Besides Westerns, Wayne also acted in war films. It was a small leap from the valorous cowboy or cavalry soldier to the brave WWII fighters of films like Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Flying Leathernecks (1951).

Deeply conservative in his politics, Wayne also used his 1968 film, The Green Berets, to express his support of the American government’s war in Vietnam. By the late 1960s, some Americans had tired of Wayne and his simplistically masculine and patriotic characters.

Increasingly, western movies were rejecting the simple black-and-white moral codes championed by Wayne and replacing them with a more complex and tragic view of the American West.

However, Wayne proved more adaptable than many expected. In his Oscar-winning role in True Grit (1969), he began to escape the narrow confines of his own good-guy image. His final film, The Shootist (1976), won over even his most severe critics.

Wayne — who was himself battling lung cancer — played a dying gunfighter whose moral codes and principles no longer fit in a changing world. Three years later, Wayne died of cancer. To this day, public polls identify him as one of the most popular actors of all time.

Lauryn Hill is 47 years old today

Lauryn Hill is 47 years old today.

A singer–songwriter, rapper, producer and actress, Hill is best known for being a member of the Fugees and for her solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Raised in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill began singing with her music-oriented family during her childhood. She enjoyed success as an actress at an early age, appearing in a recurring role on the television soap opera, As the World Turns, and starring in the film, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.

In high school, Hill was approached by Pras Michel to start a band, which his cousin, Wyclef Jean, soon joined. They renamed themselves the Fugees and released two studio albums, Blunted on Reality (1994) and The Score (1996), which sold six million copies in the United States.

In the latter record, Hill rose to prominence with her African-American and Caribbean music influences, her rapping and singing and a rendition of the hit "Killing Me Softly." Hill's tumultuous romantic relationship with Jean led to the split of the band in 1997, after which she began to focus on solo projects.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) remains Hill's only solo studio album. It received massive critical acclaim, showcasing a representation of life and relationships and locating a contemporary womanist voice within the neo soul genre.

The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and has sold approximately eight million copies there. It included the singles "Doo Wop (That Thing)" (also #1), "Ex-Factor" and "Everything Is Everything."

Soon afterward, Hill dropped out of the public eye, suffering from the pressures of fame and dissatisfied with the music industry. Her last full-length recording, the new-material live album MTV Unplugged #2 (2001), sharply divided critics and sold poorly compared to her previous work.

Hill's subsequent activity, which includes the release of a few songs and occasional festival appearances, has been sporadic and erratic. It has sometimes caused audience dissatisfaction. A reunion with her former group did not last long. Her music, as well as a series of public statements she has issued, have become critical of pop culture and societal institutions.

Hill has six children, five of whom are with Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley.

On May 6, 2013, Hill was sentenced by Judge Arleo to serve three months in prison for tax evasion and three months house arrest afterwards as part of a year of supervised probation. She had faced a possible sentence of as long as 36 months, and the sentence given took into account her lack of a prior criminal record and her six minor-aged children.

By this point, Hill had fully paid back $970,000 in back taxes and penalties she owed, which also took into account an additional $500,000 that Hill had in unreported income for 2008 and 2009.

In the courtroom, Hill said that she had lived "very modestly" considering how much money she had made for others, and that "I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me."

Hill reported to the minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury on July 8, 2013, to begin serving her sentence. She was released from prison on October 4, 2013, a few days early for good behavior, and began her home confinement and probationary periods.

She put out a single called "Consumerism" that she had finished, via verbal and e-mailed instructions, while incarcerated.

Judge Arleo allowed her to postpone part of her confinement in order to tour in late 2013 under strict conditions. During 2014, Hill was heard as the narrator of Concerning Violence, an award-winning Swedish documentary on the African liberation struggles of the 1960s and 1970s. She also continued to draw media attention for her erratic behavior, appearing late twice in the same day for sets at Voodoo Fest in November 2014.

In May 2015, Hill canceled her scheduled concert in Israel following a social media campaign from activists promoting a cultural boycott.

Here’s Hill’s video for “Doo-Wop (That Thing)”

Levon Helm was born 82 years ago today

Levon Helm, Beacon Theatre, New York City, 2010

Photo by Frank Beacham

Levon Helm was born 82 years ago today.

Helm was a rock musician and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band. He was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability and creative drumming style highlighted on many of the Band's recordings such as "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

He also had a successful career as an actor, appearing in such films as Coal Miner's Daughter, The Right Stuff, Shooter and In the Electric Mist.

In 1998, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer, which caused him to lose his singing voice. After undergoing treatment for the disease, his cancer eventually went into remission, which allowed him to gradually regain use of his voice.

In 2007, he released Dirt Farmer, the first of two comeback albums. In 2009, he made Electric Dirt, a follow-up to Dirt Farmer. Both were highly acclaimed albums.

On April 17, 2012, it was announced on Helm's website that he was "in the final stages of his battle with cancer." Two days later, Helm died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He was 71.

Here, Helm performs “Anna Lee” at the Ramble at the Ryman, 2011

Moondog was born 106 years ago today

Moondog, 1964

Photo by Richard Dumas

Louis Thomas Hardin, better known as Moondog, was born 106 years ago today.

A composer, musician, poet and inventor of several musical instruments, Hardin was blind from the age of 16. In New York City from the late 1940s until he left in 1972, he could often be found on 6th Avenue between 52nd and 55th Street wearing a cloak and Viking-style helmet — sometimes busking or selling music — but often just standing silent and still.

He was widely recognized as "the Viking of 6th Avenue" by thousands of passersby and residents who had no idea that this seemingly homeless eccentric standing on "Moondog's corner" was a respected and recorded composer and musician.

Born to an Episcopalian family in Marysville, Kansas, Hardin started playing a set of drums that he made from a cardboard box at the age of five. His family relocated to Wyoming and his father opened a trading post at Fort Bridger.

Hardin attended school in a couple of small towns. At one point, his father took him to an Arapaho Sun Dance where he sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom made from buffalo skin.

Hardin played drums for the high school band in Hurley, Missouri before losing his sight in a farm accident involving a dynamite cap at the age of 16. After learning the principles of music in several schools for blind young men across middle America, he taught himself the skills of ear training and composition. He studied with Burnet Tuthill and at the Iowa School for the Blind.

Hardin moved to Batesville, Arkansas where he lived until 1942, when he got a scholarship to study in Memphis. Although the majority of his musical training was self-taught by ear, he learned some music theory from books in braille there.

Hardin moved to New York in 1943, where he met noted classical music luminaries such as Leonard Bernstein and Arturo Toscanini, as well as legendary jazz performer-composers such as Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, whose upbeat tempos and often humorous compositions would influence Hardin's later work.

From the late 1940s until 1972, Moondog lived as a street musician and poet in New York City, busking in midtown Manhattan, eventually settling on the corner of 53rd or 54th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. He was not homeless however, or at least not often. He maintained an apartment in upper Manhattan and had a country retreat in Candor, NY, to which he moved in 1972.

He partially supported himself by selling copies of his poetry and his musical philosophy. In addition to his music and poetry, he was also known for the distinctive fanciful "Viking" cloak that he wore.

Already bearded and long-haired, he added a Viking-style horned helmet to avoid the occasional comparisons of his appearance with that of Christ or a monk, as he had rejected Christianity in his late teens. He developed a lifelong interest in Nordic mythology, and maintained an altar to Thor in his country home in Candor.

In 1947, Hardin had adopted the pen name, "Moondog," in honor of a dog "who used to howl at the moon more than any dog I knew of." In 1949, he traveled to a Blackfoot Sun Dance in Idaho, where he performed on percussion and flute, returning to the Native American music he first came in contact with as a child.

It was this Native music, along with contemporary jazz and classical, mixed with the ambient sounds from his environment (city traffic, ocean waves, babies crying, etc.) that created the foundation of Moondog's music.

In 1954, he won a case in the New York State Supreme Court against disc jockey Alan Freed, who had branded his radio show, "The Moondog Rock and Roll Matinee," around the name "Moondog" using "Moondog's Symphony" (the first record that Moondog ever cut) as his "calling card."

Moondog believed he would not have won the case had it not been for the help of musicians such as Benny Goodman and Arturo Toscanini, who testified that he was a serious composer. Freed had to apologize and stop using the nickname "Moondog" on air, on the basis that Hardin was known by the name long before Freed began using it.

Moondog's music took inspiration from street sounds, such as the subway or a foghorn. It was characterized by what he called "snaketime" and described as "a slithery rhythm, in times that are not ordinary [...] I'm not gonna die in 4/4 time.“ Many of his works were highly contrapuntal, and he worked hard on perfecting his counterpoint, criticizing Bach for his many "mistakes."

Moondog's work was early championed by Artur Rodziński, the conductor of New York Philharmonic in the 1940s. He released a number of 78"s, 45"s and EPs of his music in the 1950s, as well as several LPs on a number of notable jazz labels, including an unusual record of stories and songs for children with Julie Andrews and Martyn Green, in 1957, called Songs of Sense and Nonsense - Tell it Again.

The music of Moondog of the 1940s and 50s is said to have been a strong influence on many early minimalist composers. Philip Glass has written that he and Steve Reich took Moondog's work "very seriously and understood and appreciated it much more than what we were exposed to at Juilliard."'

A documentary about Moondog’s life, "The Viking of Sixth Avenue," is in production.

Moondog died on Sept. 8, 1999 at the age of 83.

Here’s the trailer to “The Viking of Sixth Avenue”

The story of the original Coney Island Hot Dog

The story of the original Coney Island Hot Dog

In 1867, Charles Feltman, a German immigrant, opened the first hot dog stand in Coney Island.

He called his signature frankfurter the Coney Island red hot, and it was served with mustard, sauerkraut and diced raw onions.

Soon, Feltman’s red hots were all the rage. Al Capone is said to have devoured one every night as a teenager before his shift at a local nightclub.

Feltman’s hot dogs were originally made near the Brooklyn Navy Yard and sold from a pie cart. In 1871, an enormous Feltman’s restaurant opened in Coney Island. It took up two city blocks and could serve 10,000 diners at once.

It wasn’t long before other companies entered the competition. A young man named Nathan Handwerker worked for Feltman in 1915. The next year, he opened his own shop, Nathan’s Famous, down the street, where he sold his hot dogs for a nickel less.

Nathan’s ultimately became the dominant brand on the boardwalk. Feltman’s went out of business in 1954, eight years after Charles Feltman’s sons, who were in their 70s, retired and sold the business to a hotel owner.

Several years ago, Feltman’s of Coney Island returned, with two brothers once again at its helm.

Michael and Joe Quinn are relying on their complementary talents and skills to run the business — Michael is a Coney Island history buff, and Joe, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has the business approach of a military strategist.

For example, Joe focused on locking down the Feltman’s supply chain in January, when he first heard about the Covid-19 outbreak. The brothers have also had good timing: People are pandemic-buying hot dogs like crazy.

Since March, the company has seen a 100 percent increase in sales from supermarkets and a 200 percent increase in online orders.

“Usually sales peak starting Fourth of July weekend,” Joe said. “So far it’s like March and April have turned into July.”

Thanks New York Times!

Peggy Lee was born 102 years ago today

Peggy Lee rehearsing at a Democratic rally prior to John F. Kennedy's 45th birthday in May, 1962

Photo by Yale Joel

Peggy Lee was born 102 years ago today.

Lee was a jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona — evolving into a multi-faceted artist and performer.

She wrote music for films, acted and created conceptual record albums — encompassing poetry, jazz, chamber pop and art songs.

Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, the seventh of eight children of Marvin Olof Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad, and his wife Selma Amelia (Anderson) Egstrom. Her mother died when Lee was just four years old. Afterward, her father married Min Schaumber, who treated her with great cruelty while her alcoholic father did little to stop it.

As a result, she developed her musical talent and took several part-time jobs so that she could be away from home. Lee first sang professionally over KOVC radio in Valley City, North Dakota. She later had her own series on a radio show sponsored by a local restaurant that paid her a salary in food.

Both during and after her high school years, Lee sang for small sums on local radio stations. Radio personality Ken Kennedy of WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota (the most widely heard station in North Dakota), changed her name from Norma to Peggy Lee. Lee left home and traveled to Los Angeles at the age of 17.

She returned to North Dakota for a tonsillectomy and was noticed by hotel owner Frank Beringin while working at the Doll House in Palm Springs, California. It was here that she developed her trademark sultry purr – having decided to compete with the noisy crowd with subtlety rather than volume.

Beringin offered her a gig at The Buttery Room, a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel East in Chicago. There, she was noticed by bandleader Benny Goodman.

"Benny's then-fiancée, Lady Alice Duckworth, came into The Buttery, and she was very impressed,” Lee recalled. “So the next evening she brought Benny in, because they were looking for a replacement for Helen Forrest. And although I didn't know, I was it.

“He was looking at me strangely, I thought, but it was just his preoccupied way of looking. I thought that he didn't like me at first, but it just was that he was preoccupied with what he was hearing."

Lee joined Goodman’s band in 1941. In 1942, Lee had her first #1 hit, "Somebody Else Is Taking My Place," followed by 1943's "Why Don't You Do Right?" (originally sung by Lil Green), which sold over a million copies. It made her famous.

Lee was a successful songwriter, with songs from the Disney movie, Lady and the Tramp, for which she also supplied the singing and speaking voices of four characters.

Her collaborators included Laurindo Almeida, Harold Arlen, Sonny Burke, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, Francis Lai, Jack Marshall, Johnny Mandel, Marian McPartland, Willard Robison, Lalo Schifrin and Victor Young.

Lee was a mainstay of Capitol Records when rock and roll came onto the American music scene. She was among the first of the "old guard" to recognize this new genre, as seen by her recording music from The Beatles, Randy Newman, Carole King, James Taylor and other up-and-coming songwriters.

From 1957 until her final disc for the company in 1972, she produced a steady stream of two or three albums per year which usually included standards (often arranged quite differently from the original), her own compositions and material from young artists. Lee continued to perform into the 1990s, sometimes in a wheelchair.

After years of poor health, Lee died of complications from diabetes and a heart attack at age 81.

Ironically, Little Willie John, who co-wrote “Fever,” recorded by Lee in 1958, died on this day in a prison in 1968 at the age of 30 years old. He had been convicted two years earlier of manslaughter and sent to Washington State Penitentiary for a fatal knifing incident following a show in Seattle.

Here, Lee performs “Fever” in 1968

Stevie Nicks is 74 years old today

Stevie Nicks is 74 years old today.

Nicks is a singer-songwriter, who in the course of her work with Fleetwood Mac and her extensive solo career, has produced over 40 Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums. Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, along with her partner, Lindsey Buckingham.

Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, Rumours, released in 1977, was the best-selling album of all time the year of its release. To date, it is the eighth best-selling album of all time — having sold over 40 million copies worldwide.

The album remained at #1 on the American albums chart for 31 weeks, and reached the top spot in various countries worldwide. It won Album of the Year in 1978 and produced four U.S. Top 10 singles, with Nicks' Dreams being the band's first and only U.S. #1 hit.

Nicks began her solo career in 1981 with the album, Bella Donna, which reached Platinum status less than three months after its release and has since been certified quadruple-platinum.

In September, 2014, Nicks released her eighth studio album — 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault — which reached #7 on the Billboard 200. She also began a North American tour with Fleetwood Mac.

In May, 2015, Nicks reissued, Crystal Visions‚ The Very Best of Stevie Nicks, on a transparent double vinyl album. Having conquered her cocaine addiction and dependency on tranquilizers, she continues to be a popular solo performer.

Nicks is known for her distinctive voice, mystical visual style and symbolic lyrics, as well as the famous (sometimes tense) chemistry between her and Lindsey Buckingham.

Here, Nicks performs “Landslide”

Lenny Kravitz is 58 years old today

Lenny Kravitz is 58 years old today.

Karvitz is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actor and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop, folk and ballads.

In addition to singing lead and backing vocals, Kravitz often plays all the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and percussion himself when recording. He is known for his elaborate stage performances and music videos.

Here Kravitz performs in the video for “Fly Away”

Al Jolson was born 136 years ago today

Al Jolson was born 136 years ago today.

Jolson was a singer, comedian and actor of Jewish descent. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer.” His performing style was brash and extroverted, and he popularized a large number of songs that benefited from his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach."

Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bob Dylan, who once referred to him as "somebody whose life I can feel."

Broadway critic Gilbert Seldes compared him to the Greek god, Pan, claiming that Jolson represented "the concentration of our national health and gaiety."

In the 1930s, he was America's most famous and highest-paid entertainer. Between 1911 and 1928, Jolson had nine sell-out Winter Garden shows in a row, more than 80 hit records and 16 national and international tours. Although he's best remembered today as the star of the first (full-length) talking movie, The Jazz Singer, in 1927, he later starred in a series of successful musical films throughout the 1930s.

After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with the 1946 Oscar-winning biographical film, The Jolson Story. Larry Parks played Jolson, with the songs dubbed in with Jolson’s real voice. A sequel, Jolson Sings Again, was released in 1949 and was nominated for three Academy Awards.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jolson became the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II, and again in 1950 became the first star to perform for GIs in Korea — doing 42 shows in 16 days.

He died just weeks after returning to the U.S., partly owing to the physical exertion of performing. Defense Secretary George Marshall afterward awarded the Medal of Merit to Jolson's family.

"Jolson was to jazz, blues and ragtime what Elvis Presley was to rock 'n' roll," said the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Being the first popular singer to make a spectacular "event" out of singing a song, he became a “rock star” before the dawn of rock music. His specialty was performing on stage runways extending out into the audience.

He would run up and down the runway and across the stage, "teasing, cajoling and thrilling the audience," often stopping to sing to individual members. All the while the "perspiration would be pouring from his face and the entire audience would get caught up in the ecstasy of his performance."

Author Stephen Banfield wrote that Jolson's style was "arguably the single most important factor in defining the modern musical...." He enjoyed performing in blackface makeup, a theatrical convention since the mid-19th century. With his style of singing black music, such as jazz and blues, he was later credited with single-handedly introducing African-American music to white audiences.

As early as 1911, he became known for fighting against anti-black discrimination on Broadway. Jolson's well-known theatrics and his promotion of equality on Broadway helped pave the way for many black performers, playwrights and songwriters, including Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Ethel Waters.

Here, Jolson performs “Mammy” from the Jazz Singer, the first full-length “talkie”

Mick Ronson was born 76 years ago today

Mick Ronson was born 76 years ago today.

An English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer, Ronson is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of the Spiders from Mars.

Ronson was a busy session musician who recorded with artists as diverse as Bowie and Morrissey, as well as appearing as a sideman in touring bands with performers such as Van Morrison. He also recorded several solo albums, the most notable example of which was Slaughter on 10th Avenue, which reached #9 on the UK Albums Chart.

Ronson died of liver cancer in 1993 at the age of 46.

Here is Ronson in the trailer from Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Vélosolex, a moped, 1952

Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson

Sonny Boy Williamson II, blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, died 57 years ago today

Sonny Boy Williamson II, blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, died 57 years ago today.

Upon his return to the United States from a European tour, Williamson resumed playing the King Biscuit Time show on KFFA, and performed in the Helena, Arkansas area.

As fellow musicians Houston Stackhouse and Peck Curtis waited at the KFFA studios for Williamson on May 25, 1965, the 12:15 broadcast time was closing in and Sonny Boy was nowhere in sight. Curtis left the radio station to locate Williamson, and discovered his body in bed at the rooming house where he had been staying — dead of an apparent heart attack suffered in his sleep.

Williams is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills. He recorded successfully in the 1950s and 1960s, and had a direct influence on later blues and rock performers.

Some of his better known songs include "Don't Start Me To Talkin'" (his only major hit, it reached the #3 position on the national Billboard R&B charts in 1955),"Fattenin' Frogs for Snakes," "Keep It To Yourself," "Your Funeral and My Trial," "Bye Bye Bird," "Nine Below Zero," "Help Me," "Checkin' Up on My Baby" and the infamous, "Little Village," with Leonard Chess.

In interviews in The Last Waltz, roots-rockers The Band recount jamming with Miller prior to their initial fame as Bob Dylan's electric backing band, and making never-realized plans to become his backing band.

Many of his most famous recordings appeared on The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson and His Best. Williamson had an influence on modern day blues and blues rock artists. Here, Robbie Robertson of the Band remembers Williams.

Jessi Colter is 79 years old today

Jessi Colter is 79 years old today.

Colter is country music artist who is best known for her collaboration with her late husband, Waylon Jennings, the country singer and songwriter. She was one of the few female artists to emerge from the mid-1970s “outlaw” movement.

After meeting her future husband, Colter pursued a career in country music, releasing her first studio LP in 1970, A Country Star Is Born. In 1975, Colter was signed with Capitol Records. On the label, she released her debut single, “I'm Not Lisa.”

The song was Colter’s breakthrough single, reaching #1 on the country chart and also peaked at #4 on the pop chart, becoming a crossover hit in 1975. Her second album, “I'm Jessi Colter,” was also released that year and debuted at #1 on the country albums chart and #50 on the Billboard 200.

The follow-up single from her album, “What's Happened to Blue Eyes,” was also very successful, peaking at #5 on the country chart and #57 on the pop chart. The single’s B-side, “You Ain't Never Been Loved (Like I'm Gonna Love You),” charted among the Top Pop 100 also in 1975.

In 1976, Colter released her second and third Capitol studio albums, “Jessi,” and “Diamond in the Rough.” Both albums were as successful as Colter's 1975 album, both debuting at #4 on the country albums chart. The lead single from her Jessi album, "It's Morning (And I Still Love You)" was a Top 15 country hit in 1976.

In 1976, she was also featured on the collaboration, LP Wanted: The Outlaws, which became a Platinum album, and helped her become one of the few female outlaw country stars.

Colter was born Miriam Johnson and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, in a strict Pentecostal home. Her mother was a Pentecostal preacher and her father was a race car driver. At age 11, Colter became the pianist at her church. After high school (Mesa High, Arizona, 1961), she began singing in local clubs in Phoenix.

In 1970, Jennings and Colter sang duet on two Top 40 country chart hits that also helped Colter gain a recording contract with RCA Records the same year. She released her debut album, A Country Star is Born, on RCA, with Jennings and Chet Atkins co-producing. The album was not successful and it was Colter’s only album for RCA.

In 1981, Colter and her husband returned to release a duet album, “Leather and Lace.” The album's first single, “Storms Never Last,” was written by Colter, and the second single, “The Wild Side of Life”/“It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” was also a major hit in 1981 — peaking at #10 on the country chart.

Stevie Nicks wrote the title track of the album. However, after receiving word that Colter and Jennings might divorce, Nicks released her own version of the song as a duet with Don Henley. It peaked at #6 on pop chart, also in 1981.

Colter released her final studio album on Capitol records in 1981, “Ridin' Shotgun,” which also spawned her last charting single on the country charts, “Holdin’ on.” As the decade progressed, Colter’s decided to let her recording career decline in order to help take care of and nurse her husband through his drug abuse and various medical problems. She remained active during this time.

In 2000, Colter performed on Jennings’s live album, “Never Say Die,” released two years before his death in 2002. Jennings was 64 when he died. In 2006, Colter returned to recording with a new studio album — Out of the Ashes — which was released on the Shout! Factory label.

Out of the Ashes was Colter’s first studio album in over 20 years. The album was produced by Don Was and reflected on Jennings’s passing away. Her late husband, Waylon Jennings, had an unused vocal, “Out of the Rain,” which was featured on the track.

Colter and Jennings had one son, Waylon Albright “Shooter” Jennings, who was born May 19, 1979.

On April 11, 2017, Colter released a tell-all memoir titled, "An Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life with Waylon, and the Faith That Brought Me Home."

Here, Colter performs “I’m Not Lisa”

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born 219 years ago today

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born 219 years ago today.

Emerson was an essayist, lecturer and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society.

Emerson disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. He gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, Nature.

Following this ground-breaking work, he gave a speech — "The American Scholar" — in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. considered to be America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence.” Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first, then revised them for print.

His first two collections of essays – Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series, published respectively in 1841 and 1844 – represent the core of his thinking. They include such well-known essays as Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet and Experience.

Together with Nature, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period. He wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for humankind to realize almost anything and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world.

Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic: "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul." His essays remain among the linchpins of American thinking, and his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that have followed him.

When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was "the infinitude of the private man."

Emerson is also well known as a mentor and friend of fellow Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau.

Here, is a short video on Emerson in Concord, Massachusetts

Raymond Carver was born 84 years ago today

Raymond Carver was born 84 years ago today.

Carver was an American short story writer and poet, and contributed to the revitalization of the American short story in literature during the 1980s.

Born in Clatskanie, Oregon, a mill town on the Columbia River, Carver grew up in Yakima, Washington, the son of Elta Beatrice (Casey) and Clevie Raymond Carver. His father, a skilled sawmill worker from Arkansas, was a fisherman and heavy drinker. Carver's mother worked on and off as a waitress and a retail clerk. He had one brother.

Carver was educated at local schools in Yakima, Washington. In his spare time, he read mostly novels by Mickey Spillane or publications such as Sports Afield and Outdoor Life, and hunted and fished with friends and family.

After graduating from Yakima High School in 1956, Carver worked with his father at a sawmill in California. In June, 1957, at age 19, he married 16-year-old Maryann Burk, who had just graduated from a private Episcopal school for girls. Their daughter, Christine La Rae, was born in December, 1957. Their second child, a boy named Vance Lindsay, was born the next year when Carver was 20.

He supported his family by working as a delivery man, janitor, library assistant and sawmill laborer. During their marriage, Maryann also supported the family by working as an administrative assistant and a high school English teacher, salesperson and waitress.

Carver became interested in writing in California, where he had moved with his family because his mother-in-law had a home in Paradise. He attended a creative writing course taught by the novelist, John Gardner, who became a mentor and had a major influence on Carver's life and career.

His first published story, The Furious Seasons, appeared in 1961. More florid than his later work, the story strongly bore the influence of William Faulkner. Furious Seasons was later used as a title for a collection of stories published by Capra Press, and can now be found in the recent collections, No Heroics, Please and Call If You Need Me.

Carver’s first short story collection, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, was published in 1976. The collection itself was shortlisted for the National Book Award, though it sold fewer than 5,000 copies that year. During his years of working different jobs, rearing children and trying to write, Carver started to drink heavily.

By his own admission, eventually he more or less gave up writing and took to full-time drinking. In the fall semester of 1973, Carver was a visiting lecturer in the Iowa Writers' Workshop with John Cheever, but Carver stated that they did less teaching than drinking and almost no writing.

The next year, after leaving Iowa City, Carver went to a treatment center to attempt to overcome his alcoholism. However, he continued drinking for three years. After being hospitalized three times (between June, 1976 and February or March, 1977), Carver began his "second life" and stopped drinking on June 2, 1977, with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Carver — who continued to smoke marijuana and experimented with cocaine at the behest of Jay McInerney during a 1980 visit to New York City — believed he would have died of alcoholism at the age of 40 if he hadn't found a way to stop drinking.

On August 2, 1988, Carver died from lung cancer at the age of 50.

Above, Carver in 1984

Photo by Bob Adelman