Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic
Until fairly recently, I had a Tuesday Morning “close-out retailer” store within two miles of home. In an age when we are lucky to have just one large national bookstore chain, I was grateful to have a quirky home goods store that also offered the oddest assortment of book fare,
Last November’s tribute to the funkiest musical instrument known to humankind would seem to designate NRBQ‘s “Stomp” (recorded December, 1968) as among the earliest of recordings to feature the clavinet, even though by article’s end I reveal my ace card — “Attractive Girl” by The Termites, an album track on
Michael Stipe and his REM bandmates, it would appear, are bat fans, as evidenced by their non-LP B-side, “Winged Mammal Theme.” This abstract instrumental take on “The Batman Theme” — flip side of their 1992 hit “Drive” – but only in the US — was somehow rejected for the soundtrack to
The grammarian in me finds it unbelievably difficult to refer to the legendary bluegrass family dynasty as “The Stonemans” – I keep wanting to say “The Stonemen.” Surely, I’m not the only person who wrestles with this conundrum? (Image courtesy of Discogs) Ernest “Pop” Stoneman‘s musical career goes all the
I couldn’t help noticing that Bobby Jameson wrote the kick-off song on Michele O’Malley‘s Saturn Rings album. Curt Boettcher, interestingly, would be picked to produce Jameson’s second album — although the first “proper” album under his own name — Color Him In. Cubist cover art for Jameson’s 1967 album on
I love the grand Spectorian splendor of this Ray Stevens arrangement for Joe South – “Concrete Jungle” – that was released January 25, 1964 on MGM: “Concrete Jungle” Joe South (1964) According to PragueFrank, South had recorded this song plus “The Last One to Know” on October 20, 1963 –
As Martha Ross writes in The Mercury News/Contra Costa Times, cartoonist Morris “Morrie” Turner broke racial barriers in the 1960s when he became the first African-American to have a syndicated comic strip – Wee Pals – that still runs daily, despite Turner’s death this past January at the age of
One other prominent (and tragic) artist from country music’s early years to get the cosmetic posthumous remix is Hank Williams, whose death in 1953 in no way stopped MGM from issuing new product for the marketplace (often multiple albums per year) through 1981 and beyond. Hank Williams, for instance, was
Recorded by Merle Kilgore in early November, 1963 at Columbia Recording Studio in Nashville and released January 1964 as a single by MGM: “Johnny Zero“ Merle Kilgore (1963) Does Merle Kilgore sound like Johnny Cash because they were such good friends, or were Merle and Johnny good friends because their
In 1967, Sheb Wooley released a great single, where the A-side – “Love In” – hilariously mocked the “free love” sentiment then in vogue, while the B-side proudly proclaimed the simple music of the “folk” to be the kind that touches his soul the deepest: Wildwood Flower on the Autoharp
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