What’s that you say? You want to hear some rockabilly music from Sweden? Happy to oblige!
(HT to Music Enthusiast for turning me on to them!)
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Song of the Day 8/7/18 TORRES – ‘Strange Hellos’
From her 2015 album Sprinter. The fury and anger she feels about a failed relationship are palpable to say the least – intense.
Song of the Day 8/6/18 Jeremy Messersmith – ‘It’s Only Dancing’
From his 2014 album Heart Murmurs – gorgeous melody in a power pop groove about unrequited love.
‘Eye of the Tiger’ as played by an Orchestra of 80+ Double Basses
My son plays the double bass, and each year takes part in a really cool summer camp called BassWorks – a one week summer music camp of only double bass players. The camp includes students of all ages and levels of abilities, and the faculty includes some of the best double bass players in the country and world.
For their final concert, in addition to more classical pieces, they usually do one popular song. This year it was Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Check it out!
If you search for BassWorks on YouTube, you can also sample the entire 2.5 hour final concert which includes the different smaller ensembles and the full orchestra final concert. The faculty recital is also worth checking out to see that the double bass is much more than just a accompaniment instrument in an orchestra.
Song of the Day 8/5/18 John Hiatt – ‘Long Time Comin’
From his 2014 album Terms of My Surrender
Song of the Day 8/4/18 Bully – ‘I Remember’
A little tune to get you going on a Saturday morning. From 2015’s Feels Like
Today in Music History August 4
Prince – Purple Rain
1984 Prince’s 6th album, Purple Rain begins a 24 week run at the top of the US album charts. Think about that for a second – from Aug 4, 1984 through January 12, 1985, Purple Rain was the #1 album in America. Kind of hard to believe in today’s world where if an album sells 100,000 its first week and then disappears, it’s considered a success. Of course there was no such thing as streaming in 1984, but still. Michael Jackson’s Thriller had held the top spot for 15 weeks from the beginning of the year (after being at #1 for 22 weeks in 1983), followed by the Footloose soundtrack for 10 weeks, Sport by Huey Lewis and the News for a week, Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen for 4 weeks, and then it was Prince the rest of the year in January 1985. As of 2008, it has sold over 25 million copies.
The album, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, and the first with his band The Revolution, spun off two #1 singles ‘When Doves Cry‘ and ‘Let’s Go Crazy‘, the #2 single ‘Purple Rain‘, and the top 10 single ‘I Would Die 4 U‘. While Prince was already a major star at this point, Purple Rain launched him into the stratosphere, just as Thriller and Born in the USA had done for Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen (and all in the span of the same year).
Before Purple Rain, Prince‘s work had mainly been centered in R&B and funk – Purple Rain pushed him more into a amalgam of pop, rock, R&B, dance, and psychedelia that blended together produced a classic set of songs and served as a preview of the wide stylistic directions he would take for the remainder of his career.
In 2012, the Library of Congress added Purple Rain to its National Recording Registry, which includes songs that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important.”
Here are some videos to remember the album.
Sources: This Day in Music.com; Wikipedia’ Billboard; Library of Congress
Song of the Day 8/3/18 Haley Heynderickx – ‘Oom Sha La La’
Haley Heynderickx is a singer/songwriter from Portland, OR. This song sounds like me like if Courtney Barnett wrote some lyrics for the Velvet Underground.
Today in Music History August 3
That Time Bruce Springsteen opened for Anne Murray
Aug 3, 1974. The Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park was a long running music festival that took place in the summer months at Wollman Rink in New York City’s Central Park between 1967 and 1976. Each summer night featured 2-3 performances, and over the years the artist list was a veritable who’s who of the American folk, pop, rock and jazz world.
On Aug 3, 1974 the lineup was supposed to be acoustic duo Brewer & Shipley as the overall openers, followed by Canadian adult contemporary singer Anne Murry, and then headliner Boz Scaggs. However, Scaggs canceled a month before the show, so the promoter booked Bruce Springsteen to replace him. Anne Murray’s management objected to this, arguing that since she was a bigger commercial star, it wasn’t right for her to be opening for Springsteen.
This was technically true, since by that time, Murray had already had a number of radio hits, including ‘Snowbird‘ and ‘Danny’s Song‘ (a cover of the Kenny Loggins song ) and a number of other songs I couldn’t bring myself to listen to on YouTube. But her management was clearly not familiar with Bruce Springsteen live. Springsteen to that point had had modest commercial success, but had built up a cult following on the East Coast, especially in the NY and NJ areas, for the quality and intensity of his live performances with the E St. Band.
Springsteen’s manager, Mike Appel reluctantly agreed to go second only on the condition that he (Bruce) be able to play his full 80 minute set. As it turned out, the vast majority of the 5000 people in the audience had come to hear Springsteen. About half way through the set, Murray’s management realized what a colossal mistake they had made, and tried to get Appel to make Springsteen stop – Appel of course refused. According to some reports, Murray was hysterical backstage, pissed off that her management was making her follow Springsteen. This was a reasonable reaction, as apparently after Bruce’s set, the crowd booed the announcement of her upcoming set, and about 3/4s of them left, leaving her a much smaller crowd.
Legend says that this was the last time that Springsteen opened for anyone else. Partly due to bad experiences in the past (he had been booed (not “Bruuuced”) by fans when he opened for Chicago in 1973), and due to other artists not wanting to repeat the Anne Murray experience, this makes sense.
Murray went on to greater commercial success in the remainder of the 70’s and early 80’s. Springsteen went on of course to become a rock and roll legend, songwritng icon, and national treasure (yes, I’m a fan!)
Here’s a clip of Bruce and the E St. Band performing ‘Spirit in the Night’ in 1973 in LA to give you a flavor of his show at the time. I couldn’t find any live footage of Anne Murray (ok I didn’t really try).
Sources: This day in Music.com; Wikipedia; fyimusicnews.ca; thelightindarkness.com; zeroblindterry1 YouTube channel; BrucebaseWiki
Song of the Day 8/2/18 TBT Buffalo Springfield – ‘For What’s It Worth’
Heard this the other day on NPR Music show on American anthems. Its still timely and relevant 50 years later.
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