DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

Quincy Jones Receives Posthumous Oscar, and Daughter Gives His Speech At the Governors Awards, Rashida Jones spoke on behalf of her father, who died earlier this month at the age of 91. Before his death two weeks ago, the musician and producer Quincy Jones wrote a speech he intended to deliver at the Governors Awards, where he would receive an honorary Oscar at the ceremony created by the Academy...

I’M ALWAYS DRUNK IN SAN FRANCISCO by Carmen McRae (Atlantic, 1968) Here’s my San Francisco story: In the 1980s, Chemayne and I went there on our honeymoon, spending a week before flying to Hawaii. We stayed at The Red Victorian, a reconverted townhouse in the Haight run by a dedicated, middle aged hippie, Sammy Sun-Child. It was adjacent to the Red Vic movie house, where you lounged on comfortable...

George Jones’s New York BY JAMES BARRON George Jones Live At The Bottom Line- New York City- 1981 1 Ragged But Right 2 The Race Is On 3 Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms 4 Bartender's Blues 5 Grand Tour 6 Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong 7 You Better Treat Your Man Right 8 White Lightning 9 Once You've Had the Best AND MORE! Hardly anybody would have looked for an “I ♥ NY” bumper...

"REHEARSALS FOR RETIREMENT" WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY PHIL OCHS- "IF i CAN DREAM" WRITTEN BY EARL BROWN AND RECORDED BY ELVIS PRESLEY IN HONOR OF THE ONLY ROBERT KENNEDY  IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING HIS ASSASSINATION. "THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED" DIRECTED BY ROBERT CORMAN AND NARRATED BY CHET HUNTLEY. "THE BEST MAN" DIRECTED BY   FRANKLIN J. SCHAFFNER FEATURING HENRY...

Any self respecting devotee of fuzz and farfisa will genuflect at the mention of Talk Talk by The Music Machine, the brain busting bombshell that exploded in 1966 at the height of the garage band culture. Along with Psychotic Reaction by The Count V, and 96 Tears by ? And The Mysterians, The Music Machine ruled the airwaves that year. My middle school band, The Full House, could play 96 tears , bu...

I’d like to say that this is one of the best love duets ever recorded, but I demur from superlatives generally. However, I can say with certainty that it’s one of my favorites. Maybe it’s the simple, straightforward vocal delivery of these two raw-boned, pioneer types that makes me cry every time they ease into the sinuous harmonies of the chorus. And, the lyrics complement the American Gothic sou...

Breaking News! FILM PREMIERE Maureen Gosling's THE 9 LIVES OF BARBARA DANE "The amazing story of Barbara Dane, a powerful radical citizen-artist whose magnificent voice and uncompromising dedication to freedom, social justice and global liberation, continues to ring."   --Danny Glover, Executive Producer WATCH TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdkTz4Lihmw https://www.barbarada...

I discovered this track on a WB compilation set named “My Mind Gets High”, and boy… upon hearing this cut did I ever started experiencing flashbacks. In 1968, The Holy Mackerel was explicitly created as a vehicle for young, up and coming singer-songwriter Paul Williams, whose heavily processed vocal, along with the sitar, places this psychedelic artifact squarely into its late 60s time zone, and a...

Last May, my son Jasper and my daughter-in-law Hannah asked me what I would like for my birthday. I said what I always say: “Surprise me.” But then Hannah suggested that they get me an 8 track because she knows I collect them. She wanted to know which genre or artist I like. Also, she didn’t know how, or where to buy one. “Ebay,” I said, and jumped on there to peruse the recent auctions.  I like t...

A note from Bill:  Rich says I'm too modest about discussing my Acting career - could be. But, today I have a story that I felt compelled to share about my "brush with greatness" with one of the greatest American actors of the 20th century: the titanic James Earl Jones, in a Shakespearean production of the rarely produced Timon of Athens.  It's one thing to work with an awesome...

John Fahey (1939-2001) was a singular folklore musicologist, archivist, and record label entrepreneur who played his instrument like no other person alive. He made weird, earthy, mystical music, and lived a life to match. Bill and Rich are pleased to offer this excerpt from a 1979 Halloween concert given by Mr. Fahey in San Francisco at the famed Great American Music Hall. The Fahey Files https://...

Haven’t we all wanted to just get away from the complexities of modern life? Escape the city, quit our jobs, and hit the hammock on some island in the South Pacific? This has been a predominant theme of Ray Davies’ lyrical output. Life today is too stressful; the past was more orderly and harmonious. In this song Ray goes WAY BACK to an imagined eden, a primordial jungle, when there are no jobs, o...

https://nickgravenites.com/ This singing-songwriting, blues legend carried the standard of the Chicago masters such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, James Cotton, Junior Wells, and many others beyond the Midwest, to a whole new audience of flower children in  California and beyond, when he fronted Mike Bloomfield's foundational "All American" band, The Electric Flag at the Monter...

I scored this green plastic 4 track cart of musical magic on Ebay, along with Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel, and The Live Adventures of Bloomfield and Kooper, Vol. 2. I needed to acquire an antiquated device through which to hear them because 4s don’t play on standard 8 track machines, so I tracked down a heavy wooden Muntz cabinet model that still works. You have to change tracks with a lever -...

Sixty-five years ago, “Kind of Blue”was recorded and performed by a young group of talented musicians —before they were jazz legends — under the leadership of the visionary trumpeter Miles Davis. Initial sales were slow after the August 1959 release, but then the album caught fire, becoming the best-selling jazz album of all time. So why has “Kind of Blue”endured as the top classic jazz album for...

I have always been drawn to fables of underdogs and the unrecognized. This affinity was engendered early on in childhood, and marinated throughout 30 years in the acting trade, where I’ve seen many of the finest talents of my generation wither on the vine of show biz obscurity. This catchy girl-group number from the Cameo catalogue is spunkily delivered by a couple of black Philadelphia teens, who...

This goofy confection of Sunshine Pop was so at odds with the popular music of the day that it seemed doomed from the start. The Dedrick family, (Chris, Sandy, Bruce, Ellen, and Stephanie), were so unhip that the classical-jazz compositional genius of Chris Dedrick and the sublime sibling harmonies on display were incomprehensible to the rock intelligentsia. (There were The Cowsills, of course…but...

http://johnnynash.com/ Texas born actor, singer, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur, Johnny Nash (1940-2020) was a driven visionary that, undaunted by commercial challenges in the U.S. marketplace, relocated to Jamaica, founded JAD Records, discovered and signed Bob Marley, and helped grow Reggae's popularity around the world - first by covering Marley's "Stir It Up," then,...

What if your Amazon packages could talk? What if they had palpitating, expectant hearts as they sped to your house? And, what a let down, after you’d ripped them open, shredded them, and left them for the recycler. What ingratitude, after their selfless commitment to your happiness. Tool-maker, turned bassist Gary Unwin brings this anthropomorphic idea to life, abetted by lead singer and Vox Conti...

Blame it on the Bossa Nova’s magic spell that the Samba craze swept the nation in the mid-‘60s. And, two of the main proponents of this joyful, sun-splashed celebration were Sergio Mendes and Herb Alpert. Herbie had the record label, A&M, and Sergio had the secret sauce, not to mention the lovely lead singer Lani Hall, who later became Mrs. Alpert.  Mas Que Nada, translated from the Portuguese...

ALL HAIL NEW ORLEANS' ROYALTY!  The boys pay homage to one of the greatest voices - (and most spiritual human beings) - ever to grace the earth. And, you can read the recently released memoir that reveals his triumphs and tribulations. https://aaronneville.com/ Tell It Like It Is – OUT NOW! Aaron Neville shares his story, complete with stories of overcoming struggles and finally achieving suc...

Domingo Samudio (b. February 28, 1937), better known as "Sam the Sham" is a quintessential American entrepreneur: a huckster with limited vocal ability, who took a simple, Show biz concept: - a corny, lovable, Rock n Roll persona  - a TexMex Pharaoh in a turban, created a raft of top 10 smashes, and in the process became immortal.  In 1965, Wooly Bully, a salsa flavored variation on the...

“Bless the Weather” by Iain David McGeachy, OBE (1948-2009)— known to the public as John Martyn, is an emblem of the unfathomable mysteries of the universe: How could music so divinely comforting have emanated from one so troubled? Of course, treading the path of this maestro’s biography we find the familiar signposts of drug addiction, marital abuse, alcoholism, and psychic distress. And yet. thi...

Raymond Barretto Pagan was born to Puerto Rican parents in New York on April 29, 1929. When he was barely four years old, his father decided to leave home and return to Puerto Rico. His mother settled in the South Bronx and raised her three children by herself. From an early age, Barretto was influenced by two styles of music: Latin and Jazz. During the day, his mother listened to the music of Dan...

She’ll Return it is an obscure, minor league number from the Animals catalogue, a B-Side to their Ma Rainy cover of See See Rider. I first heard it on the album Animalization, which, along with Animalism are my two favorite collections by that band. It’s just a simple, 12 bar, blues progression, with basic lyrics insistently repeating one central phrase - “Love her -, she’ll return it.”  Over the...