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Music Calendar

August 13 in music history

August 13: Lynyrd Skynyrd released Pronounced ‘Lĕh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd in 1973 (read more)

(Pronounced ‘lĕh-’nérd ‘skin-’nérd) is the debut album from Lynyrd Skynyrd, released August 13, 1973. The album features several of the band’s most well-known songs, including “Gimme Three Steps”, “Simple Man”, “Tuesday’s Gone” and “Free Bird”, the latter of which launched the band to national stardom.

  lynyrd_skynyrd_pronounced_leh_nerd_skin_nerd_remastered_2001_retail_cd-front
 Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009) —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz, country and blues guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations. Although he was not the first to use the technique, his early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention.His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day. He recorded with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s, and they sold millions of records.  Les Paul

August 13: Joe Tex passed away in 1982 – 32 years ago (read more)

He is, arguably, the most underrated of all the ’60s soul performers associated with Atlantic Records, although his records were more likely than those of most soul stars to become crossover hits.
~Dave Marsh

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..Before and after he became a Black Muslim minister, this East Texas moralist-jokester mixed such timeless trifles as “Skinny Legs and All” (God, don’t you even remember that one?) and “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” (a lucky last gasp occasioning a luckier album that came out for “sissies”) with a good-humored country wisdom that rivaled Smokey’s urban variant for pith and empathy.
~Robert Christgau

 Joe Tex
 Bossanova is the third album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released August 13, 1990 on the English independent record label 4AD in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. All of Bossanova‘s original material was written by the band’s frontman Black Francis; it marked the point where his artistic control over the band became absolute. The album’s sound, inspired by surf and space rock, complements its lyrical focus on outer space, which references subjects such as aliens and unidentified flying objects.  the-pixies-bossanova

August 13: Eels released beautiful freak in 1996 (read more)

“Eccentric and quirky are the best ways to describe the Eels’ debut effort, Beautiful Freak. Concise pop tunes form the backbone of the album, yet tinges of despair and downright meanness surface just when you’ve been lulled into thinking this is another pop group, as titles like “My Beloved Monster,” “Your Lucky Day in Hell” and “Novocaine for the Soul” indicate.”
– Review by James Chrispell (allmusic)

  Eels-Beautiful_Freak-Frontal
 Curtis Ousley (February 7, 1934 – August 13, 1971), who performed under the stage name King Curtis, was an American saxophone virtuoso known for rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk and soul jazz. He was adopted, alongside with his adopted sister, Josephine Ousley Allen. They both grew up in Texas, together. Variously a bandleader, band member, and session musician, he was also a musical director and record producer. Adept at tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, he was best known for his distinctive riffs and solos such as on “Yakety Yak”, which later became the inspiration for Boots Randolph’s “Yakety Sax” and his own “Memphis Soul Stew”.  King-Curtis

Spotify Playlist – August 13
Music Calendar, Soul

August 13: Joe Tex passed away in 1982 – 32 years ago

joe tex

 

He is, arguably, the most underrated of all the ’60s soul performers associated with Atlantic Records, although his records were more likely than those of most soul stars to become crossover hits.
~Dave Marsh

..Before and after he became a Black Muslim minister, this East Texas moralist-jokester mixed such timeless trifles as “Skinny Legs and All” (God, don’t you even remember that one?) and “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” (a lucky last gasp occasioning a luckier album that came out for “sissies”) with a good-humored country wisdom that rivaled Smokey’s urban variant for pith and empathy.
~Robert Christgau

Although they are often viewed as diametric opposites, soul and country music are really flip sides of the same coin, and the two genres have greatly influenced one another. With his hillbilly name and trademark ten-gallon Stetson hat, Joe Tex was perhaps the most conspicuous musician to blur this generic and racial boundary. Like many soul singers (Al Green, Ray Charles, Isaac Hayes, to name a few) Tex was a fan of Hank Williams and wanted to be a country singer. Despite the fact that many country artists were taught by black musicians, Tex was unable to cross the country’s colour barrier, and he became a soul singer instead.
~The Rough Guide to Soul & R&B

Hold On What You’ve Got (the fantastic original version):

Tex recorded his first hit, “Hold On To What You’ve Got”, in November 1964 at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Tex was not convinced the song would be a hit and advised Killen not to release it. However, Killen felt otherwise and released the song in early 1965. By the time Tex got wind of its release, the song had already sold 200,000 copies. The song eventually peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Tex’s first number-one hit on the R&B charts, staying on the charts for 11 weeks and selling over a million copies by 1966. (wikipedia)

Continue reading August 13: Joe Tex passed away in 1982 – 32 years ago →

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan video

Bob Dylan: I’ll Remember you, London, England 8 February 1990 (video)

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bob dylan london 1990

I’ll remember you
When I’ve forgotten all the rest
You to me were true
You to me were the best
When there is no more
You cut to the core
Quicker than anyone I knew
When I’m all alone
In the great unknown
I’ll remember you

We first hear the dying seconds of “You’re A Big Girl Now”, then a GREAT version of “I’ll Remember You” kicks in…

Hammersmith Odeon
London, England
8 February 1990

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • G. E. Smith (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • Christopher Parker (drums)

Continue reading Bob Dylan: I’ll Remember you, London, England 8 February 1990 (video) →

Music Calendar

August 12 in music history

August 12: Happy 65th Birthday Mark Knopfler (read more)

…. Actually we are soul mates. As far as guitar playing goes he never steps all over with fancy licks. Yeah, Mark was incredible. He helped make this record in a thousand ways, not only musically, which in itself would have been enough. Brilliant guy, I can’t say enough about him.
~Bob Dylan (Talking about Knopfler part in the making of “Infidels” – July 1983 to Martin Killer)

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The most celebrated British guitar hero to emerge in the 1970s and ’80s, Mark Knopfler rose to fame as the leader of Dire Straits, and his songwriting and incisive guitar work played a decisive role in making them an international success story. At a time when punk and new wave were making technique for its own sake seem irrelevant, and metal was taking the guitar solo in noisier and unpredictable directions, Knopfler’s clean but dexterous picking proved there was still room for traditionalism and chops in mainstream rock & roll.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)

  Mark Knopfler

 August 12: The late Buck Owens was born in 1929, 85 years ago (read more)

I like Buck Owens’ songs, he’s alright.
~Bob Dylan (to Nat Hentoff, autumn 1965)

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And I said, ‘Why not? It’s the truth! Why can’t I say I’m a Beatles fan?’ I used to get criticized for that.
~Buck Owens

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I’d like just to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs, and had a hell of a time.
~Buck Owens

  buck-owens
 Porter Wayne Wagoner (August 12, 1927 – October 28, 2007) was a popular American country music singer known for his flashyNudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour.In 1967, he introduced then-obscure singer DollyParton on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known vocal duo throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.Known as Mr. Grand Ole Opry, Wagoner charted 81 singles from 1954–1983. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.  porter_wagoner
 August 12: Bob Dylan: The 8th and last New Morning recording session in 1970 (read more)

This is a quirky album, from a Dylan not pointing a way for anyone, but from a great artist remaining at his work knowingly in the face of not being creatively on top form in the phenomenal way he had been in the period 1964–68.Warm and abiding, it sounds better and better as the years go by.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia

  bob dylan new morning
 Old Ways is the fourteenth studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released August 12, 1985. Young refers to this album in interviews as Old Ways II, as he had originally planned to release a country album titled Old Ways in 1983. Geffen objected to this, asking Young for a “rock ‘n roll” album, which Young would give them in the form of Everybody’s Rockin’. Old Ways I would have contained many still-unreleased songs, one of which was “Depression Blues”, which appeared on Young’s Geffen-era compilation Lucky Thirteen.  Oldways

Spotify Playlist – August 12
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan video

Bob Dylan: I Don’t Believe You (SALWNHM), London, England 6 February 1990 (video)

Bob Dylan London 1990

I can’t understand
She let go of my hand
An’ left me here facing the wall
I’d sure like t’ know
Why she did go
But I can’t get close t’ her at all
Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime
She said she would never forget
But now mornin’s clear
It’s like I ain’t here
She just acts like we never have met

Hammersmith Odeon
London, England
6 February 1990

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • G. E. Smith (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • Christopher Parker (drums)

Continue reading Bob Dylan: I Don’t Believe You (SALWNHM), London, England 6 February 1990 (video) →