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Category Archives: Music
“Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.” — Suzi Quatro
Suzy Quatro was born on this day. In July of 2020 , I reviewed the documentary Suzi Q, about Suzi Quatro. Because it was July 2020, the tour she had planned, alongside the doc, had to be canceled. Or, at … Continue reading
“I never heard the term ‘rockabilly’ back then. Nobody did…When people asked what music we played, we were rock ’n’ rollers.” — Sonny Burgess
“This record sold like hotcakes. TOO BAD IT DIDN’T SELL LIKE RECORDS!” — Sonny Burgess, introducing one of his songs, as related by Deke Dickerson It’s the birthday of Arkansas-born Sonny Burgess, who died in 2017. Burgess was a Sun … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
Tagged Billy Lee Riley, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Sam Phillips, Sonny Burgess, Sun Records
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“I am in a prison: one wall is the avant-garde, the other wall is the past, and I want to escape.” — György Ligeti
György Ligeti – whose birthday it is today – was a classical composer, born in Romania, who lived in Hungary as a young adult, before fleeing Stalinist oppression to Austria. As he said in an interview much later, he lived … Continue reading
Posted in Movies, Music, On This Day
Tagged Hungary, Romania, Stalin, Stanley Kubrick
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“I don’t call myself a poet, because I don’t like the word. I’m a trapeze artist.” – Bob Dylan
For Bob Dylan’s birthday “When I first heard Elvis Presley’s voice I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody and nobody was going to be my boss. Hearing him for the first time was like busting out … Continue reading
“There’s nobody as good as the Ramones, never will be.” — Joey Ramone
“To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people.” — Joey Ramone It’s Joey Ramone’s birthday today. Nothing I can say will top my brother Brendan’s essay on seeing The … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
7 Comments
Happy birthday, Big Joe Turner, “Boss of the Blues”
Before the advent of microphones, if you were a singer, you needed to be heard. “Blues shouters” were powerful figures known for shouting above the music. Big Joe Turner was a blues shouter from Kansas City, and also one of … Continue reading
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“Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.” — Stevie Wonder
It’s his birthday today. I love that quote because I have so many memories “attached” to Stevie Wonder’s songs, so attached that they don’t feel “attached” at all. The song IS the memory. And more than a memory, really: these … Continue reading
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“He sold his soul to the devil to get to play like that.” – Mississippi bluesman Son House on Robert Johnson
It’s Robert Johnson’s birthday. “[Robert] Johnson has created a mood so delicate and bleak one feels he cannot possible get out of his song alive.” – Greil Marcus Recently, I was walking through Times Square and suddenly Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound” … Continue reading
“A lot of people try to equate me with guys like Frankie Avalon and Fabian, but in the old days I sold a lot of records over a period of time, and you can’t sustain that by being just another pretty face.” — Ricky Nelson
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (Nelson) was a popular radio show in the 1940s, and an even more popular television show in the 1950s. It was a family affair. Their son Ricky was a beautiful child, and he grew … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
Tagged Elvis Presley, Howard Hawks, James Burton, Ricky Nelson, Rio Bravo
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“I only got a seventh-grade education, but I have a doctorate in funk, and I like to put that to good use.” — James Brown
It’s his birthday today. I did not fully understand James Brown until I saw The T.A.M.I. Show, and I heard ABOUT The T.A.M.I. Show for years before I could actually SEE it. Such was the Gen-X kid dilemma. During The … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
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