I was travelling back to York with Catwoman earlier today after a great weekend with family and friends down south. The drive back is a great opportunity to take in Johnnie Walker‘s excellent ‘Sounds Of The 70s‘ show on BBC Radio 2. The music choice as usual was excellent and as occasionally happens for me Johnnie played one track that I don’t think I’ve heard since the 1970s. It was “Shannon” by Henry Gross. I used to really love this when it had just a small amount of radio play in the UK back in ’76.
The song was written after Henry read about the death of Carl Wilson‘s (off of the Beach Boys) Irish Setter Shannon. I think you can definitely pick up a Beach Boys vibe and influence in the performance and production. The song was a number 6 hit in the US Billboard chart in 1976 and a number one in Canada. It only made number 32 in the UK. Another claim to fame the Henry Gross has is that he was the youngest artist to appear on the main stage at Woodstock in 1969. He was a founding member of Sha Na Na with whom he took to the stage immediately before Jimi Hendrix at Max Yasgur‘s farm some 43 years ago this year.
Henry is still recording and performing. Enjoy “Shannon” below along with a great performance from Sha Na Na;
How cool is that? Henry Gross gets a namecheck in an issue of Spiderman!
The Westboro Baptist Church take the opportunity to increase the number of people they hate! 😉
Who profits from this upsurge in sales? well obviously Whitney’s estate will do reasonably well, but frankly I would imagine her family would rather have her still there. Then there is Sony of course. Now they stand to make a lot of money and being a large corporation they are obviously not cynical at all are they? Well I’ll let you be the judge of that. A few hours after Whitney was pronounced dead Sony increased the prices for her songs. They have later reduced the prices and apologised. But it’s interesting that they made no similar increases for other artists on their roster.
"Osama All My Love For You"
It takes a death to bring out some strange stories doesn’t it? Well apparently Osama Bin Laden was besotted by Whitney and wanted to marry her. Well he wanted her to be one of his wives at least. This is according to a one time friend of Bin Laden who lived with him for a time in the 90s. Her name is Kola Boof who is described as a poet and activist. She says that Bin Laden claimed that Whitney would be a good Muslim but for having been brainwashed by the USA. He also spoke about having Whitney’s now ex husband Bobby Brown killed. For me the Osama in love with Whitney story really deserves to be true doesn’t it?
I know I’m a little late but I would like to say immense congratulations to Tottenham’s finest, Adele on winning the Grab A Grammy night hands down in the US this weekend. She came away with six of the little beauties. Obviously the event had a large shadow cast over it by the sad death of Whitney Houston. But Adele’s achievement is to be applauded. The show was also in effect her come back after significant throat problems in recent months. Adele won every award for which she was nominated and now shares the most Grammys in one night by a female with Beyonce. The Foo Fighters came close to Adele in winning five Grammys.
Karl Lagerfeld has also had a few words to say about Adele recently too. he in effect called her fat and then had to go public again to ‘clarify’ his statement. He went on to say how talented and beautiful the singer is and how ’21’ is one of his favourite albums. What strikes me of this supposed fashion and style guru is why anyone would take him seriously these days. have you seen his hair? He makes Donald Trump look like Samson before he had his tresses lopped. He has either a poor syrup (that’s a wig or a rug to my US friends) or a really intricate and solid weave or comb over. I would rather take fashion advice from Steptoe and Son.
By now you may have already heard or read the reports of the untimely and sad demise of Whitney Houston aged just 48. Any comment about the cause of death at this stage is pure speculation. Her body was discovered in her Los Angeles hotel room on February 11th. She was staying there for Clive Davis‘ pre Grammys party. It was Davis who discovered Whitney singing in bars and clubs as a teenager. Whitney won 6 Grammys herself and with the ceremony taking place today it’s likely that there will be a lot of focus on her career.
Her mother was Cissy Houston, a talented singer herself. She was also related to Dee Dee Warwick and Dionne Warwick. Aretha Franklin was her godmother. She was just eleven when she started singing in her church gospel choir. As a teenager she would occasionally appear on stage to provide backing vocals for her mother. Her first big break in the industry was when she provided backing vocals on the Michael Zager Band’s hit “Life’s A Party” when she was just 14. One of the biggest hits to be graced with a Whitney backing vocal was the stupendous “I’m Every Woman” from Chaka Khan in 1978. Whitney was still only 15. She carried on as a backing vocalist for a while and even graduated to lead vocals an a Paul Jabara album.
Clive Davis signed her to Arista in 1983 and spent some time developing her and finding the right production and writers which meant that her first solo album, ‘Whitney Houston’, didn’t appear until February 1985. Eventually it rose to the summit of the USBillboard album charts and spent 14 weeks there. It also spawned three US number ones; “Saving All My Love For You”, “How Will I Know” and “The Greatest Love Of All” The album which featured duets with Jermaine Jackson and Teddy Pendergrass and backing vocals from her mother Cissy, went on to sell 25 million copies worldwide.
The follow-up album was the rather unimaginatively titled ‘Whitney’ which stormed the charts in the wake of its predecessor. As well as the album hitting the top of the US charts it gave Houston another four US number ones in; “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All”, “So Emotional” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”. Her third album ‘I’m Your Baby Tonight’ took her in a much tougher R & B direction and in my opinion showcased her vocal talents better than the first two did. She appeared at the Super Bowl in 1991 where she sang the US national anthem. It was later released as a single and reached the US Top 20. It was the biggest chart hit that any artist had ever had with “The Star Spangled Banner”
It was in the 1990s that her career took an even faster upwards trajectory. 1992 was a pivotal year for her. In July She married singer Bobby Brown who she had met at the Soul Train Music Awards three years earlier. She had her only child Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown with him a year later. After her initial success from 1985 she had many offers of film roles but none of them felt right to her. But eventually she took on the role of a singing superstar in ‘The Bodyguard’ which was released in 1992. She co-starred with Kevin Costner. The film may well be remembered more for its soundtrack though, which included the mega hit “I Will Always Love You”. It was a cover of a Dolly Parton song and frankly is not a song I like very much at all. But I am probably in a small minority there as it reached number one in almost every country it was released. The soundtrack album also included a great version of “I’m Every Woman” a song on which Whitney had provided backing vocals 14 years before. She went on to make a number of other successful movies including ‘Waiting To Exhale’ and ‘The Preachers Wife’
Her next studio album that wasn’t soundtrack related, ‘My Love Is Your Love’ wasn’t released until 1998. It was a much funkier sound from her and includes my favourite Whitney song “It’s Not Right, But It’s OK”. That remains an office catch phrase for me after hearing a colleague (thank you Mr Mangan) use it a lot. Basically if something is not perfect but is ok he would say, ‘It’s a bit Whitney’ meaning in very simple terms, ‘it’s not right but it’s ok’. This album was followed by her greatest hits package ‘Whitney : The Greatest Hits’ in 2000. It included a number of new songs including duets with George Michael and Enrique Iglesias. (Another greatest hits package ‘The Ultimate Collection’ was released in 2007)
The next few years might be seen as wilderness years for her in that she suffered the problems of drug addiction. Plenty has been written about those episodes of her life so I don’t see the point of adding to that here. Even during those low times she was able to release a couple of albums; ‘Just Whitney’ and her first Christmas album. She finally divorced from Bobby Brown in 2007 and got herself back on track by releasing a new album ‘I Look To You’ in 2009. She promoted a single from the album, the rather excellent “Million Dollar Bill” with an appearance on the X Factor in the UK. In 2010 she took off on her first world tour for many years. The shows received mixed reviews and a number were cancelled and rescheduled due to Houston falling ill.
Many of todays generation of female singers owe a debt to Whitney Houston and I am sure she will be sadly missed. Whatever you might think of the way she lived her life it is hard to deny that she was an incredible talent and 48 is just way too young to leave this life. My thoughts go to her family, friends and fans. RIP Whitney Houston.
To celebrate her life I have chosen some of my favourite Whitney Houston songs for you;
Aerosmith‘s producer wanted Steve Tyler to collaborate with my favourite author Stephen King for songs on the next Aerosmith album. Jack Douglas felt that with King writing the lyrics Tyler would be inspired with the music. It seems unlikely that it will happen now, but you never know do you?
According to a recent report in the NME it would seem that Ronnie Wood could have joined Led Zeppelin. I wonder if an alternative universe that actually happened and Jimmy Page joined the Stones. The Stones with Page as guitarist would certainly have added more satanic menace to “Sympathy For The Devil” don’t you think.
Ronnie says that he was asked to join the New Yardbirds who went on to become Led Zep, but declined because he thought they were a ‘bunch of farmers’. I doubt that the Zep would have had the same sound without Jimmy Page. What do you folks think? Click here to read the report on the NME site.
Ronnie the song is Black Dog not Little Brown Dog!
Do you receive a regular selection of random e mails from various groups that you have subscribed to over the years? I get loads and often I can’t be bothered to look at them. But for some reason I took a chance and opened one at random. It contained stacks of old pictures. Mostly of different stars together and not necessarily those that had worked together. Here are a few that I really liked and had never seen before. let me know what you think of them.
Bob Marley & the Wailers and the Jackson 5
George Harrison & Bob Marley
Mick Jagger & Jimi Hendrix
Mick Jagger & James Brown
No more words required just listen to some great music by some of those artists while you enjoy the pictures.
Earlier this year I posted a story about an alleged satanic ritual performed by Lady Gaga. In researching that post I found a great video from someone who is convinced that Gaga is one of the Illuminati. Click here to read that post. I found that story rather amusing and following my more recent posts about Gaga and Madonna I came across a brilliant conspiracy piece related to Madonna’sSuper Bowl experience. It appears that Madge is also one of the Illuminati as well.
So how about that, both HRH Gaga and Her Madgeness are in fact giant lizards, just like the UK Royal family and many of our world leaders. I wonder if David Icke was commentating on the Super Bowl. Personally I love conspiracy theories. I’ve never really come across one that I actually believe but they are great entertainment aren’t they? Click here to read the Madonna is an Illuminati story in which she is described as the High Priestess of the Music Industry. Given her recent sales surely that must be Adele these days.
I would love to know what you think of this; is it all bollocks, is it true, do you give a toss?
The Anti Christ never looked like this in the Omen
I can hardly believe it really. I started this blog because I was as they say ‘between contracts’ and frankly I was a little bored. But now it’s probably my favourite hobby. Why am I telling you all this? Well the blog is three years old today, 9th February 2012. I have loved every moment and I have met some wonderful people through it too. The most amazing thing is that I would have been knocked out if my viewing figures went into double figures on a weekly basis but now the total for three years is an incredible 1.04 million. I’d like to thank each and every one of you; especially the 51 who have subscribed and the 180 who are following it on Twitter.
I have made close to 450 posts and there have been nearly 530 comments. Some of the more amusing things are the search terms that have landed people here. The top 10 search items for the 12 months to 9th February 2012 are;
lady gaga 10,670
street signs 3,923
esthera sarita 3,555
rod stewart 2,910
imelda may 2,561
bjork 2,019
spencer elden 1,828
michael jackson 1,649
kate bush 1,625
dream catcher 1,385
The Lily Allen Naked experiment clearly still has some residual interest with 368 hits for Ms Allen naked. The naked thing is quite weird; many of you have searched for a favourite celeb naked including; Lady Gaga, Rage Against the Machine, Take That, Bono, Rod Stewart, Kate Bush, Simon Cowell & Louis Walsh. I mean come on people, first it’s not kind of site and second who really wants to see some of those naked? Louis Walsh naked bloody hell that’s perverse!
The largest referrals outside of search engines this year came from;
A big thanks to all of those. The Will Young one came about after I said some nice things about him in another of my anti X Factor posts.
The most viewed YouTube video from my blog in the past 12 months has been Wyclef Jean‘s “Stripper Song”. It’s a great song but there is no stripper in the clip, it’s just audio!
As for the most downloaded pictures from the blog in the last 12 months, that tells a similar story to the naked searches and the Stripper Song. Here they are in order of popularity;
the most downloaded picture on my blog Feb 2011 to Feb 2012
Number 4 and 5 take things to another place entirely!
Who do you think you're kidding Mr Hitler? That bus doesn't go to Poland
Back in the days when he was a laughing-stock.
And finally I also had the audacity to start three new blogs in the last 12 months. Feel free to check them out, rate them, comment on them and stuff.
Madonna announced her new world tour shortly after her triumphant appearance at the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s currently 50 dates including two in the UK and kicking off in Israel in May. Interestingly the supposed pretender to her Madgness’s throne HRH Lady Gaga published details of the stage set for her world tour on Twitter shortly afterwards. Was this part of the grand design, pure chance or was it just dance?
The Gaga set seems to feature a large castle with plenty of walkways into the audience. She also describes an area surrounded by those walkways as the monster pit. This is where her most ardent followers, those she calls her little monsters will want to head for. Particularly as some of those will be specially selected by Haus of Gaga to come backstage later to meet HRH Gaga in person. But the monster pit will only be for those fans who have ‘arrived first, waited all night, + dressed to ‘ball”.
Would I want to be penned in with all those who have waited all night? Maybe not, it could be a bit smelly couldn’t it, especially if any of her little monsters decide to copy her meat dress. But then again at least there would be plenty to snack on. As for being dressed to ball; is it just me or does that suggest a sexual interaction? The phrase to ‘ball’ was a 70s phrase for sex wasn’t it? There was even a track on Marvin Gaye‘s classic album ‘Let’s Get It On‘ called “You Sure Love To Ball”
So let me rethink. Do I want to spend a couple of hours hemmed in close to a Gaga fanatic (they were the first to arrive don’t forget) dressed in rotting flesh and ready for sex? Well I suppose that just depends on who it is doesn’t it. Are you listening Catwoman? Will you be wearing the ham and bacon when I get home? I hope so, but don’t do anything rash(er) though.
Click here to read about Madonna’s tour and click here to read about Lady Gaga’s tour.
And to finish here’s a little Billy bonus…………”You Sure Love To Ball” from the late, great Marvin Gaye.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 