It's been a long, cold week. Dear lord, I am in need of some serious blues. Serious blues.
McKinley Morganfield died April 30, 1983 at approximately 70 years of age. His date of birth has long been in question but his impact on the American blues scene has not. He has been ranked as one of the top 100 musicians of all time, and influenced virtually every American and British rock or blues group from the 60's. Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix, the Stones.. Hendrix is quoted as saying about him "I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death." The Rolling Stones got their name from one of his songs.
The king of Chicago Blues, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Hell, they even issued a postage stamp in his honor.
Still can't place the name? How about what his friends called him: Muddy Waters.
Let's just taste a few of his best tunes. They are bound to warm you from the inside out.
Featured today is an artist who can play it all. A little blues, a little country, a little rock. Lucinda Williams started out more country oriented in the late 70's. Over the years her influences have moved her into much broader categories.
Coming out of Lake Charles, Louisiana, Lucinda has traveled the road from singer-songwriter, to Grammy winning singer-songwriter, to being named "America's Best Songwriter," by Time magazine. In 2007 She performed a 5 day series of concerts in Los Angeles and New York where she performed her entire catalog on consecutive nights. Haven't you always wanted to hear an artist do that... play all the songs you love, but are not necessarily the ones which make the regular set list.
Her latest album, Blessed, was released in 2011 and is her tenth studio album. It features guest appearances by Elvis Costello and Matthew Sweet.
Today we will have a taste of a song from her 1998 Grammy winning album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, her first Gold album. The song was written by Randy Weeks of Lonesome Strangers.
One of the 20th Century's greatest songwriters, Neil Diamond has written hit songs for so many artists, as well as saving quite a few for himself. Down the road there will be a full blog on Neil Diamond, but for this installment of Got It Covered, on his birthday, I thought we could just taste one song that has a pretty well-known cover.
Originally released in 1967, "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon," reached the #10 spot on Billboard's Pop Chart. Then in 1992 it was covered by Chicago alternative rock band, Urge Overkill. Their version was later used by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction in 1994.
In the late 60's a band came onto the scene with music incorporating a little jazz, a little folk and a little rock. They had a horn section, played a variety of music and would record songs by writers such as Laura Nyro, James Taylor, the Rolling Stones and Billie Holiday.
Over the years band members would come and go, but the era where they had their greatest success was when David Clayton-Thomas was their lead singer. The band was Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Many of their songs are quite well known: "Spinning Wheel," "And When I Die," and "You Made Me So Very Happy," to name a few. All those songs were sung by Clayton-Thomas. But there was one song by BS&T which always stood out to me, and with seasonal storms and cold weather throughout the country, it seems like a good time to shine a little light on it.
From the Grammy winning Album of the Year, Blood, Sweat and Tears, and written and sung by Steve Katz, one of the founding members, the song is "Sometimes in Winter."
"Sometimes in Winter
I gaze into the streets
and walk through snow and city sleet
behind your room
Sometimes in Winter
forgotten memories
remember you behind the trees
with leaves that cried
By the window once I waited for you
laughing slightly you would run
trees alone would shield us in the meadow
makin' love in the evening sun
Now you're gone girl
and the lamp posts call your name
I can hear them
in the spring of frozen rain
Now you're gone girl
and the times slow down till dawn
It's a cold room
and the walls ask where you've gone
Sometimes in winter
I love you when the good times
seem like memories in the spring
that never came
Sometimes in winter
I wish the empty streets
would fill with laughter from your tears
to ease my pain"
and a rare live performance from 1971...
The stark crispness of the vocal contrasts perfectly with the lush orchestration. Wonderful.
It's just a song to keep you warm...sometimes in winter.
Today we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Today is also the day we hold the second inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States. Bob Dylan would call it a "simple twist of fate." I would call it "just desserts."
Today, I'm re-posting my blog from Martin Luther King Day 2012. Take the day to enjoy your civil rights and celebrate your government.
The Civil Rights Movement: The Times Were A Changin'
“You are not only responsible for what you say,
but also for what you do not say.
...Martin Luther King Jr.
The time of the civil rights movement was also the time of Vietnam war protests. A lot of the music from that time was interchangeable between the two, in the ideas put forth.
In "Blowin' in the Wind," Bob Dylan wrote "How many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free. How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see." The song also contains the line "How many times must the cannonballs fly, before they're forever banned."
A song that was sung on the steps of the Washington Monument along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., perhaps one of the greatest songs ever written...listen to "Blowin' in the Wind" performed by Peter, Paul & Mary.
