Category: Music

From standard to soul

Here’s the sort of net post I like, and like doing myself, about the evolution of the song Try a Little Tenderness. I knew it first, as did most in my generation, from Otis Redding.

http://youtu.be/dael4sb42nI

The article says of Ray Noble’s 1932 recording, “Mawkish, stilted and perfectly forgettable, it comes off as a courting lesson on how to gain permission to put hand on knee and stare just a little too long.” Personally, I completely disagree. I really like the Ray Noble and Bing versions. Clare Teal on BBC Radio 2 plays a lot of Ray Noble on her Sunday show. Here’s a tune, written by Noble, that’s featured prominently in Casablanca.

On another Pop music note, Denro reminds us that MTV is now officially 30 years old. Who didn’t have a crush on Martha “cute as a button” Quinn?

http://youtu.be/86Wa3QJLkFQ

Yeesh. Another 4:3 video made wide, like an HDTV in stretch mode. I think it’s popular because it makes everybody in old TV shows look fat, the way so many people are now.

Kate Klim makes her ex explain

The audience at Kate Klim’s show at Club Passim last night was quite a varied mix of ages and couples. Kate has a very sweet, bright and attractive stage presence, and when we saw her in Bridgewater back in May, she told some funny boyfriend stories. Kate didn’t do that last night, but a year ago she posted this cute video where she pressures an old boyfriend to talk about her.

http://youtu.be/uutgbnoTCLY

From matchsticks to margueritas

I love BBC Radio 2’s Sunday programme lineup, because it’s all over the place musically and the hosts are sincerely enthusiastic about their respective genres of interest. Today, Paul O’Grady, who’s all over the place all by himself, played an 80’s UK hit called Marguerita Time. I didn’t recognize the tune…

… but the name of the band, Status Quo, I knew from a psychedelic 60’s favourite, Pictures of Matchstick Men.

http://youtu.be/_kG-mU7wgW4

With fifteen years between the two songs, I wondered if it could be the same band, and the answer is yes, albeit with some personnel changes along the way.

Those singin’ cowboys!

Speaking of TCM (Turner Classic Movies), last week they were featuring singing cowboys. Give a listen to this tune by Hank Penny, one of the Texas Swing kings, whose career overlapped with the birth of Rock and Roll.

http://youtu.be/X2crGr44JVU

There’s a bit of everything in this — big bands, boogie woogie, R&B , and rockabilly. The sound of Bill Haley and his Comets is right in there.

My pet peeve about Pop music historians is that Rock and Roll is often called black music, as if it all came from rhythm and blues. And it just ain’t so. The whole point of what became rock and roll is that it’s a mix of everything that came before, and the singing cowboys are a much a part of the legacy as any other ingredient. Elvis was great for multiple reasons, but one of the most important was that he was a sponge of influences. When he was asked what kind of music he liked, he’d say he liked everything, and he meant it.

Here’s another one by Penny. Swing it, boys!

http://youtu.be/rTvh-UJrfNI