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Happy 75th birthday Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples

Well, you know I’ve always liked Mavis Staples ever since she was a little girl. She’s always been my favorite… She’s always had my favorite voice.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner, Nov 1969)

The Staple Singers – Respect Yourself (Live 1972 – Wattstax music festival):

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Wikipedia:

Birth name Mavis Staples
Born July 10, 1939 (age 75)
Origin Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres Rhythm and blues, soul, gospel
Occupations Singer
Years active 1950–present
Labels Epic, Stax/Volt, Curtom, Paisley Park, Alligator, Anti-, Warner Bros.,Verve
Associated acts The Staple Singers, Prince
Website www.mavisstaples.com

Mavis Staples  was born July 10, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois she is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family’s band.

The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck “Pops” Staples (1914–2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (1934–2013), Pervis (b. 1935), Yvonne (b. 1936), and Mavis (b. 1939). They are best known for their 1970s hits “Respect Yourself”, “I’ll Take You There”, “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me)”, and “Let’s Do It Again”.

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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

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions

Bob Dylan: The 3rd Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan session, 9 July 1962

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bob dylan freewheelin

 Freewheelin’ in it’s released form is essentially a “best of” from one of the most creative years in Dylan’s life. The lag between sessions resulted in an album whose sound metamorphosed at least twice.
~Clinton Heylin (BD – The Recording Sessions)

4 master versions for “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” was recorded @ this important recording session.

bob dylan freewheelin shots

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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
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July 8 in music history

 The late Louis Jordan was born in 1908, 106 years ago (read more)

I identify myself with Louis Jordan more than any other artist
~Chuck Berry

 louis jordan
Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) (read more), known by the stage name Beck, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Beck rose to fame in the early 1990s with his lo-fi, sonically experimental style, and he becamewell known for creating musical collages ofa wide range of styles. His later recordings encompass folk, funk, soul, hip hop, alternative rock, country and psychedelia. Beck has released ten studio albums, as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.

 beck 1
 Toby Keith Covel (born July 8, 1961) best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993’s Toby Keith, 1994’s Boomtown, 1996’s Blue Moon and 1997’s Dream Walkin’, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of Mercury Records before leaving Mercury in 1998. These albums all earned gold or higher certification, and produced several chart singles, including his debut “Should’ve Been a Cowboy”, which topped the country charts and was the most played country song of the 1990s. The song has received three million spins since then, according to Broadcast Music Incorporated.  toby-keith
 Andy Fletcher (born 8 July 1961, Nottingham, England), known as “Fletch”, is a co-founder and member of the English synth band Depeche Mode.  Andy_Fletcher_t
 Willie Nix (August 6, 1922 — July 8, 1991) was an American Chicago blues singer and drummer, active in Memphis, Tennessee,United States, in the 1940s and 1950s.  willie nix

Spotify Playlist – July 8