2021, Music, Uncategorized

In Memorium

60 Comments

This has been a hard week for music lovers, with the deaths of Nancy Griffith, Don Everly, Tom T. Hall, and Charlie Watts.

I first heard Nancy Griffith at the Winnipeg Folk Music Festival in 1982. Husband heard Charlie Watts and the Rolling Stones in Milwaukee in 1975, with the Eagles. Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston played with them. Chaka Khan was also there. I heard Tom T. Hall on the radio ad nauseum as I grew up.

I loved the work Nancy Griffith did with the Chieftains. I loved she was a Kindergarten teacher. I also love her song about Deadwood, SD. It hits home.

Let’s remember the music today, Baboons!

60 thoughts on “In Memorium”

  1. Oh man, I’m with you there. I know this was what brought you all together.
    I didn’t know about Charlie. A jazz fan, who gave his life to the Stones. I don’t know much about him, although he and his wife bought a farm at Dolton in North Devon, next to the little farm I looked after for a couple of weeks for an old friend, name of Jane. They bought it for his wife’s horses. Well, this comment wasn’t about music much, I’ll leave it at that. (A different Jane)

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  2. A kid I worked with years ago said “I saw the Stones in Copenhagen” (I think it was Copenhagen he said) “They were all right,” he said. I asked how they could be “all right.” You love the Stones or you hate them. They are never going to be “all right.” Don’t remember his answer, to tell the truth. I’m good at remembering parts of stories.

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  3. While I probably don’t like most of Tom T. Hall’s music, I have a strong connection to one of his tunes. I spent much of the 60s and 70s obsessed with the music of Leo Kottke, and Leo played one Tom T. Hall song: Pamela Brown. It is a fun song, a sly tribute Hall wrote to a girl who broke his heart in high school. Now he’s thanking her for making his career as a country singer possible.

    Leo was always conflicted about his singing, once famously disparaging his singing as “geese farts on a summer day.” And yet there were a few songs he loved to sing, and this was one.

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    2. I believe I only ever went in the Woolworthsin Barnstaple (we always said it with the “s”). They moved along the same street one time. But neither of them smelled like that.
      You wouldn’t ever go to town and not go to Woolworths.

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  6. OT: Retraction: In a reply to Steve yesterday, I mentioned the name Muriel Frampton. It wasn’t Muriel who got in an argument about mistreatment of slaves in an English class one day. It was Heather Gordon. You’ve paid for them, you can do what you like with them, she said. She was utterly serious. Mrs Harding, visibly, could not think what to say to her. She couldn’t handle the class terribly well, but was quite a nice lady. Heather was a mean girl, but Muriel wasn’t much different.

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  7. A musical memory from my wedding (and I will spare you the ear worm and 80s video)… Husband, bless him, was a George Michael fan. Loved to dance around the house to his music, volume on about 11. He recognized this was a solo sport, so would wait until he could be in the house alone. Though the wedding dance, well, it was a moment even the friend who DJ’ed for us remembers.

    Setting the stage: it is late-ish in the reception. Guests have been dancing to a wide variety of music. Husband’s good friend has been sharing some very fine tequila with him and Husband is now in the “invisible” stage of tequila (I don’t think he realized he had consumed that much). People have been slowly dropping away from the dance floor as they have tired. And then the DJ plays husband’s request: “Faith” in all its catchy 1980s glory. The last of the dancers fade away, giving Husband the whole floor…which he needed because did I mention the invisible stage of tequila? His dancing was truly a thing to behold – full of joy, truly uninhibited, eyes closed, head thrown back… and all by himself. I think when the song ended and he found that he had been dancing solo he was a little embarrassed – though really, we were all just loving how much he was clearly enjoying himself on a day well worth celebrating. A day he had been nervous about (not the outcome, but getting through the events of the day). A day he looked forward to (see: outcome), but also fretted about (see: being the center of attention). And he had finally well and truly let loose. And it was a wonder and wonderful to see.

    …and after that, he never requested George Michael at a dance or reception again. It remained a solo sport in perpetuity.

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    2. Great story, Anna. Sorry that I’ll miss your celebration of his life this evening and all of the stories that no doubt will be told. I know there will be tears and lots of laughs as well. Hugs to you and Miss S.

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  8. My parents had a Tom T. Hall 8 track tape. It was from the 70’s so in the cover photo, he’s probably got the wide lapels and shirt collar on top and I just thought that was the coolest look ever! Influenced my fashion choices for years. (Plus my brother was actually old enough to dress like that so I envied his platform shoes, shiny satin shirts, and shirt collars).
    The song from that 8-track that I remember most is “I Love” and I still appreciate the rhythms of his lists. And the drawn out “Iiiii Loooove Youuuu, Toooo”.

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  9. Since Isaac, 9 at the time, showed me how to get YouTube, I’ve been lost, trying to play every single thing I can find that I like. It never ends, does it? I have one rule: not to play anything that I have on 33,45,or 78. What’s the point in having all those records and not playing them? I always swore nothing would take their place. But it’s a crowded house, and I haven’t worked out where I can put my revord player and records and keep them there, where I can play them without complaints. In England I had them in the workshop, and maybe that’s the answer, but it’s less easy here.
    So just occasionally the rule gets broken. It’s sure getting broken the last few days, with all the Everly material that’s popping up. I’ve got enough of their records to sink the Titanic, but never mind, they won’t go away.
    Not really a fan of the others, though I have respect for them all.

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  11. Here’s a favorite Charlie Watts story as told by Keith Richards in his autobiography.

    In 1984, the Stones were in Amsterdam. Keith and Mick returned to the hotel at 5:00 AM. Mick wanted to talk with Charlie.

    “Don’t call him, not at this time,” said Keith. “But he did, and said: ‘Where is my drummer?’ There was no answer, and he hung up the phone.”

    According to Keith, 20 minutes later someone knocked on the door of the room he was in with Mick. It was Charlie, who, far from showing up in his pajamas at that hour, looked perfectly dressed in a suit, tie and perfume.

    “I opened the door and he didn’t even look at me, he walked right past me, stood in front of Mick and said, ‘Never call me your drummer again. I am not your drummer, you are my damn singer.’ Then he grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket. and gave him a right hook “, Richards recounted.

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  12. Lately, I’ve been watching reaction videos where the people record themselves listening and watching performances for the first time. Some are likely faked while others are honest reactions. I wish I could remember when I first heard Unchained Melody but now every time I watch YouTube postings like this it brings a tear to my eye.

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    1. That’s a great video of the late Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers. I’d like to try and sell you Gene Vincent’s version, a copy of which I’ve owned since I first became a Rock’nRoll fan, around the end of the sixties. Gene, to me, is mostly a letdown, but this was my favourite record for years, and not even a Rock’nRoll song. His voice on this is, to me, the definitive fifties voice. Which it only dawned on me recently, he only achieved this once, and I don’t know that anyone else achieved it, either. So the only way to hear the supposedly definitive voice of the fifties, is to listen to this record.

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  13. Don’t know how many of you are familiar with the recordings of the Transatlantic Sessions, but I find lots of really good listening there. So many talented musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, playing together and sharing the songs they love. Here’s one:

    As a special nod to Fenton and Ben, it features farming and a tractor.

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  15. Just got home from a grueling, most of the day work thing. All company meeting and sessions and department meetings. This was such a nice surprise as I’m settling in and trying to get these shoes off my swollen feet. Thanks everyone for the memories and the tunes!!

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  20. OT – On the eve of the opening of the Fair, a judge today ruled against gun permit owners who sought the right to carry weapons at the Minnesota State Fair.

    “Both parties have articulated harms,” the judge wrote in her 13-page order. “The court finds, however, that the plaintiffs have long been aware of the society’s position on guns at the State Fair and that their extensive delay undercuts their claim of irreparable harm. This factor slightly favors denying the injunction.”

    Bryan Strawser with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus says he’s disappointed with the decision, but is urging permit holders not to bring guns to the fair.

    “The fair has made it a misdemeanor to carry past the security checkpoint, and it doesn’t help our cause to cause issues in this process as we’re working through this litigation,” Strawser said. “So our advice would be not to do that and let the process play out in the courts.”

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        1. What is it with your crazy country? Y’all have shown me the movie “State Fair,” and the only one that might possibly need a gun would be a jealous wife or husband. But seriously. Guns at the State Fair.

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  22. Here’s a little glimpse into the early career of The Everly Brothers as remembered by Connie Francis a couple of days ago on Facebook:

    “I was saddened today to learn of the passing of Don Everly.
    Back in the Fifties, before “Who’s Sorry Now” changed my life forever, two guys with similar dreams of a hit record, were astounded when I confessed that I wasn’t “really gone” on Country music. Those guys were Don and Phil Everly, with whom I was making personal appearances in Cleveland, Ohio. So determined were they to initiate me, that they drove me, on their Vespas, to ‘The Record Rendezvous’, one of the city’s most popular music stores. The three of us crammed into a listening booth and they played me recordings of some of the biggest names in Country music, among them Kitty Wells, Johnny Cash and Homer and Jethro.
    Since that day in Cleveland, Don and Phil went on to become one of the world’s most successful recording acts of all time and, as well as adding touches of Country to my singles, I also recorded several albums devoted to that genre, including Country & Western Golden Hits, Country Music Connie Style and My Heart Cries For You.
    Our careers brought us into regular contact with each other, and the boys’ influence was ever present. Here’s an Eighties banner that was used when Don, Phil and I appeared at the Landmark Theater, Las Vegas. The black and white shot was taken in London in 1978. I
    was recording tracks for my ‘Who’s Happy Now’ album when Don surprised me by showing up during the session for “(‘Til) I Kissed You”, written by him, and a huge hit for the Everlys in 1959. What he didn’t know at the time was that the album was also going to include another of their giant hits, “Cryin’ in the Rain”.
    Thank you Don for the shared memories, your contribution to the world of music, and the pleasure you brought to countless millions. Sleep in peace.”

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