R.I.P. Aretha Franklin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggJtfD8ZyW0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fVAD51UCpw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a5KIT2o_gQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtfjelo9skA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI8gtff3Dsk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFU2Lw3AI1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y22qaPc0OZk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwx6iqJiblU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsL9UL9qbv8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqu-sS0kqCI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EwviMURJFU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgHcsoDHqZ0
Good Times Bad Times – Led Zeppelin / Cover by Yoyoka, 8 year old
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91pz1E8pAOY
Audio recording outtake shows Casey Kasem getting angry and using profanity
In this 79 second recording, Casey Kasem gets upset in response to his coworkers’ repeated refusal to honor his request to not schedule sad long distance dedications directly after an upbeat song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDYK2H0ldbo
This has got to be the most appropriate and justified use of profanity that I’ve ever heard. Casey was really moved by the death of that dog, and his point about the dedication being preceded by an uptempo song is excellent.
Here’s the dead dog dedication as it was actually broadcast on American Top 40 on September 14, 1985. Skip to 26:19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEG9pP8NGx0
The Beatles sing about Star Wars
The Beatles perform their critically acclaimed album Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans.
The first two videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYD3QtyEGGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhFyX1IkjAM
Complete playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8s6sSjUyaxUk3mCUqiNuJiMNxs9QdthO
Stevie Wonder kneels while performing national anthem
I admire Stevie Wonder for being clever enough to come up with an idea that appeals to both sides.
This is just totally beautiful and awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mi-MbiZlQY
Fyre Festival scammer Ja Rule says his scam is “NOT A SCAM” and that his scam is “NOT MY FAULT”
A recent scam carried out by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule was falsely sold as a music festival.
Customers, who paid as much as $250,000 each, were told that they would be staying in “modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes” and that they would be served gourmet celebrity chef meals.
Instead of getting those accommodations, they ended up staying in disaster relief tents with dirt floors and port-a-potties.
And this is the food they were served:
After this scam was exposed by the media, Ja Rule tweeted the following image:
Archie Andrews and Veronica Lodge cover Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America” – Riverdale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lspw0yvHlg
I recently listened to all eight of ABBA’s albums for the first time. Here are my 31 favorite songs.
I recently listened to all eight of ABBA’s albums for the first time. Here are my 31 favorite songs. I am listing these in chronological order:
R.I.P. Chuck Berry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfD4Eo7cA0Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75RiHJGfyUE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ComyNCcYPvg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2w_nJLuvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6OS_ItMGpc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHG5-GxI_Es
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXQLyzeysGU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSaKQlBZuE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU_506KSI_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB_2yjIkdk8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFo8-JqzSCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRLDopWVAvw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iyAFr8bFTM
Poll: Which song do you think is better, Beyoncé’s “Formation” or Andra Day’s “Rise Up”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwgr_IMeEgA
Boléro
Title: Boléro
Composer: Maurice Ravel
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODeNHRtVNO4
Daryl Hall has a message for critics crying cultural appropriation: “Shut the f*ck up”
Way to go Daryl!
From an interview with Daryl Hall from Salon:
Daryl Hall has a message for critics crying cultural appropriation: “Shut the f*ck up”
May 12, 2016
Salon: One of the current debates is over “cultural appropriation” – The idea that white people should not appropriate the culture of ethnic and racial minorities. I know that you don’t like the term “blue eyed soul.” Have you followed this conversation?
Daryl: Are you trying to say that I don’t own the style of music that I grew up with and sing? I grew up with this music. It is not about being black or white. That is the most naïve attitude I’ve ever heard in my life. That is so far in the past, I hope, for everyone’s sake. It isn’t even an issue to discuss. The music that you listened to when you grew up is your music. It has nothing to do with “cultural appropriation.”
Salon: I agree with you entirely, because…
Daryl: I’m glad that you do, because anyone who says that should shut the fuck up.
Salon: Well, this entire critique is coming back…
Daryl: I’m sorry to hear it. Who is making these critiques? Who do they write for? What are their credentials to give an opinion like that? Who are they?
Salon: Much of it is academic.
Daryl: Well, then they should go back to school. Academia? Now, there’s a hotbed of idiocy.
Salon: Anyone who knows about music, about culture in general, understands that everything is much more natural. Everything is a mixture.
Daryl: We live in America. That’s our entire culture. Our culture is a blend. It isn’t split up into groups. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool – worse than a fool – a dangerous fool.
Salon: I also know that you don’t like the term “blue eyed soul”…
Daryl: No, and it is for this very reason. There is no color to soul. Soul music comes from the heart. It was generated out of the church, and it became secular gospel.
Salon: Ray Charles made that same point. He said the only difference between gospel and soul is that in one genre he sings to God, and in another, he sings to a woman.
Daryl: That’s right. That’s exactly it.
R.I.P. Pop superstar Prince dies at his Minnesota home
Thanks for all the great music.
R.I.P.
Pop superstar Prince dies at his Minnesota home
April 21, 2016
CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) — Pop superstar Prince, widely acclaimed as one of the most inventive and influential musicians of his era with hits including “Little Red Corvette,” ”Let’s Go Crazy” and “When Doves Cry,” was found dead at his home on Thursday in suburban Minneapolis, according to his publicist. He was 57.
His publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, told The Associated Press that the music icon died at his home in Chanhassen. No details were immediately released.
The singer, songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist broke through in the late 1970s with the hits “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” and soared over the following decade with such albums as “1999” and “Purple Rain.” The title song from “1999” includes one of the most widely quoted refrains of popular culture: “Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999.”
The Minneapolis native, born Prince Rogers Nelson, stood just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and seemed to summon the most original and compelling sounds at will, whether playing guitar in a flamboyant style that openly drew upon Jimi Hendrix, switching his vocals from a nasally scream to an erotic falsetto or turning out album after album of stunningly original material. Among his other notable releases: “Sign O’ the Times,” ”Graffiti Bridge” and “The Black Album.”
He was also fiercely protective of his independence, battling his record company over control of his material and even his name. Prince once wrote “slave” on his face in protest of not owning his work and famously battled and then departed his label, Warner Bros., before returning a few years ago.
“What’s happening now is the position that I’ve always wanted to be in,” Prince told the AP in 2014. “I was just trying to get here.”
The same year, Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame, which hailed him as a musical and social trailblazer.
“He rewrote the rulebook, forging a synthesis of black funk and white rock that served as a blueprint for cutting-edge music in the Eighties,” reads the Hall’s dedication. “Prince made dance music that rocked and rock music that had a bristling, funky backbone. From the beginning, Prince and his music were androgynous, sly, sexy and provocative.”
Rarely lacking in confidence, Price effortlessly absorbed the music of others and made it sound like Prince, whether the James Brown guitar riff on “Kiss” or the Beatle-esque, psychedelic pop of “Raspberry Beret.”
He also proved a source of hits for others, from Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” to Cyndi Lauper’s “When You Were Mine.” He also wrote “Manic Monday” for the Bangles
Prince had been touring and recording right up until his death, releasing four albums in the last 18 months, including two on the Tidal streaming service last year. He performed in Atlanta last week as part of his “Piano and a Microphone” tour, a stripped down show that has featured a mix of his hits like “Purple Rain” or “Little Red Corvette” and some B-sides from his extensive library.
Prince debuted the intimate format at his Paisley Park studios in January, treating fans to a performance that was personal and was both playful and emotional at times.
The musician had seemed to be shedding his reclusive reputation. He hosted several late-night jam sessions where he serenaded Madonna, celebrated the Minnesota Lynx’s WNBA championship and showcased his latest protege, singer Judith Hill.
Ever surprising, he announced on stage in New York City last month that he was writing his memoir. “The Beautiful Ones” was expected to be released in the fall of 2017 by publishing house Spiegel & Grau. The publishing house has not yet commented on status of book, but a press release about the memoir says: “Prince will take readers on an unconventional and poetic journey through his life and creative work.” It says the book will include stories about Prince’s music and “the family that shaped him and the people, places, and ideas that fired his creative imagination.”
A small group of fans quickly gathered in the rain Thursday outside his music studio, Paisley Park, where Prince’s gold records are on the walls and the purple motorcycle he rode in his 1984 breakout movie, “Purple Rain,” is on display. The white building surrounded by a fence is in Chanhassen, about 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
Steven Scott, 32, of Eden Prairie, said he was at Paisley Park last Saturday for Prince’s dance party. He called Prince “a beautiful person” whose message was that people should love one another.
“He brought people together for the right reasons,” Scott said.
YouTube has a complete, peak period Go-Go’s concert from 1981
I own the DVD of their 2001 Central Park concert, and I like it a lot.
But I absolutely love this 1981 concert from a Los Angeles high school. It was released on laserdisc and VHS, but not on DVD.
Skip to 2:37 for the beginning of the concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN-Pq5QCIy4
R.I.P. David Bowie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjG27_zVpg4
David Bowie: ‘Weirdo’ Broke Down Barriers, Inspired Legions
January 11, 2016
His immediately identifiable voice urged listeners to “Turn and face the strange” — and for decades that’s exactly what David Bowie’s music did.
The music legend died Sunday, two days after turning 69 and releasing his latest album, “Blackstar,” to widespread acclaim.
But beyond a massive catalog of hits, Bowie left behind a legacy of breaking down barriers in music and beyond. He was the best weirdo out there — and made being one OK for legions.
“Almost every young person who thinks of themselves as an outcast or a freak … could identify with one of Bowie’s personae,” music critic Paul Gambaccini told NBC News. “He was continually shocking us with the ‘new.'”
He’s been billed as an innovator who brought the notion of “the other” into the mainstream: from Warhol-type imagery to science fiction, androgyny and bisexuality. Bowie’s costumes and gender-bending personas — from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane — consistently pushed the envelope.
“Almost everything he did turned to gold,” Gambaccini said. “When it didn’t turn to gold at least it was interesting.”
Bowie’s ability to constantly reinvent himself musically and visually earned him the reputation of a shape shifter and more. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted the star in 1996, called him “rock’s foremost futurist and a genre-bending pioneer, chameleon and transformer.”
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron described the British-born Bowie as a “genius” and the “master of reinvention.”
“One of the things that is so incredible is almost all his reinventions were incredible successes,” Cameron added.
To Bowie, though, it was about more than music and success. He told Rolling Stone in a 1976 interview that he had always had a “repulsive sort of need” to be “something more than human” and keep changing.
“I’ve got nothing to do with music,” he told the interviewer. “I’ve always interpreted or played roles with my songs.”
His final act — the album “Blackstar” — was received as further proof that Bowie was like no other.
“The Man Who Fell to Earth has made an entire career of defying terrestrial categories and classification,” wrote Entertainment Weekly in its review. “As much as Bowie the Artist can be defined, it’s only in the most elusive terms: He is our eternal iconoclast, he is stardust, he is normcore Kryptonite.”
Bowie’s celebration of the weird and “other” in the roles he chose inspired and influenced legions of contemporary artists from Katy Perry to Lady Gaga, who once called Bowie an “alien prince” who “runs my universe.”
“Every morning I wake up and I think, ‘What would Bowie do?'” Gaga told British TV personality Alan Carr in a 2006 interview.
Recording artist Janelle Monae, who took on the daunting task of covering Bowie’s classic “Heroes,” said she too was drawn to his timelessness.
“He’s transcendent,” she told Rolling Stone. “He’s a true time traveler.”
That scope was felt further than radio airwaves, across film and television. Actor Mark Ruffalo summed up the impact in a Twitter tribute after news of Bowie’s death, calling him the “father of all us freaks.”
Part of Bowie’s appeal across generations was his focus on being an outsider — making it acceptable if not desirable to be a weirdo.
“My entire career, I’ve only really worked with the same subject matter,” Bowie told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. “The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety — all of the high points of one’s life.”
Those subjects resonated deeply — and fans were quick to praise how Bowie’s message shaped their lives.
“The world lost an icon of mythological proportions,” wrote director Peter Atencio. “When I first realized I was a weirdo David Bowie was the first person who made me feel like I might belong somewhere.”
He added: “I don’t know that I’ve ever felt this strongly about the passing of someone I never met, but merely worshipped from afar.”
Today’s musicians — from Gaga to Madonna — also owe a great deal to Bowie, according to Rolling Stone contributing editor Joe Levy.
“Would we have Madonna… without David Blowie to blaze a trail for her? Probably not,” he told NBC’s TODAY.
He called the artist’s last album a fitting “testament” to his achievements. It also feels like a farewell.
“Look up here, I’m in heaven. I’ve got scars that can’t be seen. I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen, everybody knows me now,” the lyrics from the album’s first single, “Lazarus,” read. “This way or no way you know, I’ll be free just like that bluebird now ain’t that just like me.”
Here’s a complete concert from 2014 by a band called the “Bootleg Beatles”
This is all so amazingly accurate: the singing, the instrument playing, the body language, the clothes, the wigs, the facial prosthetics, the banter between songs, etc. They even make several costume changes, as they play the songs in chronological order.
The intro is just a bunch of stock footage. Skip to 1:16 for the beginning of the concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydn2-V0rWXU
Jackson Taylor performs an exceptionally well done cover of the piano part of Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAKc13m_U9c
Perpetuum Jazzile, a Slovenian a cappella group, performs Toto’s “Rosanna”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_72aI46Vo
Billboard Hot 100 from July 3, 1982
Oh wow! Check out all these awesome songs that were on the Billboard Hot 100 during a single week in 1982.
The list is at this link, on page 64. You can use the “+” to make the image bigger, and you can scroll around:
Here are some of my favorites from this list:
1) Human League – Don’t You Want Me
2) Toto – Rosanna
3) Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder – Ebony And Ivory
4) Asia – Heat Of The Moment
5) John Cougar – Hurts So Good
8) Juice Newton – Love’s Been A Little Bit Hard On Me
9) Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger
10) .38 Special – Caught Up In You
12) Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – Crimson And Clover
13) Motels – Only The Lonely
14) Ray Parker Jr. – The Other Woman
19) Steve Miller Band – Abracadabra
22) Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me
29) Crosby Stills and Nash – Wasted On The Way
42) Melissa Manchester – You Should Hear How She Talks About You
43) Kim Wilde – Kids in America
46) Haircut 100 – Love Plus One
49) Daryl Hall and John Oates – Your Imagination
62) Bow Wow Wow – I Want Candy
65) Donna Summer – Love Is In Control
66) Eddie Money – Think I’m In Love
67) Go Go’s – Vacation
69) Tommy Tutone – 867-5309/Jenny
84) Loverboy – When It’s Over
85) Alan Parsons Project – Eye In the Sky
87) Missing Persons – Words
98) Daryl Hall and John Oates – Did It In A Minute
All those awesome songs were on the chart during the same week – wow!
Daryl Hall and John Oates have just uploaded high quality versions of their music videos to YouTube
You can see them at https://www.youtube.com/user/hallandoatesVEVO/videos
These are much better quality than the VHS recordings that many fans have uploaded over the years.
It’s not a mistake that they uploaded “Jingle Bell Rock” twice – one version has Daryl singing, and the other one has John.
My family got cable with MTV in July 1982. I even remember MTV celebrating its one year anniversary a month later. I though I had seen every Hall and Oates video a huge number of times – but I had no idea that they had videos of songs from their X-Static album. What a pleasant surprise!
(more…)