Category: Music
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The Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967
It transpired 43 summers ago, this June, the grandaddy of rock festivals, two years before Woodstock, in what is known as the Summer of Love. Your humble correspondent was on the scene. Some high school friends and I drove up from Los Angeles along Pacific Coast Highway. I can still call up olfactory memories of patchouli,…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Some Fine Guitar-Slingin’
I've never been able to find Lonnie Mack's Memphis on YouTube, but I just stumbled across this phenomenal Venture's version. They never sounded that good in the '60s. Here is what they sounded like back in the day. Perfidia is an old song written in 1939 by Alberto Dominguez. Xavier Cugat's version was the…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: How Many Jazz-Pop Crossover Hits?
I don't know, but Dave Brubeck's Take Five from 1959 is one. So named because in 5/4 time. Made the #5 slot on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Singles chart. So you could say that "Take Five" took five.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Sleep, Dreams, and Insomnia
Bobby Lewis, Tossin' and Turnin (1961). Santo and Johnny, Sleepwalk (1959). Joe Satriani's cover blows the original and every other cover clean out of the water. Masterful guitar work. Bobby Edwards, You're the Reason I Don't Sleep at Night. A country crossover hit from 1961. Leadbelly, Where Did You Sleep Last Night (1944). Here's hoping…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Three More Torch Songs
A couple of weeks ago I hauled out some old torch songs from the musty mausoleum. Here are a couple more. The definition again: "A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, where one party is either oblivious to the existence of the…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Johnny Otis
His signature number was Willie and the Hand Jive. The video begins with a late 'fifties car commercial that Los Angelenos who were around then should be able to appreciate. Those are some meaty mamas demonstrating the hand jive. Slow Hand's version. No, muchachos, neither 'hand jive' nor 'slow hand' have anything to do with…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Torch Songs
"A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, where one party is either oblivious to the existence of the other, or where one party has moved on." (Wikipedia) Sarah Vaughn, Broken Hearted Melody. Timi Yuro, Hurt. Billie Holliday, The Very Thought of You. …
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Originals and Covers
Some covers are as good as if not better than the originals. Some examples, with the original first. Thanks to our old friend 'williamofockham' for uploading the Morissette number as well as for suggesting the McLachlan and Simon covers. Beatles, Blackbird. Sarah McLachlan cover. Carly Simon cover. Sam Cooke, Wonderful World. Simon-Garfunkel-Taylor cover. Bob Dylan, Blowing'…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Randy Newman
I Love L. A. And his masterpiece sung by Judy Collins.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Two From Monk
In Walked Bud. Every hip stud really dug Bud soon's he hit town, takin' that note nobody wrote and puttin' it down. Epistrophy.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Johnny Cash
Personal Jesus. Hurt. The Mercy Seat. I See a Darkness. If you can relate to these powerful songs, then you can appreciate the superficiality and ignorance of the human heart of the New Atheism. Only the spiritually moribund could put up a poster like this: Ed Feser, yesterday, hit upon a brilliant and true insight: "The…
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Two Songs for Good Friday
Leonard Cohen, Passing Through. Leonard Cohen and Judy Collins, Suzanne.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Two Watusi Numbers
Ray Barretto, El Watusi, 1963. I remember when it first came out, but you young whippersnappers may remember it from Carlito's Way. Don't ask me what it means. The Orlons, Wah-Watusi, 1962.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: A Baker’s Dozen Road Songs Plus One
Entangled deep in the psyche of every true American is a deep love of the open road. Here are some tunes to be enjoyed while seated at the helm of a solid chunk of Detroit iron, while 'motorvatin' over some lonesome desert highway in the magic west of buttes and mesas, with four on the…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies II: Three Suicide Songs
You're getting a double dose this Saturday, muchachos — to make up for last Saturday. These go out to S.S. Slim. We begin on a humorous note with James Darren's hit from 1961, Goodbye Cruel World. And then to a rather more somber number of the same name by Pink Floyd. But neither can hold a…