Well here it is, one month shy of the blog’s 4th anniversary. I began when Eric was entering high school, and next month he starts college. Along the way I’ve deleted some items, while others were lost to technical difficulties, so it’s taken a little longer to get here than it would have otherwise, but this is post number 2000. And, by coincidence, driving to work today, my car hit a milestone of its own.
Some years back, for one of Denro’s birthdays I got him a book called Hal Blaine and the Wrecking Crew, about the session musicians who reigned in the Los Angeles recording studios of the 60’s, into the 70’s. Later, I heard about a documentary being made about the Wrecking Crew, but the production was delayed so many times I forgot about it.
Robbie Leff has pointed out that the documentary finally exists, but has not yet been released. Some of the interviews obviously were filmed quite some time ago — and good thing, too. What a shock it is, seeing Dick Clark as he was before his stroke, but I don’t believe he didn’t know about session musicians until the Monkees.
Mitch Miller, the man who seemed to have inspired the formation of countless gay men’s choruses, has died. Miller was a major force in the music industry for many years, and his importance can’t be minimized, but his music wasn’t for me. Twenty years ago, a review I liked of a Mitch Miller Christmas album that had been released on CD was short and to the point — “Welcome to Hell.” Ray Conniff worked with Mitch Miller at Columbia, and I love his album We Wish You A Merry Christmas. I’ve always wondered if that’s Mitch on the cover. (I had a huge crush on the girl when I was a kid, whoever she is.)
I also have an appreciation for the singing of the delightful Lennon Sisters, who were favorites of Lawrence Welk. But there was always something too cloying and mechanically rote for my taste in Mitch Miller’s recordings. His most famous failing was not realizing that the times they were a’changin in the 60’s, when John Hammond brought Bob Dylan to Columbia. But an inability to appreciate talent outside of one’s own taste is something that could be said of many of the old-style A&R (artist and repertoire) men in the music business.
The superb vocalist Jo Stafford worked with Miller. In the persona of the perfectly off-key Darlene Edwards, Jo recorded a dead-on parody of the famous Mitch Miller sound.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/AUG/BabyBumbleBee.mp3]
Eric (who is now only one month away from starting college) and I were at Fenway Park in Boston today to see the Red Sox play the Detroit Tigers. It was a lackluster game, with the Sox leading 3-0, until the 9th inning, when Detroit tied the score. The Sox won on a well-played bunt. [Samjay says that “well-placed” is the correct sports term.]
The two tickets cost $250. Considering the crowd that was there, and the money people spent on food, etc., the thing I want to know is, “what recession?”
Tomorrow is August already! And singer-songwriter Margo Guryan has something to say about it…
(Thank you, Lia!)
A month ago I mentioned it was Debbie Harry’s 65th birthday, and played Hanging on the Telephone. A much more technically advanced recording from Blondie’s album Parallel Lines is Heart of Glass. Here’s an explanation of how it was put together. I don’t know know yet who made this video, but it seems to be from England, and it’s excellent. Thanks go to David Barsalou for pointing it out.
