Category: Music

Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers

The more I see, and hear, and know about Jo Stafford, the more impressed I am. D. F. Rogers could write a better appreciation of her than I could (hint).

Tommy Dorsey with The Piped Pipers
Tommy Dorsey, Chuck Lowry, Jo Stafford, Frank Sinatra, Clark Yocum, John Huddleston

This appears to be the best copy of that photo you’ll find on the Net. Click to see it full size. I scanned it from an LP in my collection. That’s Jo Stafford next to Frank Sinatra in 1940, when Jo was all of 22, before she married to her first husband, John Huddleston, who’s on the right. Calling themselves the Pied Pipers, they sang with Tommy Dorsey’s band and backed up Sinatra on “I’ll Never Smile Again,” recorded March 23, 1940.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/NeverSmileAgain.mp3]

Jo is featured more prominently with Sinatra on “Stardust,” recorded November 11, 1940.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/Stardust.mp3]

I’ll have more of the remarkable Jo Stafford, coming up.

A Raybert Production

Raybert Productions was Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, who gave us the Monkees TV show and, later, the movie Easy Rider. Nearly a year ago I posted a clip from the Monkees’ movie Head, featuring Toni Basil. Toni was also in Easy Rider.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/JUL/EasyRider.flv 440 330]

Easy Rider helped make a star of Jack Nicholson, who is credited with co-writing Head, and in which he made this cameo appearance.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/JUL/MonkeesHead.flv 440 330]

The Monkees were smack-dab center stage for my age group. I’d post more about them, but I’m leaving the field open for D.F. Rogers, should he ever decide to do a Monkees Web site or blog.

MORE MUSIC… More Music… more music

More songs I’d like to point out. Like The Clash song, these will be testosterone tracks.

I’ve featured David Bowie doing “The Man Who Sold The World,” and Nirvana did a cover version, so I’ll include it, even though it isn’t a particular favorite. If Kurt Cobain were alive, I’d tell him there’s nothing chic about heroin use, let alone addiction, especially when you’re found with your brains splattered everywhere. But I would also tell him that I consider “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to be a quintessential Rock track.

[Ah, well, it seems that Universal Music doesn’t want these videos embedded, so guess what? I won’t use them. Bye-bye, Nirvana.]

One of my top three favorite albums ever is Green Day’s American Idiot. All at once it can be considered derivative, calculated, and manipulative, yet sincere, original and compelling. American Idiot is a brilliant accomplishment, standing on the shoulders of the giants who came and went before, and one out of every three times you ask I will tell you it’s my all-time #1 pick. The 20 seconds that start at 4:35 in “Jesus of Suburbia” distill everything that the Sex Pistols and The Clash were all about.

By Request

My sister Jean asked for a particular song, and here it is. Pompous and bloated, even compared to the Moody Blues, and not as creepy as DOA by Bloodrock, but with a neat ambiance. Dig that old analog synthesizer sound!

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUL/KingCrimson.mp3]