Happy 87th to Session Drummer Extraordinaire Hal Blaine

05 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

blaine

(via The College of Rock and Roll Knowledge)

Remember that one song from years ago that you just loved…. well he probably played the drums on it.

Kind of a very vague statement isn’t it. But maybe not as vague as you might think……

Today, legendary studio session drummer Hal Blaine is celebrating his 87th birthday.

…

Never heard of him? Ok, that’s possible. Never heard him? Not likely. Here is a list of the #1 songs Hal played drums on:

“Can’t Help Falling in Love” – Elvis Presley (12/18/61)
“He’s a Rebel” – The Crystals (10/06/62)
“Surf City” – Jan & Dean (06/22/63)
“Everybody Loves Somebody” – Dean Martin (07/11/64)
“Ringo” – Lorne Greene (11/07/64)
“This Diamond Ring” – Gary Lewis & the Playboys (01/23/65)
“Help Me, Rhonda” – The Beach Boys (05/01/65)
“Mr Tambourine Man” – The Byrds (06/05/65)
“I Got You Babe” – Sonny & Cher (07/31/65)[8][9]
“Eve of Destruction” – Barry McGuire (08/28/65)
“My Love” – Petula Clark (01/15/66)
“These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” – Nancy Sinatra (02/05/66)
“Monday Monday” – The Mamas & the Papas (04/16/66)
“Strangers in the Night” – Frank Sinatra (07/02/66)
“Poor Side of Town” – Johnny Rivers (10/08/66)
“Good Vibrations” – The Beach Boys (10/29/66)
“Somethin’ Stupid” – Frank & Nancy Sinatra (03/25/67)
“The Happening” – The Supremes (04/15/67)[10][11]
“Windy” – The Association (06/03/67)
“Mrs. Robinson” – Simon & Garfunkel (05/04/68)
“Dizzy” – Tommy Roe (03/15/69)
“Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” – The 5th Dimension (04/12/69)
“Theme – Romeo & Juliet” – Henry Mancini (05/24/69)
“Wedding Bell Blues” – The 5th Dimension (10/04/69)
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” – Simon & Garfunkel (02/14/70)
“(They Long to Be) Close to You” – The Carpenters (06/27/70)
“Cracklin’ Rosie” – Neil Diamond (08/29/70)
“I Think I Love You” – The Partridge Family (10/31/70)
“Indian Reservation” – Paul Revere & the Raiders (05/29/71)
“Song Sung Blue” – Neil Diamond (05/13/72)
“Half Breed” – Cher (09/01/73)
“Annie’s Song” – John Denver (06/15/74)
“Top of the World” – The Carpenters (10/20/74)
“The Way We Were” – Barbra Streisand (12/22/74)
“Thank God I’m a Country Boy” – John Denver (04/05/75)
“Love Will Keep Us Together” – Captain & Tennille (05/24/75)
“I’m Sorry”/”Calypso” – John Denver (08/30/75)
“Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)” – Diana Ross(01/24/76)

Now remember, these were just the #1 songs he played on.

Hal has recorded with, well just about everybody. (We would post a list here, but, he has over 35,000 sessions to his credit. You get the picture. He was / is the perfect studio drummer, perfect time and perfect creativity.

Happy Birthday Mr. Blaine!! Thank You for so much!!

hal blaine

crew

Radio Station Pranks Listeners By Repeating Its Playlist for Groundhog Day

03 Feb 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

murray

(via mental floss)

by Nick Keppler

“I haven’t heard ‘Mr. [Wendal]’ two days in a row since the 1990s,” Shannon Norman tweeted at Pittsburgh-based radio station WYEP on Tuesday.

Norman, an apparent fan of the hip-hop act Arrested Development, isn’t the only Pittsburgher feeling a sense of déjà vu. The noncommercial station pranked listeners by broadcasting the same playlist from 6 A.M. to 5 P.M. on February 1 and 2, in an unannounced homage to the 1993 Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day. Every song that aired on the first day aired on the second day, too, and in the exact same order…

Read more: http://mentalfloss.com/article/74829/radio-station-pranks-listeners-repeating-its-playlist-groundhog-day

Cool Dad Raising Daughter On Media That Will Put Her Entirely Out Of Touch With Her Generation

01 Feb 2016 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts, On a Lighter Note Tags: ,

onion

(via The Onion)

RENTON, WA—Local man Paul Campbell confirmed Saturday he was raising his daughter Emma on a variety of media carefully selected to help her cultivate an appreciation for artistic quality, a move that will reportedly put the 12-year-old girl hopelessly out of touch with her generation.

Perusing his music and film collections and showing reporters distinctive, well-regarded works that will thoroughly alienate Emma from her sixth-grade classmates, Campbell said he wanted to make sure his daughter enjoyed the benefits of a cultural education he never received at her age…

Read more: http://www.theonion.com/article/cool-dad-raising-daughter-on-media-that-will-put-h-26132

Remembering The Sony D-88: The Smallest Discman Ever Made

30 Jan 2016 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

Check out Techmoan’s look back at one of the more impractical products of the CD era.

Somehow the clunkier technologies (like the 8-track tape) have an irresistible charm all their own.

Video of the Week: Jimmy Page on How ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Was Written

29 Jan 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Video of the Week Tags: ,

Recommended Albums #69

28 Jan 2016 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Recommended Albums Tags: ,

picar

The Decemberists: Picaresque (2005)

Picaresque was the Decemberists’ final indie label album before they signed with Capitol records, released the rock opera masterpiece The Hazards of Love and followed it with a number one album, The King is Dead, among other accomplishments.

And although I just referred to the 2009 folk/prog conceptual Hazards as a masterpiece, I would call Picaresque their best collection of songs–perhaps the best any band produced in the decade of the 2000’s.

bookLit rock…geek rock…British folk-infused Dickensian rock…whatever label you apply to this iconoclastic assembly’s music, songwriter Colin Meloy’s hyper-literate, hyper-imaginative tunes set them apart, and earn them more fans and critical acclaim with each release.

Meloy has always liked a good murder ballad, and death and tragic circumstance are staples of his dark-yet-alluring tunes. Put across with appealing melodies in a dialect seemingly all his own, his lyrics typically are as cheerful as the black plague, as exemplified by “We Both Go Down Together” and the epic “Mariner’s Revenge Song” here.

But unlike most bands who specialize in dark, sulky angst it’s clearly a vaudeville here. Of course, the character traits may ring familiar and the harsh lessons may apply in real life. But the songs themselves, constructed out of archaic language and given a veneer of Thespian melodrama, are like the rock music equivalent of unsanitized Brothers Grimm fairy tales. There’s danger, but it’s all ultimately charming, fanciful, bewitching.

If this album appeals to you, the good news is that there is a whole lot more Decemberists catalogue to explore. This band has yet to make a dud album. And my recommendation if you tackle The Hazards of Love next is to listen to the entire 60-minute piece uninterrupted and undistracted, with both lyrics and a concordance at hand. Then listen again. It’s jaw-droppingly brilliant and the best evidence one could cite to make an argument that the era of the ambitious art-rock concept album isn’t quite a thing of the past.

Listen to: “We Both Go Down Together”

 

Listen to: “The Engine Driver”

 

Listen to: “The Sporting Life”

 

Listen to: “16 Military Wives”

 

Listen to: “The Mariner’s Revenge Song”

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