Bloggerhythms

My wife and I have been watching Turner Classic Movies more than we usually do lately. Just a few nights ago we watched Sunset Boulevard (1950) starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden. It's about a washed-up, silent screen actress, Norma Desmond - played by Swanson - who can't come to terms with the fact her career is over. She lives in a dark, fantasy world where she's still a star. A down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis (Holden) - whom Desmond both torments and falls in love with - tells the former star, "You used to be big." Her famous reply: "I am big. It's the pictures that got small." The film reminded me of one of the great lyrical conquests of the Classic Rock era, The Kinks' "Celluloid Heroes." It's a single from their 1972 LP,  Everybody's In Show-Biz ,   that didn't chart   but still made an impact among devoted music and movie fans. Album-oriented radio stations mostly played...

Sugarloaf was a psychedelic, jam band from Colorado fronted by leader, singer, guitarist and composer Jerry Corbetta. Corbetta co-wrote five of the six tracks on the quartet's eponymous, debut, LP that featured a 9:00 medley combining an original organ piece he helped compose with an instrumental cover of The Band's "Chest Fever." A second cover tune was also an instrumental - The Yardbirds "Train Kept a Rollin'." The album's highlight is easily the opening track, "Green-Eyed Lady," a perfect example of the psychedelic influences that embellished the records of so many bands during the highly experimental late 60s and early 70s. The song was written about Corbetta's girlfriend who his bandmates referred to as their leader's "green eyed lady." The 3:33 single was a big hit. It reached #3 on the Hot 100 while the longer, more psychedelic album track ran to 6:49. Bob Raymond's bass work ...

I know there have been too many reruns on Bloggerhythms lately, but I'm posting another one today due to the sad passing of the legendary Dolly Parton at age 80 after an unfortunate battle with cancer. This post first appeared here on October 15, 2013. Too many celebrated musicians have said goodbye to us lately. In 1987 three great female talents formed a vocal ensemble for the ages. In a true collaboration, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt blended their voices together perfectly to record the award winning  Trio , producing beautiful, Appalachian style, three-part harmonies in the process. They created the kind of music you envision hearing in Parton's Smoky Mountains on 1940's AM radio, back when banjoes, dobroes, fiddles, and acoustic instruments ruled, back when the music was still called country and western and before it became a huge, more urban-centered business. Harris, Parton, and Ronstadt worked together without considering their own egos and t...

The review of Ruby James' first single, "Bumble Bee,"  from her new album of raucous tunes,  Call It Rock & Roll,  appeared here a few months ago. It's a loud, seven-song assault of mostly hell-raising rockers that create a lot of damage - in a good way - in just a little over twenty-four minutes. James is a diverse musical sponge. She's heavily influenced by blues, R&B, and lots of pre-70s rock all fused together into her own unique style that sounds more modern than any of her rootsy, individual influences. Highlights abound. The very funky "Boogie Downtown" was born from the singer's love of Sly and the family Stone. The heavy riffage of "Voodoo Queen" could have come from the fingers of Keith Richards. Rock veteran and close friend Rosie Flores shows off her chops on the single and two additional stinging tracks. The record's power ballad also has a very sharp edge. "Punk Rock Love Song," i...

Here's another rerun of a post originally published in July 2015 that many of you may find interesting. Are you old enough to remember the game show I've Got A Secret ? It was a TV program I watched a lot as a kid. For those of you who aren't familiar with it the premise was simple. A panel of four celebrities asked a series of mostly "yes" or "no" questions to a guest with the goal of uncovering his or her secret. In a lot of ways the show was nothing more than a TV adaptation of twenty questions, a game many of us have played at home. The original series was hosted for most of its run by the late Garry Moore who also had his own variety show that was instrumental in giving Carol Burnett's career a huge boost. The panelists during the years I watched were former Miss America and New York City politician Bess Myerson , game show host Bill Cullen , comedian Henry Morgan , and actress Betsy Palmer . The original a...

Here's a recently updated, old post from February 2009 about a very good classic rock album. It's been re-posted along with both of its original comments. Unfortunately, it seems most of the world has forgotten Badfinger. They're probably best known for recording Paul McCartney's "Come and Get It," from their first LP on which the sadly star-crossed band was correctly faulted for sounding too much like a Beatles clone. To me, the Welsh quartet's third album - produced by both George Harrison and Todd Rundgren - is among the best British power pop records of all time. Straight Up is full of Beatlesque influenced pop and is still the biggest selling non-Beatle album ever released by Apple Records.  Badfinger's second album, No Dice (1970), maintained an obvious Beatles influence, but they were now writing their own songs and people were listening. The album featured the hit single "No Matter What," the original version of "Without You,...

Country, rock and pop artists who perform cover versions or use outside songwriters for their primary source material are never respected as much as the stars who compose their own music, but classical and jazz musicians don't seem to be held to the same high standard. Their updated interpretations of the great composers or definitive jazz tracks are often praised. To me, that just isn't fair, especially when there are superb musicians who know how to properly deliver great songs from the past. Christian Parker, Patrick Cleary, Earl Poole Ball and Jay Dee Maness specialize in celebrating the great recording artists and composers that made names for themselves in country-rock. Last year the foursome revived an entire 1968 LP, Back at Home , originally recorded and released by the late, great Gram Parsons ' International Submarine Band of which both Ball and Maness were members. Now the quartet is back with American Cosmic Revival, ...

Because they had too many hit singles in the mid-60s some rock fans believe The Guess Who were only commercially minded, middle-of-the-road rockers, but nothing could be further from the truth. While they did place eleven singles in the top forty - including seven in the top ten - the Canadians proved they could be a dynamic, hard rocking, live act. One of their heavier records, "American Woman," gave them the distinction of being the first group from north of the border to have a #1 single on America's Hot 100. All these years later, the Winnipeg, Manitoba outfit still hasn't earned the same respect as many other classic rockers, but  Live at the Paramount proves they deserve it. This concert was recorded in Seattle, WA on May 22, 1972 shortly after lead guitar player Randy Bachman - who went on to have additional success with Bachman-Turner Overdrive - left the band. The Paramount show featured pianist and lead singer Burton Cummings and tw...