Music history - June 10

Music history – June 10


Today: The Legendary Ray Charles passed away in 2004, 10 years ago (read more) Sinatra, and Bing Crosby before him, had been masters of words. Ray Charles is a master of sounds. His records disclose an extraordinary assortment of slurs, glides, turns, shrieks, wails, breaks, shouts, screams and hollers, all wonderfully controlled, disciplined by inspired musicianship, and harnessed to ingenious subtleties of harmony, dynamics and rhythm… It is either the singing of a man whose vocabulary is inadequate to express what is in his heart and mind or of one whose feelings are too intense for satisfactory verbal or conventionally melodic articulation. He can’t tell it to you. He can’t even sing it to you. He has to cry out to you, or shout to you, in tones eloquent of despair — or exaltation. The voice alone, with little assistance from the text or the notated music, conveys the message. ~Henry Pleasants
104 years ago: The late great Howlin Wolf was born June 10 in 1910 (read more) “A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight, a Muddy Waters more dignity, and a B.B. King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.” ~allmusic
Empire Burlesque by Bob Dylan was released June 10 in 1985 (read more) “Say what you want about Empire Burlesque – at the very least, it’s the most consistent record Bob Dylan has made since Blood on the Tracks, even if it isn’t quite as interesting as Desire. However, it is a better set of songs, all deriving from the same place and filled with subtle gems — the most obvious being “Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?),” but also “Emotionally Yours” and “Dark Eyes” — proving that his powers are still there.” ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic)
Uprising (Released June 10, 1980 )is a reggae album by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Marley died the following year, and Uprising was thus the final studio album released during his lifetime. This album is one of Marley’s most directly religious, with nearly every song addressing his Rastafarian beliefs, culminating in the acoustic folk classic, “Redemption Song”.
Bob Dylan – Workingman’s Blues #2 – Vienna, Austria 10 June 2008 (Video)
Spotify Playlist – June 10