Frank Beacham's Journal

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Eddie Floyd is 85 years old today

Eddie Floyd is 85 years old today.

A soul/R&B singer and songwriter, Floyd is best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song, "Knock on Wood."

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Floyd grew up in Detroit. He founded The Falcons, which also featured Mack Rice. They were forerunners to future Detroit vocal groups such as The Temptations and The Four Tops. Their most successful songs included "You're So Fine" and later, when Wilson Pickett was recruited into the group as the lead singer, "I Found a Love."

Pickett then embarked on a solo career and The Falcons disbanded. Floyd signed on with the Memphis-based Stax Records as a songwriter in 1965. He wrote a hit song, "Comfort Me," recorded by Carla Thomas. He then teamed with Stax's guitarist, Steve Cropper, to write songs for Wilson Pickett, now signed to Atlantic Records.

Atlantic distributed Stax and Jerry Wexler brought Pickett down from New York to work with Booker T. & the MGs. The Pickett sessions were successful, yielding several pop and R&B hits, including the Floyd co-written "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" and "634-5789 (Soulsville USA)."

In 1966, Floyd recorded a song intended for Otis Redding. Wexler convinced Stax president Jim Stewart to release Floyd's version. The Steve Cropper/Eddie Floyd "Knock On Wood" launched Floyd's solo career, and has been cut by over a hundred different artists from David Bowie to Count Basie.

Floyd was one of Stax's most consistent and versatile artists. He scored several more hits on his own, including "I Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)" and "Raise Your Hand,” which was covered by both Janis Joplin and Bruce Springsteen.

The song "Big Bird" (featuring Booker T. Jones on organ and guitar, Al Jackson, Jr. on drums and Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass) was written while Floyd waited in a London airport for a plane back to the United States for Otis Redding's funeral.

Although not a U.S. hit, it became an underground favorite in the UK, was later covered by The Jam, and was featured on the video game, Test Drive Unlimited.

Floyd's career did not keep him from being one of the label's most productive writers. Virtually every Stax artist recorded Floyd material, often co-written with either Cropper or Jones. These songs included Sam & Dave ("You Don't Know What You Mean to Me"), Rufus Thomas ("The Breakdown"), Otis Redding ("I Love You More Than Words Can Say") and Johnnie Taylor's "Just the One (I've Been Looking For)."

The latter played during the opening credits of director Harold Ramis's film, Bedazzled.

Floyd, in 1980, also released material on the UK record label, I-Spy Records, owned and created by the UK band, Secret Affair. He joined old Stax collaborators Cropper and Dunn, and fronted The Blues Brothers Band on a series of world tours. In 1998, Floyd and former Falcon Wilson Pickett appeared on screen dueting on "634-5789" in Blues Brothers 2000.

As well as singing with The Blues Brothers Band, Floyd has been the special guest with former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings on several dates in the U.S. and the UK. In 2008, Floyd returned to Stax Records, which is now owned by Concord Music Group. His first new album in six years, Eddie Loves You So, was released in July, 2008.

In December, 2012, Floyd released a new album, At Christmas Time. He was named to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame and received a brass note on the Beale Street Brass Notes Walk of Fame in 2016. He also has a son, Anthony Floyd, that also sings with him. In July, 2013, Floyd released, Down By The Sea.

Here, Floyd performs “Knock on Wood”

Eddie Floyd with Steve Cropper

Carly Simon is 77 years old today

Carly Simon hailing a cab in New York City

Carly Simon is 77 years old today.

A singer-songwriter, musician and children's author, Simon rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records including "Anticipation," "You're So Vain," "Nobody Does It Better" and "Coming Around Again."

Her 1988 hit, "Let the River Run" was the first song in history to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for a song both written and performed by a single artist. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994.

Simon is the former wife of another notable singer-songwriter, James Taylor. They have two children together, Sarah "Sally" Maria Taylor and Ben Taylor, who are also musicians.

Born in New York City, Simon’s father was Richard L. Simon (co-founder of Simon & Schuster), a pianist who often played Chopin and Beethoven at home. Her mother was Andrea Louise Simon, a civil rights activist and singer.

Simon's career began with a short-lived music group with her sister, Lucy, as The Simon Sisters. They had a minor hit in 1964 — "Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod" — and made three albums together before Lucy left to get married and start a family.

Later, Carly collaborated with eclectic New York rockers, Elephant's Memory, for about six months. She also appeared in the 1971 Milos Forman movie, Taking Off, playing an auditioning singer. She also sang "Long Term Physical Effects," which was included in the 1971 soundtrack for the movie.

Her solo music career began in 1971, with the self-titled, Carly Simon, on Elektra Records. The album contained her breakthrough Top 10 hit "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be." It was followed quickly by a second album, Anticipation.

The title song from that album, written about a romance between Simon and Cat Stevens, was a significant hit, reaching #3 at Easy Listening radio and #13 on Billboard's Hot 100.

It was perhaps even more famous for its use in a variety of international commercials to market the legendary "slow" (i.e., thick) ketchup of the H. J. Heinz Company, one of the largest food producers in the world. The next single release — also reportedly written about Stevens — was "Legend In Your Own Time," which made a more modest impact on the charts, peaking at #50 on the Hot 100.

After their brief liaison during 1970–1971 ended amicably, Stevens wrote his song "Sweet Scarlet" about Simon, who also had highly publicized relationships with Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Kris Kristofferson and James Taylor during this period.

In 1972-1973, Simon scored the biggest success of her career with the classic global smash, "You're So Vain." It hit #1 on the U.S. Pop and Adult Contemporary charts, and sold over a million copies in the United States alone.

It was one of the decade's biggest hits and propelled Simon's breakthrough album, No Secrets, to #1 on the U.S. album charts, where it stayed for six consecutive weeks. No Secrets achieved Gold status that year, but by the album's 25th anniversary in 1997, it had been certified Platinum.

The subject of the song itself has become one of the biggest enigmas in popular music, as this track also carries one of the most famous lyrics: "You're so vain/I bet you think this song is about you." Simon has never publicly admitted who the song is about.

She hinted that it could be a composite of several people, and for many people the most likely "suspects" have always been Beatty or Jagger, who sings backup vocals on this recording.

Simon has given vague hints over the decades to a variety of talk shows and publications, saying that riddles wouldn't be interesting if everyone knew the answers to them.

On August 5, 2003, she did finally auction off the information to the winner of a charity function for a grand total of $50,000, with the condition that the winner (a television executive, Dick Ebersol on NBC's Today Show) not reveal who it is.

Finally, in November, 2015, Simon, promoting her about-to-be-published memoir, said, "I have confirmed that the second verse is Warren," and added that while "Warren thinks the whole thing is about him," he is the subject only of that verse, with the remainder of the song referring to two other, still-unnamed men.

Here, Simon performs “You’re So Vain” in 1987 at Martha’s Vineyard

Photo by Lynn Goldsmith

Clifton Chenier was born 97 years ago today

Clifton Chenier and Lightning Hopkins

Photo by Chris Strachwitz

Clifton Chenier was born 97 years ago today.

Chenier was a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana and an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz and blues influences. He was known as the “King of Zydeco,” and also billed as the “King of the South.”

Chenier began his recording career in 1954, when he signed with Elko Records and released Clifton's Blues, a regional success. His first hit record was soon followed by "Ay 'Tite Fille (Hey, Little Girl)" (a cover of Professor Longhair's song). This received some mainstream success.

With the Zydeco Ramblers, Chenier toured extensively. He also toured in the early days with Clarence Garlow, billed as the “Two Crazy Frenchmen.”

In April, 1966, Chenier appeared at the Berkeley Blues Festival on the University of California campus and was subsequently described by Ralph J. Gleason, Jazz critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, as "... one of the most surprising musicians I have heard in some time, with a marvelously moving style of playing the accordion .. blues accordion, that's right, blues accordion."

Chenier was the first act to play at Antone's, a blues club on Sixth Street in Austin, Texas. Later in 1976, he reached a national audience when he appeared on the premiere season of the PBS music program, Austin City Limits. Three years later in 1979, he returned to the show with his Red Hot Louisiana Band.

Chenier is credited with redesigning the wood and crimped tin washboard into the frottoir, an instrument that would easily hang from the shoulders.

Chenier suffered from diabetes which eventually forced him to have a foot amputated and required dialysis because of associated kidney problems. He died of diabetes-related kidney disease in December, 1987 in Lafayette, Louisiana at age 62.

Paul Simon mentioned Chenier in his song "That Was Your Mother," from his 1986 album, Graceland. John Mellencamp refers to "Clifton" in his song "Lafayette," about the Louisiana city where Chenier often performed. The song is on Mellencamp's 2003 album Trouble No More. The jam band, Phish, often covers Chenier's song, "My Soul," in live performances.

Chenier is the subject of Les Blank's 1973 documentary film, Hot Pepper.

Here, is an American Songwriter article on Chenier’s “I’m Comin’ Home”

George Orwell, English novelist and journalist, was born 119 years ago today

George Orwell, English novelist and journalist, was born 119 years ago today.

Orwell’s work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism and commitment to democratic socialism. He was ahead of his time and reflected the themes in the news headlines to this very day.

Considered one of the best chroniclers of English culture, Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and the allegorical novella, Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th century author.

His book, Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian — descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices — has entered the language together with several of his neologisms, including Cold War, Big Brother, thought police, doublethink and thoughtcrime. All his themes are as contemporary today as when Orwell wrote them.

On anarchism, Orwell wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier: "I worked out an anarchistic theory that all government is evil, that the punishment always does more harm than the crime and the people can be trusted to behave decently if you will only let them alone."

Orwell died in 1950 of tuberculosis at age 46.

Here, Orwell discusses his masterpiece, “1984,” with this final warning

Harold Melvin, leader of the Blue Notes, was born on this day in 1939 — 83 years ago

Harold Melvin (center) with the Blue Notes

Harold Melvin, leader of the Blue Notes, was born on this day in 1939 — 83 years ago.

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes were one of the most popular Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. The group's repertoire included soul, R&B, doo-wop and disco.

Founded in Philadelphia in the early 1950s as The Charlemagnes, the group is most noted for several hits on Gamble and Huff's Philadelphia International label between 1972 and 1976, although they performed and recorded until Melvin's death in 1997.

In 1970, the group recruited Teddy Pendergrass as the drummer for their backing band. Pendergrass had been a former member of Philadelphia R&B group, The Cadillacs (not the New York group that had hits in the late 1950s), and was promoted to lead singer when John Atkins quit the same year. This line-up of the group featured Melvin, Pendergrass, Bernard Wilson, Lawrence Brown and Lloyd Parks.

Probably the most-covered Philly soul group in history, many of their hits have been re-recorded by other artists, including Simply Red, David Ruffin, Jimmy Somerville, Sybil and John Legend.

Melvin did on March 24, 1997 at age 57. A stroke the previous summer had left him bedridden and unable to speak. The cause of death was probably another stroke, said his doctor.

Here, Melvin and the Blue Notes perform “The Love I Lost,” 1973

Johnny Smith was born 100 years ago today

Johnny Smith was born 100 years ago today.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Smith was a cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote the song "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954.

During the Great Depression, Smith's family moved from Birmingham through several cities, ending up in Portland, Maine. Smith taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune.

At thirteen years of age, he was teaching others to play the guitar. One of Smith's students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, which became the first guitar Smith owned.

Smith joined Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, a local hillbilly band that travelled around Maine, performing at dances, fairs and similar venues. He earned four dollars a night and dropped out of high school to play music.

After becoming interested in the jazz bands he heard on the radio, Smith practiced playing jazz. He left The Mountain Boys when he was eighteen years old to form a jazz trio, The Airport Boys.

An extremely diverse musician, Smith was equally at home playing in the famous Birdland jazz club or sight reading scores in the orchestral pit of the New York Philharmonic. From Schoenberg to Gershwin to originals, he became one of the most versatile guitarists of the 1950s.

Smith's playing is characterized by closed-position chord voicings and rapidly ascending lines (reminiscent of Django, but more diatonic than chromatically-based).

From those famous 1952 sides and into the 1960s, he recorded for the Roost label, on whose releases his reputation mainly rests. Mosaic Records has issued the majority of them in an eight CD set.

Smith’s most critically acclaimed album was Moonlight in Vermont, one of Down Beat magazine's top two jazz records for 1952. It featured saxophonist Stan Getz.

His most famous musical composition, "Walk Don't Run," written for a 1954 recording session as counter-melody to the chord changes of "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise." Another major guitarist, Chet Atkins, covered the song.

Some musicians who became The Ventures heard the Atkins version, simplified it, sped it up and recorded it in 1960. The Ventures' version went to #2 on the Billboard Top 100 for a week in September, 1960.

Johnny Smith stepped out of the public eye in the 1960s, having moved to Colorado in 1958 to teach and run a music store and to raise his daughter after the death of his second wife. Guild, Gibson and Heritage have all made guitar models designed and endorsed by Johnny Smith. In each case, the guitar was designed wholly or in part by Smith. Each design was a full-bodied archtop guitar with a top carved from solid spruce and a back and sides made of solid maple.

All the on-board electronics for the guitars, from the small pickup in the neck position through the volume knob to the output jack, were mounted on the pickguard. Smith claims to have learned about guitar design by observing master luthier, John D'Angelico, who was his friend and guitar supplier when he lived in New York.

In 1961, Ted McCarty, then president of Gibson, went to meet the retired Smith at his home in Colorado Springs. McCarty spent several days with Smith, during which time Smith designed the guitar he wanted built. The design was accepted by Gibson with a few minor cosmetic changes which were acceptable to Smith.

Gibson began production of the resulting Gibson Johnny Smith model that year. Guild continued to produce their Johnny Smith guitar under the model name Guild Artist Award.

When Gibson moved its manufacturing facilities from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Nashville, Tennessee, several of their managers and artisans chose to stay behind. Many of these ex-employees formed Heritage Guitars and bought the old Kalamazoo factory from Gibson.

Given a choice between Gibson and Heritage building the guitar that bore his name, Smith chose to stay with the old artisans at the old location under new ownership. The Heritage Johnny Smith model was introduced in 1989. Like Guild before them, Gibson continued to manufacture their version of the Johnny Smith design with a new name: the Gibson LeGrand.

William Schultz, chairman of Fender Musical Instruments Corp., of which Guild Guitars was a subsidiary, asked Smith if he would be willing to return his endorsement to the Guild Artist Award. Familiar with Schultz's management, and knowing that the construction would be supervised by master luthier, Bob Benedetto, Smith agreed. The Guild Johnny Smith Award by Benedetto was available through Guild dealers until early 2006 when Benedetto left Fender.

Unlike Guild and Gibson, Heritage Guitars discontinued manufacture of their Smith-designed guitar after Smith withdrew his endorsement.

Smith died on June 11, 2013 at age 90.

Here, Smith performs “Walk Don’t Run”

Sidney Lumet, director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit, was born 98 years ago today

Sidney Lumet on the set of That Kind Of Woman with Sophia Loren, 1959

Sidney Lumet, director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit, was born 98 years ago today.

Lumet was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982).

He did not win an individual Academy Award, but he did receive an Academy Honorary Award and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as Network, which was nominated for ten, winning four.

The Encyclopedia of Hollywood cites Lumet as one of the most prolific directors of the modern era, making more than one movie per year on average since his directorial debut in 1957. He was noted by Turner Classic Movies for his "strong direction of actors," "vigorous storytelling" and the "social realism" in his best work. Film critic Roger Ebert described him as having been "one of the finest craftsmen and warmest humanitarians among all film directors."

Lumet was also known as an "actor's director," having worked with the best of them during his career, probably more than "any other director." Sean Connery, who acted in five of his films, considered him one of his favorite directors, and a director who had that "vision thing."

A founding member of New York's Actors Studio, Lumet began his directorial career in Off-Broadway productions, then became a highly efficient TV director. His first movie, 12 Angry Men, was typical of Lumet’s best work. The 1957 film was a well-acted, tightly written, deeply considered "problem picture."

From that point on Lumet divided his energies among other idealistic problem pictures along with literate adaptations of plays and novels, big stylish pictures, New York-based black comedies and realistic crime dramas, including Serpico and Prince of the City.

As a result of directing 12 Angry Men, he was also responsible for leading the first wave of directors who made a successful transition from television to cinema.

In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers and the art of the motion picture." Two years later, he concluded his career with the acclaimed drama, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007).

A few months after Lumet's death in April, 2011, a retrospective celebration of his work was held at New York's Lincoln Center with the appearance of numerous speakers and film stars.

Lucille Ball after filming the grape-stomping scene in “I Love Lucy,” 1956

Jeff Beck is 78 years old today

Jeff Beck is 78 years old today.

An English rock guitarist, Beck is one of the three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (the other two being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert and Appice.

Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound, and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica.

Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates.

Beck appears on albums by Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Morrissey, Jon Bon Jovi, Malcom McLaren, Kate Bush, Roger Waters, Donovan, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Zucchero, Cyndi Lauper, Brian May, Stanley Clarke and ZZ Top.

Beck is considered one of the greatest guitarists playing today.

Here, Beck performs in a full concert in Tokyo, 1999

Eli Wallach: A Personal Remembrance

Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson and Tennessee Williams at the opening of a revival of Camino Real on Broadway, 1970

Eli Wallach: A Personal Remembrance

Eli Wallach died eight years ago today. His name, for me, inspires wonderful memories.

When I lived in Los Angeles in the 1980s, I took an “Acting for Directors” class from Judy Weston in Santa Monica. I was a terrible actor, but the fun we had in those classes I will remember for a lifetime. One of the toughest roles Judy ever assigned me was to play Kilroy, in Tennessee Williams’ 1953 play, Camino Real.

Taking place in the main plaza of a dead-end Spanish-speaking town, the play goes through a series of confusing and almost logic-defying events, including the revival of the Gypsy's daughter's virginity and then the loss of it again. A main theme that the play deals with is coming to terms with the thought of growing older and possibly becoming irrelevant. Though I wrestled with the material endlessly, I never really got it.

Though I loved Tennessee Williams’ material on the deep South and had known him and drank with him in my 20s in Key West, Camino Real was totally over my head.

After I moved to New York City, I was walking down West 71st Street on a Sunday in the spring of 1999 and I saw a sign outside the ArcLight Theatre. It was for a short running tribute to Williams by two actors who really knew him well, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. The show was to open that afternoon and I bought a front row ticket on the spot at the box office.

Called ''Tennessee Williams Remembered,'' the show was built around the two actors relationships with the playwright. It was directed by Gene Saks. The play was scheduled to run only 35 performances over five weeks.

I had known Eli Wallach’s performances from his classic films, like The Magnificent Seven and The Misfits, but what I didn’t know of was he and his wife’s long collaboration with Tennessee Williams. The couple’s association with Williams dated to a 1946 production of ''This Property Is Condemned.'' They were married two years later.

Wallach later won a Tony Award when he appeared in the 1951 production of ''The Rose Tattoo,'' playing Alvaro Mangiacavallo, a truck driver who woos and wins Serafina Delle Rose, a Sicilian widow living on the Gulf Coast. Both Wallach and Stapleton won Tony Awards for their work in the play.

Next, Wallach played Kilroy in ''Camino Real'' in 1953, and the 1956 William’s film, ''Baby Doll.'' Jackson received a Tony nomination in ''Summer and Smoke'' in 1948.

That afternoon, watching Wallach perform the same scene I had so destroyed in Judy Weston’s class was a revelation. Wallach unlocked the mystery for me and it was a joy to watch a master perform William’s work.

Camino Real, I learned, had begun as a workshop by Elia Kazan at the Actor’s Studio and had gone on to Broadway. The only consolation from that day was that even Elia Kazan admitted he had misinterpreted the play at first by infusing it with excessive naturalism.

Wallach and Jackson went through their Williams plays in excerpts and then reminisced about working with the great playwright. The show was a brilliant eye-opener for me and a wonderful and loving tribute.

Later, I met Wallach several more times and always engaged him in conversations about working with Williams, my favorite writer about issues in the South. It was a subject Wallach always warmed up to and clearly a period in his life that he loved to remember.

On June 24, 1901 — 121 years ago — the first major exhibition of Pablo Picasso's artwork opened at a gallery on Paris' rue Lafitte, a street known for its prestigious art galleries

The Old Guitarist, 1903

Painting by Pablo Picasso

On June 24, 1901 — 121 years ago — the first major exhibition of Pablo Picasso's artwork opened at a gallery on Paris' rue Lafitte, a street known for its prestigious art galleries.

The precocious 19-year-old Spaniard was at the time a relative unknown outside Barcelona, but he had already produced hundreds of paintings. The 75 works displayed at Picasso's first Paris exhibition offered moody, representational paintings by a young artist with obvious talent.

Picasso, widely acknowledged as the dominant figure in 20th century art, was born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain. His father was a professor of drawing and bred Picasso for a career in academic art. He had his first exhibit at age 13 and later quit art school so he could experiment full-time with modern art styles.

He went to Paris for the first time in 1900, and in 1901 he returned with 100 of his paintings. His goal was to win an exhibition. He was introduced to Ambroise Vollard, a dealer who had sponsored Paul Cezanne, and Vollard immediately agreed to a show at his gallery after seeing the paintings.

From street scenes to landscapes, prostitutes to society ladies, Picasso's subjects were diverse. The young artist received a favorable review from the few Paris art critics who saw the show. He stayed in Paris for the rest of the year and later returned to Paris to settle permanently.

The work of Picasso, which comprises more than 50,000 paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures and ceramics produced over 80 years, is described in a series of overlapping periods.

His first notable period — the "blue period" — began shortly after his first Paris exhibit. In works such as The Old Guitarist (1903), Picasso painted in blue tones to evoke the melancholy world of the poor. The blue period was followed by the "rose period," in which he often depicted circus scenes, and then by Picasso's early work in sculpture.

In 1907, Picasso painted the groundbreaking work Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which, with its fragmented and distorted representation of the human form, broke from previous European art.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon demonstrated the influence on Picasso of both African mask art and Paul Cezanne and is seen as a forerunner of the Cubist movement founded by Picasso and the French painter, Georges Braque, in 1909.

In Cubism, which is divided in two phases — analytical and synthetic — Picasso and Braque established the modern principle that artwork need not represent reality to have artistic value. Major Cubist works by Picasso included his costumes and sets for Sergey Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (1917) and The Three Musicians (1921).
Picasso and Braque's Cubist experiments also resulted in the invention of several new artistic techniques, including collage.

After Cubism, Picasso explored classical and Mediterranean themes, and images of violence and anguish increasingly appeared in his work. In 1937, this trend culminated in the masterpiece, Guernica, a monumental work that evoked the horror and suffering endured by the Basque town of Guernica when it was destroyed by German war planes during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso remained in Paris during the Nazi occupation but was fervently opposed to fascism. After the war, he joined the French Communist Party. His work after World War II is less studied than his earlier creations, but he continued to work feverishly and enjoyed commercial and critical success.

He produced fantastical works, experimented with ceramics and painted variations on the works of other masters in the history of art. Known for his intense gaze and domineering personality, he had a series of intense and overlapping love affairs in his lifetime.

He continued to produce art with undiminished force until his death in 1973 at the age of 91.

Thanks History.com

Bob Dylan performs “Tangled Up in Blue”

Mick Fleetwood is 75 years old today

Mick Fleetwood is 75 years old today.

Fleetwood is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and co-founder of the blues/rock and roll band, Fleetwood Mac. His surname and that of John McVie formed the name of the band.

Aside from his work as a drummer, he also helped form the different incarnations of his band Fleetwood Mac, and is the sole member to stay with the band through its ever-changing lineup. In 1974, he met and invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join Fleetwood Mac.

Buckingham and Nicks contributed to much of Fleetwood Mac's later commercial success, while Fleetwood's determination to keep the band together was essential to the group's longevity.

Here, is a drum solo by Fleetwood in Toronto, 2009

Pete Hamill was born 87 years ago today

Pete Hamill, New York Post, 1993

Photo by Fred R. Conrad

Pete Hamill was born 87 years ago today.

Born to Irish immigrants in Brooklyn, Hamill grew up playing stickball in a blue-collar neighborhood. However, even at an early age, he was fascinated with comic books and novels. With the neighborhood tavern the center of his community's social life, he started drinking at an early age.

Although his love for books had won him admittance to an elite high school in Manhattan, he felt out of place and dropped out.

Motivated by his love of comic books and art, Hamill went to art school and became a graphic artist after a period of drifting and living in Mexico. He eventually landed a job at the New York Post, which turned into a writing job and a regular, widely read column.

A heavy drinker, Hamill finally quit on New Year's Eve in 1972. His memoir, A Drinking Life (1995), describes his lifelong relationship with alcohol and draws a colorful picture of life in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 1950s.

In addition to non-fiction works and journalism collections, Hamill has penned ten novels, two books of short stories and over 100 short stories for newspapers. Hamill won a Grammy Award in 1975 for the liner notes to Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks album.

Of his many and diverse works, one of my favorites is a small volume written in 1999 called “Why Sinatra Matters.” It is a masterpiece of great nonfiction writing.

A friend of Robert F. Kennedy, Hamill helped persuade the senator to run for the presidency, then worked for the campaign and covered it as a journalist. He was one of four men who disarmed Sirhan Sirhan of his gun in the aftermath of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination in Los Angeles.

Hamill died on August 5, 2020, at NewYork–Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. He was 85, and suffered from heart and kidney failure at the time of his death, in addition to having fractured his right hip in a fall.

Here, Hamill speaks at St. Francis College in 2011

June Carter Cash was born 93 years ago today

June and Johnny Cash, 1969

Photo by Jim Marshall

June Carter Cash was born 93 years ago today.

A singer, dancer, songwriter, actress, comedian and author who was a member of the Carter Family and the second wife of Johnny Cash, Cash played the guitar, banjo, harmonica and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows.

Born Valerie June Carter in Maces Spring, Virginia, to Maybelle and Ezra Carter, Cash was also born into country music and performed with the Carter Family from the age of ten, beginning in 1939.

In March, 1943, when the Carter Family trio stopped recording together at the end of the WBT contract, Maybelle Carter, with encouragement from her husband Ezra, formed "Mother Maybelle & the Carter Sisters" with her daughters Helen, Anita and June.

The new group first aired on radio station WRNL in Richmond, Virginia in the summer of 1943. Doc (Addington) and Carl (McConnell) — Maybelle's brother and cousin, respectively — known as "The Virginia Boys" joined them in late 1945.

June, then 16, was a co-announcer with Ken Allyn and did the commercials on the radio shows for "Red Star Flour," "Martha White" and "Thalhimers Department Store," just to name a few.

For the next year, the Carters and Doc and Carl did show dates within driving range of Richmond, which covered Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. June later said she had to work harder at her music than her sisters, but she had her own special talent — comedy. A highlight of the road shows was her "Aunt Polly" comedy routine.

Carl McConnell wrote in his memoirs that June was "a natural born clown, if there ever was one." She attended John Marshall High School during this period.

After Doc and Carl dropped out of the music business in late 1946, Maybelle and her daughters moved to Sunshine Sue Workman's "Old Dominion Barn Dance" on the WRVA radio station in Richmond. After a while there, they moved to WNOX in Knoxville, where they met Chet Atkins with Homer and Jethro.

In 1949, Maybelle & The Carter Sisters, along with their lead guitarist, a young Chet Atkins, were living in Springfield, Missouri, and performing regularly at KWTO.

Ezra "Eck" Carter, Maybelle's husband and manager of the group, declined numerous offers from the Grand Ole Opry to move the act to Nashville, because the Opry would not permit Atkins to accompany the group onstage. Atkins' reputation as a guitar player had begun to spread, and studio musicians were fearful that he would displace them as a “first-call” player if he came to Nashville.

Finally, in 1950, Opry management relented and the group, along with Atkins, became part of the Opry company. Here the family befriended Hank Williams and Elvis Presley (to whom they were distantly related). June first met Johnny Cash at the Opry.

June and her sisters, with mother Maybelle and aunt Sara joining in from time to time, reclaimed the name The Carter Family for their act during the 1960s and 1970s. With her thin and lanky frame, June Carter often played a comedic foil during the group's performances alongside other Opry stars Faron Young and Webb Pierce.

While June Carter Cash may be best known for singing and songwriting, she was also an author, dancer, actress, comedian, philanthropist and humanitarian. Director Elia Kazan saw her perform at the Grand Ole Opry in 1955 and encouraged her to study acting. She studied with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.

Her acting roles included Mrs. "Momma" Dewey in Robert Duvall's 1998 movie, The Apostle; Sister Ruth, wife to Johnny Cash's character, Kid Cole; and Clarise on Gunsmoke in 1957. She was also "Momma James" in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James.

As a singer, she had both a solo career and a career singing with first her family and later her husband. As a solo artist, she became somewhat successful with upbeat country tunes of the 1950s like "Jukebox Blues" and, with her exaggerated breaths, the comedic hit "No Swallerin' Place" by Frank Loesser. She also recorded "The Heel" in the 1960s along with many other songs.

Her last album, Wildwood Flower, was released posthumously in 2003. It contains bonus video enhancements showing extracts from the film of the recording sessions, which took place at the Carter Family estate in Hiltons, Virginia, on September 18–20, 2002. The songs on the album include "Big Yellow Peaches," "Sinking in the Lonesome Sea," "Temptation" and the trademark staple, "Wildwood Flower."

Carter and the entire Carter Family had performed with Johnny Cash for a number of years. In 1968, Cash proposed to Carter during a live performance at the London Ice House in London, Ontario, Canada. They married on March 1 in Franklin, Kentucky, and remained married until her death in May 15, 2003, just four months before Cash died. The couple's son, John Carter Cash, is a musician, songwriter and producer.

June Carter Cash died of complications following heart-valve replacement surgery, in the company of her family and her husband of 35 years, Johnny Cash. At Carter's funeral, her stepdaughter, Rosanne Cash, stated that "if being a wife were a corporation, June would have been a CEO. It was her most treasured role."

Here, June Carter Cash and Mother Maybelle Carter performs “No Hiding Place Down Here” in 1971

Milt Hinton, dean of jazz bass players, was born 112 years ago today

Milt Hinton, dean of jazz bass players, was born 112 years ago today.

A jazz double bassist and photographer, Hinton was nicknamed "The Judge."

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi and living in Chicago, Hinton first learned to play the violin, and later bass horn, tuba, cello and the double bass at school. As a young violinist, he found gainful employment as a bassist. He later switched to double bass.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hinton worked as a freelance musician in Chicago. During this time, he played with accomplished jazz musicians such as Jabbo Smith, Eddie South and Art Tatum.

In 1936, he joined a band led by Cab Calloway. Members of this band included Chu Berry, Cozy Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Illinois Jacquet, Jonah Jones, Ike Quebec, Ben Webster and Danny Barker.

Hinton possessed a formidable technique and was equally adept at bowing, pizzicato and "slapping," a technique for which he became famous while playing with the big band of Cab Calloway from 1936 to 1951.

Unusually for a double bass player, Hinton was frequently given the spotlight by Calloway, taking bass solos in tunes like "Pluckin' the Bass." At the same time, Hinton worked as a studio musician. He was part of a large group of studio musicians who played on dozens of hit records written by songwriters who worked at the Brill Building.

He was responsible for the opening bass line on the Drifters "Under the Boardwalk" as well as playing on dozens of hits recorded by Neil Sedaka and many others.

Hinton played a rare Gofriller Double Bass during the latter part of his career. The bass was found in pieces in a cellar in Italy and a musical agent arranged the purchase from the family for Hinton. In his autobiography, Bass Line, Inton described the tone as magnificent and said it was one of the reasons for his long success in the New York recording studios in the 1950s and 60s.

According to The Jazz Discography, Hinton is the most-recorded jazz musician of all time, having appeared on 1,174 recording sessions.

Also a photographer, Hinton documented many of the great jazz musicians via photographs he took over the course of his career. He captured many of the obstacles black musicians endured during the Jim Crow era. Hinton was one of the best friends of jazz trumpeter, Louis Armstrong.

Hinton died in Queens, New York City at age 90 in 2000.

Here, Hinton gives a jazz bass lesson

Mona Hinton, Ike Quebec, Doc Cheatham, Mario Bauza and Shad Collins on tour in Georgia, 1950

Photo by Milt Hinton

Danny Barker and Dizzy Gillespie on train, 1940

Photo by Milt Hinton

In June, 1947 — 75 years ago — W. W. Brazel, a rancher in New Mexico, spotted what he called a "flying disk." It began the UFO era

U.F.O. sightings have been reported around the world, but arguably none are more famous than one 75 years ago.

In June, 1947, W. W. Brazel, a rancher in New Mexico, came across some odd debris. A few days later, he whispered “kinda confidential-like” to the local sheriff that it might have been remnants of a “flying disk.”

A local military base, the Roswell Army Air Field, issued a news release about the debris, prompting a newspaper article with the headline “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer.”

Officials changed their story the next day, saying the debris came from a weather balloon, but Roswell has since been nearly synonymous with tales of alien visitations.

Almost 20 years ago, the Air Force tried to end the speculation. In “The Roswell Report: Case Closed,” officials wrote that any “aliens” spotted in the desert “were actually anthropomorphic test dummies” carried aloft by high-altitude Air Force balloons.

As for Mr. Brazel, he didn’t believe the debris was a weather balloon, but he regretted setting off the furor. In the future, he said, “If I find anything else besides a bomb, they are going to have a hard time getting me to say anything about it.”

Thanks, New York Times!

Ralph Stanley: A Personal Remembrance

Ralph Stanley at Town Hall, New York City, 2005

Photo by Frank Beacham

Ralph Stanley: A Personal Remembrance

Ralph Stanley died six years ago today. He was always the real thing. When he sang “Oh Death,” it hit you in the gut like a big rock. When he said he believed in his music, you knew he deeply meant it.

Stanley was one of America’s defining bluegrass artists — a man known far and wide for his distinctive singing and banjo playing. He began performing professionally in 1946, before I was born, originally with his brother, Carter, as part of the Stanley Brothers, and later as the leader of his band, the Clinch Mountain Boys.

He was the last of a breed of first generation bluegrass stars, up there with the likes of Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs.

Stanley was born, grew up and lived in rural Southwest Virginia. He learned to play the banjo — clawhammer style — from his mother. She had 11 brothers and sisters, and all of them could play the five-string banjo.

From the time I was a little kid, I loved the music of the Stanley Brothers. I saw Ralph in concert dozens of times. I interviewed him once, wanting to know if he had ever played with any black musicians. He said “no,” at least not publicly. He was tight with information, not going to reveal any secrets about an obvious black influence on bluegrass music.

He was more open, however, when he wanted to sell you something. I have a signed, homemade CD he made of his early music with the Stanley Brothers. He said it could only be bought from him personally and every copy was personally signed.

He even tried to sell me one of the banjos he played, something he did after every show. Back then, he wanted $5,000 for it. Now, looking back, it was probably a good deal!

RIP, Ralph. You were definitely one of a kind.

Bob Fosse was born 95 years ago today

Bob Fosse, center, leads the cast through an energetic dance number during a rehearsal of his musical “Big Deal” at the Minskoff Rehearsal Studios, Broadway, March 31, 1986

Photo from Associated Press

Bob Fosse was born 95 years ago today.

An actor, dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director, Fosse won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret (beating Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather).

Born in Chicago to a Norwegian American father, Cyril K. Fosse, and Irish-born mother, Sara Alice Fosse, Fosse was the second youngest of six children. He teamed up with Charles Grass, another young dancer, and began a collaboration under the name The Riff Brothers. They toured theaters throughout the Chicago area.

After being recruited into the military, Fosse was placed in the variety show, Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific. He then moved to New York with the ambition of being the new Fred Astaire.

Fosse’s appearance with his first wife and dance partner, Mary Ann Niles (1923–1987), in Call Me Mister brought him to the attention of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Fosse and Niles were regular performers on Your Hit Parade during its 1950-51 season, and during this season Martin and Lewis caught their act in New York's Pierre Hotel. Martin and Lewis scheduled them to appear on the Colgate Comedy Hour.

Fosse was signed to a MGM contract in 1953. His early screen appearances included Give A Girl A Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and Kiss Me Kate, all released in 1953. A short sequence that he choreographed in the latter (and danced with Carol Haney) brought him to the attention of Broadway producers.

Fosse was reluctant to move from Hollywood to theatre. However, he made the move, and in 1954, he choreographed his first musical, The Pajama Game, followed by George Abbott's Damn Yankees in 1955. It was while working on the latter show that he first met Gwen Verdon, the redheaded rising star and his future wife. He married her in 1960.

Verdon won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in Damn Yankees (she had won previously for best supporting actress in Can-Can).

Fosse appears in the film version of Damn Yankees, which he also choreographed, in which Verdon reprises her stage triumph as "Lola." They partner with each other in the mambo number, "Who's Got the Pain."

In 1957, Fosse choreographed New Girl in Town, also directed by Abbott, and Verdon won her second Leading Actress Tony. That year he also choreographed the film version of "Pajama Game," starring Doris Day.

In 1960, Fosse was, for the first time, both director and choreographer of a musical called simply, Redhead. With Redhead, Verdon won her third Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The show won the Tony for best musical and Fosse carried off the award for best choreography. Fosse partnered with Verdon as her director/choreographer again with Sweet Charity and again with Chicago.

Fosse won the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical in 1973 with Pippin. He performed a memorable song and dance number in Stanley Donen's 1974 film version of The Little Prince, and in 1977, Fosse had a small role in the romantic comedy, Thieves.

Notable distinctions of Fosse's style included the use of turned-in knees, sideways shuffling, rolled shoulders and jazz hands. With Astaire as an influence, he used props such as bowler hats, canes and chairs. His trademark use of hats was influenced by his own self-consciousness.

According to Martin Gottfried in his biography of Fosse, "His baldness was the reason that he wore hats and was doubtless why he put hats on his dancers." He used gloves in his performances because he did not like his hands. Some of his most popular numbers include "Steam Heat" (The Pajama Game) and "Big Spender" (Sweet Charity).

Fosse directed five feature films. His first, Sweet Charity in 1969, starring Shirley MacLaine, is an adaptation of the Broadway musical he had directed and choreographed. Fosse shot the film largely on location in Manhattan.

His second film, Cabaret, won eight Academy Awards, including Best Director, which he won over Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather starring Marlon Brando. The film was shot on location in Berlin. Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey both won Oscars for their roles.

Fosse went on to direct Lenny in 1974, a biopic of comic Lenny Bruce starring Dustin Hoffman. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, among other awards.

However, just as Fosse picked up his Oscar for Cabaret, his Tony for Pippin and an Emmy for directing Liza Minnelli's television concert, Liza with a Z, his health suffered. He underwent open-heart surgery.

In 1979, Fosse co-wrote and directed a semi-autobiographical film, All That Jazz, which portrayed the life of a womanizing, drug-addicted choreographer-director in the midst of triumph and failure. All That Jazz won four Academy Awards, earning Fosse his third Oscar nomination for Best Director. It also won the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.

On September 23, 1987, Fosse died from a heart attack at George Washington University Hospital, while the revival of Sweet Charity was opening at the nearby National Theatre.

Here, Fosse’s former wife, Gwen Verdon, narrates a film features various clips of Fosse dancing.

Alan Turing was born 110 years ago today

Alan Turing as a young man

Alan Turing was born 110 years ago today.

A pioneering English computer scientist, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and theoretical biologist, Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer.

Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts, when "gross indecency" was still criminal in the UK. He accepted chemical castration treatment, with DES, as an alternative to prison. Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning.

An inquest determined his death as suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning. In 2009, following an internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for "the appalling way he was treated." Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.

The Alan Turing law is now an informal term for a 2017 law in the United Kingdom that retroactively pardoned men cautioned or convicted under historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.

The “Type-Writer, 1868” — with the keyboard we use today — was granted a patent on this day 154 years ago

The layout of the computer keyboard we use today has a lot to do with a machine that most of us haven’t used — or maybe even seen.

That invention, the “Type-Writer, 1868,” was granted a patent on this day — 154 years ago. With its ivory keys, it looked like a mini-piano and took up an entire table.

It wasn’t very successful, partly because typists couldn’t go very fast. The keyboard was laid out alphabetically, and the keys would lock up if letters that were close together were struck too fast in succession.

The solution that the inventor, Christopher Latham Sholes, came up with in the 1870s was to spread out the most commonly used letters across the keyboard to prevent the jams. It was called the Qwerty keyboard, after the first six letters of its top row, which also has all the letters needed to spell “typewriter.” This may have been done so salesmen could more easily type the new word.

The Qwerty keyboard has long been criticized as inefficient, but it has been the most popular form of English-language typing since Mark Twain typed out “Life on the Mississippi” (1883), by some accounts the first time an author handed in a typewritten manuscript to his publisher.

Early on, typewritten messages were seen as impersonal. Anyone who has received a handwritten letter is likely to say that still holds true today.

Thanks New York Times!

It was on this day in 1633 that Galileo Galilei renounced what we now accept as fact: that the Earth orbits the sun, not the other way around. He was nearly burned at the stake for it

A bust of Galileo at a museum dedicated to him in Florence, Italy.

Photo by Kathryn Cook

The story of Galileo Galilei demonstrates many things, not least that science keeps evolving.

It was on this day in 1633 that the Italian scholar renounced what we now accept as fact: that the Earth orbits the sun, not the other way around.

Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s larger moons in 1610 made him question the prevailing assumption that the Earth was at the universe’s center. His advocacy of the heliocentric theory earned him mockery, censure and — in 1633 — a trial in Rome, at which he was forced to recant before a jury of cardinals. He vowed that he would “abjure, curse and detest” his findings.

The declaration saved him from being burned at the stake, but led to house arrest for the rest of his life. It took the Roman Catholic Church more than 350 years to acknowledge that Galileo had been wronged — though astronomers now tell us that the sun is not immobile, but orbits within the galaxy, pulling the planets along with it.

Today, Galileo’s discoveries seem obvious. But all things are easy to understand once they have been discovered, he wrote. “The point is in being able to discover them.”

Tell that to the deniers of climate change.

Thanks New York Times!

Bentonia, Mississippi Blues

A black cat crosses paths with guitarist, Jack Owens, and harpist, Bud Spires, in Bentonia, Mississippi

Photo by Bill Steber

Kris Kristofferson is 86 years old today

Kris Kristofferson, New York City, Nov. 8, 2011

Photo by Frank Beacham

Kris Kristofferson is 86 years old today.

A country music singer, songwriter, musician and film actor, Kristofferson is known for such hits as "Me and Bobby McGee," "For the Good Times," "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night."

Kristofferson is the sole writer of most of his songs, and he has collaborated with various other figures of the Nashville scene such as Shel Silverstein.

In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup, "The Highwaymen."

Born in Brownsville, Texas, Kristofferson’s father, an Army officer, pushed his child towards a military career. Like most "military brats," Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth, finally settling down in San Mateo, California, where he graduated from San Mateo High School.

An aspiring writer, Kristofferson enrolled in Pomona College in 1954. He experienced his first dose of fame when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, football and track and field. He and fellow classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugby Club in 1958, which has remained a Southern California rugby dynasty.

Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where his college was Merton. While at Oxford, he was awarded his Blue for boxing and began writing songs. With the help of his manager, Larry Parnes, he recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson. Parnes was working to sell Kris as "a Yank at Oxford" to the British public.

Kristofferson was willing to accept that promotional approach if it helped his singing career, which he hoped would enable him to progress towards his goal of becoming a novelist. This early phase of his music career was unsuccessful.

In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a degree in English literature and married his long-time girlfriend, Fran Beer. Under pressure from his family, Kristofferson ultimately joined the U.S. Army and achieved the rank of Captain. He became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He also completed Ranger School.

During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany as a member of the 8th Infantry Division. It was during this time that he resumed his music career and formed a band. In 1965, when his tour of duty ended, Kristofferson was given an assignment to teach English Literature at West Point.

Instead, he decided to leave the Army and pursue songwriting. His family disowned him because of this decision and they never reconciled with him. They saw it as a rejection of everything they stood for, in spite of the fact that Kristofferson has said he is proud of his time in the military. He received the AVA (American Veterans Awards) "Veteran of the Year Award" in 2003.

Kristofferson has said that he was greatly influenced by the poet, William Blake, while at Oxford, who had proclaimed that if one has a God-given creative talent then one should use it or else reap sorrow and despair. He sent some of his compositions to a friend's relative, Marijohn Wilkin, a successful Nashville songwriter. But when he arrived in the town to see Sam Phillips of Sun Records, his shoes were, according to Philips, "falling off his feet."

After leaving the Army in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. He worked at a variety of odd jobs while struggling for success in music, burdened with medical expenses resulting from his son's defective esophagus. He and his wife soon divorced.

He got a job sweeping floors at Columbia Studios in Nashville. There he met Johnny Cash, who initially accepted some of Kristofferson's songs, but chose not to use them. During Kristofferson's janitorial stint for Columbia, Bob Dylan recorded his landmark 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde, at the studio. Although he had the opportunity to watch some of Dylan's recording sessions, Kristofferson never met Dylan out of fear that he would be fired for approaching him.

In 1966, Dave Dudley released a successful Kristofferson single, "Viet Nam Blues." Within the next few years, more Kristofferson originals hit the charts, performed by Roy Drusky ("Jody and the Kid"); Billy Walker & the Tennessee Walkers ("From the Bottle to the Bottom"); Ray Stevens ("Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"); Jerry Lee Lewis ("Once More with Feeling"); Faron Young ("Your Time's Comin'"); and Roger Miller ("Me and Bobby McGee," "Best of all Possible Worlds" "Darby's Castle").

He achieved some success as a performer himself, following Johnny Cash's introduction of Kristofferson at the Newport Folk Festival. Kristofferson had previously grabbed Cash's attention when he landed his helicopter in Cash's yard without prior arrangement and gave him some tapes.

In 1971, Janis Joplin, who dated Kristofferson for some time until her death, had a #1 hit with "Me and Bobby McGee" from her posthumous album, Pearl. When released, it stayed at the top of the charts for weeks. Kristofferson released his second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I in 1971. The album was a success and established Kristofferson's career as a recording artist in his own right.

Soon after, Kristofferson made his acting debut in The Last Movie (directed by Dennis Hopper) and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. In 1971, he acted in Cisco Pike and released his third album, Border Lord. The album was all-new material and sales were sluggish. He also swept the Grammy Awards that year with numerous songs nominated, winning country song of the year for "Help Me Make It Through the Night."

For the next few years, Kristofferson focused on acting. He appeared in Blume in Love (directed by Paul Mazursky) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (directed by Sam Peckinpah).

He continued acting, in Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Convoy, (another Sam Peckinpah film which was released in 1978), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Vigilante Force, a film based on the Yukio Mishima novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and A Star Is Born (with Barbra Streisand), for which he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (and which he noted had been an experience "worse than boot camp") and Flashpoint in 1984 (directed by William Tannen).

Also during this time, Kristofferson met singer Rita Coolidge. They married in 1973 and released an album, Full Moon, another success buoyed by numerous hit singles and Grammy nominations. More artists took his songs to the top of the charts, including Willie Nelson, whose 1979 LP release of Willie Nelson Sings Kris Kristofferson proved to be a smash success.

Nelson and Kristofferson continued their partnership, and added Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to form the supergroup, The Highwaymen. Their first album, Highwayman was a huge success, and the supergroup continued working together for a time. The single from the album Highwayman, also titled "Highwayman," was awarded the ACM's single of the year in 1985.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Kristofferson in 1985, as had the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1977. In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2006, he received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and released his first album full of new material in 11 years: This Old Road.

On April 21, 2007, Kristofferson won CMT's Johnny Cash Visionary Award. Rosanne Cash, Cash's daughter, presented the honor during the awards show in Nashville. Previous recipients include Cash, Hank Williams, Jr., Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire and the Dixie Chicks.

"John was my hero before he was my friend, and anything with his name on it is really an honor in my eyes," Kristofferson said during an interview. "I was thinking back to when I first met him, and if I ever thought that I'd be getting an award with his name on it, it would have carried me through a lot of hard times."

Kristofferson has said that he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" on his tombstone:

Like a bird on a wire

Like a drunk in a midnight choir

I have tried in my way to be free

Here, Kristofferson joins former wife, Rita Coolidge, to perform Kristofferson’s “Bobby McGee”

Kris Kristofferson performs "Sunday Morning Coming Down" at a tribute after the death of his friend, Johnny Cash

Gower Champion was born 103 years ago today.

Marge and Gower Champion sunbathing by the swimming pool at the Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, 1953

Photo by Maurice Terrell

Gower Champion was born 103 years ago today.

An actor, theatre director, choreographer and dancer, Champion was born in Geneva, Illinois. He studied dance from an early age and, at the age of fifteen, toured nightclubs with a friend, Jeanne Tyler. There were billed as "Gower and Jeanne, America's Youngest Dance Team."

In 1939, "Gower and Jeanne" danced to the music of Larry Clinton and his Orchestra in a Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film short-subject, "The Dipsy Doodler" (released in 1940).

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Champion worked on Broadway as a solo dancer and choreographer. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, Champion met Marjorie Belcher, who became his new partner. The two were married in 1947.

In the early 1950s, Marge and Gower Champion made seven film musicals: Mr. Music (1950, with Bing Crosby), the 1951 remake of Show Boat (with Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson), 1952's Lovely to Look At (a remake of Roberta, also with Keel and Grayson), the autobiographical Everything I Have Is Yours (1952), Give a Girl a Break (1953, with Debbie Reynolds and Bob Fosse), Jupiter's Darling (1955, with Keel and Esther Williams) and Three for the Show (1955, with Betty Grable and Jack Lemmon).

All were made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer except Mr. Music (Paramount) and Three for the Show (Columbia). Throughout the 1950s, they performed on a number of television variety shows, and in 1957 they starred in their own short-lived CBS sitcom, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, which was based on their actual career experiences.

In 1948, Champion had begun to direct as well, and he won the first of eight Tony Awards for his staging of Lend An Ear, the show that introduced Carol Channing to New York theater audiences. During the 1950s, he only worked on two Broadway musicals — choreographing Make a Wish in 1951 and directing, staging and starring in 3 For Tonight in 1955.

Champion preferred to spend most of his time in Hollywood. However, in the 1960s, he directed a number of Broadway hits that put him at the top of his profession. He had a solid success in 1960 with Bye Bye Birdie, a show about an Elvis-like rock star about to be inducted into the Army. The show starred relative unknowns Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke along with a youthful cast.

It ran 607 performances and won four Tony awards, including Best Musical and two for Champion's direction and choreography.

Next came Carnival! in 1961, which ran 719 performances and garnered seven Tony nominations, including one for Champion's direction.

In 1964, he directed one of Broadway's biggest blockbusters, Hello, Dolly! It ran for 2844 performances — almost seven years. Starring Carol Channing, it's best remembered for the title number, where Dolly is greeted by the staff of a restaurant after having been away for years. The show won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical, as well as two for Champion's direction and choreography.

Champion had his fourth consecutive hit musical with I Do! I Do! in 1966. It featured a cast of two — veterans Mary Martin and Robert Preston — playing a couple seen throughout the years of their marriage. The show ran for 560 performances and got seven Tony nominations, including one for Champion's direction.

In early 1979, Champion received from his doctors at the Scripps Institute a diagnosis of Waldenström macroglobulinemia, a rare form of blood cancer. He began treatment at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles and was advised not to take on work.

Champion died at age 61 on August 25, 1980 in New York City at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Champion's death came only ten hours before the opening-night curtain of “42nd Street,” the Broadway musical he directed. It would be his greatest success, running nine years. Producer David Merrick asked Champion's family to keep the news secret from everyone, including the show's cast.

During the enthusiastic curtain calls, he came onstage and melodramatically made the shocking announcement amidst the applause. “No, no. This is tragic. You don’t understand. Gower Champion died this morning.”

Here, Marge and Gower Champion dance in the final scene of “Lovely to Look At” in 1952

Billy Wilder was born 116 years ago today

Billy Wilder was born 116 years ago today.

Wilder was an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist — whose career spanned more than 50 years through 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age.

Wilder is one of only five people to have won Academy Awards as producer, director and screenwriter for the same film (The Apartment), and was the first person to accomplish this. He became a screenwriter in the late 1920s while living in Berlin.

After the rise of the Nazi Party, Wilder, who was Jewish, left for Paris, where he made his directorial debut. He moved to Hollywood in 1933. In 1939, he had a hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the screwball comedy, Ninotchka.

Wilder established his directorial reputation with Double Indemnity (1944), a film noir he co-wrote with Raymond Chandler, the mystery novelist. He earned the Best Director and Best Screenplay Academy Awards for the adaptation of a Charles R. Jackson story, The Lost Weekend (1945), about alcoholism.

In 1950, Wilder co-wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Sunset Blvd. From the mid-1950s on, Wilder made mostly comedies. Among the classics Wilder created in this period are the farces The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Some Like It Hot (1959), satires such as The Apartment (1960) and the comedy, Sabrina (1954).

He directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated performances. Wilder was recognized with the American Film Institute (AFI) Life Achievement Award in 1986. In 1988, Wilder was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1993, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Wilder died in 2002 at the age of 95.

Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell being directed by Billy Wilder in the Seven Year Itch, 1955

Cyndi Lauper is 69 years old today

Cyndi Lauper is 69 years old today.

Born in Queens, New York, Lauper is a singer, songwriter and actress. She achieved success with the release of the debut solo album, She's So Unusual, in 1983.

It spawned four Billboard Top 5 songs — "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” "Time After Time,” "She Bop" and "All Through the Night.” She's So Unusual was the first album in history to have four top five singles by a female. Her success continued with the follow-up, True Colors in 1986, which spawned two Billboard Top 10 songs — "True Colors" and "Change of Heart.”

Since 1989, she released A Night to Remember (1989), Hat Full of Stars (1993), Sisters of Avalon (1996), Merry Christmas... Have a Nice Life (1998), Shine (2001), At Last (2003), The Body Acoustic (2005) and Bring Ya to the Brink (2008).

In 2010, her eleventh studio album, Memphis Blues in 2010, topped the Billboard Blues Albums chart for 13 consecutive weeks at #1. It spawned five Billboard Digital Blues Songs Top 5 songs — "Just Your Fool,” "Crossroads,” "How Blue Can You Get?,” "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "Early in the Mornin’.”

Lauper has also released over 40 singles. As of 2011, she had sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. She also sold one million DVDs and 20 million singles, which makes her one of the best selling artists of all time.

In 2013, Lauper won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for composing the Broadway musical, Kinky Boots, making her the first woman to win the category by herself.

Here, Lauper performs in the video “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” 1983

Meryl Streep is 73 years old today

Meryl Streep as Julia Child in Julie and Julia

Meryl Streep is 73 years old today.

A performer in theater, film and television, Streep is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of all time. She made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie, The Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut in Julia (1977).

Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the first of which brought her an Academy Award nomination, and the second, her first win, for Best Supporting Actress. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011).

Streep holds the record as being the most nominated actor (male or female) in Academy Awards history.

Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004 and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2011 for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, the youngest actor in each award's history.

President Barack Obama awarded her the 2010 National Medal of Arts. In 2003, the government of France made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Peter Asher is 78 years old today

Photo by Frank Beacham

Peter Asher is 78 years old today.

An English guitarist, singer, manager and record producer, Asher first came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the vocal duo, Peter and Gordon, before going on to a successful career as a record producer.

When he was eight years old, Asher began working as a child actor and appeared in the film, The Planter's Wife, and the stage play, Isn't Life Wonderful. He also appeared in the ITV series, The Adventures of Robin Hood.

While attending the independent Westminster School as a day boy, he first met fellow pupil, Gordon Waller (1945–2009). They began playing and singing together as a duo in coffee bars. In 1962, they began working formally as Peter and Gordon. Their biggest hit was the 1964 Paul McCartney song, A World Without Love.

Asher is the son of Dr Richard and Margaret Asher, and the older brother of actress and businesswoman, Jane Asher, and radio actress, Clare Asher. Jane Asher was, in the mid 1960s, the girlfriend of Paul McCartney. Through this connection, Asher and Waller were often given unrecorded Lennon-McCartney songs to perform.

In 1965, he was best man when singer Marianne Faithfull married John Dunbar in Cambridge.

After Peter & Gordon disbanded in 1968, Asher took charge of the A&R department at the Beatles' Apple Records label, where he signed a then-unknown James Taylor and agreed to produce the singer-songwriter's debut solo album. The album was not a success, but Asher was so convinced that Taylor held great potential that he resigned his post at Apple to move to the United States and work as Taylor's manager.

He also produced a number of Taylor's recordings from 1970–1985, including Sweet Baby James, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, JT and Flag.

Asher also played a role in shaping the Californian rock sound prominent during the 1970s, producing records for Linda Ronstadt, J.D. Souther, Andrew Gold and Bonnie Raitt.

In 1976, Asher and Waller reformed for the annual New York “Beatlefest” and played a few other dates. In the 1980s, Asher also worked on hit albums for artists as diverse as Cher and 10,000 Maniacs.

In February, 1995, Asher was named senior vice president of Sony Music Entertainment. At the beginning of 2002, Asher left Sony and returned full time to the management of artists’ careers as co-president of Sanctuary Artist Management. In January, 2005, he was named president, the position he held until September, 2006, when he resigned.

In 2007, Asher joined forces with his friend, Simon Renshaw, (who managed the Dixie Chicks) at the company Simon founded, Strategic Artist Management.

During 2005 and 2006, Peter & Gordon reformed for occasional concerts. Waller died in 2009.

Here, Peter and Gordon sing “I Go to Pieces” in 1964

The Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s also targeted a who's who of major musicians

The Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s famously ended the careers of numerous film-industry professionals and forced others to avoid blacklisting by repudiating their political beliefs and "naming names" of suspected Communist sympathizers to the House Committee on Un-Activities (HUAC). 

But Hollywood actors, directors and screenwriters were not the only victims of the Cold War anti-Communist purges in the entertainment industry.

Prominent figures in the music industry were also targeted, including Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger and Artie Shaw, all of whom were named publicly as suspected Communist sympathizers on this day in 1950 —72 years ago — in the infamous publication Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television.

Red Channels was a tract issued by the right-wing journal, Counterattack, the self-described "Newsletter of Facts to Combat Communism."

By 1950, Joseph McCarthy and the HUAC had already been at work for several years, and figures like singer Paul Robeson and the so-called Hollywood Ten had already been blacklisted. But Red Channels sought to go further, exposing what it called a widespread Communist effort to achieve "domination of American broadcasting and telecasting, preparatory to the day when…[the] Party will assume control of this nation as the result of a final upheaval and civil war."

Some even believe that the men responsible for Red Channels — including several former members of the FBI — were given illegal access to the confidential files of HUAC in preparing their report, which exposed 151 names in the entertainment industry to public scrutiny and the threat of blacklisting.

Joining famous names like Orson Welles, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller and Dorothy Parker on the Red Channels list were the aforementioned Bernstein, Copland, Horne, Seeger and Shaw and numerous other musical figures, including the legendary harmonica player, Larry Adler, the folksinger Burl Ives, former Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax and The New York Times music critic Olin Downes.

The evidence of Communist leanings offered in Red Channels included Lena Horne’s appearance on the letterhead of a South African famine relief program; Aaron Copland’s appearance on a panel at a 1949 Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace; and Leonard Bernstein’s affiliation with the Committee to Re-Elect Benjamin J. Davis, a black, socialist New York City councilman.

In the end, Red Channels caused some of those named to be blacklisted — Pete Seeger, most famously — to fight publicly to prove their "loyalty" to the United States and still others to repudiate their political pasts and provide the HUAC with names of other suspected prominent figures.

Thanks History.com

Todd Rundgren is 74 years old today

Todd Rundgren is 74 years old today.

A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer, Rundgren was hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972. His career has produced a diverse range of recordings as solo artist, and during the seventies and eighties with the band, Utopia. He has also been prolific as a producer and engineer on the recorded work of other musicians.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including Straight Up by Badfinger, Stage Fright by The Band, We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad, Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf and Skylarking by XTC.

In the 1980s and 1990s, his interest in video and computers led to his "Time Heals" being the eighth video played on MTV, and "Change Myself" was animated by Rundgren on commercially available Amiga Computers.

His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light," which have heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day," which is featured in many sports arenas, commercials and movie trailers.

Released on this day in 1965 — 57 years ago — the Byrds' debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, marked a critical beginning of the folk-rock revolution

The Byrds

Released on this day in 1965 — 57 years ago — the Byrds' debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, marked a critical beginning of the folk-rock revolution.

In just a few months, the Byrds had become a household name, with a #1 single and a smash-hit album that married the ringing guitars and backbeat of the British Invasion with the harmonies and lyrical depth of folk to create an entirely new sound.

Perhaps someone else could have listened to the bright guitar lines of the Beatles' "Ticket To Ride" and to Bob Dylan's original "Mr. Tambourine Man" and had the idea of somehow combining the two, but neither of those recordings existed when the Byrds' Roger McGuinn devised his group's new sound.

Newly signed to Columbia Records, the Byrds had access to an early demo version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" even before their label-mate, Bob Dylan, had a chance to record it for his own upcoming album.

On January 20, 1965, they entered the studio to record what would become the title track of their debut album and, incidentally, the only Bob Dylan song ever to reach #1 on the U.S. pop charts.

Aiming consciously for a vocal style in between Dylan's and Lennon's, McGuinn sang lead, with Gene Clark and David Crosby, providing the complex harmony that would, along with McGuinn's jangly electric 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, form the basis of the Byrds' trademark sound.

That sound, which would influence countless groups from Big Star to the Bangles in decades to come, had an immediate and profound impact on the Byrds' contemporaries, and even on the artists who'd inspired it in the first place.

"Wow, man, you can even dance to that!" was Bob Dylan's reaction to hearing what the Byrds' had done with "Mr. Tambourine Man."

Just days before the hugely influential album of the same name was released to the public on June 21, 1965, Dylan himself would be in a New York recording studio with an electric guitar in his hands, putting the finishing touches on "Like A Rolling Stone" and setting the stage for his controversial "Dylan goes electric" performance at the Newport Folk Festival just one month later.

Here the Byrds perform “Mr. Tambourine Man” in 1965

Thanks History.com

Roger McGuinn, New York City, February, 1995

Photo by Frank Beacham

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob near Meridian, Mississippi in this day in 1964 — 58 years ago

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were killed by a Ku Klux Klan lynch mob near Meridian, Mississippi in this day in 1964 — 58 years ago.

The three young civil rights workers were working to register black voters in Mississippi, thus inspiring the ire of the local Klan. The deaths of Schwerner and Goodman, white Northerners and members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), caused a national outrage.

When the desegregation movement encountered resistance in the early 1960s, CORE set up an interracial team to ride buses into the Deep South to help protest. These so-called Freedom Riders were viciously attacked in May, 1961 when the first two buses arrived in Alabama.

One bus was firebombed. The other was boarded by KKK members who beat the activists inside. The Alabama police provided no protection. Still, the Freedom Riders were not dissuaded and they continued to come into Alabama and Mississippi. Michael Schwerner was a particularly dedicated activist who lived in Mississippi while he assisted blacks to vote.

Sam Bowers, the local Klan's Imperial Wizard, decided that Schwerner was a bad influence, and had to be killed. When Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney, a young black man, were coming back from a trip to Philadelphia, Mississippi, deputy sheriff Cecil Price, who was also a Klan member, pulled them over for speeding. He then held them in custody while other KKK members prepared for their murder.

Eventually released, the three activists were later chased down in their car and cornered in a secluded spot in the woods where they were shot and then buried in graves that had been prepared in advance.

When news of their disappearance got out, the FBI converged on Mississippi to investigate. With the help of an informant, agents learned about the Klan's involvement and found the bodies.

Since Mississippi refused to prosecute the assailants in state court, the federal government charged 18 men with conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney. Bowers, Price and five other men were convicted; eight were acquitted and the all-white jury deadlocked on the other three defendants.

On the forty-first anniversary of the three murders, June 21, 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. The 80-year-old Killen, known as an outspoken white supremacist and part-time Baptist minister, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He died in prison on January 11, 2018 at 92 years old.

Thanks History.com

Mississippi sheriff Lawrence Rainey (right) and deputy Cecil Ray Price on trial for the murder of the three civil rights workers, 1967

The bodies of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were found in an earthen dam in Mississippi, August 4, 1964

Photo by Reuters

Al Hirschfeld was born 119 years ago today

Al Hirschfeld in his studio on the top floor of his Manhattan townhouse on December 4, 1991

Photo by Jill Krementz

Al Hirschfeld was born 119 years ago today.

Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of famous people.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved with his family to New York City, where he received his art training at the Art Students League of New York. In 1924, Hirschfeld traveled to Paris and London, where he studied painting, drawing and sculpture.

When he returned to the United States, a friend and Broadway press agent, Richard Maney, showed one of Hirschfeld's drawings to an editor at the New York Herald Tribune. This got Hirschfeld commissions for that newspaper and then, later, The New York Times.

Hirschfeld's style is unique and he is considered one of the most important figures in contemporary drawing and caricature. He influenced countless artists, illustrators and cartoonists. His caricatures are almost always drawings of pure line in black ink, into which Hirschfeld dipped not a pen, but a genuine crow’s quill.

Readers of The New York Times and other newspapers prior to the time they printed in color will be most familiar with the Hirschfeld drawings that are black ink on white illustration board. However, there is a whole body of Hirschfeld’s work in color. Hirschfeld’s full-color paintings were commissioned by many magazines, often as the cover.

Hirschfeld resided at 122 East 95th Street in Manhattan. He died, at age 99, of natural causes at his home on January 20, 2003.

Al Hirschfeld’s sketch of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick

Jerry Garcia

Jean-Paul Sartre was born 117 years ago today

Jean-Paul Sartre was born 117 years ago today.

A French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer and literary critic, Sarte was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology and a leading figure in 20th century French philosophy and Marxism.

Sarte’s work has also influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory and literary studies. He continues to influence these disciplines. Sartre has also been noted for his open relationship with the prominent feminist theorist, Simone de Beauvoir.

He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but refused it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."

Sartre died in Paris in 1980 at age 74. He is pictured in 1950.

Nils Lofgren is 71 years old today.

Nils Lofgren and Bruce Springsteen on the River tour, 2016

Nils Lofgren is 71 years old today.

A rock musician, recording artist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Lofgren
has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a former member of Crazy Horse and founder/frontman of the band, Grin. He is also a solo artist.

Born in Chicago, Lofgren moved to the suburban town of Garrett Park, Maryland, near the northern border of Washington, D.C. as a very young child. His first instrument was classical accordion, beginning at age five, which he studied seriously for ten years.

After studying classical music and jazz, throughout his youth, Lofgren switched his emphasis to rock music. It was then that he focused on the piano and the guitar.

By 1968, Lofgren formed the band, Grin, originally with bassist George Daly (later replaced by Bob Gordon), and drummer Bob Berberich, former players in the DC band, The Hangmen. The group played in venues throughout the Washington, D.C. area. Lofgren had been a competitive gymnast in high school, a skill that popped up later in his career.

During this time, Lofgren met Neil Young and played for him. Young invited Lofgren to come to California and the Grin trio (Lofgren, Daly and Berberich) drove out west and lived for some months at a home Neil Young rented in Laurel Canyon.

Lofgren joined Neil Young's band at age 17, playing piano and guitar on the album, After the Gold Rush, Lofgren worked on his parts around-the-clock when recording was not in session.

He maintained a close musical relationship with Young, appearing on his Tonight's the Night album and tour among others. He was also briefly a member of Crazy Horse, appearing on their 1971 LP and contributing songs to their catalog.

In 1984, he joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as the replacement for Steven Van Zandt on guitar and vocals, in time for Springsteen's massive Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

Following the tour, he appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, to promote his 1985 solo release, Flip. The E Street Band toured again with Springsteen in 1988 on the Tunnel of Love Express and Human Rights Now! Tours.

In 1989, Springsteen broke up the E Street Band, but Lofgren and Van Zandt rejoined when Springsteen revived the band in 1999 for their Reunion Tour, followed by The Rising and another massive tour in 2002 and 2003, then again for the Magic album and world tour of 2007/2008. They re-upped in 2012 for the Wrecking Ball Tour, 2014 for the High Hopes Tour and 2016 for the River Tour.

Lofgren continues to record and to tour as a solo act, with Patti Scialfa, Neil Young and as a two-time member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. Many of the people he worked with on those tours appeared on his 1991 album, Silver Lining.

Here, Lofgren performs “No Mercy” in Germany, 1991

O.C. Smith, whose “Little Green Apples” sold over a million records in 1968, was born 90 years ago today

O.C. Smith, whose “Little Green Apples” sold over a million records in 1968, was born 90 years ago today.

Born Ocie Lee Smith in Mansfield, Louisiana, Smith moved with his parents to Little Rock, Arkansas and then moved with his mother to Los Angeles after his parents divorced. After completing a psychology degree at Southern University, Smith joined the Air Force. He served throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.

While in the Air Force, Smith began entering talent contests and toured with Horace Heidt. After his discharge in July, 1955, he went into jazz to pay the bills.

Smith gained his first break as a singer with Sy Oliver and made an appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. His success on that show led to a recording contract with Cadence Records. In 1961, Smith was recruited by Count Basie to be his vocalist, a position he held until 1965.

His hits, "The Best Out Of Me" and "After All Is Said And Done," established Smith as a Carolina Beach Music star. Nominated for six awards at the third Beach Music Awards, Smith captured five.

Smith became pastor and founder of The City Of Angels Church in Los Angeles, where he remained for 16 years. One of his last recordings, "Save The Last Dance For Me," reached the #1 position on the Rhythm n' Beach Top 40 chart.

After his death from a heart attack on Nov. 23, 2001, Gov. Jim Hodges proclaimed June 21, 2002 “O.C. Smith Day” in the State of South Carolina. Smith was posthumously elected to the Carolina Beach Music Hall of Fame in November, 2002.

Here, Smith performs “Little Green Apples” in 1982

Chet Atkins was born 98 years ago today

Chet Atkins was born 98 years ago today.

Atkins was a guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound. It expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans.

Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul and Maybelle Carter, brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally.

Atkins produced records for The Browns, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings and many others.

Born in Luttrell, Tennessee near Clinch Mountain, Atkins’ parents divorced when he was six. After the divorce, he was raised by his mother. He was the youngest of three boys and a girl. He started out on the ukulele, later moving on to the fiddle. At age nine, he traded his brother, Lowell, an old pistol and some chores for a guitar.

He said in his 1974 autobiography, "We were so poor and everybody around us was so poor that it was the forties before anyone even knew there had been a depression." Forced to relocate to Fortson, Georgia to live with his father because of a critical asthma condition, Atkins was a sensitive youth who made music his obsession.

Because of his illness, he was forced to sleep in a straight-back chair in order to breathe comfortably. On those nights, he would play his guitar until he fell asleep holding it, a habit which lasted his whole life.

While living in Fortson, he attended the historic Mountain Hill School. He would return in the 1990s to play a series of charity concerts to save the school from demolition.

A very young Chet, when a guitar-playing friend or relative would come to visit, would put his ear so close to the instrument that it became difficult for that person to play. He became an accomplished guitarist while he was in high school. He would use the restroom in the school to practice, because it gave better acoustics.

Atkins’ first guitar had a nail for a nut and was so bowed that only the first few frets could be used. He later purchased a semi-acoustic electric guitar and amp, but he had to travel many miles to find an electrical outlet since his home had no electricity.

Later in life, he lightheartedly gave himself (along with John Knowles, Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed and Marcel Dadi) the honorary degree CGP, standing for "Certified Guitar Player."

Atkins did not have a strong style of his own until 1939 when — while still living in Georgia — he heard Merle Travis picking over WLW radio. This early influence dramatically shaped his unique playing style. Whereas Travis's right hand used his index finger for the melody and thumb for bass notes, Atkins expanded his right hand style to include picking with his first three fingers, with the thumb on bass.

After dropping out of high school in 1942, Atkins landed a job at WNOX-AM radio in Knoxville. There he played fiddle and guitar with singer Bill Carlisle and comic Archie Campbell as well as becoming a member of the station's Dixieland Swingsters, a small swing instrumental combo.

After three years, he moved to WLW-AM in Cincinnati, where Merle Travis had formerly worked. Traveling to Chicago, Atkins auditioned for Red Foley, who was leaving his star position on WLS-AM's National Barn Dance to join the Grand Ole Opry. He got the job. Atkins made his first appearance at the Opry in 1946 as a member of Foley's band.

He also recorded a single for Nashville-based Bullet Records that year. That single, "Guitar Blues," was fairly progressive, including as it did, a clarinet solo by Nashville dance band musician Dutch McMillan with Owen Bradley on piano.

While working with a Western band in Denver, Atkins came to the attention of RCA Victor. When Steve Sholes, A&R director of country music at RCA, signed him, his style was suddenly in vogue.

While he hadn't yet had a hit record on RCA Victor, his stature was growing. He began assisting Sholes as a session leader when the New York–based producer needed help organizing Nashville sessions for RCA Victor artists. Atkins's first hit single was "Mr. Sandman," followed by "Silver Bell," which he did as a duet with Hank Snow.

When Sholes took over pop production in 1957 — a result of his success with Elvis Presley — he put Atkins in charge of RCA Victor's Nashville division. With country music record sales declining as rock and roll took over, Atkins and Bob Ferguson took their cue from Owen Bradley and eliminated fiddles and steel guitar as a means of making country singers appeal to pop fans.

This became known as the “Nashville Sound” which Atkins said was a label created by the media attached to a style of recording done during that period to keep country (and their jobs) viable. By the late 1970s, RCA decided to remove Atkins from his producing duties and replace him with younger men. He also felt stifled because the record company would not let him branch into jazz.

In the mid-1970s, he collaborated with one of his influences, Les Paul. Chester & Lester and Guitar Monsters were recorded. Chester & Lester was one of the best-selling recordings of Atkins's career.

Atkins is notable for his broad influence. His love for numerous styles of music can be traced from his early recording of stride-pianist James P. Johnson's "Johnson Rag," all the way to the rock music of Eric Johnson, an invited guest on Atkins's recording sessions. When Atkins attempted to copy Johnson’s "Cliffs of Dover," it led to the creation of a unique arrangement of "Londonderry Air (Danny Boy)."

Atkins continued performing in the 1990s, but his health declined after being diagnosed with cancer in 1996. He died on June 30, 2001, at his home in Nashville at age 77.

Here, Atkins joins Les Paul to play “Avalon”

Aruba Glassy Slab

Photo by Najib Gomez

Lionel Richie is 73 years old today

Lionel Richie is 73 years old today.

From 1968, Richie was a member of the Commodores, a musical group signed to Motown Records. He made his solo debut in 1982 with the album, Lionel Richie, and the #1 hit, "Truly."

Raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, Richie grew up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. His grandfather's house was across the street from the home of the president of the college. His family moved to Joliet, Illinois, where he graduated from Joliet Township High School, East Campus.

A star tennis player in Joliet, he accepted a tennis scholarship to attend Tuskegee Institute, and graduated with a major in economics. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Tuskegee, Richie briefly attended graduate school at Auburn University.

As a student in Tuskegee, Richie formed a succession of R&B groups in the mid-1960s. In 1968, he became a singer and saxophonist with the Commodores. They signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1968 for one record before moving on to Motown Records initially as a support act to The Jackson 5.

The Commodores then became established as a popular soul group. Their first several albums had a danceable, funky sound, as in such tracks as "Machine Gun" and "Brick House."

Over time, Richie wrote and sang more romantic, easy-listening ballads such as "Easy," "Three Times a Lady," "Still" and the tragic breakup ballad, "Sail On."

By the late 1970s, he had begun to accept songwriting commissions from other artists. He composed "Lady" for Kenny Rogers, which hit #1 in 1980, and produced Rogers's album, Share Your Love, the following year.

In 1982, Richie began a solo career. He was replaced as lead singer for The Commodores by Skyler Jett in 1983. His debut album, Lionel Richie, produced a chart-topping single, "Truly," which continued the style of his ballads with the Commodores.

The album hit #3 on the music charts and sold over four million copies. His 1983 follow-up album, Can't Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies, propelling Richie into the first rank of international superstars.

Here, Richie performs “Stuck on You”