Month: December 2023

Music I like – Tween Stuff

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“Indiana Wants Me” written and recorded by R. Dean Taylor (1970)

At the time of this song I was 11 years old and I didn’t have much of an awareness of who or what I was listening to, but I knew I really liked music. This song was from a Toronto musician with a Country and Rock Music background who in 1964 auditioned for Motown and ended up working with the legendary trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland. After those guys left he was one of the principal song writers for Motown, co-writing hits like “Love Child” and “I’m Living in Shame” for Diana Ross & The Supremes.

“Sweet City Woman” by The Stampeders (1971)

This song and another, “Carry Me” got a lot of airplay, in part thanks to the new rules (CanCon) that required Radio Stations to play at least 25% Canadian music. Having said that “Sweet City Woman” charted an impressive #8 on Billboard in the US.

Most certainly at ages 11 and 12 I was exposed to The Beatles that I heard a lot on the radio and from my older brothers records but I don’t recall any particular songs that popped out for me. This would change later on and in fact much of the music from the late 60’s and early 70’s forms the core of favorite songs.

Music I like – Kid Stuff

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Peter, Paul & Mary with “Puff the Magic Dragon”

This song was written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow and released in 1963. I would have been four years old when it came out so I can’t tell you where or when I first heard of it, all I can say is I remember being obsessed. I pestered by parents into buying the album and I wanted to listen to it several times every day. I surely must have driven by folks and siblings mad. I am not sure it was intended as a ‘children’s’ song per se but it had to have been the most popular from the 1960’s.

In 1969 I developed another obsession, this time the product of French Electronic Music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey. It’s quite annoying to listen to now but at age 10 I thought it was pretty cool. He had said he was motivated in part because he was a big fan of Science Fiction writers, some of which later became my favorite authors like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, so maybe that’s just how my wee brain was wired. This is early Synthesized electronic so called music. The Happy Moog! Listen at your peril. .

I am not sure what happened to my album, possibly sent off to the landfill by my mother when my back was turned. She was a wise woman. Am I still a fan of Electronic Music? It’s unavoidable with todays technologies but give me a real live Saxophone any day.

Music I like-Introduction

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Since I already typically write a lot about music that I actually do ‘like’ this is not particularly any kind of revelation in blog posting. However in the 365 posts during the five plus years of doing this there are a few songs and artists I have not touched on, or not mentioned to any great degree. So for these posts, if asked…these songs and artists might say in the words of Sally Field (on the night of her Oscar win), “This time I feel it. And I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me!” Often misquoted and memed of course as saying “You like me, You really like me!”.

Now Sally, bless her heart is a wonderful actress and has a lovely voice and those of a certain age will remember her singing from The Flying Nun. But for this series I am afraid Sally does not make my list. No, I will meander through my past and pick some names and songs that I happened to like at the time and though may not listen to some of them much any more, I have still have a fondness for many of them.

I’ll be turning 65 in a couple months (that’s the plan anyway) so maybe I am just getting a little too nostalgic, nevertheless I shall wax on with the ‘tracks’ of my years. A mini audiography I guess you could call it.

You will hear a bit from the likes of City Boy, Bob Segarini and a song or two that I remember as a little kid. I think like many of us, the music we listened to in our youth has a tendency to stick with us, so Teenage Head for example will make an appearance. I have some favorite favorites in my iTunes playlists so I will visit some of those songs. Theses are tunes I like for no reason in particular, I just do.

What you will not hear in this series are the big names and the more popular artists that a lot of us like; so no Joni Mitchell, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, CCR or Queen. I think you get the idea.

So here they come, various artists or just a one off song. Short posts for the most part and in a semi chronological order. Not sure how many I will do, I guess when I run out of relevant songs. That may be problematic as in part, thanks to my friends and the WordPress community I discover new ones all the time. How about I only indulge myself up until my birthday at the beginning of February. I won’t be offended if you just hit the delete button, not that I would know if you did anyway but these posts won’t interest everyone.

I will leave you a sample from 1973 that we thought was pretty cool from a local (London, Ontario) band that made it on the radio with a top 30 hit in Canada.

Thundermug with “Africa” written by band members as far as I know but primarily by Bill Durst. I never saw them perform but years later I did get to meet and see Bill with his band. He volunteered his time to sing and play guitar at a charity event and he knows his way around a guitar.
Bill Durst, with his original song “Wandering Blues”. Perhaps not surprisingly he also played in the ZZ Top tribute band called Tres Hombres for awhile.

Born in Dec. (21-31)

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Here is the last of the Birthdays. This is my final post until the 26th so a Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy Holidays to you all. Thanks for reading my posts this year.

Born in December (21-31)

December 21

Soul singer Carla Thomas was born on this day, she was a prominent part of the Memphis music scene and recorded a duet album with Otis Redding. Best known for “B-A-B-Y.” in 1966.

British guitarist Albert Lee turns 80 and is known as Mr. Telecaster, he has been sought out to provide his considerable talents for many recordings and live performances. He has played with everyone but I have one little anecdote, Dave Edmunds whom I have mentioned perhaps too many times (twice in the post today) is one of the best guitarists in Pop Rock history. However, the only person he knew that could play a key solo part of his original recording of “Sweet Little Lisa” (1979) was Albert Lee, who would cover the song himself in 1982.

Also on this day we have Carl Wilson, guitarist from The Beach Boys who would have turned 78, experimental Rock pioneer Frank Zappa would have been 83 and George Treadwell was a trumpeter turned Manager for his wife of 10 years, Sarah Vaughan to then managing The Drifters and Ruth Brown.

December 22

Maurice and Robin Gibb would have turned 74, there’s likely a dedicated post coming for the Bee Gees who have sold an estimated 220 million albums worldwide since their first release in 1965. This British trio (with older brother Barry) were born on the Isle of Man and spent some time living in Australia before returning to England as one of the most successful groups in Popular Music history. Also I guy I met at a Paul Carrack gig is the singer and songwriter Eddie Schwartz turns 73 today, he most notably wrote “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” (Pat Benatar), “Don’t Shed a Tear” (Paul Carrack) and a #1 Mainstream Rock Chart hit “The Doctor” by The Doobie Brothers in 1989.

December 23

A busy day today! We have Luther Grosvenor of Spooky Tooth and Mott the Hoople, Adrian Belew of King Crimson, Anthony Phillips guitarist of Genesis, Vocalist and guitarist Victoria Williams who share a birthday and her “Crazy Mary” was covered by Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, Eugene Booker Record of the Chi-Lites, Frederick Heath was Johnny Kidd (and the Pirates), Buddy Harman the great session drummer and one of my favorites, Chet Baker, the troubled yet sublime trumpeter, composer and vocalist was a key figure in the West Coast Jazz scene.

December 24

Guitarist John Till (The Hawks, Janis Joplin), Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs), Ricky Martin, Lee Dorsey (Ya-Ya) and Dave Bartholomew who brought us so many hits including “Ain’t That a Shame” and “I Hear You Knocking”.

December 25

Statistically in Canada and the US it’s the date with the fewest birthdays but there are quite a few musicians, so I won’t list all that I found. Bob James wrote the theme for the TV show Taxi, John Edwards who played with the popular UK group Status Quo, Blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker, Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, Country singer Barbara Mandrell, Pop singer Dido, Annie Lennox the multi award winning singer and writer had hits with The Eurythmics and Solo such as “No More ‘I Love You’s‘”, Alannah Myles had a #1 Billboard hit with “Black Velvet“, son of Willie, Lukas Nelson and “Minnie the Moocher” himself the great Cab Calloway, he was a guest star in The Blues Brothers Movie, and lastly the king of the Parrotheads, Mr. Margaritaville, the late Jimmy Buffett.

December 26

Born in Ontario, grew up in Quebec but became a Country Music singer in the US is Ronnie Prophet, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, James Mercer of The Shins, Bob Carpenter with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Chris Daughtry.

December 27

Bass player Neil Merryweather (Rick James, Steve Miller, The Merryweathers), singer Hayley Williams, Marlene Dietrich, Scottie Moore was Elvis Presley’s first guitar player, Mike Pinder is the Mellotron player from The Moody Blues, the sound is often mistaken for string, flute and other instruments and it was a big part of the Progressive Rock scene that includes Genesis, Camel, ELO, David Bowie and King Crimson. Pinder introduced the Mellotron to John Lennon and you can hear it played by Paul McCartney in “Strawberry Fields“, then we have Mick Jones of Foreigner, Dire Straits David Knopfler who is Mark’s younger brother.

December 28

Rock keyboardist Edgar Winter, R&B pioneer Johnny Otis “Willie and the Hand Jive”, the multi talented John Legend, Jazz drummer Ed Thigpen, Rockabilly singer Dorsey Burnette and Country singer Joe Diffie.

December 29

Marianne Faithfull was born on this day, despite a tumultuous life and career she was a significant part of the Rock and Folk music scene in the 1960’s, she was the first to release “As Tears Go By” and it hit top 10 in the UK, influential Guitarist and Vocalist Rick Danko was a member of The Hawks, Bob Dylan’s band later to be known as The Band, PhD candidate Dexter Holland had too much success in the Punk Revival scene with The Offspring, however he did defend his thesis and in 2017 gained his Doctorate in Molecular Biology, Marco Antonio Solís of the well known Mexican group Los Bukis, I had the good fortune to see Matt “Guitar” Murphy perform, he was one of the most gifted Blues Guitarists’ and he was also a band member in The Blues Brothers Movie, another guy from The Moody Blues, multi instrumentalist and composer Ray Thomas, the very talented Yvonne Elliman is best known for her #1 hit song “If I Can’t Have You” (1977), Glenn Phillips of Toad and the Wet Sprocket. I would be remiss if I did not mention one of history’s most gifted Cellists, Pau Casals i Defilló, known more popularly  in Spanish as  Pablo (Pau) Casals who was born in 1876 (-1973). I have family ties with his native Catalonia (El Vendrell), Spain. The above link is a very touching performance to listen to, also of note his truly ground breaking Bach Six Cello Suites was selected by the Library of Congress in 2019.

December 30

Michael Nesmith of The Monkeys is the composer of many songs such as “Different Drum” which was a hit for Linda Ronstadt and The Stone Poneys in 1967, his bandmate Davy Jones was also born on this day, Punk Rock pioneer Patti Smith turns 77, Country artists Skeeter Davis and Suzy Bogguss, the multi talented Tracey Ullman, Rock and Roll Legend Del Shannon who I saw play when he toured with Dave Edmunds, John Hartford wrote and recorded “Gentle on My Mind” before Glen Campbell turned into a big hit winning four Grammy Awards, another Rock and Roll and R&B pioneer Bo Diddley and Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary, one of the most prominent groups of the 60’s Folk Music scene. A day that’s heavy on the notable names we also have Jeff Lynn who formed Electric Light Orchestra and composed some of the most memorable songs of the 1970’s and 80’s.

December 31

For the last day of the calendar we have another impressive list of names, Disco Queen Donna Summer, several Guitarists such as Andy Summers of The Police, Michael Hedges and Pete Quaife of The Kinks, Blues and Folk legend Odetta, Jule Styne was one of the best Composers of the 20th Century and Burton Cummings who I have had the pleasure of seeing many times is a composer, actor and lead vocalist of the iconic band The Guess Who that sold millions of records from the late 1960’s thru to the mid 70’s, then we have the great singer, songwriter and guitarist John Denver who sold over 33 million records with memorable hits such as “Annie’s Song” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders“, not to mention the covers of his songs like “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by the above noted Peter, Paul & Mary.