#for the record the Glenn song is written but I haven’t recorded it at all my b

[nick-close]

So I realize I’ve totally been dead on this account for months, which has boring life reasons. Instead of all that you can take this tho sorry gang

[mywifeleftme]

300: Four Horsemen // Live in the West

Live in the West Four Horsemen 1977, Starborne

The Four Horsemen were Canada’s great contribution to international sound poetry, a genre that has traditionally involved the authors of the most abstruse literary theory ever written doing the verbal equivalent of Monty Python’s Department of Silly Walks for small audiences that regret their own open-mindedness. (Look, the Splash Zone was clearly labelled.) The Horsemen became genuine counter-culture favourites because they understood that absolute freedom is as absurd as it is sublime. As a result, their second LP Live in the West is probably the most fun thing that’d come out of the whole sound poetry movement to that point. The poets presented themselves as something between a band, an avant-garde theatre troupe, and a sketch group, and their compositions flit between high- and lowbrow signifiers in a way that feels prescient of today’s culture.

Side One is dedicated to shorter compositions, classical sound poetry conceits like dismantling a single loaded word into discrete phonemes (the word “Assassin” dissolved into startled AHHs and hissing esses) and deftly syncopated sequences of non-verbal glottal noises and grunts. On “From Beast/Matthew’s Line,” Paul Dutton (I think) opens with a snippet of an Irish-sounding folk song; he breaks off, allowing Rafael Barreto-Rivera and bpNichol to exchange repeated non-sequiturs in Spanish and English while Dutton keens in the background; Steve McCaffery begins speaking over them, intoning John Clare’s nineteenth century poem “I Am!”; as McCaffery nears the climax of the poem, the others gradually transition into raga-style vocalizations. The effect is quadrophonic, not unlike Glenn Gould’s “contrapuntal radio” piece The Idea of North (1967), which layered recordings of spoken monologues to see how their meanings and sounds complimented and “splashed off” one another. It also anticipates the sampling era to come, but the analogue physicality and precision required to pull the piece of without the aid of electronics gives it a spark all its own.

The elaborate collaging of “Matthew’s Line” previews the two longer pieces on Side Two, “Mischievous Eve” and “Goodbye Stagelost.” On these quasi-theatrical pieces, the Horsemen lean into the characters their voices suggest: the plummy British accent of the Sheffield-born McCaffery makes him a natural for playing the role of a fusty square, though he is never far from descending into gibbering imbecility; Barreto-Rivera’s Latin-accented good cheer provides an earthy counterpoint, even as he often lapses into Spanish passages that deepen the complexity of following their ratatat chemistry; Nichol has a measured, precise cadence, leading his colleagues like a conductor even as he often dives the furthest into abstraction; little Paul Dutton’s boyish, wiseacre Ontario deadpan sounds like one of the Kids in the Hall, making him the perfect foil when things need deflating. These longer selections resemble a slapstick update of the overlapping dialogues in the second part of Eliot’s The Waste Land, found writing and original material and classical literature swirled together to capture life in the charnel house of modern culture, but with more jokes (a special tip of the cap to Dutton’s passing allusion to Nichol’s “dick-washing habits”).

Fifty years down the line, sound and concrete poetry have little presence in the Canadian scene (or internationally, for that matter) outside of a few holdouts of the old guard. Almost nothing on the shelves or the stage feels as genuinely creative or lively as this old record does. I haven’t the space or energy here to litigate the institutionalization of the genre, but I know in my bones that the world could use a little more nastiness like this.

300/365

[bowieandqueen11]

Set Me Dreaming / Bucky Barnes Imagine

Request: can you do a bucky fic where reader catches him awake in the middle of the night and fighting off some of his troubles? like maybe bucky resists any type of consolation until he finally succumbs. i am open to any of your ideas/own interpretation! thank you!! <3

Yes I can thank you!! Also Mr Barnes it’s been seven years and I am still looking respectfully 👀 

If you like, please comment and reblog!

(The lyrics are Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller/ Frank Sinatra (we’re just going to pretend this version came out at the right time aha), and I got them from Google!)

You haven’t heard this song since that night in 1943. Since the night he proposed. Since the night he left. Since the night you lost your Bucky.

‘The stars are aglow and tonight how their light sets me dreaming.’

It takes you a moment to see in the darkness of the little New York Apartment you and Bucky had managed to scrounge up the money to pay for. It certainly needed some work, and sometimes you missed that smell of antiseptic and apple pie - that warmth familiarity of Bucky patching Steve up after a fight with one hand, and trying to copy his mom’s old recipes as a treat for when you got home from work in the other. This place only smelt of car fumes, and a certain stench of must and old pine that was just a sucker punch to the stomach every time you entered. Every time the two of you were reminded how stranded Steve had left you. Buck had tried to cook for you, once, a couple of weeks ago, but you had come home to find him sitting slouched, crying, on the kitchen tiles as he sobbed out how his mind couldn’t remember the measurements his mom had written down. But it didn’t matter, you think as you finally spot the sound of the noise. Wherever and whenever you had Buck, you were home. Even if everything needed work, it was worth it.

The record player swirls slowly from its spot on the kitchen counter, languid in its spinning as the familiar notes bounce around the confining walls and fill the place, and the city, with its warm jazz. At this time of night, there’s little to compete with the rippling trumpets, or the baritone voice - just the faraway sound of car horns and the jagged breathing of something coming from the fire escape. For a moment, you jump, forgetting yourself, forgetting you weren’t trapped in Hydra anymore. And then your heart starts to drop as you untangle yourself from the blankets, getting up from where you were holding your fiancée on the floor, to spot his sitting with his back to you. His eyes are gone. You don’t know how you can tell, solely just from the rise and fall of his naked back. You just know him too well, you suppose.

He’s gone from you, at the moment, eyes glazed with a faraway mist as he looks down at flashing, neon lights and dirt-tramped streets of the city he used to know like the back of his hand. But he’s not there either. No, his mind has wandered away with the song, memories allowing him some reverie by thinking back on that day. On you. A warm glow flashes through his eyes, a smile threatening to twitch at the corners of his lips as he pictures you, the love of his life, hand intertwined with his. He had sobbed against your lips that night, forehead pressed tightly against yours as he gazed at you with terrified eyes, drinking in every feature of your face as if he knew it would be the last time he would see it. If he was going to die, he wanted to make damn sure that the last thing that ever passed his mind was you. He could die happy then, knowing that he had been given one proper, good thing in his life, feeling safe in the memory that he had loved it well. That he would go knowing he would love you forever. You pretend not to feel him shake in your grasp as you dig your fingers into your shoulder, pulling him tighter against your chest and whispering sweet nothings into the dance hall, the thought of him leaving the next morning plaguing your every thought.

‘My love, do you know that your eyes are like stars brightly beaming?’

He could barely get the words out that night, he had to mouth them against your lips and hope, his silly, foolish hope, that you would agree to marry a man who was being shipped of the next day. He just needed to go knowing that he was yours, thinking the last twenty five years you had spent joint at the hip would sway you towards the sentimental and you would agree to let him be yours, even if only for a day. It didn’t matter, he knew, as his lips trembled against your own, clenching his eyes shut to try and stop the tears spilling down as you nod your head vigorously. It didn’t matter how long you had in this life, he would be yours forever.

‘I love you, doll. I love you so much it hurts.’

‘Don’t you know I love you the same, Buck?’

He doesn’t feel you come up behind him, placing your hands on his back. Every muscle seems to be jumping out of his skin, skin flush and like a furnace to the touch, but you just wrap your arms around his waist and pull him against your back. Glancing round to see your Bucky’s face, his stubble tickles your cheek as you sigh. He’s still puffing out breath into the cold night’s air, eyes glossy and wet and by grief, filled with so much pain and love and fear that it breaks your heart. 

‘I bring you and sing you a moonlight serenade.’

Then he remembers falling. Feeling weightless in the water, gazing up at the blanket of grey sky above him, at peace in the knowledge that you were here with him, your picture still tucked into his jacket and your face the only thing he saw when he looked up at the sky, at the stars. When he finally closed his eyes, and let himself drift away to you. Then he remembers the pain. The pain of remembering you while he was tied down to that chair, jaw clenched and lips threatening to spill his sobs as they punished him for remembering you, again and again and again and again, until the end, he buries you into a pocket of his mind he hopes Hydra can’t touch. He remembers the plea that used to fall from his lips as they hit him, the tremble in his fingers once he woke up and realised that he, that James, that the Winter Soldier was holding a gun against the head of someone he had never even seen before. Not in his lifetime. But he does what he’s meant to do, what he’s told to do, finger pulling the trigger as some thought twitches at the back of his mind, telling him to keep going. To always carry out his missions, saving the world, saving you.

He doesn’t feel your lips brush against his forehead as he begins to gasp now, almost fighting back against your touch. But you only reach out to steady him, grabbing his biceps as you swing yourself over the barrier to kneel down in front of him, fingers tight as he finally starts to settle himself again. You reach up slowly, careful not to startle him away from whatever pain is haunting him, and brush his hair away from his damp forehead. You don’t miss the way he subconsciously drops his head towards your touch, the almost inaudible sigh of relief that brushes against your nose.

He finally starts to remember himself, remember where he is, eyelashes fluttering open and closed quickly. He nearly bursts into tears right there and then when he spots you, wide eyed and obviously shivering from the cold in front of him. 

‘Buck. Buck - James. It’s okay, we’re okay. You’re here with me, not back there. It’s alright.’

‘Sweetheart-’, he starts, squirming within himself as he scrambles closer to you. ‘A-are you real? You’re really here?’

‘Of course I am, Buck. I’m never leaving you. Never again.’

For a moment there’s a comfortable silence, a knowing moment of trust and understanding between the two of you, before you tug on his metal arm. He gives it to you willingly, the only person he’ll allow to touch the metal without feeling revolted with himself. You pull gently at his fingers, silently pleading for him to unfurl his fists. His breath shakes, knowing it was the same way you had brought him back to himself that day Helicarrier when he had been sent to kill you. The cruellest trick fate had ever played on him. He still cried about it in his dreams, eyes strained and throat hollow with screams as he strained against you, trying time and time again to stop his arms from hurting you. To stop himself from drowning just by the thought of you.

You- you were real. You were here, and then he found himself full on sobbing again. You shush him gently, jumping up to pull his hands away from his face, away from where he had shoved them into his eyes to try and stop himself. Yet he only grabs onto his shirt that you were wearing, fingers clenching and fists white as he pulls you down to straddle his thighs. He nestles his head into your neck, pulling you tight into his arms until he couldn’t be sure where he ended and where you began. As if there had really ever been a difference for him, anyway. You brush your hand through his hair, appreciating the little hum of delight he tried to give you as your fingers scrape the nape of his neck. He sniffles against your skin, but he’s alright. He knows that you would do anything for him. Your soulmate, your Bucky.

And Bucky knew, as he held you against him, that he would never let you go again. He knew that he couldn’t pretend he was alright anymore, that somehow and someway he would have to make amends for everything he has done - everything he has put you through. Yet some warm hope fizzled at the bottom of his heart as he felt your engagement ring bump against the goose bumps of his back, knowing he still owed you a wedding as well. 

His hands are so soft, so gentle, so careful, as he grips onto your waist. His nose bumps against your forehead the same way it had that night, all those years ago, before you had lost him. His tears stain your shirt again, and although he knew he was different now, he also knew there was still some of James Buchanan Barnes left. He knew, because you had his heart, this whole time.

[alittlemorevodka]

Before we get started, Windy (seen/heard here) is from Spygenius’ previous and wonderful LP, Man On The Sea, reviewed here. If you haven’t had a chance to pick that one up yet, now is the perfect time! Bundle it up with the equally great, Spygenius Blow Their Covers LP (due out in just 2 days - what this review is all about) and you will have the perfect gift for yourself or that hard-to-buy-for music lover on your list.  Christmas is coming fast and Spygenius is the perfect gift.  Do I sound a bit overzealous here?  That’s possible. I don’t get excited about music as often as I used to. But I do recognize talent and ingenuity when it hits my ears!  

Spygenius is Canterbury England’s four piece that can rock as hard as you might want to rock, while maintaining beautiful melodies and harmonies. While the band is great with composition as well, this offering is all about the composition of others. Blow Their Covers is, as you might surmise, a covers LP. 

If you think that you’ve heard covers LP’s before and that this will be the same reworked top 40 hits of yesteryear, think again. Spygenius is as careful with their music selection as they are with their own performances. They have made this music (both old and new) their very own, and because the selections are often more obscure, you may not recognize some of them as covers at all.

So what are you in for if you decide to take the plunge and pick this up?  Well let’s take a look, step-by-step. The LP opens with the two-part track Paper Sun/Love Is Only Sleeping. Paper Sun was penned by Jim Capaldi and Steve Winwood (Traffic), while Love Is Only Sleeping was recorded by The Monkeys and written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. The tracks work together seamlessly and make for a nice up-beat start to the covers collection. Your toe will barely have time to stop tapping, however, because next up is So You Say You Lost Your Baby written by Gene Clark and released originally back in 1967. Leaning more mid-tempo, Therapy, by Big Stir Records label mates Plasticsoul first showed up in 2017. Even though we are jumping several decades here, there is no jarring juxtaposition. There’s a common theme: It fits beautifully. As if to prove that everything fits, we’re back to 1963′s Come On Home, written by Tom Springfield (The Springfields). Griselda brings forth the Celtic folk of Michael Hurley And The Unholy Modal Rounders, but it still fits. The most recognizable song in this collection (for me), Is That Love, (Squeeze), by Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, circa 1981, still manages to fit perfectly in this collection. That’s only the first seven tracks of the thirteen carefully curated gems here. Each fits in Spygenius’ unique style, where tight harmonies and melodies are king. I could go on, but you would get tired of me repeating the same common themes! 

One thing that stands out on this, and all Spygenius projects, is the practice of good mixing and engineering. One of Vodka’s big annoyances is the use of over amplifying the mix. When this happens (and believe me, it happens a lot!) dynamics in the music are lost. There’s no way to tweak your equipment if the wave form is a flat line at the top. Spygenius seems to know and apply this to their recordings. There is always some dynamic head room available. In today’s environment, where everyone wants to be their own engineer, or worse, hire someone with “engineer” in their title that knows only how to push everything to the top most part of the wave form, the approach of Spygenius to preserve music dynamics is particularly refreshing. 

You can find more information on Spygenius by heading up to their website. Pick up their music, including Spygenius Blow Their Covers and Man On The Sea, from Big Stir Records store, or from Big Stir’s bandcamp.com site.  

With Christmas fast approaching, pick up a gift for yourself and every music lover on your list, by picking up a copy of Blow Their Covers now!

Note: It looked like we were heading for clear skies with Covid 19. The variants are making a comeback, which means that the livelihoods of artists like Spygenius and many others are still threatened. If your situation allows it, consider purchasing more in these tough times. Please, if you are physically able to do so, get the vaccine! –Vodka

Search is broken: Finding former posts from artists used to be a given, but something has happened with our host. Searching for an artist (above) will sometimes get your results, and sometimes (as with a search for “sinnober” for instance) it will yield nearly none of the historical posts. This is a problem that Vodka is researching. Please be aware that we may be forced to change hosts, which would cause a short moratorium on posts. If you are used to seeing a  new post on the blog every Wednesday, then just be aware that if you don’t find a new post, it’s because we are off building elsewhere. Thanks for your patience.

[andhumanslovedstories]

Recent country songs that have made me literally gay gasp as a gay woman, in order of how much they make me want to write an essay on gender and queerness

HONORARY MENTION BUT JUST BECAUSE I THINK THIS IS TECHNICALLY AMERICANA NOT COUNTRY (but genre is fake) AND THIS SONG ISN’T RECENT (2014 and I’ve been listening to it faithfully since then) BUT I ONLY RECENTLY LEARNED IT’S A COVER AND THAT’S MADE ME RECONTEXTUALIZE IT: “Murder in the City” by Brandi Carlile, a cover of The Avett Brothers where she changed the words “make sure my sister knows I loved her/make sure my mother knows the same” to “make sure my wife knows that I love her/make sure my daughter knows the same” which fucking. fucking gets me. Especially since the first time that I heard this song, I assumed it was from a man’s point of view because of that line, and then I learned that Brandi Carlile is a lesbian and I was caught up in my foolish heteronormitivity, and then I learned it was a cover and thought oh okay I guess the song is originally from a man’s pov and it’s cool she covered, and then I learned she changed those lines to make a song that already feels deeply personal to her to explicitly include her love for a woman and the family they’ve made together. And that’s just. It’s all just a lot. 

3) “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by Miranda Lambert featuring Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes and Caylee Hammack, because the first time it came up on my spotify, I saw the title and was like “hey dope I like this song” and then I heard the first line was still “I must have been through about a million girls” and I realized none of the words or pronouns were getting changed and I was getting the song I’ve always wanted and deserved: a high production value, high energy, big girl group tribute to being a lesbian fuckboy who Fooled Around And, oops can you believe it, Fell in Love. 

2) “If She Ever Leaves Me” by The Highwomen, sung by Brandi Carlile who is, as mentioned, lesbian, but since I’m apparently still chugging my comp het juice, I was still trying to figure out if this song--a classic “hey buddy keep walking, she’s my girl and she’s not interested” song with an interesting element of the singer being aware the relationship might not last anyway--was gonna be explicitly queer. And then there’s the line, “That's too much cologne, she likes perfume,” and I was like OH HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!! 

This is immediately followed by the lines “I’ve loved her in secret/I’ve loved her out loud” which is also deliciously queer in this context, with this singer and that juxtaposition, but the line that really fucking got me is my favorite of the song: “If she ever leaves, it's gonna be for a woman with more time.” This is two women in a complicated relationship. This isn’t just a “keep walking, cowboy” song, it’s a song that uses that framework to suggest a whole ass “Finishing the Hat”** relationship, and that’s so interesting to me. Like a song that isn’t just explicitly about two women in love but one that conveys very quickly a rich history between the two of them. And in a genre where the line “Kiss lots of boys, kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into” was revolutionary representation.

(Fun fact, “Follow Your Arrow” was partially written by Brandy Clarke, another country lesbian! Another fun fact, so is basically every other good country song. Brandy Clark, please write a big lesbian country anthem, I know it will immediately kill me on impact.) 

To quote one youtube comment, “”lesbians how we feeling??” and to answer by quoting some others, “As a closeted baby gay in the 90s, who was into country, this song would have changed my life”, “I just teared up.  So many happy tears, as a gay woman raised on country music,  this is something that's definitely been needed.  Thank you Brandi. Thank you highwomen”, “This song means more than I can say in a youtube comment”, and “Lesbians needed this song :)”

It’s me. I’m lesbians. 

**ANOTHER HONORARY MENTION EXCEPT IT ISN’T RECENT AND IT ISN’T COUNTRY SO I GUESS THIS IS JUST A MENTION, BUT I AM INTERESTED IN THIS SONG--“Finishing the Hat” by Kelli O’Hara. A very good Sondheim joint, that’s about making art, the costs of its obsessive and exclusive nature and the incomparable pleasure of putting something into the world that wasn’t there before. It’s such a traditionally male narrative that I’m thrilled to find a wonderful female cover of it. I’m not even fussed about her changing the gender from the lover who won’t wait for the artist (except that the shift from “woman” to “one man” sounds so clunky) because there’s value turning this song into a lament of the men who won’t love artistic women. But I do also wish she’d also recorded a version that kept the original gender so it would be gay. OKAY BROADWAY TANGENT OVER, BACK TO COUNTRY. 

1) “Highwomen” by The Highwomen, ft. Yola and Sheryl Crow. I can’t even express the full body chills the first time I heard this. Like repeated, multiple chills renewed at every verse of the song. This really closely parallels my experience with “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” up there, because when I started it I was like “oh dope I know what this cover will be” and then the lyrics started and I was like “OH MY GOD I DIDN’T.” In the case of “Fooled Around” it’s because I was amazed that they kept the original words. In the case of “Highwomen” I fucking transcended because they changed them. 

So I grew up on Johnny Cash, obsessed with a couple of his albums but largely with a CD I had of his greatest hits. (Ask me how many times I listened to the shoeshine boy song. Hundreds. Johnny Cash told me to get rhythm and I got it.) And my FAVORITE was “Highwayman” from the country supergroup he was in, The Highwaymen. The concept of the song is that each of the four men sing a verse about a man from the past and how he died. It’s very good. The line “They buried me in that grey tomb that knows no sound” used to scare the shit out of me. I didn’t expect to have a song that targets so specifically my fear of being buried alive in wet concrete. 

(If you haven’t heard the song, by the way, listen to this version to properly appreciate it as a piece of music. If you have, watch the fucking music video holy shit this is a work of art oh my GOD.) 

So I was predisposed to love this cover before I even heard it. But then I heard it. And they rewrote the song to be about historical women. And it’s like. There’s layers here okay. 

Neither the Highwaymen nor the Highwomen are signing about famous people. This isn’t a Great Man tour of history, it’s about dam builders and sailors and preachers and mothers and Freedom Riders and also Johnny Cash who flies a starship across the universe, as you do. 

In the 1986 version, it’s a song about the continuity of life--the repeated idea is “I am still alive, I’m still here, I come back again and again in different forms.” The highwayman is all the men in the song. He reincarnates. The song is past, present, future. The title is singular, masculine. The same soul, expressed through multiple voices, multiple lives. 

In the 2019 version, the title is plural, feminine. Highwomen. This song is about women. Each verse asserts the same motif as the 1986 version--“I may not have survived but I am still alive”--but there is no implication of reincarnation. Each woman is her own woman. This version has a final verse that the previous versions lacks. The singers harmonize. It’s not a song where one voice replaces  another, the story of this One Man progressing through time. It ends in a chorus of women saying “We are still alive.” 

We are The Highwomen Singing stories still untold We carry the sons you can only hold We are the daughters of the silent generations You sent our hearts to die alone in foreign nations They may return to us as tiny drops of rain But we will still remain

And we'll come back again and again and again And again and again We'll come back again and again and again And again and again 

Another fun fact! The first time I heard them sing “We are the daughters of the silent generations” I died! But luckily I came back again and again and again.  

This is a song about the continuity of history. It asserts that women’s historical lives matter and that they continue to matter, long after they died. This is a song about legacy as well, the legacy of nameless women who worked to protect the ones they loved and make the world better. They don’t die by chance. They are all hunted down by political violence, by racism, by misogyny, for stepping outside their prescribed roles. But, as Yola (who btw fucking CRUSHES THE VOCALS ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????? HOLY SHIT MA’AM) sings as a murdered Freedom Rider, she’d take that ride again. And at the end of the song, she joins the chorus but does not disappear into it. Her voice rises up out of crowd. And the crowd calls itself “we”. These women are united but not subsumed into being One Woman. This is about Women. 

And then, outside the song itself, there’s the history of this song about history. It’s originally by Jimmy Webb and was covered by Glenn Campbell. This cover inspired the name of the supergroup that covered it, the group with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and my man Johnny Cash. And it’s like holy shit! What an amazing group to collaborate! Hot damn! 

Then, it’s 2019 and here’s The Highwomen with Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires. The name is obviously riffing on The Highwaymen. Shires set out to form the group in direct response to the lack of female country artists on the radio and at festivals. And they name themselves after a country supergroup, and they put out this song, a song connected to massive names in country music, and they center all of this on women and womanhood and the right of women to be counted in history and to make history and to talk about the ways we have mistreated and marginalized women, in a group that started because one woman was like hey! we’re mistreating and marginalizing women! 

I just think this is neat! I think there’s a lot here we could unpack! But this post is 100 times longer than I was planning and work starts in a bit so uh I’m gonna go get dressed and listen to The Highwomen on repeat for the next hour, “Heaven is a Honky Tonk” is another fucking bop that improves on the original, it would be dope if they’d collab with Rhiannon Giddens, okay byyyyyyyye 

[incomingalbatross]

@runningracingdancingchasing replied to your post “I have to say, I think they REALLY kicked the music up a notch in...”

I haven't seen anything about Danny Jacobs on IMDb, and the songs were written by Alan Menken with lyrics by Glenn Slater.

That’s true (and why I mentioned him in my tags and not in the body of the post, since I don’t know all the particulars), but according to the credits for this song--and, I believe, most of the others--it was “produced by Danny Jacobs.” I don’t know how much of a creative role that is, if at all, but I assume that whatever his capacity, he must have enjoyed working on a song with such Heinz Doofenshmirtz vibes.

No disrespect intended to Alan Menken or Glenn Slater, though! Obviously, they’ve both done fantastic work in this show and elsewhere--I’m not enough of a Disney person to have known either of their names when I started this show, but I looked them up after the “Buddy Song” and... boy, do they have impressive records. Especially Alan Menken, of course--absolutely incredible--but Slater’s is nothing to sneeze at either.

[eirenical]

4, 23, and 29?

For this meme, if anyone else wants to play.  ^_^ 

4: three songs that you know thanks to your parents(and Uncle)

1) Yellow Submarine (and many other songs that I had no idea were) by the Beatles (until I was much much older. XD)

2) Mairzy Doats by The Merry Macs

3) In the Mood by Glenn Miller and Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman

4) I Feel the Earth Move by Carole King

5) Just… The Weavers.  Everything by the Weavers.  (Yet another group of songs I had no idea weren’t just “kids songs my mom and uncle sing” until I was much older. I was full on OBSESSED in high school. And college.)

6) THE IRISH ROVERS. (Click that first link for excessive squee, if you’re interested. ;D) Particularly this album: The Unicorn.  (AND EXCUSE ME WHILE I HYPERVENTILATE, BUT APPARENTLY THEY RERELEASED THIS ALBUM TWO YEARS AGO WITH A SEQUEL TO THE UNICORN SONG??? OMGGGGGGGG.  THE UNICORNS THAT WOULDN’T GET ON THE ARK TURNED INTO NARWHALS AND SWAM AWAY AND WITH THAT ONE FELL SWOOP, A DEEP LINGERING SADNESS FROM MY CHILDHOOD HAS BEEN WASHED AWAY.  TT^TT)

7) Who’s on First? (link is to a video) by Abbott and Costello – …TRUST ME, IT COUNTS.  Apart from a million French lullabies and tongue twister songs that I cannot find the names of no matter where I look, this is the only one on the list from my Dad.  -.-;;;  But we listened to it ALL THE TIME when I was growing up, so I say it counts.

…also, I can’t count to 3, apparently.  XD

23: three songs that never fail to get you pumped up

1) Pride by American Authors

2) Get Some by Lykke Li

3) HandClap by Fitz and the Tantrums

4) Run-Around by Blues Traveler

5) Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band

OH, MAN, I haven’t thought about this one in FOREVER but…

6) Santorini by Yanni (TRUST ME.  YOU WILL BE PUMPED.)

7) Christmas Eve / Sarajevo 12/24 performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

8) …I’m tempted to just throw the whole Carmina Burana in here, but mostly that’s a signing kind of pumped, not a listening kind of pumped, so I won’t.  ;D

9) OK, and honestly, In the Mood, Sing, Sing, Sing, and I Feel the Earth Move could go here, too.  ;D

(…stopping there, but THERE ARE DEFINITELY MORE.)

29: three songs that influenced you most (some songs change or save lives)

This is most definitely a cop-out, but I honestly can’t think of any right now.  O_o;;;

OK, that’s not true.

1) Dana, Dana / Dona, Dona (Original Yiddish version written by Sholom Secunda, Aaron Zeitlin. English lyrics by Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz.  The linked version is the version recorded by Joan Baez.)

Warning on this one: the lyrics are sad.  They are VERY sad.

This song hit me hard and fast as a kid and I still can’t sing it without choking up somewhere in the middle.  I can’t honestly even express HOW it influenced me, but it most definitely did.

[blackkudos]

Teddy Riley

Edward Theodore (Teddy) Riley (born October 8, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, keyboardist, and record producer credited with the creation of the new jack swing genre. Through his production work with Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, Doug E. Fresh, Today, Keith Sweat, Heavy D., Usher, Jane Child, etc. and membership of the groups Guy and Blackstreet, Riley is credited with having a massive impact and seminal influence on the formation of contemporary R&B, hip-hop, soul and pop since the 1980s.

Early life

Teddy Riley was raised in St. Nicholas Houses, Harlem, New York. Riley, a child prodigy since the age of 5, began playing instruments in the church. His uncle, who owned the famed Harlem club The Rooftop, built a studio in the club in which Riley would spend most of his time while growing up. By 14, upstate New York rappers began making music to his tracks. Under the guidance of local music producer Gene Griffin, Riley formed the short-lived group Kids at Work. At the age of 17, Riley produced Kool Moe Dee's 12" single, "Go See the Doctor". Released on an independent label in 1986, the song became a crossover hit, reaching #89 on The Billboard Hot 100. Riley had previously worked on the production of Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew's "The Show" in 1985.

Career

In 1987, Riley, Aaron Hall, and Timmy Gatling formed the R&B group Guy. Managed by Gene Griffin, Riley's work with Guy pioneered the new jack swing style of R&B, which had been showcased previously in Riley's productions for Keith Sweat ("I Want Her"), Johnny Kemp ("Just Got Paid"), Bobby Brown ("My Prerogative") and among others. Riley infused his own unique blend of hip-hop beats, R&B progressions and the Gospel vocal stylings of Hall to create the archetypal New jack swing sound on Guy's eponymous debut. In 1989, Riley produced Big Daddy Kane's "I Get The Job Done", as well as other work for The Jacksons, The Winans, James Ingram; he also created the highly successful remix of Jane Child, "Don't Wanna Fall in Love", which became a crossover pop smash.

After the release and tour of Guy's second album The Future, Riley co-produced half of Michael Jackson's album Dangerous, on the recommendation of Jackson's long-time producer Quincy Jones. Featuring the Riley co-produced singles "Remember the Time", "Jam" and "In the Closet", Dangerous remains the most successful New jack swing album of all time with 32 million copies sold.

After the disbandment of Guy in 1992, Riley moved to production, performance on and promotion of Wreckx-N-Effect's second albumHard or Smooth. Based in Virginia by this time, Riley discovered The Neptunes during the making of Wreckx-N-Effect's smash hit single "Rump Shaker".

In late 1991, Riley formed a second group, Blackstreet. The group would go on to release several major hits, including "Don't Leave Me" (1997), the number one single "No Diggity" (1996, featuring Dr. Dre and Queen Pen), and "Girlfriend/Boyfriend" (1999, with Janet Jackson, Eve, and Ja Rule). By 2011, the group had disbanded and reformed several times.

In 2000, Riley worked with Spice Girl Melanie B on three tracks – "ABC 123," "I Believe" and "Pack Your S**t"—for her solo debut album, Hot. He also worked on an album with Outsiderz 4 Life, producing "Wil' Out" and other songs.

At the start of 2006, he was part of the New Jack Reunion Tour, featuring Blackstreet and Guy, in addition to After 7, SWV, and Tony Toni Toné. In May 2006 Riley announced that he would be working on two key projects: a new Blackstreet album and a new Guy album.

In June 2008, a fire destroyed Riley's Virginia Beach recording studio. Fire investigators said that an electrical problem caused the blaze that burned the abandoned recording studio. The Virginia Beach Fire Department said lightning in the area also could have been a factor, although there was no direct strike. The empty studio was for sale and was insured for $336,000.

In 2009, Riley performed with Guy at the BET Awards. In the same year, Riley worked with Amerie and Robin Thicke on their respective albums. Leading on from his work on Snoop Dogg's album Ego Trippin' Riley became part of the production supergroup QDT, which features DJ Quik as well as Snoop Dogg. Teddy produced and co-wrote an album track "Teeth" with Lady Gaga for her EPThe Fame Monster. Speaking in March 2010 to Blues & Soul's Pete Lewis – Riley said that he was no longer affiliated with Guy (Riley last performed with the group in October 2010). Riley also said that the current line-up of Blackstreet comprised himself, Chauncey Hannibal, Dave Hollister and Sherman 'J-Stylz' Tinsdale. He confirmed that he was working on a new Blackstreet album, though intended to release his own album – entitled 'TRX' – first. Artists he could possibly be working with for the project included Stevie Wonder, Elton John, plus his own new, upcoming acts. However, Hannibal stopped performing with the group and the lineup became Riley, Dave Hollister, Mark Middleton and Eric Williams. In 2012, Hannibal returned to Blackstreet. Mark Middleton & Eric Williams left the group. The group's lineup now consists of original members Riley, Hannibal, Hollister and newest member Glenn Adams aka Lenny Harold.

In an August 2010, co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate, John Branca, confirmed that a posthumous album of Michael Jackson would be released, containing work done in the previous five years with producers Neff-U, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Riley, as well as work written and produced solely by Jackson himself. The album Michael was released on December 14, 2010 in the United States. After the release, several people questioned some of the music Riley produced for the project. Riley insisted all of the songs were sung by Jackson and claimed that vocal artifacts were added from overprocessing Jackson's voice. However, Riley made comments in an interview with Dan Dodds (aka Soul Jones) in which he stated that there were some elements of his voice in the music. "They may use some elements from me, put together ideas but I haven't been working on the new album" Riley is reported to have said.

Recently, Riley has stepped into the Korean music market. Riley worked with singer/rapper Jay Park on an English track titled "Demon", which was originally meant for Michael Jackson. Riley produced a mini album for the Korean girl group RaNia.

Riley is one of the producers part of the production team QDT, with DJ Quik and Snoop Dogg. He produced the tracks "Believe" and "Flow" for the Twenty album of the R&B group Boyz II Men. He has also produced Korean girl group Girls' Generation's single "The Boys" for the group's first international release. He has also produced songs for Girls' Generation's labelmates SHINee and EXO. He worked with Shinee on "Beautiful", "Shine" and "Dangerous" from their two part third Korean studio album. Riley also produced the songs "MILK" and "All Night" for f(x)'s third studio album Red Light and "What Is Love" for Exo's prologue single .

Albums

Solo: Black Rock (Unreleased)

Guy: Guy discography

Blackstreet: Blackstreet discography

List of songs written by Teddy Riley

The Boys (Girls' Generation-The Boys (2011))

Check (Girls' Generation-Lion Heart (2015))

Call Me Baby - EXO (2015)

Beautiful - EXO (2015)

Already (Taemin-Press It (2016))

http://wikipedia.thetimetube.com/?q=Teddy+Riley&lang=en

[secretradiobrooklyn]

That Gingerbread Feeling | 12.19 & 12.25.20

Secret Radio | 12.19 & 12.25.20 | Hear it here.

That Gingerbread Feeling edition

1. Irving Berlin - “Snow” 

I really enjoy picturing Rosemary Clooney beelining for a snowbank with a bottle of shampoo in one hand, blissfully mashing clumps of snow into her hair.

2. Christie Laume - “La musique et la danse”

The payoff holler in this song is like hearing an unknown animal call from the palm trees over there. 

3. Gedou - live 1975

This is a straight-up holdover from the last broadcast. We were delighted to discover Gedou’s Japanese glam rock glory — especially in the context of the videos, where you can see how extremely unlike their world they are. In this one, a crowd of excited teens watches and claps along, and you can tell that they’re the rockers of their peers — they all sport variations on early rock pompadours. Gedou, however, has blown right past that style and is going full-orchid Spiders from Mars. They appear to be loving the shit out of every second onstage, and it’s completely infectious. This take also has a killer lead-in to a great live “Scent,” the song of theirs we played last week. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdAP9ud-uEQ

4. Mannequin Men - “Private School”

I would like to shout out the rich music life of Chicago’s rock world, specifically from 2002-2008 but extending in both directions on the calendar. I feel truly fortunate to have been in Bound Stems, on Flameshovel Records, for most of those years. James and Jesse worked from an office above the Empty Bottle, sharing the space with a young Riot Act Media, and that label was the center of so much great music. Paige and I both especially loved Mannequin Men’s “Fresh Rot” album — I always think of me and Paige in the Stems band van on Milwaukee Ave, headed gradually northwest toward Midwest Buy and Sell aka the best amp shop in Chicago, with “Private School” cranked, watching the train pass the other way, feeling like the city went on forever.

5. Ed Blaszczyk, Rock Band Himself - “Hully Gully Neurasthenique” from “The Quirky Lost Tapes 1993-1995”

Born Bad Records is the hottest of spots. I don’t know anything about this guy but I am under his control.

- Five minutes of a pink oyster mushroom playing modular synthesizer

A sincere thank you to Kevin Vlack for introducing us to the mesmerizing thoughtwaves of a pink oyster mushroom, as expressed by a wickedly set-up synth. By any objective measure it sounds random and unmusical, but my subjective experience is that it is incredibly smooth and welcoming to hear. It feels almost like an aural massage or something. I feel an autonomic response to it. In any case, we both immediately listened to it a bunch, and it only gets more appealing. 

6. William Onyeabor - “Hypertension”

We still haven’t seen “Who Is William Onyeabor?,” so all I know about him is that his rhythmic approach is always totally absorbing. The cascading phrase that happens throughout the song feels like water being poured out of a jug. I especially dig how they split the vocalist between “hyper” and “tension,” kind of not unlike The Fall. 

7. Renato Carosone - “Tu Vuó Fa’ l’Americano”

You want to be American — in Italian. Fun is being poked. It gets so surprisingly intense in the instrumental middle passage!

“Whiskey soda rock & roll”

8. Star Feminine Band - “Rew Be Me”

Another return performance from last week! Star Feminine Band’s new album is so freakin awesome. “Rew Be Me”’s rhythms are so fascinating on every instrument. Also, they’re made by girls between ages 11 and 17. This song is so many songs in one!

9. Ros Serey Sothea - “Kom Kung Twer Evey (Don’t Be Mad)” - “Cambodian Rocks”

More jaw-dropping ’60s Cambodian rock full of epic melodies and major-league parts from every member of the band — above all Ros Sereysothea, who was pronounced the “Queen with the Golden Voice” by the King of Cambodia. 

Like every musician of her generation in her country, she was killed in the Khmer Rouge genocide. 

10. Lohento Eskill et T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - “Mireille”

11. Mohamed Mazouni - “Ecoutes moi camarade” 

A scenario that we’re just starting to consider is Algiers, which was a French territory in North Africa with as many Europeans as Africans. Before and after the revolution in 1962, Algerians are expanding the definition of French citizenship. An intoxicating version of the two cultures having equal input on the song’s palette and reference points. 

- The pink oyster mushroom 

12. The Fall - “Free Range”

This 7” came from a visit to a record shop in London that had an entire wall of Fall albums and singles and I just goggled at it. Kind of picked this one at random and it hits just so hard. For some reason this song sometimes reminds me of Self-Help Seminar, good friends from Seattle who we played with from early on. Harvey Danger did a version of their song “Heroine with an E.” 

13. Les Poppys - “Non non rien n’a changé”

A pretty large chorus of garçons just kind of beautifully swarming around, I don’t really know where to put this song in my head. I love the “Hey Joe” style bassline in the finale passage so much!

14. Mahmood - “Soldi”

This is driving around Cambridgeshire to London, again and again, listening to this music and shouting “Fregherai!” This trip’s soundtrack was exclusively the 2019 candidates for Eurovision’s top prize. This was Italy’s contender. It was considered controversial, I was told, because they’re drawing on a musician who is speaking in Italian and describing the world from a minority’s experience in Italy. That’s pretty bold to use as your country’s champion — I thought that was pretty cool.

15. John Williams - “Home Alone Main Title”

Merry Christmas! We time-traveled in this moment up to and through Christmas. It was a quietly wonderful Christmas, I must say, and included viewing “Home Alone” for the first time in decades. “Feeling that gingerbread feeling” indeed. We’re thankful for so much this year even in the middle of all this giant mess.

16. The Fall - “Jingle Bell Rock”

My preferred Santa voice.

17. Lithics - “Hands”

Sure do like this band more than ever. “Tower of Age” has been nothing but awesome so far. 

18. Samba Negra - “Long Life Africa” - “La Locura de Machuca”

Happy holidays to Ryan, who just got this album! Analog Africa is one of the flat-out most amazing record labels on Earth, and they put out this album this year. The cover art is insane, and the music is — also insane. This is the setup: “One night in 1975, a successful tax lawyer named Rafael Machuca had his mind blown in Barranquilla’s ‘Plaza de los Musicos’. Overnight he went from a high-ranking position in the Columbian revenue authority to visionary production guru of the newly formed record label that bore his name, Discos Machuca, and for the next six years he devoted his life to releasing some of the strangest, most experimental Afro Psychedelia Cumbia and Champeta ever produced.”

I mean, right?!

19. Meridian Brothers - “Salsa Caliente: Versión Aumentada”

This came to us via Francis Bebey, in the big ol’ stream. I definitely see the relationship. That’s what I’ve been really appreciating recently, how musicians from all over the globe seemed to be in musical communication with each other in the ’70s. There was such a wild explosion of music happening worldwide, influencing each other in a way that must have been at least partially psychic.

20. The Little Rabbits - “Yeah”

I got this CD in an armful of albums from Harvey Danger’s French distributor. I put this one on and was just… it was fascinating. This song is a definite high point, but the whole album is a complete jam. It’s clear to me (though I’ve never done a lick of study on this) that the Little Rabbits worked with Beck on “Odelay,” because you can hear whole passages of music that you associate with Beck songs stitched inside this album. I always want to know more about what happened there and I never 

21. Orlando Julius & the Afro Sounders - “Alo Mi Alo (Parts 1 & 2)”

Another example of that international ’70s kismet! This horn passage reminds us strongly of Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” written in faux-English for a French audience in 1972. This song was written somewhere between 1969-72, in Nigeria! 

I also love how the song has this sort of geologic dynamic going, where instead of bouncing between parts, it changes flavor gradually over the course of many minutes, until it ends far from where it began — not unlike a film.

- Bug Chaser - “Christmas Van”

We miss Bug Chaser, St. Louis lords and legends. We played some magic shows on the City Museum rooftop with them, and danced our faces off at their shows all over town. If you lived in St. Louis in the last ten years, I hope you went to Bug Chaser shows, because they were the realest of deals.

22. Half Japanese - “Swept Away”

I hadn’t revisited Half Japanese in a long time, for no good reason at all. It’s part of what I have loved about Yo La Tengo and Daniel Johnston and Jonathan Richman and what I love about Jad Fair, so giant and so sincere all at once. 

23. Thomas Roebers & Floris Leeuwenberg - excerpt, “FOLI (There is no movement without rhythm)”

Speaking of sincerity, this is an excerpt from a 10-minute movie called “FOLI.” I don’t know how it came to be made, but this section in the middle immediately grabbed me and feels super African and somehow refracted through a Western lens as well

24. Ayalew Mesfin - “Zebeder (Mesmerizing)”

The thing about Mesfin is that his band seems to set up the song in a Western tempo and pattern, and then Mesfin lays an Ethiopian melodic count across the top of the phrases they play, creating a third pattern from the intertwining. It creates a sense of the exotic and the familiar at the same time, which sparks into a dreamlike feeling, where you remember something you know you never experienced. I feel like that opens up some capacity to appreciate his melody’s deeply human quality. 

- “Tuneup #1” from “Rent” / Glenn Miller - “Moonlight Serenade” 

25. Ella Fitzgerald - “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”

Consider this an invitation! Send us a message however we normally talk and we’ll send a link. Or not! In any case: here’s to making it through 2020 (chin chin), and here’s to a productive, restorative 2021 (chin chin)

[garudabluffs]

You Get What You Give (New Radicals); drum cover by Sina 2019

652 Comments

“Ladies and Gentlemen Discover the best Female drummer in the world, (From Germany) I'm Not kidding " she has the best feeling for Music/Soul like Jeff Porcaro. She really Nails Every Drummer in the world. (including John Bonham).”

Was this a hit, one wonders? Why yes, it was! A big one...did you get it? :D THE SONG - "You Get What You Give" was written by Gregg Alexander and Rick Nowels of the alternative rock band New Radicals for their only studio album 'Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too'. Alexander, for all intents and purposes, was the band since he wrote (or co-wrote), sang, and produced all their songs. Keyboardist and percussionist Danielle Brisebois was the only other permanent member. Although she appears in the band's video, she didn't play on this song. Co-writer Nowells played keyboards and sang backup. Recording for 'Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too' took place between 1997 and 1998 and it was released on Oct 16, 1998. "You Get What You Give", as a single, was released on Nov 10, 1998 and was an international hit. It entered Billboard's Hot 100 at #64 on Dec 5, 1998, peaked at #36 on Jan 30, 1999, and was last seen at #90 on Apr 10, 1999. It fared better on Billboard's Modern Rock chart (now called Alternative) hitting #8 on Jan 16, 1999. While "You Get What You Give" is considered to be a one-hit wonder, it was popular among many musicians. U2's The Edge stated that "I really would love to have written that". It earned praises from Joni Mitchell for "rising from the swamp of 'McMusic'" and it was even lauded, in 2006, by Ice-T.   Alexander deliberately provoked controversy with the song's closing lyrics that call out Marilyn Manson, Beck, Courtney Love and Hanson as fakes. Other musicians on the song included lead guitarist Rusty Anderson, who is better known as the lead guitarist of Paul McCartney, and drummer Gary Ferguson, who did session work for Glenn Hughes, Gary Moore, Cher, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather among many others. THE DRUMMER - Gary Ferguson began playing drums at the age of 11. He started doing session work in Los Angeles. His first major session, at age 18, was for Shirley Bassey. In addition to his work with the previously mentioned artitsts, he is part of the drum faculty of the Los Angeles College of Music. Sina is back from her vacation and Rosanna had a brief chat. Was she very familiar with "You Get What You Give"? Sina said, "I've heard this song on the radio a few times, but we don't own the album." Rosanna also asked about the double bass drum addition in the end part. Sina explained, "I try to prevent my drum covers from being boring. When the audience has to look at the drummer for the whole song, sometimes it's not enough to play what the original drummer did. When you record a video of a song, sometimes you have to have a different approach to the recording. So, I added the double bass pattern to make the video more interesting." Well, I don't know about you guys, but I haven't seen a boring Sina drum cover yet and anytime a musician can add a creative or unique touch to a cover, it does make it more interesting. In this case, it's an improvement! FUN FACT - Although New Radicals was a one-hit wonder, don't feel bad for Gregg Alexander. He co-wrote (with Rick Nowels) "The Game of Love" by Santana and Michelle Branch. That song was a big hit and won a Grammy in 2003. THE ICON - (originally from Oct 20, 2017)

[believingispowerfulmagic]

“Better When I’m Dancing” Week 5--Disney Night (Part Two)

Disclaimer: This chapter features songs from both the musical episode of Once Upon a Time and the movie Tangled. The songs from Once Upon a Time were written by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner while the song from Tangled was written by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. All are copyrighted to Walt Disney Records.

All the stars and pros gathered together on Friday to learn and rehearse the opening number. Ingrid, the show’s choreographer, addressed them as they stood around the rehearsal studio. “Disney Night is a Big Deal and we have to keep topping ourselves. The producers have contracted a songwriting team to come up with original songs for us to dance a medley to. I’ve heard the songs and I think this will be one of our best numbers ever.

           “The pros will be handling most of it. You’ll be divided into two groups. One will be heroes and the other villains. You’ll have your own solo sections and then a big battle. When we get to the finale, then your stars will join you,” she finished.

           Ruby raised her arm. “Will we get to hear the music?”

           “Yes,” Ingrid said. “First, though, we’re asking everyone to take a seat. The producers have an announcement to make.”

Regina sat next to Robin, his arm draped around the back of her chair. She leaned against it, enjoying the brief skin-on-skin contact as she waited for whatever announcement the Powers That Be had for them.

“So, we all have a surprise for you in honor of Disney Night,” Isaac started. “Disney has been really great and given you all tickets to Disneyland for Saturday. We’re just going to need the names of whoever you are bringing so Disney knows. Everyone will be escorted by cast members and given the VIP treatment.”

“Roland is going to love that. He’s been begging me to take him to Disneyland forever. I wanted to wait for him to be older,” Robin whispered to her.

She nodded and whispered back: “Henry and I have gone several times. He’ll be excited to go again and show everything off to Roland.”

“Sounds like fun,” he said before turning his attention back to Isaac.

           As Isaac gave them all the logistics for their visit, Regina found her mind wandering. Her conversation with Robin was still on her mind. She knew being professional was for the best and that their relationship needed to stay platonic for now. Yet her senses were heightened around him. Could she spend a whole day at the happiest place on earth as just his friend? Or would she betray herself?

           The show sent a limo to pick her, Emma and Henry up for their day at Disneyland. Robin was already inside with his mother and Roland, who launched himself at Regina the moment she slid into the limo. “Majesty! We’re going to see Mickey Mouse!” he said.

           “I know,” she said, holding him on his lap as the limo lurched forward. “It sounds like you’re excited.”

           He nodded, grinning. “Papa says I might be tall enough to do the rides. Do you do the rides?”

           “Some of them,” she said. “I really like the Tower of Terror.”

           “It’s closed, Mom. They’re turning it into a Guardians of the Galaxy ride,” Henry said from his seat.

           She frowned. “Oh. Will it still drop you?”

           He shrugged. “I haven’t heard much about it. And it’s not open yet.”

           “Well, there are plenty of other rides to do,” Robin said, patting her leg. “I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun today.”

           Regina leaned back, nodding. She held Roland close, listening to the boy rattle off all the rides he wanted to do as the limo sped toward Disneyland.

           A young cast member named Jasmine met them just past the entrance to California Adventure. She was joined by a security guard named Al, who looked a bit on the scraggly side to Regina. How he was going to take anyone down was beyond her and she prayed they had no incidents.

           “So you’re going to be escorting us around?” Henry asked, sounding a bit defensive about it.

           “Henry,” Regina chided, frowning at her son.

           Jasmine smiled. “It’s okay. I can imagine it sounds like I’m a babysitter, right? And who wants that while in Disneyland? But I promise you that you want me around. I have a superpower.”

           “You do?” Roland asked, eyes wide as he stared up at her.

           “Yep,” she replied, crouching down to look him in the eyes. “I can get to the front of any lines. No waiting.”

           Henry and Roland gasped. “Cool!”

           She straightened up. “So, are you all ready to begin your magical day here in Disneyland?”

           “Are you legally required to ask that?” Emma asked, smirking.

           Regina shook her head. “I can’t take you anywhere, can I?” she asked her friend.

           Emma just rolled her eyes in response, following the boys as they walked with Jasmine. She was telling them information about the park and they hung on her every word.

           “I think we’ve been replaced as the coolest people they know,” Robin said, falling into step with her.

           “We’re their parents. Of course we have.” She smirked, glancing at him quickly before looking ahead again.

           He laughed, his arms swinging at his side. Regina crossed hers, trying to resist the urge to grab his hand as they walked toward Cars Land. They couldn’t chance such an intimate if innocent gesture being photographed and going viral. She did not want another lecture from Isaac Heller.

           “Mom! Jasmine says she’s going to take us on the Radiator Springs Racers. You coming?” Henry called out.

           Regina smiled. “Of course. It sounds like fun.”

           “Can I come too?” Roland asked, looking up at his father with pleading eyes.

           Robin sighed, the pain of possibly breaking his son’s heart in his eyes. “We’re going to have to measure you, see if you’re tall enough to go on the ride.”

           “We can measure you once we get there,” Jasmine said, taking Roland’s hand. “If not, there are plenty of rides you can do in Cars Land…”

           “Okay,” he said, though he sounded disappointed. His head hung as he continued on his way.

           Regina relaxed a bit, feeling sympathetic for him and his father. She fell into step with Robin. “I remember when Henry couldn’t wait to go on the rides. He would go on the smaller ones but always stare at the rollercoasters. Broke my heart.”

           “Roland breaks mine. He wants to go on the rollercoasters and I want to make him happy, but I also don’t want him to grow up so fast,” he admitted.

           “I know the feeling,” she told him, glancing at her own son. “It never stops.”

           He groaned. “Wonderful.”

Continue reading on FF.net, AO3 or Wattpad

[gladysnmccary]

[INTERVIEW] Make Way For Prince Ali! Scott Weinger Visits With ILID

This week, fans across Texas received the devastating news that Dallas Fan Festival is now the latest entertainment victim claimed by Covid. After Fan Expo was postponed (and later canceled), many people held onto the hope that they would have a chance to see some of the scheduled talent appear at Fan Festival in October. Unfortunately, 2020 had different plans...again. One of the actors from this year's Fan Expo guest list was Aladdin and Full(er) House star Scott Weinger. While the magic carpet will no longer be carrying Aladdin to Dallas, we do have some good news. We were able to speak with Scott about his career and Disney memories before the Fan Expo cancellation. Obviously, our exclusive interview can't take the place of getting to meet him in person, but hopefully it will bring a bit of the anticipated Con to your living room. In the meantime, we will be searching for a lamp and wishing to see the return of Scott and Fan Expo Dallas again next spring!

Many fans know you as Steve, others know you as Aladdin. Which of the two do you see yourself more as?

Oh, that’s really funny; it’s hard to say. I’ve been playing both of those characters since I was a teenager and now, I’m an old man. I feel like I identify very much with both of them. It’s hard to imagine that all these years later that they both come up. They’re both a big part of my life, you know? It’s hard to say. Up until two months ago I was literally still playing Steve. Every day I would go into the studio and get a script for the role of Steve. I still go into the studio and record projects for Aladdin, too. But, as far as which character I identify with most? It’s hard to say. I will say that the character of Aladdin has a lot of universal qualities that people can relate to, that I can relate to. He is an underdog aiming high. I feel like anybody who comes to Hollywood to try to make it in showbusiness, whether as a writer or an actor, they’re an underdog. It takes a lot of luck to succeed there, sometimes in the form of a genie and sometimes in other ways like a lucky meeting with somebody or an audition that goes well. When it comes to Aladdin, by the way, I auditioned by mainlining in a tape. I recorded a tape with my mom playing the genie, we mailed it into California, and I got the part! So, that’s a little bit of luck right there.

Definitely! Speaking of genies, if you had three wishes what would they be?

Well, I think I’d have to spend the first one on this whole Coronavirus thing and put it in the book. It’s making life a little bit less fun for a lot of people. Now that I’m a dad and husband, I think most of my wishes would be very boring wishes, like for the health of my family and everything. But I wouldn’t mind a flying car to get around that L.A. traffic!

I get that; Dallas traffic isn’t much better. Looking at your wife’s twitter, it would seem that she has accepted the fact that she is the “wife of Aladdin”. On the other hand, your son is growing older now. Has he started to realize the pros and cons of being the “son of Aladdin”?

I think that he like it and that he thinks it’s pretty cool. We’ve had a lot of really great experiences at Disneyland because of it. He’s much older now, but when he was five or six years old there was an amazing event that took place on the Disney lot when the executives were getting ready to promote Aladdin coming out of the vault and onto Blu ray. We were talking about it and they said, “Is your son excited to see it like that?” I said, “Well, he’s never really seen it before.” Their jaws dropped. They couldn’t believe that my son hadn’t! He was just getting to the right age where he could really enjoy and appreciate it, so they had this amazing idea. They threw a huge party on the Walt Disney Studios lot where they had a huge Arabian Nights themed carnival. All of his friends came and they had a private screening. It was incredible! It was a really cool experience and I think it was a great way to introduce him, letting him know that Dad’s kind of a big deal.

Kudos to Disney on giving your son a mini-premier for him and a great way to add some brownie points to Dad as well. As far as acting goes, you’ve managed to shy away from the spotlight a bit over the past decade or so. Now, with the resurgence of Aladdin and Fuller House, you have been thrown right back in the mix. How has that transition gone for you and your family?

It’s funny you should ask. When my wife and I got together all those years ago, I had left acting behind with the exception of a recording session every once in a while. I was a writer, fully immersed in my new career as a television writer. When this thing came along, it was a big adjustment. From getting stopped on the street by fans to watching me smooch DJ, there were a lot of things to adjust to. Then, my son and his friends all became big fans of the show, so it was on at our house all of the time. It quickly became a big part of our lives. You mentioned my wife’s twitter account. Her favorite thing she always said is, “I married a writer. I didn’t marry an actor.” She learned to love the change. You’ve got to enjoy it and I think she knew how much joy being back in front of the camera and acting again brought me. It was a surprise and she fully got behind it. I do think she’s glad I’m back to writing and that life is getting back to normal, at least a little bit anyway.

It’s awesome that she was so supportive and good with all of the changes. You have done a ton of voicework for Aladdin in various video games like the Kingdom of Hearts series and Disney Infinity. Do you ever play any of those games?

It’s funny; I haven’t been a big videogame person in my life. When I was a kid, I played Nintendo and everything, but I wasn’t a big gamer. Now, my kid is super into it. I really haven’t played any of the Aladdinbased videogames. I know people are obsessed with these games though. When I run into fans, whether it’s out on the street or at one of these conventions, they come up to me and recognize me as Aladdin from Kingdom of Hearts. You can tell that they’re freaking out, but it’s funny because I haven’t had the experience [playing the games].

In regards to experiences, you mentioned a bit of your role behind the camera. You worked as a producer on the television show Galavant. My wife and I loved that show. Please bring it back!

I wish I could! I would love to; thanks for saying that.

If it’s not coming back, could you at least give some insight into how it was supposed to end or what we could have expected?

Did you get a chance to see both seasons? We were lucky enough to do eight [episodes] one year and then we got to do ten the next.

Yes! We were pumped to watch season three and checked nightly for about a month until we learned that it hadn’t been picked up again.

We didn’t really expect it to get a season 2, but when it did, I thought, “Well, now they’ve got to get us a season 3”. I was sad it went away because I loved that experience. I don’t know if they’ll ever bring it back for TV even though it has a very strong and very vocal fan base. Someday I hope they will make it into a Broadway show or something like that. It was such an incredible experience for me to be working on a musical with some of the top talent in our nation. The creator of the show who’s a brilliant guy and one of the nicest guys around, Dan Fogelman, went on to create other shows like This Is Us. It’s funny because they are pretty different. He’s such a versatile and hardworking guy, and he’s always got a whole new project coming up.

Did you have a direction you wanted to send the show? The first one seemed to have a definitive ending. Then, it came back with the second season and left things wide open for the plot of the third season.

Yeah, it’s true. It’s funny because now that we’re talking about this, I don’t remember. I don’t think we settled on anything specific. I think, in a superstitious way, we were afraid to get too excited about any particular direction because we didn’t want to jinx it. It would have been such an amazing thing to do a third season. I think we would have spent a lot of time focusing on the character of King Richard, who emerged into such an interesting character. Then, there’s obviously Isabella. She was great and her singing voice was incredible.

I loved Luke Youngblood on it as well. I actually got to do an interview with him a while back for another Con.

Isn’t he fantastic? The funny thing is, I hadn’t watched all of the Harry Potter movies yet, so I didn’t know how excited I should be about that guy. Now, I’ve seen all of the Harry Potter movies a hundred times and it’s pretty cool that he was in there.

One of my favorite parts about Galavant was how each character developed throughout the seasons.

One of my favorite things about working on the show was when Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, the lyricists, would come into the writer’s room and we would talk about ideas together. One day they called me because I had written a scene that they liked and thought would be great if it was turned into a musical theme. They said, “Do you mind if we take some of your dialogue and turn it into a song?” It was one of the coolest moments of my career. They ended up cutting the scene because it was a little too racy for network television. I said, “How could it have been too racy?” Then, they played the demo… it was racy. Maybe if we were streaming on cable we could have gotten away with it.

Going back to your early career, you’re obviously super invested in Disney. I mean, you spent a majority of your childhood there. What is your favorite Disney movie other than Aladdin?

Oh, man, that’s really tough. Let me think here… Wow, that’s a great question because I have so many that I love. If we are including Pixar, that makes it even more difficult. When I was younger, I loved Tangled, which was also written by Dan Fogelman. That was actually how he got his relationship started with Alan Menken and got Galavant created. The one that I have the greatest memories of, besides Aladdin, was The Little Mermaid. When I was about thirteen years old that movie came out and my best friend, who was obsessed with animation, said to me, “We have to go see this new movie.” I was like, “Dude, that is a girl movie. I don’t want to go see a girl movie.” He said, “Trust me.” We went and it blew my mind; it was just amazing. I’ll never forget how much I enjoyed the movie and also how much my perspective completely changed. I was embarrassed and afraid that we were going to run into friends from school. I felt ashamed for having felt that because it was such a revelation. I was so lucky that I ended up getting to work with a lot of those people. The director of The Little Mermaid also directed Aladdin and, of course, Alan Menken wrote the music for both of those movies.

I completely understand. With two young girls running around me house, The Little Mermaid plays on loop fairly often.

You could name any of those [Disney] movies and they’re all so good. I thought Beauty and the Beast was so great and I love the older classics too. I love Wreck-It-Ralph! It is one of my favorites. There are so many good ones. You know, as a dad, that you have to see all of these movies a hundred times each. The fact that you’re not throwing yourself out of a window speaks out.

You basically grew up on the Disney lot and in the Disney parks. Now that you are older, do you look back and think that you enjoyed it as much as you should have or did it kind of become a bit mundane for you?

You know what? I enjoyed the heck out of it. I was very lucky that I was seventeen years old when Aladdin came out, so I was young enough to enjoy it through the eyes of a kid and old enough to understand how lucky I was. It was the perfect age to experience all of those things. If you added up all the time that I spent down in Florida at Disney World that year, it was over two months that I spent there. It was literally a dream come true. I was at the age where I could enjoy it and also know that I was the luckiest kid ever. It wasn’t lost on me. I never took it for granted, not once.

We will close with this final question about Aladdin. I interviewed Linda Larkin, who played Jasmine in the original movie with you, and asked her about her favorite fan theory regarding the movie. Do you have a favorite?

I was with a bunch of Aladdin people last week and we got into a big metaphysical discussion about the genie. They were talking about how Robin Williams would improvise and make a bunch of contemporary references to pop culture. How is that possible if he is all the way back in Agrabah hundreds of years ago? Someone suggested that he was a time traveler. Another said, “It’s not time travel. He doesn’t exist in time. He exists outside of the rules of time.” I thought that was super cool and very deep. I had just read an Einstein biography and I thought that he would approve of that theory. Even though sometimes people’s theories may be a little crazy or completely off base, they’re not wrong for trying to find a deeper meaning in the movies. The people who make these movies are thoughtful artists and there is definitely a world where people are thinking these things. Because they are so thoughtful, there are things like deeper meanings or stuff that you don’t spot initially baked into these movies. However, I’m sure you have heard the theory that Aladdin had some kind of pornographic message whispered in a scene. To this day, I still have to go around telling people that it didn’t happen. I promise you that it is totally made up. I would have been terrified to say anything like that in a room full of grownups!

The post [INTERVIEW] Make Way For Prince Ali! Scott Weinger Visits With ILID appeared first on I Live In Dallas.

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[soundtrackphoto]

“Da da da dah, da-da-da-daddata-dah”

Five years.  Today is five years to the day since I nervously assembled what I hoped was a cogent idea for a blog combining my love for photography and music together in one place. I remember posting it late at night here on WordPress skeptical that anyone would bother to read it. Skeptical that it was any good. Skeptical that the idea would make sense. I shared it on Facebook, sent it out via email to some people and posted it on a music forum based in the UK and promptly went to sleep. A few short hours later I woke up and nervously checked my phone first thing to see what if any reaction there was.

That I am still here now writing this post is the proof  that the reaction was positive. In fact, recollecting that time I was overjoyed. Not just from the comments people were leaving for me, but because of the way it satisfied me personally. I have written about this before but it bears repeating-once I committed and defined this idea of giving a still photograph its own soundtrack I knew that I had created something unique that satisfied me deep down. It touched all the right buttons for me-combining the disparate thoughts and themes of my life into something that made sense. Where urban meets nature, where art meets architecture, where transportation meets history. All with a song to go along with the photo that seemed fitting no matter the genre.

‘You can feel it all over’

And it still  satisfies me to this day. The writing has changed, the understanding of how to promote posts has changed, there have been false starts, one-offs, mistakes, highs, lows and there have been surprises. I have been touched by the response to my words, and I have touched others with my words. I have made deep lasting friendships with people literally around the world.  Most of all there has been a  feeling that no matter how many views or comments I receive, I am on a path that remains meaningful to me five years on with over 200 posts published and being read in 122 countries to date.

It is inevitable during occasions like this to look back. To dig through the archives and see the evolution. I have been doing that for the past few weeks, reading posts I haven’t read in a long time, grimacing at the mistakes I spot easily now and surprising myself at  passages that came out of nowhere. I saw moments where I lost the point and ones where the focus was sharp, focused and completely on point. On the photography side I realized that the earliest posts were typically a ragtag assortment of recent and old photos made to fit the theme whereas with recent posts I quite often took photos with an idea and a song lurking in my head before I had written a single word. As a result In the five years since I started, I think this has made me a better photographer as well.

‘Music is a world within itself

With a language we all understand’

It is a useful thing to look back. Regrets can make you shake your head in amusement at what once was important in your world-the jacket you wore in 1977, that song you swore in 1983,would never get old, a book that became your ‘philosophy’ in 1991. Years later you might be embarrassed to own up to any of them, but you know they were a part of you regardless. Looking back at my old posts I have that same feeling about some of them.  However rife they may be with wordiness or so-so photographs they are still a part of me. I am especially fond of my four previous anniversary posts. For the first I took a walk across the Manhattan Bridge accompanied by the sounds of Red Baraat. For the second I imagined myself in the director’s chair assembling the opening scenes of a movie to the accompaniment of guitarist Dan Ar Braz. For the third I wrote a letter to the young ‘me’ from the old ‘me’ with a fitting song by Jack Lukeman and a series of self-portraits. Last year I wrote a fictionalized account of a concert setup using songs from Bob Seger.

I had two stipulations for the song I wanted for this post. First it had to be an artist I have not written about before, and secondly, I wanted it to be a fun, upbeat and celebratory song. But then I had a third thought- to find a song that was about music itself. About how music makes us feel, about the emotions of music.  The beat, the groove, the hook, the lick, the riff, the pulse, the rhythm, the melody, the harmony. Music is the universal language and all of these elements are contained in practically every song. Thinking about those stipulations I realized the song I wanted was lurking on one of the most perfect albums of all time-Songs In The Key Of Life by Stevie Wonder. And that song (in case you haven’t already been grooving in your seat) is the infectious ‘Sir Duke.’

‘Music knows it is and always will be

one of those things that life just won’t quit.’

Songs In The Key Of Life is one of those special albums that just takes you in right from the start with ‘Loves In Need Of Love Today’ all the way to the end with ‘Another Star’. The reason it still sounds fresh today is because the songs and arrangements were performed with real care and thought. Recently I have been reading about the great music studios such as Stax, Muscle Shoals and Motown. They all had in common a group of musicians who knew how to make great music not just for the hits, though the track record for all three studios speaks for itself in that regard.  Yet they also made music you feel deep down with arrangements more complex than they let on.  Songs In The Key Of Life is nothing but intricate arrangements in fact.  Song after amazing song goes by and does not let up for a second.

But on an album of such stellar material, Sir Duke is my favorite, and one of my  favorite songs by Stevie Wonder period. Beyond that killer horn intro and singalong chorus is a song about what actually makes music so compelling. Think about that for a second…when you are in the business of making music, you write about the things and people in your life. Social injustice, religion, love. Songs In The Key Of Life has songs about all of those things. Then along comes Sir Duke. Partly an homage to some of Stevie’s own musical hero’s-Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, and the ‘king’ Duke Ellington,  Then it informs you what the key to a great song really is-

‘But just because a record has a groove

Don’t make it in the groove

But you can tell right away at letter A

When the people start to move.’

I wanted to use a song that was about music for a reason.  In  five years of writing I have attempted to  make a case for how special music truly is for me. How much I think about it daily in good times and bad. How much I feel the music be it from the Scottish Highlands or the Sahara, Donegal or Detroit. In five years of writing and pairing my own photographs what songs like Sir Duke reinforce for me is that –

Music is life

Music is love

Music is challenging

Music is bewildering

Music is happy

Music is sad

Music makes you groove

Music makes you dance

Music takes you in

Music makes you question

Music lies deep in your soul

Music is for sharing

Music is personal

Music is of course ultimately personal in how we respond and feel about it. Everyone is right and no one is wrong-the woman on the subway bopping along to the music on her headphones, the oboe player in the orchestra, the bass player thumping out a funky beat, the singer in a metal band all feel music differently. But on the really special albums like Songs In The Key Of Life these forces unite into something special and satisfying. You really feel it all-challenged, happy, sad, questioning life. You feel the love. You want to dance and sing along to every song.

The reason I wanted to use a song about music itself in this post was to make a point.  All I have ever wanted to do here is make my own contribution to the music I love so much. When combined with my photographs it made me feel like I was doing precisely that. I realized that music has broad enough shoulders to hear my contributions to it without me actually singing a note or playing an instrument. Stevie sings in Sir Duke that music is something you just don’t quit. And despite occasional frustrations, Soundtrack Of A Photograph is not something I will be quitting. I can share my feelings about music because I really do feel it all over. And that will never go away.

The video of Sir Duke posted below is something I made as a celebration.  It runs through the main photo I have used in every music post from the past five years to the present in the order published.  Short of reading all those posts it shows you where I have been the past five years. Seeing that past I now have a glimpse of where I want to go in the future. I plan to take this blog to some new and challenging new places in the very near future with even more evocative photographs than ever before, so please stick around!

Thank you to EVERYONE who has read, liked, or commented on any one of my posts in the past 5 years. I am truly humbled by your support.

Extra special thanks must go to all of the following-

I have been blessed that many of the musicians I have written about have liked and shared my posts on their social media. Several of them have gone further and became friends. In no particular order, I would like to thank some artists that have gone above and beyond- Ralph McTell, Jimmy Castor, Chris Trapper, everyone at Daptone Records, Saundra Williams, Christa Nia, The Coral, Red Baraat, Dan Ar Braz, Carrie Newcomer, Fairport Convention, Orphan Colours, Ahab, Julissa Lopez,  Jules & The Jinks, Oysterband, Runrig, Jake Shears, The Mint Juleps, Thea Gilmore, Jackie Venson, Horslips, Danny Thompson, Alan Doyle, Toli Nameless, Rosanne Cash, Jack Lukeman, Altan, The Travelling Band, Angelique Kidjo, Ray Cooper, Joanne Shenandoah, Sarah Cahill, Leyla McCalla, and Ginny Mac.

To my parents Bob & Mary, my sisters Noreen and Eileen and their husbands Mike & Jose and my niece Kenna. To all of my dear cousins in Ireland and England-Brian, Niamh, Kellyann, Nora, Sarah, Laila, Mona & Hannah and all 3,743 spouses, kids and everyone else too numerous to mention!

Friends far and wide. Some from the blogging community, new friends & old alike. But all people whose kindness, generosity and friendship I truly value- Jennifer Andrus, LaTasha Robinson, Scott Swenson, Patty Hillingdon, Trudy Louis, David Kenney, Ben, Alex & Mickey! Amrita Sarkar, Erica Weir, Adam Robey & Maritte Rahav, Lynn Aley Howe and all of the Aley family, Celina Wigle, Marquessa Matthews, Sandra Bretnall,  Sasha Berry, Liza Fernandez Zapata, Joe Blackburn, James Maxstadt,  Pratyusha Jain, Neece McCoy, Soranny Mejia, Aakansha Srivastava. Kristin Summers Overstreet, Linda Weal, Armelle A Jeanne-Francois Marie Poitiers, Brendan Byrne, Wendy Westphalen, Carol Amezquita, Anna Koppenhofer, Armando Garcia, Janani Viswanathan, Sandra & Ron Schoeffler, Shelley Langaine, Dan Braz & Shelley Olsen, Danielle Des, Tony Lorenzen, Paula Couture Palmerino, Jhaneel Lockhart Veronica Dominguez, Shalini Mandhyan, Amy Sivco Kierce,  Daiana Bispo, Laura Macaddino, all at Talkawhile Forum-especially Alan Standing, Jenny Parsons, Andy Leslie, Bill Wallace, Jules Gray, Zoe Buck, John Michael Caddick, Jim Campbell, Dan Ogus, Trevor Rickards, Addie Burns. To all of my Instagram family too numerous to mention I thank you all for being part of my community. Anyone else I may have left out forgive me!

Sir Duke-Written By Stevie Wonder

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All Photographs By Robert P. Doyle

SHARES AND LIKES APPRECIATED!

You Can Feel It All Over-5 Years Of Soundtrack Of A Photograph "Da da da dah, da-da-da-daddata-dah" Five years.  Today is five years to the day since I nervously assembled what I hoped was a cogent idea for a blog combining my love for photography and music together in one place.

[devils-gatemedia]

The Fleece, an incredibly small venue in the centre of Bristol, is well-known for its wonderfully dirty rock shows. With an almost addictive atmosphere, anyone lucky enough to find their way into this venue almost definitely finds their way back. Tonight, I found myself in the queue to see rock icon Glenn Hughes and, whilst I may have almost caught my death in the cold, I would have happily sacrificed a couple of toes to catch this show.

As everyone warmed up (and bought themselves a beer!), Stone Broken took to the stage. The Walsall-based band certainly pulled off a set to remember. A considerable percentage of the crowd had come to see these guys, and, on reflection, it is easy to see why! The hard rock quartet have exceedingly well-honed crowd participation skills, which meant that, coupled with an incredible stage presence, lead vocalist Rich Moss stirred the crowd into an almost riotous bunch in no time! Ever the fan of women making their mark in the industry, I simply must pause to pass comment on Robyn Haycock’s incredible playing. Female drummers seem to find it increasingly difficult to earn a good reputation in this genre, but Haycock’s work here was utterly stunning; fierce. ‘Wait For You’ was, for me, the highlight of Stone Broken’s set tonight. Every element of the song was executed perfectly! It was a pleasure to hear the voices, not only of the band, but of the dedicated few who knew this band inside and out; a truly heartwarming moment. As Stone Broken left the stage (to rapturous applause, of course!), no one in the room was left in doubt as to why this band is growing so rapidly. If you haven’t yet, I strongly suggest checking these guys out!

When the time came for Glenn Hughes to enter the stage, the little venue was packed to the hilt, and the heat was cranked up to the max, despite the cold weather outside. The intense anticipation and excitement were tangible. This was the last night of a fantastic UK tour celebrating the release of his new album, ‘Resonate‘, and Hughes certainly meant business!

‘Flow’, one of his latest releases, opened the set, and did not disappoint, gaining one of the biggest cheers of the night! ‘Medusa’ (which was written nearly 50 years ago!) was also featured, and shared much the same fate. Marrying both old and new work, Glenn Hughes created a wonderful euphony, and made the set one to remember. Hughes, in short, was an absolute pleasure to watch. His mastery of his instrument brought the bass to the very forefront of the show, which was without doubt a delight to see (and hear!) as bassists are, sadly, all too often forgotten!Glenn Hughes’ instrumental prowess is second only to his extraordinary voice. Indeed, he has one of the most exceptional, iconic, and distinctive voices in rock. Throughout the show, he consistently hit notes that people half of his age could only dream of! Recordings do not do this man justice; simply incredible. The set was insane from start to finish! Whilst the powerful voices of the crowd were present throughout the set, as the final song, ‘Burn’, ended they became almost deafening. After Hughes had exited the stage, and the house lights had gone up, I knew that I wasn’t alone in hoping that he wouldn’t leave it quite so long to come back to Bristol next time!

Review: Amy Jefferies.

Photography: Becky O’Grady

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Review: Glenn Hughes – The Fleece, Bristol The Fleece, an incredibly small venue in the centre of Bristol, is well-known for its wonderfully dirty rock shows.

[totalrockfiend]

2016 Was Pretty Tough on Musicians...

So I was flipping through the “First Look” edition of Entertainment Weekly a couple of weeks back -- Technically EW’s first issue of 2017...

I get EW for free (because I filled out some nonsense “survey”), and truthfully I don’t pay tons of attention to the magazine’s content. Occasionally (very occasionally, in all honesty) the music reporting interests me. But more often than not, after a quick perusal, I dispose of EW in the “circular file.”

Anyway, I’m breezing through the pages and stumble upon a series of eulogies for notable entertainment figures who passed on in 2016, entitled Late Greats.

Now, of course I’m AWARE of all the great musicians who took their leave of this astral plain 2016. But seeing all the names listed together was a real PUNCH IN THE GUT for a Total Rock Fiend and obnoxious music obsessive like me. 

To celebrate these great artists, here’s a quick shout out praising their amazing aural contributions to our world.

1. Prince

I penned (or typed, as it were) a LONG love letter to his majesty, The Purple + Paisley here earlier in 2016. And what can I really say that so many others haven’t already said (and said much more eloquently)?

So I thought I’d let EW’s eulogist, Sheila E (occasional Prince collaborator and touring drummer), do it for me...

The talented and spicy E extolled Prince’s ability to synthesize his influences into completely distinct, unique sounds and musical compositions. She heralded his willingness to “try” anything while recording in the studio: “Let’s see if it works” was always his attitude, according to E. Sheila also underscored Prince’s gift for embedding racy lyrics into melodies so intoxicating that even the most unassuming listener is singing along to some downright filthy veres.

This literal musical genius + pop icon will literally be GREATLY missed...

2. David Bowie

It’s still tough to believe this musically ubiquitous genius has really departed us...

Ever the chameleon, David Bowie tried on and RAWKED more musical styles than a bridezilla on gown shopping tear down Rodeo Drive . 

And when it comes to Bowie’s varied styles, everyone has their fave. But most Bowie fan’s affections are firmly rooted in the ‘70s era, Spiders from Mars Bowie.

But not so this Total Rock Fiend. I came of age in the ‘80s. Firmly a member of the MTV Generation. And Bowie in the ‘80s was all about: Let’s Dance.

Three hit singles, Chic as backing band (Nile Rogers on keys + guitars, Bernard Edwards on bass and Tony Thompson on drums), Stevie Ray Vaughn on lead guitar, and ‘80s super-producer Nile Rogers helming the entire projects... Sounds like an ‘80s child’s aural wet dream come true, no?

Let’s Dance also features my fave Bowie tune, Modern Love. I’m not entirely sure, but this song may have been my conscious introduction to the Thin White Duke and his stunningly fabulous music. And what an intro! That oddly toned, syncopated intro guitar riff, the 10-stories tall ‘80s drum sound, the Philly soul horns, Bowie’s classically poppy, yet still haunting vocal, and of course the lyrical sentiment... Bowie’s clearly seen and done it all, but he never waves bye bye...

3. George Michael

Truthfully, I’m unacquainted with Wham! beyond Careless Whisper and Wake Me Up (which every first world human not hearing impaired or allergic to FM radio in the early ‘80s is familiar with). And I’ve only actually heard one George Michael album...

But I wore the F*CK OUT of that George Michael, Faith cassette I got for Christmas in 1987.

And it’s not real hard to understand why... 7 singles. 4 Billboard #1 singles (plus, I Want Your Sex peaked at #2). Billboard #1 album. Certified Diamond album -- 20x platinum. In other words, 20 million total albums sold...

And while Faith is packed with hits, everyone has their fave... Mine? One More Try (of COURSE!). Ole Georgie NEVER sounded more plaintiff or forlorn than on this heartache-soaked ballad. It also features my fave GM vocal performance BY FAR! Soul so deep, it’ll make ya cry...

We’ll all miss you (and your a$$), Georgie!

4. Glenn Frey

I can’t remember a time when I WASN’T an Eagles fan. Likely it started the first time I heard that tight guitar riff and sweet drum lick that leads off Life in The Fast Lane. But who can say?

What I can say is Glenn Frey’s tunes were not necessarily my fave Eagles songs. Now don’t get me wrong, I sure do love me some Take it Easy and New Kid in Town and the like. But Don Henley always scored higher on my personal Eagles-Song-O-Meter.

But what DID grab me was Glenn’s solo tune, forever immortalized by Miami Vice, The Smugglers Blues. Smugglers, along with another Frey joint, We Belong to the City (a far lesser track) made it’s way onto the Miami Vice soundtrack (one of the first TV shows ever to have its own soundtrack, and a true testament to the groundbreaking nature of the show and the way its producers artfully used contemporary music to great dramatic effect). I owned a copy of the Miami Vice soundtrack on cassette and pert near WORE that bad boy OUT.

Frey even guest-stared on an episode, written just for him, entitled, you guessed it: The Smugglers Blues.

Here’s hoping you’re still crooning sweet vocal harmonies in that great concert hall in the sky!

5. Merle Haggard

Not much of a country fan over here. But I do appreciate Classic Country -- Wille, Wylan, Cash, Crewcut George Jones, and of course, Bakersfield, California’s own, Merle Haggard. 

Classic Country lost one of it’s great performers and most distinctive voices in 2016. Just one more sad loss among a dying breed of artists...

6. Leonard Cohen

I’ll be honest here. I’m only familiar with one Leonard Cohen song. Concrete Blonde’s cover of Everybody Knows, featured on the Pump Up the Volume soundtrack. A phenomenal tune on fab soundtrack by and outstanding band (so I’d say Len’s in solid company).

And if Everybody Knows is just the tip of the iceberg, and considering all the adulation from countless artists I respect, Leonard Cohen’s definitely a songwriter who will be greatly missed.

7. Alan Thicke 

Not sure the composer of the Different Strokes + Growing Pains theme songs necessarily constitutes a huge loss. But for GenXers like me, those TV shows were childhood corner stones. I still get the shivers recalling when how the shady “photographer’” lured Arnold and Kimberly back to his creepy basement child molester lair...

See ya ‘round, Alan!

8. George Martin

I’ll allow Sir George ISN’T known as a musician. But he’s basically the architect of the Beatles’ sound, and ultimately their hit-making record success. Our pal Georgie signed the boys, agreed to produced the band, and provided the perfect balance of musical guidance and freedom to experiment and explore uncharted recording waters. All of which resulted in a string of hit singles + hit albums, not to mention the most successful and enduring band in Rock’N’Roll history.

George wasn’t really active these days, but his departure is just one more piece of the Beatles’ legacy to crumble away...

Hoping For The Best in 2017...

Revisiting our losses in 2016 really does make for a sad hit parade. The best we can do is hope 2017 is a little kinder and gentler to our musical treasures...

You hearin’ me, Father Time???