Category: Music

My best buddy Dennis Rogers, the master of all things Pop Culture, has pointed out that this song was co-written by the father of our state’s governor.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/YehYeh.mp3]

Laurdine “Pat” Patrick was a saxophonist who played for many years with jazz impresario Sun Ra. He also happened to be the father of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

Pat Patrick co-wrote “Yeh Yeh”, a 1965 #1 hit in England for British performer Clive Powell, who was given the stage name Georgie Fame by his manager Larry Parnes, who had managed the Beatles for a short time early in their career. In America, “Yeh Yeh” peaked at #21 in Billboard magazine.

The Boston Globe has the whole story about Patrick, and the troubled relationship he had with his father, at this link. Patrick is a smart guy, but he was a bit full of himself when he took office and he got off to a rather shaky start as governor. Once he gets his act together he should do all right.

Yes, the Rocker who looks like he has one foot in the grave is Eddie Van Halen. Here’s his better-looking twin sister, and fellow 2007 Rock and Roll HOF inductee, Patti Smith.

Wait. I take that back. She looks more like Keith Richard here. Or maybe Bob Dylan without his pencil mustache. Aging Rockers all look the same!

Who is this? Hint: It isn’t Keith Richard.

Phil Spector’s songs are sometimes thought of as being so pre-Beatles. The old man producer whose orchestrated post-Do-Wop creations couldn’t compete with the fresh, new Fab Four’s guitars.

But Spector was with the Beatles on the plane that brought them to America for the first time (ignoring George’s prior solo trip), and Spector is, in fact, two months younger than John Lennon. And without Brian Wilson’s admiration of Spector there most certainly wouldn’t have been the stunning Pet Sounds.

Who knows when it happened, but Spector almost certainly must have crossed the line from eccentricity to insanity. And now he’s on trial on suspicion of murder, only a week after his ex-wife Ronnie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, eighteen years after receiving the same honor himself.

Here are three Ronettes songs in glorious stereo, presented as a single track, encoded at 256 kbps. The Phil Spector Wall of Sound, taken from a British LP I bought used 25 years ago and have played dozens of times.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Ronettes.mp3]

Click here for a brief NPR report on what is called in the intro a surprising increase in the sale of classical music. After hearing the report I realized that’s not what is really happening.

According to the story, downloaded music accounts for much of the increase. But what’s being downloaded? Complete Beethoven symphonies?

As explained in the report, Sting and Josh Groban are now categorized as “classical crossover artists”, and their sales are being counted along with traditional classical music. That’s silly. Another name associated with the bump up in sales is André Bocelli. His popularity is thanks to the same sort of fan that bought CDs by The Three Tenors. None of these entertainers will add to the base of traditional classical music aficianados.