Danny Whitten died 18 November 1972, 43 years ago today
Daniel Ray Whitten (May 8, 1943 – November 18, 1972) was an American musician and songwriter best known for his work with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and for the song “I Don’t Want To Talk About It“, a hit for Rita Coolidge, Rod Stewart and Everything but the Girl.
“I am not a preacher, but drugs killed a lot of great men.”
– Neil Young (liner notes Decade)
Continue reading “November 18: Danny Whitten died in 1972 – Rest in Peace”
What is it about this album?
Why is it so important in the americana /country/gospel music canon?
Satan Is Real is a gospel album by American country music duo The Louvin Brothers.
| Released | November 16, 1959 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | August 8–10, 1958 |
| Genre | Country, Gospel |
| Length | 31:54 |
| Label | Capitol |
| Producer | Ken Nelson, John Johnson (Reissue) |
The gospel/country duo Charlie and Ira Louvin was born and grew up in the Sand Mountain region of Alabama, they lived on a cotton farm south of the Appalachian Mountains, that’s where they developed their distinct harmony style in the deep Sacred Harp tradition of the Baptist church.
Ira Louvin died in a car wreck in 1965. Charlie Louvin died two years ago at 83 just a few months after publishing his story about The Louvin brothers.
In The recently published book, Satan is Real, the ballad of the Louvin Brothers, Charlie talks about their singing style.This is not a straight quote, but it goes something like this:
…people who saw the Louvin Brothers perform were mystified by the experience. Ira was a full head taller than me, he played the mandolin like Bill Monroe and sang in an impossibly high, tense, quivering tenor. I(Charlie) strummed a guitar, grinned like a vaudevillian and handled the bottom register. But every so often, in the middle of a song, some hidden signal flashed and we switched places — with Ira swooping down from the heights, and me angling upward — and even the most careful listeners would lose track of which man was carrying the lead. This was more than close-harmony singing; each instance was an act of transubstantiation.
I could not find any live footage from Satan is real, but this clip of them singing, I don’t belive you’ve met my baby is a fine showcase for their intricate singing style:
“It baffled a lot of people,” Charlie Louvin explains in his fantastic memoir. “We could change in the middle of a word. Part of the reason we could do that was that we’d learned to have a good ear for other people’s voices when we sang Sacred Harp. But the other part is that we were brothers.”
Continue reading “November 16: Satan is Real by The Louvin Brothers was released in 1959”
Like a Bird on a Wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
~Leonard Cohen, Bird On A Wire“The older I get, the surer I am that I’m not running the show.”
― Leonard Cohen“I don’t remember
lighting this cigarette
and I don’t remember
if I’m here alone
or waiting for someone.”
~Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing
From Facebook (Official Leonard Cohen):
It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away.
We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries.A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief.
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Leonard Norman Cohen |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 September 1934 , 10 November 2016 (age 82) |
| Genres | Folk, folk rock, rock, pop rock,spoken word, synthpop |
| Occupations | Musician, singer-songwriter,poet, novelist |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano,keyboards, synthesizer |
| Years active | 1956-present |
| Labels | Columbia |
| Associated acts | Sharon Robinson, Jennifer Warnes |
Leonard Norman Cohen (born 21 September 1934)
His work often explored religion, isolation, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour.
Continue reading “November 7: Leonard Cohen is dead – Rest in peace great poet!”
“Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about Sam Stone the soldier junkie daddy and Donald and Lydia, where people make love from 10 miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that. If I had to pick one song of his, it might be ‘Lake Marie.’ I don’t remember what album that’s on.”
– Bob Dylan
“Prine has always appealed to me,I can remember first hearing him, playing his records late at night and thinking that he was writing about everyday life, people like us.”
– Mike Leonard (director)
I was born right here on Randolph Street in Freehold
Here right behind that big red maple in Freehold
Well I went to school right here
Got laid and had my first beer
In Freehold
Today we have found a great “story-song” from Bruce Springsteen that has never been officially released.
This is a sweet and funny song that appeared for the first time live on 8 Nov 1996 in Freehold, NJ. Freehold/ In Freehold is never officially released and I think it has only been played live (not recorded in studio). It is a song in the same vein as Growing Up, but set at an earlier age and in a less serious tone.
The debut of the song was at The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour (Freehold 8 Nov) and it has been played around 20 times after that. It is speculated that the song was written specifically for this event. It was a sort of homecoming show in the sense that he grew up in Freehold, but hadn’t played there since 1967. Bruce Springsteen left Freehold in 1968.
Freehold (first performance, audio):
In 1999 he added a verse based on true events:
Freehold (1999 version):
Continue reading “Unreleased song: Bruce Springsteen – Freehold”
Baby, you got to get behind the mule!
– Tom Waits
The same year as Mule Variations was released, 1999, VH1 broadcast a Storyteller episode with Tom Waits. It aired in the middle of the night; I didn’t have any plans for the next day so I stayed up and watched.
What a songwriter! What a storyteller! He teases the audience, plays with them, he is the pied piper! All the stories are funny/weird and moving. Is he lying? He’s probably making the stuff up as he goes along, or have all of these things actually happen? I really don’t care, his delivery is amusing and so entertaining that he could probably read the A to G in the phonebook and I would find it funny. This might not work with newcomers to Waits’s concerts, they will probably find it a bit too weird and rambling. They should watch Big Time (the movie) first and then come back to this (or maybe it’s the other way ’round, he he).
VH1 Storytellers allows Tom Waits to showcase some his then new material — among them is House Where Nobody Lives, one of the finest ballads he has ever written, here in a heartbreakingly beautiful version. We also get some Tom Waits history with favorites like Downtown Train (also a hit for Rod Stewart); Old ’55, (a hit for The Eagles ); and Jersey Girl, which Bruce Springsteen turned into a live favorite.
Set list:
Downtown Train
Ol’ 55
House Where Nobody Lives
Jersey Girl
What’s He Building In There?
Strange Weather
Get Behind The Mule
Tom Waits – VH1 Storytellers 1999:
The show was around 44 minutes but there were much more material recorded.
The rest of the concert is available to stream or download (legally) at Internet Archive in great quality:
– Hallgeir