Author: Hallgeir Olsen

November 28: Randy Newman was born in 1943

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn’t have anyone else to blame.
~Randy Newman

To me, someone who writes really good songs is Randy Newman. There’s a lot of people who write good songs. As songs. Now Randy might not go out on stage and knock you out, or knock your socks off. And he’s not going to get people thrilled in the front row. But he’s gonna write a better song than most people who can do it. You know, he’s got that down to an art. Now Randy knows music. He knows music. But it doesn’t get any better than “Louisiana” or “Cross Charleston Bay” [Sail Away]. It doesn’t get any better than that. That’s like a classically heroic anthem theme. He did it. There’s quite a few people who did it. Not that many people in Randy’s class.
~Bob Dylan (to Paul Zollo, April 1991)

Sail Away – (Live at the Old Grey Whistle):

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November 26: Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol.5 Live 1975 was released 2002

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“I was just sitting outside my house one day thinking about a name for this tour, when all of a sudden, I looked into the sky and I heard a boom! Then, boom, boom, boom, boom, rolling from west to east. So I figured that should be the name.”
– Bob Dylan

This is my favourite of Bob Dylan’s bootleg series, and one of the best live albums ever released.

The Rolling Thunder Revue was a concert tour  Bob Dylan with a traveling caravan of notable musicians, including Joan Baez,Roger McGuinn, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Bob Neuwirth assembled the backing musicians, including T-Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, David Mansfield, Steven Soles, and from the Desire sessions, violinist Scarlet Rivera, bassist Rob Stoner, and drummer Howie Wyeth. The tour included 57 concerts in two legs—the first in the American northeast and Canada in the fall of 1975, and the second in the American south and southwest in the spring of 1976.

Tangled up in Blue:

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The Best Songs: Come On In My Kitchen by Robert Johnson

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen
Robert Johnson by Robert Crumb

 

If I hadn’t heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down—that I wouldn’t have felt free enough or upraised enough to write.

— Bob Dylan
Chronicles: Volume One

Wikipedia:

“Come On in My Kitchen” is a blues song by Robert Johnson. Johnson recorded the song on November 23, 1936 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas – his first recording session. The melody is based on the song cycle by the string band the Mississippi Sheiks, “Sitting on Top of the World” (1930)/Things About Coming My Way (1931)/I’ll Be Gone, Long Gone (1932)/Hitting The Numbers (1934).

Johnson’s arrangement on slide guitar (in open tuning, commonly thought to be open G) is based on Tampa Red’s recording of the same tune with the title “Things ‘Bout Coming My Way”. Tampa Red had recorded an instrumental version in 1936, and the song had been recorded earlier by him in 1931, and by Kokomo Arnold in 1935 (Tampa Red may in fact have been the first to use the melody with his song “You Got To Reap What You Sow” (1929) based on Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell’s version).

Johnson’s recording was released on the Vocalion label (no. 03563) as a “race record” – cheap records for the black consumer market. The song was among those compiled on the King of the Delta Blues Singers LP in the 1960s. (A slower alternate take was also later found and released on CD collections; this version also has ten extra lines of lyrics.)

Come on in my kitchen by Robert Johnson:

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November 24: The Beatles released Hello, Goodbye / I Am The Walrus in 1967

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The Beatles’ third single of 1967 was released in the UK on November 24: ‘Hello, Goodbye’, with ‘I Am The Walrus’ on the b-side (The single was released on 27 November in the US.)

“Hello, Goodbye” is written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Backed by John Lennon’s “I Am the Walrus“, it was issued as a non-album single in November 1967, the group’s first release since the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. The single was commercially successful around the world, topping charts in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and several other countries. Continue reading “November 24: The Beatles released Hello, Goodbye / I Am The Walrus in 1967” →

November 23: The Rolling Stones at the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969

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In the fall of 1969, Ed Sullivan flew to Hollywood where the touring Rolling Stones were to tape three performances at CBS Television City. With their new guitarist onboard they performed “Gimme Shelter” and “Love in Vain” from their latest album, Let It Bleed, along with their new hit single “Honky Tonk Women.” The performance aired on November 23, 1969 and also featured jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald on The Ed Sullivan Show.

 

That would mark the last time The Rolling Stones appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

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November 22: Elvis Presley released Elvis (NBC TV Special) in 1968

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I want everyone to know what I can really do
~Elvis Presley (to producer Bob Finkel)

Elvis delivered an incredible performance throughout the television special. His vocal performances were loose and gutsy…
~John Bush (allmusic.com)

Medley: Heartbreak Hotel / Hound Dog / All Shook Up:

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