Bideodromage
A number of further One {approx.} Hitters from the 1970s. I cannot emphasize enough that some artists represented herein are responsible for more than 1 “hit”, somewhere in the world. Right. So, we’ve got The Blues Image, Ocean, Norman Greenbaum, The Sanford-Townsend Band, Wild Cherry, Flash and the Pan, and Sniff ‘n’ The Tears, this time around. Enjoy.
A soupçon of personal favorites, from a decade rich in great material. In order, we have: Edison Lighthouse, Pilot, Lee Michaels, Zager and Evans, Daddy Dewdrop, The Fortunes, The Ides of March, King Harvest, Hurricane Smith, Clint Holmes, Jigsaw, Walter Egan, John Stewart, Looking Glass, Tee Set, and JD Souther.
A sampling of some of the titanic moments created by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. As far as rapid, intense, super-concentrated evolution goes, as well as profound alteration of the musical landscape, The Beatles have only John Coltrane and Beethoven as peers.
So the sad tale a last time told they sat on as though turned to stone. Through the single window dawn shed no light. From the street no sound of reawakening. Or was it that buried in who knows what thoughts they paid no heed? To light of day. To sound of reawakening. What thoughts who knows.
Thoughts, no, not thoughts. Profounds of mind. Of mindlessness. Whither no light can reach. No sound. So sat on as though turned no stone. The sad tale a last time told.
Pause.
Nothing is left to tell.
—from Ohio Impromptu.
Where was I? The change. In what did it consist. It is hard to say. Something slipped. There I was, warm and bright smoking my tobacco-pipe, watching the warm bright wall, when suddenly somewhere some little thing slipped, some little tiny thing. Millions of little things moving all together out of their old place, into a new one nearby, and furtively, as though it was forbidden. It was the same sun, and the same wall, but so changed that I felt I had been transported, without my having remarked it, to some quite different yard, and to some quite different season, in an unfamiliar country.
But in what did the change consist? What was changed, and how? What was changed, if my information is correct, was the sentiment that a change, other than a change of degree, had taken place. What was changed was existence off the ladder.
This I am happy to inform you is the reversed metamorphosis. The Laurel into Daphne. The old thing where it always was, back again.
—from Watt.
But he had hardly felt the absurdity of those things, on the one hand, and the necessity of those others, on the other (for it is rare that the feeling of absurdity is not followed by the feeling of necessity), when he felt the the absurdity of those things of which he had just felt the necessity (for it is rare that the feeling of necessity is not followed by the feeling of absurdity).
—from Watt.
But Watt heard nothing of this, because of other voices singing, crying, stating, murmuring, things unintelligible, in his ear. With these if he was not familiar, he was not unfamiliar either. So he was not alarmed, unduly. Now these voices, sometimes they sang only, and sometimes they cried only, and sometimes they stated only, and sometimes they murmured only, and sometimes they sang and cried, and sometimes they sang and stated, and sometimes they sang and murmured and sometimes they cried and stated and sometimes they cried and murmured, and sometimes they stated and murmured, and sometimes they sang and cried and stated, and sometimes they sang and cried and murmured, and sometimes they cried and stated and murmured, and sometimes they sang and cried and stated and murmured, all together, at the same time, as now, to mention only these four kinds of voices, for there were others. And sometimes Watt understood all, and sometimes he understood much, and sometimes he understood little, and sometimes he understood nothing, as now.
—from Watt.
The passion and eloquence of Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, and Chris Hayes, in a troubled time.
So. We’ve got Andy Devine, John Daker, Hap Palmer, Telly Savalas, Arthur Brown, Mrs. Miller, Industrial musicals, H. R. Pufnstuf {featuring Jack Wild}, Leona Anderson, Charles Bronson, and The Wombles {the creation of pop svengali Mike Batt}.
Addendum: Recently added are immortal performances by James Brown, Eric Violette {Free Credit Report commercial}, and two from Beat of the Traps {Song Poems}.
Added Addenda: The inclusion of Zwol, ME Pearl, Shatner, and the indomitable Bobby Conn. And, of course, Takeo Ischi. Erlend and Steinjo, yo, also.
All of which falls into/under the Certain Kinds of Things rubric.
The Scottish band Pilot emerged in 1974 with {arguably…} the greatest pop single ever recorded. Written by lead vocalist David Paton, and produced by Alan Parsons {with whom Paton and two other members were to later join forces}, “Magic” became a monster hit for the group. The first and last videos are live; the 2nd is lip-synched, to the studio version of the song, on which Parsons allegedly speeded up David’s vocal track a tad.
Three of the most important and enthralling creators in jazz.
Saxophonist John Coltrane’s impossible power as an improviser simply cannot be described. He provided one of the high water marks in music history with his ground-and-everything-else-breaking work in the 1960’s, featuring his immortal quartet {McCoy Tyner, piano; Elvin Jones, drums/percussion; and Jimmy Garrison, bass}.
The great McCoy Tyner, a phenomenal, electrifying pianist, first came to prominence as the keyboardist for John Coltrane’s quartet, in 1960. He went on to bedazzle countless listeners as a bandleader himself. Born December 11, 1938, Tyner died today, March 6, 2020. He will be mourned by millions.
Bideodromage 