Taken aback you like Can, A/C. I got into them a bit late, and actually thought they were a jazz band in the early days, so didn't bother about them. Probably after Kraftwerk became successful, I took more interest in German bands, and there are quite a few I like now. Mostly, it's the language which is quite abrasive in a song (although Can are mostly singing in English on Tago Mago), the sounds are appealing because I don't have a clue what is being sung about.

Elton John? Not got much time for him.

DAY 222.
Dolly Parton.........................Coat Of Many Colors   (1971)






Just done the Dolly Parton album, first thoughts, pedal steel guitar, banjos and fiddles what else?
All this and the must have wobbly voice (is that supposed to sound more emotional?) imbued with heartache and poverty, this for me sums up the genre that is Country and Western music.


Now if all of the above cooks your juices? fair play to you, and this album should be just the ticket. Dolly Parton does nothing, in my humbles to dispel any of the above, and why the hell should she, through her music she's made obscene amounts of money, and good for her.


This album never had anything on there that hurt or offended my ears, but there was also nothing on there that would make me want to listen intently, this album wont be getting purchased as it's something I really don't think would be played, even when drunk.



Bits & Bobs;


Dolly Parton was born in Sevierville, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children of Robert Lee Parton, a tobacco farmer, and his wife Avie Lee. She has described her family as being "dirt poor" and has outlined her family's poverty in such songs as "Coat Of Many Colors"


 
The day after she graduated from high school in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville. Her first encounter with her future husband Carl Dean was at the Wishy-Washy Laundromat on her initial day in the Music City.


 
Her husband Carl Dean ran an asphalt road-surface-paving business in Nashville and stayed out of the spotlight. "He doesn't want to be in show business," Dolly told Extra's special correspondent Alecia Davis. "He's glad when I'm gone. He's glad when I'm home. He's funny. He makes me laugh a lot… We can be quiet together or we can be fun together."


 
Dolly has no children of her own but is the godmother of actress and singer Miley Cyrus.


 
Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was born on July 5, 1996. The cell was taken from a mammary gland. She was named 'Dolly' as, in the words of the project leader: "We couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."


 
She's a huge fan of Cat Stevens, and says she owns every album he's ever made.


 
Although she's co-owned Dollywood theme park since 1986, Dolly claims she's "too terrified" to go on any of the rides.


 
Asked by South Florida Gay News about her songwriting routine, Dolly replied: "I write all kinds of ways. In the middle of the night, if it's something that I dreamed, if I am taking a bath, I have a tape recorder nearby or a notepad. I can write anywhere really, anytime for any reason."




"Sometimes, I plan in advance to take two weeks to just write, don't call me, and I just write in my old mountain home or lake house," she added. "I just let it flow and write till I get tired of it. Then I come back home. I usually take my old set of fingernails off, get a new set put back on, and then get back at it!"


 
Dolly Parton once anonymously entered a "Dolly Parton look-alike contest" but lost to a drag queen.


 
On April 20, 1959, a 13-year-old Dolly Parton released her first single "Puppy Love" on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records. She had written the song with her uncle Bill Owens when she was 11.


 
In 1995, Dolly Parton launched the Imagination Library, to serve the children of her home county in East Tennessee. The country star's vision was to foster a love of reading among her county's children by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gone from stocking a few dozen works to shipping over a million books a month to kids in the US, UK and Canada.


 
Dolly Parton has two entries in the 2018 edition of Guinness World Records. They are for Most Hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart by a Female Artist (107) and Most Decades with a Top 20 Hit on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart (six between 1960s-2010s). The latter record was achieved when Dolly's 2016 re-recording of "Jolene" peaked at #18.




"Coat Of Many Colors"



Recorded in April 1971 and running to three minutes four seconds, this is another of Parton's hit songs, and the personal favorite of her own compositions. From the title one would be inclined to think it had a Biblical or religious connection; although it does, it is actually autobiographical.




Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee and grew up in poverty, the fourth of 12 children, and her mother really did make her such a coat. Her classmates teased her, but Parton was proud of the coat and tried to make them understand that even though her family didn't have much money, they were rich in other, more important ways.


 
Parton kept the famous coat, which later became a popular attraction at her Dollywood Museum, where it is kept in an exhibit along with her handwritten lyrics to the song.


 
Even after Parton became a huge star, this song remained her favorite out of the 3000+ songs she had written. "It tells about the people I grew up with, it speaks well of my family and particularly my mother," she told Mojo in 2004. "My spiritual values too. I can always sing that sincerely from my heart."



Dolly Parton would introduce this song in concert as "a true story about a little patchwork coat my Momma made me from a box of rags."


 
The biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors is found in Genesis 37. While Dolly Parton's patchwork coat inspired ridicule, Joseph's inspired envy. Joseph's father, Jacob (or Israel), was particularly proud of him because he was born when Jacob was an old man. Jacob showed his favoritism when he tasked Joseph to keep tabs on his other sons, born to different wives, and made him an elaborate coat of many colors to signify his important standing in the family. When Joseph began having dreams that he would become a powerful leader, his jealous brothers sold him into slavery. They tore the ornate coat and dipped it in blood to fool their father into thinking Joseph had been killed by an animal. It worked, but Joseph's prophetic dreams would come true as he became a powerful official in Egypt and would eventually confront his brothers and be reunited with his father.


 
After Parton's mother Avie died in 2003, it became very difficult for Dolly to perform this song. She says it was months before she could sing it without crying.


 
 
A TV movie based on the song premiered on NBC on December 10, 2015. "It really kind of evolves and details a lot of my whole life in bits and pieces. And it really shows family," Parton explained to reporters. "I don't know if people, besides me, miss having shows like Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons, but it's kind of like that. It just shows the simple life of back then, back when."


"[It's] a show about people who made me who and what I am," she continued. "It shows that I love music, and I love my folks … It's really got a lot of great elements."



13 million viewers tuned in to the TV movie's premiere. It was the most-watched movie on American TV since May of 2012 and also earned NBC its best total-viewer results since 2009's ER series finale (not including sports and live musicals).

 
Shania Twain and Alison Krauss sang this on the 2003 tribute album Just Because I'm A Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton.




The actual coat of many colors Dolly Parton's mother made for her would become an exhibit in the Dollywood Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.





I should imagine your first question after clocking such a fine garment would be " I hope you've got enough rags to make me a matching pair o' troosers," but more likely "Fuck me have you been on that moonshine again, you're no seriously gonna make me wear that, are ye?"
 

DAY 224.
Emerson, Lake, And Palmer........................Tarkus    (1971)









Could this week get any worse?



 







 

 DAY 223.
Don McLean.......................American Pie   (1971)







The title track takes me back to the days when you didn't have extended stag doos, you booked a room in a pub, had an MC (normally the oldest mate) and abidee had a party piece, basically everybody had a sang, and you couldnay  have the same sang sung twice, so if somebody sang the sang you were gonna sing you had to have a back up.


Anyways, I was always advised fae the older lads to sing something that abidee could join in with, so 'American Pie' fitted the bill perfectly, my back up was 'Saturday Night At The Movies' another sang abidee kent.


So, back to the album, fond memories but from a distant time, I still have this on cassette but have to admit, I don't think it is as good as my memory suggests, the pick outs are obviously the the title track and 'Vincent' which seem to stand the test of time, the other tracks were very bland,unexciting powderpuff kinda music, that I would never have slighted back in the day, but now find too meh to want to listen to again.


This album wont be getting put into my collection, not only because I have it on cassette, but also because that said cassette hasn't been played in yonks, so can't say I've been missing Don McLean.



Bits & Bobs;


 
Don McLean was born in New Rochelle, New York. At an early age he developed asthma and was forced to spend the majority of his time at home and indoors. The ailment caused him to miss extended periods of school and he passed the time by listening to music.



By his teen years McLean's love of music inspired him to begin creating it. He bought his first guitar, a Harmony F-hole model and played it constantly. He also took opera lessons that were paid for by his sister. The opera lessons trained his voice to sing but they also strengthened his lungs and increased his breath control which greatly improved his asthmatic symptoms.


 
His talents as both a song writer and a musician were exceptional even as a teenager. When he was 16 he was invited to join a band called the Rooftop Singers but rejected the offer because he considered himself to be a troubadour. In the early 1960s, folk music became immensely popular with the influences of artists like Bob Dylan. McLean was enamored with the story telling aspect of the genre and began writing songs heavily influenced by folk music.


 
In 1963 McLean enrolled at Villanova University. He would last only four months at Villanova but before he dropped out he became close friends with fellow classmate, Jim Croce. The two shared a love of folk music and both men later became cornerstones of the singer/songwriter movement of the 1970s.


 
After leaving Villanova, McLean set out in pursuit of a career in music. He played a seemingly endless number of college shows and toured many of the nation's top live venues. Audiences in attendance of his shows at places like The Gaslight, the Newport Folk Festival, and The Troubadour in Los Angeles became some of McLean's most dedicated fans. His relentless touring then caught the attention of Mediarts and he signed with the label to record his first album Tapestry in 1969. Tapestry garnered positive reviews and minor chart success with the single "I Love You So."


 
Before he could release his sophomore album, McLean's Mediarts label was purchased by United Artists Records. His second album was released in 1971 by the new label and was titled American Pie. The title song, "American Pie," became an international success. It's nearly 9 minute length was uncharacteristic of a chart topping hit but the song reached #1 within 2 months of its release in the United States in 1971. In the UK it remained on the charts for more than a year and reached the top position there in 1972.


 
Within the lyrics of "American Pie" there are a multitude of cultural and political references. The line "the day the music died" is widely regarded to be a reference to the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) and Richie Valens in February of 1959.




McLean's has refused to confirm or deny any of the perceived, hidden meanings that have been found within the song. His unwavering silence on the subject effectively preserves the mystery that surrounds it. It also leaves "American Pie" open to new interpretations and evolving insights by each additional generation of fans that become captivated by the timeless song.


 
"Vincent" was the second single released from the American Pie album and reached #12 on the US Billboard charts in March of 1972. Vincent, with its "starry, starry night" beginning, is a lamentation on the tragic life of painter Vincent Van Gogh. It is a beautifully written and after its release it cemented McLean's reputation as a brilliant songwriter.


 
In 1997 McLean appeared on stage with Garth Brooks for a live performance of "American Pie." HBO broadcast the landmark concert and Brooks later released a recording of the Central Park version on his 2006 box set The Entertainer.


 
In March of 2000 Madonna released a new, more subdued, cover of McLean's "American Pie." It was a massive success around the world but was met with negative reviews in the US. McLean praised the cover, saying it was "a gift from a goddess," and that her version was "mystical and sensual."


 
Don McLean was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2004. He continued to tour, playing favorites taken from the extensive catalog of music he has accumulated over a 50 year career.




'American Pie'



According to McLean (as posted on his website), this song was originally inspired by the death of Buddy Holly. "The Day The Music Died" is February 3, 1959, when Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash after a concert. McLean wrote the song from his memories of the event ("Dedicated to Buddy Holly" was printed on the back of the album cover).




The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album was also a huge influence, and McLean has said in numerous interviews that the song represented the turn from innocence of the '50s to the darker, more volatile times of the '60s - both in music and politics.




McLean was a 13-year-old paperboy in New Rochelle, New York when Holly died. He learned about the plane crash when he cut into his stack of papers and saw the lead story.


 
Talking about how he composed this song when he was a guest on the UK show Songbook, McLean explained: "For some reason I wanted to write a big song about America and about politics, but I wanted to do it in a different way. As I was fiddling around, I started singing this thing about the Buddy Holly crash, the thing that came out (singing), 'Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.'




I thought, Whoa, what's that? And then the day the music died, it just came out. And I said, Oh, that is such a great idea. And so that's all I had. And then I thought, I can't have another slow song on this record. I've got to speed this up. I came up with this chorus, crazy chorus. And then one time about a month later I just woke up and wrote the other five verses. Because I realized what it was, I knew what I had. And basically, all I had to do was speed up the slow verse with the chorus and then slow down the last verse so it was like the first verse, and then tell the story, which was a dream. It is from all these fantasies, all these memories that I made personal. Buddy Holly's death to me was a personal tragedy. As a child, a 15-year-old, I had no idea that nobody else felt that way much. I mean, I went to school and mentioned it and they said, 'So what?' So I carried this yearning and longing, if you will, this weird sadness that would overtake me when I would look at this album, The Buddy Holly Story, because that was my last Buddy record before he passed away."


 
This song made the 26-year-old McLean very famous very quickly, which was difficult for the songwriter. McLean was prone to depression, losing his father at age 15 and dealing with a bad marriage when recording the album. So when the song hit, it thrust him into the spotlight and took the focus away from the body of his work. In a 1973 interview with NME, he explained: "I was headed on a certain course, and the success I got with 'American Pie' really threw me off. It just shattered my lifestyle and made me quite neurotic and extremely petulant. I was really prickly for a long time. If the things you're doing aren't increasing your energy and awareness and clarity and enjoyment, then you feel as though you're moving blindly. That's what happened to me. I seemed to be in a place where nothing felt like anything, and nothing meant anything. Literally nothing mattered. It was very hard for me to wake up in the morning and decide why it was I wanted to get up."


 
Contrary to rumors, the plane that crashed was not named the "American Pie" - Dwyer's Flying Service did not name their planes. McLean made up the name.


 
McLean admits that this song is about Buddy Holly, but has never said what the lyrics are about, preferring to let listeners interpret them on their own. In these next few Songfacts, we'll take a look at some logical interpretations:
"The Jester" is probably Bob Dylan. It refers to him wearing "A coat he borrowed from James Dean," and being "On the sidelines in a cast." Dylan wore a red jacket similar to James Dean's on the cover of The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, and got in a motorcycle accident in 1966 which put him out of service for most of that year. Dylan also made frequent use of jokers, jesters or clowns in his lyrics. The line, "And a voice that came from you and me" could refer to the folk style he sings, and the line, "And while the king was looking down the jester stole his thorny crown" could be about how Dylan took Elvis Presley's place as the number one performer.


 
The line "Eight miles high and falling fast" is likely a reference to The Byrds' hit "Eight Miles High." Regarding the line, "The birds (Byrds) flew off from a fallout shelter," a fallout shelter is a '60s term for a drug rehabilitation facility, which one of the band members of The Byrds checked into after being caught with drugs.


 
The section with the line "The flames climbed high into the night" is probably about the Altamont Speedway concert in 1969. While the Rolling Stones were playing, a fan was stabbed to death by a member of The Hells Angels who was hired for security.


 
The line "Sergeants played a marching tune" is likely a reference to The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.


 
The line "I met a girl who sang the blues and I asked her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away" is probably about Janis Joplin. She died of a drug overdose in 1970.


 
The lyric "And while Lenin/Lennon read a book on Marx" has been interpreted different ways. Some view it as a reference to Vladimir Lenin, the communist dictator who led the Russian Revolution in 1917 and who built the USSR, which was later ruled by Josef Stalin. The "Marx" referred to here would be the socialist philosopher Karl Marx. Others believe it is about John Lennon, whose songs often reflected a very communistic theology (particularly "Imagine"). Some have even suggested that in the latter case, "Marx" is actually Groucho Marx, another cynical entertainer who was suspected of being a socialist, and whose wordplay was often similar to Lennon's lyrics.


 
"Did you write the book of love" is probably a reference to the 1958 hit "Book of Love" by the Monotones. The chorus for that song is "Who wrote the book of love? Tell me, tell me... I wonder, wonder who" etc. One of the lines asks, "Was it someone from above?" Don McLean was a practicing Catholic, and believed in the depravity of '60s music, hence the closing lyric: "The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died." Some, have postulated that in this line, the Trinity represents Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper


 
Some more interpretations:

"And moss grows fat on our rolling stone" - Mick Jagger's appearance at a concert in skin-tight outfits, displaying a roll of fat, unusual for the skinny Stones frontman. Also, the words, "You know a rolling stone don't gather no moss" appear in the Buddy Holly song "Early in the Morning," which is about his ex missing him early in the morning when he's gone.




"The quartet practiced in the park" - The Beatles singing at Shea Stadium.




"And we sang dirges in the dark, the day the music died" - The '60s peace marches.




"Helter Skelter in a summer swelter" - The Manson Family's attack on Sharon Tate and others in California.




"We all got up to dance, Oh, but we never got the chance, 'cause the players tried to take the field, the marching band refused to yield" - The huge numbers of young people who went to Chicago for the 1968 Democratic Party National Convention, and who thought they would be part of the process ("the players tried to take the field"), only to receive a violently rude awakening by the Chicago Police Department nightsticks (the commissions who studied the violence after-the-fact would later term the Chicago PD as "conducting a full-scale police riot") or as McLean calls the police "the marching band."




 
Madonna covered this in 2000 for the movie The Next Best Thing. Her version topped the UK charts and peaked at #29 in the US. It was her friend, the English actor Rupert Everett, who suggested Madonna record a cover of this song and sang backup on her version.


On January 29, 2007 Madonna's recording was voted the worst ever cover version in a poll by BBC 6 Music. Despite the critical derision, McLean had good things to say about Madonna's cover, and he released this statement: "Madonna is a colossus in the music industry and she is going to be considered an important historical figure as well. She is a fine singer, a fine songwriter and record producer, and she has the power to guarantee success with any song she chooses to record. It is a gift for her to have recorded 'American Pie.' I have heard her version and I think it is sensual and mystical. I also feel that she's chosen autobiographical verses that reflect her career and personal history. I hope it will cause people to ask what's happening to music in America. I have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I have ever received a gift from a goddess."




Madonna was supposed to perform her version at the Super Bowl in 2001, but backed out, claiming she did not have enough time to prepare. No one was too upset.


 
At 8 minutes 32 seconds, this is the longest song in length to hit #1 on the Hot 100. The single was split in two parts because the 45 did not have enough room for the whole song on one side. The A-side ran 4:11 and the B-side was 4:31 - you had to flip the record in the middle to hear all of it. Disc jockeys usually played the album version at full length, which was to their benefit because it gave them time for a snack, a cigarette or a bathroom break.


 
In 1971, a singer named Lori Lieberman saw McLean perform this at the Troubadour theater in Los Angeles. She claimed that she was so moved by the concert that her experience became the basis for her song "Killing Me Softly With His Song" which was a huge hit for Roberta Flack in 1973. When we spoke with who wrote "Killing Me Softly" with Norman Gimbel, he explained that when Lieberman heard their song, it reminded her of the show, and she had nothing to do with writing the song.

 
McLean (from his website): "I'm very proud of the song. It is biographical in nature and I don't think anyone has ever picked up on that. The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become, so it's part reality and part fantasy but I'm always in the song as a witness or as even the subject sometimes in some of the verses. You know how when you dream something you can see something change into something else and it's illogical when you examine it in the morning but when you're dreaming it seems perfectly logical. So it's perfectly okay for me to talk about being in the gym and seeing this girl dancing with someone else and suddenly have this become this other thing that this verse becomes and moving on just like that. That's why I've never analyzed the lyrics to the song. They're beyond analysis. They're poetry."


 
This song did a great deal to revive interest in Buddy Holly. Says McLean: "By 1964, you didn't hear anything about Buddy Holly. He was completely forgotten. But I didn't forget him, and I think this song helped make people aware that Buddy's legitimate musical contribution had been overlooked. When I first heard 'American Pie' on the radio, I was playing a gig somewhere, and it was immediately followed by Peggy Sue' They caught right on to the Holly connection, and that made me very happy. I realized that it was actually gonna perform some good works."


 
In 2002, this was featured in a Chevrolet ad. It showed a guy in his Chevy singing along to the end of this song. At the end, he gets out and it is clear that he was not going to leave the car until the song was over. The ad played up the heritage of Chevrolet, which has a history of being mentioned in famous songs (the line in this one is "Drove my Chevy to the levee"). Chevy used the same idea a year earlier when it ran billboards of a red Corvette that said, "They don't write songs about Volvos."


 
Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this song for his 1999 album Running With Scissors. It was called "The Saga Begins" and was about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace written from the point of view of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sample lyric: "Bye, bye this here Anakin guy, maybe Vader someday later but now just a small fry."




It was the second Star Wars themed parody for Weird Al - his first being "Yoda," which is a takeoff on "Lola" by The Kinks. Al admitted that he wrote "The Saga Begins" before the movie came out, entirely based on Internet rumors.


 
While being interviewed in the 1991, McLean was asked for probably the 1000th time "What does the song 'American Pie' mean to you?," to which he answered, "It means never having to work again for the rest of my life."


 
The line "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack Flash sat on a candle stick" is taken from a nursery rhyme that goes "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick." Jumping over the candlestick comes from a game where people would jump over fires. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" is a Rolling Stones song. Another possible reference to The Stones can be found in the line, "Fire is the devils only friend," which could be The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil," which is on the same Rolling Stones album.


 
McLean wrote the opening verse first, then came up with the chorus, including the famous title. The phrase "as American as apple pie" was part of the lexicon, but "American Pie" was not. When McLean came up with those two words, he says "a light went off in my head."




In the liner notes to the 2003 reissue of the album, McLean said: "A month or so later I was in Philadelphia and I wrote the rest of the song. I was trying to figure out what this song was trying to tell me and where it was supposed to go. That's when I realized it had to go forward from 1957 and it had to take in everything that has happened. I had to be a witness to the things going o, kind of like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. I didn't know anything about hit records. I was just trying to make the most interesting and exciting record that I could. Once the song was written, there was no doubt that it was the whole enchilada. It was clearly a very interesting, wonderful thing and everybody knew it."


 
When the original was released at a whopping 8:32, some radio stations in the United States refused to play it because of a policy limiting airplay to 3:30. Some interpret the song as a protest against this policy. When Madonna covered the song many years later, she cut huge swathes of the song, ironically to make it more radio friendly, to 4:34 on the album and under 4 minutes for the radio edit.


 
This song was enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, 29 years after it was snubbed for the four categories it was nominated in. At the 1973 ceremony, "American Pie" lost both Song of the Year and Record of the year to "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."


 
Regarding the lyrics, "Jack Flash sat on a candlestick, 'cause fire is the devil's only friend," this could be a reference to the space program, and to the role it played in the Cold War between America and Russia throughout the '60s. It is central to McLean's theme of the blending of the political turmoil and musical protest as they intertwined through our lives during this remarkable point in history. Thus, the reference incorporates Jack Flash (the Rolling Stones), with our first astronaut to orbit the earth, John (common nickname for John is Jack) Glenn, paired with "Flash" an allusion to fire, with another image for a rocket launch, "candlestick," then pulls the whole theme together with "'cause fire is the Devil's (Russia's) only friend" (as Russia had beaten us to manned orbital flight.


 
Fans still make the occasional pilgrimage to the spot of the plane crash that inspired this song.


The song starts in mono, and gradually goes to stereo over its eight-and-a-half minutes. This was done to represent going from the monaural era into the age of stereo.


 
Contrary to local lore, McLean neither wrote "American Pie" on cocktail napkins at the Tin and Lint in Saratoga Springs, New York, nor debuted it on stage at Caffe Lena, a famous coffeehouse around the corner from the bar. Speaking to Saratoga newspaper The Post-Star in November 2011, McLean disclosed that he penned the song in Philadelphia and performed it for the first time at Temple University, where he was billed to perform with Laura Nyro. "I have heard this for years. I guess you can't really control these things, but these are both not true. That is from the horse's mouth that's exactly what happened," McLean said. "Unfortunately Caffe Lena or Saratoga Springs - neither of those places can lay claim to anything with regard to 'American Pie.'"


 
This song was a forebear to the '50s nostalgia the became popular later in the decade. A year after it was released, Elton John scored a '50s-themed hit with "Crockodile Rock; in 1973 the George Lucas movie American Graffiti harkened back to that decade, and in 1978 the movie The Buddy Holly Story hit theaters.


 
One of the more bizarre covers of this song came in 1972, when it appeared on the album Meet The Brady Bunch, performed by the cast of the TV show. This version runs just 3:39.


 
This song appears in the films Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Celebrity (1998) and Josie and the Pussycats (2001).


 
Don McLean's original manuscript of "American Pie" was sold for $1.2 million at a Christie's New York auction on April 7, 2015. McLean wrote for the catalog description:




"Basically in 'American Pie' things are heading in the wrong direction… It is becoming less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense. I was around in 1970 and now I am around in 2015… there is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of 'American Pie'."



'Vincent'



The words and imagery of this song represent the life, work, and death of Vincent Van Gogh. A Starry Night is one of the Dutch impressionist's most famous paintings.




The lyrics, "Paint your palette blue and gray" reflect the prominent colors of the painting, and are probably a reference to Vincent's habit of sucking on or biting his paintbrushes while he worked. The "ragged men in ragged clothes" and "how you tried to set them free" refer to Van Gogh's humanitarian activities and love of the socially outcast as also reflected in his paintings and drawings. "They would not listen/They did not know how" refers to Van Gogh's family and some associates who were critical of his kindness to "the wretched."




"How you suffered for your sanity" refers to the schizophrenic disorder from which Van Gogh suffered.


 
McLean told The Daily Telegraph February 24, 2010 the story of this song: "In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn't crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy' – because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought]. So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag."


 
McLean was going through a dark period when he wrote this song. He explained to The Daily Telegraph: "I was in a bad marriage that was torturing me. I was tortured. I wasn't as badly off as Vincent was, but I wasn't thrilled, let's put it that way."


 
This song, and Van Gogh's painting, reflect what it's like to be misunderstood. Van Gogh painted "Starry Night" after committing himself to an asylum in 1889. He wrote that night was "more richly colored than the day," but he couldn't go outside to see the stars when he was committed, so he painted the night sky from memory.


 
Talking about the song on the UK show Songbook, McLean said: "It was inspired by a book. And it said that it was written by Vincent's brother, Theo. And Theo also had this illness, the same one Van Gogh had. So what caused the idea to percolate in my head was, first of all, what a beautiful idea for a piece of music. Secondly, I could set the record straight, basically, he wasn't crazy. But then I thought, well, how do you do this? Again, I wanted to have each thing be different.




I'm looking through the book and fiddling around and I saw the painting. I said, Wow, just tell the story using the color, the imagery, the movement, everything that's in the painting. Because that's him more than he is him.




One thing I want to say is that music is like poetry in so many ways. You have wit and drama and humor and pathos and anger and all of these things create the subtle tools that an artist, a stage artist, a good one, uses. Sadly, this has really gone out of music completely. So it makes someone like me a relic, because I am doing things and people like me are doing things that utilize all the classic means of emotional expression."


 
There could be some religious meaning in this song. McLean is a practicing Catholic, and has written songs like "Jerusalem" and "Sister Fatima" that deal with his faith. The "Starry Night" could mean creation, with many of the other lyrics referring to Jesus. McLean has said that several of the songs on the American Pie album have a religious aspect to them, notably the closing track "Babylon."


  
Irish singer Brian Kennedy sang this song at footballer George Best's funeral.


 
According to the movie Tupac, the Resurrection, Gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur was influenced by Don McLean, and this was his favorite song. When he was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting in 1996, his girlfriend put this tune into a player next to his hospital bed to ensure it was the last thing he heard.


 
Underneath the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, there is a time capsule that contains the sheet music to this song along with some of the artist's brushes. This song is often played at the museum.


 
This soundtracked the moment on the "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky" episode of The Simpsons when Lisa becomes interested in astronomy.


 

DAY 225.
Led Zeppelin..................................Led Zeppelin IV









Responsible for at least two generations of bedroom air guitarists, Led Zeppelin's....IV practically defined hard rock and heavy metal.

It drew on folk music, the blues, rock 'n' roll, and even psychedelia, but make no mistake,...IV was also about a  band grooming itself for stadium-level success.

Led Zeppelin IV reveals a group at the height of it's powers, and enjoying itself.



Will do a catch up tonight, been pretty low since Tuesday night, and to be honest these last two albums don't look like changing my mood, but I might get a surprise.

Last edited by arabchanter (22/3/2018 11:32 am)

DAY 224.
Emerson, Lake, And Palmer........................Tarkus    (1971)









'Tarkus' to be fair started of on a sticky wicket, the first side of the album being the 20 minute Keith Emerson wankathon,

This is supposed to be in seven parts , but Emerson's constant barging in, and frantic keyboard playing makes it quite difficult to know when one bit starts and the other ends, when I say "I got lost in the music" I  mean literally lost.

The second side is slightly better, but I think that may be because the tracks are a lot shorter, to pick my favourite track, would be like picking my favourite Rangers/The Rangers player............impossible as I probably hated them all.


This album is not coming anywhere near my gaff, and if you need persuaded, I'll leave this fact here;


There were 63 roadies on their 1977 tour, including a karate instructor for Palmer and their own doctor. It was also rumoured they had a "carpet roadie," whose job was to transport and sweep the Persian rug Lake stood on during the concerts. They also used a 70 piece orchestra.  (I rest my case)



Bits & Bobs;


The drum kit Carl Palmer played in concert cost $25,000 to make. It had a xylophone, tympani, and gong.

The kit was a one of a kind custom set made out of the best quality stainless steel. Palmer innovated rock drumming when he hired synth inventor Robert Moog to create and install a custom synthesizer module for each one of his drums. Each drum also was hand engraved by a highly skilled artisan with custom designs and set with real gem stones. Always a perfectionist, Palmer furthered his classical training in percussion studies at the London Conservatory after joining ELP. His goal was to always continue to improve his proven technical skills of speed, precision, range and expression. Palmer drove himself relentlessly to keep pace with the nearly impossible demands of the group's endless quest to fuse rock music spectacle with classical music's timeless chic.


 
They recorded an album per year for their first four years, then took a two-year break. When they returned to action, they released the albums Works Volume 1 and Works Volume 2, which were more eclectic and less commercial than their previous albums.


 
The band is often described as "prog rock," but Carl Palmer feels that's too simplistic. "We were a band that played lots of different genres of music, from jazz to classical adaptations to folk music to rock, and even some blues here and there," he said."We were quite varied in what we did, so it's really hard to pick out one particular area, because it all made up ELP. There wasn't a blueprint before: We were one of a kind. We were keyboard driven, the singer had a choirboy voice, didn't really use a lot of guitar. We played classical adaptations. There wasn't a lot of jazz in it or blues. A little bit of rock in a sort of symphonic way."


 
There were 63 roadies on their 1977 tour, including a karate instructor for Palmer and their own doctor. It was also rumored they had a "carpet roadie," whose job was to transport and sweep the Persian rug Lake stood on during the concerts. They also used a 70 piece orchestra.


 
Lake was previously in King Crimson, Emerson was in The Nice. They met in 1969 when both bands played a show at The Fillmore West in San Francisco. ( f'kn new it, at the end of the first side, sounded like the old stylophones were back in fashion)


 
In 1986, Emerson and Lake reformed the group with Cozy Powell on drums. Since Powell's last name starts with P, they kept the name ELP.


 
The artwork for the 1973 album Brain Salad Surgery was done by HR Geiger, who created the sets for the movie Alien.


 
Their 1974 album, Welcome Back My Friends... was the first triple-LP to sell one million copies.


 
Several years in a row, ELP won top honors from the rock magazine Melody Maker. In 1972, they won for Top Group, British and International; Emerson as the top keyboard man; Palmer's trophy as top drummer; Lake's as the world's most accomplished producer; ELP as the top pop arrangers; and finally the shared award, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake taking honors as the world's top composers.


 
Before forming Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Keith Emerson and Greg Lake were considering Mitch Mitchell as their drummer, and with the suggestion of Mitchell adding Jimi Hendrix to their lineup. But they later settled on drummer Carl Palmer to form ELP. Shortly afterwards, British tabloids began publishing rumors that Hendrix, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer had formed to become HELP But before the band was able to collaborate with Hendrix, he had passed away.


 
Palmer formed another supergroup in 1981: Asia. This one had four members, but was also very keyboard oriented with Geoff Downes of Yes.




"Tarkus"



This progressive epic runs 20:42 and takes up the entire first side of the album. The parts are:

Eruption
Stone of Years
Iconoclast
Mass
Manticore
Battlefield
Aquatarkus

 
This song describes the story of a war machine called Tarkus (a mixture between an armadillo and a tank). This creature emerges from an egg that is beside a volcanic crater that is making an eruption. Then a cybernetic creature that looks like a futuristic station, this creature is destroyed by Tarkus' turrets. After that comes a creature called Iconoclast, that is a mixture between pterodactyl and a war airplane. This creature battles, but can't compare to Tarkus and loses the battle.




Another creature appears named Mass (a mixture of lizard, lobster and a rocket launcher), and after a battle Mass loses the battle and Tarkus continues his bloody adventure. After three victories Tarkus faces a mythological creature called Manticore (this creature has a human face, lion's body and scorpion's tail). Tarkus faces Manticore and is stung in his eye. Manticore forces Tarkus to go back, and Manticore defeats Tarkus, whose body falls down to a river. But though Tarkus seems to be dead you can't be sure because his turrets are not damaged.


 
Greg Lake, who wrote the lyrics for this track, explains: "The initial inspiration for this record came from the music that Keith (Emerson) had written. Following on from this I wrote various songs and worked together with Keith and Carl (Palmer) as a producer to create the record you now hear. Tarkus has been the backbone performance piece for ELP and has certainly stood the test of time. It is one of the best examples of the musical genius of Keith Emerson as a composer and of the band ELP working and performing together at the very top of their game."


 
The album cover, created by the artist William Neal, shows a depiction of Tarkus. While most ELP albums were completed long before the cover art was done, in this case, it helped adhere the songs. Lake explains: "The album cover art lent a sort of visual concept to an album which didn't really have a bonding concept at all. Before the album sleeve was conceived the whole thing was just a string of various musical and lyrical concepts weaved together into one continuous arrangement."


 
Keith Emerson poured through Greek mythology looking for a name for this song, but came up empty. Inspiration struck when the word "Tarkus" popped into his head when the band was driving back from a gig. It conjured up visions of a tank, so the idea developed to make the new mythological creature an armadillo (because of its armor) with tank treads. Emerson says that the word is completely original, and the only thing he's heard close to it is "tukhus" - a Yiddish word for the rear end.


 
Always a very theatrical band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer at one point shared the stage with a model of the Tarkus creature, which would blast a foamy substance at key moments. This provided a Spinal Tap moment when during a show that Carl Palmer recalls being in Brighton, the creature was aimed in the wrong direction, and the foam went into Emerson's grand piano. "We had to stop the show and on came the roadies with the dustpans and the Hoover to clear it out," Palmer said.


 Carl Palmer, said: "The greatest piece collectively as a band, which really was a blueprint for a lot of up-and-coming prog rock groups to follow, would have been 'Tarkus.'




The music in 'Tarkus' was very, very simple. It was a 10/8 rhythm, which I played to Keith, and I said, 'We could count this in 5/4, this is where the accents are.' He wrote, then, a topline that went wherever the accents were, and we had the melody. This was a fantastic piece of music, unbelievable.




All that was wrong with 'Tarkus' was it probably wasn't as mature as a concept lyrically as what it should have been. It was just a group of songs nailed together, but the actual music itself was outstanding. It just didn't have the political overtones that something like Pink Floyd had with The Wall. It wasn't that in-depth. But the music was superior, was absolutely fantastic. We just never really carried it through far enough intellectually.




So great album, great, great music, just didn't cap it off completely. But very proud of it."



P.S  I did love the album cover

 

 

Compared to quite a bit of the stuff lately on the list, Led Zeppelin IV is a shining beacon.

Probably the most famous song is the one I like least (Stairway to Heaven) and it has been involved in ongoing controversy over the years. What I didn't like about Led Zeppelin, found them a wee bit over-serious about themselves, but after reading the stuff about ELP, they weren't as far up their own arseholes as that progressive 'supergroup'.

DAY 225.
Led Zeppelin..................................Led Zeppelin IV






 Very surprised that I liked this one, whether it was the music or maybe nostalgic meanderings from the past, I don't really know.

Back in the day the opening two tracks, "Black Dog" and "Rock and roll" were favourites in The Centre Bar and the disco's in the Tay Centre and of course,"Stairway To Heaven" always joined them, these three plus "Going To California" a lovely acoustic melody, has made me forget the tossers which make up the band, and even if it is for nostalgia's sake I'm going to get this on vinyl. the opening two tracks definitely swung it for me.




Bits & Bobs;
Have posted numerous bits about this mob already (If interested)




"Black Dog"


The title does not appear in the lyrics, and has nothing to do with the song itself. The band worked up the song at Headley Grange, which was a mansion in Hampshire, England. Headley Grange was out in the country, surrounded by woods. A nameless black Labrador Retriever would wander the grounds, and the band would feed it. When they needed a name for this track - which didn't have an obvious title - they thought of the canine and went with "Black Dog."


 
Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones got the idea for this song after hearing Muddy Waters' 1968 album Electric Mud. He wanted to try "Electric Blues with a rolling bass part," and "a riff that would be like a linear journey."




Jones rarely had completed songs together, but the bits and pieces he brought to Led Zeppelin's writing sessions proved worthy. When they started putting the album together, Jones introduced this riff, the song started to form. The first version Jones played was comically complex. "It was originally all in 3/16 time, but no one could keep up with that," he said.




When the mobile recording studio (owned by The Rolling Stones) showed up at the mansion, this song was ready to go and recorded there.


 
This is the first track on Led Zeppelin 4, which became the band's best-selling album. A wide range of musical styles show up on the set, with "Black Dog" exemplifying the blues-rock that was the bedrock of the band's sound.




The album itself is technically untitled, with symbols on the cover instead of words., but since it was their fourth album, it became known as Led Zeppelin 4. Some fans also referred to it as "ZoSo," which is a rough translation Jimmy Page's symbol.



 
In this song, Robert Plant is singing about a woman who appeals to his prurient interests, but is clearly no good for him - he tells himself he'd rather have a "steady rollin' woman" come his way.




Robert Plant explained in an interview with Cameron Crowe: "Not all my stuff is meant to be scrutinized. Things like 'Black Dog' are blatant, let's-do-it-in-the-bath type things, but they make their point just the same."


 
The start-and-stop a cappella verses were inspired by Fleetwood Mac's 1969 song "Oh Well." Before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac in 1974, they were more of a Blues band led by guitarist Peter Green. Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes performed "Oh Well" on their 1999 tour and included it on the album Live At The Greek.


 The lyrics never approached "Stairway to Heaven" level scrutiny, but were still subject to some interesting interpretations. Jimmy Page's interest in the occultist Aleister Crowley, combined with the image of the Hermit (from the Tarot) in the album art and the band's disappearance when they set off to Headley Grange to record, led some listeners to conclude that the titular dog was some kind of hellhound, and that the line, "Eyes that shine burning red, dreams of you all through my head," had something to do with Satan.


 
The sounds at the beginning are Jimmy Page warming up his guitar. He called it "Waking up the army of guitars."


 
Even by Led Zeppelin standards, this is a very complex song musically, with a chaotic blend of riffs and time signatures that make it very difficult to play and a testament to the band's musicianship. When the drums and guitar kick in, they're actually playing completely different patterns, which is something devised by John Paul Jones. The only real consistent element in the song are the vocal interludes. This is not a song you'd want to dance to.


 The songwriting credits on this one read: John Paul Jones/Jimmy Page/Robert Plant. Some bands - like U2 and R.E.M. - would credit every member on their original songs, but Zeppelin decided amongst themselves who would get the credits (and associated royalties). Page and Plant were almost always listed (Plant handled lyrics), but whether Jones or Bonham showed up as a writer depended on their contributions. This track was one where Jones clearly deserved a credit; he is also listed on the album as a co-writer of "Rock And Roll," Misty Mountain Hop" and "When The Levee Breaks."



Robert Plant's vocal was recorded in just two takes, marking one of his most memorable performances. His vocal booth was the drawing room at the Headley Grange mansion, which engineer Andy Johns set up with egg crates covering the walls as a sound-soak.



The guitars are heavily layered. Four separate Jimmy Page guitar tracks were overdubbed. Page recorded the guitar directly into a 1176 limiter preamp (manufactured by Universal Audio), distorted the stages of it, and then sent that to a normally operating limiter. In other words, no guitar amplifier was used in the recording process.




It has been claimed that John Paul Jones arranged the complicated time signatures so nobody would be able to cover the song. Asked about the allegations during Australia's Triple M Led Zeppelin special, he responded by saying the story was just a myth, adding: "I actually wrote it in rehearsal from Jimmy's house on the train. My dad was a musician and he showed me a way of writing down notation on anything. And so I wrote the riff to 'Black Dog' on the back of a train ticket which I unfortunately don't have."


"Whole Lotta Love" made #4 on the US Hot 100, and "Black Dog" was their next highest-charting song. Most of their tracks were not released as singles, and fans of the band were far more likely buy the albums.



As Robert Plant sings every line after the music stops, you can faintly hear Bonham tapping his drumsticks together to keep the time.



This was one of the few songs for which John Paul Jones used a pick to play his bass.



Robert Plant would sometimes improvise some of the lyrics in concert, substituting lines like, "I've got a girl that loves me so love me so sweet jelly roll."



Apparently, Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas can knock out a killer version of this song. Slash from Guns 'N' Roses told NME, March 22, 2010: "I first heard Fergie three years ago at a fundraiser in LA, where I was one of many guests with the Black-Eyed Peas. I was going to play during a rock medley, and in walks this little blonde girl from Orange County, and she sang 'Black Dog‚' better than any guy I'd ever heard.''



Note the lyrics, "Baby, when you walk that way, watch your honey drip, can't keep away." In 1981, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page formed a group called The Honeydrippers, which scored a hit with a remake of "Sea Of Love."




"Rock And Roll"



 
As the title suggests, the song is based on one of the most popular structures in rock and roll; namely, the 12 bar blues progression (in A). The phrase "Rock and Roll" was a term blues musicians used, which meant sex.


 
The band often used this either as an encore or to open live shows from 1971-1975.


 
This song came about when the band was working on "Four Sticks" at the Headley Grange mansion they had rented in Hampshire, England to record the album. With a pretty much unplayable drum pattern, John Bonham got frustrated with the session, and tensions rose. In a pique of anger, he started playing something completely different: a riff based on the intro to the 1957 Little Richard song "Keep a Knockin'" (Session great Earl Palmer was the drummer on that one).




Infused with creative energy, they put "Four Sticks" aside and started working on this new song, which they called "It's Been a Long Time." Jimmy Page blasted out a guitar part, and the bones of the song were completed in about 30 minutes.


 
Nicky Hopkins played the piano on this track. Hopkins was a renowned session player who appeared on tracks for The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and many others.


 
Robert Plant wrote the lyrics, which were a response to critics who claimed their previous album, Led Zeppelin III, wasn't really rock and roll. Led Zeppelin III had more of an acoustic, folk sound, and Plant wanted to prove they could still rock out.


 
Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones played this at Live Aid in 1985. It was the first time they played together since the death of John Bonham in 1980. Tony Thompson and Phil Collins sat in for Bonham on drums, which didn't go over well with Page and Plant. When the band reformed for a benefit show on December 10, 2007, it was with John Bonham's son Jason on drums. This was the last song they played at the show, which raised money for the Ahmet Ertegun education fund.


 
Besides Live Aid, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin played this on two other occasions. When Robert Plant's daughter Carmen turned 21 in 1989, they played it at her birthday party. They also played it at Jason Bonham's wedding in 1990. Jason is John Bonham's son, and he sat in on drums on both performances.


 
This has been covered by many other artists, including Def Leppard and Heart. In 2001, it was recorded by Double Trouble (Stevie Ray Vaughan's backup band), for their 2001 album Been A Long Time. Susan Tedeschi sang lead on the track.


 
All four band members got writing credits for this. Many Zeppelin songs are credited only to Page and Plant.


 
This was the first Led Zeppelin song used in a commercial. Cadillac used it to kick off a new advertising campaign in 2002 with the tagline "Breakthrough." The company was going for a hip, new image, since their audience was slowly dying off. The spots aired for the first time on the Super Bowl, and sales rose 16% the next year.


 
Stevie Nicks added this to her live set in 2001.


 
Since the death of his father, Jason Bonham has filled in behind the drum set for various Led Zeppelin reunion gigs. He told American Songwriter this is the hardest Zeppelin song to play as, "a lot of people out there try and play it, and really it's a two-handed shuffle all the way through, playing the sixteenth notes, it's not just boom bap-boom-bap-boom- bap, it's boom-boom-bap-bap-boom-boom-bap-bap on the snare and the hi-hat. It's a hard one to play properly."



"Stairway To Heaven"



The most famous rock song of all time, "Stairway To Heaven" wasn't a chart hit because it was never released as a single to the general public. Radio stations received promotional singles which quickly became collector's items.




On Tuesday November 13, 2007, Led Zeppelin's entire back catalogue was made available as legal digital downloads, making all of their tracks eligible for the UK singles chart. As a result, at the end of that week the original version of "Stairway To Heaven" arrived in the UK singles charts for the first time. Previously, three covers had charted: the multinational studio band Far Corporation reached #8 with their version in 1985, then reggae tribute act Dread Zeppelin crawled to #62 in 1991 and finally Rolf Harris' reworking outdid the other two, peaking at #7 in 1993.


 
Robert Plant spent much of the '70s answering questions about the lyrics he wrote for "Stairway." When asked why the song was so popular, he said it could be its "abstraction," adding, "Depending on what day it is, I still interpret the song a different way - and I wrote the lyrics."




The lyrics take some pretty wild turns, but the beginning of the song is about a woman who accumulates money, only to find out the hard way her life had no meaning and will not get her into heaven. This is the only part Plant would really explain, as he said it was "a woman getting everything she wanted without giving anything back."


 
Led Zeppelin started planning "Stairway" in early 1970, when they decided to create a new, epic song to replace "Dazed And Confused" as the centerpiece of their concerts. Jimmy Page would work on the song in an 8-track studio he had installed in his boathouse, trying out different sections on guitar. By April, he was telling journalists that their new song might be 15-minutes long, and described it as something that would "build towards a climax" with John Bonham's drums not coming in for some time. In October 1970, after about 18 months of near constant touring, the song took shape. Page and Plant explained that they started working on it at a 250-year-old Welsh cottage called Bron-yr-Aur, where they wrote the songs for Led Zeppelin III. Page sometimes told a story of the pair sitting by a fire at the cabin as they composed it, a tale that gives the song a mystical origin story, as there could have been spirits at play within those walls.




Page told a different story under oath: When he was called to the stand in 2016 as part of a plagiarism trial over this song, he said that he wrote the music on his own and first played it for his bandmates at Headley Grange in Liphook Road, Headley, Hampshire, where they recorded it using a mobile studio owned by The Rolling Stones. Plant corroborated the story in his testimony.




Headley Grange may not be as enchanting as Bron-yr-Aur, but the place had some character: It was a huge, old, dusty mansion with no electricity but great acoustics. Bands would go there to get some privacy and focus on songwriting, as the biggest distractions were the sheep and other wildlife.


 
Robert Plant recalled writing the lyrics in a flash of inspiration. Said Plant: "I was holding a pencil and paper, and for some reason I was in a very bad mood. Then all of a sudden my hand was writing out the words, 'There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold/And she's buying a stairway to heaven.' I just sat there and looked at the words and then I almost leapt out of my seat."




Plant's implication that something else was moving his pencil for him led to speculation that it was Satan who was dictating the words, and along with the backward messages and Page's Aleister Crowley connection, there was enough evidence for many listeners that the devil had some role in creating this song.




 
This is rumored to contain backward satanic messages, as if Led Zeppelin sold their souls to the devil in exchange for "Stairway To Heaven." Supporting this theory is the fact that Jimmy Page bought Aleister Crowley's house in Scotland, known as Boleskine House. In his books, Crowley advocated that his followers learn to read and speak backwards.




Robert Plant addressed the issue in an interview with Musician magazine: "'Stairway To Heaven' was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music. It's really sad. The first time I heard it was early in the morning when I was living at home, and I heard it on a news program. I was absolutely drained all day. I walked around, and I couldn't actually believe, I couldn't take people seriously who could come up with sketches like that. There are a lot of people who are making money there, and if that's the way they need to do it, then do it without my lyrics. I cherish them far too much."


 
This runs 8:03, but still became one of the most-played songs on American radio, proving that people wouldn't tune out just because a song was long. It was a perfect fit for FM radio, which was a newer format challenging the established AM with better sound quality and more variety. "Stairway" fit nicely into what was called the "Album Oriented Rock" (AOR) format, and later became a staple of Classic Rock. By most measures, it is the most-played song in the history of American FM radio. It has also sold more sheet music than any other rock song - about 10,000 to 15,000 copies a year, and more than one million total.


 
Jimmy Page has a strong affinity for this song, and felt Robert Plant's lyrics were his best yet. He had him write all of Zeppelin's lyrics from then on.




In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine (March 13, 1975) the interviewer, Cameron Crowe, asked Jimmy Page how important "Stairway To Heaven" was to him. Page replied: "To me, I thought 'Stairway' crystallized the essence of the band. It had everything there and showed the band at its best... as a band, as a unit. Not talking about solos or anything, it had everything there. We were careful never to release it as a single. It was a milestone for us. Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality, something which will hold up for a long time and I guess we did it with 'Stairway.' Townshend probably thought that he got it with Tommy. I don't know whether I have the ability to come up with more. I have to do a lot of hard work before I can get anywhere near those stages of consistent, total brilliance."


 
This was the only song whose lyrics were printed on the album's inner sleeve.


 
Many novice guitarists try to learn this song, and most end up messing it up. In the movie Wayne's World, it is banned in the guitar shop where Wayne (Mike Myers) starts playing it. If you saw the movie in theaters, you heard Wayne play the first few notes of the song before being scolded and pointed to a sign that says "NO Stairway To Heaven" (Wayne: "No Stairway. Denied."). Because of legal issues - apparently even a few notes of "Stairway To Heaven" have to be cleared, and good luck with that - the video and TV releases of the movie were changed so Wayne plays something incomprehensible. This novice guitar Stairway cliché later showed up on an episode of South Park when the character Towelie tries to play the song in a talent show and screws it up.


 
Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones decided not to use a bass on this because it sounded like a folk song. Instead, he added a string section, keyboards and flutes. He also played wooden recorders that were used on the intro. Bonham's drums do not come in until 4:18.


 
Robert Plant is a great admirer of all things mystic, the old English legends and lore and the writings of the Celts. He was immersed in the books Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by Lewis Spence and The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. The Tolkien inspiration can be heard in the phrase, "In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees," which could be a reference to the smoke rings blown by the wizard Gandalf. There is also a correlation between the lady in the song and the character from the book, Lady Galadriel, the Queen of Elves who lives in the golden forest of Lothlorien. In the book, all that glittered around her was in fact gold, as the leaves of the trees in the forest of Lothlorien were golden.


  
Many critics trashed this song when it came out: Lester Bangs described it as "a thicket of misbegotten mush, and the British music magazine Sounds said it induced "first boredom and then catatonia."


 
Led Zeppelin played this for the first time in Belfast on March 5, 1971 - Northern Ireland was a war zone at the time and there was rioting in nearby streets. John Paul Jones said in an audio documentary that when they played it, the audience was not that impressed. They wanted to hear something they knew - like "Whole Lotta Love"




The song got a better reception when the band started the US leg of their tour. In an excerpt from Led Zeppelin; The Definitive Biography by Ritchie Yorke, Jimmy Page said of playing the song at an August 1971 show at the Los Angeles Forum: "I'm not saying the whole audience gave us a standing ovation - but there was this sizable standing ovation there. And I thought, 'This is incredible because no one's heard this number yet. This is the first time hearing it!' It obviously touched them, so I knew there was something with that one."


 
Jimmy Page considers this a masterpiece, but Robert Plant does not share his fondness for the song. Plant has referred to it as a "wedding song" and insists that his favorite Led Zeppelin song is "Kashmir" After the band broke up, Plant refused to sing it except on rare occasions, including Live Aid.


 
This was the last song the remaining members of Led Zeppelin performed when they reunited for Live Aid in 1985. Bob Geldof organized the event, and did his best to get many famous bands to play even if they had broken up. Unlike The Who, Geldof had an easy time convincing Plant, Page, and Jones to play the show. They played the Philadelphia stage with Tony Thompson and Phil Collins sitting in on drums.


 
The acoustic, fingerpicking intro is very similar to the song "Taurus" from the band Spirit, who toured with Led Zeppelin when they first played the US. "Taurus" is a guitar instrumental written by the group's guitarist, Randy California, and included on their debut album in 1968. It was part of the band's set and Jimmy Page admitted that he owned the album.





Randy California never took any legal action against Led Zeppelin or sought compensation from them. A mercurial man who drowned in 1997 at age 45, he was described by his bandmate Mark Andes as "kind of a pathetic, tortured genius."




The "Stairway" connection is just a small piece of the Spirit story. California was guitar prodigy, and when he was 15 he joined Jimi Hendrix in the group Jimmy James And The Blue Flames. Three months later, Hendrix went to England. He wanted to take California with him, but Randy's age made it impossible.




Randy played with future Steely Dan founder Walter Becker in the Long Island band Tangerine Puppets, then moved to Los Angeles where he formed Spirit with three friends and his step-father, Ed Cassidy, who played drums. They got some gigs at the Whisky a Go Go, and Lou Adler signed them to his label, Ode Records. Their first album was a modest success, but mustered just one minor hit: "Mechanical World." Written by band members Mark Andes and Jay Ferguson, it stalled at #123 US. California set out to write a hit for their second album, The Family That Plays Together (1969) and came up with "I Got A Line On You," which made #25.




It would be their biggest hit: the band declined an invitation to Woodstock and fractured in 1972, with California's already volatile mental health ravaged by drug use. The band reunited from time to time, but never got their due. By the time of California's death, few remembered "Taurus" and its connection to "Stairway To Heaven"




In 2002, a former music journalist named Michael Skidmore came into control of California's estate, and 2014 he began proceedings against Led Zeppelin. In 2016, Jimmy Page testified in the case and said that the first time he heard of the controversy when a few years earlier when his son-in-law told him that a debate had been brewing online. Page insisted he had never heard "Taurus" before, and that it was "totally alien" to him.




The jury didn't buy the argument that Page never heard "Taurus," but ruled in favor of Led Zeppelin, deciding that the chord progression in "Taurus" was common to many other songs dating back decades, and therefore, in the public domain. Here's a timeline of the case


 
Pat Boone released an unlikely cover on his album In a In a Metal Mood. Boone wanted to see how it would turn out as a jazz waltz, and opened and closed the song with soft flute playing. In a subtle reference to his Christian faith, Boone changed the line "All in one is all and all" to "Three in one is all and all" - a reference to the Christian Trinity (the Father, Son, Holy Spirit).




Before recording the song, he scanned it for devilish references. "I kept looking for allusions to witchcraft or drugs," he said. "And even though there were strange images, like 'in the hedgerows' and all these things, there were no specific mentions of Jimmy Page's involvement in witchcraft or anything like that."




Another notable cover was by an Australian performer called Rolf Harris, who used a wobbleboard (piece of quite floppy wood, held at both sides, arched slightly and wobbled so the arch would continually invert) and changed the line "And it makes me wonder" to "Does it make you wonder."


 
In the '90s, Australian TV host Andrew Denton had a show on which various artists were asked to perform their version of this song. Their versions were released on an album called The Money or the Gun: Stairways to Heaven. Artists performing it included Australian Doors Show, The Beatnix, Kate Ceberano and the Ministry of Fun, Robyne Dunn, Etcetera Theatre Company, The Fargone Beauties, Sandra Hahn and Michael Turkic, Rolf Harris, Pardon Me Boys, Neil Pepper, The Rock Lobsters, Leonard Teale, Toys Went Berserk, Vegimite Reggae, The Whipper Snappers, and John Paul Young. In reply to Rolf Harris' version, Page and Plant performed his song "Sun Arise" at the end of another Denton TV show.


 
In January 1990, this song was added to the Muzak playlist in a solo harp version. Unlike the original, the Muzak version, arranged and recorded to provide an "uplifting, productive atmosphere" and "counteract the worker-fatigue curve in the office environment," did not do so well, as even this sanitized version drew a lot of attention to the song, thus undermining the intention of the Muzak programming.


 
The band performed this at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988 with Jason Bonham sitting in on drums for his late father. Plant did not want to play it, but was convinced at the last minute. It was sloppy and Plant forgot some of the words. This was not the case when Jason joined them again in 2007 for a benefit show to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun education fund. They performed this song and 15 others, earning rave reviews from fans and critics.


 
Zeppelin's longest ever performance of this song was their last gig in Berlin in 1980. It clocked in around 15 minutes long.


 
Gordon Roy of Wishaw, Scotland had all of the lyrics to this song tattooed on his back. He did it as a tribute to a friend who died in a car accident.


 
In the late '90s, the radio trade magazine Monday Morning Replay reported that "Stairway" was still played 4,203 times a year by the 67 largest AOR (album-oriented rock) radio stations in the US. ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, refuses to release exact figures on how many times it has been played since its release, but figure that on each AOR station in America, the song was played five times a day during its first three months of existence; twice a day for the next nine months; once a day for the next four years; and two to three times a week for the next 15 years. There are roughly 600 AOR and Classic Rock stations in the US, which means that "Stairway" has been broadcast a minimum of 2,874 times. At 8 minutes per spin, roughly 23 million minutes - almost 44 years - have been devoted to the song. So far.


 
On January 23, 1991, under the direction of owner and general manager John Sebastian, the radio station KLSK (104.1 FM) in Albuquerque, New Mexico played this song over and over for 24 hours, confounding listeners who weren't used to hearing Led Zeppelin on the station. The song played over 200 times, with many listeners tuning in to find out when it would end. It turned out to be publicity stunt, as the station was switching to a Classic Rock format.


 
Explaining his guitar setup for the solo, Jimmy Page told Guitar Player magazine in 1977: "I was using the Supro amp for the first album, and I still use it. The 'Stairway to Heaven' solo was done when I pulled out the Telecaster, which I hadn't used for a long time, plugged it into the Supro, and away it went again. That's a different sound entirely from the rest of the first album. It was a good, versatile setup."


 
The Foo Fighters did a mock cover of this song, and their version was to say that nobody should try to cover the song because they will screw it up. Dave Grohl intentionally carried the intro on way too long, asked his drummer and audience for lyrics, and when it came time for the guitar solo, he sang Jimmy Page's part. This was done purely as a joke, and to tell people not to cover the song, as Grohl is a huge Zeppelin fan, and lists Zeppelin's John Bonham as a major influence.



 
Rolling Stone magazine asked Jimmy Page how much of the guitar solo was composed before he recorded it. He replied: "It wasn't structured at all [laughs]. I had a start. I knew where and how I was going to begin. And I just did it. There was an amplifier [in the studio] that I was trying out. It sounded good, so I thought, "OK, take a deep breath, and play." I did three takes and chose one of them. They were all different. The solo sounds constructed - and it is, sort of, but purely of the moment. For me, a solo is something where you just fly, but within the context of the song."


  
In solo work or with other groups, Jimmy Page would not let anyone but Robert Plant sing this, but he did play it as an instrumental on occasion.


 
The ending of this song is distinctive in that is closes out with just Robert Plant's voice. According to Jimmy Page, he wrote a guitar part to end the song, but decided to leave it off since the vocal at the end had such an impact.


  
Regarding the composition of the track, Jimmy Page told Rolling Stone: "I was trying things at home, shunting this piece up with that piece. I had the idea of the verses, the link into the solo and the last part. It was this idea of something that would keep building and building."


 

DAY 226.
Serge Gainsbourg...........................Histoire De Melody Nelson   (1971)








Quite enjoyed this as bit of escapism, with my knowledge of the French language, non existent, he could well have been singing about anything, but to be honest it didn't sound to bad.

Seemingly it's about an older man whose Rolls Royce collides with a young girl on a bike, and an affair takes place.

This isn't an album that I would buy, but it was an album that I'm glad I listened to.



Bits & Bobs;


This is a review I found, and thought I would share;


As the writer of 'Je T'Aime (Mon Non Plus)', the unlikely 1969 UK No.1 that got even us prurient Anglo-Saxons drawing the curtains in the afternoon, Gainsbourg is often mentioned in the same breath as Gallic romantic singers Sacha Distel and Charles Asnavour. This is an unfortunate association and a millstone in some ways, yet the success of that track opened the record company's coffers, enabling him and orchestral arranger Jean Claude Vannier to lavish money on 1971's Histoire de Melody Nelson. With the aid of London session musicians like Herbie Flowers and Dougie Wright as well as a 30-piece orchestra and a 70-strong choir back in Paris (not to mention Jane Birkin), they created a record of rare dynamism and of such unfettered exploration that it inspires a rare devotion in its fans to this day.
It is still in many ways a cult concern, especially outside of France, a word-of-mouth nonpareil that has its evangelists, with an underground of fans who resent the cheesy chanson tag. It's been sampled by Massive Attack, Ice T and David Holmes, while Pulp, Beck and Air would have sounded very different without it. Like no other record before, and some would say since, it consolidated funk, pop, classical and the avant-garde in the most sophisticated, seamless way, some feat considering Gainsbourg and Vannier weren't sure what was going to happen at the outset.


 The actual germ of an idea came when Gainsbourg read Lolita. "It is Humbert Humbert who fascinates me," he smirks on grainy footage of an interview from a documentary included on DVD with this reissue. His never-ending Gitane billowing in black and white, he adds "Lolita is just a silly little girl."


 He had even thought of turning Lolita into a musical with his own songs, an idea that seems contemporary even today. It's not difficult to see why Lolita, which Serge calls 'a very pure book', appealed to him. The main character is conniving, darkly humorous, complex and attractive (despite his predilections), and the novel itself kicked up an almighty shit-storm when it was published. How could he not approve?



  Dating the already married Brigitte Bardot


 In 1967 Gainsbourg became infatuated with the French siren who, while enduring a difficult time in her marriage, agreed to go on a date with him. So intimidated was he by her stunning looks that on the date, he lost all of the wit and charisma that he was renowned for. Thinking he had ruined his chances with the sultry blonde, he returned home to hear a ringing phone over which Bardot insisted that as an apology for his poor performance on the date, he write her the most beautiful love song ever The next morning, there were two: Bonnie et Clyde and Je T'aime … Moi Non Plus.


 Recording songs in steamy, sweaty vocal booths (also with Brigitte Bardot)


 Understandably, this upset Bardot's husband. Upon hearing Je T'aime … Moi Non Plus, Bardot headed to a Parisian studio with her new beau to record it. Throughout the two-hour session, sound engineer William Flageollet claimed to have witnessed "heavy petting" in the vocal booth while the sighs and whispers were committed to tape. The song had been mixed and readied for radio when Bardot, remembering that she was married, revoked her consent for its release. News of the recording had reached her husband, German businessman Gunter Sachs, and after desperate pleas, Gainsbourg relented to Bardot's wishes and the version was shelved. Bardot later went on to release the recording in 1986. And also to divorce her husband.



 Moaning and groaning on record


After shelving the original Bardot recorded version, Marianne Faithfull and Valérie Lagrange (among others) were approached to make feminine "noises", as it were, but both declined. A willing companion was, however, found in new love interest Jane Birkin. Rumours had circulated that the pair recorded some of the more intimate parts of the song by placing a microphone underneath their bed. In actual fact, the re-recording was undertaken in studios in Paris and London where the heavy breathing was claimed to have been meticulously stage-managed by Gainsbourg. Birkin has always denied the rumours of employing the under-bed recording technique ... for this song, anyway.



 Getting rich by shocking the world Je T'aime … Moi Non Plus brought huge success, notoriety, substantial record sales and worldwide outrage when it was finally released in 1969. It was No 1 throughout Europe, and was the first UK No 1 to be sung in a language other than English. By far Gainsbourg's most successful release, the song is recognised internationally as "that one with the organs and the girl having an orgasm?". The single sold millions and set the tone for what was to come next from the scandalous pair.



 Writing a concept album about falling in love with a teenage girl, who subsequently dies in a plane crash


 This was always going to raise a few eyebrows, particularly when you get your young girlfriend to pose as the eponymous teenage seductress for the album cover. 1971's Histuoire de Melody Nelson was Gainsbourg's first concept album, the story of a man who knocks a young redhead from her bicycle and falls in love with her. An ultimately tragic tale, the album is now recognised much more for its musical prowess than any underlying Lolita-inspired tones. With strings and arrangements orchestrated by the profoundly talented Jean-Claude Vannier, musicians from Beck through to Placebo and Portishead have cited this album as hugely influential on their work, demonstrating once again how Gainsbourg could overcome a scandal to emerge the immensely gifted hero.



 Embracing Nazi rock Paris,


1975. Thirty years after the end of the second world war. This would be a good moment, Gainsbourg thought to himself, to release Rock Around the Bunker, an upbeat concept album about Nazi Germany. The songs were set to swinging two-step beats, a return to a rockier feel after a few albums exploring more orchestral sounds. Opening track Nazi Rock tells the story of SS soldiers dressed as drag queens, dancing during the Night of the Long Knives. This song, combined with other tracks from the album such as Eva and SS in Uruguay led Gainsbourg, provocative as ever, to find himself in trouble for his comical take on a controversial subject.








And finally a couple of quotes;

"Snobbery is a bubble of champagne which hesitates between burping and farting."

"The man created gods. The opposite is yet to be proved."

Serge Gainsbourg.

 

Last edited by arabchanter (24/3/2018 11:21 pm)

'Every Picture' is a great album, but as it started the end of The Faces, I feel even today it's a bit tainted.

Ronnie Lane especially felt awkward about Rod Stewart becoming the new focus of the band, in the same way that Steve Marriott's craving for the focus finished the Small Faces. 

Having said that, The Faces still produced some great stuff, but Rod wanted the fame and the big bucks, and who can blame him?

DAY 228.
Emerson, Lake, And Palmer.............................................Pictures At An Exhibition   (1971)








"Pictures At An Exhibition" by ELP was nowhere near as good as Mussorgsky's masterpiece, no' even close, I don't know if Emerson thought because his name was first in the band he had to have the lions share of the music, but holy fuck did it no' half go on, and on, and on.


No' even sticking to the Mussorgsky script, no, they had to throw their own self indulgent, wanky, tracks into the mix.


These thoughts could possibly be, because I really have no time for the organ/moog/synthesizer, going back to JImmy Smith and also Booker-T this seems to be becoming a pattern for me.


The funny thing is I do love the piano, maybe because for me the notes all sound sharper, not so blurry if that makes any sense.


This album will be banished to room 101, and never to be spoken of again, no' coming near my hoose.


If you have a spare half an hour, try listening to this original piano version of "Pictures At An Exhibition," leave any preconceptions you have about classical music in another room, and relax, lie back and let it wash over you.

Let me know what you think, good or bad?

You'll have to slide it back to the beginning  for some reason











Bits & Bobs;

Have wrote about this mob in post #224  (if interested)

This is Emerson, Lake & Palmer's adaptation of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's 1874 piano suite "Pictures At An Exhibition," which was first orchestrated in 1891 (10 years after Mussorgsky's death) by another Russian composer, Mikhail Tushmalov. The most popular orchestration of the song was done in 1922 by the French composer Maurice Ravel. The ELP arrangement, which is based on Ravel's, is adapted for the 3-piece band. It lasts 24 minutes and features Keith Emerson's distinctive technique on the Moog synthesizer and vocals courtesy of Greg Lake


 
Emerson, Lake & Palmer wrote some original music that they wove into the piece, including a Greg Lake composition called "The Sage." The song begins with a Mussorgsky section called "Promenade," which is an interlude that recurs two more times. In addition to this interlude, parts of four movements from Mussorgsky's original were used.


 

Mussorgsky's original "Pictures At An Exhibition" depicts a walk through an art gallery, with each movement representing a painting by the Russian artist Viktor Hartmann. ELP invokes this theme in the album artwork, which in the original gatefold cover shows blank canvases above the song titles. Inside, each canvas is filled with a painting with the exception of "Promenade," as that represents travel through the gallery, not a painting. The ELP artwork was done by the English painter William Neal.


 
Keith Emerson heard "Pictures At An Exhibition" for the first time when he saw an orchestra perform it at Royal Festival Hall in London. Intrigued, he went to the music publishers Chappell & Co. to purchase the orchestration so he could transcribe it to piano, at which point he learned that it was written as a piano piece and subsequently orchestrated.


 
This song was the focus of the band's December 9, 1970 performance at the Lyceum Ballroom in London, which was later made into the concert film Pictures At An Exhibition. Directed by Nicholas Ferguson, the film was released in the UK in 1972 and in the US the following year.


 
Emerson, Lake & Palmer's self-titled debut album was released in November 1970. They planned to record "Pictures At An Exhibition" for their next album, but decided instead to make a piece called "Tarkus" the centerpiece and title track.




On March 26, 1971 at stop on their UK tour at Newcastle City Hall in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the group performed "Pictures At An Exhibition" and released the recording as their first live album (third overall). Released in November of that year, the album went to #3 on the UK charts in December, thanks in part to its budget price of £1.49 - the group figured that since it cost them very little to make, they shouldn't charge much for it.




In America, their label Atlantic Records had no interest in the album because there were no sections that could be spun off as singles, making radio play very unlikely. Their UK label, Island, responded by shipping copies to America, which sold very well and prodded Atlantic into issuing it Stateside, where it climbed to #10.


 
Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed this song at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 29, 1970. The band made their live debut just six days earlier, but they were already seasoned musicians - Emerson came from The Nice, Lake from King Crimson, and Palmer from Atomic Rooster. Thus, they earned a slot at the prestigious festival, playing the same day as The Doors, The Who, and Joni Mitchell. this was the first song Emerson, Lake & Palmer played.




ELP capped this song's performance with a bang, as Lake and Emerson each fired a cannon at the side of the stage, setting the tone for the theatrics that would become a hallmark of the band's stage shows.


 
On the album version, Keith Emerson began the piece by playing it on a pipe organ at Newcastle City Hall. Carl Palmer had to play to long drum section while Emerson made his way down the steps back to his organ.


 
Radio stations weren't in the habit of playing entire albums, but Scott Muni, a disc jockey at WNEW in New York City, played this one start to finish on his show. A big supporter of ELP, Muni introduced the band when they played Carnegie Hall on May 26, 1971.


 
According to Carl Palmer, this was the most challenging Emerson, Lake & Palmer song for him to play. "It's about 23 minutes, and it's not actually a time-keeping piece," . It's more of a unison playing - unison rolls and fills and sections with melodic instruments. So it's a very strong supportive roll, but not in a time-keeping drummer-type roll. It's more as a fourth instrument, melodic instrument-type roll. So "Pictures at an Exhibition" to me really has a lot to offer and a lot to account for overall."


 The second rendition of ‘Promenade’ from Emerson Lake & Palmer’s 1971 live rendition of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This version of the track features sparse instrumentation from Emerson on keys, while Lake sings along to the famous melody.




 Since the original is entirely instrumental, these lyrics were entirely done by Lake. They touch on themes of nostalgia and acceptance, though it’s unknown where Lake found inspiration for the lyrics. The track follows seamlessly into ‘The Sage’, a track composed entirely by Lake that bears no connection to Mussorgsky’s original work


On a serious note I know I gave Emerson a bit of grief (most of it richly deserved, in my humbles) but really saddened to read of him taking his own life (self inflicted gunshot wound to the head,) in 2016.

Seemingly Emerson had become "depressed, nervous and anxious" because nerve damage had hampered his playing, and he was worried that he would perform poorly at upcoming concerts and disappoint his fans.

RIP


 

Last edited by arabchanter (25/3/2018 11:25 pm)

DAY 229.
Leonard Cohen.....................................................Songs Of Love And Hate   (1971)








The weak of heart should fear to tread in the Leonard Cohen songbook. That is especially true of "Songs Of Love And Hate", a sparse and haunting collection of open wounds, lingering contempt, and feverish love that ranks among the most emotionally intent offerings.

The line between love and hate has rarely sounded thinner.