– Hallgeir (photo)
Today: Bobbie Gentry is 69
Can a song be so perfect, so successful, that it eclipses its creator? It can if it’s Bobbie Gentry’s Grammy-winning 1967 chart-topper Ode to Billie Joe, one of the most elegantly powerful pieces of storytelling ever to travel the airwaves.
~Dorian Lynskey (The Guardian)
Ode to Billie Joe:
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Roberta Lee Streeter |
|---|---|
| Born | July 27, 1944 (age 69) |
| Origin | Chickasaw County, Mississippi, United States |
| Genres | Country, pop, soul |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1964–1978 |
| Labels | Capitol |
| Associated acts | Glen Campbell |
Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American former singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material. Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.
Gentry shot to international fame with her intriguing Southern Gothic narrative “Ode to Billie Joe” in 1967. The track was fourth in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967 and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. Gentry charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40. Her album Fancy brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She lost interest in performing in the late 1970s and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.
| Bobbie Gentry remains one of the most interesting and underappreciated artists to emerge out of Nashville during the late ’60s. Best-known for her crossover smash “Ode to Billie Joe,” she was one of the first female country artists to write and produce much of her own material, forging an idiosyncratic, pop-inspired sound that, in tandem with her glamorous, bombshell image, anticipated the rise of latter-day superstars like Shania Twain and Faith Hill. ~Jason Alkeny (Allmusic) |
Check out these fine articles:
- Hidden treasures: Bobbie Gentry – The Delta Sweete (The Guardian)
- The mystery of Bobbie Gentry (croydonmunicipal.blogspot.no)
Album of the day:
The Delta Sweete (1968)
The Delta Sweete is her second record and her masterpiece: a multi-faceted quasi-concept album about Gentry’s Mississippi delta roots.
~Dorian Lynskey (The Guardian)
Other July-27:
Concert film: Van Morrison – Astral Weeks live 2008
“The way I was singing the songs was jazz”
– Van Morrison
I have changed my mind, I do that from time to time (all the time actually…). My favorite Van Morrison album has been Moondance for years, but now it is Astral Weeks. I’ve always loved Astral Weeks, it has been third on my list of his albums (the live album, It’s too late to stop now, had the second spot).
As of today it is officially on top, I get it now, I can truly see the greatness. I have played it to death these last weeks and it goes beyond pop/rock music, it is in a genre of it’s own. I know I’m ramblin’, but bear with me, I’m just an exited convert.
I went on YouTube to see if I could find some good versions of the songs, what I found was Morrisons’s fantastic live re-enactment of his masterpiece. I collected what I found, it is amazing!
On November 7 and 8, 2008, four decades after the release of the classic Astral Weeks, Van Morrison revisited the album live in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl, and delivered a jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring performance. Van did not simply re-create what he did 40 years ago in a NY studio, but instead took the songs to a dramatically higher contemporary level. The Jazz-rooted compositions of Astral Weeks are poetic stories of young love and the quest to find one’s place in life. They were, and remain, ideal source material for musical improvisation that gives way to the sense of wonder for which Morrison has always striven.
– Amazon.com
Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl: The Concert Film is the second official DVD by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released May 19, 2009. It features the songs from his 1968 classic album, Astral Weeks. The live performances on the movie were filmed on two concerts by Van Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California with a fourteen member band.
Morrison has also released an album on CD and vinyl on February 24, 2009 entitled, Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl with material from these two concerts.
UPDATE: Please read the comments from Andrew Robertson for a more comprehensive (and more correct) account of the two concerts.
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks / I Believe I’ve Transcended:
I play in a free-form, inspired style; I have no choice but to change it up according to the vibe. The new record was recorded live; what [you hear] is what was played in its raw form. There was no mixing, no tweaking, no post-production at all, and I like that raw and edgy sound in real time. It’s got a lot of boom to it! I really like listening to live records, it’s my new thing. Real and alive, the life is not taken out of it like a studio produced record can and very too often, does. My motto right now is post mixing kills.
– Van Morrison (to Paste Magazine)
Van Morrison – Beside You:
Van Morrison – Slim Slow Slider / I Start Breaking Down:
Van Morrison – Sweet Thing:
Van Morrison – The Way Young Lovers Do:
Continue reading Concert film: Van Morrison – Astral Weeks live 2008
Today: Masked and Anonymous was released 10 years ago
“When I made the Bob Dylan movie, I wanted to make a Bob Dylan movie that was like a Bob Dylan song. One with a lot of layers, that had a lot of poetry, that had a lot of surrealism and was ambiguous and hard to figure out, like a puzzle.”
– Larry Charles
Masked and Anonymous is a 2003 comedy-drama film directed by Larry Charles, who is better known for his writing on successful TV sitcoms, Seinfeld and Mad About You and for executive producing episodes of The Tick and Dilbert. The film was written by Larry Charles and Bob Dylan, the latter under the pseudonym “Sergei Petrov”. It stars iconic rock legend Bob Dylan alongside a star-heavy cast, including John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange,Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris, Chris Penn, Steven Bauer, Giovanni Ribisi, and Michael Paul Chan.
The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Trailer:
It is such an underrated movie! …and with some fantastical musical numbers of course.
Bob Dylan – Drifters Escape:
Bob Dylan – Cold Irons Bound:
Bob Dylan – I Remember You:
Bob Dylan – Standing in the doorway (audio):
Bob Dylan – Diamond Joe:
Seek it out, check it out, it’s a good experience!
– Hallgeir
Today: Jim Armstrong is 69
From Wikipeida:
James ‘Jim’ Armstrong (born 24 July 1944, in Belfast, Co Antrim) is a guitarist from Northern Ireland.
Armstrong’s musical career started while he was still a schoolboy, when he played in Belfast’s top showband, The Melotones, who were resident in the city’s Romano’s Ballroom. Armstrong played and recorded in the mid-’60s with Van Morrison and Them, touring both Europe and America (where he lived – playing and recording – for 4 years). Of the 51 tracks recorded by Morrison and Them (1964–66), Armstrong played on over half, and while living in America met and played with Jim Morrison & The Doors, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa. During this time he was voted 3rd best guitarist in the world (after Jimi Hendrix & Frank Zappa).
Them:
Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard “Gloria” and launching singer Van Morrison’s musical career. The original five member band consisted of Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Millings, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon.The group was marketed in the United States as part of the British Invasion.
Them scored two UK hits in 1965 with “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (UK No.10) and “Here Comes the Night” (UK No.2; Republic of IrelandNo.2). The latter song and “Mystic Eyes”” were Top 40 hits in the US.
Them w/ Gloria:
Here is a youtube playlist with Jim Armstrong:
Other July-24: