The celebrated and influential folksinger and activist Peter Seeger died on Monday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.
He was 94 years old.
Seeger scored hit records in the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers; their recording of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene” topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950, according to Wikipedia.
Mr. Seeger’s career carried him from singing at labor rallies to the Top 10 to college auditoriums to folk festivals, and from a conviction for contempt of Congress (after defying the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s) to performing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural concert for Barack Obama.
For Mr. Seeger, folk music and a sense of community were inseparable, and where he saw a community, he saw the possibility of political action.
In his hearty tenor, Mr. Seeger, a beanpole of a man who most often played 12-string guitar or five-string banjo, sang topical songs and children’s songs, humorous tunes and earnest anthems, always encouraging listeners to join in. His agenda paralleled the concerns of the American left: He sang for the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s, for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the 1960s, and for environmental and antiwar causes in the 1970s and beyond. “We Shall Overcome,” which Mr. Seeger adapted from old spirituals, became a civil rights anthem.
Rolling Stone called Seeger “a seminal figure in American music who kept folk music alive and influenced generations of musicians from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen…”
Pete Seeger and The Weavers sing “Goodnight Irene”:
“Beans in My Ears”:
Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, “Playboys and Playgirls”:
Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen, “This Land Is Your Land,” Obama inauguration:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Amiri Baraka, a major figure in the “Black Arts” movement of the ’60s and ’70s, is dead.
He was 79 years old.
Baraka once said, “We want poems that kill.”
Wikipedia: “Rather than use poetry as an escapist mechanism, Baraka saw poetry as a weapon of action. His poetry demanded violence against those he felt were responsible for an unjust society.”
“Somebody Blew Up America”:
The New York Times wrote:
Amiri Baraka, a poet and playwright of pulsating rage, whose long illumination of the black experience in America was called incandescent in some quarters and incendiary in others, died on Thursday [January 9. 2014] in Newark. He was 79.
His death, at Beth Israel Medical Center, was confirmed by his son Ras Baraka, a member of the Newark Municipal Council. He did not specify a cause but said that Mr. Baraka had been hospitalized since Dec. 21.
Mr. Baraka was famous as one of the major forces in the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and ’70s, which sought to duplicate in fiction, poetry, drama and other mediums the aims of the black power movement in the political arena.
Among his best-known works are the poetry collections “The Dead Lecturer” and “Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, 1961-1995”; the play “Dutchman”; and “Blues People: Negro Music in White America,” a highly regarded historical survey.
“Black Art,” Amiri Baraka reads his poem with Sonny Murray on drums, Albert Ayler on tenor saxophone, Don Cherry on trumpet, Henry Grimes on bass, Louis Worrell on bass, for the album Sonny’s Time Now:
For the rest of the New York Times obit, head here.
Baraka was a friend of Allen Ginsberg.
Wikipedia: “In 1954, he joined the US Air Force as a gunner, reaching the rank of sergeant. After an anonymous letter to his commanding officer accusing him of being a communist led to the discovery of Soviet writings, Baraka was put on gardening duty and given a dishonorable discharge for violation of his oath of duty.[citation needed]
“The same year, he moved to Greenwich Village working initially in a warehouse for music records. His interest in jazz began during this period. At the same time he came into contact with avant-garde Beat Generation, Black Mountain poets and New York School poets. In 1958 he married Hettie Cohen and founded Totem Press, which published such Beat icons as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Their literary magazine Yugen lasted for eight issues (1958–62). Baraka also worked as editor and critic for Kulchur (1960–65). With Diane DiPrima he edited the first twenty-five issues (1961–63) of their little magazine Floating Bear.”
A July 6, 1994 lecture by Amiri Baraka on the politics of poetics. The lecture ends with a question and answer period covering topics such as jism and jazz, grants in music, whores, hypocrisy, Bob Dylan, and Noam Chomsky.
“Dope”:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Yesterday, following Phil Everly’s death, Harold Lepidus (at examiner.com) did a great post about songs by Bob Dylan that the Everly Brothers covered, and songs by the Everlys that Dylan covered.
Unfortunately, he only included audio of one of those songs.
So today I tracked down all of the audio and you can check it out below.
There’s a very cool, very loose version of “All I Can Do Is Dream” that Dylan sang while jamming with George Harrison in 1970, and a version of “Let It Be Me” off a B-side of the European “Heart Of Mine” single released in 1981).
Enjoy.
“The Everly Brothers, “Lay Lady Lay” off EB 84 (1984):
The Everly Brothers, “Abandoned Love” off Born Yesterday (1985):
Bob Dylan jamming with George Harrison (May 1, 1970), “All I Have To Do Is Dream”:
Bob Dylan, “Let It Be Me,” B side of “Heart Of Mine” European single (1981):
Bob Dylan and The Band, “All You Have To Do Is Dream” (a Basement Tapes reording possibly inspired by the Everly’s “All I Have To Do Is Dream”:
Plus in case you missed by Phil Everly obit yesterday, here are the Everly songs Bob Dylan included on Self Portrait:
Bob Dylan, “Let It Be Me”:
Bob Dylan, “Take A Message To Mary”:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Phil Everly, one of the great harmony singers in rock ‘n’ roll, and half of the legendary duo the Everly Brothers, died today in Burbank, CA. He was 74
His wife Patti Everly said the cause of death was complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the L.A. Times.
Phil Everly was a longtime smoker.
The peak of the duo’s popularity was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when they charted nearly three dozen hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart,including “Cathy’s Clown,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “When Will I Be Loved” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” The duo was among the first 10 performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
The Beatles once called themselves “the English Everly Brothers.” Bob Dylan, who covered two of their hits, “Let It Be Me” and “Take A Message To Mary” on Self Portrait, said of the duo, “We owe these guys everything. They started it all.”
In an obit at Rolling Stone’s website, David Browne wrote:
Harmony singing had been key in country and bluegrass, but starting with their first hit, 1957’s “Bye Bye Love,” the Everly Brothers brought the sound of deeply intertwined voices — and more than a hint of Appalachia — to rock & roll… The brothers’ close-knit harmonies were also a major influence on rock & roll, impacting on the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, the Mamas & the Papas, and many others.
Paul Simon on the Everly Brothers:
The roots of the Everly Brothers are very, very deep in the soil of American culture. First of all, you should know that the Everly Brothers were child stars. They had a radio show with their family, and their father, Ike, was an influential country guitar player, so he attracted other significant musicians to the Everlys’ world — among them Merle Travis and Chet Atkins, who was instrumental in getting the Everlys on the Grand Ole Opry. Perhaps even more powerfully than Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers melded country with the emerging sound of Fifties rock & roll. They were exposed to extraordinary country-roots music, and so they brought with them the legacy of the great brother groups like the Delmore Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys into the Fifties, where they mingled with the other early rock pioneers and made history in the process.
Chris Isaak said of the Everly Brothers last month: “They’re the best singers of all time, you know?”
John Fogerty and Bruce Springsteen covered the Everly’s “When Will I Be Loved” in 2009 for Fogerty’s album, The Blue Ridge Rangers (Ride Again).
In November 2013 Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones released Foreverly, in which they covered the duo’s entire 1958 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us.
The Everly harmonies “are so immaculate,” Armstrong told USA Today during an interview last year. “And that record [the duo’s second album, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us] was pretty daring at the time. A lot of other rock guys were trying to go pop. Chuck Berry had a string of big hits, and the same with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis. And here the Everlys were playing these torch songs and murder ballads. For them to do something so dark and angelic was appealing to me.”
George “Shadow” Morton was the auteur producer behind the Shangri-Las. Their first record was their greatest: 1964′ “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand).” You can listen to it below and see the group, though the footage is not synced to the song.
Years later Morton produced the New York Dolls’ second album, Too Much Too Soon.
Morton died this year, and in today’s New York Times Magazine, Rob Hoerburger writes about him and that record.
What a strange record it was: a song about a girl who gets a Dear Jane letter, alternately wailed and whispered, with thudding piano chords and a choir of sea gulls. “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand),” released in mid-1964, did something that few pop songs had dared: It overflowed with messy details. There was pathos, passion, wistful reminiscence, the possibility of dire consequences, all conveyed in 2 minutes 18 seconds by four way-too-knowing teenagers from Queens called the Shangri-Las. And it sprang from the mind of a 22-year-old who had never published or produced a song in his life, who just weeks before the record came out was scooping ice cream.
Yusef Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston), a Grammy-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, died today at his home in Shutesbury, Mass. He was 93.
Lateef’s main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, but he also played oboe and bassoon, and used a number of world music instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, Xun, arghul, sarewa, and koto. He is known for his innovative blending of jazz with “Eastern” music, according to Wikipedia.
After suffering with pancreatic cancer for more than a year, country great Ray Price died today at 4:30 PM CST, according to his associate, Bill Mack.
Mack posted on his Facebook page that Price’s wife Janie Price had called him this afternoon:
“JANIE JUST CALLED ME:
RAY PRICE LEFT FOR HEAVEN AT 4:43 PM CENTRAL TIME. HE WENT IN PERFECT PEACE. DETAILS LATER. JANIE AND THE FAMILY SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PRAYERS. RAY’S BODY WILL BE RECEIVED AT RESTLAND FUNERAL HOME IN DALLAS.”
Below is the obit I ran yesterday after Price’s son mistakenly posted on his Facebook page that his father was dead.
Country singer Ray Price, who scored #1 country hits including “Crazy Arms,” “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You,” and “The Same Old Me,” died today at age 87 at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. Price had been suffering complications from pancreatic cancer since late last year.
In addition to charting in the country top 10 (beginning with “Talk To Your Heart” in 1952), for over 30 years, Price is known for his baritone voice and for pioneering the honky-tonk sound still heard in some country music.
For an in-depth look at Ray Price’s career, check out this article in The Tennessean.
Ray Price performs his first #1 hit, “Crazy Arms,” in 1956 at the Ryman Auditorium.
“My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You,” 1957:
“Heartaches By the Numbers,” 1959:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Lorna Donley, once the intense singer for the post-punk band DA! but more recently a librarian, died on December 1, 2013, She was 53.
DA! was a Chicago band that formed in 1977, recorded two EPs, and broke up in 1982. As is particularly evident from the black and white video made for their song, “Next To Nothing” (check it out below), DA! never got had either the exposure or the success they deserved. Donley, who stars in the video, is has downbeat charisma.
As the Chicago Sun-Times noted in their obit, “In his ‘Secret History of Chicago Music’ comic strip in the Chicago Reader, Steve Krakow compared the band to ‘Patti Smith fronting Joy Division.'”
Lorna Donley with husband, Scott Taves, on their wedding day, just a few months before her death.
In early December Donley “had chest pain while having coffee with her husband of less than three months, Scott Taves, at their home near Peterson and Western,” the Sun Times reported. “They went to Swedish Covenant hospital, where she died Dec. 1 of a ruptured aorta.”
Despite earlier reports, Ray Price is still alive, though he is very ill with pancreatic cancer. His son mistakenly posted on Facebook that his father was dead.
Price’s wife, Janie Price, told The Tennessean he is alive.
Price’s wife Janie posted on Facebook: “At this time our loveable Ray Price is still with. us. When it is the time there will be a official statement.”
Bill Mack, who works with Ray Price, posted this: I just completed a telephone call with Janie Price at 10:15PM, Central. She said Ray’s condition is still in a “coma” mode, is not expected to improve. However, I will have my phone next to the bed constantly … if I decide to “crash-out”. She, or someone at the house, will call if there are any changes that need to be posted. I have spoken with so many of Ray’s peers, all so concerned about the “Chief”. That, and the hundreds of responses from you people, has made me realize the true value of friends. Yes, it’s been a day filled with hurt, but for a purpose: Love, concern … and prayers for Ray’s family. God bless you, thanks.
Below the obit I posted earlier, which is premature. However you still might want to check out the some of Price’s hits, which I’ve posted.
Country singer Ray Price, who scored #1 country hits including “Crazy Arms,” “My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You,” and “The Same Old Me,” died today at age 87 at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. Price had been suffering complications from pancreatic cancer since late last year.
In addition to charting in the country top 10 (beginning with “Talk To Your Heart” in 1952), for over 30 years, Price is known for his baritone voice and for pioneering the honky-tonk sound still heard in some country music.
For an in-depth look at Ray Price’s career, check out this article in The Tennessean.
Ray Price performs his first #1 hit, “Crazy Arms,” in 1956 at the Ryman Auditorium.
“My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You,” 1957:
“Heartaches By the Numbers,” 1959:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Nelson Mandela, who fought to free South Africa from apartheid and became a symbol of freedom throughout the world, died Thursday, He was 95.
“He no longer belongs to us,” President Obama said at the White House. “He belongs to the ages.”
Transcript of Obama’s comments on Mandela:
At his trial in 1964, Nelson Mandela closed his statement from the dock saying, “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
And Nelson Mandela lived for that ideal, and he made it real. He achieved more than could be expected of any man. Today, he has gone home. And we have lost one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth. He no longer belongs to us — he belongs to the ages.
Through his fierce dignity and unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others, Madiba transformed South Africa — and moved all of us. His journey from a prisoner to a President embodied the promise that human beings — and countries — can change for the better. His commitment to transfer power and reconcile with those who jailed him set an example that all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations or our own personal lives. And the fact that he did it all with grace and good humor, and an ability to acknowledge his own imperfections, only makes the man that much more remarkable. As he once said, “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life. My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings. The day that he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they’re guided by their hopes and not by their fears. And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him.
To Graça Machel and his family, Michelle and I extend our deepest sympathy and gratitude for sharing this extraordinary man with us. His life’s work meant long days away from those who loved him the most. And I only hope that the time spent with him these last few weeks brought peace and comfort to his family.
To the people of South Africa, we draw strength from the example of renewal, and reconciliation, and resilience that you made real. A free South Africa at peace with itself — that’s an example to the world, and that’s Madiba’s legacy to the nation he loved.
We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. So it falls to us as best we can to forward the example that he set: to make decisions guided not by hate, but by love; to never discount the difference that one person can make; to strive for a future that is worthy of his sacrifice.
For now, let us pause and give thanks for the fact that Nelson Mandela lived — a man who took history in his hands, and bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice. May God Bless his memory and keep him in peace.
Bono wrote about Mandela for Time magazine:
As an activist I have pretty much been doing what Nelson Mandela tells me since I was a teenager. He has been a forceful presence in my life going back to 1979, when U2 made its first anti-apartheid effort. And he’s been a big part of the Irish consciousness even longer than that. Irish people related all too easily to the subjugation of ethnic majorities. From our point of view, the question as to how bloody South Africa would have to get on its long road to freedom was not abstract.
Over the years we became friends. I, like everyone else, was mesmerized by his deft maneuvering as leader of South Africa. His cabinet appointments of Trevor Manuel and Kadar Asmal were intuitive and ballsy. His partnership with Sowetan neighbor Desmond Tutu brought me untold joy. This double act—and before long a triple act that included Mandela’s wife, the bold and beautiful Graca Machel—took the success of the anti-apartheid fight in South Africa and widened the scope to include the battle against AIDS and the broader reach for dignity by the poorest peoples on the planet.
