I should have watched the HBO documentary, STAX: Soulsville USA before Steve Cropper died, but I’m doing it now. Eddie Floyd’s ‘Knock on Wood’ is my favorite in this collection. Who doesn’t love the theme from Shaft?
Category: Music
Calendar Girl Guy
Neil Sedaka has died. Sedaka had great success as a member of Don Kirshner’s Brill Building stable of songwriters and performers.*
Sedaka’s style of music was knocked off the charts by the British Invasion. Ten years later, he had a big comeback with ‘Laughter in the Rain’. We played this a lot at the radio station where I worked.
Sedaska co-wrote ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’, a #1 hit for The Captain & Tennille.
* The ‘Calendar Girl’ Scopitone video is from 1966, but the song is from 1961.
F-Them
The incorrigible British bad girl Lily Allen, now 40 and reportedly off drugs, is coming to Boston in April. By now, her core audience must likewise be hitting their forties.
As I await the start of this year’s SOTU speech, this song by Lily perfectly expresses my sentiment for Trump and his supporters.
Welcome, Genny Schorr!
I was listening to this podcast by Mike Stax, publisher of Ugly Things magazine …
… when, by an unbelievable coincidence, a comment appeared for approval from Genny Schorr, the subject of the interview!
It took me a moment to realize the person whose voice I was listening to, had just submitted a comment. Half an hour later, I’m still laughing. As I’m fond of saying in moments like these, what are the odds? Apparently, they’re 100%.
Here’s Genny’s website:
She has a book and record. Denro, you’re getting a copy.
All Roads Lead To Punk – BOOK + 7″ record set by Genny Schorr
From the Garage They Came
Every Big Planet Noise with Bob Irwin & Gina Bacon is a blast. Monday’s show had a tribute to someone I admit to having never heard of — Wayne Proctor, who had a band I’d never heard of, called We the People.
https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=161259&archive=283898
There shall never be, at least in what’s left of my lifetime, another fantastic explosion of musical creativity as was unleashed in the mid-Sixties. After Surf Music there was Garage Rock, and this record is a perfect example. Were We the People the American Troggs?
(Note: Bob is the founder and former owner of Sundazed Records.)
The Wrightson Stuff
Wrightson “Sonny” Tongue was a founding member of the Sixties band The Hello People. Along with tastewar, I worked with his brother for many years. Tongue is on the right.
If ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ was a concept album, The Hello People took the idea one step further by being a concept band. They wore full-face makeup years before Kiss.
Wrightson continues to make music. He’s been giving AI a try.