On This Day – Ayatollah agrees with Little Richard!

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On this day in 1979, just a day after Little Richard spoke out against the evils of rock ‘n’ roll The Ayatollah Khomenini echoed his warning. He banned all forms of rock ‘n’ roll in Iran after saying that it was a corrupting influence.

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On This Day – Frank You’re a Star, Well a Rock!

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frank zappa On This Day   Frank Youre a Star, Well a Rock!

Classic Rock Music

On this day in 1994 The International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after the much missed Frank Zappa who had died in December the previous year.

The Scientific Stuff,

Beyond Mars but before you get to Jupiter there should be another planet, but there isn’t. What there is a a pile of debris. Some of this debris is small and some the size of small planets. These are called asteroids and there are some 7,000 of them. The biggest is called Ceres and it is over 900 km in diameter. There are loads of them, loads.

Czech astronomer L Brozek discover asteroid number 3834 in 1980 and is classified as a minor planet. All respect to Zappa fan John Scialli who embarked a on a quest to have an asteroid named after Frank. He found a supporter in the IAU and 3834 became Zappafrank.

(You can have a star named after yourself, of course, but that has no official standing. Essentially you would be buying the right to call a star after you from someone with no rights to name stars). The naming of asteroids by the IAU is real.

If want more Zappa (and who doesn’t) look no further than my store!

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Michael Jackson Why Wait Till He’s Dead ? (part 2)

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I touched on this in a previous post.

It now seems that Michael Jackson has sold 2.3 million albums in the last 2 weeks, in thew States alone.  Good news for the owners of the state. (Expect more legal wrangling).  My question remains the same, why now?  Are we so stupid that we forget about music we love until someone dies and then when faced with the publicity we all rush to the shops?  Apparently so.

jackson on fire 150x150 Michael Jackson Why Wait Till Hes Dead ? (part 2)

Michael Jackson with his hair on fire.

On another tack video footage of MJ catching fire while filming a 1984 ad for Pepsi has become available.  Pepsi are not amused.  Speaking for Pepsi Nicole Bradley said “We don’t know how the footage became available. Twenty-five years later, we’d question why anyone would want to share such frightening images. It was a terrifying event that we’ll never forget. We were grateful for Michael’s recovery and for the chance to continue working with him on a number of successful projects.

“As for Michael as an artist, his music helped us define a generation and, like everyone else, we’re deeply saddened by his passing.”

Jackson had second and third degree burns after a pyrotechnique display went off early during the shoot.  Jackson was awarded $1.5 Million in damages, which he donated to the burns centre that treated him.

What else about Michael jackson this week?  The cost of policing and controlling traffic etc. at Michael Jackson’s memorial service is estimated to be $1.4 million.  The mayor of LA (Who’s name I have forgotten) says that the tax payer will pick up the cost.  Why?

If I was Michael’s doctor I would be worried.  There are unverified stories about liberal drug prescriptions.  14 years ago yesterday Elvis’ former physician, Dr George Nichopoulous lost his linense.  he was seen to be too liberal in his prescription policy over addictive drugs. Dr Nichopoulous was not impressed with the decision. He called it ‘idiotic’ and suggested that it had something to do with Presley’s death in 1977.

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Posted in About and things, Departures | Tagged as: ,

Champion Jack Dupree

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Champion Jack Dupree Champion Jack Dupree

Real Blues, Champion Jack Dupree

All things are connected, sort of. Yesterday I wrote about Keef Hartley because I had lost a post about him due to a problem with wordpress (too boring to explain fully, just stay with this). So last night I picked up Keef Hartley’s book Halfbreed opened it at random and started reading about Keef recording with Champion Jack Dupree.  That was at the same time as Champion Jack was on the stereo, spooky!

Champion Jack Dupree was a great blues singer who had the archetypal blues man. Orphaned when he was 2 he was raised in a home for ‘coloured waifs’. He was a self taught pianist who took to the road in the blues tradition. He dug ditches, worked as a cook, took all sorts of jobs as he moved round the country playing his blues.

After meeting Joe Louis he became a boxer winning several titles, hence the nickname Champion Jack. He was subjected to many racist incidents and like a lot of blues men left the States and moved to Europe. He eventually settled in Halifax, Yorkshire, UK where he spent much of the ,60s and ’70s before moving to Germany.

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Keef Hartley

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keef hartley Keef Hartley

Keef Hartley Band, Halfbreed

My scheduled posts was not working a little while ago I fixed the bug and wrote a test post to make sure that it was working.

In that test post I mentioned that I had lost a post about Keef Hartley.  I was surprised and pleased to see the number of people who had found this blog while searching for Keef Hartley.

Surprised because I assumed that few people remembered the glorious music made by Keef, and obviously pleased because they did.

In the late 60s The Keef Hartley band was ‘my’ band.  I loved them, from the genius of Miller Anderson (the best guitarist I had seen up to that point), to the strange facial expressions of Gary Thain.  Halfbreed was a seminal album for me.  It was a prime example of what was good about real rock.

It sounded like real grown up music to me, and still does.

Vist my Squidoo Lens about Keef Here.

Alternatively you can buy a copy of Keef’s book here.

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7ibc8ghqra

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another test

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This is a test

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‘cos my schedulled posts aren’t showing 🙁 if you see this they are working again but all that great stuff about led zep, keef hartley et al is gone forever………..

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Elvis’ Tooth Goes On Ebay

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On this day in 2003 one of Elvis’s teeth was listed on eBay, together with some hair and a gold record.  The reserve price was $100,000.

Just how do you get a tooth without actually digging him up?  Easy, you get the tooth from a man who got it from his dad, who happens to be the founder of the Elvis museum, and he in turn got it from from of Elvis’ old girlfriends….. I told you it was easy.  Now why did she have tooth?  Apparently, it was pulled after Elvis had an accident, but I have no idea what type of accident (or pulled by a dentist, depending on which story you want to believe).

The tooth, hair, and gold record failed to sell.

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The Legacy of Sun Records (part 2)

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I was thinking about the tv programme I saw the other day and then wrote about.

I had forgotten abour Sonny Burgess and so was very pleased to be reminded (apart from the very late mid week night).  The programme was also noteable for a couple of other reasons.  Billy Lee Riley was also on and was the only person critical of Sam Phillips.  The basis of his criticism is that Phillips did not promote his record ‘Red Hot’, in fact he stopped promoting it in favour of another record.  The other record was ‘Great Balls of Fire’.  Personally, I think that Phillips got that one right!

There were a couple of other things I took from the programme.

Billy Lee Riley came across as self serving and an egoist, he said that his influence was on a par with that of Carl Perkins and Elvis.

Sam Phillips had an unfeasibly thick and lustrous head of hair for a man of his age (80 when he died) as well as a full set beard.  Not a grey hair in sight.  I want to know what his diet was, or what product he used!

Third Eye Blind were interviewed and Hargreaves was asked whether the Sun Stars were his heroes.  He said no, he did not revere those people, he revered the people whoe revered the Sun stars.  Very nicely put.

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