Category Archives: Sound

Sound

50 years ago today: A Hard Days Night by The Beatles was released


A_Hard_Day's_Nigth

“We were different. We were older. We knew each other on all kinds of levels that we didn’t when we were teenagers. The early stuff – the Hard Day’s Night period, I call it – was the sexual equivalent of the beginning hysteria of a relationship. And the Sgt Pepper-Abbey Road period was the mature part of the relationship.”
– John Lennon (1980)

A Hard Day’s Night is the third album by The Beatles; it was released on July 10, 1964. The album is a soundtrack to the A Hard Day’s Night film, starring the Beatles. The American version of the album was released two weeks earlier, on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records, with a different track listing. This is the first Beatles album to be recorded entirely on four-track tape, allowing for good stereo mixes.

HDN

In 2000, Q placed A Hard Day’s Night at number 5 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 388 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The soundtrack songs were recorded in late February, and the non-soundtrack songs were recorded in June. The title song itself was recorded on April 16.

“…but A Hard Day’s Night is perhaps the band’s most straightforward album: You notice the catchiness first, and you can wonder how they got it later.

The best example of this is the title track– the clang of that opening chord to put everyone on notice, two burning minutes thick with percussion (including a hammering cowbell!) thanks to the new four-track machines George Martin was using, and then the song spiraling out with a guitar figure as abstractedly lovely as anything the group had recorded.”

– Tom Ewing, Pitchfork

Continue reading 50 years ago today: A Hard Days Night by The Beatles was released →

Music Calendar, Sound

July 9 in music history

Bob Dylan recorded “Blowin’ In The Wind” in 1962 (read more)

“I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it’s wrong. I’m only 21 years old and I know that there’s been too many wars… You people over 21 should know better. The first way to answer these questions in the song is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind.”
~Bob Dylan (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan Liner Notes – 1963)

 bob dylan 1962
 Happy 39th Birthday Jack White (read more) Jack White (born John AnthonyGillis; July 9, 1975) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist, designer, director, writer, and actor. On April 24, 2012, White released his debut solo album,Blunderbuss, which received wide critical acclaim. His second studio album, Lazaretto, was released on June 10, 2014.Also check out:

  Jack-White-2012
 Ronald Belford “Bon” Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980.  Bon_Scott_on_Stage
 John Ronald “Mitch” Mitchell (9 July 1947 – 12 November 2008) was an English drummer, best known for his work in The Jimi Hendrix Experience.  mitch mitchell
 Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007), born Barton Lee Hazlewood was an American country and pop singer,songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s.  lee hazlewood
Bill Randle (March 14, 1923 – July 9, 2004) was an American disc jockey, lawyer and university professor.He was born William McKinley Randle Jr. in Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, he hosted a popular show on WJLB-AM radio (now WDTK) called The Interracial Goodwill Hour, featuring rhythm and blues music and hot jazz. As a pioneering disc jockey at radio station WERE in Cleveland, Ohio he helped change the face of American music. In the 1950s, Time Magazine called Bill Randle the top DJ in America. His popularity and huge listening audience allowed him to bolster the careers of a number of young musicians, including The Four Lads, Bobby Darin, and Fats Domino. Bill Randle WERE

Spotify Playlist – July 9
Music Calendar, Sound

June 26 in music history

The Great late “Big” Bill Broonzy was born in 1893 (read more)

Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1893 – August 15, 1958) was a prolific American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly African-American audiences. Through the ‘30s and ‘40s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with working class African-American audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. His long and varied career marks him as one of the key figures in the development of blues music in the 20th century.

 big bill broonzy
Michael Geoffrey Jones aka Mick Jones (born 26 June 1955) is a British musician, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter best known for his works with The Clash until his dismissal in 1983, then Big Audio Dynamite with Don Letts before line-up changes led to the formation of Big Audio Dynamite II and finally Big Audio. Jones plays with Carbon/Silicon along with Tony James and recently toured the world as part of the Gorillaz live band (which includes former Clash member Paul Simonon).  mick-jones-clash
Colonel Thomas Andrew “Tom” Parker (June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997) born Andreas Cornelis (“Dries”) van Kuijk, was a Dutch-born entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis Presley. Parker’s management of Presley defined the role of masterminding talent management, which involved every facet of his life and was seen as central to the astonishing success of Presley’s career. “The Colonel” displayed a ruthless devotion to his client’s interests and took more than the traditional 10 percent of his earnings (reaching up to 50 percent by the end of Presley’s life). Presley said of Parker: “I don’t think I’d have ever been very big if it wasn’t for him. He’s a very smart man.” For many years Parker falsely claimed to have been U.S.-born, but it eventually emerged that he was born in Breda in the Netherlands.  Colonel_Tom_Parker
Christopher Joseph “Chris” Isaak (born June 26, 1956) is an American rock musician and occasional actor.
Isaak’s best known song is “Wicked Game”. Though released on the 1989 album Heart Shaped World, an instrumental version of the song was later featured in the 1990 David Lynch film Wild at Heart.		  chris_isaak-1
 Elvis Presley recorded Little Sister June 25 & 26, 1961 (read more)“Little Sister” is a rock and roll song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. It was originally released as a single in 1961 by American singer Elvis Presley, who turned it into a No. 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The single (as a double A-side with “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame”) reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart. 

 

 elvis presley little sister

Spotify Playlist – June 26
Country, Music Calendar, Sound

June 15 in music history

Waylon Jennings was born 77 years ago (read more)

Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing guitar at eight and began performing at twelve on KVOW radio. He formed a band, The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J. on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI and KLLL. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’ first recording session, of “Jolie Blon” and “When Sin Stops (Love Begins)”. Holly hired him to play bass. During the “Winter Dance Party Tour,” in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a plane to arrive at the next venue. Jennings gave up his seat in the plane to J. P. Richardson, who was suffering from a cold. The flight that carried Holly, Richardson and Ritchie Valens crashed, on the day later known as The Day the Music Died. Following the accident, Jennings worked as a D.J. in Coolidge, Arizona and Phoenix. He formed a rockabilly club band, The Waylors. He recorded for independent label Trend Records, A&M Records before succeeding with RCA Victor after achieving creative control of his records.

 waylon jennings
Bob Dylan released Street Legal in 1978Street-Legal is the eighteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in June 1978 by Columbia Records. The album was a serious musical departure for Dylan, who uses a large pop-rock band—complete with female backing vocalists—for the first time. bob dylan street-legal
Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994) American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson. He is known for the hit singles “Everybody’s Talkin’” (1969), “Without You” (1971), and “Coconut” (1972). Nilsson also wrote the song “One” made famous by the rock band Three Dog Night. His career is notable for the fact that he was one of the few major pop-rock recording artists of his era to achieve significant commercial success without ever performing major public concerts or undertaking regular tours.  harry-nilsson
 The White Stripes is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band The White Stripes, released on June 15, 1999. The album was produced by Jim Diamond and vocalist/guitarist Jack White, recorded in January 1999 at Ghetto Recorders and Third Man Studios in Detroit. White dedicated the album to deceased blues musician Son House.  The_White_Stripes

Spotify Playlist – june 14
Music Calendar, Sound

June 08 in music history

Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait was released in 1970 (read more)

Self Portrait is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan‘s tenth studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1970.

Self Portrait was Dylan’s second double album, and features mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions. Most of the album is sung in the affected country crooning voice that Dylan had introduced a year earlier on Nashville Skyline.

 bobdylan-selfportrait-cover

Van Morrison – Too Long In Exile was released in 1993 (read more)

Too Long in Exile is the twenty-second studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1993 as his first album on Polydor Records, a sister label to his previous label Mercury Records. It was one of Morrison’s most commercially successful albums in years, due in part to a cover of “Gloria“, one of his own songs originally recorded by Them. This newer version with guest vocals and guitar from blues legend John Lee Hooker was released as a successful single charting at #31 in the U.K.

  too-long-in-exile

William Royce “Boz” Scaggs (born June 8, 1944)

American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1960s as a guitarist and occasional lead singer with the Steve Miller Band and in the 1970s with several solo Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.

Boz Scaggs covers Bob Dylan (videos)

 Boz-Scaggs
Gregory Regis Ginn (born June 8, 1954) in Tucson, Arizona is a guitarist, songwriter, and singer.He is best known for being the leader of and primary songwriter for the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986. Ginn was 99th on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.  greg ginn black flag
Kanye West (born June 8, 1977) American rapper, songwriter, record producer, film director, entrepreneur, and fashion designer. West first gained prominence as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records; he achieved recognition for his work on rapper Jay-Z‘s The Blueprint (2001), as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used high-pitched vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments.  Kanye_West_Lollapalooza_Chile_2011_2

Spotify Playlist – June 08: