"Get the tissues out boys, this one's gonna hurt"
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Arthur Alexander Month: The Death of Joe Henderson
So... while browsing through old issues of Billboard for info about Mr. Alexander, I stumbled upon this article in the November 7, 1964 issue:
While on the one hand, this does answer the question of why I'd never seen any further records by Henderson, on the other, it just generates further questions. What causes a 27-year old to have a heart attack? A congenital heart defect? Amphetamines (certainly a common thing in the Music City)? Or something else? And why was he bunking with Arthur, rather than his wife and kids? Mrs. Henderson died in 2008, so she's obviously not a good resource.
I have no answers for those questions, but thanks to the efforts of crack digital librarian and first-rate spouse Mandy Mastrovita, I do know a few things about where Alexander was as his roomie lay dying:
If you're only going to have one song that people remember, you could do a lot worse than this.
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| "Social...Spin," Red and Black, October 22, 1964, p. 6 Presented online by the University of Georgia Libaries.
Homecoming 1964 at the University of Georgia would have been a pretty good weekend to crash some Greek parties. I can't say which one I would have chosen, though. How could you? Not just Mr. Alexander at Chi Psi, but The Five Du-tones, Eddie Floyd, The Tams, The Sensations (I'm assuming it was these Sensations), The Upsetters (minus Little Richard), The Catalinas, whichever sets of "Ambassadors" and "Vibratones" these were... even Dionne Warwick (or "Warlick", as they render it here) would have been worth seeing at that point. Of course, you'd have had to go to a frat party. And, since the Bulldogs apparently won their game by 21-7, they were probably especially wild and rowdy that night.
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| Chi Psi House, 320 S. Lumpkin St. |
Here's a tiny photo of the house where you'd have been attending the party in question; it was pretty new at the time, having only been built in 1960. The frat was kicked off campus for booze violations in the late '80s, and the building was razed in 2004.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Jungle 45's
Here is the complete "Jungle 45 of the Week" compilation that I have been sporadically putting up the last year and a half or so. Now you can download it in one fell swoop with a nifty cover by J.R. Williams!
Jungle_45's
Monday, December 19, 2011
Liza Jane
Cecil Surratt & Smitty Smith - Liza Jane (2:03)
Cecil and Smitty absolutely nail it here with their 1960 instrumental country take on an old standard.
Joyeux Anniversaire à la Reine du Rock Français!
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| Édith Giovanna Gassion, 19 December 1915 – 11 October 1963 |
I refer of course, to the "Little Sparrow", Édith Piaf, who would have been 96 today, though realistically, everyone knew she was never going to get that far (as it is, she was lucky to have made it almost halfway). You may question my characterization of her in the above title, but to that challenge, I offer her 1956 rendition of a popular Leiber & Stoller composition about the life and death of a leather-clad motorcyclist thug... and what's more Rock 'N' Roll than that?
Also: Happy Birthday wishes to the great Professor Longhair (he'd have been 93) and to Phil Ochs (who'd have been a mere 71, but like our featured artist, has now been gone as long as he was here).
* Pairhops zis ees bettair known to you feelthy Americain peegs undair eets original title, "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots", as first recorded by ze Cheers.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
SUNDAY MOVIE! SHAKE, RATTLE & ROCK!
Enjoy this full movie free download!
OR GO TO WEBSITE: http://www.archive.org/details/ShakeRattleAndRock
Friday, December 16, 2011
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