Music That Blew Me Away

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 07:29 AM

Yes, nice top see this thread back. Thank you, Poppa.

These days, instead of remembering songs that "blew me away" many years ago, I've stumbled across a whole body of music that has been so neglected that hearing it after all these years is like stepping in to another world. One I used to know.

Back in the fifties, when Patti Page was the rage, and Perry Como had a hit tv show, there was a new music brewing that most of America had no idea existed. It was the very first rumblings of R&B, doo wop and rock and roll. You never heard it on national radio, and the music never made the Billboard charts. It was played on black radio stations in major cities, for a black audience, often late at night into the wee small hours of the morning. I lived in a small town, but when the climate was just right, I could pick up WFOX in Milwaukee, and if I lay on my back on my bed with my Motorola portable on my chest, turing it so that the antennae was in just the right position, I could pick it up. The music was primitive, in comparison to the popular music of the time. Lightnin' Hopkins shared air time with Count Basie, Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Big Mama Thornton, the Ravens, the Orioles and the Crows. Not to mention all the music by singers I'd never heard of before, and hadn't heard of since. Until I bought a 10 CD set containing 200 early Rhythm and Blues Masters from the 40's and fifties. That's what I've been listening to. For me, it's exciting to hear early Ray Charles, almost comnpletely unrecognizable, or B.B. King sounding more like a country blues singer in a juke joint.

One of the things about "Oldies:" if the song wasn't in the top 40, it's like it never existed. And, it's never re-issued. At least not in this country. Some of the most exciting music that's been made in America is only available on CDs from Holland, Germany, France or England. To me, this old music is as exciting to discover (or rediscover) as a lost Doc Boggs recording. The music speaks to the times and the community it reflected as surely as traditional ballads from the Appalachians. A lot of the music I'm listening to, I don't like, but every once in awhile something completely blows me away. "So that's where Little Richard, or Elvis came from!"

Exciting stuff, not for the ears of most Catters. But is is to me.
Would probably be for Poppa Gator, too..

Thanks again for refreshing this thread.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Silver Slug
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 01:06 PM

Does anybody else get that tingling feeling in their scalp whenever they hear a particular piece of music for the first time? That's how I define being 'blown away.' It doesn't often happen now and I guess that's just part of growing old. It isn't just your hair that loses it's colour!

We started using a pub called The Barley Mow just before my 16th birthday. Lil and Lew were the tenants and they knew exactly how old we were. The let us have two pints of mild on a weekday and three pints on Friday and Saturday nights, a great way of learning how to drink sociably.

They had a jukebox which they kept fairly well up-to-date and one night I remember selecting Living In The Past by Jethro Tull, trying to show an ex school bully that I had good taste (i.e. the same as his) when it came to music. That record changed my whole outlook on popular music and I quickly purchased copies of Stand Up, followed by LPs' by The Band, Fairport Convention, Cream, Jefferson Airplane and Led-Zeppelin.

There are plenty of records that have made my scalp 'itch,' but I thank Mr Anderson and co for the record which did so much to broaden my musical tastes.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 01:20 PM

Live music in small, intimate clubs, circa late 1950's and early '60's. I love folk, but also happen to like jazz - both traditional New Orleans and Chicago style and "progressive," not the electronically produced, over-arranged "mind candy" that masquerades as jazz now, a la Kenny G, et al, ad nauseum. We were able to sit by the stage and hear and see people like Cal Tjader, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, Cannonball Adderly and many others. The same was true for folk music, in the same period. Clubs like the Hungry i and Purple Onion, in San Francisco, Mr. Kelly's, in Chicago, The Icehouse, in Pasadena, the Ash Grove in L.A. and legions of real coffee houses, before Starbucks was a gleam in some investor's eye, where you could hear local and up-and-coming talent.

Live music is what "sets me free." I've yet to hear a recording that had the same effect.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: alanabit
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 01:33 PM

There is a lot to be said for live music over even the best recordings. I know that I would not usually buy records of trad jazz or country music. If I am there at the gig though, it can get to me in a way a recording never could.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: PoppaGator
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 02:22 PM

So many of those mostly-forgotten "minor" R&B hits Jerry mentions, singles that sold only within a small geographical region and/or only to the "race records" market, actually enjoyed wider exposure to white teenagers in England than here at home in the states.

I'm not sure why ~ I suppose that when recordings of strange new sounds come to the shores of Liverpool in sailors' duffel bags, no one asked which record was a hit and which wasn't, nor even which side of a given record was supposed to be the "A" side and which the "B." Kids listened and judged each song on its own merits, and the upshot was that the Beatles and Stones and many other less-well-known rock groups wound up "covering" American recordings that never got much airplay back home in the states, and no exposure at all the the "mainstream" US Causcasian market.

I recently heard several different made-in-New-Orleans renditions of an old R&B hit, "Anna (Go With Him)" on WWOZ-FM. Since it had been recorded by several New Orelans artists, at the legendary local J&M Studios, I assumed it was written here, too, but I was wrong.

What I learned from the Internet: (1) the song sounded so familiar to me probably because it was also recorded by the Beatles, and (2) it was written and first recorded by one Arthur Alexander of Florence, Alabama.

Alexander has the wonderful trivia-question distinction of being the only songwriter to have his word recorded by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He was also the first artist to record at the soon-to-become-legendary F.A.M.E. studions in Muscle Shoals, AL.

Familiar titles of some of his compositions besides "Anna":
"You Better Move On" (covered by the Stones)
"Sally Sue Brown" (Dylan and Elvis)
"Every Day I Have to Cry Some"
"A Shot of Rhythm and Blues"
"Go Home Girl"

Alexander also is credited as being the first lyricist to use the word "girl" as direct-address (as "I wanna tell you, girl...), a usage that was immediately taken up by many other writers, notably John Lennon.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: alanabit
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 03:19 PM

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think "Bad Boy", and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" two of my favourite Beatles covers, were also by Arthur Alexander. He was certainly more than a one trick pony.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 27 Jun 07 - 05:55 PM

Interesting stuff, Mr. Gator. I just bought a 4 CD boxed set (for $9.95) Of Wynonie Harris. I've heard his name more than his music. curious to listen to the stuff...

Your observations on minor, regional hit recordigns being picked up by English rock and rollers is right on. As they used to say.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Banjiman
Date: 28 Jun 07 - 08:24 AM

Call me an old romantic but the first time my wife sang "The Loch Tay Boat Song" to me in her little flat in Glasgow many years ago is the most spine tingling musical moment I have experienced....it tingled my spine so much I had to ask her to marry me!

Alison Krauss and Union Station singing "Ghost In This House" at the Sage in Gateshead a couple of years ago almost took me to the same place (wow...those harmonies), I'm not sure Alison Krauss would marry me though.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: PoppaGator
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 03:48 PM

refresh

It's been almost three years since this truly exemplary discussion has been active. I'm sure that, in the meanwhile, some new folks have come around here who will enjoy it ~ also, that many more recent "blown-away" epiphanies have occurred that some of you might like to add.

This concludes my search through all my old posts in an effort to find something I wrote years ago and don't wanna have to write all over again. So, I'm not likely to continue resurrecting old discussions on a daily basis

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 04:05 PM

Stand By Me - the video collection of people from all over the world recording verses of this song stood me on my ear. Very uncomfortable, but worth it. I bought the video and the CD. If there'd been a t-shirt, I would have bought that, too.

Thanks for refreshing this Poppa G.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: eddie1
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 05:10 PM

Hi Jerry
The video compilation of "Stand By Me" is by an organisation called Playing for Change which believes, and proves, that music can bring the whole world together – so does Mudcat of course!
PfC also have an incredible version of "One Love" – have a look for it.

Reading this thread has brought back a lot of memories and forced me to seek out some new ones. Thanks guys!

Someone way back wrote about the hairs on their head standing on end. Many of these songs do that for me too.

Two that really grabbed me are ones where, in one case I don't understand all the words and in the other, none at all – "It's Good See You" from the Alex Campbell Memorial Concert, sung partly in English and partly in Danish by too many people to list and "Pokarekare Ana" sung acapella in Maori by Marie-Adele McArthur, an operatic soprano, in a concert hall. The audience, obviously mostly New Zealanders, react exactly like a folk-club audience, trying the song out quietly to see if the key fits then joining in with a bit more power as they gain confidence and finally singing harmonies. She, although presumably unused to such audience participation, gets right into it, even singing harmony herself while the audience carries the melody!

We're pretty lucky to have such experiences aren't we?

Eddie

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Bettynh
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 05:12 PM

A concert by Carlos Montoya, followed within a month by a concert by Doc Watson. For various reasons I found myself in the front row at both concerts. I'm still in awe at the memory of those hands.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Mar 10 - 08:25 PM

In 1942 or so, when I was 5 or so, my parents were out of the house for a while, and a piece of music came on on the radio that made me cry. I told them about it when they came back, but I never found out what it was.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Mar 10 - 02:08 AM

What a lot of songs and artists to seek out! Many of those mentioned I don't know at all.

I grew up in the Amish church. The songs they sang on Sunday mornings were all in German, of course, the tunes and treatments very similar to Gregorian chant. No particular song but I simply floated when my mother and her best friend sat together and sang. My mother's voice was warm and textured, her friend had a silvery edge to hers. (Ha! I just realized that may account for my love of Pavarotti's voice; much silvery-er than Placido's.) I would hardly be aware of the other singers, so fixated on their sound was I.

My next one was 'My Little Home in West Virginia', an instrumental featuring a fiddle. Intricate yet strong and full.

Thirty years or so later I was mesmerized by 'Moon over Naples', also an instrumental with multiple violins. It soared and swooped and moaned.

Soon after, someone recorded a version of that tune and called it 'Blue Spanish Eyes' with lyrics which became a hit although it was not even close to being as good as Moon over Naples...

A phenomenon that I experience regularly is that I literally 'hear' songs, complete with harmonies, sometimes just two people, sometimes whole choral groups. When I want to hear a certain section again, I can 'make' them go back and start from there again. I said this to my sister one time and she got this alarmed look on her face, so I added truthfully: I've noticed that if I don't know all the words, they don't either.

Anybody else hear voices in their head?

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Mar 10 - 10:24 AM

Sorry. I think we need another 'Threads I Have Killed'. :)

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Mar 10 - 05:37 PM

Nah, give it a little more time; this ain't dead yet! Most of us were asleep the whole time this sat inactive between your two posts...

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 05 Mar 10 - 07:52 PM

Lots of stuff from the "classics" including Beethoven, Brahms, Verdi, Sibelius, Respighi, Berlioz, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Rodrigo, etc, etc.
Then I suppose the early folk-rock such as Steeleye Span Fairport Convention, and later after coming to Scotland, Runrig.
And a whole raft of all sorts of Scottish, English and Irish traditional music.
Then there was the all the "Celtic Connections" stuff like Carlos Nunez and Susana Seivane.
If you ask me tomorrow, I'll probably give you another list too!

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,Guest from overseas
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 10:54 PM

...and it still keeps blowing

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 11:17 PM

Anything by Frankie Lane , and

"Oh My Papa "

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