All posts by Hallgeir

Classic Concert, Concert films, Country, Johnny Cash, Live, Music Calendar

Johnny Cash the San Quentin concert: 45 year anniversary


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“San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell. May your walls fall and may I live to tell. May all the world forget you ever stood. And may all the world regret you did no good.”
– Johnny Cash

“He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards—he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”
– Merle Haggard (prisoner at San Quentin at the time)

Two days before Johnny Cash’s 37th birthday he played the legendary San Quentin concert, and it was recorded AND it was filmed! There are several releases and a documentary available, today we are celebrating the 45 year anniversary of this superb show.

When I was little boy I was very interested in music, the radio and records. My father had a small  but very good record collection. Among the treasures in his collection was this album, Johnny Cash – Live at San Quentin. My father told me the story of the album, and I remember that the Norwegian broadcast company (yes there were only one channel at the time, early 70s) showed the actual concert. It was very late at night but my father woke me and I got to see this legendary show.

It marked me for life.

Johnny Cash at San Quentin (full documentary, with songs):

The interviews with the prisoners and the guards are incredibly touching and harrowing, the “whole deal” with Cash’s songs and the documentary footage makes this a must see, and one of the best music films ever made.
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Great albums, Music Calendar, Otis Redding, Soul, Stax

Today: The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding was released in 1968


Otis-Redding-The-Dock-of-the-Bay

“…It’s two thousand miles I roamed, just to make this dock my home.”

This should have been the start of a magnificent career, instead it gives us,  in a fine and vital way, Otis Redding’s place in soul music at that time. It was released posthumously (and it was the first of many).

The songs are chosen by Steve Cropper (produces and guitar player) and he did a remarkable job, it must have been a difficult task to assemble this album, the first after Otis’s death. It could have been a cash-in and a dark memorial album but instead we got lively, and fitting presentation of Otis’s fantastic abilities.

The album consists of singles, A and B-sides, a one hit duet with Carla Thomas, and some previously unreleased tracks (1966-1967). It IS a mixed bag, but in a good way!

Otis Redding – (Sittin’ on) The Dock Of The Bay (Official video):

I love the album and think Steve Cropper did the best job any one could do when putting it together. The choices are not obvious but we get a good representation of what Otis Redding was about and what he could do. A sad but vivid soul classic!

In 2003, the album was ranked number 161 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

My favorite track is the incredible ballad, I Love You More Than Words Can Say.

Otis Redding – The Dock of the Bay (Spotify):

– Hallgeir

Bruce Springsteen, Cover versions

Video of the day: Robert Ellis sings Im On Fire by Bruce Springsteen

Robert Ellis

Robert Ellis has an incredible voice, he’s a very good songwriter and a fine interpreter of other people’s songs. He is a Texas singer-songwriter with country leanings and has recently released his third album,The Lights From the Chemical Plant. It is the best album released in 2014, so far.

“Robert Ellis began performing as “Robert Ellis & The Boys” early in 2010, forming a foundation in the classics of country music and gradually incorporating original songs. The self-released LP, The Great Rearranger was sold at shows, but Ellis found a higher level of success when American Songwriter’s Magazine named his second album Photographs as one of the top 50 albums of 2011. Robert Ellis is a New West recording artist. In 2012, Ellis relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee”
– Wikipedia

Robert Ellis – I’m On Fire (Springsteen)

– Hallgeir

Beatles, List, The Best Songs

The Beatles 40 best songs: at 30 “Julia”

Julia-White-Album

Julia was written by John Lennon for his mother, she died in a traffic accident in 1958. It is also the only solo Lennon recording in The Beatles’ song catalogue.

“The only solo Lennon recording in the Beatles’ catalog, “Julia” was the final addition to the White Album, recorded just three days before the album was sequenced. His original demo, recorded in May, had included harmonies from McCartney, but this version was just Lennon’s voice and guitar. “Julia was my mother,” Lennon said. “But it was sort of a combination of Yoko and my mother blended into one” — the “ocean child” in the lyrics refers to Ono’s name, which is Japanese for “child of the ocean.” To the end of his life, he often called Yoko “Mother.””
– Rolling Stone Magazine

They did 3 takes to perfect the guitar track, which was recorded onto four-track tape. The third track was the chosen one for “The Beatles” (aka “The White Album”)

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Beatles, List, The Best Songs

The Beatles 40 best songs: at 31 “Yesterday”

3 Comments

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I just started playing it and this tune came, ‘cuz that’s what happens. They just, sort of– they COME, you know. It just came and I couldn’t think of any words to it, so originally it was just, ‘Scrambled Egg.’ It was called ‘Scrambled Egg’ for a couple of months, until I thought of ‘Yesterday.’ And that’s it. True story.
—Paul McCartney, 1968

‘Yesterday’ is Paul completely on his own, really. We just helped finishing off the ribbons ’round it, you know — tying it up.
—John Lennon, 1966

Wikipedia:

“Yesterday“was originally recorded by the Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. Although credited to “Lennon–McCartney”, the song was written solely by Paul McCartney. At the time of its first appearance, the song was released by the Beatles’ record company as a single in the United States but not in the United Kingdom (for further details see below). Consequently, whilst it topped the American chart in 1965 the song first hit the British top 10 three months after the release of Help! in a cover version by Matt Monro. “Yesterday” was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners and was also voted the No. 1 Pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone.

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