Free in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.( I just discovered the lineup…boy!)
Merle Haggard, Charlie Musselwhite, Emmy Lou Harris, Del McCrory, Ralph Stanley, Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Blind Boys of Alabama, Steve Earle, Robert Plant, Earle Scruggs plus all the bands I’ve never heard of…only in San Francisco!
I take my bike in the truck and park out at the beach, then ride to the park and ride back and forth between the stages.
Lyrics to Come a Rain by Kevin Welch:
Jesus was a pagan, Woody was a punk
Gandhi was a soldier, Hendrix was a monk
Leonardo was an alien, Plato was a scream
Vincent was a flower child, Elvis was a dream
Kurosawa was a samurai, Achilles was a gimp
Django was a miracle, Rasputin was a pimp
Piaf was a siren, Callas was the sea
Martin was a king on earth
in all his majesty
Come a rain, come a rain now
Confucius was a joker, Kafka was a spook
Rumi was a homey, Bukowski was a duke
Fellini was a scientist, Dante was a thug
Buddha was a cowboy, Amelia was a stud
Einstein was a psychic, Stalin was a hick
Marilyn was Marilyn, Picasso was a trip
Marley was a preacher, Columbus was a dope
Houdini was a rascal, Hank Williams was a ghost
Come a rain, come a rain now
I just ran across this great version of the song. I didn’t know it was written by Jerry Lieber and –not in this case Mike Stoller, but — Artie Butler. A beautiful bit of singing by New Orleans R&B singer Alvin Robinson: https://funky16corners.lunarpages.net/?p=1755.
Then check out the quite different Coasters’ version. The Stones version:
Apparently there are no CDs or compilations of Alvin’s singing — a shame. Lost in time.
Forgot to post this last week:
Photo at left from: https://physics.lunet.edu/blues/Mamie_Smith.html
Came into San Francisco on foggy coast at 6:30 this morning. The air was dense with negative ions from the big surf. Deep breaths energizing. As I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, there was a Bach cantata playing; then as I was on Union, heading to Cafe Roma in North Beach, Mamie Smith singing “Crazy Blues,” the first blues song to be recorded, in 1920, which, according to the DJ on BB King’s Bluesville, sold 1 million copies the first year.
Purpose for the trip was to get filmed by Channel 7 news, riding my skateboard. Mike Shumann, sports guy (and ex-49er linebacker) for KGO (ABC) local news, is doing a story on me skating. Plus I like an excuse to come into SF on a Sunday, when much of Golden Gate Park is closed to traffic, and one of the two big downsides of skating — falling on pavement, and cars — is removed. There’s a whole layer of stress removed when you can skate without worrying about cars.
Music du jour; “The Horizontal Bop,” by Bob Seeger and The Silver Bullet Band, pure 100% rock n roll a la say “Hot Legs” by Rod Stewart.
Sent us by Richard Jones
David brought up the subject of these guys and Lew dug up this rough but potent old video on this Austin band in the ’60s:
(Backup is a lot like “G-L_O_R_I_A Gloria…”)
It’s had over 800,000 views. If you watch this full-screen it’s like a liquid black and white movie — pretty striking. Actually like a B&w light show…
More music du jour: Lucinda Williams and Dan Penn doing “Dedicated to the One I Love,” and Stevie Winwood doing “Thirty Second Lover” on a kick-ass album, just out: Dedicated – Steve Cropper – Salute to the 5 Royales
I’d never seen Jobs in action. Wow! Go to the link below and scroll down to 3rd video, which is of him and Gates. At the end, when asked by the moderator about the conflicts between the two of them, Jobs said: “I think of most things in life as either a Bob Dylan or Beatles song. There’s one line in a Beatles song that goes, ‘You and I have memories longer than the road that lies ahead…'” You could hear this collective gasp from the audience.
Jerry Lieber (at right, in photo), of the ’50s songwriting team Lieber and Stoller, died Monday in Los Angeles at age 78. It’s unbelievable, looking back, at the number of great songs these guys wrote: Hound Dog, Kansas City, Yakety Yak, Searchin’, Poison Ivy, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Chapel of Love, Leader of the Pack, Jailhouse Rock, Love Potion No. 9, There Goes My Baby, Ruby Baby, Loving You, Stand By Me, On Broadway, and on and on. One of my favorites is the little-known Loop-de-Loop Mambo, which was playing on the radio in LA (DJ Dick “Huggie Boy” Hugg) at 4 AM one morning in the early ’50s on my first trip to LA in my roommate’s Ford convertible — have loved LA ever since. Lieber wrote the lyrics, Stoller the music. They wrote Hound Dog for Big Mama Willie May Thornton, and hated Elvis’ interpretation. even though it became a mega-hit..
“Jerry was an idea machine,” Stoller says in their 2009 memoir Hound Dog. “For every situation, Jerry had 20 ideas. As would-be songwriters, our interest was in black music and black music only. We wanted to write songs for black voices. When Jerry sang, he sounded black, so that gave us an advantage . . . His verbal vocabulary was all over the place – black, Jewish, theatrical, comical. He would paint pictures with words.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/source-songwriter-jerry-leiber-dies-at-78-20110822
I can’t find the comment on this blog that recommended this film, but whoever you are, I am so grateful. I’ve never seen a film that captured the special spirit of San Francisco in the mid-60s as well as this one. It’s hard to describe what went on in the Haight-Ashbury district from say, 1963 to 1967 (when the “Summer of Love” proved to be the death knell). It was a joyous, harmonious, sharing, open, friendly, and loving community, and the San Francisco music was unique. It wasn’t London or New York or the Beatles, Stones, or Dylan; it was uniquely San Francisco, and the Red Dog Saloon in Nevada city played a key role in the music and style and spirit of the times.
If you were there, I’d hazard to say you’ll love this movie. They got it right! A bunch of it was filmed in 1991, and all of these people are still together: articulate and insightful. Filmmakers and editors did a fabulous job of piecing together videos, stills and interviews. The music! The clothing! The hair!
The Charlatans and Big Brother and the Holding Company stand up to the test of time. The latter was one of my favorite bands (before Janice came along). (Deadheads, there is no Grateful Dead music in this film.) There is one beautiful mandala-like sequence of the ’60s posters, giving you a sense of this powerful new art form. A bunch of wonderful black-and-white stills interspersed with moving footage. The reminiscing comes off well. There was joy then, boy was there, and it’s adequately reflected here.
Plus the DVD is $3.99.
https://www.amazon.com/Rockin-Red-Dog-Dawn-Psychedelic/dp/B0009GX2JG
Music du jour: Keep on Smilin’ by the Wet Willie Band/I Don’t Trust You Man by Willie Big Eyes”Smith/Amsterdam Rag by Ben Prestage
I felt that the Iowa mom nailed the issue of Obama standing up to the whacko and reckless Tea Partiers. When Obama was elected, I was moved to the point of tears (during the inauguration, specifically — see video below) and I’m disappointed in a lot of what’s happened, but think back to the president we had before this one!
I had to turn volume way up on this clip.
It’s such a beautiful duet, with Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi. They way Jon (I never knew he could sing like this!) sings “…but I know-o-ee-o-o, change gonna come…” and Bettye loves it and reaches for his arm.