#MusicMonday “Different Drum” by the Stone Poneys

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What a couple of days! Yesterday, my husband had to be taken to the emergency room. While he was discharged later in the evening, he’s felt weak all day today and has been lying down in the recliner. He also said that he had a fever, which he attributed to the booster shot that he received yesterday.

Anyhow, here’s the #MusicMonday feature:

Mike Nesmith of The Monkees AKA The Pre-fab Four died on Friday, December 10, 2021. While he was with The Monkees, he challenged Don Kirshner to let them play their own instruments on their recordings (he succeeded).

What’s lesser known is that Mike Nesmith was a songwriter in his own right. My friend Ann is fond of his song Joanna. He also penned Different Drum, which he tried to pitch for The Monkees, but the control freak producers of the TV show rejected it.

The Stone Poneys featuring the youthful Linda Ronstadt recorded Different Drum, which peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1967.

Different Drum by The Stone Poneys

You can find more about the process of recording Different Drum by The Stone Poneys in Mark Myers’ Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop.

Lyrics:

You and I travel to the beat of a different drum
Oh, can’t you tell by the way I run
Every time you make eyes at me? Whoa
You cry and moan and say it will work out
But honey child I’ve got my doubts
You can’t see the forest for the trees

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#video Morning Dew – Bonnie Dobson with Robert Plant #MusicMonday

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Morning Dew is one of the most iconic songs of 1960s folk and protest music. Canadian folk singer Bonnie Dobson wrote Morning Dew: amazingly, it was the first song she ever wrote.

“…I saw a film called On the Beach, and it made a tremendous impression on me,” she said. “[Really] it was a kind of re-enactment of that film in a way where, at the end, there is nobody left, and it was a conversation between these two people trying to explain what’s happening. It was really the apocalypse, that was what it was about.”

Fred Neil rearranged “Morning Dew” for his 1964 Elektra album Tear Down the Walls. Two years later, Tim Rose recorded the song for his debut album based on Neil’s arrangement. Rose took advantage of a loophole in US copyright law and tricked Bonnie Dobson out of full credits and some publishing royalties to her song (he did the same sh** with Hey Joe, which both Jimi Hendrix and The Byrds covered).

Tim Rose

In 1998, Bonnie Dobson heckled Tim Rose as he performed at London’s Half Moon music venue about stealing her song. She took legal action against Rose and was at last credited as the sole author of “Morning Dew”.

Bonnie Dobson felt that she reclaimed her song when Robert Plant invited her to sing it at his concert. She said that “[Robert] gave me back my song that night.”

In 2018, Morning Dew was inducted as a song into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Frame.

References

Bell, M. (2014). The Story Behind The Songs: Bonnie Dobson – Morning Dew. loudersound. Retrieved 12 September 2021, from https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-stories-behind-the-songs-bonnie-dobson-morning-dew.

Morning Dew | Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. (2018). Retrieved 25 October 2021, from https://cshf.ca/song/morning-dew/.

Morris, C. (2021). Morning Dew — how Bonnie Dobson reclaimed her anti-war song. Ig.ft.com. Retrieved 12 September 2021, from https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/morning-dew.html.

Schneider, J. (2018). Bonnie Dobson finally gets her due for “Morning Dew” | Roots Music Canada. Roots Music Canada | Listening to Canadian roots music and loving it. Retrieved 12 September 2021, from https://www.rootsmusic.ca/2018/06/28/bonnie-dobson-finally-gets-her-due-for-morning-dew/.

#MusicMonday – Review of A Very Irregular Head – Syd Barrett

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More of my obsession or “hyper focus” on Syd Barrett.

A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett by Rob Chapman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett is one of the most renowned casualties of Rock ‘n’ Roll. At the cusp of stardom with Pink Floyd in 1967, he had a major breakdown. He was 21 years old. His behavior became erratic (to say the least) and he left Pink Floyd or was dismissed.

Syd Barrett in May 1967, before his collapse.

Syd’s mental collapse continues to be a source of speculation and fascination 54 years later and 15 years after his death at age 60 in 2006. Was it the onset of schizophrenia? Was it autism, as suggested in The Interesting Case of Syd Barrett? Was it LSD, or the more dangerous DOM, as suggested by Men on the Border? Was it temporal lobe damage, as suggested in Julian Palacios’ biography Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe? Or was it just the sixties, man? Our interest in Syd’s mental collapse isn’t merely voyeuristic, it’s also about making sense about what happened.

Rob Chapman de-emphasizes Syd’s drug use, which makes it harder to make sense of what happened to Syd. Syd’s gifts at songwriting left him. His singing left him. His guitar playing left him. His mental health left him. I wept as I read about Syd’s deterioration.

But Chapman makes an interesting point: A rock star’s peak creativity lasts for a very short while: after that, he or she becomes redundant. And being redundant was Syd’s major fear.

View all my reviews

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna #COVID19Vaccines and abortion-derived cells

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Twitter unroll

@US_FDA has granted full approval for the #Pfizer /BioNTech #COVID19Vaccine

COVID-19 Vaccine
Pro-Life Scientists: Pfizer Vaccine Used Abortion-Derived Cells in Lab Testing

While both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna #COVID19Vaccines do not use #abortion-derived cell lines in production, some post-production lab testing used abortion-derived cells #ProLife

#ProLife HT @LifeNewsHQ @LozierInstitute

Originally tweeted by Cold Cream and Roses (@ColdCreamandRo1) on August 25, 2021.

#MusicMonday – Dancing in the Streets – Martha and the Vandellas

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Today’s #MusicMonday video is Martha and the Vandellas’ classic Dancing in the Streets, as performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on December 5, 1965. Crisp video, color (was this colorized from B & W?), and I love the yelllow gowns that Martha and the Vandellas wore.

Martha and the Vandellas perform Dancing in the Streets on The Ed Sullivan Show

Berry Gordy sidelined stronger singers like Martha Reeves and Gladys Knight to promote baby mama Diana Ross. 😠

#MusicMonday White Bird – It’s a Beautiful Day

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It’s a Beautiful Day was a band formed in San Francisco, California in 1967, featuring vocalist Pattie Santos and violinist/vocalist David LaFlamme and his wife Linda.

Although It’s a Beautiful Day was one of the notable San Francisco bands to emerge from 1967’s Summer of Love, it never achieved the success of Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana.

It’s A Beautiful Day’s eponymous debut album was released by Columbia Records in 1969. The track “White Bird” attracted FM radio play attention, but nationally, it bubbled under Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 118. 😔

It’s a Beautiful Day – White Bird

This live version of White Bird features a jam and is much more energetic than the studio recording. It was recorded July 7, 1970 at Tanglewood – Lenox, MA, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Source:

It’s a Beautiful Day – White Bird – 7/7/1970 – Tanglewood (Official). (2014). [Video]. Retrieved 7 August 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q918fs4RAto.

#MusicMonday – Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins

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IS ANYONE LISTENING???

With every post, I put up content that might be interesting to others, but I get few visits/views.

Yep, #MusicMonday has rolled around again. Today’s feature is Echo Beach by Martha and Muffins. Pardon the crapola video content.

Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins

Martha and the Muffins came out of Toronto in the late 1980s, riding the crest of New Wave. In the beginning, Martha and the Muffins was fronted not merely by one Martha, but two Marthas: Martha Johnson (the redhead) and Martha Ladly (the blonde).

The group chose its name “Martha and the Muffins” to distance themselves from the aggressive names adopted by many punk bands of the era. As founder Mark Gane (and Martha Johnson’s partner) said, “Martha and the Muffins couldn’t be more wimpy.” Mark Gane is the composer of Echo Beach.

Lyrics:

I know it’s out of fashion
And a trifle uncool
But I can’t help it
I’m a romantic fool
It’s a habit of mine
To watch the sun go down
On Echo Beach
I watch the sun go down

Chorus:

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Your #makeup and #skincare questions answered

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Here are some of my answers to questions posed by readers on the social question-and-answer website Quora, shared via Twitter.

Your makeup and skincare questions answered
Your makeup and skincare questions answered
Your makeup and skincare questions answered

Eye candy – gorgeous Syd Barrett #MusicMonday

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More Syd Barrett pictures:

A rare image of Syd smiling

I captured the above screenshot of Syd Barrett smiling from The Look of the Week broadcast on May 14, 1967, on the BBC (affectionately known as the Beeb). Here he is facing acerbic music critic Hans Keller. This moment was so fleeting that I had to play the video at 25% speed to capture the screenshot.

Beautiful bone structure

This is a screenshot from Pink Floyd’s video for their first video Arnold Layne.

Be sure to revisit my feature #MusicMonday Syd Barrett Playlist and check out my expanded Syd Barrett playlist on YouTube! Also visit my Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett board on Pinterest for more eye candy.

Zaila Avant Garde wins the Scripps National Spelling Bee

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Zaila Avant Garde wins the 93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee:

Frankly, it was getting tiresome to see Indian Americans win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Nothing against Indian Americans; I’m married to an Indian American. After Indian Americans swept the Scripps National Spelling Bee year after year, it was time to retire the Bee.

It is exciting to see African-Americans break new ground and excel in fields where they haven’t been represented before. Think GOAT Simone Biles.