Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged A Charlie Brown Christmas, Christmas, Christmas Music, Mel Torme, Vince Guaraldi on December 25, 2019| 2 Comments »
Wishing everyone out there a good day and a Merry Christmas. Just going to let the soothing tones of Mel Torme‘s lovely version of the Vince Guaraldi classic, Christmastime Is Here, from A Charlie Brown Christmas. It seems almost sacrilegious to play something other than that sparkling original. But this version, with Torme’s older and even mellower voice and a gorgeous arrangement, is a worthy alternate.
Hopefully, your day will have that same kind of pace and mellowness.
Enjoy the day.
Posted in Current Events, Event, Favorite Things, Music, tagged Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald on December 24, 2019| 1 Comment »
Today, being the day of Christmas Eve, is a stressful day for many folks. Factor in a load of general busyness and pressing obligations, last minute shopping among throngs of other stressed out folks and worrying about if you’ve done enough or too little and you’re left with a high stress situation.
It creates a pressure that sometimes takes away from the desired spirit of good will and cheeriness we normally associate with the season. And that’s a shame. We have enough stress already.
So, today I am taking it easy. Reducing my load. No pedantic lectures on generosity and giving. Just extending a wish that you have a relaxed and happy holiday. Take a breath today and try to just be in the moment.
Here’s Ella’s version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Ella usually makes everything a little better, even these stress-filled days. Give a listen. It’s a great first step towards reducing the tension.
And then have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Posted in Current Events, Event, Favorite Things, Music, tagged Bob Dylan, Klezmer, Kreepy Kringles, Santa on December 23, 2019| 2 Comments »
I’ve played this song, Must Be Santa from Bob Dylan, a couple of times over the past decade. It’s a great song, a polka with a klezmer feel that takes Dylan back his Jewish roots and in the the entertaining video you get the bonus of seeing Dylan dance. Good fun for the day before Christmas.
The last time I ran this song I included a group of photos of Santa that were less than jovial and maybe a little menacing. Creepy Clauses. While looking for an photo or two to accompany that post, I browsed through masses of images of Santas from the past and was amazed how many of them crossed that line into outright creepiness. It made me believe that Santa is just about on par with clowns in Creep Factor. You might see a rogue clown in the woods but Santa is, simply put, a bearded home intruder and flamboyant dresser who crawls down your chimney in the dark of night.
He knows when you are sleeping, for god’s sake!
When I was kid I had time going to sleep on Christmas Eve because of the excitement and anticipation that Santa was on his way. Now, after looking at those photos of Psycho Santas, I won’t be able sleep for fear that he actually might be on his way!
For that first post with the borderline Santas, I picked a few that were pretty strange but there were plenty more of them out there, some which just made me a little queasy. I have a feeling that many of them are also in sort of police registry somewhere.
I thought I would include a fresh batch of Kreepy Kringles this year. I kept the one from the original, at the top here, because he just weirds me out on multiple levels.
Anyway, enjoy the song and have a good holiday. And don’t worry about the weird old man hovering around your home tomorrow night…
Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged B.B. King, Christmas Music on December 22, 2019| 1 Comment »
For this week’s Sunday Morning Music, I figured since we are just a few days from the holiday that the selection should reflect that. So, I picked out a favorite that has been done by many artists over the years in a variety of styles. I like most of them but some get played much more than others on radio stations. I wanted a version that wasn’t overplayed and came across this version of Merry Christmas Baby from the late great B.B. King.
The thing I like most abut this version is that it is so typically B.B. While it’s a song that has other people’s fingerprints all over it, you could imagine B.B. playing this at the Regal Theater and getting the same sort of feedback from his frenzied audience, the screams and yellbacks, as any of his own classics. It has those clear, ringing guitar licks from his Lucille and the vocals are bellowed in his inimitable style.
It’s a great song done by a great artist.
I could go on, but I think I am just going to give a listen and get on with all the things that need to get done. Hope you do the same. Enjoy.
Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Music, tagged Christmas, The Pogues on December 21, 2019| 1 Comment »
Flipping on the car radio this time of year brings torrents of holiday music. Some of the local stations change to an all Christmas format from Thanksgiving to the end of the year and you are bombarded with holiday tunes from every era and every level of quality– good , bad and ugly. Most are happy, solemn, goofy or stickily sentimental.
Or nostalgically melancholic.
Melancholy and nostalgia plays a big part in many Christmas songs, especially in those songs about being separated from loved ones at Christmas– I’ll Be Home For Christmas and White Christmas for examples.
But there are very few that fall into the category of A Fairy Tale of New York from the Irish band The Pogues. Released in 1987, it is about two Irish immigrants in NYC who look back on their stormy relationship and their dreams they once had that have disappeared due to drugs and drink. I would be optimistic in calling it melancholic or bittersweet especially with a verse like this:
You’re a bum
You’re a punk
You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last
But it is a beautiful tune and something in it connects on a very human level even through the harshest imagery of the song. And it has connected in a big way through the years. It has been the most played Christmas song in the UK since the turn of this century and is consistently named the most popular holiday song in many polls throughout Britain and Ireland.
Below is the video from the 1980’s for the song. A small bit of trivia: there is no NYPD Choir so the band recruited the NYPD Pipe and Dreams to appear in the video. They were asked to sing “Galway Bay” but since they didn’t know the song they sang the one song they all knew, especially in their reputedly drunken state at the filming– the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club. The film is slowed to better sync their lips to the intended song.
Maybe this song does so well because it makes our own Christmas melancholy seem not all that bad. So, enjoy, I guess…
*************
I ran this back in 2015 but added the verse from the song this time.
Posted in Early Paintings, Favorite Things, Music, tagged Exiles, Gospel, Louis Jordan, Music, Sam Cooke, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Soul Stirrers on December 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »
The Deacon’s New Tie- 1995
I have plenty of things to do this morning but somehow ended up spending an hour watching old videos on YouTube trying to find something to share here. However, it didn’t feel like wasted time. I generally find something new for my own edification or something that changes the course of my day in some way. Maybe makes me smile or think.
This morning, I felt like something bluesy/gospelly so I went to one of my favorites Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock and roll whose career spanned big bands to gospel to the blues that shaped rock and roll. Big onstage personality and a unique style with her electric guitar stylings. I thought you can’t go wrong with Sister Rosetta, especially in a live performance from a British rail station in 1964 where she’s rocking her guitar in a heavy coat and high heels belting out Didn’t It Rain on a wet platform.
But then some Louis Jordan, another favorite of mine, popped up on the sidebar. Another huge influence on early rock and roll and, like Sister Rosetta, possessing a big, charismatic personality onstage. I decided on his song Deacon Jones simply because it reminded me of the older piece above, The Deacon’s New Tie, from my Exiles series from the mid 90’s. Thought they would pair together well.
Then on the side, up comes the Soul Stirrers, the gospel group that started the career of the immortal Sam Cooke, doing a knock’em dead version of I’m a Soldier. Just plain old great stuff.
I couldn’t pick just one so here are all three. Listen to one or two or all of them. Or none. Hey, you got free will working here, folks. But it wouldn’t be the worst way to spend a few minutes so you decide then go have a good day.
Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged Merry Clayton, Mick Jagger, Music, Rolling Stones on December 8, 2019| 3 Comments »
I am running late again so I am going to keep this intro to this week’s Sunday morning music selection short. It’s a great version of the Rolling Stones’ classic Gimme Shelter from 1970 by Merry Clayton.
While most of us have no idea who Merry Clayton is, she is a legendary back up singer, giving strong vocal backing to a host of artists through the decades. She was a Raelette behind Ray Charles and also backed up such a diverse group of artists such as Pearl Bailey, Burt Bacharach, Tom Jones, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis, Carole King, Tori Amos, Neil Young and even Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The most famous story about Merry Clayton revolves around this song, Gimme Shelter. It seems when the Stones were recording it, Mick Jagger thought it would be great to have a strong female voice in its chorus. They called Clayton in the middle of the night and she showed up shortly after, pregnant and in curlers, and knocked out her part in a couple of takes. The ultimate trooper, her chorus became a defining element of the rock classic.
There’s a lot more to read about here incredible, and largely unsung, career, some of it told in 2013 Oscar winning documentary about back up singers, 20 Feet From Stardom. In 2014, Merry Clayton was in a serious car crash and, as a result, had both legs amputated.
The ups and downs of a life.
Here’s her Gimme Shelter. Have a great Sunday.
Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged Brittany Howard, Music on December 7, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Got a lot to get done this morning but I did come across this video of a song from the recent solo album from Brittany Howard, the lead singer of he Alabama Shakes, and I wanted to share it. It’s an acoustic version of the song Stay High.
The album version is more produced, of course, and has the feel of early 70’s soul/ R&B, her voice reminiscent of the falsettos of Eddie Kendricks or Curtis Mayfield. This acoustic piece is plain sweet and simple and natural in its feel. It just made me feel good this morning.
Give a listen. Maybe it will make you feel good, as well.
Posted in Favorite Things, Music, tagged Kurt Cobain, Music, Nirvana, Sturgill Simpson on December 1, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Taking it easy this morning in the studio. Well, it seems easy even though I’m working on a requested piece and trying to reorganize things in here before I start getting in the next painting groove, for whose arrival I am patiently waiting.
I can feel that the next groove is getting here soon and I want to be ready. Certain parts of my studio have slowly devolved in the last year or two into a slight state of chaos. Things get misplaced and can’t be readily found so I spend ten minutes searching for it and lose a bit of my creative momentum, which is already an ephemeral thing for me. It comes and goes in a flash and any time lost while it’s at hand is lost forever.
Plus, there’s a corrosive effect of having my studio in a state of chaos. I can tolerate and even thrive with clutter to a point. But beyond that point, it piles up quickly and spills over into my thought process and my attitude. I’ve realized over the twenty-plus years I’ve been doing this thing and see that the tipping point is near at hand.
So, I am painting and organizing today. Here’s a song from Sturgill Simpson. It’s his cover of In Bloom from Nirvana. There are a couple of levels of irony in this version. Kurt Cobain wrote this song about the irony of the new fans they gained as their fame grew, who sang along with the songs without understanding the lyrics and whose actions in life were sometimes direct contradictions to the meanings of the songs. Kurt Cobain described this song as being about the intolerance of “rednecks, macho men and abusive people.”
It’s ironic that Simpson covers this song because from outward appearance and sound, one might mistake the Kentucky country singer a for one of those rednecks. But Simpson himself deals with that same type of fan who sings along without knowing the meaning of his songs. While his sound is based deeply in traditional country his attitudes are not redneck at all.
In short, this is a really good interpretation of a good song. Also, a neat looking video. Give a look and a listen then have a good Sunday.
Posted in Favorite Things, Music, Quote, tagged Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Once on November 26, 2019| Leave a Comment »
*********************
Sometimes you give birth to something or you’re part of a team that gives birth to an idea, and it grows and has a whole life of its own, and you feel grateful. It’s just so humbling.
–Glen Hansard
*********************
I understand the type of gratitude that singer/songwriter Glen Hansard is describing above. He was talking, I believe, about the life of Once, the movie that he, along with Markéta Irglová, starred in and wrote and performed the songs that made this little low budget film a hit in 2007. It then went on to be adapted for a stage production on Broadway in 2012. It was a hit there as well, winning 8 Tony awards.
Once— as an album, a movie and a play– definitely took on a life of its own and Hansard’s gratitude is understandable.
I know that feeling for myself, albeit on a much smaller scale. Every artist, I think, hopes their work will have meaning that reaches out to people in a way that it affects them deeply but that hope alone doesn’t make it happen. There is something beyond the intention and control of the artist.
That outcome is not predictable. It is a convergence of the work, time, tone, and the emotional perception of the person taking in the work.
In short, it is a small miracle.
To have a work go beyond my own understanding of it, to generate meaning that I never saw in it, and to become a real part of someone’s life is a certainly a wonder of sorts. And for me, there is nothing more gratifying than to be associated in any small way with such an occurrence.
I also feel humbled because, and I don’t know if this makes sense, it makes me feel my own smallness in the larger aspect of the work. I realize then that I only play a small part in whatever alchemy creates the miracle of art.
Hmm. Something to think about as we head into Thanksgiving.
Here’s Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová peforming the Academy Award winning song Falling Slowly from Once.
Redtree Times 