Tag: music

#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

#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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#MusicMonday Steve Winwood playlist

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Man, I had it bad for Steve Winwood. Fortunately, my family indulged me. Dad actually took me to see Traffic in concert. Later, he mounted a poster of Steve Winwood next to bed. My brother tracked down the three Spencer Davis Group LPs that were released in the U.S. for me to add to my collection. He also took me to another Traffic concert.

Here’s a YouTube playlist of Steve Winwood’s music and interviews with him that I put together:

Steve Winwood playlist

In the 1980s, Steve Winwood had major hits with “While You See a Chance”, “Higher Love”, and many more. Quite frankly, I lost interest in him once he became a chart-topping MOR performer. When people talked about Steve Winwood, I sniffed and I thought to myself “I knew him when … ”

Maybe I put together this playlist out of nostalgia.

Then, there was his marriage to his wife Eugenia. Oh, Steve, why didn’t you wait for me?? I consoled myself with the idea that I wasn’t his type. Eugenia is blonde, as was his previous wife Nicole … and I was a brunette.

#MusicMondays “Charity Ball” Fanny

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Fanny was an all-female rock group active in the early to mid 1970s. The group was founded by sisters June Millington (guitar) and Jean Millington (bass), who moved from the Philippines to California in the early 1960s.

The Millington sisters joined Wild Honey, an all-female rock band founded by drummer Alice de Buhr. Wild Honey planned to disband after one final open-mic appearance at the Troubadour Club in 1969. However, the secretary of prominent music producer Richard Perry spotted Wild Honey at this gig.

Perry convinced Warner Bros. Records to sign the group to Reprise Records. The label signed Wild Honey without hearing them play, as it regarded them as a novelty act. Prior to recording their first album, the band recruited keyboardist Nickey Barclay. Wild Honey was renamed Fanny for their first album Fanny.

Here is Fanny performing the title cut from their second album Charity Ball on the Sonny & Cher TV show.

As you can see, the members of Fanny were crack musicians. So why didn’t these women get the fame that they deserved for their musicianship? I’ve read comments on their YouTube videos and some blame anti-Asian hate due to the Millington sisters’ Filipino origins.

I think that the reason that Fanny didn’t get the fame and accolades that they deserved is that they were considered a novelty act and people weren’t ready for a hard rocking all-female band. Remember, this was before The Runaways, The Go-Gos, and The Bangles.

Sources:

Charity Ball. (2015). [Video]. Retrieved 7 June 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD9NjN5_nxQ.

Fanny (band) – Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. (2021). Retrieved 7 June 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_(band).

PS You can find other videos of Fanny on the Beat Club YouTube channel. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the Beat Club videos in my blog. 😔

#MerryChristmas Johnny Mathis – “Caroling, Caroling/Happy Holiday”

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I’m thinking back to my December 2018 post featuring the late Nancy LaMott’s All Those #Christmas Cliches.

One of the lines is:

I want the gulp and tear at the moment that I hear Johnny Mathis being played

So what better than a gulp and a tear while listening to Johnny Mathis?

Johnny Mathis

I play Johnny Mathis to irritate my husband. He says that Johnny Mathis is “effeminate” and a “faggot,” terms that you shouldn’t use anymore.

This one’s for you, babe!

Merry Christmas, all!

#MusicMonday – Summertime – Billy Stewart

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Billy Stewart was an R&B singer active in the 1960s.

He met Marvin Gaye through the Rainbows, a Washington, DC vocal group. Bo Diddley has been credited with discovering Stewart in Washington, DC. This led to a recording with Bo Diddley’s label Chess Records.

Amazing: I didn’t know that Marvin Gaye and Bo Diddley had ties to Washington DC.

Here’s Billy Stewart singing what Wikipedia calls his “radical interpretation” of Summertime from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. Forgive the blurriness of this video.

Not sure about the 10-gallon hat and the folks sitting around on hay bales. 🤔

Billy Stewart died in an automobile accident in 1970. He was 32.

Shout-out to the Sunday Kind of Love program on WPFW 89.3 FM for introducing me to Billy Stewart.

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#MusicMonday “I call your name” Johnny Clegg and Savuka

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South African singer Johnny Clegg died on July 16, 2019 of pancreatic cancer. He was 66. He was instrumental in bringing South African music to a broader audience during the apartheid era.

Here is Johnny Clegg performing “I Call Your Name” with his biracial band Savuka in 1988:

Is this cultural appropriation?  We’ve become more sensitive to this issue over the years.  I don’t know how Johnny Clegg was perceived at the end of his life, but 30+ years ago, cultural appropriation didn’t stick to him, as he immersed himself into Zulu culture, to the point that he was called the White Zulu.