As stated in reply to a comment from tastewar, I am giving a listen to Dark Was the Night: A Red Hot Compilation. The album was produced in 2009 to raise money to fight AIDS.
In 1991, Prue’s friend Cynthia O’Neal founded Friends in Deed* with Mike Nichols to provide direct support for AIDS patients. The story of Friends in Deed is told in Cynthia’s memoir, Talk Softly, dedicated to her sons Max and Fitz. Prue says that Max has since passed away.
* The organization is now part of The Big Groups.
After getting the Covid-19 Bivalent booster yesterday, I woke up in the middle of the night shivering uncontrollably. Eventually I was able to get back to sleep, and I feel okay today.
“Shakin’ All Over” is in this fantastic, official 65-track Who playlist. “My Generation” remains one of my all-time favorite performances, with a spine-tingling power chord crescendo at 11:30 into the track.
I wouldn’t be surprised if R. Crumb had dealings with the recently deceased Joe Bussard. Crumb’s collection of vintage 78 rpm records is large, but the collection Bussard has left behind is enormous.
The Washington Post spent time with Bussard not long before he went into hospice care: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/05/joe-bussard-record-collector-78s/
Bussard cites “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” by Blind Willie Johnson as “one of the greatest sides ever cut,” but the article neglects to mention that two copies of it are traveling through interstellar space.
An interview with Bussard from ten years ago: https://dustandgrooves.com/joe-bussard-frederick-ma/
Moving up the music timeline into the 40’s and 50’s, I’ll take this opportunity to mention Jim Dawson’s updated and revised edition of his book, What Was the First Rock ‘N’ Roll Record? After Jim saw copies of the original edition going for $75 and up on eBay, he thought he’d better put an end to that. The Kindle edition of the all-text book is only five bucks.
An update on Linda Ronstadt, whose diagnosis is now the Parkinson-like condition Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
Historian Mark Lewisohn described them as “whippet-thin under-nourished lads” following their tour to Germany.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-63110249
(They took a lot of uppers in Hamburg.)
Forty years since “Valley Girl”?? Like, omigod, n’way!
