Pophistory: music, movies, history, and life.
Willie Nelson will release his first album since his duets CD To All The Girls. . .
The video for one of the new songs, “The Wall,” has been released. The song recounts a number of recognizable events from Nelson’s life.
The new album will also include a duet with Jamey Johnson on Billy Joe Shaver’s “The Git Go.” Band of Brothers
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(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
In this video, Kris Bowers sits down behind a piano and takes us through a history of instrumental jazz piano using more than 40 tunes. Bowers, a Thelonious Monk Competition winner, gets a little help from some other musicians from the “History” series and a sign that tells us what is going on.
Check out this video on the history of jazz piano.
NPR disagrees with a little of the commentary, but it is an interesting music tour. Check out some other videos in the History series posted by collectivecadenza.
What is your favorite jazz piano piece? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
One of the many depressing songs on Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 double album The River
The singer of “The River” tells the story of meeting Mary in high school. The singer first recounts how the high school kids would go down to dive in the river. While the image is one of teenage joy, the music and earlier lines about growing up “to do like your daddy done” hint at something sadder. By the time the singer is nineteen, Mary is pregnant, and the couple find themselves getting married at the courthouse “with no wedding day smiles.”
In the song, more troubles come. The singer faces hard times and acts like he no longer remembers the past. Meanwhile, Mary “acts like she don’t care.” But the singer does remember the past. And it is those good times at the river that haunt his days.
Springsteen based his song on his sister Virginia (“Ginny”), who during her senior year of high school became pregnant. Ginny married her boyfriend, Michael “Mickey” Shave, who was a rodeo rider, in a small ceremony. The two then began their young family life together.
In this video from one of his performances during the the No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future on September 19-23, 1979 at Madison Square Garden, you can hear Springsteen introducing the new song with, “this is my brother-in-law and my sister.”
Although Springsteen imagined a sad life resulting from such a start, things worked out better for Ginny and Mickey than they did for the singer and Mary. Ginny and Mickey have been married for more than forty years, and they had three children and several grandchildren.
While, like everyone, Ginny and Mickey may wonder some days about what might have been, the real-life people who inspired “The River” do not seem as haunted as the characters in the song.
Not only did things work out for the couple, but their wedding gave Ginny’s brother what Rolling Stone Magazine calls his fifth greatest song. It sounds like everyone’s dreams came true after all.
What do you think of “The River”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
On May 14, 1936, Walden Robert Cassotto, who we all know as Bobby Darin, was born in the Bronx. When one thinks of Darin, the first thing that probably comes to mind is one of his hits from the late 1950s or early 1960s, like “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover,” “Mack the Knife” or “Beyond the Sea.” But Darin continued to record in a number of different genres, including folk and country, and he also did some acting, even earning an Academy Award nomination.
In 1963, Darin played a shell-shocked soldier in the World War II drama, Captain Newman, M.D.
For his portrayal of the shell-shocked Cpl. Jim Tompkins, Darin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, at the Cannes Film Festival, he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor. He appears for a few seconds in this preview.
Although he continued to record, act, appear on TV, and become involved in politics through the 1960s and the 1970s, Darin had his final Top 10 hit in 1966 with a recording of Tim Hardin‘s “If I Were a Carpenter.”
Below Darin performs “If I Were a Carpenter” in January 1969 with Stevie Wonder when Darin hosted NBC’S Kraft Music Hall: Sounds of the Sixties special. Their performance has the feel of an impromptu jam, and it is pretty awesome.
Although Darin is only 32 in the performance with Wonder, Darin had health problems through much of his life from a weakened heart due to a childhood illness.
Darin passed away at the age of 37 on December 20, 1973, and at his request, his body was donated to science. As he did in his too-short life, Darin wanted to give everything he could even in death.
What is your favorite Bobby Darin song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
Linda Perry recently reunited with 4 Non Blondes to perform “What’s Up?” live together for the first time in twenty years. Fortunately, someone was there on Saturday, May 10, 2014 to capture on video the group at “An Evening With Women,” the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center‘s annual fundraising event.
“What’s Up” is one of the most memorable songs from the 1990s. It first appeared on the group’s 1992 album, Bigger, Better, Faster, More!
Do you recall why the song is called “What’s Up?” even though the phrase never appears in the lyrics? Reportedly, Perry chose the title instead of the chorus’s “what’s going on” to avoid confusion with Marvin Gaye’s classic song of that name. Anyway, check out the recent performance of the worldwide hit song.
Perry left 4 Non Blondes in 1994, but they still sound great together on “What’s Up?”
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(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)