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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 14, 2017 20:34:00 GMT -5
50 Years Ago Today- March Week 3 1967 And now, finally, after a 6 month hiatus to recharge their batteries, we have a new Beatles single release and after a few weeks on the charts, it has captured the #1 spot. And the real cool thing about Beatles singles are that both sides of the 45 are excellent and both sides are chartbusters. First up-The new #1 song in the USA As I previously mentioned, The Beatles filmed a music video to accompany their singles. They are no longer touring and no longer travelling to other countries and appearing on TV variety shows. Instead, all their time and efforts will be focused on recording music and other artistic endeavors. This move is pretty unheard of since a music band makes most of their money from live appearances. Speaks volumes to the Beatles decision that their art comes first It quite confused me when I saw the Penny Lane video for the first time, as I had been unaware that there had been music videos at all in the 60s. Where were they typically played before the days of MTV? I'm aware of some of them, like Bowie's 'Space Oddity', but were they more of a novelty by artists who were exploring the visual medium a little bit? As I mentioned, they were played on TV variety or music shows. If you read my Music News notes for March 1967 from last week (of course you did, you just forgot) The Beatles videos premiered on Dick Clark's Saturday Afternoon American Bandstand Show. That was a nationally syndicated show and there were a bunch of local music shows for teens back then airing on Saturdays or late afternoons. They would be very happy to play a Beatles video and pay a small fee for the privilege since the band themselves would never show up. TV variety shows in Prime Time would also be quite happy to premiere a new Beatles video in support of their latest single and pay top dollar for it too. Again, the band had announced-no more tours and no further live TV performances. I remember the TV show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour for a full week kept announcing the next show would include the Beatles. What they wound up showing was the world premiere of the Hey Jude music video. Yes, these film music clips didn't get the continuous airplay since there was no MTV. But it worked out to a band's advantage to do them instead of making a trip to the TV studios just for a 1 or 2 song appearance. Plus many times they just lipsynced to the song-either because the show's producers insisted on it or the sound setup in the TV studios were so horrible it would sound awful. And I'm sure most bands got a kick out of filming a music video as a change of pace Generally, only the top groups could get away with it. Most others did whatever it took to get on TV |
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Post by berkley on Mar 15, 2017 1:02:44 GMT -5
Just remember as I get ready to post the next installment of Music Of 1967-LSD was legal in the USA until March 1968. Songs about using LSD or any other drug got banned unless they were subtle. And where would country music be if they didn't sing about drinking? Spacemen 3 had a whole album called "Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To" that deserves a mention while we're talking about this subject. Actually, now that I look it up it seems it was something cobbled together out of demo tracks and other unreleased material after they broke up, so not an official Spacemen 3 album. Not sure who put that title on it. Still, pretty good CD, as I recall, if you're at all a fan - even a casual one like me. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 15, 2017 1:18:51 GMT -5
Never heard them. I'll see if my library has their CDs
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Post by berkley on Mar 15, 2017 1:40:27 GMT -5
They were on the go in the late 80s to very early 90s, so not from the original psychedelic era. The first album I heard by them was their last one, Recurring, and - as often happens - it remains my favourite, though later on I went back and listened to everything else I could find by them.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 15, 2017 1:46:09 GMT -5
They were on the go in the late 80s to very early 90s, so not from the original psychedelic era. The first album I heard by them was their last one, Recurring, and - as often happens - it remains my favourite, though later on I went back and listened to everything else I could find by them. They're not available in my library systems but all their albums are available in full on YouTube. When I can I'll give a listen |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Mar 15, 2017 6:00:41 GMT -5
Just remember as I get ready to post the next installment of Music Of 1967-LSD was legal in the USA until March 1968. Songs about using LSD or any other drug got banned unless they were subtle. And where would country music be if they didn't sing about drinking? Spacemen 3 had a whole album called "Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To" that deserves a mention while we're talking about this subject. Ha! Great minds -- I was thinking of that very album when I read Ish's post as well. I've read that the title was something of a personal mantra that the band had while making their music. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 15, 2017 10:33:09 GMT -5
On this date in 1955 Ray Charles peaked at Number 2 on the R&B Chart with the single "I Got a Woman." Many music historians consider it to be the pure Soul song, combining gospel pacing with secular lyrics and an R&B background sound. Even if you want to say that soul didn't really hit until later this was a huge building block for soul music.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 15, 2017 10:42:03 GMT -5
Born on this day in 1912...Lightnin' Hopkins. For those who believe music was invented by the Beatles and ended when disco became popular, Hopkins was an enormous influence on Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 15, 2017 10:53:28 GMT -5
Also born on this day in 1927...Carl Smith. Known as "Mr. Country" Smith was one of the biggest country acts of the 1950s...though today he's probably best known for having been married to June Carter before Johnny Cash.
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Post by Confessor on Mar 15, 2017 11:07:09 GMT -5
^^ I love me some Ray Charles, and Lightnin' Hopkins is one of my absolute favourite blues men. I'm not familiar with Carl Smith though.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 15, 2017 17:00:26 GMT -5
On this date in 1955 Ray Charles peaked at Number 2 on the R&B Chart with the single "I Got a Woman." Many music historians consider it to be the pure Soul song, combining gospel pacing with secular lyrics and an R&B background sound. Even if you want to say that soul didn't really hit until later this was a huge building block for soul music. Peaked? Heavens no!! Ray Charles continued for decades as an American icon. Truly one of the giants of the 20th Century Lightning Hopkins was one of the best blues guitarists and huge influence on his contemporaries and those that followed Carl Smith is unknown to me |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 15, 2017 17:47:35 GMT -5
On this date in 1955 Ray Charles peaked at Number 2 on the R&B Chart with the single "I Got a Woman." Many music historians consider it to be the pure Soul song, combining gospel pacing with secular lyrics and an R&B background sound. Even if you want to say that soul didn't really hit until later this was a huge building block for soul music. Peaked? Heavens no!! Ray Charles continued for decades as an American icon. Truly one of the giants of the 20th Century Lightning Hopkins was one of the best blues guitarists and huge influence on his contemporaries and those that followed Carl Smith is unknown to me Poorly worded on my part. The song, "I Got a Woman" peaked at Number 2 on the R&B Chart. |
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Post by Confessor on Mar 15, 2017 18:32:20 GMT -5
Peaked? Heavens no!! Ray Charles continued for decades as an American icon. Truly one of the giants of the 20th Century Lightning Hopkins was one of the best blues guitarists and huge influence on his contemporaries and those that followed Carl Smith is unknown to me Poorly worded on my part. The song, "I Got a Woman" peaked at Number 2 on the R&B Chart. According to the Allmusic website, it actually reached #1 on the U.S. R&B charts. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 15, 2017 18:39:38 GMT -5
Poorly worded on my part. The song, "I Got a Woman" peaked at Number 2 on the R&B Chart. According to the Allmusic website, it actually reached #1 on the U.S. R&B charts. Yep. I think I got some bum information. Stupid interweb. |
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Post by Confessor on Mar 15, 2017 18:47:23 GMT -5
According to the Allmusic website, it actually reached #1 on the U.S. R&B charts. Yep. I think I got some bum information. Stupid interweb. Yeah, I just pulled the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1 and that also says it reached #1, but apparently only for one week. The Beatles were big fans of Ray Charles and covered a number of his songs in their early years, including "I Got a Woman", although they never included any of his songs on their official albums or singles. |
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