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Thursday, July 30, 2009

MUSIC: 50 Concerts (But Really 50 Music Acts Seen Live)

Okay, I got this from a friend on Facebook. - OlderMusicGeek

OK, here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you’ve seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can’t think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw first (you can remember that, can’t you)?

Should you choose this challenge, here’s what you do:
Copy this. Make your list. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Then email it to your friends, and return it to the person that sent it to you.


Well, I don’t know if I can remember 50 concerts I’ve been to, but I think I can remember 50 acts I’ve seen. I mean I could if I included all the local acts I’ve seen at various bars – though if I could remember all the names of the acts is another question! But I’ll stick to fairly well known groups here – the key word being “fairly”! So here goes…

(To be honest, I kinda cheated and looked up on the web to see who were at some of the festivals I attended to refresh my memory!)

1. Kiss
2. John Cougar (And NOT John Mellencamp or even John Cougar Mellencamp. This was in support of his first album. And it was an vinyl record album, NOT a cd!) (opening act for Kiss – believe or not)
3. Ted Nugent (twice)
4. Molly Hatchet (twice) (Don’t judge! This is how we rocked before punk!)
5. Blackfoot (opening for one of the Ted Nugent shows)
6. The Tubes (The stories I could tell about going to this show and coming back – but that is a blog in and of itself!)
7. Husker Du
8. Soul Asylum (opening for Husker Du)
9. Rick Wakeman
10. Ian Dury And The Blockheads (Glastonbury Festival ’85 – the one where it rained and the place was covered in mud)
11. The Pogues (Glastonbury Festival ’85)
12. The Men They Couldn’t Hang (Glastonbury Festival ’85)
13. Billy Bragg (Glastonbury Festival ’85)
14. Monochrome Set
15. The Ramones (Lollapalooza '96)
16. Rancid (Lollapalooza ’96)
17. Cornershop (Lollapalooza ’96)
18. Phillip Glass (also saw an opera of his if that counts)
19. Peter, Paul and Mary
20. Flogging Molly
21. Violent Femmes
22. Cracker (twice)
23. The Bottle Rockets (opening for Cracker at one of the shows)
24. Duke Tomatoe & The Power Trio
25. Pookiesnackenburger (an English cabaret band)
26. The Police
27. Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble (Taste Louisiana Festival ’06)
28. Sankomota (South African band I saw in Lesotho)
29. Electric Light Orchestra
30. Hall & Oates (opening for E.L.O. – otherwise, trust me, I wouldn’t have seen them at all!)
31. Ravi Shankar
32. Pat Benatar
33. Sonic Youth
34. R.E.M. (twice)
35. 10,000 Maniacs (opening one of the R.E.M. shows)
36. The Bangles
37. Boomtown Rats (Glastonbury Festival '85)
38. Joe Cocker (Glastonbury Festival '85)
39. The Style Council (Glastonbury Festival '85)
40. Calliope (a group that played Renaissance/medieval music)
41. Queen (Who had a horrible opening act! I went to the bathroom during the act, and there was a line at the toilet! And the group got their biggest applause when they said they were doing their last song. Then they dared to come out for an encore – despite a very mild applause at the end – and asked if the audience wanted another song. More people said no than yes!)
42. The Who
43. George Thorogood & The Destroyers (If memory serves me right, I saw him twice. Once was during his 50 states in 50 days tour back in ’80. We were state/day 37, and he was still going strong. Of course, he was a lot younger and thinner then!)
44. Jamie Bergeron & the Kickin’ Cajuns (Taste Louisiana Festival ’06)
45. Reel Big Fish
46. Roger Miller (Musician formerly of Mission of Burma, not the folk musician – but I was actually first interested in the concert because I thought he was the folk musician! He did though do “King Of The Road”! – On a synthesizer!)
47. Elvis Costello (who told David Letterman that our town was the best audience on that tour!)
48. Echo And The Bunnymen (Glastonbury Festival ’85)
49. Talking Heads
50. Frank Zappa

Local acts, past and present, I’ve seen (Support local music!) - at least, the ones I can remember:

1. Sinister Sons
2. Buick McSnake
3. The Hollowmen (numerous times)
4. The Chant (a few times)
5. The Big Picture
6. Vandon Arms
7. Slaughter House 6
8. North Of Grand
9. Look Out Loretta
10. Hollywood Burnout
11. Little Mojo
12. David Zollo
13. Poison Control Center
14. Pumptown
15. The Delstars
16. Gumbohead
17. An Afternoon Snatching
18. Old Scratch Revival Singers
19. Steve Robinson And The Foundation
20. Exit

Monday, July 27, 2009

MUSIC: If Abraham Lincoln Had An iPod

As usual, I'm late putting this up late. The 200th anniversary for Lincoln's birthday was back in February. But as I'm always interested on what people are listening to on their mp3 players - I watched a show on John Lennon's "iPod" and reprinted a piece on George Bush's from the BBC. So here's Abraham Lincoln. If anybody knows of similar stuff, please let me know! - OlderMusicGeek

If Abraham Lincoln Had An iPod
By Mike Hoffman

February 16, 2009 - To celebrate Presidents' Day, we have conjured up Abraham Lincoln, but in a less-than-presidential pose: with earbuds dangling from his ears.

Classical music commentator Miles Hoffman agreed to explore the 16th president's musical tastes, as well as what music Lincoln might have chosen for his iPod, had he owned one.

The Lincoln iPod would have needed a lot of memory, as the president apparently enjoyed all sorts of music and loved opera. His love of opera apparently got him into trouble during the Civil War, when he was taken to task for attending a performance while the war was ongoing. To this, the president responded, "The truth is I must have a change of some sort, or die."

"We know that Lincoln liked the opera Martha, by Friedrich von Flotow, and had it performed during the festivities for his second inaugural," Hoffman says. "Martha is not performed very often now, and it's mainly known for one very beautiful aria, 'Ach so fromm,' where the male romantic lead, Lionel, sings a love song to the title character, Martha. "We also know that one month before he died - on March 15, 1865 - Lincoln attended a performance of Mozart 's Magic Flute at the National Theatre in Washington," Hoffman says.

Another big favorite of Lincoln's was a kind of "crossover" artist, Louis Moreau Gottschalk . A Southerner by birth, born in New Orleans, Gottschalk was a one-of-a-kind composer, a virtuoso pianist and, perhaps surprisingly, a supporter of the Union cause. One of his most famous pieces is The Union (Fantasy on Patriotic Airs). When you listen to the beginning of the piece, it sounds like any flashy, 19th-century European virtuoso piano piece. But then Gottschalk launches into the tunes we all know, treating them in his own inimitable way.

Lincoln was also partial to popular music and sentimental ballads, such as the songs of Stephen Foster. One of his favorites was an old Scottish love ballad called "Annie Laurie."

Remarkably, No. 1 on Lincoln's iPod might have been his all-time favorite, "Dixie."
"It had already been a popular song before the Civil War and came from a minstrel show," Hoffman says. "Lincoln had been quoted as saying, 'I have always thought "Dixie" one of the best tunes I have ever heard.' "

"After the war," Hoffman adds, "he is reported to have said, 'That tune is now federal property, and it is good to show the rebels that, with us in power, they will be free to hear it again.' "

Comments...
David Lewis (UncleDave) wrote...
Lincoln's favorite song, it is reported, was "Listen to the Mockingbird." The polymorphously prolix composer Anthony Phillip Heinrich once played a concert at the Lincoln White House, according to John Tasker Howard. After Heinrich was done playing one his heavy, florid and long compositions, Lincoln innocently asked, "Couldn't you just play 'Listen to the Mocking Bird'?" Heinrich obliged with an improvised set of variations on the tume, which pleased the Lincolns greatly, but left Heinrich less than happy.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11:02:44 AM

TJ Wilkinson (bullmoose) wrote...
A very nice piece, although the story did fail to mention that Lincoln was a devotee of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. No doubt a fair number of the songs of Burns would have appeared on Lincoln's "iPod" as well.
Ironically, 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of Burns's birth on January 25th.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 11:20:37 AM

Catherine Loomis (TS2_1_181) wrote...
Lincoln's i-Pod would also include sound recordings of Shakespeare's plays. I try to get my students to listen to them, since they rarely have a chance to watch the plays performed.
Monday, February 16, 2009 5:50:22 PM

A link to the original site
George Bush's iPod
John Lennon's "iPod"
What *I* listened to on my iPod before I lost it

MUSIC: John Lennon "iPod"

This is an essay that went with a PBS show. I edited it down, but you can read the whole essay here. - OlderMusicGeek

WHEN WRONG IS RIGHT
By Ed Ward

From the very first song we heard, no matter when we dropped into the Beatles story, it sounded like they were doing something utterly original. But they weren't, not entirely.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney, their young friend George Harrison, and, later, drummer Pete Best, along with John's art school friend Stu Sutcliffe, were actually rock and roll fans. Like lots of British kids, they idolized Gene Vincent, Little Richard, and the "girl group" sound coming from New York's pop factory, the Brill Building. They listened to what the British called "Tamla Motown" and to early soul singers like Arthur Alexander. These were the sounds they worked into their repertoire as the Silver Beatles, and the songs they played night after night during their arduous sojourns at the Star Club in Hamburg.

But as the Beatles searched for new stuff to copy, they began to write their own material. Try as they might, they couldn't come up with rock and roll songs that sounded like the ones they'd been hearing. Their songs sounded better, because they were their own.

This is what makes artists artists: they take little bits of things from here and there and put them together in unexpected combinations that seem new and original. Some of them are pretty obvious: one of Little Richard's trademarks is the "Ooooo!" he interjects into a lot of his hit songs. Richard got it from the world of gospel, where it's a standard of Alex Bradford, among others. The Beatles grabbed this little trick for themselves, and it's all over their first recordings: girls went wild when Lennon and McCartney stepped up to a single microphone, shook their mop tops, and went "Ooooo!".

Other borrowings aren't so obvious. JOHN LENNON'S JUKEBOX will introduce most people to a singer-guitarist named Bobby Parker. I'd never heard of him until watching this program, and all I can discover about him is that his record "Watch Your Step" was on the pop BILLBOARD charts for six weeks in 1961 and got as high as number 51. It was released on V-Tone Records, a label I'd also never heard of. The guitar lick Parker plays on this record morphed into "I Feel Fine," but also, I think, "Day Tripper." Watching Parker demonstrate it, I realized that John Lennon probably had trouble playing it: it's simple, but not nearly as simple as Parker makes it seem. And of course, Lennon had no way to watch Parker's fingers. So because John couldn't play that lick, it became another song, "I Feel Fine," which went to number one.

But it would be a mistake to assume that the music in John Lennon's jukebox was there only to be copied. Especially in pop music, it's essential that the greatest innovators remain fans, enthusiasts, explorers of the past and present.

Ditto the Lovin' Spoonful. By the time their records started appearing, the Beatles were established and deeply involved in creating their own music. The Spoonful were doing music that was similar, but different enough that John could listen to it and imagine that here was a bunch of Americans who had understandably wanted to imitate the Beatles -- but they'd gotten it wrong, just wrong enough that what they did was completely right.

In the end, the records in John Lennon's jukebox simply confirm that he was a rock and roll fan -- as if there could have been any doubt about that! -- and that he wasn't averse to lifting a little something here and there to further his own art, even if he couldn't imitate it perfectly.

**********


In 1989, a Bristol music promoter purchased at auction an old Discomatic jukebox owned by John Lennon in the 1960s. Its track list, written in Lennon's own hasty handwriting, catalogued 41 remarkable discs of American soul, R&B, and rock 'n' roll -- a collection that shaped his musical education and became the musical style source from which the Beatles sound derived. Below is a complete list of all the 45s included in the jukebox.


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Some of the songs are missing on this, and a couple of songs are by artists different than the ones on John Lennon's jukebox.



1. "In the Midnight Hour"
Wilson Pickett


2. "Rescue Me"
Fontella Bass


3. "Tracks of My Tears"
Smokey Robinson


4. "My Girl"
Otis Redding


5. "1, 2, 3"
Len Barry


6. "Hi Heel Sneakers"
Tommy Tucker


7. "Walk"
Jimmy McCracklin


8. "Gonna Send You Back to Georgia"
Timmy Shaw


9. "First I Look at the Purse"
The Contours


10. "New Orleans"
Gary "U.S." Bonds


11. "Watch Your Step"
Bobby Parker


12. "Daddy Rollin' Stone"
Derek Martin


13. "Short Fat Fannie"
Larry Williams


14. "Long Tall Sally"
Little Richard


15. "Money (That's What I Want)"
Barrett Strong


16. "Hey! Baby"
Bruce Channel


17. "Positively 4th Street"
Bob Dylan


18. "Daydream"
The Lovin' Spoonful


19. "Turquoise"
Donovan


20. "Slippin' and Slidin'"
Buddy Holly


21. "Be-Bop-A-Lula"
Gene Vincent


22. "No Particular Place to Go"
Chuck Berry


23. "Steppin' Out"
Paul Revere


24. "Do You Believe in Magic"
The Lovin' Spoonful


25. "Some Other Guy"
The Big Three


26. "Twist and Shout"
The Isley Brothers


27. "She Said "Yeah""
Larry Williams


28. "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"
Buddy Holly


29. "Slippin' and Slidin'"
Little Richard


30. "Quarter to Three"
Gary "U.S." Bonds


31. "Ooh My Soul"
Little Richard


32. "Woman Love"
Gene Vincent


33. "Shop Around"
The Miracles


34. "Bring It on Home to Me"
The Animals


35. "If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody"
James Ray


36. "What's So Good About Goodbye"
The Miracles


37. "Bad Boy"
The Miracles
Couldn't find this on Blip.fm or YouTube!

38. "Agent Double O Soul"
Edwin Starr


39. "I've Been Good to You"
The Miracles


40. "Oh I Apologize"
Barrett Strong
Couldn't find this on Blip.fm or YouTube!

41. "Who's Lovin' You"
The Miracles

Sunday, July 05, 2009

MOVIES: The Lightsaber Duelist Test

Your result for The Lightsaber Duelist Test ...
Luke Skywalker
"You'll find I'm full of Suprises."


From humble beginnings, this boy grows to become the last hope of the Jedi. He fights with passion & athleticisim, but ultimately the greatest battle this warrior must face is within. This struggle both gives him the pluck he needs to survive, but seems to be a downfall, until the moment he finally lives up to his own expectations...

RATE MY TEST!

COMPARED TO OTHER TAKERS

  • 64/100You scored 68% on Emotion, higher than64% of your peers.
  • 16/100You scored 45% on Direction, higher than16% of your peers.


Take the quiz

MUSIC: Some Independence Day Music

My brother, Harmonica23, put these up on his Facebook page.


To quote my brother - "What better way to celebrate this all American holiday than with an American band singing about American music."

Search This Blog

My Twitter Page On Entertainment

Music That I've Enjoyed Recently

My Internet Radio Stations


This is a fairly good sampling of some of the music I listen to. It's missing a few genres I like - such as cajun. I'll work on that later. But it does contain most of my favorite artists. I tried to steer away from the better known songs to give you a better idea of what kind of music the artists play, but I was limited by the songs the website - Project Playlist - had available. But if you want to get an idea of what I listen to, just hit the play or arrow button. - OlderMusicGeek

The internet station that does the best of playing my music is Last.fm. Here's my station if you're interested.

This website, OlderMusicGeek Radio on Pandora.com, does a fairly decent job of playing what I like, although they do occasionally play stuff I don't care for, but overall they're pretty good.