The weather report for this week puts most of the country in a blustery situation from severe snow storms in the east and midwest to rain on the west coast. Several songs came to me on a morning walk yesterday and hope you are in the mood for a little weather music.
First up is Bare Trees by Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1972 by the group's original lineup and written by Danny Kirwan who was fired by the band later that year. This album and song seems to get lost with the monster mid-seventies addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.
Next is Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon and Garfunkel, first released in 1966 as a single and then included in the 1968 Bookends album. I always loved this song because it showed the boys could rock 'n roll with the best of them. My guess is that this song with its quintessential beat influenced other groups in the mid-60's.
And lastly, California Dreamin' by the Mama's and Papa's, released in 1966 on the If Your Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears album. You'll be singing this song in your head again, like you have done so many times before, on such a winters' day.
This week's post is inspired by my daughter-in-law's Twitter post @kimzebor from Mashable's That '60s show: What American high school students dressed like in 1969, Oct. 1969 Hippie high school, When students (and teachers) turned on, tuned in, and dropped classes by Chris Wild, Retronaut. Once seeing these images, My own time machine started reeling in the years back when I started Santa Maria High School in September, 1969 as a freshman. In the fourth picture down, (shown here on the right) is an image which includes a MG (Model A) sports car in the background similar to my '57 MGA and first car, purchased when I was a junior. What a time!
So I got to thinking about 1969 and the songs that came out that year. I first thought about the Beatles White Album, but that was actually released in November, 1968 and then I remembered how my sister and I loaded in with my good friend Ron Zieman, his sister and parents into their family station wagon and drove to Santa Barbara for Christmas shopping. In a department store, Ron had found the new White Album and got it as a present. I can't remember if he had to wait until Christmas, but I imagine we went straight to his bedroom and immediately listened to it, like so many other albums of the day - CCR, Buffalo Springfield, The Rolling Stones and one of Ron's favorite bands, Cream.
Cream had broken up in 1968 and released Goodbye in the United States in February, 1969. The album as a whole is a bit forgettable in that there are three live tracks and three original tracks from the band. Badge is the definitive single from the album and is one of my all-time favorite songs. Badge has a very distinctive Abbey Road (released 9/26/69) guitar sound that is attributed to the master collaboration of Eric Clapton and George Harrison (who co wrote Badge and is listed as "L'Angelo Misterioso" – rhythm guitar on the original jacket back cover, click on below.) The guitar solo is so Beatlesque, your ears say it is George, but Eric would have to tell us, how it all came to be. So without further adieu, one of the best songs of 1969 and all time.
I thought of this song last week on my 35th anniversary as a teacher. Wake up Everybody is the 1975 album
and single by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and was the last album Teddy Pendergrass was on before starting a solo career. I love this song because I was so young and it really inspired me to be the best that I could be just starting out as a teacher. This song came at a time when many songs were written about hope and optimism about our country and people just working together to solve problems. Hope this song quickstarts you into thinking about how good you are and how good you are going to be with other people this week!
Hello all, I'm Doug McIntosh and this is my new music blog. I plan to post something every Monday about music I like, so here goes!
Being born in 1955 and raised on rock n' roll I have come to appreciate a variety of music over the years. A couple of years ago a friend told me about Grooveshark and in my opinion it has become the best free music streaming service on the Internet. Grooveshark does one big important thing services like Spotify just haven't matched, it allows you to load an entire catalog of songs/albums from an artist into a playlist you create! Using Grooveshark, I have now created 52 playlists with almost the complete catalogs of many of my favorite groups and individual artists. I have all this at the touch of my computer or with me always on my smartphone.
Once I started using Grooveshark, I just stopped loading and using my iPod altogether. You will be amazed at all the FREE and legal music you can collect and stream on your computer and phone, anyway it works for me and I hope you enjoy this little music Monday tip!
It would be most fitting to start off my first post with links to Grooveshark featuring the Mama's and the Papa's 1966 album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Earsand the hit single, Monday Monday that is the inspiration for this blog and the era of my musical roots. Happy Monday everyone!
