The Current Music Blog: November 6, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: What Would You Say If I Sang Out Of Tune?

Posted at 6:08 AM on November 6, 2009 by Steve Seel (3 Comments)
Filed under: Music History

Birthdays:

Glenn Frey of The Eagles is 61.
Corey Glover of Living Colour is 45.

Today in:

1967 - During a three hour session Bob Dylan recorded "All Along The Watchtower" and "John Wesley Harding" at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
1970 - Aerosmith performed their first ever gig when they played at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.
1973 - Singer Gram Parsons' manager, Phil Kaufman, was fined $300 for stealing Parsons' body from the Los Angeles International Airport. The body was cremated instead of being taken to Parsons' funeral. Kaufman claimed that it was Parsons' wish to be cremated.
1975 - The Sex Pistols played their first concert, at a London art school dance. Ten minutes into it, the school social programmer unplugged their amps.

Music history highlight:

Today in 1968, Joe Cocker was at No.1 in the UK singles chart with his version of The Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends". Cocker's rendition of this song became one of his signature tunes (not to mention a target for easy parody by the likes of John Belushi in his awesome Joe Cocker impersonation).

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Friday Coffee Break: Hidden Tracks

Posted at 8:44 AM on November 6, 2009 by Steve Seel (36 Comments)
Filed under: 9:30 Coffee Break

(updated below)

Step right up and lend us your requests for today's topic: hidden tracks is the subject of today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Examples can include CD or vinyl, or even tracks that became so popular that they became "un-hidden" on subsequent pressings of the album. Leave your suggestings below, or here.

Update: Thanks for your suggestions, which covered a wide variey of hidden track types:

1) The Clash, "Train In Vain"
2) The Beatles, "Her Majesty"
3) R.E.M., "Superman"
4) The Rolling Stones, "Untitled (from Her Majesty's Satanic Request)
5) Green Day, "All By Myself"
6) Atmosphere, "Say Shhh..."

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Random Vinyl 11/2-11/6

Posted at 11:57 AM on November 6, 2009 by Jill Riley (0 Comments)
Filed under: Random Vinyl

Monday: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" (1971-US release) Keith Emerson plays the best Moog Synthesizer solo ever at the end of the Greg Lake penned tune, "Lucky Man." We even played it on Emerson's birthday.

Tuesday: Rolling Stones, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967)
In response to The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," The Rolling Stones went psychedelic with this record. The album cover even resembles "Sgt. Pepper's." We played "2000 Light Years From Home." If you have this LP, make sure to check out the crazy hidden track ("Cosmic Christmas") after "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)." It's a trip. All in all, The Stones do some really cool work on this record, but it's really the only time they would dive into the world of psychedelic rock.

Wednesday: Roxy Music, "Flesh And Blood" (1980)
By the time Roxy Music arrived at their penultimate record, they were already quite a distance from the pulsating urgency of "Do The Strand" and "Love Is The Drug" and sinking ever deeper into the late-night candelabra-vibe that would make their final album, "Avalon," one of the staples of early '80s New Romantic suave'. We played the single "Oh Yeah," and also a few seconds of the album's cover of "Eight Miles High," which is just bizarre.

Thursday: Tammy Wynette, "Greatest Hits" (1969)
The song "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is almost a testament to what Tammy Wynette's soap opera life was. She experienced her share of heartache from her mother abandoning her, all her failed marriages (including her most famous marriage and divorce from George Jones), painkiller addiction and other health problems. She was known as the First Lady of Country Music, a title she wore well.

Friday: Janis Joplin, "Pearl" (1971)
Janis Joplin's untimely death due to a heroin overdose meant she would never see the release of this album. It was released a few months after she died. At the time of this record, she had the Full Tilt Boogie Band backing her up. An instrumental was included on the album and it's only an instrumental because Joplin died before she could record the vocals. It was called "Buried Alive in the Blues." Ironic?

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Flyin' the Flannel

Posted at 12:07 PM on November 6, 2009 by Michael Wells (0 Comments)

It's been 20 years since the release of Nirvana's debut Bleach.

Seriously. 20 Years.

Anyway, we decided to celebrate this weekend with your chance to win a copy of the remastered/reissued version. Just listen and be the tenth caller all weekend. There's other reasons to listen as well: You'll hear music from bands like Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Babes in Toyland, Firehose, and more - as we're Flyin' the Flannel.

So what do you think about the last 20 years?

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Fresh Eye on the Radio: Clues

Posted at 6:02 PM on November 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Clues always look obvious after the fact. Declining personal debt: Good or bad? The case of the stolen VW van. And babies who cry like their mothers. Those are among the week-end components of the daily discussion with Bob Collins and Mary Lucia.

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