Prince and ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’–An Opinion

02 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

Draw your own conclusions, but having watched ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’, the excellent Netflix doc on the making of We Are the World, I’m even less of a Prince fan.

The guy’s a helluva guitar player, a fantastic dancer and he really wears shiny purple outfits well.

But it seems he’s the one bloke (two if you count Waylon Jennings, who walked out citing Good Ole Boy-itis) unable to meet the Quincy Jones “check your egos at the door” standard.

Prince–and Prince alone–wanted to save the starving Ethiopian children on HIS terms: by playing a guitar solo in a song that HAD no guitar solo and doing so in a separate room from the rabble–you know, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Dylan, Springsteen, Paul Simon, etc.

Huey Lewis sang Prince’s vocal part and knocked it out of the park. And Steve Perry, Cyndi Lauper and the like killed it. He wasn’t missed.

And maybe that’s why His Royal Whatever was a no-call no-show. Maybe the thought of his star being outshone among the constellation assembled that night was too much to bear. Or maybe the rivalry with MJ couldn’t be set aside even for such a worthy cause.

In any case, a resounding boo from this bleacher seat.

Elvis Costello on ‘Accidents Will Happen’

02 Mar 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elvis-costello-on-accidents-will-happen-11603900495

10 Accordion Songs That Rock

25 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(via CultureSonar) BY JOHN SMISTAD

This conversation could’ve been between two 16-year-old boys:

Owen: “I’d like to join your rock band.”

Lance: “What do ya play?”

Owen: “Accordion.”

Lance: “No.”

Bummer for Owen.  However, young Lance has a lot to learn.  For the accordion does indeed rock. Here are a handful of examples.

“We Can Work It Out” (1965), The Beatles

Okay, so it’s technically a harmonium pump organ and not an accordion we hear in this #1 smash from 1965. “But how many of us took the fake?  Still another instance of The Beatles’ inclination to leave it to individual interpretation.

“God Only Knows” (1966), The Beach Boys

Can you imagine this touching expression of unwavering love without the sweet, yet somber, accordion?  God forbid.

“How Can I Be Sure” (1967), the Young Rascals

 The accordion, while decidedly whimsical in nature, more than pulls its weight in this tune about a guy who’s in love and in need of confidence reinforcement…

Read more: https://www.culturesonar.com/10-accordion-songs-that-rock/?mc_cid=c5abfbf43c&mc_eid=b43e532c6f

Karen Carpenter’s Independence Slowly Vanished into a Haze

24 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(via musicoholics) by Noam Heller

Karen Carpenter’s voice hits you like a ray of warm sun that can just as quickly disappear into a dusky cloud of melancholy. If that cloud happens to rain, her voice is also the velvety cloak to shelter you from the drops. In other words, by listening to Karen, you experience a surreal interlacing of dark and light.

This brilliant drummer and singer formed the musical duo Carpenters, along with her brother, Richard. They toured the world throughout the ’70s and sold over 90 million records during their 14-year career together. But sadly, Karen was struggling with persistent feelings of self-reproach and perfectionism that slowly (and literally) ate away at her. Here is the tragic story behind one of the greatest voices of all time.

Growing Up in Her Brother’s Shadow

Karen Carpenter was born on March 2, 1950, in New Haven, Connecticut. Her only sibling, Richard, was three years older and idolized by their parents, Agnes and Harold. Despite being close in age, the two siblings were worlds apart. Richard spent most of his time playing the piano in the privacy of his room, whereas Karen would be outside playing baseball and goofing around.

It was hard to miss how much her mother favored the young piano prodigy and how little affection she showed her only daughter. They even moved the whole family to California in 1963 to pursue Richard’s music career, which wasn’t a very appealing idea for a 13-year-old who had to leave her friends.

Read more: https://musicoholics.com/first-look/karen-carpenters-independence-slowly-vanished-into-a-haze/2.html?br_t=ed

Pink Floyd’s burning man: Aubrey Powell’s best photograph

24 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(via The Guardian) by Joobin Bekhrad

Storm Thorgerson and I had created most of the artwork for Pink Floyd’s albums, including Dark Side of the Moon. One day we were asked to Abbey Road Studios to listen to tracks from the band’s new record. The lyrics were mostly about absence, and the album’s title, Wish You Were Here, was a reference to Syd Barrett, who had left the band some years earlier due to issues with LSD. They were also making a statement about record company executives who regarded musicians as money-making machines, demanding one hit song after another – an absence of a different kind.

We were talking late one night with our friend George Hardie, kicking around ideas. Storm said: “Have a Cigar [the album’s third track], is about insincerity in the music business. What about an image of two businessmen, and one of them is getting burned in a deal?” We all thought the image was a good idea, and I remember saying to Storm: “How are we going to do that?” He replied: “Set a man on fire.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/aug/12/burning-man-pink-floyd-wish-you-were-here-aubrey-powell-best-photograph

When Sha Na Na opened for Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock: ‘Hippies thought they were on a bummer!’

24 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(via yahoo music) by Lyndsey Parker

When most classic rock fans think of the original Woodstock festival, held a half-century ago in Bethel, New York, certain iconic rock stars probably spring to mind. Grateful Dead. Janis Joplin. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Joe Cocker. Sly Stone. And, of course, Jimi Hendrix.

Sha Na Na probably don’t spring to mind.

But the kitschy ‘50s revival act, who’d originally formed as an a cappella group at Columbia University in the late 1960s at the height of hippie counterculture, and had only played seven previous gigs, were unlikely breakout stars at Woodstock ’69 — after the virtual unknowns secured a prime slot right before Hendrix’s weekend-closing set on Aug. 18, 1969. And they went down in history as one of the coolest, most unique acts on the bill. “We were certainly against the grain at Woodstock,” says founding Sha Na Na member Jocko Marcellino.

And incredibly, this was all thanks to Hendrix himself, who discovered Sha Na Na at a Hell’s Kitchen nightclub called Steve Paul’s Scene and convinced Woodstock promoters Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld to book them for the festival…

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/when-sha-na-na-opened-for-jimi-hendrix-at-woodstock-they-thought-they-were-on-a-bummer-040000126.html?guccounter=1

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries