Facebook friend Andrew Sandoval has pointed out this profile of Micky Dolenz, the last surviving Monkee.
And speaking of Andrew…
Being a band created for a TV show, the Monkees were controversial in their day. Twenty years later, Andrew encountered some trouble himself for being a young fan of not only the Monkees, but the Beach Boys.
Following up on a mention by mih of Carl Orff’s crowd-pleasing “Carmina Burana”, the opening poem is the one that’s familiar to most everybody.
Orff was a German who remained in Germany throughout the war. I was thinking I touched upon this difficult subject not very long ago, but it was longer ago than it takes to get a Bachelor’s degree. Slow down, space/time! Slow down!
Herbert Von Karajan’s career didn’t suffer after the war. Perhaps it isn’t surprising I was unable to find a Karajan recording of Orff’s composition.
After a 1941 performance of the popular Carmina Burana, the composer himself said admiringly, ‘the orchestra under Karajan sounds fantastic’.
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/karajan-herbert-von/
https://holocaustmusic.ort.org/politics-and-propaganda/third-reich/orff-carl/
Separating artists from their art isn’t always easy. Sometimes it isn’t possible, but their work must at least be put into context of time and place. Whether for a musical figure, or a cartoonist like the Belgian Georges Remi, aka Hergé, who was accused of Nazi collaboration.
For decades, Robert Crumb’s uninhibited portrayals of women and Blacks were both celebrated and controversial. Today, Crumb’s name is political poison and, rightly or not, he is seen by many as a toxic misogynist and racist. Space/time continues, freeing some in the process while trapping some others.
Coming from the hugely successful first five years of Saturday Night Live, Dan and John tweaked the King Bees sketch concept and came up with a real winner. An exuberant and unique live album, recorded as the warm-up act for Steve Martin.
Another musician from the solid gold years of Los Angeles recording studio greatness has died. Guitarist Bill Pitman was — wow! — 102.
Bill Pitman, a guitarist who accompanied Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and others from the late 1950s to the ’70s, and who for decades was heard on the soundtracks of countless Hollywood films and television shows, has died at 102. https://t.co/HpfzSNobHn
— New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) August 12, 2022
Thanks to those damn bureaucrats at the American Federation of Musicians, with their blasted rules and forms, we can see where and when Pitman worked on “Good Vibrations”.
https://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/afmcontracts/BeachBoys_GoodVibrations.pdf
The Beach Boys were under contract to Capitol Records, which is listed as their employer, and yet the sessions were held at Gold Star, Western Recorders and Sunset Sound. Like the Beatles by that time, it seems that what Brian wanted Brian got, although the Beatles almost always recorded at EMI’s Abbey Road studios. One of the “Good Vibrations” sessions ran between 11:30 PM and 3:00 AM, which was also typical of the hours kept by the Beatles.
At the start of the record, right after “… the colorful clothes she wears…” going into “… and the way the sunlight…” there’s a noticeable shift in the sound. Brian must have spliced two different takes together. Were they recorded on the same day, or even in the same studio?
Did I know that Phil Spector covered a Beatles-written song in 1964? Don’t think so, to my chagrin.*
“Hold Me Tight” is an early example of the unusual quality the Beatles had. John and Paul’s potential as song writers was, after all, why they were signed by EMI, as I explained here.
Even as a little kid, some of their songs sounded different to me, even strange. As heard from Paul…
… and from John.
* It can be inferred from the credit “Engineer: Larry Levine” that the record was produced at Gold Star Studios.
Elvis Costello covering Neil Young on Jimmy Fallon’s show last night.
https://youtu.be/f3vNCuC-mWw
Guess now’s a good time to hear Neil’s album, released when Costello was 14.
Why wasn’t Elvis on Colbert’s show? They’ve been best buds for ages. Oh, right. Joe Walsh is playing over there this week.
