"There's a time in life for Hoagy Carmichael. There's a time in life for Claude Debussy. There's a time in life for Jerry Lee Lewis. There's a time in life for Destiny's Child. All these things have their moment." ~Elvis Costello
09 Nov 2012 Leave a comment
Jimmy Beaumont and The Skyliners: “Where Have They Gone” (1974)
Pittsburgh vocal group the Skyliners are best known for the 1959 doo wop classic “Since I Don’t Have You”, and the voice of Jimmy Beaumont–perhaps the greatest of the early rock ‘n roll era.
By 1963 the group disbanded, but 11 years later Beaumont brought a new lineup together to record one of the saddest and most nostalgic songs ever committed to vinyl, “Where Have They Gone”.
The song wistfully, wonderfully recollects sweet memories of earlier days, and love (and perhaps group members) lost.
This beautifully rendered song enjoyed lots of airplay in the local Pittsburgh market, but barely scratched the national charts, peaking at #100 in March of 1975.
This quote (source unfortunately unknown) says it best:
The title is both literal and metaphorical — it speaks to the group’s own journey: members leaving, time passing, and the fading of their early days. It’s a fitting farewell to the original era and a reminder of where they “went” — into history, into the memories of fans, and into the doo‑wop canon.
17 Oct 2012 2 Comments
The world of science is indeed full of wonders. Would you ever have believed you could buy a 7″ vinyl record of a song by Carl Sagan?
That would be “A Glorious Dawn”, one of 17 or so bits of science-as-entertainment produced so far by a project called Symphony of Science. The songs and their accompanying videos give scientific and philosophical concepts a pseudo-chillwave musical treatment and feature (with the help of our old friend auto-tune) such prominent figures as Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Stephen Hawking and Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Check out the site for more:
16 Oct 2012 Leave a comment
The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) also known as the “Washington Wives” was formed in 1985 with the purpose of exerting control (“censorship” some said) over the access children had to violent and explicit music by putting warning labels on albums.
Rap music of the time was thought to be a particular threat, with rapper Ice-T specifically accused by Tipper Gore of inciting increased violence against police in Los Angeles.
On September 19, 1985 three musicians stepped to the microphone to testify. They were Dee Snyder (of Twisted Sister), Frank Zappa and…John Denver, who’d had his own music banned in some cities in the early 70’s.
Many on the PMRC committee expected the folk-pop singer to speak in support of their agenda. But instead Denver articulately stated the case against censorship saying, “That which is denied becomes that which is most desired, and that which is hidden becomes that which is most interesting. Consequently, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get at what is being kept from you.” (Spoken like an experienced dad)
(Snyder and Zappa were less conciliatory in tone. And Zappa subsequently responded with his Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention album, which featured a parody of the warning label on its cover.)
12 Oct 2012 Leave a comment
(Reprinted from Open Culture)
In 1994 Jimmy Page and Robert Plant collaborated on a new musical project for the first time since the death 14 years earlier of Led Zeppelin’s drummer, John Bonham. The reunion resulted from an invitation to appear on MTV’s hit series Unplugged. But Page and Plant wanted to steer clear of nostalgia, so they excluded former Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones from the project and named it Unledded.
The resulting album and DVD feature an assortment of Zeppelin songs that were reinterpreted with the help of an Egyptian ensemble, an Indian vocalist and the London Metropolitan Orchestra, but perhaps the most interesting part of the project was a trio of new songs recorded with local musicians in Marrakesh, Morocco. Those performances, one of which is shown here, were the result of a collaboration with traditional musicians of the Gnawa minority, whose sub-Saharan ancestors were brought to Morocco many centuries ago as slaves.
“We’d never met the Gnawa when we went there,” said Plant in a 1994 interview, “but they were very patient, and smiling is a great currency.” Gnawa music is traditionally performed for prayer and healing, and differs from other North African music. “They play a kind of music which is much more akin to the music of the Mississippi Delta than it is to do with Arab music,” Plant said in another interview. “It’s haunting, seductive, and quite alluring.”
Every Moment Has A Song 