Halestorm - I Want You (She's So Heavy)

 #Halestorm #hard rock #heavy metal #alternative metal #post-grunge #Beatles cover

Lzzy Hale’s voice is immense. There is no other way to put it, she really does set the bar high and then vaults it with every performance. Halestorm are a fantastic live band, and great on record. They released their self-titled debut album around 18 months ago and it is well worth a look, however this review is about something more recent. After a live CD/DVD late last year, Halestorm have released ReAniMate: The Covers EP.  Six tracks which I can only assume are songs the band loved over the years, and surprisingly it’s six tracks which are very diverse and Halestorm make their own.
The final track on this EP is by The Beatles. Like other tracks here, it’s a lesser known cut by the band and it’s a very clever choice. Halestorm have taken Abbey Road’s ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ and, like the standard set by Motley Crue’s cover of ‘Helter Skelter’, they have very much made it their own. What the band have done here is show us just how ingenious The Beatles were; how ahead of their time and how cross-genre their songwriting was. This is a really strong, heavy and frankly ubiquitous rock song. Lzzy Hale’s vocal is shown off at it’s absolutely best here, reminiscent of the powerhouse live experience. The support from the band is stellar (as in fairness it is throughout the EP) and should make them proud. A future live-staple if ever there deserved to be one.  From: https://www.musicscramble.co.uk/2011/03/24/halestorm-reanimate-the-covers-ep-2011/ 

 Lyric writing was one of The Beatles' greatest strengths. John and Paul, especially, developed a knack for conveying a story that the average listener could easily relate to, many times within only a three minute framework. Witness “Yesterday” in which Paul simplistically expresses the immense heartbreak of abandonment, something almost everyone on the planet has experienced at one time or another. In “Help!,” John vividly relates the need for emotional support because of the uncertainty of life that we experience as we age. Even “I Am The Walrus” achieves greatness in its use of absurd wordplay purposely woven to confound listeners who look for deep meaning in their lyrics, these lyrics being sung convincingly as if there were indeed a mystery here to unravel when there really wasn't any.
Then, in 1969, John experiments with writing lyrics that convey deep emotion using hardly any words at all. Could this be done? In “I Want You (She's So Heavy),” a track that approaches eight minutes in length and is the longest song in the entire Beatles catalog (“Revolution 9” is nearly half a minute longer, but can arguably be viewed as more of a “sound collage” than an actual song), John tells a desperate story of his deep emotional feelings for his new love Yoko Ono using a total of only fifteen words!
To Rolling Stone magazine, John stated: “Simplicity is evident in 'She's So Heavy.' In fact a reviewer wrote: 'He seems to have lost his talent for lyrics; it's so simple and boring.' When it gets down to it, when you're drowning, you don't say, 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream! In 'She's So Heavy,' I just sang, 'I want you, I want you so bad, she's so heavy, I want you,' like that” He has even stated his wish to compose a “perfect song” using only one word, not unlike Yoko's published poem of 1964 which consisted of only one word: 'Water.'
From: http://www.beatlesebooks.com/i-want-you

Lyle Lovett - Fiona

 #Lyle Lovett #Americana #roots music #country folk #C&W #Western swing #singer-songwriter 

I think it's safe to say that there are not too many people out there quite like Lyle Lovett. One of the most creative singer-songwriters on the scene, he's a Texan through and through, embracing country music, but is about as musically eclectic an artist as you will find. He's an engaging singer with a distinctive voice and a gifted lyricist, but he nevertheless writes some songs that can only be described as having downright weird words. After being a confirmed bachelor well into his 30s, Lovett suddenly married movie star Julia Roberts. After being pretty much the domain of Public Radio, he found himself plastered on the front pages of the supermarket tabloids and trash TV shows. Lovett also acted in a few films himself.
After creating a series of outstanding albums with an often jazzy group he called his Large Band, in October 1994, Lovett released I Love Everybody, a collection of older songs he had lying around since as long ago as the 1970s, performed with scaled back arrangements. They included a few pieces with some of the most eccentric lyrics of his career. That album was released during his happy marriage to Ms. Roberts, and many of Lovett's fans were wondering if there was anything autobiographical to be heard the record. But Lovett stressed that all the songs pre-dated his engagement and marriage.
Well, Lovett and Roberts have separated, and thus the tabloids have lost interest in the songwriter. Now he is out with a collection of new songs called The Road to Ensenada, which shows him up to his old tricks again, creating songs that make you wonder what goes through his mind if you take the time to listen carefully to the lyrics. Also, as usual, musically, the album is very tastefully done, running from twangy country to jazzy, with some introspective folkie-type songs in there as well.
Texas has a rich tradition of singer-songwriters, going back to people like Jerry Jeff Walker, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clarke and scores of fine current-day artists. Lovett grew up on their music listening them in folk clubs in college as he studied journalism. He made an interesting admission in an interview a couple of years ago - that while he was familiar with many of Bob Dylan's songs, he had never actually listened to an entire Dylan album straight through. I think that serves to illuminate Lovett's penchant for creating his own world, paying little attention to styles and trends around him.
From: http://georgegraham.com/lovett.html 

The Rattles - The Witch

 #The Rattles #hard rock #psychedelic rock #progressive rock #krautrock #German #1970s

The Rattles are a German rock band formed in Hamburg in 1960. The band is most prominently known for their 1970 psychedelic hit single "The Witch." The Rattles performed in Hamburg, Germany at the same venues as The Beatles on several occasions in 1962. In 1968 they recorded their first version of "The Witch" with vocals by Henner Hoier. Their second version of "The Witch" in 1970, this time with vocals by Edna Béjarano (post-Hoier's departure), became their only international hit.
The line-up during this period was:
Edna Béjarano - vocals
Frank Mille - guitar
Zappo Lungen - bass
Herbert Bornhold - drums

I think I mention somewhere on this page that Rattles singer Edna Bejarano’s mother was Esther Bejarano, one of the last survivors of the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz. There was a whole movie made about this women’s orchestra and their struggles to survive at the camp (actually, a 1980 CBS TV movie in the US) It was called “Playing For Time” and it starred Vanessa Redgrave. It is a beautiful story of pain and resilience. If you can find it on YouTube you should definitely check it out! The odd coincidence is that I saw that TV movie several times as a child with my mom. I definitely remember it! If Esther had not survived the Holocaust, we would not have Edna or (this incarnation of) the band.

From: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheRattlesEdnaBejarano/

Queen - Funny How Love Is

 #Queen #Freddie Mercury #Brian May #Roger Taylor #hard rock #glam rock #progressive rock #heavy metal #classic rock #1970s

Freddie Mercury’s attitude to writing about love changed over the years, from the optimism of “Funny How Love Is” (from their second album Queen II) to the mid-1980s, when he was writing edgy songs about love being dangerous and referring in interviews to his own love life as similar to a game of Russian roulette. “Funny How Love Is,” though, was a sunny, optimistic reflection on how love is omnipresent (“love is anywhere you’re bound to be”). It started out, in the first five takes, as a piano-led acoustic song, and evolved into a “wall of sound” track via Mercury’s friend and producer Robin Cable. “That album was when we first really got into production, and went completely over the top,” commented Taylor. “Funny How Love Is” was sung in demanding high-register vocals, which was the reason Mercury declined to sing the song in live shows. Although there are more famous Queen love songs, “Funny How Love Is” captures the innocence and optimism of the band at the start of their journey.  From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/queen-love-songs/

Alabama Shakes - Gimme All Your Love

 #Alabama Shakes #blues rock #roots rock #soul #R&B #Southern rock #punk blues #psychedelic soul

Alabama Shakes were an American roots rock quartet that achieved commercial and critical success with a genre-defying sound and electrifying live performances. The group’s principal members were lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard, bass player Zac Cockrell, drummer Steve Johnson, and guitarist Heath Fogg). Frontwoman Howard began writing songs as a young teen and taught herself how to play guitar. She was soon joined by Cockrell, a high-school classmate, and the pair experimented with a variety of styles that ranged from American roots to the music of David Bowie. Johnson, a drummer who worked at a music store in the duo’s hometown of Athens, Alabama, brought a punk beat to Howard and Cockrell’s evolving sound. The trio began circulating a rough demo tape, and it caught the attention of Fogg, another Athens-based musician, who was already established in his own band, Tuco’s Pistol. Fogg asked Howard, Cockrell, and Johnson to open for his band, and the trio agreed, on the condition that Fogg perform with them. He consented, and the success of that performance eventually led to Fogg’s joining the band full-time. In 2009 the group christened themselves the Shakes, and in May of that year they began a relentless touring schedule. While playing as much of their own material as time would allow, they punctuated their live shows with crowd-pleasing cover songs. Independent music tastemaker Justin Gage posted their song “You Ain’t Alone” on his Aquarium Drunkard music blog, and the band’s profile skyrocketed virtually overnight. They soon found themselves opening for fellow Alabama natives the Drive-By Truckers and performing in Nashville at the Third Man Records store belonging to Jack White. Renaming themselves Alabama Shakes, the group released a self-titled EP in September 2011 and continued to draw critical praise for their live shows, which were anchored by Howard’s arresting stage presence.  From: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Alabama-Shakes

Alice Glass - Suffer and Swallow

 #Alice Glass #electronic #goth #industrial #electropunk #avant-pop #ex-Crystal castles #animated music video

Alice Glass’s Los Angeles home is a picture of gothic splendour. Her kitchen resembles a graveyard of dead flowers; she is annoyed that her living black lilies never droop when she is looking. There is a fake Goya on the way down to her basement studio, where skulls surround the drums. A spider crawls out of the toilet roll when I use her bathroom. It is probably not part of the decor. Glass is less macabre: there is a tattoo of Bambi on her thigh. She loved the royal wedding. Her voice only rises above its perpetual whisper when she calls to her cats, Mr Peanut and Fuzzy, the alpha who dominates her pit bulls, Jacob and Shadow. She apologises for the boxes that entomb the sofa, merch from her recent debut solo tour. She had polled fans on Twitter to ask which song she should play from the back catalogue of her former band, the anarchic electro-punk duo Crystal Castles, which she quit in October 2014. Ultimately, she decided to play the material to which she still felt connected – “where I’m feeling worthless and hopeless”, she says. It took time in rehearsals to shake off their negative associations.
It was not until allegations surfaced against Harvey Weinstein that Glass (born Margaret Osborn) was emboldened to go public with detailed allegations of abuse against her ex-bandmate, Ethan Kath (real name Claudio Palmieri). She felt it was her responsibility, “especially after I had been told he had done similar things to at least one other woman”. Glass had previously alluded to her experience when she released her debut solo single, Stillbirth, in July 2015: “You don’t own me any more,” she shrieked over music that she likened to “being eaten by fire ants”. The song allowed her to speak covertly at a time when she was scared of going outside in case she was served with a lawsuit, she says, claiming that Kath started making legal threats in response to her tweeting stats about domestic abuse fatalities shortly after she announced her departure from the band. Glass says she received cease-and-desist letters from the same firm that represented Bill Cosby, which quoted her tweets and intimated that Glass was making these statements to benefit her career. But seeing other women speaking out about abuse last October was like watching “someone jumping off a cliff”, she says. “If someone goes first, it lets you know that you’re safe. It really put things into perspective. If it wasn’t for them, I’m not sure how long it would have taken me to speak out.”  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/15/alice-glass-on-leaving-crystal-castles-the-cruelty-never-ceases-to-amaze-me

Two Minutes To Late Night - David Bowie's Station to Station Cover

 #Two Minutes To Late Night #bedroom covers #heavy metal #David Bowie cover #music video

During the past year, the virtual jam — wherein a group of artists each claim their own corner of a 16:9 YouTube screen to rock out in isolation, together — has become as ubiquitous as Zoom conference calls, online schooling, and any other pandemic-era activity. Pearl Jam did it for Covid relief. The Rolling Stones did it for Global Citizen. Metallica did it very quietly. But few virtual jams have been as relentlessly creative and consistently surprising — not to mention flat-out awesome — as the ones featured in metal-themed talk show Two Minutes to Late Night’s long-running Bedroom Covers series.
Want to see Primus bass master Les Claypool, Tool drummer Danny Carey, Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher, and Coheed and Cambria vocalist Claudio Sanchez, all avowed Rush fanatics, take on the beloved Canadian power trio’s 1975 classic, “Anthem”? Or Sleigh Bells vocalist Alexis Krauss lead a motley crew of artists through a metal-ized medley of Nineties Eurodance hits like Vengaboys’ “We Like to Party!” and Haddaway’s “What Is Love”? How about septuagenarian E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg slamming the skins on a furious cover of the Misfits’ hardcore punk rager “Earth A.D.,” alongside members of My Chemical Romance, Hatebreed, and Dillinger Escape Plan? Two Minutes to Late Night’s YouTube channel is the one and only place where these twisted musical fever dreams regularly become reality. As for the corpse-painted, suit-and-tie–wearing dude rocking out on guitar in his Brooklyn shoebox of an apartment in one corner of most of the clips? That’s Two Minutes to Late Night host Jordan Olds, a.k.a. “Gwarsenio Hall,” who’s also the co-creator, along with Drew Kaufman, of the whole endeavor. “We didn’t invent the cover song, or even the isolated performance,” Olds acknowledges to Rolling Stone. “But the way we do our covers and performances, I don’t think anybody else could do it quite the same.”
To be sure, Two Minutes to Late Night, which, true to its Iron Maiden–referencing name, first launched as a sort of mock headbanger-friendly version of Late Night With Conan O’Brien (“the most irreverent and the silliest of all the late night shows,” Olds says), is unlike anything else in the digital universe. Taping on the stage at Brooklyn heavy-music haven Saint Vitus Bar during the venue’s off hours, Olds and Kaufman, with the former hosting and the latter heading up cameras and production, released one eight-episode season that combined well-worn late-night tropes (Olds interviewing guests from behind a desk; a house band comprised of proggy power trio Mutoid Man) with some good old metal-style irreverence. The pilot episode alone featured a short in which Dillinger Escape Plan shredder Ben Weinman auditioned for the guitar slot in a female R&B act; a Name That Tune–esque game titled Squeal of Fortune; and on-the-scene reporting from outside Glenn Danzig’s house (“I’ve been standing here for six hours and I haven’t seen Danzig once — he may be on tour; he may be using the back door… we’ll never know”).
Season One of Two Minutes to Late Night wrapped in 2019, and not too long after — pre-pandemic, mind you — Olds and Kaufman came up with the idea of producing branded virtual jams. “The best part of the show to me was always the finale, where the guests would perform a cover song with us,” Olds says. “And so we finished the first season, but to be honest, it was hard to get a lot of guests in that format, because, for example, Chelsea Wolfe had wanted to be on the show for years, but to make that happen, it was like, ‘Well, are you free on this Tuesday and from 7 to 11 and in New York and not playing your own show?’ ” Doing virtual jams, he continues, “was a way to make some of these covers happen without having to figure out all the scheduling.”
The first Bedroom Cover, which filmed in January 2020 but premiered two months later, as schools and workplaces around the country were starting to go remote, saw Olds joined by members of Mutoid Man, Khemmis, and Thou for a thrashy version of “Dare to Be Stupid,” from the patron saint of music parodists, “Weird Al” Yankovic. “We thought it would be really funny for the first one out of the gate to be a really aggressive cover of a Weird Al song, given that he is, of course, one of our biggest inspirations,” Olds says. From there, things only got weirder: a sludge-metal version of Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years”; a stoner-goth take on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” with Dillinger Escape Plan, Mutoid Man, and, on vocals (finally!) Chelsea Wolfe; and a ripping run-through of AC/DC’s “Riff Raff” with members of Clutch, Cave In, and Converge superimposed on plenty of ridiculous Australian imagery (an Outback Steakhouse; koala bears; Crocodile Dundee).
The Bedroom Covers initially served two purposes: to provide an outlet for Olds and Kaufman to continue producing new original content even as the world went into lockdown, and also to offer a bit of financial assistance to artists who, virtually overnight, watched their income dissipate as gigs were canceled and entire tours scrapped. “We still had our Patreon going, which was helping to fund regular Two Minutes content,” Olds says. “But then we started seeing our friends in bands and crews posting about how sad and distressed they were — they were coming off the road and they weren’t sure what they were going to do for money, and in some cases they had upcoming medical surgeries that they weren’t sure how they were going to pay for because they don’t have regular health insurance. Their entire way of life had been taken away. So we immediately shifted the Patreon from funding the Two Minutes to Late Night show to funding the Bedroom Covers, and we split the money from each video between the musicians and the audio mixers and everyone involved.”
From: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/two-minutes-to-late-night-bedroom-covers-interview-max-weinberg-1164120/

Pom Poko - Crazy Energy Night

 #Pom Poko #art rock #post-punk #noise rock #indie rock #avant-pop #pop punk #Norwegian #animated music video

Norway's freewheeling Pom Poko combine their jazz school training and experimental leanings into equally sugary and explosive music. Inspired by math rock, post-punk, West African music, and weird pop bands such as Deerhoof, the group introduced their loose-limbed, playful style on 2019's Birthday, then emphasized the contrast between their meticulous compositions and chaotic performances on 2021's bracing Cheater. Named after a film by Japanese animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli, Pom Poko consists of Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit (vocals), Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne (guitar), Ola Djupvik (drums), and Jonas Krøvel (bass). Tonne, Djupvik, and Krøvel met while studying at the Trondheim Music Conservatory and initially aspired to be a noise punk trio. However, when they were asked to perform at a literary festival in 2016, they added Jamtveit on vocals and quickly wrote a set of sugary pop/punk songs with unexpected twists.  From: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4RkC3KmYWnr6PM1FM5Shwz

There is a sense of miraculous deconstruction in the work of Norwegian foursome Pom Poko – a drive to pull down the support structures of their influences and create something slathered in both art-punk ferocity and a welcome assortment of wickedly colorful pop impulses. It all feels so prickly and slightly out of phase with everything around it, possessing an endearingly boundless perspective on how to combine certain sounds for full impact while also knowing when all that should simply be torn down in favor of something without any recognizable parts. Similar in feel to the genre-hopping of Deerhoof or Xiu Xiu, the zigzagging branches of Pom Poko’s music are unconcerned with specific genres or the limitations they can present.
Their 2019 debut Birthday was built from outbursts of burly pop noise and lonesome lyrics, setting a stage both emotionally forceful and sweetly combustible. A product of the band’s tightly-wound instrumental expertise and singer Ragnhild Fangel’s insightful narratives, it was a taut and expressive collection of songs, filled with punk-lite eruptions of sustained energy and art-rock elasticity. This feeling of cheerful adaptation has carried over to their second record Cheater, and the band has further pushed onto the fringes of their collective inspirations. They embrace this ruptured pop chaos and expect their audience to do the same.  From: https://beatsperminute.com/album-review-pom-poko-cheater/

Humble Pie - Black Coffee

 #Humble Pie #Steve Marriott #blues rock #hard rock #British blues rock #boogie rock #1970s #The Old Grey Whistle Test #music video

In 1973, Humble Pie performed “Black Coffee” during a broadcast on the British TV program, The Old Grey Whistle Test. The cover was off the band’s double album, Eat It (released the same year). Frontman Steve Marriott, a vocal power-house, switched up the lyrics a bit, but the feeling of the song remained. It was alive, it was allegorical, and it was as hot as a fresh cup of morning brew. Guitarist Clem Clempson, was at Marriott’s side and kept spot-on rhythm.
Humble Pie was joined by another group that nearly out-shined the intense vocals of Marriott - and that’s almost impossible. Marriott had introduced the dynamic of adding a group within the group to provide a counter-weight to his spearheading vocals. The British singer had formed Humble Pie in the late 1960s, after fronting the Small Faces where he helped make mainstream the approach to rock singing that still resonates today. Marriott wanted to deepen the connection between rock and blues and often included soul singers instead of pop back up singers. For the “Black Coffee” performance he invited the extraordinarily talented Blackberries. The trio consisted of Venetta Fields (former Ikette), Clydie King (Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street), and Shirlie Matthews. The Blackberries were an almost permanent fixture in Humble Pie at that point and encapsulated the entire sound of the band’s vision.
The original “Black Coffee” song is about overcoming oppression. Marriott’s version is about his devotion to musical inspirations in the black community. He acknowledges his foreignness to the original Ike & Tina track but also delivers a vocal performance that establishes his understanding of the soul and blues genres. The Blackberries add to the blues testimony most certainly, and Marriott’s  version of “Black Coffee” was perfectly framed for the rock/blues crossover.
From: https://societyofrock.com/humble-pies-black-coffee-is-served-hot-in-this-1973-performance/

 
Humble Pie was a British rock music band from 1969-82, best known for it’s hard-rocking recordings and concert performances during their peak period on A&M records from 1970-1975. The band initially consisted in 1969 of Steve Marriott (formerly of Small Faces; lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Peter Frampton (from The Herd; lead guitar), Greg Ridley (from Spooky Tooth; bass) and Jerry Shirley (from The Apostolic Intervention; drums). The joining of all these fairly known players resulted in Humble Pie being considered a bit of a “supergroup”. Worried about great expectations, the group began working together in secret at Marriott's cottage in Moreton, Essex. Signed to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records, their debut single "Natural Born Boogie" was rushed out in 1969 and was a UK hit; it was quickly followed by the album As Safe As Yesterday Is, praised as a progressive album in the vein of Small Faces. Their second album Town and Country was also released in 1969 and featured a more acoustic sound. Humble Pie concerts at this time featured an acoustic set followed by an electric set, an approach that would become popular decades later. 1970 saw the financial collapse of Immediate, a switch to A&M Records, and a change in band management. The albums Humble Pie and Rock On, both released that year, alternated between progressive rock and boogie rock excess. A concert at the Fillmore East in NYC was captured on Perfomance: Rockin' The Fillmore (1971); it is considered one of the best live rock albums of its era, with Marriott, Frampton, and the rest of the group in fine form. The loud-quiet-loud epic "I Don't Need No Doctor" was an FM radio hit in the United States, propelling the album to the group's biggest commercial success yet.  From: https://www.last.fm/music/Humble+Pie/+wiki

Pentangle - House Carpenter

 #Pentangle #John Renbourn #Bert Jansch #Jacqui McShee #folk #British folk #folk blues #jazz folk #progressive folk #British folk rock #1960s

By pulling together folk, jazz and blues into evocative, melodic albums, Pentangle were ahead of the curve in the late 1960s. An early "supergroup", they set the scene for more celebrated artists. Long before singer-songwriters – from Van Morrison to Carole King to Joni Mitchell – discovered the joys of mellifluous bass and jazzy drums, double bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox added a startling perspective to the folk club frontline of guitars and vocals, contributing gravitas and spirit to Jacqui McShee's traditional songs of lost love and abandonment. Guitarists John Renbourn and Bert Jansch were accomplished musical storytellers, who occasionally spiked the brew with sitar and banjo.  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/03/pentangle-review-royal-festival-hall

Were Pentangle a folk group, a folk-rock group, or something that resists classification? They could hardly be called a rock & roll act; they didn't use electric instruments often, and were built around two virtuoso guitarists, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, who were already well-established on the folk circuit before the group formed. Yet their hunger for eclectic experimentation fit into the milieu of late-'60s progressive rock and psychedelia well, and much of their audience came from the rock and pop worlds, rather than the folk crowd. With Jacqui McShee on vocals and a rhythm section of Danny Thompson (bass) and Terry Cox (drums), the group mastered a breathtaking repertoire that encompassed traditional ballads, blues, jazz, pop, and re-workings of rock oldies, often blending different genres in the same piece. Their prodigious individual talents perhaps ensured a brief lifespan, but at their peak they melded their distinct and immense skills to egg each other on to heights they couldn't have achieved on their own, in the manner of great rock combos like the Beatles and Buffalo Springfield.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pentangle-mn0000838559/biography

Foghat - Terraplane Blues

 #Foghat #blues rock #hard rock #boogie rock #ex-Savoy Brown #1970s

Originally from England, Foghat certainly made an impression in the U.S. Known for incorporating the sound of slide guitar into their rock music, Foghat formed in 1971 in London after founding members Dave Peverett, Tony Stevens and Roger Earl left their previous English blues rock band, Savoy Brown. Rod Price brought in the group’s signature slide guitar after he left Black Cat Bones.
The band’s name originated from a word that Peverett and his brother John made up during a Scrabble-like game they were playing as children. Though legend has it that “Foghat” is a riff off the curse word, “fuck,” Peverett put those rumors to rest when he shared that it was actually a “nonsense word” he and his brother created. When playing with Chris Youlden when he joined Savoy Brown, Peverett said Youlden wanted to change his name to Luther Foghat. But just after recording their self-titled debut album, which was released in 1972, the band needed a name. That’s when Peverett went into the memory bank and pitched ‘Foghat.’
“When we did the first album, we had it all ready to go, the artwork was done. We didn’t like the name we had at that time, which was Brandywine, which sounded like a Kingston trio kind of band,” Peverett said, noting that the name reminded him of a folk band. “I came up with the little drawing of the guy with this hat and everybody said ‘at least we’ve got a logo, we’ll go with the Foghat.’ And that was it.” The back cover of Foghat features Peverett’s sketch drawing of a cartoon man’s face with his tongue sticking out with fog pouring out of his hat. “Peverett used this new word to create Junior Foghat, an imaginary childhood playmate who became an alter ego and therefore the genesis of the ‘Lonesome Dave’ persona that he was to employ as a performer.”
From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-band-name-foghat/

"Terraplane Blues" is a blues song recorded in 1936 in San Antonio, Texas, by bluesman Robert Johnson. Vocalion issued it as Johnson's first 78 rpm record, backed with "Kind Hearted Woman Blues", in March 1937. The song became a moderate regional hit, selling up to 10,000 copies. Johnson used the car model Terraplane as a metaphor for sex. In the lyrical narrative, the car will not start and Johnson suspects that his girlfriend let another man drive it when he was gone. In describing the various mechanical problems with his Terraplane, Johnson creates a setting of thinly veiled sexual innuendo.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraplane_Blues

L'Ham de Foc - Pandero

 #L'Ham de Foc #world music #Mediterranian folk #Catalan folk #Greek folk #neo-Medieval #traditional 

Power and beauty are the two main concepts in their music, and fire and water the contrary elements that are symbolized by their name. L'Ham de Foc (Fish hook of fire) from Valencia are no longer an exotic musical phenomenon for specialists but a well sounding name within the international worldmusic scene and a timeless musical concept, that develops its strong character without taking care of current fashion. A new instrument, a new musical style can only be studied and understood going to where it comes from and within its cultural context. This attitude was responsable for a lot of journeys especially to Greece where the main protagonists of L'Ham de Foc -singer Mara Aranda and multiinstrumentalist Efrén López- have now found their second home. Their compositions have the ability to transform music for specialists into an understandable but profound music. Each album of L'Ham de Foc reflects what they have experienced in their recent journeys and studies. L'Ham de Foc´s audience is as diverse as their instruments and influences: with their concerts and CDs , apart from the standard worldmusic/folk audience, they have also reached listeners coming from classical music, Rock/Pop, Gothic/Wave and medieval music.  From: https://www.womex.com/virtual/galileo_mc/l_ham_de_foc

L’Ham de Foc was one of the leading groups of a new Folk movement in Spain, that worked the traditional roots into a new, modern music concept. But L’Ham de Foc’s work is not just a superficial look at its roots. The musicians’ intention was to go back to where things originally came from, to learn how to play instruments, techniques and interpretations from first hand. Mediterranean folk music, including their own Valencian music, Greek music and also music from India or Northern Africa, are main influences for L’Ham de Foc. This mixture was responsible for a widespread acceptance of their music. To understand the group’s work, one needs to know some things about the special cultural situation of the Valencian region. During the history of the southern Spanish coast, different cultures settled down, imposing their cultural roots. Due to its harbors, southeastern Spain was an important place for trading and the result was a permanent cultural exchange. Musically spoken, three different zones have the strongest influence: The Arabic countries in the south. The tradition from Aragon and Castille in Spain, France and Italy denominated as the European zone. The central zone that is identified by a fusion of the north and the south. Hereto belong countries and regions like Greece, Andalusia, Yugoslavia, Albania, the Balearic Islands, Malta, Crete, Valencia, etc. These cultures are characterized by melismatic melodies, polyrhythms, double stringed instruments, wind instruments, quarter tone harmonies, and by the presence of the Arabic culture throughout 700 years.  From: https://worldmusiccentral.org/2019/01/31/artist-profiles-lham-de-foc/

Funkadelic - Hit It And Quit It

 #Funkadelic #George Clinton #funk #R&B #psychedelic funk #funk rock #1970s

As early as 1969, George Clinton and his “Parliament-Funkadelic Thang” took on the identities of funky aliens from outer space. Like Sun Ra and Lee “Scratch” Perry, Clinton grew up in a community where black people inhabited an other-ized zone. These artists simply took a position of marginality and turned it into their own sur-reality, tweaked with their own imaginations. By the mid-seventies, Clinton took the boundary between science fiction and social reality and tie-dyed it. Clinton mostly used Parliament as his vehicle for sci-fi themes, while Funkadelic focused on Clinton’s iconoclastic musical ideas.
Clinton had lost the rights to the names “Parliament” and “Funkadelic” in the early 80s. Subsequently his cyborg funky bunch has sporadically toured under the rubric of the P-Funk All-Stars. It is easy to forget that Parliament and Funkadelic, while sharing basically the same members, once had very different identities — from their sound, to their styles, philosophies and attitudes. When people say they love George Clinton’s music, they generally mean Parliament or the P-Funk All-Stars. Parliament had the hit records, the colorful spaceship stage shows and costumes, and the upbeat funky dance music. Funkadelic, especially in the beginning, was the lesser known, down ‘n’ dirty, lysergic-crazed, evil, inbred rock ‘n’ roll twin.
Funkadelic’s unique relationship with white rock ‘n’ roll started when they had borrowed amps from Vanilla Fudge. They were so pleased with the high volume that they immediately got their own. Like Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone, they reclaimed rock music as their own. Their crossover appeal to white audiences, while on a much smaller scale than Hendrix and Sly, was demonstrated when they graced the cover of the second issue of Creem. While they could not compete with the other two giants at their best, Funkadelic synthesized their own fusion of styles that would eventually be just as influential. Their grim inner-city blues were just as soulful as Marvin Gaye’s and Stevie Wonder’s concurrent explorations in social consciousness.
From: https://fastnbulbous.com/funkadelic-the-afro-alien-diaspora/

Mary's Danish - Hoof

 #Mary's Danish #alternative rock #power pop #indie rock #funk rock #pop punk #1980s #1990s

“I’m caught between hideous and forgotten,” bemoan Mary’s Danish in one of the finer tunes from the lamentably forgotten band’s far-from-hideous and impossibly eclectic catalog — a catalog whose eclecticism is especially notable considering its relatively small volume. Mary’s Danish, which came together in Los Angeles in the late ’80s, was itself a diverse lot — in personality and background — that served up funk, pop, punk and country. The blending of the last two genres clearly betrays the influence of X, from whom lead singers Gretchen Seager and Julie Ritter also inherited intricately woven harmony vocals. They were joined in Mary’s Danish by bassist Chris “Wag” Wagner, drummer James Bradley Jr., guitarist David A. King and second guitarist Louis Gutierrez, who had played in the Three O’Clock. All were accomplished musicians with an uncanny pliability, but their secret weapon was frequent sax sideman Michael Barbera, who added jazz and R&B flavor to the mix. Mary’s Danish were as varied thematically as they were sonically, with religion, domestic violence, social criticism and biting self-analysis all receiving narrative attention.
'There Goes the Wondertruck' ably introduces the band’s offbeat stylistic fusion. The bizarre narrative of “Mary Had a Bar” does not seem to be a band theme song, and “What to Do” is not a Stones cover. It’s not revealed what “BVD” stands for, but “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry” does just that. The catchy college rock favorite “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” impressed some in the West Coast music biz, including Peter Asher, who became the band’s manager.
Five of the six live tracks on 'Experience' are more fully realized versions of songs from There Goes the Wondertruck, particularly a frenzied, beefier “Blue Stockings” and the high lonesome croon of “It’ll Probably Make Me Cry.” The disc’s studio track, a riotous take on Hendrix’s “Foxey Lady,” slyly recasts the classic rock staple with a letter-perfect Led Zeppelin quote inserted into the bridge.
With funding from pseudo-indie Morgan’s Creek, Mary’s Danish beefed up the production values to adequately match their expanded palette of musical ideas. A veritable omnibus of musical styles, 'Circa' encircles just about every genre imaginable. The metallic crunch of “Mr. Floosack” leads into the introspective back-porch southern rock of “Hoof.” The folky instrumental jam “Down” begets the Devo dada of “These Are All the Shapes Nevada Could Have Been.” It’s easy to get lost within the stylistic shifts of Circa, where “Julie’s Blanket (pigsheadsnakeface)” is the only straight-ahead rocker. As few of the 17 tunes exceed three minutes, the five-minute “7 Deadly Sins” seems positively epic. Despite its attention deficit, the presence of songs as clever as “Beat Me Up” and “Cover Your Face” helped make this label debut a promise of big things to come.  From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/marys-danish/

Jethro Tull - Kissing Willie

 #Jethro Tull #Ian Anderson #progressive rock #folk rock #hard rock #blues rock #English folk rock #art rock #classic rock #progressive folk #music video

"Willie" is British slang for the penis, and this song is about oral sex. There are other sexual references throughout the song, something that is not typical of Jethro Tull. In spite of the apparent bawdy nature of the lyrics, Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson is no lecher. As he told us: "I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right. Well, indeed, unless the money's right." In fact, he turned down performing at Woodstock based on the likelihood of it being a scene involving naked women and hippies! (Check out the full Ian Anderson interview)

Jethro Tull front man Ian Anderson isn't your typical Rock Star. He's never done drugs and has no use for the trappings of fame. So what does he have in common with the boys from Led Zeppelin? More than you might think.

Carl Wiser (Songfacts): Ian, I have four different statements about you that appeared in pretty notable publications. I was wondering if you could tell me if these are true or false. The first one is: you kept a urinal you used to clean as a souvenir.

Anderson: I wish I had. I don't have it anymore. It was one of the spare and probably cracked or slightly broken urinals that was in the store room of the Ritz Cinema in Luton in late 1967. My job was to clean the theatre, including the toilets, in the mornings, which took me half the day. And I thought, well, this old urinal is probably not going to get used, because it had a chip out of the side. So I managed to take it home. And I did keep it for a while with some idea of turning into perhaps a drinking fountain. But along the way it got abandoned, and the nearest I came to reliving the urinal moment was when we used to have a urinal bolted to the side of John Evan's Hammond organ onstage, and at some point during the performance around 1972 he would pretend to relieve himself into said urinal to the amusement – and horror, indeed – of some of the audience. But it was, in fact, just playacting. Because he did in fact relieve himself into a beer can backstage, but hopefully no one was looking during the drum solo. So, yes, partly true.

Songfacts: Okay, next one. You refused to play Woodstock because you thought it wasn't a big deal.

Anderson: No, I knew it was going to be a big deal. The reason I didn't want to play Woodstock is because I asked our manager, Terry Ellis, "Well, who else is going to be there?" And he listed a large number of groups who were reputedly going to play, and that it was going to be a hippie festival, and I said, "Will there be lots of naked ladies? And will there be taking drugs and drinking lots of beer, and fooling around in the mud?" Because rain was forecast. And he said, "Oh, yeah." So I said, "Right. I don't want to go.” Because I don't like hippies, and I'm usually rather put off by naked ladies unless the time is right. Well, indeed, unless the money's right.

Songfacts: Okay. Yet you toured with Led Zeppelin.

Anderson: We did, but happily, outside the orbit of their nightly shenanigans, although Jimmy Page used to show us Polaroids involving close-up blurred parts of young ladies' anatomy, often featuring soft fruit - that seemed to be in quite a lot of these photographs. Yeah, that's about it. We kind of heard the tales, but we were on the periphery of all that, didn't really experience it.

Songfacts: Was that the way it was for many of the bands that you toured with?

Anderson: That they stayed on the periphery? No. My impression was that the majority of bands were really enjoying and living up those moments when they were temporarily famous and about to have the good fortunes of young ladies' attentions thrust upon them on a nightly basis, which I could never have possibly kept up with the pressure to fulfill. So, yeah, that's my impression, everybody was at it. I mean, out of all the bands, and all the people I've known, really, I'm probably the only person I know for sure never did what we popularly called "drugs" during all of that period. It was just something everybody did. And I didn't really enjoy being around people who were doing drugs, so I just took myself often to read a book somewhere, and waited for it all to kind of evaporate from the rock and roll lifestyle. But of course it hasn't. These days people drop as often as they did back then, like flies, sadly, before their time. One or two get lucky and manage to control it or survive it, like Keith Richards, but he's one of the small number of people who seem to have emerged – not entirely unscathed – from the heady and demanding experiences of rock and roll.

Songfacts: I read where you said that Led Zeppelin "showed you the way." So you must have learned something from them.

Anderson: I think what they showed to all their peer group as musicians, was that there was, first of all, a very powerful and dramatic way to perform simple, direct rock music and also to introduce elements of more eclectic music. Because Zeppelin, near the beginning, there were a lot of elements of folk music, and Asian music, and African music that crept into their stuff. And if Zeppelin had carried on, I imagine we would have had at least one or two Led Zeppelin "unplugged" albums, and probably some rather more esoteric offerings along the way, where they did explore more thoroughly those more eclectic musical moments that they hinted at early on. Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin did share that same interest, even passion, for music that was not the normal stuff of rock and roll. And perhaps they, too, were influenced in some ways by what influenced me: Indian music, Mediterranean music, and British folk music. And we shared a chum, a fellow by the name of Roy Harper, who's one of the British folk musicians of the late '60s. And he was chummy with members of Pink Floyd and Zeppelin and with me. Not with the other members of Jethro Tull, who thought he was a bit weird and they didn't really like his music, I don't think. But he was someone who influenced me greatly right at the beginning, around '68 when I first came across him. And I think that rubbed off a little bit on Jimmy Page, too, as did some of the other British folkies, like Bert Jansch and Davey Graham, and I think that music must have infected the early Jimmy Page style with some of its innovative guitar work.

From: https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/ian-anderson-of-jethro-tull

Tartar Control - Diabolical

 #Tartar Control #punk #punk metal #comedy punk #TV pilot #music video

Robert, Sean and Robot are three fun time buddies who looove music. They're on a mission to bring rockin' good times (via the bowels) into your heart. Robert and Sean started their epic journey in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, Utah where they performed in The Tabernacle Choir, gave hugs to sweetly handicapped cancer-children, and lip-synced to Huey Lewis and The News. With the invention of their drummer/bassist Robot, they hit the road with their sights set on Los Angeles. Inspired by such bands as The Vandals, Left Over Crack, and Lawrence Welk, Tartar Control brings to you a musical experience that can only be described as a "loud hug." Today Tartar Control galavants all over the greater Los Angeles area giving sonic high-fives and handshakes to the masses.  From: http://www.tartarcontrolisyourfriend.com/about.html

Sean Hart and Robert Selander grew up in Salt Lake City, where they practiced Mormonism. Everything was swell, but something — a desire, a longing for more, or maybe just a mission call from Joseph Smith — told them they needed to head to Los Angeles. And there, they found their holy grail: punk rock music. This is, at least, the story they tell on stage. In reality, the duo are an Angeleno-bred set of comedians simply searching for a little more meaning through punk. Formerly an acoustic pair called The Smiths, performing hits by Stevie Wonder and Kenny Loggins, Hart and Selander knew punk rockin’ was their calling after learning about the likes of The Vandals and Leftover Crack. That’s when they formed Tartar Control.  “We were taken aback,” Selander said. “After that, it was one of those things where you see something once and you’re slightly revolted, then you think about it for a few days and you’re obsessed. We started playing around with different sounds and, after a while, we decided we wanted our own punk rockin’ band.” There was just one problem: they needed bass and percussion. With Hart on guitar and Selander on screaming vocals, the band was lacking a much-needed rhythm section. Luckily, they ran into a perverted, drunken robot uniquely named Robot, who filled the void (though he lacked the same morals as the bible-thumping Hart and Selander).
While Tartar Control has gained a following in the punk scene, they know their music won’t be accepted everywhere, especially in the Mormon church. “Mormonism and punk rock don’t blend together at all. Our church doesn’t know we’re in a band, and neither do our parents,” Selander said. “We’re going to assume the Mormon church is going to ignore the Long Beach Post. But you never know. They have tentacles everywhere.” Still, Tartar Control insists their lyrics, with titles like “Satanists are Fuckin’ Dicks,” “Brush Your Fuckin’ Teeth,” and “Cramps Don’t Mean You’re Pregnant,” are positive messages. “I feel like punk rock and metal of the harder core tend to get unfairly labeled,” Hart said. “For music, as long as you’re there speaking the truth, you have a voice. We’re certainly not fundamentalists in any sense of it. We’re not Amish. We’re not churning butter. I feel like music in general is something that people approach with a much more open mind.” They also said they like singing about things they know, like traffic on the way to Ralph’s, and things they enjoy, like Pokemon. Selander hopes to eventually incorporate Jigglypuff’s theme into their set to help audience members get sleep. “If I could lull an entire audience to sleep, I would think that would be a gift in itself and a mission accomplished,” he said. “Who doesn’t enjoy a good night’s sleep?”
With positive vibes like these, the group said the most vulgar piece of their performance is Robot, who goes out to party every night at 8PM but still manages to arrive to shows on time. But there’s a reason for this. Quoting Robot himself, he said he’s “just there for the bitches.” As Hart and Selander play sweet songs like “Jesus is Love” and “Fuzzy Bunnies,” Robot constantly interrupts the show by catcalling to women in the crowd while playing ’90s R&B from his speaker. “Robot will find his own road to recovery, for sure,” Hart said. “He seems to find a woman at every show and harass her. He’s kind of a womanizer. We don’t ask him a lot of questions about where he goes at night. He used to live in our garage, but he must still go through there because I’ve found so many Four Loko cans that look like they’ve all been opened with a can opener, so we know it’s him.” Hart added that several child support notices have showed up at their apartment for Robot. “I opened one and I think he’s the father to several children,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s physically possible, but somehow he’s in charge of someone’s child.” This odd blend of crudeness from Robot and angelic playfulness from Selander and Hart has garnered them a following that crowd funded a television pilot, which can be viewed on Tartar Control’s YouTube channel. The group hopes to release the second episode within the next year.
Tartar Control looks forward to spreading the good news of Jesus in Long Beach this weekend, but just has one request of audience members. “I would like people to know it’s okay to put on deodorant before they come to our shows,” Selander said. “It’s okay to be clean. You can wear your black clothes and put all the glue you want in your hair, but it’s okay to take a shower because the glue won’t wash out.”
From: https://lbpost.com/hi-lo/music/jesus-sodomy-and-peach-cobbler-tartar-control-bring-the-punk-love-to-long-beach-2/

Descartes a Kant - Apricot Dreams

 #Descartes a Kant #art rock #avant-garde #alternative rock #experimental #noise rock #electronic #avant-garde cabaret #theatrical #Mexican #music video

Equal parts Punk, Metal, Pop, Shoegaze and Cabaret, the critically-acclaimed underground sextet, Descartes a Kant (Guadalajara, Mexico) have made a real name for themselves as an otherworldly, unpredictable, theatrical live act. So much so that even the Wall Street Journal chimed in to say that “trying to describe their music is to do it a disservice. It’s loud, racy, incredibly imaginative, sophisticated, funny and wild; it’s as if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs fronted Albert Ayler with Frank Zappa conducting”. They’re considered one of the leading lights in the vibrant, ever-evolving Mexican experimental underground and are now poised to gain greater international acceptance. Led by strong female characters, their first two releases Paper Dolls (an intense and bipolar short song hardcore ode to multiple personality) and Il Visore Lunatique (a tribute on psychiatric disorders that goes from hip-hop to a bizarre broadway style musical) led them to perform and thrill both club and festival audiences all over the world, including Mexico, USA, Russia, and Brazil, and share bills with The Melvins, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sonic Youth, Explosions in the Sky and Slayer.  From: https://swampbooking.com/descartes-a-kant-mexico/

Descartes a Kant is a Mexican rock, noise, and avant-garde group from Guadalajara, formed in 2001. They are characterized by their fused style of different musical rhythms and their performance presentations. They adopted their name by combining two figures they admire: Descartes and Kant, whose opposing philosophical works framed the principles of the modern era.
Descartes a Kant’s style is called by the band "bipolar-schizoid sound”, alternating sweet and melodic tones with loud and strident. Their music incorporates influences from noisegrind, noise rock, surf, electronic music, bossa nova and jazz. Their live presentations are usually theatrical performances, and the members of the group usually wear specific outfits for them.  Translated from: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descartes_a_Kant

David Bowie - Oh! You Pretty Things

 #David Bowie #glam rock #hard rock #art rock #classic rock #electronic #singer-songwriter #pop rock #album rock #proto-punk #experimental #1970s #Old Grey Whistle Test #music video

Wake up, you sleepy head
Put on some clothes, shake up your bed
Put another log on the fire for me
I've made some breakfast and coffee
Look out my window, what do I see
A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me
All the nightmares came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay

What are we coming to?
No room for me, no fun for you
I think about a world to come
Where the books were found by the golden ones
Written in pain, written in awe
By a puzzled man who questioned
What we were here for
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay

Look out at your children
See their faces in golden rays
Don't kid yourself, they belong to you
They're the start of the coming race
The earth is a bitch
We've finished our news
Homo Sapiens have outgrown their use
All the strangers came today
And it looks as though they're here to stay

I firmly believe that to know what this song means you must be familiar with the philosophy of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and Nietzsche's superman. The "homo superior" is a euphemism for this superman, the most conspicuous quality of whom, according to "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," was his contempt of the common man's morality. A superman is somebody who doesn't take on society's morals as his own, but rather somebody who creates his own morality through his own inner strength and clarity of vision. An example of this clarity of vision? In Zarathustra, the seer proclaims that, though he loves peace, he is happy when he sees war. Why? Because the idiots who fight are killing themselves, which will ideally eventually result in a purified world where those who are left are peaceful and lack the destructive urge to dominate their fellow man. Now, compare this attitude to the attitude of the anti-war masses during Vietnam. Their position that all war is inexcusable was, and is, dreadfully simple-minded and untenable. Now, for Bowie, this "advancement" to being supermen might just mean sexual liberation, since this was his coming out/homosexual debut. Regardless, at least he knows his philosophy. Btw, the Nietzschean imagery is all over this album, and this is why it's one of my all time favorites.

I am nearly certain that he does mean a superior human when he speaks of "Homo Superior”. One must remember that at the time of writing Hunky Dory, Bowie was beginning to get involved in the occult, magick, brain-change etc. There are many groups out there that take the stance that we are entering a new age, and therefore a new set of humans will come about as well. He also talks in this song of "the coming race", but they are still your children, and you must see them in "golden rays" which is another bit of magickal symbolism. Even in the first verse there is a bit of a prophesy of an apocalypse. You can find a lot of Occult symbolism on Hunky Dory, actually.

To set the record "straight" - Bowie is not gay and never has been. He claimed to be "bisexual" for a time in the 60/70s when it was hip to be "sexually liberated", but it was mostly an act. Even in his interviews he admits this. Also most people get caught up in the theatrical aspect of his characters. A lot of dumb people equate makeup and women's clothing on men as homosexual, but there is quite a difference. You are only a homosexual if you exclusively have sex with only the same gender as yourself. This has never been the case with Bowie.

From: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/42518/

Betty Davis - Nasty Gal

 #Betty Davis #funk #R&B #soul #funk rock #singer-songwriter #1970s

Picture yourself in a hot sweaty New York City nightclub in 1969, surrounded by the musical elite: Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone. The drums are pounding, an out-of-tune guitar is wailing. A beautiful woman crawls across the stage, growling into the microphone, her voice summoning fierce femininity and raw sexual energy, taking rock ‘n’ roll into a new era of sound — gritty, unbridled and raunchy. No, it’s not Janis Joplin or Tina Turner. Her name is Betty Davis. But no one would fault you if this wasn’t your first guess. When Betty Davis died on Feb. 9, the world lost a groundbreaking artist who created and inspired many of the famous sounds of the 1970s, and yet her name was omitted from the lexicon of musical history until recently. Obituaries are pouring forth, lauding her genius and contributions and lamenting her lack of commercial success. What very few of these official records of Davis’ life will state outright, however, is that her lack of recognition was a direct result of misogyny and racism.
Growing up in 1990s Berkeley, I had no clue Betty Davis existed. Bay Area rock was Santana, the Grateful Dead, Journey. Rock ‘n’ roll spoke to this 14-year-old Black girl’s alienation and frustration with the world, but also perpetuated those same feelings of alienation. I was the lone Black female face at every concert I went to. Local bands Green Day and Rancid were carrying on Berkeley’s rock legacy, yet that lineage was consistently represented as male and mostly white. I first learned about her by reading Miles Davis’ autobiography. By this point I was a professional background singer touring with local funk bands. Even as I performed with artists such as George Clinton or sang alongside members of Fishbone, I still thought my role in rock was to support a man musically. In his book, Miles described his second wife as an unparalleled performer. The woman who inspired his 1970 album “Bitches Brew.” The woman who changed his style and musical ear. It was an inspiring recollection of her. But Betty Davis remained a rock ‘n’ roll mirage. What happened to her? How had this larger-than-life woman been reduced to an anecdote in her ex-husband’s book?
In 1968, Betty Davis (then Betty Mabry) was a fixture of the New York club scene. She had built somewhat of a name for herself as a songwriter, most notably penning the Chambers Brothers’ hit “Uptown (to Harlem).” Known for her wild stage antics, flamboyant fashion and sexual magnetism, she was primed for stardom. She was friends with Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. She went from dating South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela to marrying American trumpeter Miles Davis in 1968. By the next year, she was recording her first album for Columbia Records with her husband at the helm. Betty Davis embodied punk rock and brought feminine sexuality to the fore, long before Madonna writhed in a wedding dress singing “Like a Virgin.” She created gritty punk/funk long before Rick James proclaimed it as his own. She bought Miles Davis his first wah-wah pedal, inspiring his foray into fusion with “Bitches Brew.” She was gestating the future of music but, even then, the record execs balked at her fierce rock ‘n’ roll. When her relationship with Miles dissolved, her recordings were shelved in a vault. Leaving New York behind, Betty migrated to San Francisco, finding communion within the Bay Area’s music community. Recorded at San Francisco’s renowned Wally Heider Studios, her debut album, “Betty Davis,” featured the region’s top musicians, including members of Sly & the Family Stone, Santana and the Pointer Sisters. It was a confident, alluring funk record, and it declared her prowess as both a woman and a rock star. She followed it up with “They Say I’m Different,” recorded at Sausalito’s Record Plant, and “Nasty Gal,” for which she went back to New York. Davis released these albums in a burst of creative energy, one each year from 1973 to 1975. Betty’s music should have fit right into the social climate of free love, feminism and civil rights in 1970s San Francisco. Instead, the public backlash was swift and crippling. The NAACP teamed up with conservative church groups to have her banned from radio for “indecency.” She was boycotted. Prevented from performing. Her album sales floundered. While white women were allowed to be sexually liberated in the free-love era, Black women were not. While Black men were allowed to gyrate onstage, Black women were not. The same sexual magnetism that made Robert Plant famous was indecent coming from Betty Davis. The American people couldn’t handle a fully empowered Black woman like Betty Davis making rock ‘n’ roll.
Eventually her music went out of print, and she went on to live a quiet private life far from her previous incarnation as a punk-funk queen. Then, as the decades passed, the tides began to change. In 2007, I opened a copy of The Chronicle with the headline “A funk queen steps out of the shadows,” written by acclaimed music critic Jeff Chang, about two of Betty Davis’ albums being rereleased. I clipped the article, ran to Amoeba Records and listened to her music. In the newspaper’s picture, I saw myself. In the music, I heard who I could be as a funk diva. With each Betty Davis rerelease, multitudes of young Black women have been able to see their embodied selves through her music. And thankfully, Betty, who died at 77, lived long enough to see it. Nearly 50 years after the release of her debut alum, Betty Davis has legions of disciples, each of us born from her vision of Black female empowerment. Amongst my local community of Black women in rock, I hear these sentiments echoed. “She showed me I could have raunchy, sex-kitten swag, and still be soft,” Oakland rock musician Femi Andrades told me. “Her music gave permission to express my rage, my sexuality, myself, unfiltered. Raw.” Berkeley singer-songwriter Viveca Hawkins said simply, “I’m grateful to know that it’s OK to be that bold.”
From: https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/how-betty-davis-paved-the-way-for-black-women-in-rock-and-funk

Psalteria - Nazad, Nazad, Mome, Kalino

 #Psalteria #medieval #world music #neo-medieval #folk #traditional #pre-BraAgas #Czech

Psalteria was a Czech medieval folk band consisting of four young women. The quartet advertised itself with the catchphrase "the medieval women's band". The group's repertoire consisted of traditional pieces from the Middle Ages, which the group interpreted in their own way. In addition to songs in German, Latin and French, most of the songs are in Spanish. Due to a high presence on German medieval markets, Psalteria was able to achieve high popularity here in the medieval scene. In January 2007, the group disbanded. The band members now play divided into the medieval groups BraAgas and Euphorica.  Translated from: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalteria

 ‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. Ahead is a thick forest, you can’t cross it.’
‘Then I’ll turn into a hawk. I’ll fly over the forest. I’ll be yours forever.’
‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. Ahead is a deep river, you can’t cross it.’
‘Then I’ll turn into a trout. I’ll swim across the river. I’ll be yours forever.’
‘Go back, Kalina, don’t follow me. At home I have a beautiful wife and some children too.’
‘Then I’ll turn into the plague. I’ll kill your wife and take care of your children. I’ll be yours forever.’
From: https://londonbulgarianchoir.bandcamp.com/track/nazad-nazad-mome-kalino