I see that Black History Month has come around again. I believe I'll do my bit by posting a video of the great Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five.
And I have also chosen to take this occasion to celebrate my own heritage, with Humble Pie's "Red Neck Jump" (in my youth, this was one of my favorite "Listening While Intoxicated" tunes).
Red Neck Jump seems to be pure Steve Marriott. What a career that guy had before this. From Lionel Bart's Artful Dodger, thru Itchykoo Park, to providing Led Zeppelin with their first hit (Robert Plant copied Marriott's version of 'You Need Lovin'). Credit where it's due, Marriott began by imitating James Brown.
ReplyDeleteI liked Marriott as a rock musician, although he was reportedly a very difficult person to work with - and live with (just ask any of his three wives; the usual problems: drugs and alcohol). What a tragic end he had, dying in a house fire. I saw Humble Pie live in Greensboro back in the early 70s. The city was the Mecca of rock concerts in North Carolina in those days because of its indoor arena. I also saw The Who, Eric Clapton, Santana and Led Zeppelin (twice).
ReplyDeleteSounds like NC was much more on the map than Australia was back then. Frank Zappa came in 73 and said he could not believe how long the flight took.
ReplyDeleteThere is this BBC-peddled stereotype that 'southern USA' is some isolated backwater, but really Australia is much more isolated. That wouldn't surprise you, but we have elites here who need to have that drummed into their heads.
I saw Zappa at a Duke University concert. Outstanding.
ReplyDeleteSort of off-topic, but I just watched the "Bohemian Rhapsody" biopic about Freddie Mercury and found out a whole bunch of stuff I didn't know about him. Of course, it's a movie and not actual history, but imagine my surprise to find out that he was an Indian Parsi, born in what was then Zanzibar.
ReplyDeleteSee Rebecca we of the old British Empire cum Commmonwealth are familiar with that kind of thing, although younger generations here who think they know all about 'racism' aren't. It used to be common to meet white Australians who had spent all or part of their childhood in India or some part of the old Empire, and you'll find quite a few famous Brits like that. For example it's not clear how much old 'Hindoo' ancestry Cliff Richards has, but it hasn't affected his popularity.
ReplyDeleteAt the other extreme I have an old friend who grew up in Utah where he says he thought Pink Floyd and maybe even the Beatles were American! But I find that understandable the way the postwar world used to be. If you liked their music it didn't matter, and it was too complicated for everyday news to explain.
When I meet people who say 'Americans don't know world geography' I respond 'How many US states can you name?' The US is complicated enough and most people in the world only know what they need to know to get around. And most outsiders only know the US through movies and TV, and are actually pretty clueless about it as I was thinking above.
One friend with a college degree who worked very high up in the local elite for example brought up 'the Mason Dixon Line' as if that had some relevance now - he'd probably seen it in a movie. If outsiders have any accurate knowledege of the US it's usually from the Reagan era at the latest, while the real USA is changing so fast. (Trump was elected by the Southern Baptist Convention they'll claim, at which I give up talking to them in despair).
The Parsees are very musical, like Zubin Mehta who most people probably think is Jewish. Parsees in old Bombay would all have pianos and children learning violin.
ReplyDeleteI think the most unusual Parsee musician of all time would have to be Sorabji:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaikhosru_Shapurji_Sorabji
who wrote classical music for piano which is like a marathon to get through so is rarely performed. He wrote one fugue 2 hours long! And that was only one movement of his '2nd Symphony for organ'.
I guess all these old music nerds are now in IT.