I hope the New Year is a good one for y'all!
Music Lover
Dec. 31-Jan. 1: - Same Auld Lang Syne- Dan Fogelberg
Dec. 31- Jan1: To all our friends in Europe
Vive l´Europe New Years-Music Te Deum
From Music Lover,
Atlanta, Geogia USA
READ MORE » Dec. 31- Jan1: To all our friends in Europe
From Music Lover,
Atlanta, Geogia USA
Dec. 31: Burton Cummings of The Guess Who - "American Woman," "No Time," "These Eyes" - is 63 today.
Burton Cummings was the lead singer and keyboardist for the Canadian rock band The Guess Who. From 1965 to 1975 he sang and wrote or co-wrote many of the Guess Who's songs including "American Woman," "No Time," "Share the Land," "Hand Me Down World," "Undun," "Laughing," "Star Baby," "New Mother Nature," and "These Eyes."
Burton also recorded many successful single records during his solo career, post-Guess Who.
Cummings was born and raised in the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, as were all of the other original members of The Guess Who. His first band was a local Winnipeg R&B group The Deverons. He joined The Guess Who in 1965 to replace keyboardist Bob Ashley. Shortly after, the group's lead singer, Chad Allan, left the band.
In 1969, The Guess Who scored an international hit with "These Eyes," co-written by Cummings and guitarist Randy Bachman. It was followed up by hit "Laughing," again written by Cummings and Bachman. Another Guess Who song "Undun" featured Cummings on a jazzy flute solo. In 1970, the band hit no. 1 in Canada with "American Woman."
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Ultimately, personal issues between Cummings and bandmate Randy Bachman – partially ignited by Bachman's deepening religious beliefs—caused a rift in the band. Bachman left and went on to form the band Brave Belt with former Guess Who mate Chad Allan, and later Bachman–Turner Overdrive.
Cummings became the band's leader and recorded songs that included: "Share the Land," "Hand Me Down World," "Albert Flasher," "Rain Dance," "Sour Suite," "Glamour Boy," "Star Baby" and "Clap for the Wolfman."
In 1975, Cummings left The Guess Who to become a solo artist and the group disbanded. One of his first projects included providing back-up vocals on Eric Carmen's second solo LP, Boats Against the Current, including "She Did It."
Cummings' subsequent solo hits in Canada included "Stand Tall," his biggest American solo hit, peaking at #10, "I'm Scared," "Break it to Them Gently," and "Fine State of Affairs." Cummings charted outside Canada with "Stand Tall" and "You Saved My Soul." His Dream of a Child album released in 1978 was the best selling Canadian album in history at that time.
Cummings released a total of eight solo albums and collections from 1976 to 1990. In 1997 he released a live compilation album of his solo performances entitled Up Close and Alone.
Ironing out - or maybe papering over - their differences, in 2000, Cummings, Bachman and original drummer Garry Peterson toured as The Guess Who. Bassist Jim Kale played one show and former Guess Who sidemen Donnie McDougall and Bill Wallace re-joined the line-up through the remainder of the tour in Canada and later in the U.S. The reformed The Guess Who toured with Cummings from 2000 through to the summer of 2003.
In 2001, Cummings and the rest of The Guess Who received honorary doctorates at Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba. Cummings was also made a member of the Order of Manitoba.
Cummings plays occasional shows with Randy Bachman as The Bachman-Cummings Band, featuring The Carpet Frogs, a band from Toronto and makes occasional appearances at various Canadian casinos as a solo performer.
The Bachman-Cummings Band have released a compilation album titled the Bachman-Cummings Song Book featuring songs from The Guess Who, Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Cummings' solo career. They have also released an album titled The Thunderbird Trax, which is an album that Cummings and Bachman recorded in Bachman's tool shed in British Columbia in 1987.
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Dec. 31: "Toot-Toot," ahh... "Beep-Beep!" Donna Summer is 62 today.
Donna Summer was very popular in the 1970s earning the title "The Queen of Disco." She is a 5 time Grammy winner and has sold over 130 million records to date.
Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the US Billboard chart and she had four number-one singles within a thirteen-month period.
In the late 1960s, Summer was influenced by Janis Joplin and joined the psychedelic rock group the Crow as lead singer. She had dropped out of school convinced that music was her way out of Boston, where she felt she was not accepted. The group didn't last long.
After settling in Munich, she began performing in several ensembles including the Viennese Folk Opera and even sang as a member of the pop group FamilyTree. She came to the group in 1973 and toured with the 11-people pop group throughout Europe. She also sang backup in studio sessions.
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In 1971, while still using her birth name Donna Gaines, she released her first single, a cover of "Sally Go 'Round the Roses," which did not sell well. In 1972, she married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer and gave birth to their daughter Mimi Sommer in 1973. Citing marital problems caused by Sommer's frequent absences, she divorced him but kept his last name, changing the "o" to a "u."
While singing background for the 1970s trio Three Dog Night that Summer met producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. She eventually made a deal with the European label Groovy Records and in 1984, released her first album, Lady of the Night. Though not a hit in the U.S., the album was successful in Europe, particularly the song "The Hostage," which reached number one in France and Belgium and number two in the Netherlands.
Moroder persuaded Summer to record what she thought would be a demo track for another performer. To make herself feel comfortable recording the song, she requested the producers turn off the lights while she sat on the sofa inducing fake moans and groans. The original track was only three minutes. Moroder heard the playback of the song and felt Summer's version should be released. Released as "Love to Love You" in Europe, the song found modest chart success.
The song generated some controversy for its graphic nature of Summer's moans and was even banned from some radio stations. Several news magazines, including Time reported that 22 orgasms were simulated in the making of the song. After several more modest singles and subsequent albums, including the concept albums Love Trilogy and Four Seasons of Love, which also went gold, Summer was deemed in the press as "The First Lady of Love," a title with which Summer was not totally comfortable. Her single "Love's Unkind" reached number 3 in the UK during 1977.
In 1977, Summer released her album, I Remember Yesterday. It included her second top ten single, "I Feel Love," which reached number six in America and number one in the UK. Another concept album, also released in 1977, was the double album, Once Upon a Time, which told of a modern-day Cinderella "rags to riches" story through the elements of orchestral disco and ballads.
Also in 1978, Summer acted in the film, Thank God It's Friday, playing a singer determined to perform at a hot disco club. The song, "Last Dance," written by Paul Jabara, reached the top three in the U.S. and resulted in Donna winning her first Grammy Award. Despite this success, Summer was struggling with anxiety and depression and became enthralled in a prescription drug addiction, which nearly consumed her in early 1979.
Summer based the concept of the album on a prostitute, as was made clear in the lyrics. The album became a success, spawning the number one hits "Hot Stuff" and Bad Girls. The ballad "Dim All the Lights" reached number two. With the Barbra Streisand duet "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)," Summer achieved four number one hits in a single year. "Hot Stuff" later won her a second Grammy in the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance,
In 1989, Summer released the album Another Place and Time on Atlantic Records. Summer had a top 10 pop hit with "This Time I Know It's For Real," which became her fourteenth and final gold hit to register on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also a number 3 chart hit in the U.K., her highest placed single there since "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" ten years earlier.
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Dec. 31: John Denver was born on this date in 1943.....
... he died on October 12, 1997. Denver was killed when his Experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane, aircraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Pacific Grove, California.
Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in Roswell, New Mexico, Denver recorded around 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed himself. His best known songs include Songs such as "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Rocky Mountain High," "Sunshine on My Shoulders," "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," "Annie's Song" and "Calypso."
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Denver attended Texas Technological College in Lubbock and sang in a folk-music group called "The Alpine Trio" while studying architecture. He dropped out of college in 1963 and moved to Los Angeles, where he sang in underground folk clubs. In 1965, Denver joined the Chad Mitchell Trio, a folk group that had been renamed "The Mitchell Trio" prior to Chad Mitchell's departure, and later "Denver, Boise, and Johnson" (with David Boise, and Michael Johnson.)
In 1969, Denver pursued a solo career and released his first album Rhymes and Reasons.
Denver was also a guest star on The Muppet Show, the beginning of a lifelong friendship between Denver and Jim Henson that spawned two television specials with The Muppets. He also tried his hand at acting, starring in the 1977 film Oh, God! opposite George Burns. Denver hosted the Grammy Awards five times in the 1970s and 1980s, and guest-hosted The Tonight Show on multiple occasions.
John Denver has received many awards including:
Academy of Country Music
1974 Album of the Year for "Back Home Again"
American Music Awards
1975 Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist
1976 Favorite Country Album for "Back Home Again"
1976 Favorite Country Male Artist
Country Music Association
1975 Entertainer of the Year
1975 Song of the Year for "Back Home Again"
Emmy Awards
1975 Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special for "An Evening With John Denver"
Grammy Awards
1997 Best Musical Album For Children for "All Aboard!"
1998 Grammy Hall of Fame Award for "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
Songwriters Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1996
Other Honors
Poet Laureate of Colorado, 1977
People's Choice Awards, 1977
Ten Outstanding Young Men of America, 1979
Carl Sandburg’s People’s Poet Award, 1982
NASA Public Service Medal, 1985
Albert Schweitzer Music Award, 1993
"Rocky Mountain High" declared state song of Colorado, 2007.
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Dec. 30: Singer and banjo playing John Hartford "Gentle on my Mind," was born on this date in 1937...
... he died on June 4, 2001.
John Hartford was a folk, country and bluegrass composer and musician known for his mastery of the fiddle and banjo, as well as for his witty lyrics, unique vocal style, and extensive knowledge of Mississippi River lore.
John Cowan Harford (he would change his name to Hartford later in life at the behest of Chet Atkins)was born in New York City, and spent his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri. There he was exposed to the influence that would shape much of his career and music—the Mississippi River. From the time he got his first job on the river, at age 16, Hartford was on, around, or singing about the river.
His early musical influences came from the broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and included Earl Scruggs, inventor of the three-finger bluegrass style of banjo playing. Hartford said often that the first time he heard Earl Scruggs pick the banjo changed his life.
Hartford formed his first bluegrass band while still in high school. After graduating, he enrolled at Washington University in St. Louis, completed 4 years of a commercial arts program and dropped out to focus on his music. (He did return later and receive his degree in 1960.)
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He immersed himself in the local music scene, working as a DJ, playing in bands, and occasionally recording singles for local labels. In 1965, he moved to Nashville, the center of the country music industry. In 1966, he signed with RCA Victor, and produced his first album, Looks at Life, in the same year.
At the 1968 Grammies, the song netted four awards, two of which went to Hartford; just as importantly, it became one of the most widely recorded country songs of all time. As his popularity grew, he moved to the West Coast, where he became a regular on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He also was a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (the banjo picker who would stand up from his seat in the audience to begin the theme music) and The Johnny Cash Show.
Other television appearances followed, as did recording appearances with several major country artists. He also played with The Byrds on their album Sweetheart of the Rodeo.
As a result of the success on "SmoBro, John was offered the lead role in a TV detective series but he turned it down to move back to Nashville and concentrate on his music.
By the late '80s Hartford was battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but he continued to record and perform until he lost the use of his hands shortly before his death in 2001.
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Dec. 30: the "Godmother of Punk," singer and poet, Patti Smith is 64 today.
Patricia Lee Smith was born in Chicago in 1946. She became an iconic singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, and a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses. Unconventional to say the least, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since early Bob Dylan.
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In 1967, she left Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and moved to New York City. She met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe there while working at a book store with a friend, poet Janet Hamill. She and Mapplethorpe had an intense romantic relationship, which was tumultuous as they dealt with times of poverty, and Mapplethorpe with his own sexuality.
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| Photo by Robert Mapplethorpe |
As a member of the St. Mark's Poetry Project, she spent the early 70's painting, writing, and performing. In 1971 she performed – for one night only – in Cowboy Mouth, a play that she co-wrote with Sam Shepard.
Smith was briefly considered for the lead singer position in Blue Öyster Cult. She contributed lyrics to several of the band's songs, including "Debbie Denise," "Baby Ice Dog," "Career of Evil," "Fire of Unknown Origin," "The Revenge of Vera Gemini" (on which she performs duet vocals), and "Shooting Shark." She was romantically involved at the time with the band's keyboardist Allen Lanier. During these years, Smith also wrote rock journalism, some of which was published in Rolling Stone and Creem.
On March 12, 2007, Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Van Halen, the Ronettes, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, and R.E.M. She released an album of typically eclectic covers, Twelve, that same year.
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Dec. 30: Bo Diddley - bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp - was born on this date in 1928...
... he died on June 2, 2008.
Born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi, Bo Diddley was known as "The Originator" because of his key role in the transition from the blues to rock & roll. Diddley originated insistent, driving rhythms and a hard-edged guitar sound to music.
He influenced a host of legendary acts including Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Velvet Underground, The Clash,The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton; and the list goes on and on...
Bo Diddley only had a few hits in the 1950s and early '60s, but he produced greater and more influential music than all but a handful of the best early rockers. The Bo Diddley beat - bomp, ba-bomp-bomp, bomp-bomp - is one of rock & roll's bedrock rhythms. His vibrating, fuzzy guitar style did much to bring the electric guitar into prominence.
Before taking up blues and R&B, Diddley had actually studied classical violin, but switched after hearing John Lee Hooker. In the early '50s, he began playing with his longtime partner, maraca player Jerome Green, to get what Bo's called "that freight train sound."
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Billy Boy Arnold, a well-known blues harmonica player and singer, was also performing with Diddley when the guitarist got a recording contract with Chess in the mid-'50s. His first single, "Bo Diddley"/"I'm a Man" in 1955, featured futuristic waves of tremolo guitar, set to an ageless nursery rhyme. The "B" side was a bump-and-grind, harmonica-driven shuffle, based around a blues riff. The result was a new kind of guitar-based rock & roll, soaked in the blues and R&B.
Diddley was never a top seller like his label-mate Chuck Berry, but over the next few years, he'd produce a catalog of classics that rival Berry's in quality. "You Don't Love Me," "Diddley Daddy," "Pretty Thing," "Diddy Wah Diddy," "Who Do You Love?," "Mona," "Road Runner" and "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover."
On stage, Diddley was charismatic, with his square guitars and distorted amplification to produce novel sounds. In Great Britain, he was revered as a giant on the order of Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. The Rolling Stones borrowed a lot from Bo's rhythms and attitude in their early days. Other British R&B groups like the Yardbirds and Animals covered Diddley standards in their early days.
In the U.S., Buddy Holly covered "Bo Diddley" and used a modified Bo Diddley beat on "Not Fade Away"; when the Stones gave the song the full-on Bo, giving them their first big hit record.
After 1963, he never wrote or recorded a record that matched his early standards.
Bo Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was known in particular for his technical innovations, including his trademark rectangular guitar.
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