Category: Music

Maryann Price, A Lickette No Longer

I was just getting caught up on the local papers, and I spotted this article. Maryann Price is making an appearance tonight, not far from here. If I’d known sooner, I would have been interested in seeing her.

Who’s Maryann Price? She sang with Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, a string-and-vocal group I enjoyed a lot back in high school and college. That’s Maryann on the left, and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg on the right. Together they were called, respectfully and not derisively, the Lickettes.

Dan Hicks with Maryann and Naomi

Rather than try to explain them, just give a listen. In the first song, “I Feel Like Singing,” Maryann does the scat bit heard in the left channel. The second song, “I Scare Myself,” features the spine-tingling violin playing of Sid Page.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/IFeelLikeSinging.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/IScareMyself.mp3]

Next, Maryann sings “I’m An Old Cowhand.” Can you tell I like songs with titles that start with “I”? All tracks were taken from the original vinyl disks I loved listening to 35 years ago.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/ImAnOldCowhand.mp3]

Finally, if you read the article at the link above, you know there are recent home videos of Maryann on YouTube. This one includes a bit of her doing “I’m An Old Cowhand.”

Let’s Play Muzak DJ!

The cable TV service Music Choice has a channel with the genre that, as a kid, made my skin crawl, but now I’m coming to appreciate. Easy listening! It’s called Elevator Music, but for me the reason it made my skin crawl is that I always heard it at the dentist office, while having my teeth drilled!

The video has 12 minutes of the Music Choice Easy Listening channel, started at a totally random point. I’ll use that as the springboard for the rest of the post.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/EZListening.flv 400 300]

Well, let’s see what’s in there. A bit of “Something,” followed by Zamfir doing the love theme to Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western, “Once Upon A Time In The West.” Then Acker Bilk did “Jean” — nice coincidence for my sister there — and blind pianist George Shearing had Petula Clark’s “Call Me,” which is a nice coincidence for me! Lastly is a portion of the old standard “Dream.”

Acker Bilk is best remembered for “Stranger On The Shore,” so let’s hear that.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/AckerBilk.mp3]

And “Jean,” from the movie The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, was originally a single for Oliver. I have that, too.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/Jean.mp3]

I’ve been woefully lax in posting all of the Petula Clark material that I have. I’ll get back to that at some point, with a vengeance. For the moment, I’ll give you the studio recording of “Call Me”…

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/CallMe.mp3]

… and here’s Pet’s 1970 appearance on Dean Martin’s show, after she stopped being so stiff and stagy, and was truer to herself — smooth and sexy. But yikes, those corny guest cameos are too much to take! Who wrote this stuff? I can see why variety shows didn’t survive the next generational shift. But having Dom Deluise, Paul Lynde, and Alan Sues, and Charles Nelson Reilly all appearing in the same bit …? The times were certainly changing!

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/CallMe.flv 400 300]

Sorry about the video quality. It isn’t one of my own transfers. I had to fix the aspect ratio, and that resulted in the jagginess of the image.

Finally, here’s “Dream” from Frankie’s album Nice ‘n’ Easy.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/Dreams.mp3]

Fantastic FiOS

The shortest FiOS TV review is “GET IT IF YOU CAN!” The only weakness is the free video on demand selection. Here’s a bit of FiOS TV SD (Standard Definition) video from last night’s Red Sox game (reduced to 400×300, of course, with lossy compression). They lost to the Padres 6-1. Last time I made some screen caps and the Sox lost then, too. Most of my friends are Sox fans, and they’re a superstitious lot, so I promise to stop watching the games and jinxing them.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUN07/RedSoxSanDiego.flv 400 300]

For myself, not having XM or Sirius, Music Choice adds significantly to the value of FiOS TV. The selection is great (although a Folk station would be welcome) and the Dolby Digital sound quality is faultless. I’ve just hooked up my CCrane FM transmitter, so the audio from FiOS TV is being broadcast throughout the house, and the Music Choice channel of the moment is anywhere I want, including the bedroom clock radio.

Music Choice

The Many Moods of Mad Murry Wilson

Here is an exquisitely painful audio experience. It’s from the Beach Boys recording session for “Help Me Rhonda.” Also present in the studio was the insufferable one-eyed Wilson father, Murry. Listen to this and you’ll know why one-eared son Brian fired his father as manager of the band.

Murry Wilson

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUN07/MurryWilson.mp3]

Thanks to WFMU for making this timeless recording available.

Toby Keith is a Big, Fat Idiot

I only vaguely have an awareness of country music singer Toby Keith. About all I can recall is the feud he had with the Dixie Chicks — who turned out to be right, of course, about George Bush. Stephen Colbert had Toby Keith on his show tonight. If Keith isn’t putting on a front, this guy is a total moron. The song Keith sings is the usual sort of unoriginal, by-the-numbers crap that guys like him do. Hey, talent like that goes only so far, y’know? Steve Earle he ain’t, musically or politically.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUN07/ColbertJUN19.flv 400 300]