All posts by Egil

June 17 in music history

June 17, 2014 Egil


Today: Elvis Presley released From Elvis In Memphis in 1969, 45 years ago (read more) After a 14-year absence from Memphis, Elvis Presley returned to cut what was certainly his greatest album. .. The result was one of the greatest white soul albums (and one of the greatest soul albums) ever cut, with brief but considerable forays into country, pop, and blues as well. Presley sounds rejuvenated artistically throughout the dozen cuts off the original album, and he’s supported by the best playing and backup singing of his entire recording history. ~Bruce Eder (allmusic.com)
Decoration Day is a rock album released by Drive-By Truckers June 17, 2003. The album was recorded mostly live over two weeks at Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, Georgia, and was produced by noted producer and former Sugar bassist David Barbe. The album is the Truckers’ fifth, including their live album Alabama Ass Whoopin’, following the critically acclaimed Southern Rock Opera. The album features a more mellow, stripped down, and reserved sound compared to Southern Rock Opera’s heavy hitting southern rock. Decoration Day is the first album to feature Jason Isbell on guitar; he would record two more albums with the band before leaving to pursue a solo career in 2007.
The Beatles’ version of “Act Naturally” is sung by Ringo Starr. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called it “an ideal showcase for Ringo’s amiable vocals.” They performed the song during an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was taped on August 14, 1965 and broadcast on September 12, 1965. It was also performed at the Beatles’ famous Shea Stadium concert on August 15, 1965 and played at some concerts throughout the Beatles’ 1965 U.S. tour (alternating with Ringo’s other “hit” song, “I Wanna Be Your Man”). The Beatles recorded the song on June 17, 1965 in 13 takes. The first 12 takes were evidently used to work out the arrangement; the master was take 13, the only take with vocals. It was mixed the following day. The Beatles almost recorded a song by their engineer Norman Smith, but realized that Starr did not yet have a vocal on Help!. They originally recorded the song “If You’ve Got Trouble” as Starr’s intended song for the album, but were dissatisfied with the results and recorded “Act Naturally” to replace it. It was the last cover they recorded until the Get Back/Let It Be sessions in 1969.
Spotify Playlist – June 17

June 16 in music history

June 16, 2014 Egil


Bob Dylan’s best songs: Like A Rolling Stone (recorded 16 June, 1965) (read more) ….would be Like A Rolling Stone because I wrote that after I’d quit. I’d literally quit singing and playing, and I found myself writing this song, this story, this long piece of vomit about twenty pages long, and out of it I took Like A Rolling Stone and made it as a single. And I’d never written anything like that before and it suddenly came to me that that was what I should do, you know. I mean, nobody had ever done that before. ~Bob Dylan (to Martin Bronstein – Feb 1966)
Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released June 16, 1969. Produced by Beefheart’s friend and former schoolmate Frank Zappa, it was originally released as a double album on Zappa’s Straight Records label. Combining elements of blues, avant-garde, free jazz and other genres of American music, the album is regarded as an important work of experimental music and a major influence on genres such as alternative rock, progressive rock, math rock and post-punk.playlist @ youtube
Spotify Playlist – June 16

June 13 in music history

June 13, 2014 Egil


Today: Hank Williams recorded “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” in 1952 (read more) – “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” (recorded 13 June 1952) is a song written and recorded by American country music singer Hank Williams that was first released in July 1952. Named for a Creole and Cajun dish, jambalaya, it spawned numerous cover versions and has since achieved popularity in a number of music genres.
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as the “King of Swing”.
Clyde Lensley McPhatter (November 15, 1932 – June 13, 1972) was an American R&B singer, perhaps the most widely imitated R&B singer of the 1950s and 1960s, making him a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B. His high-pitched tenor voice was steeped in the gospel music he sang in much of his younger life. He is best known for his solo hit “A Lover’s Question”.
“Mingus” (released June 13, 1979) is the tenth studio album by Joni Mitchell, and a collaboration with jazz musician Charles Mingus. Recorded in the months before his death, it would be Mingus’s final musical project; the album is wholly dedicated to him.
Spotify Playlist – June 13

June 12 in music history

June 12, 2014 Egil


77 years ago: Chips Moman was born in 1937 (read more) One of the most important characters in the Memphis music scene in the 60′s. Chips Moman helped start Stax Records, then American Sound Studios, which cut 122 chart hits from 1967 to 1972 — an unparalleled achievement. – Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman (born, June 12, 1937 La Grange, Georgia, United States) is an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. As a record producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas, and Merrilee Rush, as well as guiding the career of the Box Tops in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1960s. As a songwriter, he is responsible for standards associated with Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Waylon Jennings, and B. J. Thomas. He has been a session guitarist for Franklin and other musicians.
Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis’ band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.His career has been driven by his will to operate as a free agent and compulsively explore different avenues of music making. This hunger has positioned him as an important catalyst in the world of serious, mainstream acoustic jazz, and he is one of the most influential and widely studied figures in the last 40 years.
The Who played Swansea, City Football Ground, 12 June 1976 (read more)
Charles Arthur “Charlie” Feathers (June 12, 1932 – August 29, 1998) was an American country music and rockabilly musician.
Spotify Playlist – june 12

June 11 in music history

June 11, 2014 Egil


49 years ago: Them released their debut album The Angry Young Them in 1965 (read more) “These five young rebels are outrageously true to themselves. Defiant! Angry! Sad! They are honest to the point of insult!” (original liner notes) The Angry Young Them is Them’s first album. The album was released in the UK on 11th of June 1965. The band’s lead singer and songwriter was of course Van “The Man” Morrison. He was with Them on only two albums before deciding to go solo.
“Space Oddity” (released 11 July 1969) is a song written and performed by David Bowie and released as a music single in 1969. It is about the launch of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut; its title alludes to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, released the previous year. Incidentally, the protagonist of the film is called David Bowman. The lyrics have also been seen to lampoon the failed British space programme. The song appears on the album David Bowie (also known as Space Oddity). The BBC featured the song in its television coverage of the Apollo 11 launch and lunar landing, which took place in the days following the release of the song.
Frank Lee Beard (born June 11, 1949) is the drummer in the rock band ZZ Top. Beard was formerly with the bands The Cellar Dwellars, who originally were a three-piece band, The Hustlers, The Warlocks, and American Blues before starting to play and record with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill as ZZ Top…and Egil & Hallgeir (keepers @ johannasvisions) are seeing ZZ Top this evening @ Bergenfest.
Glenn Carl Leonard (born June 11, 1947 in Washington, D.C.) is an American R&B and soul singer best remembered for serving as the first tenor/secondary lead singer of the Motown quintet The Temptations from 1975 to 1983.
Spotify Playlist – June 11

Focusing on Bob Dylan & related music