Frank Beacham's Journal

Palerme, Sicily, 1964

Photo by Bruno Barbey

Ben Harper is 53 years old today

Ben Harper is 53 years old today.

A singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism.

Harper's fan base spans several continents. His albums have been commercially successful in North America, Europe and Oceania.

Born in Pomona, California, Harper’s father, Leonard, was of African-American and Cherokee ancestry, and his mother, Ellen Chase-Verdries, is Jewish. His parents divorced when he was five, and he grew up with his mother's family. Harper has two brothers, Joel and Peter.

Harper began playing guitar as a child. His maternal grandparents' music store, The Folk Music Center and Museum, laid a foundation of folk and blues for the artist, complemented by regular patrons Leonard Cohen, Taj Mahal, John Darnielle and David Lindley. He was influenced by quotes of William Shakespeare and Robert Frost made often by his grandfather.

In 1978, at the age of nine, Harper attended reggae superstar Bob Marley's performance in Burbank, California (joined by former bandmate, Peter Tosh, in the encore, thus making it a sort of historical performance), which was, according to Harper, an important influence.

At the age of 12, Harper played his first gig. During the '80s, in his teen years, he began to play the slide guitar, mimicking the style of Robert Johnson. Next, he refined his style, taking up the Weissenborn slide guitar.

Harper broke out of the Inland Empire after being offered an invitation by Taj Mahal to tour with the artist. They recorded Taj Mahal's album, Follow the Drinking Gourd, released in November, 1990. Then they toured Hawaii.

In 1992, Harper recorded the LP, Pleasure and Pain, with folk multi-instrumentalist, Tom Freund.

After this limited edition record, Harper secured a lifetime record deal with Virgin Records, which released his debut album, Welcome to the Cruel World, in 1994. This allowed him to be invited at the Rencontres Trans Musicales of Rennes in France in December, 1993 where he appeared for the first time on a large stage.

The first album was followed by, Fight For Your Mind, in 1995, with Juan Nelson on bass. It became a college radio favorite and included several songs that Harper still plays live regularly.

Here, Harper performs “Burn One Down” at Bonnaroo

The second "Apache trial" began for Chuck Berry 61 years ago today

The second "Apache trial" began for Chuck Berry 61 years ago today.

Although his earlier conviction for transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes in violation of the Mann Act was thrown out on appeal, the aggressive prosecution decided to retry Berry.

Chuck Berry was one of the biggest pop stars of the late 1950s when he began to have legal problems. While charges in yet another Mann Act violation were pending (which were dismissed in 1960), Berry met Janice Escalante, a Native American with roots in the Apache tribe, in a bar near El Paso, Texas.

According to Berry, who took the young woman on the road with his traveling rock show, Escalante claimed to be 21-years-old. After there was a falling out between the two, Escalante complained about Berry to the authorities.

During his second trial, Berry was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. After a short stretch in Leavenworth Federal Prison, he was transferred to a Missouri jail, where he spent his time studying accounting and writing songs.

Among the songs he wrote before his release from prison in October, 1963 were "No Particular Place to Go" and "You Never Can Tell," later memorialized in the film, Pulp Fiction.

Photo by Frank Driggs

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is 67 years old today

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is 67 years old today.

In this photo, from the late 1980s, Gates explains his concept of Microsoft’s “office.”

It was then to be a paperless office. That didn’t quite work out.

Photo by Frank Beacham

Charlie Daniels was born 86 years ago today

Charlie Daniels was born 86 years ago today.

Daniels was a musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He was best known for his #1 country hit, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," and many other songs he wrote and performed.

Daniels was a singer, guitarist and fiddler, who began writing and performing in the 1950s. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on January 24, 2008 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009.

In 1964, Daniels co-wrote, "It Hurts Me," a song which Elvis Presley recorded with Joy Byers. He worked as a Nashville session musician, often for producer Bob Johnston, including playing electric bass on three Bob Dylan albums during 1969 and 1970, and on recordings by Leonard Cohen.

Daniels recorded his first solo album, Charlie Daniels, in 1971. He produced the 1969 album by The Youngbloods, Elephant Mountain and played the violin on "Darkness, Darkness."

During the 1970s, Daniels played fiddle on many of The Marshall Tucker Band's early albums: "A New Life." "Where We All Belong," "Searchin' For a Rainbow," "Long Hard Ride" and "Carolina Dreams,"

In 1975, he had a Top 30 hit as leader of the Charlie Daniels Band with the Southern rock self-identification anthem, "The South's Gonna Do It Again." "Long Haired Country Boy" was a minor hit in that year.

Daniels played fiddle on Hank Williams, Jr.'s 1975 album, Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends.

Daniels performed in 1979 film, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," which reached #3 on the Hot 100 in September, 1979. The following year, "Devil" became a major crossover success on rock radio stations after its inclusion on the soundtrack for the hit movie, Urban Cowboy.

The song was by far Daniels' greatest success, still receiving regular airplay on U.S. classic rock and country stations, and is well-known even among audiences who eschew country music in general.

Daniels died on July 6, 2020, at the age of 83 of a hemorrhagic stroke at Summit Medical Center in Nashville.

Here, Daniels performs “Devil Went Down to Georgia”

On this day in 1957 — after a show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles — local police told Elvis Presley that he was not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage

On this day in 1957 — after a show at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles — local police told Elvis Presley that he was not allowed to wiggle his hips onstage.

The local press ran headlines saying Elvis would have to clean up his act.

The next night, the Los Angeles Vice Squad filmed Elvis entire concert to study his performance.

Here, Elvis performs live on the Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show at a CBS studio in New York a year earlier.

Night Windows, 1928

Painting by Edward Hopper

This painting is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City

Mahalia Jackson, “The Queen of Gospel” music, was born 111 years ago today

Mahalia Jackson, “The Queen of Gospel” music, was born 111 years ago today.

Possessing a powerful contralto voice, Jackson was one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist.

She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm single releases included a dozen million-selling gold records.

Born as Mahala Jackson and nicknamed "Halie,” Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana. The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog.

When she was born Halie suffered from genu varum, or "bowed legs.” The doctors wanted to perform surgery by breaking her legs, but one of the resident aunts opposed it.

Halie's mother would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater. The condition never stopped young Halie from performing her dance steps for the white woman for whom her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned house. Mahalia was five when her mother Charity died, leaving her family to decide who would raise Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this responsibility, and the children were forced to work from sunup to sundown.

In 1927, at the age of sixteen, Jackson moved from the south to Chicago in the midst of the Great Migration. After her first Sunday church service, where she had given an impromptu performance of her favorite song, "Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel," she was invited to join the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir.

She began touring the city's churches and surrounding areas with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the earliest professional gospel groups.

In 1929, Jackson met the composer, Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the Father of Gospel Music. He gave her musical advice, and in the mid-1930s they began a fourteen-year association of touring, with Jackson singing Dorsey's songs in church programs and at conventions. His "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" became her signature song.

In 1936, Jackson married Isaac Lanes Grey Hockenhull ("Ike"), a graduate of Fisk University and Tuskegee Institute, who was 10 years her senior. Though under constant pressure, Mahalia refused to sing secular music, a pledge she would keep throughout her professional life. She divorced Isaac over the issue in 1941.

Jackson played an important role during the civil rights movement. In August, 1956, she met Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King, Jr. at the National Baptist Convention. A few months later, both King and Abernathy contacted her about coming to Montgomery, Alabama to sing at a rally to raise money for the bus boycott. They also hoped that she would inspire the people who were getting discouraged with the boycott.

Despite death threats, Jackson agreed to sing in Montgomery on December 6, 1956. By then, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Browder vs. Gayle that bus segregation was unconstitutional. In Montgomery, the ruling was not yet put into effect, so the bus boycott continued.

After the concert, when she returned to the Abernathy's home, it was bombed. The boycott finally ended on December 21, 1956 when federal injunctions were served, forcing Montgomery to comply with the court ruling.

Although she was internationally known, she still encountered racial prejudice when trying to buy a home. Everywhere she went, the white owners and real estate agents would turn her away, claiming that houses she wanted to buy had already been sold. When she finally found a house, the neighbors were not happy.

Shots were fired at her windows and she had to contact the police for protection. White families started moving out and black families started moving in. Everything remained the same in her neighborhood except for the skin color of the residents.

From this point forward, she appeared often with Rev. King, singing before his speeches.

When King called on her, she never refused, traveling with him to the deepest parts of the segregated south. She performed “I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned” before King gave his speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. She also sang "Precious Lord" at his funeral in 1968.

Jackson died in Chicago on January 27, 1972 of heart failure and diabetes complications.

Here, Jackson performs “Amazing Grace”

Bootsy Collins, funk bassist, singer and songwriter, is 71 years old today

Bootsy Collins, funk bassist, singer and songwriter, is 71 years old today.

Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk.

With his elder brother, Phelps "Catfish" Collins, Frankie "Kash" Waddy and Philippé Wynne, Collins formed a funk band called The Pacemakers in 1968.

In March, 1970, after most of the members of James Brown's band quit over a pay dispute, The Pacemakers were hired as Brown's backing band and they became known as The J.B.'s. They are often referred to as the "original" J.B.'s to distinguish them from later line-ups that went by the same name.

Although they worked for Brown for only 11 months, the original J.B.'s played on some of Brown's most intense funk recordings, including "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine,” "Bewildered (1970),” "Super Bad,” "Soul Power,” "Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing,” and two instrumental singles, the much-sampled, "The Grunt" and "These Are the J.B.’s.”

After parting ways with Brown, Collins returned to Cincinnati and formed House Guests with his brother, Phelps Collins, as well as Rufus Allen, Clayton "Chicken" Gunnels, Frankie Waddy, Ronnie Greenaway and Robert McCullough.

The House Guests released "What So Never the Dance" and another single on the House Guests label, as well as a third, “The Sound of Vision.”

Next Collins moved to Detroit, after Philippé Wynne suggested joining The Spinners, for whom Wynne had been singing. However, following the advice of singer and future Parliament member Mallia Franklin, Collins had another choice.

Franklin introduced both Collins brothers to George Clinton. In 1972, both of the Collins brothers, along with Waddy, joined Funkadelic. Collins played bass on most of Funkadelic and all of Parliament's albums (with the exception of Osmium) through the early 1980s, garnering several songwriting credits as well.

In 1976, Collins, Catfish, Waddy, Joel Johnson, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, Robert Johnson and The Horny Horns formed Collin’s Rubber Band, a separate touring unit of Clinton's P-Funk collective. The group recorded five albums together, the first three of which are often considered to be among the quintessential P-Funk recordings.

The group's 1978 album, Bootsy? Player of the Year, reached the top of the R&B album chart and spawned the #1 R&B single, "Bootzilla.” Like Clinton, Collins took on several alter egos, from Casper the Funky Ghost to Bootzilla, "the world's only rhinestone rockstar monster of a doll,” all as parts of the evolving character of an alien rock star who grew gradually more bizarre as time went on (see P-Funk mythology). He also adopted his trademark "space bass" around this time.

In the 90s, Collins collaborated with bluegrass legends Del McCoury, Doc Watson and Mac Wiseman to form the GrooveGrass Boyz. They produced a fusion of bluegrass and funk.

In October, 2010, Collins was awarded a Bass Player Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award at the Key Club in Los Angeles.

In July, 2010, Collins, in partnership with former child actor, Cory Danziger, launched Funk University ("Funk U"), an online-only bass guitar school in which he also serves as curator and lead professor. Funk University offers an intense curriculum tailored for intermediate to advanced bass players as well as anyone interested in a deeper understanding of funk.

Here, Collins performs “Stretchin’ Out”

Maggie Roche, member of the Roches folksinging group, was born 71 years old today

Maggie Roche, 1979

Photo by Irene Young

Maggie Roche, member of the Roches folksinging group, was born 71 years old today.

For Christmas, 1964, 13-year-old Maggie was given a guitar, and the family (also including a third sister, Suzzy, and a brother, David) learned to play folk songs by watching Laura Weber on public television.

As teenagers in the late '60s, Maggie and Terre formed a duo and got their first break when they were signed to Marilyn Lipsius' Coffee House Circuit, an agency that booked acts at colleges.

In 1971, Maggie boldly introduced herself to her songwriting idol, Paul Simon, which led to the duo becoming his protégés and singing backup vocals on "Was a Sunny Day" on his second solo album, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973).

They spent two years performing on the college circuit, ending up in San Francisco and falling in with the remnants of the counter culture movement, people whose interests would later be dubbed new age. The duo eventually hitchhiked to Louisiana with a friend involved with the martial arts, staying at what they have described as a "Kung Fu temple" in Hammond.

Returning to the East Coast, they were signed to a production company by Simon, which in turn led to a contract with Simon's label, Columbia Records.

Their debut album, Seductive Reasoning (1975), contained one track produced by Simon, "If You Empty Out All Your Pockets You Could Not Make the Change," and the rest produced by either David Hood and Jimmy Johnson of the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section (which played on the album) or by Paul Samwell-Smith, a former member of the Yardbirds.

The album's songs, written by Maggie, chronicled the sisters' recent cross-country adventures. The album was positively reviewed, but it did not sell. The sisters abandoned music and went back to Louisiana for a time, working as waitresses while they, as Terre later put it, "sought to discover the key to a harmonious existence."

They returned to New York City in 1976 and, during the holiday season, sang Christmas carols for fun on street corners along with their younger sister, Suzzy. They had enough fun that they began to rehearse seriously as a trio. By this time, Maggie and Terre were working as bartenders at the famed Greenwich Village club, Folk City, and soon the trio, calling themselves the Roches, were on-stage there.

With the addition of the more outgoing and overtly comical, Suzzy, and with all three sisters writing songs, the Roches were a distinctly different act from Maggie and Terre Roche. They caught on in 1979, releasing the first of what would be ten albums that tended to follow the pattern of Seductive Reasoning, earning critical kudos but negligible sales.

On January 21, 2017, Maggie Roche died of cancer at the age of 65.

Here the Roches perform “Everything is Good” in 1989