Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Month: June 2016

"Diamond"
Zeroto180

Paul Beaver Played Clavinet, Too (plus Emil Richards Tribute)

Remember last month when I was hot on the trail of identifying the first recording of a clavinet, thanks to a tip from Jim Kimsey:  “Six O’Clock” by John Sebastian & The Lovin’ Spoonful?  Was John Sebastian‘s “electric harpsichord” (as he referred to the instrument), in fact, a clavinet?  Sebastian

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"Garlic Blues"
Zeroto180

Garlic in Popular Music — Garlic Songs

There are a considerable number of people on this planet who are not yet aware of the existence of a restaurant – The Stinking Rose – dedicated to celebrating the garlic bulb in all its glory, with garlic infused into the majority of the menu offerings.  With only two locations

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"Six Million Dollars"
Zeroto180

Early 90s Ohio Valley EDM

In retrospect, I now realize that Ed Goldstein was the first musician I knew personally to obtain formal permission to record another musical artist’s work.  This was in 1992 — before the Internet would so much more readily facilitate this kind of information sleuthing — and I remember being somewhat

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"Washita Love Child"
Zeroto180

“Washita Love Child”: Jesse Ed & Eric Whatsisname

In The World of Indigenous America, Brian Wright-McLeod writes of the “powwow style” and its influence in popular music, as exemplified by such artists as Jim Pepper, Peter DePoe, and Jesse Ed Davis: Jesse Ed Davis (Comanche-Kiowa) began his work as a leading session guitarist in the early 1960s when

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"Silver Springs"
Zeroto180

“Silver Springs” Maryland: Musically Unincorporated

I was recently reminded that Stevie Nicks wrote a song in 1976 that was intended for Fleetwood Mac‘s multi-platinum (i.e., 40+ million) Rumours album but, in the end, used only as a B-side.  This song, interestingly enough, is named for the place where my children were born and educated —

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"Yancey Special"
Zeroto180

“Yancey Special”: Prog Reggae II

Keith Emerson captivated me as a grade schooler with the deep, heavy Moog sounds he conjured for Emerson, Lake & Palmer‘s “Lucky Man,” fittingly, the final track on a 4-LP box set from 1973 that got a lot of mileage in our household growing up, Superstars of the Seventies — one

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"The People's Choice"
Zeroto180

Muhammad Ali: “The People’s Choice”

Muhammad Ali enjoyed such worldwide popularity, I’m surprised The Champ didn’t release more recordings over the course of his career, aside from two albums, a handful of singles, and, of course, the Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay LPs: Ali would launch his national campaign for dental health

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"I Shall Sing"
Zeroto180

Van Morrison’s “Binned” 1969 Pop Reggae

All these years I’ve naively assumed “I Shall Sing” to be a Judy Mowatt early reggae original (and 1974 Jamaican chart-topper, according to this Los Angeles Times piece from 1986).  And yet that same Times piece makes clear, Judy Mowatt was taking her musical inspiration from Miriam Makeba (not Art

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"Hipster"
Zeroto180

“Hipster”: That You, Mr. Brinson?

I’m surprised there aren’t more web pages that pay tribute to Julius Brinson, gym teacher extraordinaire, whose boundless energy and relentless good cheer have brightened countless days for the students, parents, and fellow staff of Sligo Creek Elementary School. It’s no secret that Mr. Brinson is rather adept at mixing

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