-
A few years ago, when we were all sent home to work for what we thought would be a couple of weeks, it quickly became obvious that a couple of weeks wasn’t even close to what it would be. I don’t have cable, just a couple of streaming options and an HD antenna to bring…
-
The Red Roosters was a fledgling Los Angeles band in the mid-60’s. Teenager Randy Wolfe on vocals and guitar, Jay Ferguson on vocals and percussion, Mark Andes on bass, and Ed Cassidy on drums. Ed was Randy’s stepfather, having married Randy’s mother Beatrice Pearl, sister of Randy’s uncle Ed Pearl who owned the legendary folk…
-
The Secret Weapon. He’d begun as accompanist on guitar to The Primettes, three teenager singers looking to get signed to Motown. Their lead singer, Diana Ross, asked a neighbor friend if he’d help get them a shot with Berry Gordy. The neighbor was the lead singer of The Miracles, a man named William “Smokey” Robinson,…
-
His first recordings were by his Rockville, Connecticut, high school band in 1958. They were released in 1990. In 1959, his first singles were released under the duo name of Jamie & Jane. His first solo single was released under the name Billy Bryan. In 1961, when he finally released a solo single under his…
-
Thinking a lot about the great Levon Helm the last few days, though that happens pretty steadily since I often come back around to listening to The Band. I went through a spell with the remastered Stage Fright not too long ago. Some die-hard fans and Robbie Robertson detractors didn’t like that Robbie re-sequenced the…
-
The initial London sessions weren’t going well. The sound was too derivative of himself. His own sound had become dated in the last 3 years, it was now too “new wave.” He and his band decamped to The Netherlands, armed with soul albums as reference. They ended up with 20 completed tracks, eighteen originals and…
-
Frank Sinatra established Reprise Records 65 years ago today. He’d grown unhappy over the years with Capitol Records, despite a string of albums considered his prime work. His first try at owning his own label was by attempting to purchase Verve Records. What he really wanted was full artistic freedom. He formed Reprise with the…
-
The Eventide H910 Harmonizer was was the world’s first commercially available digital audio effects unit, introduced in 1974. The pitch of a sound could be altered without changing the speed. Jon Anderson of Yes was the first to receive a prototype for testing, though the first official use was in television. Local New York station…
![“It was a dangerous period for me. [I] had serious doubts about my sanity.”: Bowie, ‘Low,’ and the Eventide H910 Harmonizer](https://somethingishappeningdotblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/bowie-iggy-dinah.jpg?w=706)
-
Elton John had his 1st #1 album in the UK 51 years ago today with Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player. It opens with “Daniel” and closes with “Crocodile Rock.” The title was inspired in two ways; as a play-on-words on the Truffault film Shoot the Piano Player, which itself is a twist…
-
February 9th is a date that belongs to The Beatles and The Beatles only. On February 9, 1961, The Beatles play the Cavern Club in Liverpool for the 1st of 292 times, the final show coming in August ’63 just after they’d recorded “She Loves You.”. Though they’d performed at the Cavern previously as both…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
SomethingIsHappening 