I am sad to report the death of Donald Byrd or to give him his full name Donaldson Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II. he died on 4th February aged 80. He was seen by many as the finest trumpet player of his generation and was able to transition from a be bop style into jazz funk fusion. He was seen as a pioneer in the latter genre. It is via jazz funk that I became aware of Mr Byrd. I was a bit of a teenage Soul Boy, come Funkateer. As a result Donald Byrd’s band the Blackbyrds were a favourite of mine.
I posted about him as recently as December last year; click here to read that post. He was also a much sought after sideman to many other performers including Art Blakey, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock to name but a few. My thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans. RIP Donald Byrd.
Did you know that the Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman penned “Tiger Feet” was originally offered to the Sweet? Those famous ‘navvies in drag’ turned it down apparently saying it was rubbish. Given the more heavy rock direction the band took after their UK number 2 “Teenage Rampage” it was not surprising with hindsight. But I can’t really imagine that a version by the Sweet would have sounded much different to Mud‘s. What do you think?
The song was Mud’s biggest seller and in fact sold more copies that any other UK single in 1974. It was the first of their three UK number ones and the first of five UK top ten hits for them in 1974. So go ahead and enjoy yourself with a couple of fine slices of British Glam Pop from the 70s.
I have been a lazy blogger over the past few weeks for various reasons, so for that I would like to apologise to my regular readers. Although to be fair many of you may have enjoyed the respite. Anyway I hope to be taking plenty of servings of Blogger Bran to make me a more regular poster. Todays post is essentially an open letter/ job application to Jim Henson.
Dear Jim,
I have loved the Muppets ever since the Muppet Show first appeared on UK TV back in the late 70s. My favourite characters initially were Kermit, Robin, Beaker and Animal. More recently, perhaps with age and wisdom it has become Waldorf & Stadtler and Sam the American Bald Eagle. When I started losing my hair a number of my friends likened me to Sam. Which to me has become a badge of honour.
Anyway let me explain why I am writing to you about employment. I started work in 1975 and since 1997 I have been a Programme/ Project Manager. I won’t outline the intricate detail of what I do for a living as I am sure you would be asleep after the first sentence. I feel that I have much of the right experience to work within your organisation. Mostly as I have worked with some real Muppets, particularly over the past 16 years. People with a complete lack of common sense (or any sense in some cases) and people who seem to be operated by a Muppeteer or at the very least must be controlled by having someone’s hand up their rear end.
I would be happy to offer my cv/ resume on request but I would also be keen to discuss opportunities with you. I would love to start at the bottom of the ladder, perhaps with a small part in the next Muppet movie. Just for the record I prefer to work without someone’s clenched hand inserted anywhere on my person.
I look forward to speaking to you and in the meantime I will be returning to the corporate world of Muppets tomorrow
Kind Regards
Bill – A Man not a Muppet
NOTE – not everyone I have worked with is a Muppet, those of you who are not Muppets will know that. Those of you that are Muppets probably won’t know!
In my teens I became a big fan of the Ohio Players, perhaps drawn in by their somewhat erotic album covers. Nonetheless they were a truly powerful funk band and “Love Rollercoaster” stands the test of time as classic slice of 70s funk. That song never fails to get me moving. Younger readers may know the reasonably good cover of the song by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
It is with regret that I must report the passing of the band’s lead singer Leroy ‘Sugarfoot‘ Bonner aged just 70. No details of his death have so far been reported but my thoughts go to his family, friends and fans from across the world. Celebrate his life with a few classic cuts from the Ohio Players.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish a very happy 150th birthday to the London Underground. It all began when the first train rolled out of Paddington Station back on January 9th in 1863. It now carries more than a million passengers each day across it’s 270 stations.
I am proud to say that it is also an organisation that I worked at for a large part of my working life. I worked for London Transport from 1975 to 1988 and then as a contractor with Transport for London from 2000 to 2004. So here are a couple of Underground related songs to help you ‘Mind The Gap‘ as you celebrate!
Well all I can say is about bloody time Mr Jones! You have probably already heard the news that the Dame himself a.k.a. Mr Bowie has released a new single today, his 66th birthday. It is called “Where Are We Now” and is taken from a new album, ‘The Next Day’ which will be released in March. The single and album are produced by Bowie’s long time friend and producer Tony Visconti. It is his first new album for ten years and was recorded in New York.
Like many others I had assumed that Bowie had retired after his heart problems in 2004. I am very pleased and excited that he hasn’t. I heard the new song on Chris Evan’s Radio Two breakfast show this morning. It’s a slow, atmospheric ballad which evokes feelings of sadness to me. It also includes what appears to be many references to his time in Berlin in the late 70s. I will be playing it a lot over the coming weeks. It feels a lot like the more mellow songs from both ‘Heathen‘ and ‘Reality‘ from 2002 and 2003 respectively. It also sounds like it would fit well on the album that his record label bizarrely rejected in 2001. That consisted of a number of rerecordings of some his 60s songs and some other material. It would have been called ‘Toy’ and obviously I have the bootleg and it is damned good.
Only Bowie could have informed the world that he is not retired and announce the release of new material in such an understated way. the single was simply made available on iTunes before the press kicked in. Contrast that with the hoopla around the Rolling Stones 50th anniversary activities; press conferences and yet another compilation with just a couple of new tracks. I can hardly wait for the album now. I haven’t been as excited about the release of a new album from anyone for many years! Click here to read the report on the NME.
On line the single appears to be receiving mixed, but mainly positive reviews. I would love to know what you think of it. Will this lead to any live gigs or maybe a full on tour? I’d like to think so, but given his time away from live performance maybe not. but at least we know that the fabulous David Bowie is back in a big way. Oh and before I forget, Happy Birthday Dave!
It appears that Hall and Oates have fought rather violently according to the NME’s News of the Weird. Not Daryl and John but Roger Oates and Scott Hall in Norwalk, Ohio. Roger Oates allegedly bit off Scott Hall’s (his neighbor) eyebrow. As the NME said that this proves that Roger Oates is truly a “Maneater”
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. I love these WordPress annual reports. But it is a little worrying that my most read posts were Jimmy Saville related. It’s also mildly amusing that one of the biggest search terms that caused people to arrive at my blog was dildo! What’s that all about? 🙂
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 230,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 4 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
Regular readers will know that I am not a fan of the X Factor and similar shows. Personally I believe all those shows will ever give us are at best some moderate average talents with no career longevity. So I was very pleased to hear the recent news about Leona Lewis‘ career. Cowell and company clearly hyped her as an international superstar. I always thought she was a second-rate shouty singer with close to zero presence and personality.
It looks like the buying public have finally begun to forget her too. Her latest single “Lovebird” has failed to reach the UK top 200 and is rumoured to have sold only 600 copies. It has such deep and meaningful lyrics as well; ‘dum, dum, diddy’ anyone? Anyway it’s excellent news in my opinion now let’s hope the X Factor goes the same way shall we?
After continuing to pile on the sales throughout 2012 Adele’s ’21’ album, which was already the biggest selling long player of the new century, has now moved above Oasis’ ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?‘ to reach number 4 in the best-selling UK albums of all time. It is also the second best-selling album in 2012 after Emeli Sande‘s ‘Our Version Of Events’. If it continues to sell at the same rate it is likely to become the 2nd best-selling UK album ever by this time next year. Not bad for an album that was only released in 2011 is it? Incidentally the best-selling UK album currently is Queen‘s ‘Greatest Hits‘.
At the same time as this excellent news, it has also been revealed that Adele’s ’21’ is the most returned and exchanged Christmas gift this year. Presumably because almost everyone in the country already has it. This is based on figures provided by the Music Magpie site. Emeli Sande was in second place with One Direction‘s (or Wand Erection as I like to call them) ‘Up All Night’ in third place. What album’s have you exchanged and why?
