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August 15, 2022
Living in a Time of Extreme Hate
Living in a Time of Extreme Hate
I try to avoid the nasty politics of this era on these pages. I focus on creativity and what our species can achieve at his or her best. Yet, I grew up with hate in South Carolina, have written and reported about it, studied it and seen it wear different disguises over the years. It is often hard to ignore.
Mendacity — as Tennessee Williams so perfectly described it — constantly generates new disguises and wears many masks as those who practice it try to hide it. Mendacity is and always will be a fog of lies that allows humans to try to hide what is real in their lives and avoid facing it. The facade fractures and blows up occasionally, just as it has during the pandemic and post-Trump era.
As sad as it is, we must face the harsh fact that a large chunk of the American population is feeding this mendacity. The attack on Salman Rushdie last week was especially heinous. It seems to be getting worse and never ends.
We remain a split nation. It has been caused by several things, including misinformation via an increasingly fragmented internet and a core of despicable people, led by a disgraced former president, who feeds it. The remnants of this toxic time still hangs in the air.
Racism has always been ugly. The last few years have given many permission to take off their masks. It has happened for all to see on television. All we see is rage, insanity and violence. Trump’s defeat at the polls last year does not make it instantly go away.
Shakespeare told us about these traits many years ago. Some of us learned what he wrote. But the current lack of education and jobs, coupled with extreme poverty and ignorance, has taken a huge toll. As a country, we have to dig our way out of it or we will cease to exist as a nation. It is a major and severe challenge ahead.
I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. That’s why I find solace in the creative arts. For me, the arts are the best way to enjoy life in a time of 24/7 chaos and despair. It’s all I know to do. Each of us must deal with it in our own way. But none of us should ever accept it. That would be the greatest tragedy of all.
Frank Beacham
Above photo by Edu Bayer
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, "An Aquarian Exposition," opened on this day in 1969 at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in upstate New York — 53 years ago
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, "An Aquarian Exposition," opened on this day in 1969 at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in upstate New York — 53 years ago.
Promoters expected the music festival, modeled after the famous Monterey Pop Festival, to attract up to 200,000 for the weekend. Instead, nearly a half a million people converged on the concert site. The promoters soon realized that they could not control access to the site and opened it up to all comers free of charge.
Because of the unexpected size of the audience, volunteers were needed to help alleviate many of the logistics problems, while helicopters were used to fly in food, doctors and medical supplies, as well as many of the musical acts that performed during the three-day festival.
Despite rain and mud, the audience enjoyed non-stop performances by singers like Richie Havens, Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie, Joe Cocker and Joan Baez, as well as the bands Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, The Jefferson Airplane, Sly and the Family Stone and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Although different types of people attended the festival, many were members of the counterculture who rejected materialism and authority, experimented with drugs and actively protested against the Vietnam War. Much of the music had a decided anti-war flavor.
Representative of this genre was the "Fixin' to Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish. This song and its chorus ("And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for... Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam...And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates... There ain't no time to wonder why... Whoopie, we're all gonna die!") became an anti-war classic.
Jimi Hendrix closed the concert with a freeform solo guitar performance of "The Star Spangled Banner." Woodstock became a symbol of the 1960s American counterculture and a milestone in the history of rock music.
Thanks History.com
Here’s Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock, 1969
On the Road to Woodstock, 1969
Photo by Baron Wolman
Oscar Peterson was born 97 years ago today
Oscar Peterson was born 97 years ago today.
A Canadian jazz pianist and composer, Peterson was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington. He was known as "O.P." by his friends.
Peterson released over 200 recordings. He was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, having played thousands of live concerts to audiences worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years.
Born to immigrants from the West Indies, Peterson’s father worked as a porter for Canadian Pacific Railway. He grew up in the neighborhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal, Quebec. It was in this predominantly black neighborhood that Peterson found himself surrounded by the jazz culture that flourished in the early 20th century.
At the age of five, Peterson began honing his skills with the trumpet and piano. However, a bout of tuberculosis when he was seven stopped him playing trumpet again, and so he directed all his attention to the piano.
His father, Daniel Peterson, an amateur trumpeter and pianist, was one of his first music teachers, and his sister, Daisy, taught Oscar classical piano. Young Oscar was persistent at practicing scales and classical etudes daily, and thanks to such arduous practice he developed his astonishing virtuosity.
As a child, Peterson also studied with Hungarian-born pianist, Paul de Marky, a student of István Thomán, who was himself a pupil of Franz Liszt. So young Peterson’s training was predominantly based on classical piano.
Meanwhile, he was captivated by traditional jazz and learned several ragtime pieces and especially the boogie-woogie. At that time, Peterson was called "the Brown Bomber of the Boogie-Woogie." At the age of nine, he played piano with control that impressed professional musicians. For many years his piano studies included four to six hours of practice daily. Only in his later years did he decrease his daily practice to just one or two hours.
In 1940, at fourteen years of age, Peterson won the national music competition organized by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After that victory, he dropped out of school and became a professional pianist working for a weekly radio show, and playing at hotels and music halls.
Some of the artists who influenced Peterson's music during the earlier type of years were Teddy Wilson, Nat "King" Cole, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum, to whom many have tried to compare Peterson in later years.
Peterson wrote pieces for piano, trio, quartet and big band. He also wrote several songs and made recordings as a singer. Probably his best-known compositions are "Canadiana Suite" and "Hymn to Freedom," the latter composed in the 1960s and inspired by the U.S. civil rights movement.
On December 23, 2007, Peterson died of kidney failure at his home in Mississauga, Ontario.
Here, Peterson, featuring Joe Pass, performs “Cakewalk” in Tokyo, 1987
Nicolas Roeg was born 94 years ago today.
Roeg with David Bowie during the shooting of The Man Who Fell To Earth
Nicolas Roeg was born 94 years ago today.
An English film director and cinematographer, Roeg started his film career by contributing to the visual look of Lawrence of Arabia and Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death. He co-directed and photographed Performance in 1970.
He would later direct such landmark films as Walkabout, Don't Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Roeg's films were known for having scenes and images from the plot presented in a disarranged fashion, out of chronological and causal order, requiring the viewer to do the work of mentally rearranging them to comprehend the storyline. His films seem to shatter reality into a thousand pieces and are unpredictable, fascinating, cryptic and liable to leave viewers wondering what just happened.
Roeg displayed a freedom from conventional film narration and his work often consists of a kaleidoscopic multiplication of images. A characteristic of Roeg's films was they are edited in disjunctive and semi-coherent ways that make full sense only in the film's final moments, when a crucial piece of information surfaces.
These techniques, and Roeg's foreboding sense of atmosphere, influenced later filmmakers such as Steven Soderbergh, Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, François Ozon and Danny Boyle.
Roeg's influence on cinema is not limited to deconstructing narrative. The "Memo From Turner" sequence in Performance predates many techniques later used in music videos. And the "quadrant" sequence in Bad Timing, in which the thoughts of Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel are heard before words are spoken, set to Keith Jarrett's piano music from the Köln Concert, again stretched the boundaries of what could be done with film.
Roeg died in London on Nov. 23, 2018 of natural causes at the age of 90.
Jimmy Webb is 76 years old today
Jimmy Webb is 76 years old today.
A songwriter, composer and singer, Webb wrote numerous platinum-selling classics, including "Up, Up and Away,” "By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” "Wichita Lineman,” "Galveston,” The Worst That Could Happen,” "All I Know” and "MacArthur Park.”
Born in Elk City, Oklahoma, Webb’s father, Robert Lee Webb, was a Baptist minister and former member of the United States Marine Corps who presided over rural churches in southwestern Oklahoma and West Texas.
With his mother's encouragement, Webb learned piano and organ, and by the age of 12 was playing in the choir of his father's churches, accompanied by his father on guitar and his mother on accordion. Webb grew up in a conservative religious home where his father restricted radio listening to country music and white gospel music.
During the late 1950s, Webb began applying his creativity to the music he was playing at his father's church, frequently improvising and rearranging the hymns. He began to write religious songs at this time, but his musical direction was soon influenced by the new music being played on the radio, including the music of Elvis Presley.
In 1961, at the age of 14, he bought his first record, "Turn Around, Look at Me" by Glen Campbell. Webb was drawn to the singer's distinctive voice.
In 1964, Webb and his family moved to Southern California, where he attended San Bernardino Valley College studying music. Following the death of his mother in 1965, his father made plans to return to Oklahoma.
Webb decided to stay in California to continue his music studies and to pursue a career as a songwriter in Los Angeles. Webb would later recall his father warning him about his musical aspirations, saying, "This songwriting thing is going to break your heart."
Seeing that his son was determined, however, he gave him $40, saying, "It's not much, but it's all I have."
After transcribing other people's music for a small music publisher in Hollywood, Webb was signed to a songwriting contract with Jobete Music, the publishing arm of Motown Records. The first commercial recording of a Jimmy Webb song was "My Christmas Tree" by The Supremes, which appeared on their 1965 Merry Christmas album.
Since, his songs have been performed by many popular contemporary singers, including Glen Campbell, The 5th Dimension, Thelma Houston, The Supremes, Richard Harris, Johnny Maestro, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes, Art Garfunkel, Amy Grant, America, Linda Ronstadt, R.E.M., Michael Feinstein, Donna Summer and Carly Simon.
According to BMI, his song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" was the third most performed song in the fifty years between 1940 to 1990.
Webb is the only artist ever to have received Grammy Awards for music, lyrics and orchestration.
Edna Ferber, novelist, short story writer and playwright, was born 137 years ago today.
Edna Ferber, novelist, short story writer and playwright, was born 137 years ago today.
Ferber’s novels were especially popular and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).
Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper and his wife, Ferber graduated from high school and briefly attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before publishing her first novel.
She covered the 1920 Republican National Convention and 1920 Democratic National Convention for the United Press Association.
Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons. Through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.
Several theatrical and film productions have been based on her works, including Show Boat, Giant, Ice Palace, Saratoga Trunk, Cimarron (which won an Oscar) and the 1960 remake. Three of these works – Show Boat, Saratoga Trunk and Giant – have been developed into musicals.
When composer Jerome Kern proposed turning the very serious, Show Boat, into a musical, Ferber was shocked, thinking it would be transformed into a typical light entertainment of the 1920s. It was not until Kern explained that he and Oscar Hammerstein II wanted to create a different type of musical that Ferber granted him the rights.
Saratoga, based on Saratoga Trunk, was written at a much later date, after serious plots had become acceptable in stage musicals.
In 1925, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her book, So Big, which was made into a silent film starring Colleen Moore that same year. An early talkie movie remake followed, in 1932, starring Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent, with Bette Davis in a supporting role. A 1953 remake of So Big starred Jane Wyman in the Stanwyck role, and is the version most often seen today.
Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. She, and another member of the Round Table, Alexander Woollcott, were long-time enemies, their antipathy lasting until Woollcott's death in 1943.
Howard Teichmann wrote in his biography of Woollcott that their feud was due to a misunderstanding. According to Teichmann, Ferber once described Woollcott as "a New Jersey Nero who has mistaken his pinafore for a toga."
Ferber collaborated with Round Table member, George S. Kaufman, on several plays presented on Broadway, most notably The Royal Family (1927), Dinner At Eight (1932) and Stage Door (1936).
Ferber never married, had no children and is not known to have engaged in a romance or sexual relationship. In her early novel, Dawn O'Hara, the title character's aunt is said to have remarked, "Being an old maid was a great deal like death by drowning – a really delightful sensation when you ceased struggling."
Ferber died at her home in New York City, of stomach cancer, at the age of 82.
She was portrayed by the actress, Lili Taylor, in the 1994 film, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.
In the above photo, “Giant” author Edna Ferber, then 70, spins lassos on set in Marfa, Texas in 1955 with James Dean, with whom she became friends (he was reportedly working on a sculpture of Ferber at the time of his death).
In a rare show of authorial force, she became a one-third production partner and received a cut of the movie’s profits. She was later said to have been underwhelmed by director George Stevens’ big-screen adaptation.
Bill Pinkney, founding member of the Drifters, was born 97 years ago today
Bill Pinkney, at home in 1994
Photo by Frank Beacham
Bill Pinkney, founding member of the Drifters, was born 97 years ago today.
Pinkney was chiefly responsible for The Drifter’s early sounds, having a strong influence on soul, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
Born in Dalzell, South Carolina, Pinkney grew up singing his favorite music, gospel, in his church choir. Before his career with the Drifters, Pinkney was a pitcher for the Negro Baseball League's New York Blue Sox sandlot team.
He also served in the Army in World War II. He earned a Presidential Citation with five Bronze Stars (for battles including Normandy and Bastogne under General Patton). Returning from the war, Pinkney began to sing again in various gospel choirs. It was there that he would meet and join with the men who became the original members of the Drifters.
Bill Pinkney, brothers Andrew and Gerhart Thrasher, and bass singer, Willie Ferbie, were approached by Clyde McPhatter, who had just quit as the lead tenor of the popular R&B group, Billy Ward & the Dominoes. McPhatter proposed they create a new group to record for Atlantic Records.
On their first record, "Money Honey," Pinkney, a natural bass-baritone with a multi-octave range, actually sang first tenor. After Ferbie left, Pinkney switched to the bass part, in which he was heard on "Honey Love," "White Christmas," "Adorable," "Ruby Baby" and many other early Drifters recordings.
In 1954, the Drifters recorded their version of "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin. That version was featured in the 1990 movie, Home Alone. Pinkney can also be heard singing lead on the 1956 recording, "I Should Have Done Right," and in 1955’s, "Steamboat.”
Pinkney worked with the group from 1956 through 1958, when the manager fired all of the individual Drifters, including Pinkney, and hired an entire new group of singers. The were from the Crowns (formally known as the Five Crowns), who were signed under the Drifters' name.
After Pinkney's permanent departure, The Drifters recorded hit classics such as "Under the Boardwalk," "Save the Last Dance for Me," "There Goes My Baby," "Up on the Roof" and "On Broadway," with the new line-up.
Pinkney quickly created a group called the Original Drifters, made up of key members of the first (1953–58) group. Pinkney's Original Drifters was consistently popular throughout the southeastern United States. For decades their music was a staple of the "beach music" scene.
Leaders such as President Bill Clinton and President Nelson Mandela of South Africa recognized Pinkney's contributions. He received many musical awards, including the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award, and was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, United Group Harmony Association and the Beach Music Hall of Fame.
Pinkney died the evening of July 4, 2007 in Florida from a heart attack while staying at the Daytona Beach Hilton. He was to perform with The Drifters at the annual Daytona Beach 4th of July celebration, Red, White & Boom.
Here, Pinkney was interviewed by the Rock Hall of Fame on Buddy Holly and segregation.
Bill Pinkney at a concert, two months before he died
Photo by Frank Beacham
On this day in 1979 — 43 years ago — Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United States
On this day in 1979 — 43 years ago — Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United States.
The film, inspired in part by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness, among other sources, told the story of an Army captain (played by Martin Sheen) and crew of men who are sent into the Cambodian jungle to kill a U.S. Special Forces colonel, played by Marlon Brando, who has gone AWOL and is thought to be crazy.
Apocalypse Now, which co-starred Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper, became notorious for its long, difficult production, which included budget problems, shooting delays due to bad weather on the Philippines set, a heart attack for Sheen and a nervous breakdown for Coppola.
Despite the production hurdles, the film became a commercial success and won two Academy Awards (Best Cinematography and Best Sound). It received six other Oscar nominations, including Best Director, Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Duvall).
The film included such memorable lines as “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” and “The horror…the horror!”
At the time of the film’s release, Coppola, who was then 40, was already famous for writing and directing The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). Following Apocalypse Now, he went on to direct such movies as The Outsiders (1983), The Godfather Part III (1990) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
Prior to starring in Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen’s movie credits included 1973’s Badlands with Sissy Spacek. Sheen, who was born Ramon Estevez in 1940, would later co-star in such films as Wall Street (1987), opposite his son, Charlie Sheen, and The Departed (2006). From 1999 to 2006, he played the fictional U.S. President Josiah Bartlett on the award-winning television show, The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin.
Brando, who died at the age of 80 in 2004, was regarded as one of the greatest actors of his era. He won Best Actor Oscars for On the Waterfront (1954) and The Godfather and was nominated for his performances in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953), Sayonara (1957), Last Tango in Paris (1973) and A Dry White Season (1989).
Here’s Robert Duvall’s “Napalm in the Morning” scene
Thanks History.com
August 14, 2022
On this day in 1945 — 77 years ago — during the celebration of Japan’s surrender in World War II, Alfred Eisenstaedt wandered through Times Square in New York City with his Leica IIIa camera looking for pictures.
He found one — an American sailor kissing a woman in a white dress.
Because he was photographing people in the streets rapidly, Eisenstaedt didn’t get the couple’s names.
A week later the image was published in Life magazine.
Overnight, Eisenstaedt’s image, known as “The Kiss,” became a cultural icon.
David Crosby is 81 years old today
David Crosby at Joan Baez’s 75th birthday concert, Beacon Theatre, New York City, Jan., 2016
Photo by Frank Beacham
David Crosby is 81 years old today.
Crosby is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and a founding member of three bands, The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash (who are sometimes joined by Neil Young) and CPR.
Born in Los Angeles, Crosby’s father, Floyd Crosby, was an Academy Award-winning cinematographer. He attended several schools, including the University Elementary School in Los Angeles, the Crane Country Day School in Montecito and Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara for the rest of his elementary school and junior high.
Crosby also attended Santa Barbara City College. Originally, he was a drama student, but dropped out to pursue a career in music. He moved toward the same Greenwich Village scene (as a member of the Les Baxter's Balladeers) in which Bob Dylan participated, and even shared a mentor of Bob Dylan's in local scene favorite, Fred Neil.
With the help of producer Jim Dickson, Crosby cut his first solo session in 1963.
For the Byrds, Crosby joined Jim McGuinn (who later changed his name to Roger) and Gene Clark, who were then named the Jet Set (although there is no evidence that they ever performed under that name). They were augmented by drummer, Michael Clarke, at which point Crosby attempted, unsuccessfully, to play bass.
Late in 1964, Chris Hillman joined as bassist and Crosby relieved Gene Clark of rhythm guitar duties. Through connections that Jim Dickson (The Byrds' manager) had with Bob Dylan's publisher, the band obtained a demo acetate disc of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and recorded a cover version of the song, featuring McGuinn's 12-string guitar as well as McGuinn, Crosby and Clark's vocal harmonizing.
The song turned into a massive hit, soaring to #1 in the charts in the U.S. and the U.K. during 1965.
While Roger McGuinn originated The Byrds' trademark 12-string guitar sound (which he in turn took from George Harrison on "A Hard Day's Night"), Crosby was responsible for the soaring harmonies and often unusual phrasing on their songs.
In 1966, Gene Clark, who then was the band's primary songwriter, left the group due to stress. This placed all the group's songwriting responsibilities in the hands of McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman. Crosby took the opportunity to hone his craft, and soon blossomed into a prolific and talented songwriter.
His early Byrds efforts included the classic 1966 hit, "Eight Miles High," (to which he contributed one line, while Clark and McGuinn wrote the rest), and its flip side "Why," co-written with McGuinn, which showed Crosby at his hard-edged best.
Crosby is widely credited with popularizing the song, "Hey Joe," after he picked it up from Dino Valente. He taught the song to Bryan MacLean and Arthur Lee of Love, who then taught it to members of The Leaves. Since he felt responsible for having popularized the song, Crosby convinced the other members of The Byrds to cover it on Fifth Dimension.
By Younger Than Yesterday, The Byrds' album of 1967, Crosby clearly began to find his trademark style.
Friction between Crosby and the other Byrds came to a head in mid-1967. Tensions were high after the famous Monterey Pop Festival in June, when Crosby's on-stage political diatribes between songs elicited rancor from McGuinn and Hillman.
The next night he further annoyed his bandmates when, at the invitation of Stephen Stills, he substituted for an absent Neil Young during Buffalo Springfield’s set. The internal conflict boiled over during recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers album in August and September.
Differences over song selections led to arguments, with Crosby being particularly adamant that the band should record only original material. McGuinn and Hillman dismissed Crosby in mid-September, after he refused to participate in the recording session of the Goffin and King song, "Goin' Back."
Crosby's controversial menage-a-trois ode "Triad," recorded by the band before his dismissal, was left off the album. Jefferson Airplane recorded "Triad" and released it on their album Crown of Creation in 1968.
David Crosby sang a solo acoustic version on Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's 1971 double live album, Four Way Street. The Byrds' version appeared decades later on the 1988 Never Before release and is now available on the CD re-release of The Notorious Byrd Brothers.
In 1973, Crosby reunited with the original Byrds for the album Byrds, with Crosby acting as the record's producer. The album charted well (at #20, their best album showing since their second album) but was generally not perceived to be a critical success, and marked the final artistic collaboration of the original band.
Around the time of Crosby's departure from the Byrds, he met a recently unemployed Stephen Stills at a party at the home of Cass Elliot (of The Mamas and the Papas) in California in March, 1968.
There, the two started meeting informally together and jamming. They were soon joined by Graham Nash, who left his commercially successful group, The Hollies, to play with Crosby and Stills. Their appearance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August, 1969 constituted their second live performance ever.
Their first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash of 1969, was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format, in its early days populated by unfettered disc jockeys who then had the option of playing entire albums at once.
The songs he wrote while with CSN include "Guinnevere," "Almost Cut My Hair," "Long Time Gone" and "Delta." He also co-wrote "Wooden Ships" with Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane and Stephen Stills.
In 1969, Neil Young joined the group, and with him they recorded the album, Déjà Vu, which went to #1 on the charts. That same year, Crosby's longtime girlfriend, Christine Hinton, was killed in a car accident only days after Hinton, Crosby, and fellow girlfriend, Debbie Donovan, moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area.
Crosby was devastated, and he began abusing drugs much more severely than he had before. Nevertheless, he still managed to contribute "Almost Cut My Hair" and the title track, "Déjà Vu." After the release of the double live album, Four Way Street, the group went on a temporary hiatus to focus on their respective solo careers.
In December, 1969, David appeared with CSNY at the Altamont Free Concert, increasing his visibility after also having performed at Monterey Pop and Woodstock. At the beginning of the new decade, he briefly joined with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead, billed as "David and the Dorks," and making a live recording at the Matrix on December 15, 1970.
CSNY reunited in 1973 at the Winterland in San Francisco. This served as a prelude to their highly successful stadium tour in the summer of 1974. Prior to the tour, the foursome attempted to record a new album, Human Highway.
The recording session, which took place at Neil Young's ranch, was very unpleasant, and marked by constant bickering. The bickering eventually became too much, and the album was cancelled.
In 1971, Crosby released his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name, featuring contributions by Nash, Young, Joni Mitchell and members of Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead and Santana. Panned on release by Rolling Stone, it has been reappraised amid the emergence of the freak folk and New Weird America movements and remains in print.
In 1996, Crosby formed CPR or Crosby, Pevar and Raymond with session guitarist, Jeff Pevar, and pianist James Raymond, Crosby's son. The group released two studio albums and two live albums before disbanding in 2004.
Raymond continues to perform with Crosby as part of the touring bands for Crosby & Nash and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Jeff Pevar sometimes tours with the re-formed Jefferson Starship.
In 1982, after appearing in criminal courts facing several drugs and weapons charges, Crosby spent nine months in Texas prisons. The drug charges stemmed from charges related to possession of heroin and cocaine.
Crosby was the recipient of a highly-publicized liver transplant in 1994, which was paid for by Phil Collins. News of his transplant created some controversy because of his celebrity status and his past issues with drug and alcohol addiction. Crosby suffers from type 2 diabetes and is being treated with insulin to manage the disease.
In January, 2000, Melissa Etheridge announced that Crosby was the biological father of two children that Julie Cypher gave birth to by means of artificial insemination. At the time, Etheridge and Cypher were in a relationship.
Here, Crosby, with Graham Nash and Paul Simon, perform “Here Comes the Sun”
Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and David Crosby, 1969
Photo by Henry Diltz
Armando "Buddy" Greco was born 96 years ago today
Buddy Greco and George Carlin in a skit from Away We Go, 1967
Armando "Buddy" Greco was born 96 years ago today.
A singer and pianist, Greco was born in Philadelphia. He began playing piano at the age of four. His first professional work was playing with Benny Goodman's band. Most of Greco's work was in the jazz and pop genres.
He has recorded songs such as “Oh Look A-There,” “Ain't She Pretty,” "The Lady is a Tramp," "Up, Up and Away" and "Around the World." He released about 72 albums and 100 singles.
Greco has had an active concert career playing in symphony halls, theatres, nightclubs and Las Vegas showrooms. In the 1960s, he made appearances with the Rat Pack.
Greco played the nightclub singer, Lucky, in the 1969 film, The Girl Who Knew Too Much. In 1967, Greco starred in the summer replacement television series, Away We Go, with drummer Buddy Rich and comedian George Carlin.
It is well known that Greco and spouse were close friends of Marilyn Monroe, and he admits to being one of the last to have seen her, along with close friend Frank Sinatra. His story is in the accompanying article.
In 2013, Greco celebrated his 80th year in show business with a concert in Southend, Essex. Stars such as the Rat Pack cast, Atila, Kenny Lynch, Paul Young and Michelle Collins were present and took part throughout the evening. Greco and his wife also performed together for the occasion.
Greco died on January 10, 2017, in Las Vegas at age 90. He was survived by his wife, Anders and his seven children.
Here, Greco performs “The Lady Is A Tramp” with Sammy Davis Jr., 1965
Buddy Greco hugs Marilyn Monroe while Frank Sinatra looks on at the Cal Neva Lodge, which straddles the border between Nevada and California on the shores of Lake Tahoe, July, 28, 1962. Monroe would die a week later.
Hipsters: Real vs. Fake
Harry “the Hipster” Gibson
Photo by William P. Gottlieb
Hipsters: Real vs. Fake
It makes my skin crawl whenever I hear a young person refer to his or herself as a “hipster.”
Not only do most people today not even understand what the term means, but they live in a corporate-infused world where it is now almost impossible to be truly hip.
The New York Times recently wrote about the origins of the word hipster, which might help to explain to those who don’t understand the history of the word and how it has changed over time.
Though the word has been in use for a long time, the Times credits the jazz clubs of 1940s Harlem for making the term popular. In the 40s, a Bronx-born, Juilliard-trained musician, Harry Raab, helped popularize the word with his stage name: Harry “the Hipster” Gibson. His big hit was “Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine.”
At the time, “hipster” was used to describe someone who saw him or herself as hip and ahead of the curve, Lewis Porter, a jazz historian at Rutgers University, told the Times.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word is also thought to be a modernized version of “hepcat,” which had the same meaning in jazz circles.
Porter added that the word might also have been used to describe white jazz musicians like Gibson, who played in traditionally black clubs. “That certainly was not its original meaning, but that could have become attached to it later on,” he said.
In his 1957 essay, “The White Negro,” Norman Mailer examined beatnik culture, posing the theory that to be a hipster was to be a white American who adopted black culture, world views and music as an act of rebellion against capitalist greed, wartime violence and the ever-present specter of nuclear war.
Hipster was used to refer to members of the Beat Generation, who virtually all defied and criticized the white, capitalist establishment culture of the 1950s. All lived cheaply and outside the scope of mainstream consumerism. Virtually all true hipsters observed the counter culture ethics of the 1960s.
Jack Kerouac described 1940s hipsters as "rising and roaming America, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere [as] characters of a special spirituality.” Near the beginning of his poem, Howl, Allen Ginsberg mentioned "angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.”
The New York Times said it has used the word “hipster” more than 3,000 times since 1851. Yet, the newspaper said, the bulk of those references came after the year 2000, when most of the people who used the term were only wannabes.
The Times said it typically used the word to describe a class of people who moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The problem with that, of course, is that if one could afford to live in Brooklyn after the boom, they were not genuine hipsters.
Today, the hipster subculture is composed of affluent or middle class youth who reside primarily in gentrifying neighborhoods. It is broadly associated with indie and alternative music, a varied non-mainstream fashion sensibility, vintage and thrift store-bought clothing, generally progressive political views, organic and artisanal foods and alternative lifestyles.
The subculture typically consists of white millennials living in urban areas. Often the world hipster is now used as a pejorative term to describe someone who is pretentious, overly trendy or effete.
In Rob Horning's April, 2009 article, The Death of the Hipster, he wrote that the hipster might be the "embodiment of postmodernism as a spent force, revealing what happens when pastiche and irony exhaust themselves as aesthetics."
Of all places, Time magazine, described the modern hipster phenomenon in a July, 2009 article:
“Hipsters are the friends who sneer when you cop to liking Coldplay. They're the people who wear T-shirts silk-screened with quotes from movies you've never heard of and the only ones in America who still think Pabst Blue Ribbon is a good beer. They sport cowboy hats and berets and think Kanye West stole their sunglasses. Everything about them is exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just don't care.”
One of the benefits of getting older is being able to easily see through the pretensions of youth. Whenever someone living in a major city like New York tells you today he or she is a “hipster,” run for the hills. Fraud is written all over them.
Thanks New York Times!
On this day in 1945 — 77 years ago — the comedian, actor, writer and musician Steve Martin was born
On this day in 1945 — 77 years ago — the comedian, actor, writer and musician Steve Martin, who would rise to fame as a “wild and crazy” comedian during the 1970s, was born in Waco, Texas.
Martin grew up in California and in his teens worked at Disneyland, where he entertained crowds with magic tricks and banjo music. After attending UCLA, he broke into show business as a comedy writer.
In 1969, Martin won an Emmy for his writing on the hit TV comedy program, The Smothers Brothers. He later wrote and appeared on other comedy-variety shows, including The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
Meanwhile, Martin began performing his own comedy at nightclubs and by the mid-1970s was appearing often on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live, notably in the role of the “wild and crazy guy,” a wannabe playboy from Czechoslovakia.
By the late 1970s, Martin was famous for his best-selling comedy records and shows, which included the hit song “King Tut” and the catchphrase, “Excuuuuse me.”
Martin’s first starring role in a feature film came in the 1979 box-office hit, The Jerk, which he co-wrote. He re-teamed with his Jerk director, Carl Reiner, for three more comedies: Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), The Man with Two Brains (1983) and All of Me (1984), co-starring Lily Tomlin.
Throughout the rest of the 1980s, Martin showcased his comedic talents in a string of hits, including Three Amigos (1986), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Roxanne (1987) and Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987).
The prematurely grey-haired Martin went from wild and crazy to parental (with equal success) in such films as Parenthood (1989), Father of the Bride (1991) and Cheaper by the Dozen (2003). He also did a more serious route, appearing in David Mamet’s enigmatic suspense film, The Spanish Prisoner (1997).
In 2005, Martin co-starred in Shopgirl, based on a novella of the same name that he penned. In that film, he played a wealthy businessman who romances a far younger woman, played by Claire Danes.
Returning to broad comedy in 2006, Martin played the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther. Over the years, he has continued to appear periodically on Saturday Night Live and remains one of the show’s most frequent hosts.
Throughout his life, Martin has been an accomplished banjo player and has performed frequently with other bands, including Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck.
In 2007, Martin published a memoir, Born Standing Up, which critics praised for its humor and candor. He had previously opened up to interviewers about his personal life, including his marriage to the actress Victoria Tennant, his co-star in All of Me (they married in 1986 and divorced in 1994) and his subsequent breakup with the actress, Anne Heche.
On July 28, 2007, after three years together, Martin married Anne Stringfield, a writer and former staffer for The New Yorker magazine. Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey presided over the ceremony at Martin's Los Angeles home. Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live, was best man.
Several of the guests, including close friends Tom Hanks, Eugene Levy, comedian Carl Reiner and magician/actor Ricky Jay, were not informed that a wedding ceremony would take place. Instead, they were told they were invited to a party and were surprised by the nuptials.
At age 67, Martin became a father for the first time when Stringfield gave birth to a daughter Mary, in December, 2012,
Martin has tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which is a symptom of hearing loss. He got it while filming a pistol-shooting scene for the film, Three Amigos, in 1986. He has been quoted as saying, "You just get used to it, or you go insane."
Here, Martin performs “The Crow” with Tony Trischka and Bela Fleck in 2007. Martin wrote the song.
Thanks History.com
August 13, 2022
Jimmy McCracklin was born 101 years ago today
Jimmy McCracklin was born 101 years ago today.
A pianist, vocalist and songwriter, McCracklin’s style contained West Coast blues, jump blues and R&B. Over a career that spanned seven decades, McCracklin wrote almost a thousand songs and recorded hundreds of them. He recorded over 30 albums and earned four gold records.
"He was probably the most important musician to come out of the Bay Area in the post-World War II years," Tom Mazzolini of the San Francisco Blues Festival wrote of him.
Born James David Walker, sources differ as to whether McCracklin was born in Helena, Arkansas or St. Louis. He joined the United States Navy in 1938, later settled in Richmond, California, and began playing at the local Club Savoy owned by his sister-in-law, Willie Mae "Granny" Johnson.
The room-length bar served beer and wine, and Granny Johnson served home-cooked meals of greens, ribs, chicken and other southern cuisine. A house band composed of Bay Area musicians alternated with and frequently backed performers such as B. B. King, Charles Brown and L. C. Robinson.
Later, in 1963, McCracklin would write and record a song "Club Savoy" on his I Just Gotta Know album. He recorded a debut single for Globe Records, "Miss Mattie Left Me," in 1945, and recorded "Street Loafin' Woman in 1946.
McCracklin recorded for a number of labels in Los Angeles and Oakland, prior to joining Modern Records in 1949-1950. He formed a group called Jimmy McCracklin and his Blues Blasters in 1946, with guitarist, Lafayette Thomas, who remained with group until the early 1960s.
His popularity increased after appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand in support of his self written single, "The Walk" (1957). It was subsequently released by Checker Records in 1958.
The song went to #5 on the Billboard R&B chart and #7 on the pop chart, after more than 10 years of McCracklin selling records in the black community on a series of small labels. Jimmy McCracklin Sings, his first solo album, was released in 1962, in the West Coast blues style.
Later the same year, McCracklin recorded "Just Got to Know" for his own Art-Tone label in Oakland, after the record made #2 on the R&B chart. For a brief period in the early 1970s McCracklin ran the Continental Club in San Francisco. He booked blues acts such as T-Bone Walker, Irma Thomas, Big Joe Turner, Big Mama Thornton and Etta James.
In 1967, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas had success with "Tramp," a song credited to McCracklin and Lowell Fulson. Salt-n-Pepa made a hip-hop hit out of the song in 1987. Oakland Blues (1968) was an album arranged and directed by McCracklin and produced by World Pacific.
The California rock-n-roll "roots music" band, The Blasters, named themselves after McCracklin's backing band, The Blues Blasters. Blasters' lead singer, Phil Alvin, explained the origin of the band's name:
"I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records — I had these 78s — I thought they were the Blues Blasters. It ends up it was Jimmy McCracklin's. I just took the 'Blues' off and Joe finally told me, that’s Jimmy McCracklin’s name, but you tell ‘em I gave you permission to steal it."
McCracklin continued to tour and produce new albums in the 1980s and 1990s. Bob Dylan has cited McCracklin as a favorite. He played at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1973, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1984 and 2007.
He was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1990, and the Living Legend and Hall of Fame award at the Bay Area Black Music Awards in 2007. McCracklin continued to write, record and perform into the 21st century.
He died at age 91 in San Pablo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, on December 20, 2012, after a long illness.
Here, McCracklin performs “At the Club” at the Porretta Soul Festival, 2007
Annie Oakley was born 162 years ago today
Annie Oakley was born 162 years ago today.
Born as Phoebe Ann Mosey, Oakley was a sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Her shooting talent led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, and her timely rise to fame allowed her to become one of the first American women to be a superstar.
Perhaps Oakley's most famous trick was her ability — using a .22 rifle 90 feet away — to repeatedly split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground.
She was born in a log cabin in Darke County, Ohio, a rural western border county. Because of poverty, she did not regularly attend school as a child, although she did attend later in childhood and in adulthood.
Oakley began trapping at a young age, and shooting and hunting by age eight to support her siblings and her widowed mother. She sold the hunted game for money to locals, restaurants and hotels in southern Ohio. Her skill eventually paid off the mortgage on her mother's farm when she turned 15.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1875, the Baughman and Butler shooting act was in performance in Cincinnati. Traveling show marksman and former dog trainer, Frank E. Butler, an Irish immigrant, placed a $100 bet per side (worth $2,148 today) with Cincinnati hotel owner Jack Frost, that he, Butler, could beat any local fancy shooter.
The hotelier arranged a shooting match between Butler and the 15-year-old Annie Oakley saying, "The last opponent Butler expected was a five-foot-tall 15-year old girl named Annie." After missing on his 25th shot, Butler lost the match and the bet. He soon began courting Oakley, and they married on August 23, 1876. They did not have children.
Annie and Frank Butler lived in Cincinnati for a time. Oakley, the stage name she adopted when she and Frank began performing together, is believed to have been taken from the city's neighborhood of Oakley, where they resided.
They joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1885. At five feet tall, Oakley was given the nickname of "Watanya Cicilla" by fellow performer Sitting Bull, rendered "Little Sure Shot" in the public advertisements.
In Europe, she performed for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, King Umberto I of Italy, President Marie François Sadi Carnot of France and other crowned heads of state. Oakley had such good aim that, at his request, she knocked the ashes off a cigarette held by the newly crowned German Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Throughout her career, it is believed that Oakley taught upwards of 15,000 women how to use a gun. She never failed to delight her audiences, and her feats of marksmanship were truly incredible. At 30 paces, she could split a playing card held edge-on, hit dimes tossed into the air, shoot cigarettes from her husband's lips.
Oakley playfully skipped on stage, lifted her rifle and aimed the barrel at a burning candle. In one shot, she snuffed out the flame with a whizzing bullet. Sitting Bull watched her knock corks off of bottles and slice through a cigar Butler held in his teeth.
Oakley continued to set records into her sixties, and she also engaged in extensive, albeit quiet, philanthropy for women's rights and other causes, including the support of specific young women that she knew. She embarked on a comeback and intended to star in a feature-length silent movie. In a 1922 shooting contest in Pinehurst, North Carolina, sixty-two-year-old Oakley hit 100 clay targets in a row from 16 yards
Oakley died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio, at the age of 66 on November 3, 1926.
Dan Fogelberg was born 71 years ago today
Dan Fogelberg was born 71 years ago today.
The music of the singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist was inspired by sources as diverse as folk, pop, rock, classical, jazz and bluegrass music. Fogelberg is best known for his 1980 hit, "Longer," and his 1981 hit, “Leader of the Band.”
Fogelberg began performing as a solo acoustic player in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois area coffeehouses, including the Red Herring Coffeehouse, where he made his first solo recordings as part of a folk festival recording in 1971. He was discovered that year by Irving Azoff.
Fogelberg and Azoff — who started his music-management career promoting another Champaign-Urbana act, REO Speedwagon — moved to California to seek their fortunes. Azoff sent Fogelberg to Nashville to hone his skills, where he became a session musician and recorded his first album, with producer Norbert Putnam.
In 1972, Fogelberg released his debut album, Home Free, to lukewarm response. He performed as an opening act for Van Morrison. Fogelberg's second effort was much more successful — the 1974 Joe Walsh–produced album, Souvenirs, and its song, "Part of the Plan," became Fogelberg's first hit.
After Souvenirs, Fogelberg released a string of gold and platinum albums, including Captured Angel (1975) and Nether Lands (1977), and found commercial success with songs such as "The Power of Gold." His 1978, Twin Sons of Different Mothers, was the first of two collaborations with jazz flutist, Tim Weisberg.
Phoenix reached the Top 10 in 1979, with "Longer" becoming a #2 pop hit (and wedding standard) in 1980. The track peaked at #59 in the UK Singles Chart — his sole entry in that listing. The album reached #42 in the UK Albums Chart, likewise Fogelberg's only entry there. This was followed by a Top 20 hit "Heart Hotels."
The Innocent Age, released in October, 1981, was Fogelberg's critical and commercial peak. This double-album song cycle included four of his biggest hits: "Leader of the Band," "Hard to Say," "Run for the Roses" and "Same Old Lang Syne," based on a real-life accidental meeting with a former girlfriend.
In May, 2004, Fogelberg was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. He underwent therapy and achieved a partial remission, which did not eliminate his cancer but reduced it and stopped its spread.
On August 13, 2005, his 54th birthday, Fogelberg announced the success of his cancer treatments. He said that he had no immediate plans to return to making music but was keeping his options open.
After battling prostate cancer for three and a half years, Fogelberg succumbed to the disease at the age of 56, on December 16, 2007, at his home in Deer Isle, Maine with wife Jean by his side.
George Shearing was born 103 years ago today
George Shearing was born 103 years ago today.
A British jazz pianist, Shearing for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, including the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland,” he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s.
In 1940, Shearing joined Harry Parry's popular band and contributed to the comeback of Stéphane Grappelli. He won seven consecutive Melody Maker polls during this time. Around that time, he was also a member of George Evans's Saxes 'n' Sevens band.
Shearing played with a trio, as a soloist and increasingly in a duo. Among his collaborations were sets with the Montgomery Brothers, Marian McPartland, Brian Q. Torff, Jim Hall, Hank Jones and Kenny Davern. In 1979, Shearing signed with Concord Records, and recorded for the label with Mel Tormé.
He died of heart failure in New York City, at the age of 91.
Alfred Hitchcock was born 123 years ago today
Alfred Hitchcock was born 123 years ago today.
The English film director and producer pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres.
After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1955, he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject. Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style.
He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximize anxiety, fear or empathy. He used innovative film editing.
His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder and crime. Many of his mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the psychological examinations of the characters.
Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones.
Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers and the television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades.
Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else."
Hitchcock is widely regarded as one of cinema's most significant artists.
August 12, 2022
A Great Day in Harlem, the iconic photograph by Art Kane, was taken on this day in 1958 — 64 years ago
A Great Day in Harlem, the iconic photograph by Art Kane, was taken on this day in 1958 — 64 years ago.
The black and white group portrait of 57 notable jazz musicians was photographed in front of a Brownstone in Harlem, New York City. The photo has remained an important object in the study of the history of jazz.
Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine, took the picture around 10 a.m. on August 12 in the summer of 1958. The musicians had gathered at 17 East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Harlem.
Esquire published the photo in its January, 1959 issue. Kane calls it "the greatest picture of that era of musicians ever taken."
Jean Bach, a radio producer of New York, recounted the story behind it in her 1994 documentary film, A Great Day in Harlem. The film was nominated in 1995 for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
As of now, only two of the 57 musicians who participated are still living. They are Benny Golson and Sonny Rollins.
Red Allen, Buster Bailey, Count Basie, Emmett Berry, Art Blakey, Lawrence Brown, Scoville Browne, Buck Clayton, Bill Crump, Vic Dickenson, Roy Eldridge, Art Farmer, Bud Freeman, Dizzy Gillespie, Tyree Glenn, Benny Golson*, Sonny Greer, Johnny Griffin, Gigi Gryce, Coleman Hawkins, J.C. Heard, Jay C. Higginbotham, Milt Hinton, Chubby Jackson, Hilton Jefferson, Osie Johnson, Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Jimmy Jones, Taft Jordan, Max Kaminsky, Gene Krupa, Eddie Locke, Marian McPartland, Charles Mingus, Miff Mole, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Pettiford, Rudy Powell, Luckey Roberts, Sonny Rollins*, Jimmy Rushing, Pee Wee Russell, Sahib Shihab, Horace Silver, Zutty Singleton, Stuff Smith, Rex Stewart, Maxine Sullivan, Joe Thomas, Wilbur Ware, Dickie Wells, George Wettling, Ernie Wilkins, Mary Lou Williams and Lester Young
(*) denotes still living people
Buck Owens, creator of the Bakersfield sound, was born 93 years ago today
Buck Owens, creator of the Bakersfield sound, was born 93 years ago today.
A singer and guitarist, Owens had 21 #1 hits on the country music charts with his band, the Buckaroos. They pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound — a reference to Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call American music.
While Owens originally used fiddle and retained pedal steel guitar into the 1970s, his sound on records and onstage was always more stripped-down and elemental, incorporating elements of rock and roll.
His signature style was based on simple story lines, infectious choruses, a twangy electric guitar, an insistent rhythm supplied by a drum track placed forward in the mix and high two-part harmonies featuring Owens and his guitarist, Don Rich.
In the early 1960s, the countrypolitan sound was popular, with smooth, string-laden, pop-influenced styles used by Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline. Owens went against the trend, using a honky-tonk hillbilly feel, mixed idiosyncratically with the Mexican polkas he had heard on border radio stations while growing up.
Beginning in 1969, Owens co-hosted the TV series, Hee Haw, with Roy Clark. He left the cast in 1986. In 1974, the accidental death of Rich, his best friend, devastated him for years and abruptly halted his career until he performed with Dwight Yoakam in 1988.
Owens died at age 76 of a heart attack on March 25, 2006 shortly after performing at his Crystal Palace restaurant, club and museum in Bakersfield.
Owens is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Jimmy Norman was born 85 years ago today
Jimmy Norman after an appearance at Penang with Jonny Rosch and Friends on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, October, 2003
Photo by Frank Beacham
Jimmy Norman was born 85 years ago today.
Norman was a rhythm and blues and jazz musician and a songwriter. In his early career, Norman had a charting single of his own, "I Don't Love You No More (I Don't Care About You)," as well as performing session work with Jimi Hendrix, but he is better known as a lyricist and songwriter.
He wrote the expanded lyrics of the song "Time Is on My Side," which became a hit for The Rolling Stones, and later in 1985 re-recorded and produced by Stephen Vanderbilt featuring "St. Tropez" as the A side of a 45 released on the album "Home" throughout Europe.
Norman composed a number of songs performed by well-known musicians including Johnny Nash and Bob Marley.
In 1969, he became involved with The Coasters, first as a producer and then as a touring member. He toured with the group for 30 years. He was also recording independently, releasing a solo album in 1998, the same year poor health forced him to retire from performance.
Like many other musicians of his time, he was not financially prepared for retirement or heavy medical bills, and with few royalties for his writing soon found himself in economic crisis.
With the assistance of the charitable organization, Jazz Foundation of America, Norman regained his feet and resumed performing, releasing his first wide distribution album in 2004, Little Pieces. He performed in the Manhattan area until shortly before his death.
In July, 2002, Norman's rare tape of his jam session with Marley was located in his apartment and, with the help of Frank Beacham, placed on auction, retrieving considerably above its estimated value when auctioned at $26,290.
During a housekeeping session, Norman had thrown away a garbage bag full of old notebooks containing his song lyrics.
Producer Kerryn Tolhurst, with the aid of Frank Beacham, recorded Norman performing the songs on a tape recorder in his apartment, taking the tapes into the studio later to add parts by other musicians.
Judy Collins, whose drummer, Tony Beard, contributed to the project, released the resultant album under her own Wildflower label in 2004. The album, Little Pieces, is the first recording Norman ever released with wide distribution.
In 2006, Little Pieces won in The 5th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best Blues Album.
Norman died on November 8, 2011, in New York City after a long illness.
Here, Frank Beacham interviewed Jimmy during a recording session about his favorite songs
Mark Knopfler is 73 years old today
Mark Knopfler is 73 years old today.
Knopfler is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band, Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977.
After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler went on to record and produce several solo albums, including Golden Heart (1996), Sailing to Philadelphia (2000) and Get Lucky (2009), Privateering (2012) and Tracker (2015).
He has composed and produced film scores, including Local Hero (1983), Cal (1984) and The Princess Bride (1987).
In addition to his work with Dire Straits and as a solo artist and composer, Knopfler has recorded and performed with many prominent musical artists. These include Bob Dylan, Phil Lynott, Chet Atkins, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Jools Holland, Steely Dan, Sonny Landreth and Van Morrison.
Knopfler has also produced albums for Dylan, Tina Turner and Randy Newman. He is one of the most respected fingerstyle guitarists of the modern rock era. Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date.
Knopfler holds three honorary doctorate degrees in music from universities in the United Kingdom.
Pat Metheny, jazz guitarist and composer, is 68 years old today
Pat Metheny, jazz guitarist and composer, is 68 years old today.
As the leader of the Pat Metheny Group, he is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, post-bop, latin jazz and jazz fusion.
Metheny is the brother of jazz flugelhornist and journalist, Mike Metheny. He has been touring for more than 30 years — playing between 120 and 240 concerts a year.
His tone, which has evolved over the years, involves using the natural full-frequency response of his hollow-body guitar, combined with high-midrange settings on his amplifier to create a smooth, sustaining lead sound that is virtually devoid of piercing treble yet is able to cut through a dense mix.
By using digital signal processing that involves digital delay/chorus and reverb, Metheny has created a big rich, and resonant instrumental voice.
In 2009, 2001 and 2011, Metheny was voted "Guitarist of the Year" in the DownBeat Magazine's Readers Poll.
Here, Metheny performs Carly Simon’s “That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be”
Today, Porter Wagoner would be 95 years old
It was in the 1960s, as a teenager attending the Anderson County Fair in South Carolina, that I saw Porter Wagoner introduce his new “girl singer,” Dolly Parton.
Let’s just say for a Southern kid, it was a day I will never forget.
I grew up around Wagoner, who actually rode in the Christmas parade in my tiny hometown of Honea Path. He was always a flashy character, wearing Nudie and Manuel suits with his big blond pompadour.
Today, Porter Wagoner would be 95 years old. Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954–1983 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Born in West Plains, Missouri, Wagoner’s first band, The Blue Ridge Boys, performed on radio station KWPM-AM from a butcher shop in his native West Plains where Wagoner cut meat. In 1951, he was hired by Si Siman as a performer on KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri. This led to a contract with RCA Victor.
With lagging sales, Wagoner and his trio played schoolhouses for the gate proceeds. In 1953, his song "Trademark" became a hit for Carl Smith, followed by a few hits of his own on RCA. Starting in 1955, he was a featured performer on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri.
He often appeared on the show as part of the Porter Wagoner Trio with Don Warden and Speedy Haworth. Warden, on steel guitar, became Wagoner's long-time business manager. In 1957, Wagoner and Warden moved to Nashville, Tennessee, joining the Grand Ole Opry.
Like many of his contemporaries in country music, Wagoner toured and performed outdoors for fans at American Legion houses in rural towns. Fans sat on wooden benches facing what was often a makeshift stage, just as I did when I first saw Dolly Parton.
Wagoner would mingle with the audience during performance breaks and usually remembered the names of the towns he visited. He could easily have been a politician.
Wagoner's 81 charted records include "A Satisfied Mind" (#1, 1955), “Misery Loves Company” (#1, 1962), “I've Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand” (#7, 1962–1963), “Sorrow on the Rocks” (#5, 1964), “Green, Green Grass of Home” (#4, 1965), “Skid Row Joe” (#3, 1965–1966), “The Cold Hard Facts of Life” (#2, 1967) and “The Carroll County Accident” (#2, 1968–1969).
Among his hit duets with Dolly Parton were a cover of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind" (1967), "We'll Get Ahead Someday" (1968), "Just Someone I Used to Know" (1969), "Better Move it on Home" (1971), "The Right Combination" (1972), "Please Don't Stop Loving Me" (#1, 1974) and "Making Plans" (#2, 1980).
His syndicated television program, The Porter Wagoner Show, aired from 1960 to 1981. There were 686 30-minute episodes taped; the first 104 (1960–66) in black-and-white and the remainder (1966–81) in color.
At its peak, his show was featured in over 100 markets, with an average viewership of over three million. Reruns of the program air on the rural cable network RFD-TV and its sister channel in the UK Rural TV.
Though Parton's departure from Wagoner caused some animosity on both sides, the two reconciled in the late 1980s and appeared together a number of times in the following years. Parton inducted Wagoner into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
Until his death, Wagoner appeared regularly on the Grand Ole Opry and toured actively. He died from lung cancer in Nashville on October 28, 2007 at age 80.
Dolly Parton performed a concert at her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood, in his memory after his death.
Here is Porter Wagoner with Dolly Parton on his TV show, 1973
Sid Bernstein was born 104 years ago today
Sid Berstein and Frank Beacham
Sid Bernstein was born 104 years ago today.
Bernstein was a music producer and promoter who changed the American music scene in the 1960s by bringing The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues and The Kinks to America. He was the first impresario to organize rock concerts at sports stadiums.
Born in New York City, Bernstein was adopted by a Russian Jewish family. He studied journalism at Columbia University before working in a ballroom and joining the U.S. Army in 1943. During World War II, he was stationed in Britain and also served in France with the 602nd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion of the United States Army.
After the end of the war, he returned to New York and became the manager of mambo musician, Esy Morales, as well as acting as a booking agent. He started work for the General Artists Corporation (GAC), and by the early 1960s was working as a booking agent for pop stars such as Dion and Chubby Checker.
Bernstein helped to start the British Invasion by first bringing The Beatles over to the United States from Britain. An Anglophile, he contacted Brian Epstein in early 1963 after having read about the group in British newspapers, and, after persuading Epstein that they could be successful in the U.S., he booked Carnegie Hall for their first appearance without informing the venue of their style of music.
In late December, 1963, the unknown Beatles were introduced to the Tidewater area of Virginia. Almost every other song played by the area’s DJs were Beatle records, accompanied by giveaways of shirts, etc. The following month in very early January, 1964, the same phenomenon occurred, as the Beatles were introduced to the New York City area complemented by all sorts of contests and gifts.
They played at Carnegie Hall on February 12, 1964, after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Bernstein also booked them at Shea Stadium, a concert that Bernstein described as "inaudible" due to the crowd’s loud cheering and the inadequate sound system.
After the group retired from touring and later split up, Bernstein made many attempts to persuade them to re-form, at one point taking out full-page newspaper articles asking them to perform together for charity.
During the Beatles Shea concert, Bernstein had the phrase "The Rascals are coming!" displayed on the Shea Stadium scoreboard. "I had met the Rascals in the summer of '65 though Billy Smith (Amato) in Westhampton Long Island; I put their name up on the scoreboard (at Shea) - 'The Rascals are coming! The Rascals are coming!' A lot of people who hadn't seen pictures of them thought they were a black group. I sensed something big about them."
He worked with the Rascals for five years, helping along their rise from obscurity, changing their name from "The Rascals" to "The Young Rascals" in an attempt to avoid controversy because of a similar named group.
Bernstein also brought British bands including The Rolling Stones, Herman's Hermits, The Moody Blues and The Kinks to America. He also organized concerts for Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Laura Nyro, Laura Branigan, Melanie and Sly & the Family Stone.
James Brown said that Bernstein "was in the forefront of race relations" by booking African-American musicians during the 1960s.
In 1964, he brought many Israeli singers to the United States for their first major concerts, among them Shoshana Damari, Shaike Ophir and Yaffa Yarkoni, who appeared at Carnegie Hall a year after the Beatles. He was the first to stage a rock show at Madison Square Garden.
In his later years, a Bernstein favorite was David Ippolito, that guitar man in Central Park. Bernstein is shown with Ippolito.
Bernstein died on August 21, 2013 in Manhattan at age 95.
William Goldman, novelist, playwright and screenwriter, was born 91 years old today
William Goldman, novelist, playwright and screenwriter, was born 91 years old today.
In his book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, Goldman summed up the entertainment industry in the memorable opening sentence of the book, "Nobody knows anything."
Growing up in a Jewish family in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Goldman obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1952 and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1956.
He and his brother James, the playwright, shared an apartment with their friend, John Kander (also Oberlin and Columbia MA), and helped out Kander, a composer, by writing the libretto for his dissertation.
Kander became the composer of Cabaret, Chicago and a dozen other famous musicals. All three later won separate Academy Awards. Goldman lives in a penthouse apartment in New York City. His brother, James Goldman, who died in 1998, was a playwright and screenwriter.
Goldman began writing screenplays in his 30s. He researched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for eight years, and used Harry Longbaugh (a variant spelling of the Sundance Kid's real name) as his pseudonym for No Way to Treat a Lady.
After deciding he did not want to write a cowboy novel, he turned the story into his first original screenplay and sold it for a record $400,000 in the late 1960s. Goldman felt that the script's potential, and the eight years of research involved in writing it, justified the fee.
He went on to use several of his novels as the foundation for his screenplays, such as The Princess Bride. His book, No Way to Treat a Lady, was made into a film in 1968, but Goldman did not write the adaptation, which varied from the book.
Goldman wrote the famous line "Follow the money" for the screenplay of All the President's Men. While the line is often attributed to Deep Throat, it is not found in Bob Woodward’s notes nor in Woodward and Carl Bernstein's book or articles.
He was the original screenwriter for the film version of Tom Wolfe's novel, The Right Stuff. He wrote the screenplay for Rob Reiner's 1990 adaptation of Stephen King's novel, Misery, considered "one of [King's] least adaptable novels.” The movie performed well with critics and at the box office, and earned Kathy Bates an Academy Award.
Among the other scripts Goldman wrote are The Stepford Wives (1975), Marathon Man (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Chaplin (1992), Maverick (1994) and Absolute Power (1997).
In the 1980s, Goldman wrote a series of memoirs looking at his professional life on Broadway and in Hollywood. These have become classic reading for students of filmmaking.
Goldman died on Nov. 16, 2018 due to complications from colon cancer and pneumonia.
August 11, 2022
Charlie Sexton is 54 years old today
Charlie Sexton plays with Bob Dylan at the United Palace Theatre, New York City, 2009
Photo by Frank Beacham
Charlie Sexton is 54 years old today.
Sexton is a guitarist, singer and songwriter best known for the 1985 hit, "Beat's So Lonely," and as the guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band from 1999 to 2002, 2009 to 2012 and from 2013 to present.
His style of playing has varied and he has been associated with artists in the blues, folk, rock and punk genres.
Sexton's mother was 16 years old when she gave birth to him in San Antonio. When he was four, he and his mother moved to Austin, where clubs such as the Armadillo World Headquarters, Soap Creek Saloon and more notably the Split Rail and Antone's Blues Club later exposed him to popular music.
By the early 1980s, while Charlie and his brother, Will, were still young boys, they were both taught how to play guitar by the local Austin legend, W. C. Clark, known as the "Godfather of Austin Blues." With the help of Joe Ely and other local musicians such as Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sexton developed his talents as a musician.
In 1983, Sexton (under the name "Guitar Charles Sexton") appeared on a five-song EP by the group, Maxwell (a.k.a. the Eager Beaver Boys). Entitled Juvenile Junk, the EP's credits list the following musicians: Maxwell (lead vocals), Charles Sexton (guitars, backup vocals), Alex Buttersworth Napier (bass, backup vocals, maracas) and Gary Muddkatt Smith (drums, backup vocals).
Song titles are "Straight As An Arrow," "Don't Cha Know," "Anna Lou," "Back To School Blues" and "Oh Baby Show." All five songs appear on side one (with side two being empty dead space).
Old album jackets by groups such as the Flock were turned inside-out and used in the making of the EP's homemade covers. The front side is simply a pasted-on sheet of lined tablet paper with "Maxwell" and "Juvenile Junk" written in crayon. The back side is a pasted-on blue sheet with credits and photos. Juvenile Junk is one of the rarest and most sought after items in Sexton's vinyl discography.
In 1985, Sexton released his debut full-length album, Pictures for Pleasure. Recorded in Los Angeles when he was 16 years old, it yielded the Top 20 hit single, "Beat's So Lonely."
In 1987, Sexton was an occasional opening act for David Bowie on his Glass Spider Tour. He appears on the Glass Spider home video playing guitar on Iggy Pop's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat.
While he was still in his late teens, Sexton's skills as a guitar player were in great demand, and he became a popular session player, recording with artists such as Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Don Henley, Jimmy Barnes and Bob Dylan. He eventually followed up his debut with the self-titled album, Charlie Sexton, recorded at the age of twenty.
In 1988, Sexton worked for a time with Will Sexton, his brother. The band, Will and the Kill, released a 38-minute self-titled album featuring both Sexton and Jimmie Vaughan on tracks. The album was recorded at the Fire Station Studio and produced by Ely and released via MCA Records.
Sexton later contributed songs to various motion picture soundtracks, including True Romance and Air America, and made a cameo fronting a bar band in Thelma & Louise.
In 1992, Sexton, along with Doyle Bramhall II (son of Stevie Ray Vaughan's writing partner, Doyle Bramhall), Tommy Shannon and Chris "Whipper" Layton (both from Double Trouble, Stevie Ray Vaughan's famed rhythm section) formed the Arc Angels. The blues/rock band recorded and released a self-titled album on Geffen Records that same year.
The Steven Van Zandt-produced disc was well received by fans and critics alike. However, due to internal strife, including lack of communication (all members involved) and drug abuse (Bramhall), the band broke up in less than three years.
In 1999, Sexton was hired by Bob Dylan to replace Bucky Baxter. Sexton had previously played with Dylan during a pair of Austin concerts in 1996 and on some demos recorded in the fall of 1983. Sexton's residency with Dylan from 1999–2002 brought him great exposure, with many critics singling out the interplay between him and Larry Campbell, who was also a guitarist in Dylan's backing band.
Hailed as one of Dylan's best bands, the group recorded a number of studio recordings, including Things Have Changed (from the 2000 film, Wonder Boys) and 2001's critically acclaimed album, Love and Theft. Sexton also performed and appeared in 2003's Masked & Anonymous.
In October, 2009, Sexton rejoined Dylan's touring band, replacing Denny Freeman. He continues as a member of Dylan’s band today.
Here, Sexton performs “Beat’s So Lonely”
Charlie Sexton at home with his James Trussart SteelMaster and SteelTop guitars
James Trussart, the maker of Sexton’s guitars, is a musician-turned-luthier. The Parisian native began his career as a fiddler, accompanying Cajun singer-songwriter Zachary Richard in the late '70s, before turning his attention to crafting violins and later guitars in 1980.
From his current Southern California home workshop, Trussart crafts custom steel-bodied guitars, basses and violins reminiscent of shiny chrome resonator instruments and rusty, weathered or fossilized discarded machinery.
Influential artists own his guitars, including Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Mike Japper, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Joe Walsh, Jack White, Daniel Lanois, Marc Ribot, Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow), Rich Robinson (Black Crowes), Sonny Landreth, Joe Perry, Tom Morello, Billy Corgan and The Roots.
American Graffiti, George Lucas’s coming of age film, opened on this day in 1973 — 49 years ago
American Graffiti, George Lucas’s coming of age film, opened on this day in 1973 — 49 years ago.
The film starred Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark and Mackenzie Phillips.
Set in 1962 Modesto, California, American Graffiti is a study of the cruising and rock and roll cultures popular among the post–World War II baby boom generation.
Roger Ebert called it “not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie’s success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant.”
The genesis of American Graffiti was in Lucas's own teenage years in early 1960s Modesto. He was unsuccessful in pitching the concept to financiers and distributors but finally found favor at Universal Pictures after United Artists, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures turned him down.
Filming was initially set to take place in San Rafael, California, but the production crew was denied permission to shoot beyond a second day. As a result, most filming for American Graffiti was done in Petaluma.
American Graffiti was released to universal critical acclaim and financial success, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Produced on a $775,000 budget, the film has turned out to be one of the most profitable movies of all time.
In 1995, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Alex Haley was born 101 years ago today
Alex Haley was born 101 years ago today.
Haley was the author of the 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and the co-author of, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Born in Ithaca, New York, Haley's father was Simon Haley, a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University, and his mother was Bertha George Haley. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the obstacles of racism he had overcome.
Like his father, Alex Haley was enrolled at Alcorn State University at age 15, and a year later, enrolled at Elizabeth City State College in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The following year he returned to his father and stepmother to inform them of his withdrawal from college.
His father felt that Alex needed discipline and growth and convinced his son to enlist in the military when he turned 18. On May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began a 20-year career with the Coast Guard. He enlisted as a mess attendant and later became advanced to the rate of petty officer third-class in the rating of steward, one of the few ratings open to African Americans at that time.
It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories. It is said that during his enlistment he was often paid by other sailors to write love letters to their girlfriends. He said that the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long voyages was not the Japanese forces, but boredom.
After World War II, Haley was able to petition the U.S. Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 1949 he had become a petty officer first class in the rating of journalist. He later advanced to chief petty officer and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959.
He was the first Chief Journalist in the Coast Guard, the rating having been expressly created for him in recognition of his literary ability.
After retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard, Haley began his writing career, and eventually became a senior editor for Reader's Digest. He conducted the first interview for Playboy magazine with Miles Davis, appearing in the September, 1962 issue.
In the interview, Davis candidly spoke about his thoughts and feelings on racism, and it was that interview which set the tone for what became a significant feature of the magazine. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Playboy Interview with Haley was the longest he ever granted to any publication.
Throughout the 1960s, Haley was responsible for some of the magazine's most notable interviews, including an interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, who agreed to meet with Haley only after Haley, in a phone conversation, assured him that he was not Jewish.
Haley remained calm and professional during the interview, even though Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout it. The interview was recreated in Roots: The Next Generations, with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell.
Haley also interviewed Muhammad Ali, who spoke about changing his name from Cassius Clay. Other interviews include Jack Ruby's defense attorney, Melvin Belli, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jim Brown, Johnny Carson and Quincy Jones.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, was Haley's first book. It describes the trajectory of Malcolm X's life from street criminal to national spokesman for the Nation of Islam to his conversion to Sunni Islam.
It also outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism and pan-Africanism. Haley wrote an epilogue to the book summarizing the end of Malcolm X's life, including his assassination in New York's Audubon Ballroom.
Haley ghostwrote, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, based on more than 50 in-depth interviews he conducted with Malcolm X between 1963 and Malcolm X's February, 1965 assassination. The two men first met in 1960 when Haley wrote an article about the Nation of Islam for Reader's Digest. They met again when Haley interviewed Malcolm X for Playboy.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X has been a consistent best-seller since its 1965 publication. The New York Times reported that six million copies of the book had been sold by 1977. In 1998, TIME named The Autobiography of Malcolm X one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.
In 1973, Haley wrote his only screenplay, Super Fly T.N.T. The film starred and was directed by Ron O'Neal.
In 1976, Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based on his family's history, starting with the story of Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province of Maryland to be sold as a slave.
Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and his work on the novel involved ten years of research, intercontinental travel and writing. He went to the village of Juffure, where Kunta Kinte grew up and which is still in existence, and listened to a tribal historian tell the story of Kinte's capture. Haley also traced the records of the ship, The Lord Ligonier, which he said carried his ancestor to the Americas.
Haley has stated that the most emotional moment of his life occurred on September 29, 1967, when he stood at the site in Annapolis, Maryland, where his ancestor had arrived from Africa in chains exactly 200 years before. A memorial depicting Haley reading a story to young children gathered at his feet has since been erected in the center of Annapolis.
Roots was eventually published in 37 languages, and Haley won a special Pulitzer Prize for the work in 1977. The same year, Roots was adapted into a popular television miniseries by ABC.
The serial reached a record-breaking 130 million viewers. Roots emphasized that African Americans have a long history and that not all of that history is necessarily lost, as many believed. Its popularity also sparked an increased public interest in genealogy.
In 1979, ABC aired the sequel miniseries Roots: The Next Generations, which continued the story of Kunta Kinte's descendants, concluding with Haley's arrival in Juffure. Haley was portrayed at different ages by actors Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans and James Earl Jones.
Haley died in Seattle, Washington in 1992 of a heart attack and was buried beside his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee. He was 70 years old.
Steve Wozniak, visionary engineer behind Apple’s first computers, is 72 years old today
Steve Wozniak, visionary engineer behind Apple’s first computers, is 72 years old today.
Gregarious and entertaining, Wozniak left Apple more than 30 years ago. He has spent much of the time since working on philanthropic and business projects. He has taught in grade schools, organized rock festivals, devised products like wireless GPS and universal remote controls, written an autobiography and appeared on “Dancing With the Stars.”
In the early 1970s, Wozniak was also known as "Berkeley Blue" in the phone phreak community, after he made a blue box. He has said that Star Trek was a source of inspiration for him starting Apple Inc.
In March, 2016, High Point University, a private liberal arts school in High Point, North Carolina, announced that Wozniak would serve as their Innovator in Residence. Through this ongoing partnership, Wozniak connects with High Point University students and visits the campus.
In March 2017, Wozniak was listed by UK-based company, Richtopia, at #18 in the list of 200 Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs.
Wozniak gave away or sold most of his Apple stock early on but still gets a company stipend. He met Steve Jobs in 1971, but it wasn’t until 1976 that he developed the Apple I. Jobs was the marketing maestro who made it and the Apple II desirable to the public.
Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California. He applied for Australian citizenship in 2012, and has said that he would like to live in Melbourne, Australia in the future.
On this day in 1939 — 83 years ago today — the film, The Wizard of Oz, was previewed for the first time
On this day in 1939 — 83 years ago today — the film, The Wizard of Oz, was previewed for the first time in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The next day it was shown in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
The Hollywood premiere would come August 15, 1939 at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and two days later it premiered in New York City at Loew's Capitol Theatre. The New York screening was followed by a live performance with the films star, Judy Garland, and her frequent film co-star, Mickey Rooney. They continued to perform there after each screening for a week.
The Wizard of Oz featured the words and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen. It had beloved characters and familiar plot points from the original children’s book, from the Kansas farm girl in shiny slippers transported to Munchkin land by a terrible tornado, to the wicked witch, the brainless scarecrow, the heartless tin woodsman and the cowardly lion she encounters once she gets there.
But what’s missing, of course, from Frank Baum’s bestselling novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is the music that helped make those characters so beloved and those plot points so familiar.
First published in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was adapted numerous times for the stage and screen and even set to music since it was first published in 1900. It was the 1939 film adaptation, however, that earned Baum’s work a permanent place in both cinema and music history.
Lyricist Yip Harburg and composer, Harold Arlen, were both seasoned songwriting professionals before teaming up in 1938 to write the original songs for The Wizard of Oz, though they had worked together very little. Harburg’s best-known credits to date were “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” (1931) and “It’s Only A Paper Moon” (1933), and Arlen’s were “Get Happy” (1929) and “Stormy Weather” (1933).
Their first collaboration was on the Broadway musical, Hooray For What! (1937), which yielded the now-standard, “Down With Love.”
The success of The Wizard of Oz, however, would quickly overshadow those earlier accomplishments. Not only did Judy Garland’s signature song, “Over The Rainbow,” earn Arlen and Harburg the Oscar for Best Song at the 1940 Academy Awards, but it quickly became a standard in the American songbook.
It was later acknowledged as the #1 song on the “Songs of the Century” list compiled in 2001. First and foremost, however, Arlen and Harburg’s songs accomplished their primary goal with flying colors, carrying and deepening the emotional impact of the story in the film for which they were written.
As innovative and impressive as the production values of The Wizard of Oz were in 1939, it is impossible to imagine the film earning the place it has in the popular imagination without songs like “The Lollipop Guild,” “If I Only Had A Brain” and “We’re Off To See The Wizard.”
August 10, 2022
Bobby Hatfield, half of the Righteous Brothers, was born 82 years ago today
Bobby Hatfield (right) in the Righteous Brothers
Bobby Hatfield, half of the Righteous Brothers, was born 82 years ago today.
Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Hatfield would eventually encounter his singing partner, Bill Medley, while attending California State University in Long Beach. Hatfield and Medley began singing as a duo in 1962 in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group, the Paramours.
They were often told they sounded like African-American gospel singers and named their singing act, The Righteous Brothers, after a fan remarked of their singing, "that's righteous, brothers."
Their first charted single as the Righteous Brothers was "Little Latin Lupe Lu" and their first #1 was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," produced by Phil Spector in 1964. Follow-up hits included the #1 "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" and "Unchained Melody,” the latter of which was actually a Hatfield solo performance that he recorded again after the success of the film, Ghost.
Hatfield told friends that he had not lost any of the high notes in his tenor/falsetto range since the original recording, but had actually gained one note. The duo broke up in 1968, but returned with another hit in 1974, the #3 "Rock and Roll Heaven."
On November 5, 2003, Hatfield died at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, apparently in his sleep. In January, 2004, a toxicology report concluded that an overdose of cocaine had precipitated a fatal heart attack.
The initial autopsy found that Hatfield had advanced coronary disease. The medical examiner stated "there was already a significant amount of blockage in the coronary arteries." Hatfield was 63.
Here, the Righteous Brothers sing “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” on Shindig
Leo Fender, pioneer in electric guitar technology, was born 113 years ago today
Leo Fender, pioneer in electric guitar technology, was born 113 years ago today.
He is the inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company. Fender left the company in the late 1960s, and later founded two other musical instrument companies, MusicMan and G&L Musical Instruments.
The guitars, bass guitars and amplifiers Fender designed from the 1940s forward are still relevant today. The Fender Telecaster (1950) was the first mass-produced electric guitar. The Fender Stratocaster (1954) is among the world's most iconic electric guitars. The Fender Precision Bass (1951) set the standard for electric bass guitars.
The Fender Bassman amplifier, popular enough in its own right, became the basis for later amplifiers (notably by Marshall and Mesa Boogie) that dominated rock and roll music.
Fender was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, California. From an early age, he showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts and a battery.
The following year, young Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, California, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Fender later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, he began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Fender graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items but never took any kind of electronics course.
After college, Fender took a job as a deliveryman for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he later was made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky and they were married in 1934. About that time, he took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change-up, his job was eliminated and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
In 1938, with a borrowed $600, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, "Fender Radio Service." Soon, musicians and band leaders began coming to him for PA systems, which he built, rented and sold.
They also visited his store for amplification for the acoustic guitars that were beginning to show up in the southern California music scene — in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
During World War II, Leo met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player who had worked for Rickenbacker, which had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola" tailpiece, a precursor to the later vibrato or "tremolo" tailpiece.
Fender convinced him that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation" to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar with an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar, in a kit with an amplifier designed by Fender.
As the Big Bands fell out of vogue toward the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States. Many of these groups embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section.
Pickup-equipped archtops were the guitars of choice in the dance bands of the late-'40s, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper and more durable instruments. Players also needed faster necks and better intonation to play what the country players called "take-off lead guitar."
In the late 1940s, solid body electric guitars began to emerge in popularity, yet they were still considered novelty items with the Rickenbacker Spanish Electro guitar being the most commercially available solid body. Les Paul's one-off home-made "Log" and the Bigsby Travis guitar made by Paul Bigsby for Merle Travis were the most visible early examples.
Fender recognized the potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, tune and play, and would not feed back at dance hall volumes as the typical arch top would. In 1949, he finished the prototype of a thin solid-body electric. It was first released in 1950 as the Fender Esquire (with a solid body and one pickup), and renamed first, Broadcaster, and then, Telecaster (with two pickups), the year after.
Although he never admitted it, Fender seems to have based his design on the Rickenbacker Bakelite. The Telecaster, originally equipped with two single-coil pick-ups and widely used among country and western players, became one of the most popular electric guitars in history.
Instead of updating the Telecaster, Fender decided, based on customer feedback, to leave the Telecaster as it was and design a new, upscale solid body guitar to sell alongside the basic Telecaster.
Western swing guitarist Bill Carson was one of the chief critics of the Telecaster, stating that the new design should have individually adjustable bridge saddles, four or five pickups, a vibrato unit that could be used in either direction and return to proper tuning, and a contoured body for enhanced comfort over the slab-body Telecaster's harsh edges.
Fender, assisted by draftsman, Freddie Tavares, began designing the Stratocaster in late 1953. It included a rounder, less "club-like" neck (at least for the first year of issue) and a double cutaway for easier reach to the upper registers.
During this time, Fender also tackled the problems experienced by players of the acoustic double bass, who could no longer compete for volume with the other musicians. Besides, double basses were also large, bulky and difficult to transport.
With the Precision Bass (or "P-Bass"), released in 1951, Leo Fender addressed both issues. The Telecaster-based Precision Bass was small and portable, and its solid body construction and four magnet, single coil pickup let it play at higher volumes without feedback.
Along with the Precision Bass (so named because its fretted neck allowed bassists to play with “precision”), Fender introduced the Fender Bassman, a 45-watt amplifier with four 10-inch speakers (although initially with one 15-inch speaker).
Despite suffering several minor strokes, Fender continued to produce guitars and basses throughout his life.
On March 21, 1991, he died at age 81, having long suffered from Parkinson's disease.
Above photo by Jon Sievert
The first-ever electric guitar patent was awarded on this day in 1937 to the Electro String Corporation — 85 years ago
The first-ever electric guitar patent was awarded on this day in 1937 to the Electro String Corporation — 85 years ago.
Versatile, inexpensive and relatively easy to play, the acoustic guitar was a staple of American rural music in the early 20th century — particularly black rural music such as the blues. But a significant physical limitation made it a poor fit in ensembles made up of brass, woodwind and orchestral string instruments. The acoustic guitar was simply too quiet and could not project to audiences.
What transformed the guitar and its place in popular music, and eventually transformed popular music itself, was the development of a method for transforming the sound of a vibrating guitar string into an electrical signal that could be amplified and re-converted into audible sound at a much greater volume.
The electric guitar — the instrument that revolutionized jazz, blues and country music and made the later rise of rock and roll possible — was recognized by the United States Patent Office on this day in 1937 with the award of Patent #2,089.171 to G.D. Beauchamp for an instrument known as the Rickenbacker Frying Pan.
Inventor G.D. Beauchamp, partner with Adolph Rickenbacher in the Electro String Instrument Corp. of Los Angeles, spent more than five years pursuing his patent on the Frying Pan. It was a process delayed by several areas of concern, including the electric guitar's reliance on an engineering innovation that dated to the 19th century.
When a vibrating string is placed within a magnetic field, it is possible to "pick up" the sound waves created by that string's vibrations and convert those waves into electric current. Replace the word "string" with the word "membrane" in that sentence, however, and you also have a description of how a telephone works.
For this reason, Beauchamp's patent application had to be revised multiple times to clarify which of his individual claims were truly novel and which were merely new applications of existing patents.
On August 10, 1937, the Patent Office approved the majority of Beachamp's claims — primarily those relating to the unique design of the Frying Pan's "pickup," a heavy electromagnet that surrounded the base of the steel strings like a bracelet rather than sitting below them as on a modern electric guitar.
Unfortunately for the Electro String Corp., Beauchamp's specific invention had long since been obsolesced by the innovations of various competitors, rendering the patent awarded on this day in 1937 an item of greater historical importance than economic value.
Thanks to History.com
Eddie Fisher was born 94 years ago today
Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor
Eddie Fisher was born 94 years ago today.
Fisher was the most successful pop singles artist of the first half of the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show. He left his first wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, to marry Reynolds's best friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor, when Taylor's husband, film producer Mike Todd, died.
This event garnered scandalous and unwelcome publicity for Fisher. He later married Connie Stevens. He was the father of actresses Carrie Fisher (with Reynolds), Joely Fisher (with Stevens) and Tricia Leigh Fisher (with Stevens).
A pre–rock and roll vocalist, Fisher's strong and melodious tenor made him a teen idol and one of the most popular singers of the early 1950s. He had 17 songs in the Top 10 on the music charts between 1950 and 1956 and 35 in the Top 40.
Fisher has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — one for recording at 6241 Hollywood Boulevard and the other for television at 1724 Vine Street.
Fisher suffered from knee, back, hearing and eyesight problems in his later years, the last of which were worsened by a botched cataract removal operation. As a result, he rarely appeared in public.
At age 82, Fisher broke his hip on September 9, 2010, and died 13 days later on September 22, 2010, at his home in Berkeley, California, due to complications from hip surgery.
His second wife, Elizabeth Taylor, died six months and one day after Fisher, on March 23, 2011.
Here, Fisher joins Bobby Darin and Andy Williams singing “Do-Re-Mi” in 1966
Jimmy Dean was born 94 years ago today
Jimmy Dean was born 94 years ago today.
A country music singer, television host, actor and businessman, Dean may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand.
He became a national television personality starting in 1957, rising to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit, "Big Bad John," and his television series, The Jimmy Dean Show, which also gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure.
Dean’s acting career included a supporting role as Willard Whyte in the 1971 James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever.
On February 23, 2010, Dean was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Dean died at the age of 81, on June 13, 2010, of natural causes at his home near Richmond, Virginia. He is entombed in a nine-foot-tall piano-shaped mausoleum overlooking the James River on the grounds of his estate.
His epitaph reads, "Here Lies One Hell of a Man," which is a quote from a lyric from his uncensored version of the song, "Big Bad John.”
Charlie's Place: Photo Essay
- The true story of the Ku Klux Klan’s violent attempt in South Carolina in the post World War II years to stop dirty dancing and kill the emerging black music behind it—rhythm & blues. E-book in all platforms.
Mill Town Murder: Photo Essay
- On the morning of Sept. 6, 1934, in the tiny town of Honea Path, S.C., friends and neighbors came to blows in a labor dispute. When it was over, seven people were dead and 30 others wounded. The bloody riot at the town’s cotton mill shaped the lives of two generations to follow—not because of the shock of what was known, but by what was unknown. E-book available on all platforms.
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