Nelson George has written several outstanding books on music which I recommend.
Category: Music
Frank Zappa commercials
I read an Instagram post celebrating Linda Ronstadt’s birthday and it said she had worked with Frank Zappa. I had to find out more about that! It turns out it was for a commercial. I looked on YouTube and found it and other commercials Zappa was involved with.
I saw George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Conway Twitty in 1990
Here’s a review of the show at the Baltimore Arena. I thought Merle Haggard was the best of the three.
My favorite moment was when George Jones said he had recorded a song with Randy Travis and he sure would like to introduce him. The spotlight went to the side of the stage, the crowd cheered but nobody came out. Jones said something like “I said I would like to, I didn’t say I was gonna.”
Rolling Stone’s list of 50 best songs by the Who
I would put “I Can See for Miles” as number one. In general, I like their earlier stuff better and will link to a few. A lot of their great early singles were collected on Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (1971).
78 records
78s were the first type of standardized phonographs. They were 10″ in diameter and held one song on each side. They were replaced by 33 1/3 and 45 records. Many 78s have been digitized
The history of 78 RPM recordings
How The Great 78 Project is saving half a million songs from obscurity
The Great 78 Project – over 300,000 recordings have been digitized
New recordings made with old equipment used for 78s
The 78 Project Movie is a film about recordings made with old equipment by current artists. There are video excerpts on their website which I linked to.
American Epic is a film series about old recordings which also includes new recordings made on old equipment.
From American Epic sessions:
Greil Marcus on Rock Death in the ’70s
This great article was originally published in the Village Voice on December 17, 1979.
Rock Death in the ’70s: A Sweepstakes
List of deaths in rock and roll (1970s)
List of musician deaths by car crash – make sure to look at the death of Steve Peregrine Took in the Marc Bolan entry
Mother Earth – Living With The Animals
Just posting an old song by Mother Earth from 1968.
Blonde on Blonde released in 1966 – May 16 or June 20?
Blonde on Blonde was released on June 20, 1966. I think it’s Dylan’s best album.
From the Wikipedia article:
Blonde on Blonde was released on June 20, 1966, but for many years, May 16 was thought to be the correct date.[120] Michael Gray, author of The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, had contended that the release date was actually around late June or early July.[30] This coincides with the album’s promotion in Billboard, which carried a full-page Columbia advertisement on June 25,[121] selected the album as a “New Action LP” on July 9,[122] and ran a review and article on July 16.[108] In 2017, after viewing a Sony database of album releases, Heylin found that the release date was in fact June 20.[1] This is supported by the fact that an overdub on “Fourth Time Around” was recorded in June.[120]
I’ve been reading this excellent book about the recording of Blonde on Blonde – That Thin Wild Mercury Music
Before the Flood released on 6/20/74
I have posted about this two-record set before which was taken from live recordings made in January and February 1974. It does a great job of conveying what the shows were like – I saw one on January 6, 1974 in Philadelphia. Basically, it’s a shorter version of the concert. Dylan did five songs solo, the album has three. The Band did 11 songs, the album has eight. Multiple shows were recorded but I read Dylan doesn’t like the tour so I doubt we well see a Bootleg series set with them.
Sad! 