Hello good people of Blogworld and welcome to the 4th March 2009 unless of course you use a different calendar! In which case….. Just Hello 🙂
So let’s get on with the show shall we? Here we go with todays birthdays Bobby Womack is 65 today so at least he’ll get a free bus ride “Across 110th Street” now! For a period in the late 50’s/ early 60’s Bobby was the guitarist in the late great (l’s & g’s ra ra ra!) Sam Cooke’s band. His own group, the Valentinos were signed to Cooke’s record label. The Valentino’s final hit in 1964 which reached only number 94 in the US charts is a song that many of you probably know. It was the prophetically titled (for the Valentinos at least) “It’s All Over Now” which was a UK number 1 for the Rolling Stones. In a bizarre twist of fate (well in my opinion anyway) after the murder of Sam Cooke in 1964 Bobby married his widow Barbara. The couple divorced in 1970 at about the same time Bobby met Sly Stone (of Sly & the Family Stone fame) and embarked on a drugs and groupies binge, with Mr Stone, that apparently lasted for much of the 70’s. Bobby made a triumphant return to music in 1981 with the classic album “The Poet”. I for one can’t get enough of the great voice of Mr Womack so have a two for the price of one offer, well ok they’re both free! Firstly “Across 110th Street” followed by “Harry Hippie”
Bobby really liked to live the song when the audience requested a cover of "Lady In Red" (This caption was supplied by CatWoman!)
It is also the 32nd birthday of the leader of the Lemonheads Mr Evan Dando. The trio had a hit in 1993 with a splendid cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs Robinson” Evan also made a great lyric change at the request of the BBC when performing the song “Big Gay Heart” on ‘Top Of The Pops’. If you’re offended by sexual wording please skip to the next item in the post! You have been warned ok! A particular lyric in the song reads “I don’t need you to suck my dick” which for the show was changed to “I don’t need you to duck my sick”. Some would say gross, I say pretty funny, but then I’m told that I do have a mind like a sewer 😉
Here are Evan and the boys performing that cover of “Mrs Robinson” on UK TV show ‘The Word’ Incidentally whatever happened to Dani Behr?
He had eaten the same amount of lemons as the rest of the band so why wasn't he as tall as the other guys?
On this day in 1966 John Lennon made his now famous or indeed infamous (depending on which side of the fence you’re on) statement about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus. Anyway the verbatim quote from that article is ‘Christianity will go,’ he said. ‘It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first-rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.’ Click anywhere on it for the full article, which is from the ‘Evening Standard’ a UK newspaper. It caused barely a ripple of interest in the UK when it was published but when it reached the US all hell broke loose (no pun intended by the way). In my opinion John had every right to say what he said, for me that is what freedom of speech is about. The furore his remarks created in the US led to mass anti Beatle rallies and the burning of Beatle records and memorabilia. I would love to know what the people who did this felt they had achieved apart from release more toxins into the environment. It’s almost as bad as all the people who burned copies of the Harry Potter books without reading them, idiots! OK rant over, what does everyone else think of this particular Beatles incident? Just to recap you can see the Beatles press conference that covers this issue if you click here
No comment (just in case someone burns my CD collection!)
For actual proof that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus click here 😉
Also on this day Glenn Hughes from the Village People died of lung cancer aged just 50. If you’re interested he was the one dressed as a biker and had an enormous tache. The group were very much manufactured in that French Composer Jacques Morali had heard Victor Willis (the cop) singing backing vocals in a studio and offered him the chance to front a new sound he was creating. He was the voice on the first self titled Village People album in 1977. Hughes himself was first spotted by Morali while working as a toll collector at the Brooklyn Tunnel. Here are the boys with a classic slice of 70’s disco “In The Navy” For the fact fans, did you know that the US Navy almost used this song as part of a recruitment drive? Well they did used to say ‘all the nice girls (or perhaps boys) love a sailor’ didn’t they?
Y M C LEGO anyone?
And finally on this day in 2003 Sian Davies aged 23 a Cliff Richard fan from Wales had her hifi equipment seized after numerous complaints from her neighbours that she was constantly playing Cliff Richard’s music at loud volumes. She was fined nearly £1,000. In all two CD players, a midi system, a record player, two cassette players, five speakers , 80 CD’s and 155 cassettes were confiscated by the authorities. Surely it would have been cheaper to make her buy some headphones? Sir Cliff’s management company said that they did not condone anyone causing a noise nuisance but were ‘delighted’ that Sir Cliff had such a young fan. Delighted? I was more shocked and surprised, but then to each their own at least she wasn’t playing Robbie! Perhaps Sir Cliff also thought that Sian was a bit of a “Devil Woman”
When asked if he had heard the noise Sian Davies had been making he replied "Yes, I heard it through the grapevine"
It’s day 9 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem Christmas Advent calendar which means it is now December 9th. We haven’t put our decorations up yet and probably won’t put them up until much nearer the big day. Have you put your baubles on your tree yet?
Following on from yesterdays post which referenced the anniversary of John Lennon’s murder with a Beatles song today I offer you a song from Lennon’s solo career. In keeping with the numbers theme of this years advent posts it has a number in the title; can you guess which song it is? Well I’ll put you out of your misery, it’s “#9 Dream”. Taken from Lennon’s 1974 album ‘Walls And Bridges’ it only made number 23 in the UK chart but was a top ten hit in the USA. In fact it reached a rather appropriate number 9. May Pang who was Lennon’s partner for much of his ‘lost weekend’ recorded the backing vocals for the song. She has also said that the vocal refrain ‘Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé’ in the lyrics came to John in a dream. In fact the whole song was an interpretation of that dream. It is one of my favourite Lennon songs and has been covered by REM, Andrea Corr and A-Ha.
The second song in todays line-up comes from the Temptations. It is their 1968 single “Cloud Nine”. It was the first release to feature Dennis Edwards in place of David Ruffin. The song was written by multi-talented producer Norman Whitfield and former Motown artist Barrett Strong. It stemmed from Whitfield being exposed to a new style of music via Sly and the Family Stone‘s hit “Dance To The Music”. At first he was reluctant to move too far from the hit making formula employed up to now. It was Temptation Otis Williams that convinced him to do it. I for one am glad that he did because it led to some amazing psychedelic funk workouts right into the 70s.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 