Podcasts about Enchanters

This week Bex chats to author Anna James about her brand-new fantasy series: TheAge of Enchantment which is set in Whetherwhy- a magical land where a select few, known as Enchanters, can harness the powers of all four seasons... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**Jon Boud's & The All The Rage Replay On www.traxfm.org. This Week Jon & Dave Present The Traditional ATR Alternative Christams Songs. Featuring Sonic Youth, Juice Crew, Polystyrene, Yiddish Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, The Enchanters, BillyNoMates, The Pogues, Junior Dread, Glasvegas, Shonen Knife & More #originalpirates #chat #interview #politics #tradeunion #equalrightsandjustice Listen Live Here Via The Trax FM Player: chat.traxfm.org/player/index.html Mixcloud LIVE :mixcloud.com/live/traxfm Free Trax FM Android App: play.google.com/store/apps/det...mradio.ba.a6bcb The Trax FM Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092342916738 Trax FM Live On Hear This: hearthis.at/k8bdngt4/live Tunerr: tunerr.co/radio/Trax-FM Radio Garden: Trax FM Link: http://radio.garden/listen/trax-fm/IEnsCj55 OnLine Radio Box: onlineradiobox.com/uk/trax/?cs...cs=uk.traxRadio Radio Deck: radiodeck.com/radio/5a09e2de87...7e3370db06d44dc Radio.Net: traxfmlondon.radio.net Stream Radio : streema.com/radios/Trax_FM..The_Originals Live Online Radio: liveonlineradio.net/english/tr...ax-fm-103-3.htm**

Join Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda to discuss "A Monsoon Rising," book 2 in Thea Guanzon's The Hurricane Wars series. Now we all know that the second book in a series isn't always the best, but that is not the case with this one. It delivers on everything that was set up in book 1 and it makes you want book 3 right away.  Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe

Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda had the privilege of interviewing Thea Guanzon, author of "The Hurricane Wars" and the sequel that was just released, "A Monsoon Rising." We promise that there are no spoilers, but we still had so much fun talking about what we could talk about. Listen now!  Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe

We need to learn of just how large Babylon was and that the wisdom of the Magi men and Magi, sorcerer's was much different than what we think of these professions today, these was the Priest and cabinet level officials of their time.

Welcome to the latest episode of Book Worms! To kick things off Bex chatted to  Lisa Williamson to chat about the latest installment in her Bigg School series all about different children starting the Henry Bigg Academy and going through the trials and tribulations of starting year 7 and secondary school. This latest addition is about a secret crush and about staying true to yourself.  Bex also speaks to Anna James chatting all about the Chronicles of Wetherwhy where everyone has magic inside them. But a rare few are Enchanters: people born with magic in their bones, who can wield all four seasons of magic. When Juniper discovers she is an Enchanter, she is invited to study at Thistledown Academy. Unwilling to be left behind, her twin brother, Rafferty, follows her to the capital city of Stormgrove and takes up an apprenticeship at a bookbindery.And to complete this episode Bex spoke to Liz Pichon all about the latest book in her Tom Gates series - It's brand new comic to make everyone laugh. But when Tom's comic falls into the wrong hands, everything starts to go wrong. How will he get himself out of this MESS? How will he make everyone laugh again? That's all on this week's episode of Fun Kids Book WormsJoin Fun Kids Podcasts+: https://funkidslive.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever wondered why the witches and wizards of new are so..WEAK? The Hogwarts founders from the 10th century were supposed to have been 4 of the most skilled witches and wizards that the magical world had ever seen, with proof of this being the impressive magical institution they left behind. Then of course there's Merlin - another 10th century wizard that is supposed to have been the most powerful wizard of all time and was aptly named ‘The Prince of Enchanters'. And a few centuries after that came the Peverell brothers, a trio of brothers who in Dumbledore's own words were ‘gifted, dangerous wizards who succeeded in creating those powerful objects' - those ‘objects' of course being the fabled Deathly Hallows. And in the 14th century along came Nicolas Flamel who made Wizarding History by creating perhaps the most powerful magical object of all time- the Philosopher's Stone. When people talk about witches and wizards of the past, it's as though they were so powerful that they are entirely ‘uncomparable' to most modern day witches and wizards.  In the modern era we've got powerful wizards like Voldemort and Dumbledore..But they sort of seem like exceptions to the rule. It doesn't seem like they're TRUE outliers, but instead that they more or less represent the level of power that wizards SHOULD have..or Perhaps..ONCE had. So my question is..What happened? Why are witches and wizards so much weaker than they were in centuries prior? Is it all the butterbeer?  Today we're going to be exploring all of that (and more) as we peel back the layers of wizarding history and uncover where all of that RAW power went. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Sin Spinner has descended, The summoners (aka The Enchanters of the Web) are armed with arcana, and our heroes are hoping luck and sheer will can get them through this ordeal. They cannot let this creature and its masters live, but they may have to give their lives to make that happen! Join our Discord Server: Discord Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/malt_magic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maltandmagic/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY8jhoJJNAxbNrZcHn9l43g Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/maltandmagic Check out the tools that we use in our games: Music & SFX: www.battlebards.com Music & Ambience: www.tabletopaudio.com Character Tokens: https://www.heroforge.com Virtual Tabletop: https://owlbear.rodeo Mapping: https://inkarnate.com Dungeon Creation: Dungeon Alchemist (Beta)

Il y a quelques épisodes, nous nous sommes penchés sur l'une des premières protest song classiques du genre soul. Aujourd'hui, nous allons voir comment le bâton de Sam Cooke a été transmis à une autre génération d'auteurs-compositeurs-interprètes soul, et nous nous intéresserons à l'un des plus grands auteurs-compositeurs de cette génération. Nous allons nous pencher sur le début de la carrière de Curtis Mayfield, et sur "People Get Ready" des Impressions . The Impressions, “People Get Ready” The Soul Stirrers, “Jesus Gave Me Water” Muddy Waters, “Rollin' and Tumblin'” The Medallionaires, “Magic Moonlight” Big Maceo Merriweather, “Worried Life Blues” The Gospel Clefs, “Open Our Eyes” The Spaniels, “Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite” Jerry Butler and the Impressions, “For Your Precious Love” Jerry Butler and the Impressions, “Come Back My Love” Jimmy Reed, “Baby What You Want Me to Do” Major Lance, “I Got a Girl” Jerry Butler, “He Will Break Your Heart” The Impressions, “Gypsy Woman” Walter Jackson, “It's All Over” Gene Chandler, “Gonna Be Good Times” Billy Butler and the Enchanters, “Gotta Get Away” Major Lance, “The Monkey Time” Major Lance, “Um Um Um Um Um Um (Curious Mind)” The Impressions, “It's All Right” Jimmy Cliff, “Ska All Over the World” The Impressions, “Keep on Pushing” Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “This Train (live)” The Impressions, “People Get Ready” The Wailers, “One Love (1965 version)”

Bucket List moment! The '79 Ramones teen comedy "Rock n Roll High School" is an old fave of ours. We have it on DVD, various streaming platforms and have it practically memorized. But we never got to see it in the theatre...until now. Our local arthouse theater aired it is as part of their Cult Movie Night. So with the experience still fresh in our minds we decided to deep dive into the film. 2024 is also "RnRHS" 45 anniversary. We get into the cast, the highlights (and lowlights), the social commentary and life imitating art (and vice versa). Screw you, Togar! In our "News, Views and Tunes", we pay tribute to Wayne Kramer (RIP) and go over the Swift/NFL non issue. Musically, we crank some Marky Ramone and the Intruders, Conflict, The Ramonas, Ironflame, Digregorio and Enchanters. Horns Up!

It's time once again to dive into the Dan Jurgens run on Thor, and this time, we're wrapping up the Enchanters story and digging into what might just be the peak of the run: The Thanos arc!Covering Thor (1998) #17-21.

Bridget, Caitlin, and Hilda cover "The Hurricane Wars," Thea Guanzon's debut novel. With a story-line inspired by East Asian myths and Kylo Ren/Rei Star Wars fanfic, this debut novel hits on all the major tropes we love: Enemies-to-lovers, one bed, arranged marriage, long-lost princess, and found family. Listen now and let us know what you think! Read the article from Tor.com that has background information on the novel.  Join our Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content and let's be friends!Instagram > @Booktokmademe_podTikTok > @BooktokMadeMe

The devil is powerful but his power is limited whereas THE MOST HIGH is all powerful. None greater than HIM!

Episode 170 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Astral Weeks", the early solo career of Van Morrison, and the death of Bert Berns.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-minute bonus episode available, on "Stoned Soul Picnic" by Laura Nyro. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata At one point I, ridiculously, misspeak the name of Charles Mingus' classic album. Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is not about dinner ladies. Also, I say Warren Smith Jr is on "Slim Slow Slider" when I meant to say Richard Davis (Smith is credited in some sources, but I only hear acoustic guitar, bass, and soprano sax on the finished track). Resources As usual, I've created Mixcloud playlists, with full versions of all the songs excerpted in this episode. As there are so many Van Morrison songs in this episode, the Mixcloud is split into three parts, one, two, and three. The information about Bert Berns comes from Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues by Joel Selvin. I've used several biographies of Van Morrison. Van Morrison: Into the Music by Ritchie Yorke is so sycophantic towards Morrison that the word “hagiography” would be, if anything, an understatement. Van Morrison: No Surrender by Johnny Rogan, on the other hand, is the kind of book that talks in the introduction about how the author has had to avoid discussing certain topics because of legal threats from the subject. Howard deWitt's Van Morrison: Astral Weeks to Stardom is over-thorough in the way some self-published books are, while Clinton Heylin's Can You Feel the Silence? is probably the best single volume on the artist. Information on Woodstock comes from Small Town Talk by Barney Hoskyns. Ryan Walsh's Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 is about more than Astral Weeks, but does cover Morrison's period in and around Boston in more detail than anything else. The album Astral Weeks is worth hearing in its entirety. Not all of the music on The Authorized Bang Collection is as listenable, but it's the most complete collection available of everything Morrison recorded for Bang. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a quick warning -- this episode contains discussion of organised crime activity, and of sudden death. It also contains excerpts of songs which hint at attraction to underage girls and discuss terminal illness. If those subjects might upset you, you might want to read the transcript rather than listen to the episode. Anyway, on with the show. Van Morrison could have been the co-writer of "Piece of My Heart". Bert Berns was one of the great collaborators in the music business, and almost every hit he ever had was co-written, and he was always on the lookout for new collaborators, and in 1967 he was once again working with Van Morrison, who he'd worked with a couple of years earlier when Morrison was still the lead singer of Them. Towards the beginning of 1967 he had come up with a chorus, but no verse. He had the hook, "Take another little piece of my heart" -- Berns was writing a lot of songs with "heart" in the title at the time -- and wanted Morrison to come up with a verse to go with it. Van Morrison declined. He wasn't interested in writing pop songs, or in collaborating with other writers, and so Berns turned to one of his regular collaborators, Jerry Ragavoy, and it was Ragavoy who added the verses to one of the biggest successes of Berns' career: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] The story of how Van Morrison came to make the album that's often considered his masterpiece is intimately tied up with the story we've been telling in the background for several episodes now, the story of Atlantic Records' sale to Warners, and the story of Bert Berns' departure from Atlantic. For that reason, some parts of the story I'm about to tell will be familiar to those of you who've been paying close attention to the earlier episodes, but as always I'm going to take you from there to somewhere we've never been before. In 1962, Bert Berns was a moderately successful songwriter, who had written or co-written songs for many artists, especially for artists on Atlantic Records. He'd written songs for Atlantic artists like LaVern Baker, and when Atlantic's top pop producers Leiber and Stoller started to distance themselves from the label in the early sixties, he had moved into production as well, writing and producing Solomon Burke's big hit "Cry to Me": [Excerpt: Solomon Burke, "Cry to Me"] He was the producer and writer or co-writer of most of Burke's hits from that point forward, but at first he was still a freelance producer, and also produced records for Scepter Records, like the Isley Brothers' version of "Twist and Shout", another song he'd co-written, that one with Phil Medley. And as a jobbing songwriter, of course his songs were picked up by other producers, so Leiber and Stoller produced a version of his song "Tell Him" for the Exciters on United Artists: [Excerpt: The Exciters, "Tell Him"] Berns did freelance work for Leiber and Stoller as well as the other people he was working for. For example, when their former protege Phil Spector released his hit version of "Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah", they got Berns to come up with a knockoff arrangement of "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?", released as by Baby Jane and the Rockabyes, with a production credit "Produced by Leiber and Stoller, directed by Bert Berns": [Excerpt: Baby Jane and the Rockabyes, "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?"] And when Leiber and Stoller stopped producing work for United Artists, Berns took over some of the artists they'd been producing for the label, like Marv Johnson, as well as producing his own new artists, like Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, who had been discovered by Berns' friend Jerry Ragovoy, with whom he co-wrote their "Cry Baby": [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters, "Cry Baby"] Berns was an inveterate collaborator. He was one of the few people to get co-writing credits with Leiber and Stoller, and he would collaborate seemingly with everyone who spoke to him for five minutes. He would also routinely reuse material, cutting the same songs time and again with different artists, knowing that a song must be a hit for *someone*. One of his closest collaborators was Jerry Wexler, who also became one of his best friends, even though one of their earliest interactions had been when Wexler had supervised Phil Spector's production of Berns' "Twist and Shout" for the Top Notes, a record that Berns had thought had butchered the song. Berns was, in his deepest bones, a record man. Listening to the records that Berns made, there's a strong continuity in everything he does. There's a love there of simplicity -- almost none of his records have more than three chords. He loved Latin sounds and rhythms -- a love he shared with other people working in Brill Building R&B at the time, like Leiber and Stoller and Spector -- and great voices in emotional distress. There's a reason that the records he produced for Solomon Burke were the first R&B records to be labelled "soul". Berns was one of those people for whom feel and commercial success are inextricable. He was an artist -- the records he made were powerfully expressive -- but he was an artist for whom the biggest validation was *getting a hit*. Only a small proportion of the records he made became hits, but enough did that in the early sixties he was a name that could be spoken of in the same breath as Leiber and Stoller, Spector, and Bacharach and David. And Atlantic needed a record man. The only people producing hits for the label at this point were Leiber and Stoller, and they were in the process of stopping doing freelance work and setting up their own label, Red Bird, as we talked about in the episode on the Shangri-Las. And anyway, they wanted more money than they were getting, and Jerry Wexler was never very keen on producers wanting money that could have gone to the record label. Wexler decided to sign Bert Berns up as a staff producer for Atlantic towards the end of 1963, and by May 1964 it was paying off. Atlantic hadn't been having hits, and now Berns had four tracks he wrote and produced for Atlantic on the Hot One Hundred, of which the highest charting was "My Girl Sloopy" by the Vibrations: [Excerpt: The Vibrations, "My Girl Sloopy"] Even higher on the charts though was the Beatles' version of "Twist and Shout". That record, indeed, had been successful enough in the UK that Berns had already made exploratory trips to the UK and produced records for Dick Rowe at Decca, a partnership we heard about in the episode on "Here Comes the Night". Berns had made partnerships there which would have vast repercussions for the music industry in both countries, and one of them was with the arranger Mike Leander, who was the uncredited arranger for the Drifters session for "Under the Boardwalk", a song written by Artie Resnick and Kenny Young and produced by Berns, recorded the day after the group's lead singer Rudy Lewis died of an overdose: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Under the Boardwalk"] Berns was making hits on a regular basis by mid-1964, and the income from the label's new success allowed Jerry Wexler and the Ertegun brothers to buy out their other partners -- Ahmet Ertegun's old dentist, who had put up some of the initial money, and Miriam Bienstock, the ex-wife of their initial partner Herb Abramson, who'd got Abramson's share in the company after the divorce, and who was now married to Freddie Bienstock of Hill and Range publishing. Wexler and the Erteguns now owned the whole label. Berns also made regular trips to the UK to keep up his work with British musicians, and in one of those trips, as we heard in the episode on "Here Comes the Night", he produced several tracks for the group Them, including that track, written by Berns: [Excerpt: Them, "Here Comes the Night"] And a song written by the group's lead singer Van Morrison, "Gloria": [Excerpt: Them, "Gloria"] But Berns hadn't done much other work with them, because he had a new project. Part of the reason that Wexler and the Erteguns had gained total control of Atlantic was because, in a move pushed primarily by Wexler, they were looking at selling it. They'd already tried to merge with Leiber and Stoller's Red Bird Records, but lost the opportunity after a disastrous meeting, but they were in negotiations with several other labels, negotiations which would take another couple of years to bear fruit. But they weren't planning on getting out of the record business altogether. Whatever deal they made, they'd remain with Atlantic, but they were also planning on starting another label. Bert Berns had seen how successful Leiber and Stoller were with Red Bird, and wanted something similar. Wexler and the Erteguns didn't want to lose their one hit-maker, so they came up with an offer that would benefit all of them. Berns' publishing contract had just ended, so they would set up a new publishing company, WEB IV, named after the initials Wexler, Ertegun, and Berns, and the fact that there were four of them. Berns would own fifty percent of that, and the other three would own the other half. And they were going to start up a new label, with seventeen thousand dollars of the Atlantic partners' money. That label would be called Bang -- for Bert, Ahmet, Neshui, and Gerald -- and would be a separate company from Atlantic, so not affected by any sale. Berns would continue as a staff producer for Atlantic for now, but he'd have "his own" label, which he'd have a proper share in, and whether he was making hits for Atlantic or Bang, his partners would have a share of the profits. The first two records on Bang were "Shake and Jerk" by Billy Lamont, a track that they licensed from elsewhere and which didn't do much, and a more interesting track co-written by Berns. Bob Feldman, Richard Gottehrer, and Jerry Goldstein were Brill Building songwriters who had become known for writing "My Boyfriend's Back", a hit for the Angels, a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: The Angels, "My Boyfriend's Back"] With the British invasion, the three of them had decided to create their own foreign beat group. As they couldn't do British accents, they pretended to be Australian, and as the Strangeloves -- named after the Stanley Kubrick film Dr  Strangelove -- they released one flop single. They cut another single, a version of "Bo Diddley", but the label they released their initial record through didn't want it. They then took the record to Atlantic, where Jerry Wexler said that they weren't interested in releasing some white men singing "Bo Diddley". But Ahmet Ertegun suggested they bring the track to Bert Berns to see what he thought. Berns pointed out that if they changed the lyrics and melody, but kept the same backing track, they could claim the copyright in the resulting song themselves. He worked with them on a new lyric, inspired by the novel Candy, a satirical pornographic novel co-written by Terry Southern, who had also co-written the screenplay to Dr Strangelove. Berns supervised some guitar overdubs, and the result went to number eleven: [Excerpt: The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy"] Berns had two other songs on the hot one hundred when that charted, too -- Them's version of "Here Comes the Night", and the version of Van McCoy's song "Baby I'm Yours" he'd produced for Barbara Lewis. Three records on the charts on three different labels. But despite the sheer number of charting records he'd had, he'd never had a number one, until the Strangeloves went on tour. Before the tour they'd cut a version of "My Girl Sloopy" for their album -- Berns always liked to reuse material -- and they started performing the song on the tour. The Dave Clark Five, who they were supporting, told them it sounded like a hit and they were going to do their own version when they got home. Feldman, Gottehrer, and Goldstein decided *they* might as well have the hit with it as anyone else. Rather than put it out as a Strangeloves record -- their own record was still rising up the charts, and there's no reason to be your own competition -- they decided to get a group of teenage musicians who supported them on the last date of the tour to sing new vocals to the backing track from the Strangeloves album. The group had been called Rick and the Raiders, but they argued so much that the Strangeloves nicknamed them the Hatfields and the McCoys, and when their version of "My Girl Sloopy", retitled "Hang on Sloopy", came out, it was under the band name The McCoys: [Excerpt: The McCoys, "Hang on Sloopy"] Berns was becoming a major success, and with major success in the New York music industry in the 1960s came Mafia involvement. We've talked a fair bit about Morris Levy's connection with the mob in many previous episodes, but mob influence was utterly pervasive throughout the New York part of the industry, and so for example Richard Gottehrer of the Strangeloves used to call Sonny Franzese of the Colombo crime family "Uncle John", they were so close. Franzese was big in the record business too, even after his conviction for bank robbery. Berns, unlike many of the other people in the industry, had no scruples at all about hanging out with Mafiosi. indeed his best friend in the mid sixties was Tommy Eboli, a member of the Genovese crime family who had been in the mob since the twenties, starting out working for "Lucky" Luciano. Berns was not himself a violent man, as far as anyone can tell, but he liked the glamour of hanging out with organised crime figures, and they liked hanging out with someone who was making so many hit records. And so while Leiber and Stoller, for example, ended up selling Red Bird Records to George Goldner for a single dollar in order to get away from the Mafiosi who were slowly muscling in on the label, Berns had no problems at all in keeping his own label going. Indeed, he would soon be doing so without the involvement of Atlantic Records. Berns' final work for Atlantic was in June 1966, when he cut a song he had co-written with Jeff Barry for the Drifters, inspired by the woman who would soon become Atlantic's biggest star: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Aretha"] The way Berns told the story in public, there was no real bad blood between him, Wexler, and the Erteguns -- he'd just decided to go his own way, and he said “I will always be grateful to them for the help they've given me in getting Bang started,” The way Berns' wife would later tell the story, Jerry Wexler had suggested that rather than Berns owning fifty percent of Web IV, they should start to split everything four ways, and she had been horrified by this suggestion, kicked up a stink about it, and Wexler had then said that either Berns needed to buy the other three out, or quit and give them everything, and demanded Berns pay them three hundred thousand dollars. According to other people, Berns decided he wanted one hundred percent control of Web IV, and raised a breach of contract lawsuit against Atlantic, over the usual royalty non-payments that were endemic in the industry at that point. When Atlantic decided to fight the lawsuit rather than settle, Berns' mob friends got involved and threatened to break the legs of Wexler's fourteen-year-old daughter, and the mob ended up with full control of Bang records, while Berns had full control of his publishing company. Given later events, and in particular given the way Wexler talked about Berns until the day he died, with a vitriol that he never used about any of the other people he had business disputes with, it seems likely to me that the latter story is closer to the truth than the former. But most people involved weren't talking about the details of what went on, and so Berns still retained his relationships with many of the people in the business, not least of them Jeff Barry, so when Barry and Ellie Greenwich had a new potential star, it was Berns they thought to bring him to, even though the artist was white and Berns had recently given an interview saying that he wanted to work with more Black artists, because white artists simply didn't have soul. Barry and Greenwich's marriage was breaking up at the time, but they were still working together professionally, as we discussed in the episode on "River Deep, Mountain High", and they had been the main production team at Red Bird. But with Red Bird in terminal decline, they turned elsewhere when they found a potential major star after Greenwich was asked to sing backing vocals on one of his songwriting demos. They'd signed the new songwriter, Neil Diamond, to Leiber and Stoller's company Trio Music at first, but they soon started up their own company, Tallyrand Music, and signed Diamond to that, giving Diamond fifty percent of the company and keeping twenty-five percent each for themselves, and placed one of his songs with Jay and the Americans in 1965: [Excerpt: Jay and the Americans, "Sunday and Me"] That record made the top twenty, and had established Diamond as a songwriter, but he was still not a major performer -- he'd released one flop single on Columbia Records before meeting Barry and Greenwich. But they thought he had something, and Bert Berns agreed. Diamond was signed to Bang records, and Berns had a series of pre-production meetings with Barry and Greenwich before they took Diamond into the studio -- Barry and Greenwich were going to produce Diamond for Bang, as they had previously produced tracks for Red Bird, but they were going to shape the records according to Berns' aesthetic. The first single released from Diamond's first session, "Solitary Man", only made number fifty-five, but it was the first thing Diamond had recorded to make the Hot One Hundred at all: [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "Solitary Man"] The second single, though, was much more Bert Berns' sort of thing -- a three-chord song that sounded like it could have been written by Berns himself, especially after Barry and Greenwich had added the Latin-style horns that Berns loved so much. Indeed according to some sources, Berns did make a songwriting suggestion -- Diamond's song had apparently been called "Money Money", and Berns had thought that was a ridiculous title, and suggested calling it "Cherry Cherry" instead: [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "Cherry Cherry"] That became Diamond's first top ten hit. While Greenwich had been the one who had discovered Diamond, and Barry and Greenwich were the credited producers on all Diamond's records  as a result, Diamond soon found himself collaborating far more with Barry than with Greenwich, so for example the first number one he wrote, for the Monkees rather than himself, ended up having its production just credited to Barry. That record used a backing track recorded in New York by the same set of musicians used on most Bang records, like Al Gorgoni on lead guitar and Russ Savakus on bass: [Excerpt: The Monkees, "I'm a Believer"] Neil Diamond was becoming a solid hit-maker, but he started rubbing up badly against Berns. Berns wanted hits and only hits, and Diamond thought of himself as a serious artist. The crisis came when two songs were under contention for Diamond's next single in late 1967, after he'd had a whole run of hits for the label. The song Diamond wanted to release, "Shilo", was deeply personal to him: [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "Shilo"] But Bert Berns had other ideas. "Shilo" didn't sound like a hit, and he knew a hit when he heard one. No, the clear next single, the only choice, was "Kentucky Woman": [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, "Kentucky Woman"] But Berns tried to compromise as best he could. Diamond's contract was up for renewal, and you don't want to lose someone who has had, as Diamond had at that point, five top twenty hits in a row, and who was also writing songs like "I'm a Believer" and "Red Red Wine". He told Diamond that he'd let "Shilo" come out as a single if Diamond signed an extension to his contract. Diamond said that not only was he not going to do that, he'd taken legal advice and discovered that there were problems with his contract which let him record for other labels -- the word "exclusive" had been missed out of the text, among other things. He wasn't going to be recording for Bang at all any more. The lawsuits over this would stretch out for a decade, and Diamond would eventually win, but the first few months were very, very difficult for Diamond. When he played the Bitter End, a club in New York, stink bombs were thrown into the audience. The Bitter End's manager was assaulted and severely beaten. Diamond moved his wife and child out of Manhattan, borrowed a gun, and after his last business meeting with Berns was heard talking about how he needed to contact the District Attorney and hire a bodyguard. Of the many threats that were issued against Diamond, though, the least disturbing was probably the threat Berns made to Diamond's career. Berns pointed out to Diamond in no uncertain terms that he didn't need Diamond anyway -- he already had someone he could replace Diamond with, another white male solo singer with a guitar who could churn out guaranteed hits. He had Van Morrison: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Brown-Eyed Girl"] When we left Van Morrison, Them had just split up due to the problems they had been having with their management team. Indeed, the problems Morrison was having with his managers seem curiously similar to the issues that Diamond was having with Bert Berns -- something that could possibly have been a warning sign to everyone involved, if any of them had known the full details of everyone else's situation. Sadly for all of them, none of them did. Them had had some early singles success, notably with the tracks Berns had produced for them, but Morrison's opinion of their second album, Them Again, was less than complimentary, and in general that album is mostly only remembered for the version of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", which is one of those cover versions that inspires subsequent covers more than the original ever did: [Excerpt: Them, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"] Them had toured the US around the time of the release of that album, but that tour had been a disaster. The group had gained a reputation for incredible live shows, including performances at the Whisky A-Go-Go with the Doors and Captain Beefheart as their support acts, but during the tour Van Morrison had decided that Phil Solomon, the group's manager, was getting too much money -- Morrison had agreed to do the tour on a salary, rather than a percentage, but the tour had been more successful than he'd expected, and Solomon was making a great deal of money off the tour, money that Morrison believed rightfully belonged to him. The group started collecting the money directly from promoters, and got into legal trouble with Solomon as a result. The tour ended with the group having ten thousand dollars that Solomon believed -- quite possibly correctly -- that he was owed. Various gangsters whose acquaintance the group had made offered to have the problem taken care of, but they decided instead to come to a legal agreement -- they would keep the money, and in return Solomon, whose production company the group were signed to, would get to keep all future royalties from the Them tracks. This probably seemed a good idea at the time, when the idea of records earning royalties for sixty or more years into the future seemed ridiculous, but Morrison in particular came to regret the decision bitterly. The group played one final gig when they got back to Belfast, but then split up, though a version of the group led by the bass player Alan Henderson continued performing for a few years to no success. Morrison put together a band that played a handful of gigs under the name Them Again, with little success, but he already had his eyes set on a return to the US. In Morrison's eyes, Bert Berns had been the only person in the music industry who had really understood him, and the two worked well together. He had also fallen in love with an American woman, Janet Planet, and wanted to find some way to be with her. As Morrison said later “I had a couple of other offers but I thought this was the best one, seeing as I wanted to come to America anyway. I can't remember the exact details of the deal. It wasn't really that spectacular, money-wise, I don't think. But it was pretty hard to refuse from the point of view that I really respected Bert as a producer. I'd rather have worked with Bert than some other guy with a bigger record company. From that angle, it was spectacular because Bert was somebody that I wanted to work with.” There's little evidence that Morrison did have other offers -- he was already getting a reputation as someone who it was difficult to work with -- but he and Berns had a mutual respect, and on January the ninth, 1967, he signed a contract with Bang records. That contract has come in for a lot of criticism over the years, but it was actually, *by the standards in operation in the music business in 1967*, a reasonably fair one. The contract provided that, for a $2,500 a year advance, Bang would record twelve sides in the first year, with an option for up to fifty more that year, and options for up to four more years on the same terms. Bang had the full ownership of the masters and the right to do what they wanted with them. According to at least one biographer, Morrison added clauses requiring Bang to actually record the twelve sides a year, and to put out at least three singles and one album per year while the contract was in operation. He also added one other clause which seems telling -- "Company agrees that Company will not make any reference to the name THEM on phonograph records, or in advertising copy in connection with the recording of Artist." Morrison was, at first, extremely happy with Berns. The problems started with their first session: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Brown-Eyed Girl (takes 1-6)"] When Morrison had played the songs he was working on for Berns, Berns had remarked that they sounded great with just Morrison and his guitar, so Morrison was surprised when he got into the studio to find the whole standard New York session crew there -- the same group of session players who were playing for everyone from the Monkees to Laura Nyro, from Neil Diamond to the Shangri-Las -- along with the Sweet Inspirations to provide backing vocals. As he described it later "This fellow Bert, he made it the way he wanted to, and I accepted that he was producing it... I'd write a song and bring it into the group and we'd sit there and bash it around and that's all it was -- they weren't playing the songs, they were just playing whatever it was. They'd say 'OK, we got drums so let's put drums on it,' and they weren't thinking about the song, all they were thinking about was putting drums on it... But it was my song, and I had to watch it go down." The first song they cut was "Brown-Eyed Girl", a song which Morrison has said was originally a calypso, and was originally titled "Brown-skinned Girl", though he's differed in interviews as to whether Berns changed the lyric or if he just decided to sing it differently without thinking about it in the session. Berns turned "Brown-Eyed Girl" into a hit single, because that was what he tended to do with songs, and the result sounds a lot like the kind of record that Bang were releasing for Neil Diamond: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Brown-Eyed Girl"] Morrison has, in later years, expressed his distaste for what was done to the song, and in particular he's said that the backing vocal part by the Sweet Inspirations was added by Berns and he disliked it: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Brown-Eyed Girl"] Morrison has been very dismissive of "Brown-Eyed Girl" over the years, but he seems not to have disliked it at the time, and the song itself is one that has stood the test of time, and is often pointed to by other songwriters as a great example of the writer's craft. I remember reading one interview with Randy Newman -- sadly, while I thought it was in Paul Zollo's "Songwriters on Songwriting" I just checked that and it's not, so I can't quote it precisely -- in which he says that he often points to the line "behind the stadium with you" as a perfect piece of writing, because it's such a strangely specific detail that it convinces you that it actually happened, and that means you implicitly believe the rest of the song. Though it should be made very clear here that Morrison has always said, over and over again, that nothing in his songs is based directly on his own experiences, and that they're all products of his imagination and composites of people he's known. This is very important to note before we go any further, because "Brown-Eyed Girl" is one of many songs from this period in Morrison's career which imply that their narrator has an attraction to underage girls -- in this case he remembers "making love in the green grass" in the distant past, while he also says "saw you just the other day, my how you have grown", and that particular combination is not perhaps one that should be dwelt on too closely. But there is of course a very big difference between a songwriter treating a subject as something that is worth thinking about in the course of a song and writing about their own lives, and that can be seen on one of the other songs that Morrison recorded in these sessions, "T.B. Sheets": [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "T.B. Sheets"] It seems very unlikely indeed that Van Morrison actually had a lover die of tuberculosis, as the lover in the song does, and while a lot of people seem convinced that it's autobiographical, simply because of the intensity of the performance (Morrison apparently broke down in tears after recording it), nobody has ever found anyone in Morrison's life who fits the story in the song, and he's always ridiculed such suggestions. What is true though is that "T.B. Sheets" is evidence against another claim that Morrison has made in the past - that on these initial sessions the eight songs recorded were meant to be the A and B sides of four singles and there was no plan of making an album. It is simply not plausible at all to suggest that "T.B. Sheets" -- a slow blues about terminal illness, that lasts nearly ten minutes -- was ever intended as a single. It wouldn't have even come close to fitting on one side of a forty-five. It was also presumably at this time that Berns brought up the topic of "Piece of My Heart". When Berns signed Erma Franklin, it was as a way of getting at Jerry Wexler, who had gone from being his closest friend to someone he wasn't on speaking terms with, by signing the sister of his new signing Aretha. Morrison, of course, didn't co-write it -- he'd already decided that he didn't play well with others -- but it's tempting to think about how the song might have been different had Morrison written it. The song in some ways seems a message to Wexler -- haven't you had enough from me already? -- but it's also notable how many songs Berns was writing with the word "heart" in the chorus, given that Berns knew he was on borrowed time from his own heart condition. As an example, around the same time he and Jerry Ragavoy co-wrote "Piece of My Heart", they also co-wrote another song, "Heart Be Still", a flagrant lift from "Peace Be Still" by Aretha Franklin's old mentor Rev. James Cleveland, which they cut with Lorraine Ellison: [Excerpt: Lorraine Ellison, "Heart Be Still"] Berns' heart condition had got much worse as a result of the stress from splitting with Atlantic, and he had started talking about maybe getting open-heart surgery, though that was still very new and experimental. One wonders how he must have felt listening to Morrison singing about watching someone slowly dying. Morrison has since had nothing but negative things to say about the sessions in March 1967, but at the time he seemed happy. He returned to Belfast almost straight away after the sessions, on the understanding that he'd be back in the US if "Brown-Eyed Girl" was a success. He wrote to Janet Planet in San Francisco telling her to listen to the radio -- she'd know if she heard "Brown-Eyed Girl" that he would be back on his way to see her. She soon did hear the song, and he was soon back in the US: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Brown-Eyed Girl"] By August, "Brown-Eyed Girl" had become a substantial hit, making the top ten, and Morrison was back in the States. He was starting to get less happy with Berns though. Bang had put out the eight tracks he'd recorded in March as an album, titled Blowin' Your Mind, and Morrison thought that the crass pseudo-psychedelia of the title, liner notes, and cover was very inappropriate -- Morrison has never been a heavy user of any drugs other than alcohol, and didn't particularly want to be associated with them. He also seems to have not realised that every track he recorded in those initial sessions would be on the album, which many people have called one of the great one-sided albums of all time -- side A, with "Brown-Eyed Girl", "He Ain't Give You None" and the extended "T.B. Sheets" tends to get far more love than side B, with five much lesser songs on it. Berns held a party for Morrison on a cruise around Manhattan, but it didn't go well -- when the performer Tiny Tim tried to get on board, Carmine "Wassel" DeNoia, a mobster friend of Berns' who was Berns' partner in a studio they'd managed to get from Atlantic as part of the settlement when Berns left, was so offended by Tim's long hair and effeminate voice and mannerisms that he threw him overboard into the harbour. DeNoia was meant to be Morrison's manager in the US, working with Berns, but he and Morrison didn't get on at all -- at one point DeNoia smashed Morrison's acoustic guitar over his head, and only later regretted the damage he'd done to a nice guitar. And Morrison and Berns weren't getting on either. Morrison went back into the studio to record four more songs for a follow-up to "Brown-Eyed Girl", but there was again a misunderstanding. Morrison thought he'd been promised that this time he could do his songs the way he wanted, but Berns was just frustrated that he wasn't coming up with another "Brown-Eyed Girl", but was instead coming up with slow songs about trans women. Berns overdubbed party noises and soul backing vocals onto "Madame George", possibly in an attempt to copy the Beach Boys' Party! album with its similar feel, but it was never going to be a "Barbara Ann": [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Madame George (Bang version)"] In the end, Berns released one of the filler tracks from Blowin' Your Mind, "Ro Ro Rosey", as the next single, and it flopped. On December the twenty-ninth, Berns had a meeting with Neil Diamond, the meeting after which Diamond decided he needed to get a bodyguard. After that, he had a screaming row over the phone with Van Morrison, which made Berns ill with stress. The next day, he died of a heart attack. Berns' widow Ilene, who had only just given birth to a baby a couple of weeks earlier, would always blame Morrison for pushing her husband over the edge. Neither Van Morrison nor Jerry Wexler went to the funeral, but Neil Diamond did -- he went to try to persuade Ilene to let him out of his contract now Berns was dead. According to Janet Planet later, "We were at the hotel when we learned that Bert had died. We were just mortified, because things had been going really badly, and Van felt really bad, because I guess they'd parted having had some big fight or something... Even though he did love Bert, it was a strange relationship that lived and died in the studio... I remember we didn't go to the funeral, which probably was a mistake... I think [Van] had a really bad feeling about what was going to happen." But Morrison has later mostly talked about the more practical concerns that came up, which were largely the same as the ones Neil Diamond had, saying in 1997 "I'd signed a contract with Bert Berns for management, production, agency and record company,  publishing, the whole lot -- which was professional suicide as any lawyer will tell you now... Then the whole thing blew up. Bert Berns died and I was left broke." This was the same mistake, essentially, that he'd made with Phil Solomon, and in order to get out of it, it turned out he was going to have to do much the same for a third time.  But it was the experience with Berns specifically that traumatised Morrison enough that twenty-five years later he would still be writing songs about it, like "Big Time Operators": [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Big Time Operators"] The option to renew Morrison's contracts with Berns' companies came on the ninth of January 1968, less than two weeks after Berns' death. After his death, Berns' share of ownership in his companies had passed to his widow, who was in a quandary. She had two young children, one of whom was only a few weeks old, and she needed an income after their father had died. She was also not well disposed at all towards Morrison, who she blamed for causing her husband's death. By all accounts the amazing thing is that Berns lived as long as he did given his heart condition and the state of medical science at the time, but it's easy to understand her thinking. She wanted nothing to do with Morrison, and wanted to punish him. On the other hand, her late husband's silent partners didn't want to let their cash cow go. And so Morrison came under a huge amount of pressure in very different directions. From one side, Carmine DiNoia was determined to make more money off Morrison, and Morrison has since talked about signing further contracts at this point with a gun literally to his head, and his hotel room being shot up. But on the other side, Ilene Berns wanted to destroy Morrison's career altogether. She found out that Bert Berns hadn't got Morrison the proper work permits and reported him to the immigration authorities. Morrison came very close to being deported, but in the end he managed to escape deportation by marrying Janet Planet. The newly-married couple moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to get away from New York and the mobsters, and to try to figure out the next steps in Morrison's career. Morrison started putting together a band, which he called The Van Morrison Controversy, and working on new songs. One of his earliest connections in Massachusetts was the lead singer of a band called the Hallucinations, who he met in a bar where he was trying to get a gig: [Excerpt: The Hallucinations, "Messin' With the Kid"] The Hallucinations' lead singer was called Peter Wolf, and would much later go on to become well-known as the singer with the J. Geils Band. He and Morrison became acquaintances, and later became closer friends when they realised they had another connection -- Wolf had a late-night radio show under the name Woofa Goofa, and he'd been receiving anonymous requests for obscure blues records from a fan of the show. Morrison had been the one sending in the requests, not realising his acquaintance was the DJ. Before he got his own band together, Morrison actually guested with the Hallucinations at one show they did in May 1968, supporting John Lee Hooker. The Hallucinations had been performing "Gloria" since Them's single had come out, and they invited Morrison to join them to perform it on stage. According to Wolf, Morrison was very drunk and ranted in cod-Japanese for thirty-five minutes, and tried to sing a different song while the band played "Gloria". The audience were apparently unimpressed, even though Wolf shouted at them “Don't you know who this man is? He wrote the song!” But in truth, Morrison was sick of "Gloria" and his earlier work, and was trying to push his music in a new direction. He would later talk about having had an epiphany after hearing one particular track on the radio: [Excerpt: The Band, "I Shall Be Released"] Like almost every musician in 1968, Morrison was hit like a lightning bolt by Music From Big Pink, and he decided that he needed to turn his music in the same direction. He started writing the song "Brand New Day", which would later appear on his album Moondance, inspired by the music on the album. The Van Morrison Controversy started out as a fairly straightforward rock band, with guitarist John Sheldon, bass player Tom Kielbania, and drummer Joey Bebo. Sheldon was a novice, though his first guitar teacher was the singer James Taylor, but the other two were students at Berklee, and very serious musicians. Morrison seems to have had various managers involved in rapid succession in 1968, including one who was himself a mobster, and another who was only known as Frank, but one of these managers advanced enough money that the musicians got paid every gig. These musicians were all interested in kinds of music other than just straight rock music, and as well as rehearsing up Morrison's hits and his new songs, they would also jam with him on songs from all sorts of other genres, particularly jazz and blues. The band worked up the song that would become "Domino" based on Sheldon jamming on a Bo Diddley riff, and another time the group were rehearsing a Grant Green jazz piece, "Lazy Afternoon": [Excerpt: Grant Green, "Lazy Afternoon"] Morrison started messing with the melody, and that became his classic song "Moondance": [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Moondance"] No recordings of this electric lineup of the group are known to exist, though the backing musicians remember going to a recording studio called Ace recordings at one point and cutting some demos, which don't seem to circulate. Ace was a small studio which, according to all the published sources I've read, was best known for creating song poems, though it was a minor studio even in the song-poem world. For those who don't know, song poems were essentially a con aimed at wannabe songwriters who knew nothing about the business -- companies would advertise you too could become a successful, rich, songwriter if you sent in your "song poems", because anyone who knew the term "lyric" could be presumed to know too much about the music business to be useful. When people sent in their lyrics, they'd then be charged a fee to have them put out on their very own record -- with tracks made more or less on a conveyor belt with quick head arrangements, sung by session singers who were just handed a lyric sheet and told to get on with it. And thus were created such classics prized by collectors as "I Like Yellow Things", "Jimmy Carter Says 'Yes'", and "Listen Mister Hat". Obviously, for the most part these song poems did not lead to the customers becoming the next Ira Gershwin, but oddly even though Ace recordings is not one of the better-known song poem studios, it seems to have produced an actual hit song poem -- one that I don't think has ever before been identified as such until I made a connection, hence me going on this little tangent. Because in researching this episode I noticed something about its co-owner, Milton Yakus', main claim to fame. He co-wrote the song "Old Cape Cod", and to quote that song's Wikipedia page "The nucleus of the song was a poem written by Boston-area housewife Claire Rothrock, for whom Cape Cod was a favorite vacation spot. "Old Cape Cod" and its derivatives would be Rothrock's sole evident songwriting credit. She brought her poem to Ace Studios, a Boston recording studio owned by Milton Yakus, who adapted the poem into the song's lyrics." And while Yakus had written other songs, including songs for Patti Page who had the hit with "Old Cape Cod", apparently Page recorded that song after Rothrock brought her the demo after a gig, rather than getting it through any formal channels. It sounds to me like the massive hit and classic of the American songbook "Old Cape Cod" started life as a song-poem -- and if you're familiar with the form, it fits the genre perfectly: [Excerpt: Patti Page, "Old Cape Cod"] The studio was not the classiest of places, even if you discount the song-poems. Its main source of income was from cutting private records with mobsters' wives and mistresses singing (and dealing with the problems that came along when those records weren't successful) and it also had a sideline in bugging people's cars to see if their spouses were cheating, though Milton Yakus' son Shelly, who got his start at his dad's studio, later became one of the most respected recording engineers in the industry -- and indeed had already worked as assistant engineer on Music From Big Pink. And there was actually another distant connection to Morrison's new favourite band on these sessions. For some reason -- reports differ -- Bebo wasn't considered suitable for the session, and in his place was the one-handed drummer Victor "Moulty" Moulton, who had played with the Barbarians, who'd had a minor hit with "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?" a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: The Barbarians, "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?"] A later Barbarians single, in early 1966, had featured Moulty telling his life story, punctuated by the kind of three-chord chorus that would have been at home on a Bert Berns single: [Excerpt: The Barbarians, "Moulty"] But while that record was credited to the Barbarians, Moulton was the only Barbarian on the track, with the instruments and backing vocals instead being provided by Levon and the Hawks. Shortly after the Ace sessions, the Van Morrison Controversy fell apart, though nobody seems to know why. Depending on which musician's story you listen to, either Morrison had a dream that he should get rid of all electric instruments and only use acoustic players, or there was talk of a record deal but the musicians weren't good enough, or the money from the mysterious manager (who may or may not have been the one who was a mobster) ran out. Bebo went back to university, and Sheldon left soon after, though Sheldon would remain in the music business in one form or another. His most prominent credit has been writing a couple of songs for his old friend James Taylor, including the song "Bittersweet" on Taylor's platinum-selling best-of, on which Sheldon also played guitar: [Excerpt: James Taylor, "Bittersweet"] Morrison and Kielbania continued for a while as a duo, with Morrison on acoustic guitar and Kielbania on double bass, but they were making very different music. Morrison's biggest influence at this point, other than The Band, was King Pleasure, a jazz singer who sang in the vocalese style we've talked about before -- the style where singers would sing lyrics to melodies that had previously been improvised by jazz musicians: [Excerpt: King Pleasure, "Moody's Mood for Love"] Morrison and Kielbania soon decided that to make the more improvisatory music they were interested in playing, they wanted another musician who could play solos. They ended up with John Payne, a jazz flute and saxophone player whose biggest inspiration was Charles Lloyd. This new lineup of the Van Morrison Controversy -- acoustic guitar, double bass, and jazz flute -- kept gigging around Boston, though the sound they were creating was hardly what the audiences coming to see the man who'd had that "Brown-Eyed Girl" hit the year before would have expected -- even when they did "Brown-Eyed Girl", as the one live recording of that line-up, made by Peter Wolf, shows: [Excerpt: The Van Morrison Controversy, "Brown-Eyed Girl (live in Boston 1968)"] That new style, with melodic bass underpinning freely extemporising jazz flute and soulful vocals, would become the basis of the album that to this day is usually considered Morrison's best. But before that could happen, there was the matter of the contracts to be sorted out. Warner-Reprise Records were definitely interested. Warners had spent the last few years buying up smaller companies like Atlantic, Autumn Records, and Reprise, and the label was building a reputation as the major label that would give artists the space and funding they needed to make the music they wanted to make. Idiosyncratic artists with difficult reputations (deserved or otherwise), like Neil Young, Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, the Grateful Dead, and Joni Mitchell, had all found homes on the label, which was soon also to start distributing Frank Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Captain Beefheart. A surly artist who wants to make mystical acoustic songs with jazz flute accompaniment was nothing unusual for them, and once Joe Smith, the man who had signed the Grateful Dead, was pointed in Morrison's direction by Andy Wickham, an A&R man working for the label, everyone knew that Morrison would be a perfect fit. But Morrison was still under contract to Bang records and Web IV, and those contracts said, among other things, that any other label that negotiated with Morrison would be held liable for breach of contract. Warners didn't want to show their interest in Morrison, because a major label wanting to sign him would cause Bang to raise the price of buying him out of his contract. Instead they got an independent production company to sign him, with a nod-and-wink understanding that they would then license the records to Warners. The company they chose was Inherit Productions, the production arm of Schwaid-Merenstein, a management company set up by Bob Schwaid, who had previously worked in Warners' publishing department, and record producer Lewis Merenstein. Merenstein came to another demo session at Ace Recordings, where he fell in love with the new music that Morrison was playing, and determined he would do everything in his power to make the record into the masterpiece it deserved to be. He and Morrison were, at least at this point, on exactly the same page, and bonded over their mutual love of King Pleasure. Morrison signed to Schwaid-Merenstein, just as he had with Bert Berns and before him Phil Solomon, for management, record production, and publishing. Schwaid-Merenstein were funded by Warners, and would license any recordings they made to Warners, once the contractual situation had been sorted out. The first thing to do was to negotiate the release from Web IV, the publishing company owned by Ilene Berns. Schwaid negotiated that, and Morrison got released on four conditions -- he had to make a substantial payment to Web IV, if he released a single within a year he had to give Web IV the publishing, any album he released in the next year had to contain at least two songs published by Web IV, and he had to give Web IV at least thirty-six new songs to publish within the next year. The first two conditions were no problem at all -- Warners had the money to buy the contract out, and Merenstein's plans for the first album didn't involve a single anyway. It wouldn't be too much of a hardship to include a couple of Web IV-published tracks on the album -- Morrison had written two songs, "Beside You" and "Madame George", that had already been published and that he was regularly including in his live sets. As for the thirty-six new songs... well, that all depended on what you called a song, didn't it? [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Ring Worm"] Morrison went into a recording studio and recorded thirty-one ostensible songs, most of them lasting one minute to within a few seconds either way, in which he strummed one or two chords and spoke-sang whatever words came into his head -- for example one song, "Here Comes Dumb George", just consists of the words "Here Comes Dumb George" repeated over and over. Some of the 'songs', like "Twist and Shake" and "Hang on Groovy", are parodying Bert Berns' songwriting style; others, like "Waiting for My Royalty Check", "Blowin' Your Nose", and "Nose in Your Blow", are attacks on Bang's business practices. Several of the songs, like "Hold on George", "Here Comes Dumb George", "Dum Dum George", and "Goodbye George" are about a man called George who seems to have come to Boston to try and fail to make a record with Morrison. And “Want a Danish” is about wanting a Danish pastry. But in truth, this description is still making these "songs" sound more coherent than they are. The whole recording is of no musical merit whatsoever, and has absolutely nothing in it which could be considered to have any commercial potential at all. Which is of course the point -- just to show utter contempt to Ilene Berns and her company. The other problem that needed to be solved was Bang Records itself, which was now largely under the control of the mob. That was solved by Joe Smith. As Smith told the story "A friend of mine who knew some people said I could buy the contract for $20,000. I had to meet somebody in a warehouse on the third floor on Ninth Avenue in New York. I walked up there with twenty thousand-dollar bills -- and I was terrified. I was terrified I was going to give them the money, get a belt on the head and still not wind up with the contract. And there were two guys in the room. They looked out of central casting -- a big wide guy and  a tall, thin guy. They were wearing suits and hats and stuff. I said 'I'm here with the money. You got the contract?' I remember I took that contract and ran out the door and jumped from the third floor to the second floor, and almost broke my leg to get on the street, where I could get a cab and put the contract in a safe place back at Warner Brothers." But the problem was solved, and Lewis Merenstein could get to work translating the music he'd heard Morrison playing into a record. He decided that Kielbania and Payne were not suitable for the kind of recording he wanted -- though they were welcome to attend the sessions in case the musicians had any questions about the songs, and thus they would get session pay. Kielbania was, at first, upset by this, but he soon changed his mind when he realised who Merenstein was bringing in to replace him on bass for the session. Richard Davis, the bass player -- who sadly died two months ago as I write this -- would later go on to play on many classic rock records by people like Bruce Springsteen and Laura Nyro, largely as a result of his work for Morrison, but at the time he was known as one of the great jazz bass players, most notably having played on Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch: [Excerpt: Eric Dolphy, "Hat and Beard"] Kielbania could see the wisdom of getting in one of the truly great players for the album, and he was happy to show Davis the parts he'd been playing on the songs live, which Davis could then embellish -- Davis later always denied this, but it's obvious when listening to the live recordings that Kielbania played on before these sessions that Davis is playing very similar lines. Warren Smith Jr, the vibraphone player, had played with great jazz musicians like Charles Mingus and Herbie Mann, as well as backing Lloyd Price, Aretha Franklin, and Janis Joplin. Connie Kay, the drummer, was the drummer for the Modern Jazz Quartet and had also played sessions with everyone from Ruth Brown to Miles Davis. And Jay Berliner, the guitarist, had played on records like Charles Mingus' classic The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady: [Excerpt: Charles Mingus: "Mode D - Trio and Group Dancers, Mode F - Single Solos & Group Dance"] There was also a flute player whose name nobody now remembers. Although all of these musicians were jobbing session musicians -- Berliner came to the first session for the album that became Astral Weeks straight from a session recording a jingle for Pringles potato chips -- they were all very capable of taking a simple song and using it as an opportunity for jazz improvisation. And that was what Merenstein asked them to do. The songs that Morrison was writing were lyrically oblique, but structurally they were very simple -- surprisingly so when one is used to listening to the finished album. Most of the songs were, harmonically, variants of the standard blues and R&B changes that Morrison was used to playing. "Cyprus Avenue" and "The Way Young Lovers Do", for example, are both basically twelve-bar blueses -- neither is *exactly* a standard twelve-bar blues, but both are close enough that they can be considered to fit the form. Other than what Kielbania and Payne showed the musicians, they received no guidance from Morrison, who came in, ran through the songs once for them, and then headed to the vocal booth. None of the musicians had much memory of Morrison at all -- Jay Berliner said “This little guy walks in, past everybody, disappears into the vocal booth, and almost never comes out, even on the playbacks, he stayed in there." While Richard Davis later said “Well, I was with three of my favorite fellas to play with, so that's what made it beautiful. We were not concerned with Van at all, he never spoke to us.” The sound of the basic tracks on Astral Weeks is not the sound of a single auteur, as one might expect given its reputation, it's the sound of extremely good jazz musicians improvising based on the instructions given by Lewis Merenstein, who was trying to capture the feeling he'd got from listening to Morrison's live performances and demos. And because these were extremely good musicians, the album was recorded extremely quickly. In the first session, they cut four songs. Two of those were songs that Morrison was contractually obliged to record because of his agreement with Web IV -- "Beside You" and "Madame George", two songs that Bert Berns had produced, now in radically different versions: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Madame George"] The third song, "Cyprus Avenue", is the song that has caused most controversy over the years, as it's another of the songs that Morrison wrote around this time that relate to a sexual or romantic interest in underage girls. In this case, the reasoning might have been as simple as that the song is a blues, and Morrison may have been thinking about a tradition of lyrics like this in blues songs like "Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl". Whatever the cause though, the lyrics have, to put it mildly, not aged well at all: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Cyprus Avenue"] That song would be his standard set-closer for live performances for much of the seventies. For the fourth and final song, though, they chose to record what would become the title track for the album, "Astral Weeks", a song that was a lot more elliptical, and which seems in part to be about Morrison's longing for Janet Planet from afar, but also about memories of childhood, and also one of the first songs to bring in Morrison's fascination with the occult and spirituality,  something that would be a recurring theme throughout his work, as the song was partly inspired by paintings by a friend of Morrison's which suggested to him the concept of astral travel: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Astral Weeks"] Morrison had a fascination with the idea of astral travel, as he had apparently had several out-of-body experiences as a child, and wanted to find some kind of explanation for them. Most of the songs on the album came, by Morrison's own account, as a kind of automatic writing, coming through him rather than being consciously written, and there's a fascination throughout with, to use the phrase from "Madame George", "childhood visions". The song is also one of the first songs in Morrison's repertoire to deliberately namecheck one of his idols, something else he would do often in future, when he talks about "talking to Huddie Leadbelly". "Astral Weeks" was a song that Morrison had been performing live for some time, and Payne had always enjoyed doing it. Unlike Kielbania he had no compunction about insisting that he was good enough to play on the record, and he eventually persuaded the session flute player to let him borrow his instrument, and Payne was allowed to play on the track: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Astral Weeks"] Or at least that's how the story is usually told -- Payne is usually credited for playing on "Madame George" too, even though everyone agrees that "Astral Weeks" was the last song of the night, but people's memories can fade over time. Either way, Payne's interplay with Jay Berliner on the guitar became such a strong point of the track that there was no question of bringing the unknown session player back -- Payne was going to be the woodwind player for the rest of the album: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Astral Weeks"] There was then a six-day break between sessions, during which time Payne and Kielbania went to get initiated into Scientology -- a religion with which Morrison himself would experiment a little over a decade later -- though they soon decided that it wasn't worth the cost of the courses they'd have to take, and gave up on the idea the same week. The next session didn't go so well. Jay Berliner was unavailable, and so Barry Kornfeld, a folkie who played with people like Dave Van Ronk, was brought in to replace him. Kornfeld was perfectly decent in the role, but they'd also brought in a string section, with the idea of recording some of the songs which needed string parts live. But the string players they brought in were incapable of improvising, coming from a classical rather than jazz tradition, and the only track that got used on the finished album was "The Way Young Lovers Do", by far the most conventional song on the album, a three-minute soul ballad structured as a waltz twelve-bar blues, where the strings are essentially playing the same parts that a horn section would play on a record by someone like Solomon Burke: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "The Way Young Lovers Do"] It was decided that any string or horn parts on the rest of the album would just be done as overdubs. It was two weeks before the next and final session for the album, and that featured the return of Jay Berliner on guitar. The session started with "Sweet Thing" and "Ballerina", two songs that Morrison had been playing live for some time, and which were cut in relatively quick order.  They then made attempts at two more songs that didn't get very far, "Royalty", and "Going Around With Jesse James", before Morrison, stuck for something to record, pulled out a new lyric he'd never performed live, "Slim Slow Slider". The whole band ran through the song once, but then Merenstein decided to pare the arrangement down to just Morrison, Payne (on soprano sax rather than on flute), and Warren Smith Jr: [Excerpt: Van Morrison, "Slim Slow Slider"] That track was the only one where, after the recording, Merenstein didn't compliment the performance, remaining silent instead – Payne said “Maybe everyone was just tired, or maybe they were moved by it.” It seems likely it was the latter. The track eventually got chosen as the final track of the album, because Merenstein felt that it didn't fit conceptually with anything else -- and it's definitely a more negative track than the oth

Join hosts J.D. Barker, Christine Daigle, JP Rindfleisch, Kevin Tumlinson, and Patrick O'Donnell as they discuss the week's entertainment news, including some optimistic publishing predictions from the stage of the 74th National Book Awards. Then, stick around as Christine chats with crime fiction legend James Ellroy! Called "The American Dostoyevsky" by Joyce Carol Oates, James Ellroy is the author of the Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy: American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood's a Rover, and the L.A. Quartet novels: The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz. His latest novel, The Enchanters, came out in September and is available now wherever books are sold. Check It Out! The Enchanters - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-enchanters-james-ellroy/19462467 James Ellroy's American Tabloid: A Full Cast Audio Drama (An Audible Exclusive) - https://www.amazon.com/James-Ellroys-American-Tabloid-Audio/dp/B0CJ16ZQQH Write Publish Profit 6.0: Join The Waiting List! - https://infostack.io/stack/wpp6/ "David Steinberger's Narrative" (via Publishing Perspectives) - https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/11/the-national-book-awards-david-steinbergers-narrative/ Show Links: Writers, Ink on YouTube! - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@jdbarker_author/podcasts⁠⁠⁠ J.D. Barker - ⁠⁠⁠https://jdbarker.com/⁠⁠⁠ Christine Daigle - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.christinedaiglebooks.com/⁠⁠⁠ JP Rindfleisch IX - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.jprindfleischix.com/⁠⁠⁠ Kevin Tumlinson - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.kevintumlinson.com/⁠ Patrick O'Donnell - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.copsandwriters.com/⁠⁠ James Ellroy - https://www.jamesellroy.net/ Other Links Best of BookTok - ⁠⁠⁠https://bestofbooktok.com/⁠⁠⁠ Booktrib - ⁠⁠https://booktrib.com/author/writers-ink/⁠⁠ Music by Nicorus - ⁠⁠⁠https://cctrax.com/nicorus/dust-to-dust-ep⁠⁠⁠ Voice Over by Rick Ganley - ⁠⁠⁠http://www.nhpr.com⁠⁠⁠ and recorded at Mill Pond Studio - ⁠⁠⁠http://www.millpondstudio.com⁠⁠⁠ Show notes & audio production by Geoff Emberlyn - ⁠https://twitter.com/horrorstoic⁠⁠⁠ Website Design by Word & Pixel - ⁠⁠⁠http://wordandpixel.com/⁠⁠⁠ Contact - ⁠⁠⁠https://writersinkpodcast.com/contact/⁠⁠⁠ *NOTE: Some of the links are affiliate links. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/writersink/support

Retrocedemos 60 años en el tiempo para recordar algunas de las canciones que sonaban en las listas de éxitos del Billboard Hot 100 de EEUU en noviembre de 1963. (Fotos podcast; The Village Stompers, Nino Tempo y April Stevens)   Playlist; (sintonía) THE VILLAGE STOMPERS “Washington Square” NINO TEMPO and APRIL STEVENS “Deep purple” GARNET MIMMS and THE ENCHANTERS “Cry baby” SAM COOKE “Little red rooster” RUFUS THOMAS “Walkin’ the dog” MARVIN GAYE “Can I get a witness” ELVIS PRESLEY with THE JORDANAIRES “Bossanova baby” RICKY NELSON “Fools rush in” THE DIXIEBELLES “(Down at) Papa’s Joe” BEACH BOYS “Be true to your school” ROBIN WARD “Wonderful summer” JACK NITZSCHE “Rumble” CHUBBY CHECKER “Loddy Lo” DEE DEE SHARP “Wild” LESLEY GORE “She’s a fool” BOBBY BARE “500 miles away from home” PETER PAUL and MARY “Don’t think twice it’s alright” DALE and GRACE “I’m leaving it up to you” Escuchar audio

Legendary author James Ellroy joins Andy Richter to discuss his “smog-bound fatherland” of Los Angeles, the tragic loss of his mother, his writing process, and his new novel, The Enchanters!

Wherein the narrator gives a very circuitous review of James Ellroy's new novel and then digresses, recounts a couple of customer encounters at the grocery store that he's been chewing on, tryna change his ways, y'know? for a bit of art in the mail, send your mailing address to thousandmovieproject[at]gmail

James Ellroy discusses The Enchanters.

James Ellroy discusses his latest novel, The Enchanters, in a phone conversation.

Urlaubszeit und Sommerloch, trotzdem gibt es einiges zu Berichten. Stefan war auf der Gen Con, Basti spielt fleißig im Urlaub, Mario ist auf dem Weg zum Superbacker während Björn mal wieder influenced wird statt zu influencen. Viel Spaß beim reinhören ins GeGeGe für den August. Der Podcast wird Euch präsentiert von Spieletastisch.de - Eurem Shop für Brettspiele. Kapitelmarker 00:02:21 Frage der letzten Folge 00:19:39 Stefan auf der Gen Con 00:35:11 GeGeGe 00:35:48 Gebackt Mario 00:45:06 Gebackt Björn 00:50:57 Gebackt Stefan 00:57:24 Gebackt Basti 01:09:30 Gekauft Björn 01:21:05 Gekauft Stefan 01:24:39 Gekauft Mario 01:25:11 Gekauft Basti 01:36:02 Gespielt Mario 01:36:08 Vindication 01:43:30 Distilled 01:52:03 Books of Time 01:59:05 Gespielt Björn 02:00:09 Expeditions - A Sequel to Scythe 02:12:37 Enchanters 02:18:03 Gespielt Basti 02:18:52 Tiny Epic Kingdoms 02:24:33 Sattgrün 02:28:24 Revive 02:31:08 Basti Highlight - Lowlight 02:32:42 Gespielt Stefan 02:33:49 Xia 02:35:50 Brazil Imperial 02:39:26 Stefan Highlight - Lowlight 02:41:20 Frage der Folge 02:42:12 Spieletastisch.de Den Podcast findet Ihr u.a. auf folgenden Plattformen: iTunes Spotify Google Podcasts Deezer Sowie in jeder Podcast App unter dem folgenden Feed: https://brettspiel-podcast.podcaster.de/brettspiel-podcast.rss Alle wichtigen Links zu uns findet Ihr in unserem Linktree Folge direkt herunterladen

Wendy Reed is a singer & musician based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. She rejoices with Jimmy about getting the chance to work with Jimmy's dad Chooch, as part of Chooch & The Enchanters. She recalls meeting Tony Bennett in New York and getting to work with stars like Eddie Money as part of a Live Day experience with the Bob & Tom Show. Wendy also shares her experience working at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, helping people gain & keep employment in spite of their adversity. For more information about Wendy including her upcoming gigs and rates to hire, visit her page Wendy Reed Vocalist on Facebook. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jbkonair/support

In this episode, recorded downwind from an increasingly immolated Canada, we interview Alexander Billet, author of the book,  Shake the City: Experiments in Space and Time, Music and Crisis from 1968 Press (2022). We discuss music, the city, cultural fragmentation and the accelerated alienation of neoliberal culture, the “blue note,” Fred Ho's concept of kreolization, the digital algorithm as capitalist standardization of music, sound as social control, music as a potential tool of social revolution, crackle and anachronism, acid communism, and getting “left behind” by the bourgeois rapture. Alexander Billet is a member of the Locust Collective who has written numerous articles and reviews for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salvage, Jacobin, and the Radical Art Review.  Readings in this episode: “Feet Firmly Planted on the Earth,” by the late Iranian poet and Marxist Ahmad Shamlou, from the collection, Aida, Tree, Dagger, Memory (1963), republished in English in Locust Review 9 (2022), translated by Saman Sepheri; a selection from Sound, a serialized novella by Tish Turl, published over several issues of Locust Review (starting with Locust Review #2 in 2020).  Music featured in this episode: Enchanters, “Missing Mountains” and “Unlikely Windows” from Post-Harvest; Diamond Soul, “Screens,” from Maya-mi; and Omnia Sol, “Security to Section 3,” from X-Mas Miracle 2. Artists, art, musicians, books, and articles discussed in this episode: Theodor W. Adorno, “On Jazz,” Discourse Vol. 12, No. 1 (Fall-Winter 1989-90), 45-69; Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” (1936);   John Berger, Ways of Seeing (book, 1972), and Ways of Seeing (BBC documentary, 1972); Alexander Billet, Shake the City: Experiments in Space and Time, Music and Crisis (London: 1968 Press, 2022); Cynthia Cruz, The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working-Class (London: Repeater, 2021); Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology, and Lost Futures  (London: Zero Books, 2014); Mark Fisher, “What is Hauntology?” Film Quarterly Vol 66. No. 1 (Fall 2012), 16-24 (University of California Press); Fred Ho (American jazz musician, composer and Marxist, 1957-2014); Henri Lefebve, The Right to the City (1996); Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844); Tish Turl, Sound (novella serialized in Locust Review, 2020-present); Tish Turl and Adam Turl, Born Again Labor Museum (conceptual art installation and project, 2019-present) Locust Radio is hosted by Tish Turl, Laura Fair-Schulz and Adam Turl. It is produced by Omnia Sol.

Noel arrive et les derniers jeux de société arrivent pour vos cadeaux en cette fin d'année 2022. ______________________________________

In this episode, Romie and I interview Dr. Albert C. Smith on his book The Architect as Magician. We discuss Dr. Smith's origin story, the meaning of architecture, architecture and its relation to magic, Pythagorean Palaces, automata, the labyrinth, cathedrals, the role of models in the process of architecture, and more!  You can find Dr. Smith's book at: https://www.routledge.com/The-Architect-as-Magician/Smith-Smith/p/book/9781138326712 Check out Roman from Rising From The Ashes Podcast's work at: IG: @rftapodcast LINKTREE: http://linktr.ee/risingftashes Email: risingftashes@yahoo.com  You can find my new journal, Occultis Mundi here! https://ko-fi.com/s/35d00b3488 SUPPORT THE SHOW! PayPal: paypal.me/tjojp Cashapp: $jayala54 Ko-fi.com/tjojp PATREON.COM/THEJUANONJUANPODCAST ROKFIN.COM/THEJUANONJUANPODCAST TeePublic.com/user/the-juan-on-juan-podcast Please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts! It will help the show. Also follow me on social media at: Alt Media United Check out our website at www.thejuanonjuanpodcast.com Patreon exclusive content and early access: www.patreon.com/thejuanonjuanpodcast Rokfin.com/thejuanonjuanpodcast Instagram: @thejuanonjuanpodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc3XEhKCvdRIOBSDdIQY2qg TikTok: @thejuanonjuanpodcast Telegram group: https://t.me/tjojp Discord server: https://discord.gg/HaB6wUunsJ Stake your Cardano with us at FIGHT POOL at fightpool.io! Music by Formula_T from Pixabay Thank you for tuning in!

FROM OUR 2020 "DIG THIS" ARCHIVES TO WISH GARNET MIMMS A HAPPY 89th BIRTHDAY!Best known for his original rendition of "Cry Baby," later a major item in Janis Joplin's repertoire, Garnet Mimms' pleading, gospel-derived intensity made him one of the earliest true soul singers. His legacy remains criminally underappreciated. Garnett Mimms was born in Ashland, West Virginia.He was brought up in Philadelphia, and began singing in church as a child.As a teenager, he was a former member of the Philadelphia-based gospel groups, the Evening Stars, the Harmonizing Four and the Norfolk Four.The latter he recorded his first record for in 1953.Garnett served several years in the military, and upon his release, he returned to Philadelphia in 1958 and formed a doo wop quintet called the Gainors.The line-up included Sam Bell, Willie Combo, John Jefferson and Howard Tate.The Gainors recorded singles for several labels over the following three years, including 'Red Top' (later picked up by the Cameo label), Mercury (from 1959-1960), and Tally Ho (in 1961).The group subsequently evolved into Garnet Mimms And The Enchanters, where the singer and Sam Bell were joined by Charles Boyer and Zola Pearnell.They met songwriter / producer Bert Berns, who signed them to United Artists, in 1963, and Bert teamed them up with another songwriter / producer, Jerry Ragovoy.Jerry's work helped create some of R & B's finest moments.The song 'Cry Baby' was an immediate U.S. hit, while 'Baby Don't You Weep' and 'For Your Precious Love' consolidated their arrival.The group split in 1964, when Garnett embarked on a solo career.Although the Enchanters found a new vocalist and continued to record, they were overshadowed by their former leader.Garnett' subsequent releases, 'Look Away', 'It Was Easier To Hurt Her' and 'I'll Take Good Care Of You' (the latter Garnett's last Top 40 hit in 1966), were well received, highlighting the singer's church roots against Ragovoy's musical backdrop.Such excellent records were not always well received, and in 1967, Garnett was sidelined to United Artists' subsidiary Veep.'My Baby' and 'Roll With The Punches' followed, but the singer's precarious artistic standing was confirmed when the latter was only released in Britain.Ragovoy then took Garnett to Verve Records (where he was also producing Howard Tate), but the four singles that appeared, although good, did not do as well as expected.It was not until 1977 that the singer returned to the chart.Credited to Garnet Mimms And The Truckin' Company, 'What It Is' was a minor R & B hit and even reached the UK chart at number 44.The track was produced by Randy Muller of Brass Construction fame.Garnett Mimms is now a born-again Christian and has not recorded for many years.

Hey League Of Legends and LCS fans! Every game is drawing bans towards enchanters, but Seraphine still seems to make it through.  Are enchanters the key to winning the LCS and worlds? Join in as we talk about all this and more in this week's episode!Get the Podcast:https://pod.link/theallinpodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/c/theallinpodcastJoin our discord:https://discord.gg/dmFdVEZW3QSupport the show

Desde nuestras valijas más oscuras cocinamos esta sesión piscinera de frat, surf, rocknroll y rhythm n’ blues para bailar en la toalla. Playlist; (sintonía) THE TORQUAYS “Tide pool Q” PRESTON EPPS “Watusi bongos” BILL LEWIS “High dive” ROLLERCOASTER “Wild twist” BRUCE JOHNSTON “Soupy shuffle stomp” BOB KEENE ORCHESTRA “La bamba” DON MARKHAM and THE MARKSMEN “The goose” THE TRIBUTES “Here comes Ringo” THE ENCHANTERS “Come on, let’s go” MOONGOONERS “Willie and the hand jive” JACK HERBST “Jimmy’s party” LITTLE JOE WASHINGTON “Hard way four” BILL LEWIS “Swing beat” THE DENIMS “The Adler shock” THE OTHER TWO “Go man go” RITCHIE AND THE SQUIRES “Beat party pt.1” KEN LEVY and THE PHANTOMS “Missed out” THE NASHVILLE TEENS “What you gonna do” WAYNE COCHRAN and THE C.C. RIDERS “Get down with it” THE TIKIS “Part III” RAY BARRETO “Babalu” THE GOODES “Double shot” ROSS D. WYLIE “Do the uptight” Escuchar audio

A theatre polymath, NIDA graduate John Senczuk's multi-award winning career spans forty years with his work seen nationally and internationally in commissions for opera, dance and drama. He worked concurrently as an academic, with fifteen years at the Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong (creating and teaching courses in Scenography, Directing and Dramaturgy) before taking senior positions at Toi Whakaari, New Zealand Drama School, and WAAPA (Program Director—Production, Design and Arts Management; Head of Design). He was Chairman of Griffin Theatre Company in 1985, appointing the Company's first artistic director; founding Chair of Paul Mercurio's Australian Choreographic Ensemble; and sat on the Boards of Theatre South, Currency House, Dramaturgical Services Inc., The Seymour Group and Matt Lutton's Thin Ice. For ten years, from 1989, John was associate director of Wollongong's Theatre South where his credits on over thirty productions as director/designer included Hamlet, After Dinner, Twelfth Night, Christian Brothers and The Time is Not Yet Ripe. He has also directed drama, opera and musicals: Bony Anderson (Seymour Group); Flesh and Blood (Festival of Sydney); Irene (with Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds,) and the premieres of David Williamson's When Dad Married Fury, Justin Fleming's Kangaroo and John Aitken's The Enchanters. John collaborated with Gale Edwards on the book & lyrics for the musical Eureka!, and wrote the Opera libretto for African Queen. Highlights of his career as a designer include L'Orfeo (Oslo Summer Festival) and Sons of Cain (West End). He collaborated on over twenty productions for the Sydney Theatre Company, including David Williamson's Dead White Males and Heretic, and the Australian premiere of Into the Woods; and has worked extensively in both the subsidised and commercial theatre nationally. John submits his PhD Theses (Flinders University) in 2022. The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Recipient of Best New Podcast at 2019 Australian Podcast Awards. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages). www.stagespodcast.com.au

WORD TO GO with Pastor Mensa Otabil Episode 744

Erick Lee Purkhiser (October 21, 1946 – February 4, 2009), better known by the stage name Lux Interior, was an American singer and a founding member of the American band The Cramps - exponents of trash culture and 'psychobilly' music - from 1972 until his death in 2009 at age 62. In this episode Lux Interior's favorite and obscure 7 inch records, as played by himself in a much sought-after, classic Hollywood radio show he hosted in July of 1984. Lineup: One Way Streets, Bob Hocko, Swamprats, June Jackson, The Trashmen, Link Wray, Bill Carter And The Rovin' Gamblers, The Tides, Earl Hagan & The Interns, Mad Mike And The Maniacs, Billy Strange, Ted Weems & His Orchestra, Ray Anthony & His Orchestra, Gradie O'Neal, The Enchanters, Sam Space, The Cadettes, Archie Bleyer, Vic Mizzy, The Spark Plugs, The Frantics, The Five Blobs, The Troggs, Ward Darby And The Raves, Cozy Cole, The Deadly Ones

Enjoy the Pisces sex and relationship episode! If you want to shop from my crystal store please click on the link! https://etsy.me/35qDUlF --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tasha29/support

Pretending Your Champion Scales - Can You Learn Poise? - Enchanters

Sorcerers are straight up real and The Bible is starting to sound more like Iron Maiden song this week. This rocks! 5 stars! Rate us on iTunes and spread the good word of the Bible (Brothers podcast)! Please admire our beautiful Linktree: https://linktr.ee/biblebrothers

Hey League Of Legends and LCS fans! In this episode we discuss the power of enchanters, Zeri making her debut in pro play, and the new champions queue!Get the Podcast:https://pod.link/theallinpodcasthttps://www.youtube.com/c/theallinpodcastSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/theallinpodcast)

Texas born Janis Joplin died on October 4, 1970, and Pearl was posthumously released in January.  Producer Paul A. Rothchild created a more polished sound on this album than her previous solo work or her work with other bands.  The Full Tilt Boogie Band, Joplin's touring band at the time, also participated in this studio album.  It would be her best selling album, peaking at number 1 on the Billboard 200, and being certified quadruple platinum.After leaving Big Brother and the Holding Company at the end of 1968, Joplin moved away from the psychedelic sound towards a more R&B orientation with the Kozmic Blues Band, her backing band at the time.  Although her first album went gold within two weeks of its release, reviews were mixed as critics had trouble with the new soul and blues orientation.  Pearl would continue the blues trend and would receive much more positive reviews, certainly influenced by its posthumous release.Joplin's struggles with drug abuse were well known, and she died of a heroin overdose towards the end of the recording sessions. Move OverJoplin composed the opening track to the album.  It is her take on how men can end a relationship but refuse to move on, but instead drag the woman around long afterwards.Cry BabyThis is a song written by Bert Berms and Jerry Ragovoy was originally recorded in 1963 by Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters in 1963.  Mimms' rendition went to number 4 on the charts, while Joplin's went to number 42.Me and Bobby McGeeWhen most think of Janis Joplin, they think of this single, her most successful.  Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster penned the song, and it was originally performed by Roger Miller in 1969.  Miller's version hit number 12 on the country charts, but Joplin's would go to number 1 on the Hot 100.  Mercedes BenzThe second song penned by Joplin, this track was recorded a cappella in one take on October 1, 1970, three days before Joplin's death.  It is a tongue in cheek critique of consumerism. ENTERTAINMENT TRACK:I Think I Love You by The Partridge Family"The Partridge Family" began its 5-year run as a sitcom in the fall of 1970, and this song was on the top of the charts in January 1971. STAFF PICKS:Love the One You're With by Stephen StillsIf Rob's staff pick sounds more like Crosby Stills and Nash than a Stills solo effort, that may be because David Crosby and Graham Nash are singing on this track, along with a host of other well known musicians of the time.  Both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix played on the album.Stoney End  by Barbara StreisandBruce risks the ire of the group by making Streisand his staff pick this week.  The title track to Streisand's 12th studio album was the one that found her successfully making the jump from Broadway music to the pop/rock genre.  The song itself is a story of bad choices with a boy leading down a bad road to a stony end.Superstar by Murray Head & ChoirWayne's staff pick is the theme of the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," and represents a questioning ghost of Judas asking Jesus if he intended for things to happen the way they did.  In addition to the hippie culture of the time, there was also an ascendant Jesus movement happening in culture which this musical successfully tapped.One Man Band by Three Dog NightBrian wraps up the staff picks with a harmonic hit from Three Dog Night's album "Naturally."  The song peaked at number 19 in the U.S.     INSTRUMENTAL TRACK:Way Back Home by the Jazz CrusadersThis instrumental was on the charts just before the Jazz Crusaders shortened their name to the Crusaders in 1971. 

Fuego en la Pista de Baile, los éxitos y las novedades más underground en www.ipopfm.com, cada miércoles de 20 a 21 horas. Hoy pop de baile. Déjate seducir por el programa más underground de iPOPfm. Déjate seducir por Fuego En La Pista de Baile! Han sonado: 1. The Enchanters – Come On, Let’s Go! 2. Peck’s Bad Boys – Crazy World 3. Margo – The Spark That Lights The Flame 4. Pelazo – Carry On 5. Bubblegum – New Dyed Hair 6. The Kryng – Talk Too Loud 7. The Kryng – It’s Gonna Be 8. The Pre-Amps – Doesn’t Change 9. Stay – You Know It’s Right 10. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – The Death of You and Me 11. Les Daufins – Non, Me Ne Dis Pas 12. Las Infrarojas & Indy Tumbita – Lovebirds 13. Las Infrarojas & Indy Tumbita – Johnny Is Mine 14. Candy Cole – What’s For Dessert 15. Heatwaves – Tell Me What You See 16. Mystery Girl – A Little at Tim 17. The Chelsea Curve – Top it Up 18. Elvis Costello and The Imposters – Magnificent Hur 19. Albert Gil – Pequeñas Cosas 20. Brighton 64 – La Cara Infame del Poder

In this episode, the brandt is joined by game designer, Carl Van Ostrand as they recount recent plays of Enchanters, Parks, Anno 1800 and more! They then discuss Carl's most recent game Bardwood Grove which is on Kickstarter now! Thanks for listening!Bardwood Grove KS can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/512772051/bardwood-grove

Songs about the 1950s and 60s pop culture figure of the “beatnik" and their love of the roasted bean! The first cup is a strong one - "Café Bohemian” by the Enchanters (8:28): A mostly-instrumental song that evokes the weirdest, wildest joint you could ever imagine at nighttime. Think guys with eye-patches, strange women with long cigarette holders, and maybe even a jittery striped-shirted poet waiting in the corner to go on stage. All this, and bongos (and some dirty sax & guitar) too! The second cup we'll quaff is “Like, I Love You” by Edd “Kookie” Byrnes (42:10). A groovy little (wrong) number from 1959 here. Weldon & Erik pore over the lyrics with a fine-toothed comb (you'll get it, if you're hip), and pick their fave lines from this daffy dialogue.  Finally, swig some "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs (1:21:19). Put on some trash to dance to the biggest hit of 1963! The organ in this song percolates as much as any reputable java hut's coffee machine. Is this the jauntiest song ever? Weldon & Erik discuss the hidden subversive lyrical content of this seemingly innocent song and leave you with Gregory Corso reciting his hit poem "Marriage" (2:15:43). Now you're hip!

Episode 124 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “People Get Ready", the Impressions, and the early career of Curtis Mayfield.  Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "I'm Henry VIII I Am" by Herman's Hermits. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud playlist, with full versions of all the songs excerpted in this episode. A lot of resources were used for this episode. Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs by Guy and Candie Carawan is a combination oral history of the Civil Rights movement and songbook. Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power by Aaron Cohen is a history of Chicago soul music and the way it intersected with politics. Traveling Soul: The Life of Curtis Mayfield  by Todd Mayfield with Travis Atria is a biography of Mayfield by one of his sons, and rather better than one might expect given that. Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul by Craig Werner looks at the parallels and divergences in the careers of its three titular soul stars. This compilation has a decent selection of recordings Mayfield wrote and produced for other artists on OKeh in the early sixties. This single-CD set of Jerry Butler recordings contains his Impressions recordings as well as several songs written or co-written by Mayfield. This double-CD of Major Lance's recordings contains all the hits Mayfield wrote for him. And this double-CD collection has all the Impressions' singles from 1961 through 1968. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript A couple of episodes ago we had a look at one of the first classic protest songs of the soul genre. Today we're going to look at how Sam Cooke's baton was passed on to another generation of soul singer/songwriters, and at one of the greatest songwriters of that generation. We're going to look at the early career of Curtis Mayfield, and at "People Get Ready" by the Impressions: [Excerpt: The Impressions, "People Get Ready"] A quick note before I start this one -- there is no way in this episode of avoiding dealing with the fact that the Impressions' first hit with a Curtis Mayfield lead vocal has, in its title, a commonly used word for Romany people beginning with "g" that many of those people regard as a slur -- while others embrace the term for themselves. I've thought long and hard about how to deal with this, and the compromise I've come up with is that I will use excerpts from the song, which will contain that word, but I won't use the word myself. I'm not happy with that compromise, but it's the best I can do. It's unfortunate that that word turns up a *lot* in music in the period I'm covering -- it's basically impossible to avoid. Anyway, on with the show... Curtis Mayfield is one of those musicians who this podcast will almost by definition underserve -- my current plan is to do a second episode on him, but if this was a thousand-song podcast he would have a *lot* more than just two episodes. He was one of the great musical forces of the sixties and seventies, and listeners to the Patreon bonus episodes will already have come across him several times before, as he was one of those musicians who becomes the centre of a whole musical scene, writing and producing for most of the other soul musicians to come out of Chicago in the late fifties and early 1960s. Mayfield grew up in Chicago, in the kind of poverty that is, I hope, unimaginable to most of my listeners. He had to become "the man of the house" from age five, looking after his younger siblings as his mother went out looking for work, as his father abandoned his family, moved away, and changed his name. His mother was on welfare for much of the time, and Mayfield's siblings have talked about how their special Christmas meal often consisted of cornbread and syrup, and they lived off beans, rice, and maybe a scrap of chicken neck every two weeks. They were so hungry so often that they used to make a game of it -- drinking water until they were full, and then making sloshing noises with their bellies, laughing at them making noises other than rumbling. But while his mother was poor, Mayfield saw that there was a way to escape from poverty. Specifically, he saw it in his paternal grandmother, the Reverend A.B. Mayfield, a Spiritualist priest, who was the closest thing to a rich person in his life. For those who don't know what Spiritualism is, it's one of the many new religious movements that sprouted up in the Northeastern US in the mid to late nineteenth centuries, like the Holiness Movement (which became Pentecostalism), the New Thought, Christian Science, Mormonism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Spiritualists believe, unlike mainstream Christianity, that it is possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead, and that those spirits can provide information about the afterlife, and about the nature of God and angels. If you've ever seen, either in real life or in a fictional depiction, a medium communicating with spirits through a seance, that's spiritualism. There are numbers of splinter spiritualist movements, and the one Reverend Mayfield, and most Black American Spiritualists at this time, belonged to was one that used a lot of elements of Pentecostalism and couched its teachings in the Bible -- to an outside observer not conversant with the theology, it might seem no different from any other Black church of the period, other than having a woman in charge. But most other churches would not have been funded by their presiding minister's winnings from illegal gambling, as she claimed to have the winning numbers in the local numbers racket come to her in dreams, and won often enough that people believed her. Reverend Mayfield's theology also incorporated elements from the Nation of Islam, which at that time was growing in popularity, and was based in Chicago. Chicago was also the home of gospel music -- it was where Sister Rosetta Tharpe had got her start and where Mahalia Jackson and Thomas Dorsey and the Soul Stirrers were all based -- and so of course Reverend Mayfield's church got its own gospel quartet, the Northern Jubilee Singers. They modelled themselves explicitly on the Soul Stirrers, who at the time were led by Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: The Soul Stirrers, "Jesus Gave Me Water"] Curtis desperately wanted to join the Northern Jubilee Singers, and particularly admired their lead singer, Jerry Butler, as well as being a huge fan of their inspiration Sam Cooke. But he was too young -- he was eight years old, and the group members were twelve and thirteen, an incommensurable gap at that age. So Curtis couldn't join the Jubilee singers, but he kept trying to perform, and not just with gospel -- as well as gospel, Chicago was also the home of electric blues, being where Chess Records was based, and young Curtis Mayfield was surrounded by the music of people like Muddy Waters: [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "Rollin' and Tumblin'"] And so as well as singing gospel songs, he started singing and playing the blues, inspired by Waters, Little Walter, and other Chess acts. His first instrument was the piano, and young Curtis found that he naturally gravitated to the black keys -- he liked the sound of those best, and didn't really like playing the white keys. I won't get into the music theory too much here, but the black keys on a piano make what is called a pentatonic scale -- a five-note scale that is actually the basis for most folk music forms, whether Celtic folk, Indian traditional music, the blues, bluegrass, Chinese traditional music... pentatonic scales have been independently invented by almost every culture, and you might think of them as the "natural" music, what people default to. The black notes on the piano make that scale in the key of F#: [Excerpt: pentatonic scale in F#] The notes in that are F#, G#, A#, C#, and D#. When young Curtis found a guitar in his grandmother's closet, he didn't like the way it sounded -- if you strum the open strings of a guitar they don't make a chord (well, every combination of notes is a chord, but they don't make one most people think of as pleasant) -- the standard guitar tuning is E, A, D, G, B, E. Little Curtis didn't like this sound, so he retuned the guitar to F#, A#, C#, F#, A#, F# -- notes from the chord of F#, and all of them black keys on the piano. Now, tuning a guitar to open chords is a fairly standard thing to do -- guitarists as varied as Keith Richards, Steve Cropper, and Dolly Parton tune their guitars to open chords -- but doing it to F# is something that pretty much only Mayfield ever did, and it meant his note choices were odd ones. He would later say with pride that he used to love it when other guitarists picked up his guitar, because no matter how good they were they couldn't play on his instrument. He quickly became extremely proficient as a blues guitarist, and his guitar playing soon led the Northern Jubilee Singers to reconsider having him in the band. By the time he was eleven he was a member of the group and travelling with them to gospel conventions all over the US. But he had his fingers in multiple musical pies -- he formed a blues group, who would busk outside the pool-hall where his uncle was playing, and he also formed a doo-wop group, the Alphatones, who became locally popular. Jerry Butler, the Jubilee Singers' lead vocalist, had also joined a doo-wop group -- a group called the Roosters, who had moved up to Chicago from Chattanooga. Butler was convinced that to make the Roosters stand out, they needed a guitarist like Mayfield, but Mayfield at first remained uninterested -- he already had his own group, the Alphatones. Butler suggested that Mayfield should rehearse with both groups, three days a week each, and then stick with the group that was better. Soon Mayfield found himself a full-time member of the Roosters. In 1957, when Curtis was fifteen, the group entered a talent contest at a local school, headlined by the Medallionaires, a locally-popular group who had released a single on Mercury, "Magic Moonlight": [Excerpt: The Medallionaires, "Magic Moonlight"] The Medallionaires' manager, Eddie Thomas, had been around the music industry since he was a child – his stepfather had been the great blues pianist Big Maceo Merriweather, who had made records like "Worried Life Blues": [Excerpt: Big Maceo Merriweather, "Worried Life Blues"] Thomas hadn't had any success in the industry yet, but at this talent contest, the Roosters did a close-harmony version of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me", and Thomas decided that they had potential, especially Mayfield and Butler. He signed them to a management contract, but insisted they changed their name. They cast around for a long time to find something more suitable, and eventually decided on The Impressions, because they'd made such an impression on Thomas. The group were immediately taken by Thomas on a tour of the large indie labels, and at each one they sang a song that members of the group had written, which was inspired by a song called "Open Our Eyes" by the Gospel Clefs: [Excerpt: The Gospel Clefs, "Open Our Eyes"] Herman Lubinsky at Savoy liked the song, and suggested that Jerry speak-sing it, which was a suggestion the group took up, but he passed on them. So did Ralph Bass at King. Mercury Records gave them some session work, but weren't able to sign the group themselves -- the session was with the big band singer Eddie Howard, singing backing vocals on a remake of "My Last Goodbye", a song he'd recorded multiple times before. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to track down a copy of that recording, the Impressions' first, only Howard's other recordings of the song. Eventually, the group got the interest of a tiny label called Bandera, whose owner Vi Muszynski was interested -- but she had to get the approval of Vee-Jay Records, the larger label that distributed Bandera's records. Vee-Jay was a very odd label. It was one of a tiny number of Black-owned record labels in America at the time, and possibly the biggest of them, and it's interesting to compare them to Chess Records, which was based literally across the road. Both put out R&B records, but Chess was white-owned and specialised in hardcore Chicago electric blues -- Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and so on. Vee-Jay, on the other hand, certainly put out its fair share of that kind of music, but they also put out a lot of much smoother doo-wop and early soul, and they would have their biggest hits a few years after this, not with blues artists, but with the Four Seasons, and with their licensing of British records by Frank Ifield and the Beatles. Both Vee-Jay and Chess were aiming at a largely Black market, but Black-owned Vee-Jay was much more comfortable with white pop acts than white-owned Chess. Muszynski set up an audition with Calvin Carter, the head of A&R at Vee-Jay, and selected the material the group were to perform for Carter -- rather corny songs the group were not at all comfortable with. They ran through that repertoire, and Carter said they sounded good but didn't they have any originals? They played a couple of originals, and Carter wasn't interested in those. Then Carter had a thought -- did they have any songs they felt ashamed of playing for him? Something that they didn't normally do? They did -- they played that song that the group had written, the one based on "Open Our Eyes". It was called "For Your Precious Love", and Carter immediately called in another group, the Spaniels, who were favourites of the Impressions and had had hits with records like "Goodnite Sweetheart Goodnite": [Excerpt: The Spaniels, "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite"] Carter insisted on the Impressions singing their song for the Spaniels, and Butler in particular was very worried -- he assumed that Carter just wanted to take their song and give it to the bigger group. But after they played the song again, the Spaniels all enthused about how great the Impressions were and what a big hit the Impressions were going to have with the song. They realised that Carter just *really liked* them and the song, and wanted to show them off. The group went into the studio, and recorded half a dozen takes of "For Your Precious Love", but none of them came off correctly. Eventually Carter realised what the problem was -- Mayfield wasn't a member of the musicians' union, and so Carter had hired session guitarists, but they couldn't play the song the way Mayfield did. Eventually, Carter got the guitarists to agree to take the money, not play, and not tell the union if he got Mayfield to play on the track instead of them. After that, they got it in two takes: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler and the Impressions, "For Your Precious Love"] When it came out, the record caused a major problem for the group, because they discovered when they saw the label that it wasn't credited to "The Impressions", but to "Jerry Butler and the Impressions". The label had decided that they were going to follow the strategy that had worked for so many acts before -- put out records credited to "Singer and Group", and then if they were successful develop that into two separate acts. To his credit, Butler immediately insisted that the record company get the label reprinted, but Vee-Jay said that wasn't something they could do. It was too late, the record was going out as Jerry Butler and the Impressions and that was an end to it. The group were immediately put on the promotional circuit -- there was a rumour that Roy Hamilton, the star who had had hits with "Unchained Melody" and "Ebb Tide", was going to put out a cover version, as the song was perfectly in his style, and so the group needed to get their version known before he could cut his cover. They travelled to Philadelphia, where they performed for the DJ Georgie Woods. We talked about Woods briefly last episode -- he was the one who would later coin the term "blue-eyed soul" to describe the Righteous Brothers -- and Woods was also the person who let Dick Clark know what the important Black records were, so Clark could feature them on his show. Woods started to promote the record, and suddenly Jerry Butler and the Impressions were huge -- "For Your Precious Love" made number three on the R&B charts and number eleven on the pop charts. Their next session produced another hit, "Come Back My Love", although that only made the R&B top thirty and was nowhere near as big a hit: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler and the Impressions, "Come Back My Love"] That would be the last time the original lineup of the Impressions would record together. Shortly afterwards, before a gig in Texas, Jerry Butler called the President of the record label to sort out a minor financial problem. Once the problem had been sorted out, the president put the phone down, but then one of the other Impressions, Arthur Brooks, asked if he could have a word. Butler explained that the other person had hung up, and Brooks went ballistic, saying that Butler thought he was in charge, and thought that he could do all the talking for the group. Well, if he thought that, he could do all the singing too. Brooks and his brother Richard weren't going on stage. Sam Gooden said he wasn't going on either -- he'd been an original Rooster with the Brooks brothers before Butler had joined the group, and he was siding with them. That left Curtis Mayfield. Mayfield said he was still going on stage, because he wanted to get paid. The group solidarity having crumbled, Gooden changed his mind and said he might as well go on with them, so Butler, Mayfield, and Gooden went on as a trio. Butler noticed that the audience didn't notice a difference -- they literally didn't know the Brooks brothers existed -- and that was the point at which he decided to go solo. The Impressions continued without Butler, with Mayfield, Gooden, and the Brooks brothers recruiting Fred Cash, who had sung with the Roosters when they were still in Tennessee. Mayfield took over the lead vocals and soon started attracting the same resentment that Butler had. Vee-Jay dropped the Impressions, and they started looking round for other labels and working whatever odd jobs they could. Mayfield did get some work from Vee-Jay, though, working as a session player on records by people like Jimmy Reed. There's some question about which sessions Mayfield actually played -- I've seen conflicting information in different sessionographies -- but it's at least possible that Mayfield's playing on Reed's most famous record, "Baby What You Want Me to Do": [Excerpt: Jimmy Reed, "Baby What You Want Me to Do"] And one of Mayfield's friends, a singer called Major Lance, managed to get himself a one-off single deal with Mercury Records after becoming a minor celebrity as a dancer on a TV show. Mayfield wrote that one single, though it wasn't a hit: [Excerpt: Major Lance, "I Got a Girl"] Someone else who wasn't having hits was Jerry Butler. By late 1960 it had been two years since "For Your Precious Love" and Butler hadn't made the Hot One Hundred in that time, though he'd had a few minor R&B hits. He was playing the chitlin' circuit, and in the middle of a tour, his guitarist quit. Butler phoned Mayfield, who had just received a four hundred dollar tax bill he couldn't pay -- a lot of money for an unemployed musician in 1960. Mayfield immediately joined Butler's band to pay off his back taxes, and he also started writing songs with Butler. "He Will Break Your Heart", a collaboration between the two (with Calvin Carter also credited), made the top ten on the pop chart and number one on the R&B chart: [Excerpt: Jerry Butler, "He Will Break Your Heart"] Even more important for Mayfield than writing a top ten hit, though, was his experience playing for Butler at the Harlem Apollo. Not because of the shows themselves, but because playing a residency in New York allowed him to hang out at the Turf, a restaurant near the Brill Building where all the songwriters would hang out. Or, more specifically, where all the *poorer* songwriters would hang out -- the Turf did roast beef sandwiches for fifty cents if you ate standing at the counter rather than seated at a table, and it also had twenty payphones, so all those songwriters who didn't have their own offices would do their business from the phone booths. Mayfield would hang out there to learn the secrets of the business, and that meant he learned the single most important lesson there is -- keep your own publishing. These writers, some of whom had written many hit songs, were living off twenty-five-dollar advances while the publishing companies were making millions. Mayfield also discovered that Sam Cooke, the man he saw as the model for how his career should go, owned his own publishing company. So he did some research, found out that it didn't actually cost anything to start up a publishing company, and started his own, Curtom, named as a portmanteau of his forename and the surname of Eddie Thomas, the Impressions' manager. While the Impressions' career was in the doldrums, Thomas, too, had been working for Butler, as his driver and valet, and he and Mayfield became close, sharing costs and hotel rooms in order to save money. Mayfield not only paid his tax bill, but by cutting costs everywhere he could he saved up a thousand dollars, which he decided to use to record a song he'd written specifically for the Impressions, not for Butler. (This is the song I mentioned at the beginning with the potential slur in the title. If you don't want to hear that, skip forward thirty seconds now): [Excerpt: The Impressions, "Gypsy Woman"] That track got the Impressions signed to ABC/Paramount records, and it made the top twenty on the pop charts and sold half a million copies, thanks once again to promotion from Georgie Woods. But once again, the follow-ups flopped badly, and the Brooks brothers quit the group, because they wanted to be doing harder-edged R&B in the mould of Little Richard, Hank Ballard, and James Brown, not the soft melodic stuff that Mayfield was writing. The Impressions continued as a three-piece group, and Mayfield would later say that this had been the making of them. A three-part harmony group allowed for much more spontaneity and trading of parts, for the singers to move freely between lead and backing vocals and to move into different parts of their ranges, where when they had been a five-piece group everything had been much more rigid, as if a singer moved away from his assigned part, he would find himself clashing with another singer's part. But as the group were not having hits, Mayfield was still looking for other work, and he found it at OKeh Records, which was going through something of a boom in this period thanks to the producer Carl Davis. Davis took Mayfield on as an associate producer and right-hand man,  primarily in order to get him as a guitarist, but Mayfield was also a valuable talent scout, backing vocalist, and especially songwriter. Working with Davis and arranger Johnny Pate, between 1963 and 1965 Mayfield wrote and played on a huge number of R&B hits for OKeh, including "It's All Over" by Walter Jackson: [Excerpt: Walter Jackson, "It's All Over"] "Gonna Be Good Times" for Gene Chandler: [Excerpt: Gene Chandler, "Gonna Be Good Times"] And a whole string of hits for Jerry Butler's brother Billy and his group The Enchanters, starting with "Gotta Get Away": [Excerpt: Billy Butler and the Enchanters, "Gotta Get Away"] But the real commercial success came from Mayfield's old friend Major Lance, who Mayfield got signed to OKeh. Lance had several minor hits written by Mayfield, but his big success came with a song that Mayfield had written for the Impressions, but decided against recording with them, as it was a novelty dance song and he didn't think that they should be doing that kind of material. The Impressions sang backing vocals on Major Lance's "The Monkey Time", written by Mayfield, which became a top ten pop hit: [Excerpt: Major Lance, "The Monkey Time"] Mayfield would write several more hits for Major Lance, including the one that became his biggest hit, "Um Um Um Um Um Um", which went top five pop and made number one on the R&B charts: [Excerpt: Major Lance, "Um Um Um Um Um Um (Curious Mind)"] So Mayfield was making hits for other people at a furious rate, but he was somehow unable to have hits with his own group. He was still pushing the Impressions, but they had to be a weekend commitment -- the group would play gigs all over the country at weekends, but Monday through Friday Mayfield was in the studio cutting hits for other people -- and he was also trying to keep up a relationship not only with his wife and first child, but with the woman who would become his second wife, with whom he was cheating on his first. He was young enough that he could just about keep this up -- he was only twenty at this point, though he was already a veteran of the music industry -- but it did mean that the Impressions were a lower priority than they might have been. At least, they were until, in August 1963, between those two huge Major Lance hits, Curtis Mayfield finally wrote another big hit for the Impressions -- their first in their new three-piece lineup. Everyone could tell "It's All Right" was a hit, and Gene Chandler begged to be allowed to record it, but Mayfield insisted that his new song was for his group: [Excerpt: The Impressions, "It's All Right"] "It's All Right" went to number four on the pop chart, and number one R&B. And this time, the group didn't mess up the follow-up.  Their next two singles, "Talking About My Baby" and "I'm So Proud", both made the pop top twenty, and the Impressions were now stars. Mayfield also took a trip to Jamaica around this time, with Carl Davis, to produce an album of Jamaican artists, titled "The Real Jamaica Ska", featuring acts like Lord Creator and Jimmy Cliff: [Excerpt: Jimmy Cliff, "Ska All Over the World"] But Mayfield was also becoming increasingly politically aware. As the Civil Rights movement in the US was gaining steam, it was also starting to expose broader systemic problems that affected Black people in the North, not just the South. In Chicago, while Black people had been able to vote for decades, and indeed were a substantial political power block, all that this actually meant in practice was that a few powerful self-appointed community leaders had a vested interest in keeping things as they were. Segregation still existed -- in 1963, around the time that "It's All Right" came out, there was a school strike in the city, where nearly a quarter of a million children refused to go to school. Black schools were so overcrowded that it became impossible for children to learn there, but rather than integrate the schools and let Black kids go to the less-crowded white schools, the head of public education in Chicago decided instead to make the children go to school in shifts, so some were going ridiculously early in the morning while others were having to go to school in the evening. And there were more difficult arguments going on around segregation among Black people in Chicago. The issues in the South seemed straightforward in comparison -- no Black person wanted to be lynched or to be denied the right to vote. But in Chicago there was the question of integrating the two musicians' union chapters in the city. Some Black proponents of integration saw merging the two union chapters as a way for Black musicians to get the opportunity to play lucrative sessions for advertising jingles and so on, which only went to white players. But a vocal minority of musicians were convinced that the upshot of integrating the unions would be that Black players would still be denied those jobs, but white players would start getting some of the soul and R&B sessions that only Black players were playing, and thought that the end result would be that white people would gentrify those areas of music and culture where Black people had carved out spaces for themselves, while still denying Black people the opportunity to move into the white spaces. Mayfield was deeply, deeply, invested in the Civil Rights movement, and the wider discourse as more radical voices started to gain strength in the movement. And he was particularly inspired by his hero, Sam Cooke, recording "A Change is Gonna Come".  As the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement was so deeply rooted in religious language, it was natural that Mayfield would turn to the gospel music he'd grown up on for his own first song about these issues, "Keep on Pushing": [Excerpt: The Impressions, "Keep on Pushing"] That became another huge hit, making the top ten on the pop chart and number one on the R&B chart. It's instructive to look at reactions to the Impressions, and to Mayfield's sweet, melodic, singing. White audiences were often dismissive of the Impressions, believing they were attempting to sell out to white people and were therefore not Black enough -- a typical reaction is that of Arnold Shaw, the white music writer, who in 1970 referred to the Impressions as Oreos -- a derogatory term for people who are "Black on the outside, white inside". Oddly, though, Black audiences seem not to have recognised the expertise of elderly white men on who was Black enough, and despite white critics' protestations continued listening to and buying the Impressions' records, and incorporating Mayfield's songs into their activism. For example, Sing For Freedom, a great oral-history-cum-songbook which collects songs sung by Civil Rights activists, collected contemporaneously by folklorists, has no fewer than four Impressions songs included, in lightly adapted versions, as sung by the Chicago Freedom Movement, the group led by Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and others, who campaigned for an end to housing segregation in Chicago. It quotes Jimmy Collier, a Black civil rights activist and folk singer, saying "There's a rock 'n' roll group called the Impressions and we call them ‘movement fellows' and we try to sing a lot of their songs. Songs like ‘Keep On Pushin',' ‘I Been Trying,' ‘I'm So Proud,' ‘It's Gonna Be a Long, Long Winter,' ‘People Get Ready, There's a Train a-Comin',' ‘There's a Meeting Over Yonder' really speak to the situation a lot of us find ourselves in." I mention this discrepancy because this is something that comes up throughout music history -- white people dismissing Black people as not being "Black enough" and trying to appeal to whites, even as Black audiences were embracing those artists in preference to the artists who had white people's seal of approval as being authentically Black. I mention this because I am myself a white man, and it is very important for me to acknowledge that I will make similar errors when talking about Black culture, as I am here. "Keep on Pushing" was the Impressions' first political record, but by no means the most important. In 1965 the Civil Rights movement seemed to be starting to unravel, and there were increasing ruptures between the hardliners who would go on to form what would become the Black Power movement and the more moderate older generation. These ruptures were only exacerbated by the murder of Malcolm X, the most powerful voice on the radical side. Mayfield was depressed by this fragmentation, and wanted to write a song of hope, one that brought everyone together. To see the roots of the song Mayfield came up with we have to go all the way back to episode five, and to "This Train", the old gospel song which Rosetta Tharpe had made famous: [Excerpt: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "This Train (live)"] The image of the train leading to freedom had always been a powerful one in Black culture, dating back to the Underground Railroad -- the network of people who helped enslaved people flee their abusers and get away to countries where they could be free. It was also a particularly potent image for Black people in the northern cities, many of whom had travelled there by train from the South, or whose parents had. Mayfield took the old song, and built a new song around it. His melody is closer than it might seem to that of "This Train", but has a totally different sound and feeling, one of gentle hope rather than fervent excitement. And there's a difference of emphasis in the lyrics too. "This Train", as befits a singer like Tharpe who belonged to a Pentecostal "holiness" sect which taught the need for upright conduct at all times, is mostly a list of those sinners who won't be allowed on the train. Mayfield, by contrast, had been brought up in a Spiritualist church, and one of the nine affirmations of Spiritualism is "We affirm that the doorway to reformation is never closed against any soul here or hereafter". Mayfield's song does talk about how "There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner, Whom would hurt all mankind just to save his own", but the emphasis is on how "there's hope for *all*, among those loved the most", and how "you don't need no baggage", and "don't need no ticket". It's a song which is fundamentally inclusive, offering a vision of hope and freedom in which all are welcome: [Excerpt: The Impressions, "People Get Ready"] The song quickly became one of the most important songs to the Civil Rights movement -- Doctor King called it "the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights movement" -- as well as becoming yet another big hit. We will continue to explore the way Mayfield and the Impressions reacted to, were inspired by, and themselves inspired Black political movements when we look at them again, and their political importance was extraordinary. But this is a podcast about music, and so I'll finish with a note about their musical importance. As with many R&B acts, the Impressions were massive in Jamaica, and they toured there in 1966. In the front row when they played the Carib Theatre in Kingston were three young men who had recently formed a group which they had explicitly modelled on the Impressions and their three-part harmonies. That group had even taken advantage of Jamaica's nonexistent copyright laws to incorporate a big chunk of "People Get Ready" into one of their own songs, which was included on their first album: [Excerpt: The Wailers, "One Love (1965 version)"] Bob Marley and the Wailers would soon become a lot more than an Impressions soundalike group, but that, of course, is a story for a future episode...

New stuff from Suzi Moon, Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt, RMBLR, Crystallized Minds, the Nuclears, Prostitutes, Enchanters and much, much more.

New stuff from Suzi Moon, Cutthroat Brothers and Mike Watt, RMBLR, Crystallized Minds, the Nuclears, Prostitutes, Enchanters and much, much more. Real Punk Radio podcast Network brings you the best in Punk, Rock, Underground Music around! From Classic Oi!, Psychobilly and Hardcore to some Classic Rock n Roll and 90's indie Alt Rock greatness!! With Tons of Live DJ's that like to Talk Music From Garage Rock, to Ska.. We are True MUSIC GEEKS!

Join Kyle and Amythyst (Space) as they dive into Valheim mods and more! Valheim Legends: https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/796 Valheim's Concealed Jacuzzi Is The Perfect Rest For A Weary Viking: https://screenrant.com/valheim-concealed-jacuzzi-viking-rest-relaxation-build/

Nebuchadnezzar begins having troubling dreams and seeks out counsel on what to make of them. However, his Diviners, Enchanters, Sorcerers, and Chaldean wise men are not much help and he threatens their lives if they cannot solve his problem.

We talk about digital dice: get your crippling addiction digitized. Jay talks about the good ol' Gygaxian days of D&D 1st edition dice, while Jack throws up in his mouth just a little bit. Then we do a deep dive into the eight schools of Magic: from Abjuration's protection, to Conjuring your familiar; from the portence of Diviners to the manipulating Enchanters (we talk about why these are the most evil wizards); from the new realities of Illusion to the overchannels of evocation; and from the oft-maligned necromancers to the criticaly roled transmuters. We look not just at the benefits of each, but the benefits of going deep in each. The idea is simple: instead of making a "swiss army knife" wizard, with spells from all schools, make a more focused practitioner of a particular school. Wear your school colors with pride. And if you are a DM, we have a few ideas how you might want to incentivise this with a couple simple table rules, like making casting costs half-price within your own school of magic. Then stick around to the end: we argue about why Lesser Restoration is better than Greater Restoration -- at least for disease. Welcome to Like Dragon Like Son, a podcast hosted by Jay and Jack Oatway where they discuss everything D&D, from character builds to personal experiences. Stay tuned for new episodes on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you love Like Dragon Like Son and want to help us out, you can support us by sharing this podcast with your friends. It's the support of listeners like you which motivate us to put out more episodes, so thank you!

More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Jak zwykła mawiać starszyzna naszej wioski „Cudze chwalicie – swego nie znacie pamiętacie” i chociaż krew w nas jeszcze młoda, nie możemy tym razem – przynajmniej częściowo – nie przyznać racji tej uniwersalnej prawdzie. Bywa, że w pogoni za nowościami z Kickstarterów lub zagranicznych targów, zapominamy o seriach, które debiutując na lokalnym rynku dały nam niegdyś […]

Enchanters,Ron Holden,Four Tunes,Sputnicks,Fireballs,Frankie Ford,Joe Norris, And More!

In this episode of the New Ones, Craig talks about Bob Ross The Art of Chill, Songbirds, Enchanters, Pursuit of Happyness, and San Juan. Happy Easter!

1) Santa Got Lost In Texas by The Cast of Bonanza 2) Santa Bring My Baby Back by Elvis Presley 3) Fat Daddy by Fat Daddy 4) Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) by The Ramones 5) Spotlight on Christmas by Rufus Wainwright 6) Sleigh Bells, Reindeer and Snow by Rita Faye Wilson 7) Christmas Is Going to the Dogs by Eels 8) Christmas Everday by The Miracles 9) Come On Santa by The Raveonettes 10) Frosty the Snowman by The Ronettes 11) Santa's Got a Mean Machine by JD McPherson 12) I'm Gonna Be Warm this Winter by Connie Francis 13) Love the Holidays by Old 97s 14) Mambo Santa Mambo by The Enchanters 15) Christmas in Hollis by Run DMC 16) Outro by Johnny Burnette

This week we take the knights of yore and give 'em the ol' Lorekeepers twist... until they're not knights at all.Talking points: college avoidance, blue magic, Eisenhorn's draconian tactics, voluntary geas, dieting cons, JK Simmons regrets, moral (dis)enchantment, magicians staying to the back, and vampire-empress-spirit-leaders.Referenced EpisodesMagical writing systems: ep. 6Cantrips and magician trade schools: ep. 12The Avireal, the fate of dead elves: ep. 15The Ratcatchers, a monster-hunting guild: ep. 23Aevum Tertius, the Age of Destinies: ep. 24Significance of elven naming: ep. 26———Want to learn more about Halûme? Explore the world here, or by visiting our homepage at thelorekeepers.com and clicking on "Visit World". We regularly add new articles! Questions or ideas? Email us at lorekeeperspodcast@gmail.comWebsite: thelorekeepers.comTwitter: @thelorekeepers

This week on For Love & Money, we discuss the world of self-publishing with K.F. Bradshaw, author and publisher of the Enchanters series! Covered in this episode: The challenges of going it alone. Strategies for finding your audience without the help of a publisher. The rewards of creating something truly your own. Please feel free to check out her books on the Enchanters website.

In this episode, the brandt recalls recent plays of Fist of Dragonstones, GoTown, Hippo, Team Up!, Enchanters, Tiny Epic Defenders, and Oaxaca. Whew! He then bumbles through some things about video games... Hope you enjoy!

In this cheese-wine charmed episode of The Garden Log we talk meadows, short lived perennials, lilly-beetles, and acorns. We also pay a visit to a National Trust garden and travel back in time to meet a Victorian head gardener

Essen-a-go-go! SHOW NOTES: •••[00:04:13] Essen Games of Interest►►► Guilds, Wibbell++, IUNU, The King's Abbey, Thrashing Dice: Assassin Edition, Karuba the Card Game, Quests of Valeria, Edge of Humanity, Pit Crew, Villages of Valeria, Rising 5, Origami, After the Virus, Carthago: Merchants & Guilds, Dragonsgate College, Nations: The Dice Game, Escape Room: Das Spiel - Virtual Reality, Enchanters, Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature, My Story, Bali, Unicornus Knights, Isle of Trains, Vengeance, Exodus Fleet, Flick 'em Up: Dead of Winter, Import/Export, Master' Trials: Wrath of Magmaroth, Space Race: The Card Game, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Card Game, Fantasy Defense, Paperback, Pioneer Days, Paper Tales, CV Pocket, Amun-Re: The Card Game, The Captain is Dead, Deadline, Yokohama, Flatline, Reworld, Instanbul: The Dice Game, Fugitive, Deckscape: Test Time, The Sanctuary: Endangered Species, Feudalia, Flip Ships, The Lost Expedition, Harvest, Petrichor, Fog of Love, Chimera Station, Anachrony, A Column of Fire, Barenpark, The Networks, Sentient, Keyper, Fast Forward Series, Riverboat, Tiny Epic Quest, Raiders of the North Sea, Dinosaur Island, Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time, Otys, Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game, London (2nd edition), Kitchen Rush, Exit: Das Spiel series, The Palace of Mad King Ludwig, Pulsar 2849, Codenames Duet, Majesty: For the Realm, Tybor the Builder, Heaven & Ale, Unlock! Mystery Adventures, Lisboa, Clank! In! Space!, Rajas of the Ganges, Indian Summer, Whistle Stop, Nusfjord, Azul, Noria, Ex Libris, Altiplano, Agra, Queendomino, Gaia Project, Clans of Caledonia •••[02:12:47] Essen Top 10►►► Tale of Pirates, This War of Mine, Santa Maria, Hunt for the Ring, Transatlantic, Loot Island, Merlin, Gloomhaven, Charterstone, Pandemic Legacy 2 •••[02:43:08] Essen Expansions of Interest►►► Import/Export expansions, Dale of Merchants: Systematic Eurasian Beavers, Rhodes: The Colossus, various Valeria expansions, Nimbee: The Bee's Knees, various Catacombs expansions, Fantasy Defense: The Stone King, Tiny Epic Galaxies Beyond the Black, Petrichor: Flowers, Flick em Up! Dead of Winter - Sparky, Peloponnes: Heroes and Colonies, Kingdom Builder: Harvest, Alban Viard expansions, Taluva Extension, Anachrony expansions, Legends of Andor expansions, Agricola: Artifex Deck, Dixit Harmonies, Task Kalar: Etherweave, Azul: Joker Tiles, Pursuit of Happiness: Community, Mystic Vale: Mana Storm, Port Royal: The Adventure Begins, Snowdonia expansions, A Feast for Odin promo, Nations: The Dice Game - Unrest, Lisboa Heavy Cardboard Promo, Orleans promos, Isle of Skye: Journeyman, Concordia: Egypt/Crete, 7 Wonders Anniversary Packs, OMG: Escape to Canyon Brook, Lorenzo il Magnifico: House of Renaissance, Voyages of Marco Polo: Agents of Venice •••[03:10:52] Essen Demos of Interest►►► Mistfall: Chronicles of Frost, Overbooked, Dice Settlers, Fantastiqa Rival Realms, Kung Fu Panda: The Board Game, MourneQuest, Monster Lands, Dawn of Peacemakers, Teotihuacan: City of the Gods, Space Race: The Card Game - Interkosmos, Endeavor (Second Edition), Railways of Nippon, UBOOT: The Board Game, SteamRollers, Tiny Epic Defenders: The Dark War, Batman: The Boardgame, Dice Hospital, A Nice cut of Tea, Networks: Executives, Unlock! Demos, TIME Stories: Santo Tomas de Aquino •••Help Rahdo run @ https://patreon.com/rahdo •••Send your questions to questions@rahdo.com

3 and a half hours?!? SHOW NOTES: •••[00:00:42] Games of Interest►►► Dungeon Roll: Henchmen, Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama, The Master' Trials: Wrath of Magmaroth, Valerian: The Alpha Missions, Riverboat, Pulsar 2849, Heaven & Ale, Lorenzo il Magnifico: Houses of Renaissance, Ancestree, Tiny Epic Defenders: The Dark War, Edge of Darkness, Unlock! Mystery Adventures, Escape Room: Das Spiel - Virtual Reality, Santa Maria, Rajas of the Ganges, CV Pocket, Mystic Vale: Mana Storm, Enchanters, Agra, Black Angel, Majesty: For the Realm, Deckscape: The Fate of London, Carcassonne for Two, Crisis at Steamfall •••[00:36:14] Top10 Revists►►► Elegant Games, Game AIs, Western Games, Dice Games, Co-op Fantasy/Adventure Cardgames, Restaurant Games •••[01:25:33] Boardgame Q&A►►► Rahdo endorsements, part II? Rahdo at conventions in 2017? Kennerspiel winners, 2011-2017? Rosenberg game similarities? Glen More issues? Pandemic: Legacy 2nd time through? Best game of 2017 so far? Best sci-fi card game? Large print boardgames? Expansions = DLC? Best Pandemic expansion? Board game thesis? Self-handicapping? New Feld game? Aeon's End vs Shadowrun Crossfire? •••[02:20:51] Non-Boardgame Q&A►►► Higher education? Jen's fave Tim Ferriss guests? Rahdo Sings Through? 2nd favourite food? Rise of popular Rahdo, part II? Hospitals in Malta? Paleo lifestyle? Losing a pet? Playing with celebs/historical figures? Grain Brain? Grain free dogs? RRT Survivor? RRT Amazing Race? Always Sunny? Ice cream vs custard? Swimming pooches? Fave movies? How does Jen pick her books? Pokemon Go? Jen's music? Glass glue? Classified song? •••Help Rahdo run @ https://patreon.com/rahdo •••Send your questions to questions@rahdo.com

In this episode of Bibliophiles Anonymous, Denise and Jess tackle the end of the Belgariad when they discuss Enchanter's End Game, the fifth and final book in the series. They also fight the dragons of Internet issues. Apologies for the audio quality, but hopefully all will be back to normal next week. Speaking of next week - we need some topic suggestions. Contact the show by email (bibliophiles.podcast@gmail.com), on Twitter (@BibAnonPodcast), or on the official site (www.bibliophiles-anonymous.com). Thanks for listening! Please rate, review and subscribe!

Dr. William Atkinson is a Medical Epidemiologist in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. He has worked for CDC for 23 years, with most of this time spent in immunization-related activities. His current principle responsibility is the development of technical and training materials for immunization providers - he teaches doctors and nurses how and when to give vaccines.??He practiced his skepticism in solitude for more than 20 years. This all changed after a chance encounter with Maria Walters at his first Amazing Meeting in July 2010.??Bill will be discussing the "Hug Me, I'm Vaccinated" promotion - how and why it started, and it's first big project: a pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination clinic at Dragon*Con 2010. Come see Angels and Enchanters (and Maria and DJ and Matt and a host of others) get protected from pertussis!??[ Slides of Dr. Atkinson's presentation are available at http://podcasts.abruptmedia.com/AtlantaSkeptics/asitp-0012.pdf ]

Dr. William Atkinson is a Medical Epidemiologist in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. He has worked for CDC for 23 years, with most of this time spent in immunization-related activities. His current principle responsibility is the development of technical and training materials for immunization providers - he teaches doctors and nurses how and when to give vaccines.??He practiced his skepticism in solitude for more than 20 years. This all changed after a chance encounter with Maria Walters at his first Amazing Meeting in July 2010.??Bill will be discussing the "Hug Me, I'm Vaccinated" promotion - how and why it started, and it's first big project: a pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination clinic at Dragon*Con 2010. Come see Angels and Enchanters (and Maria and DJ and Matt and a host of others) get protected from pertussis!??[ Slides of Dr. Atkinson's presentation are available at http://podcasts.abruptmedia.com/AtlantaSkeptics/asitp-0012.pdf ]

Aprillian and Ashayo discuss another week of playing World of Warcraft, Blizzard's great MMORPG. By the time we are recording, we should all be knee deep in Patch 3.02 What We've Been Doing Aprillian Spent Sun afternoon getting Kapril, Drainei pally to 30.  Went to Menethil Harbor with Aloq and finished the cursed crew quest.  Ran into a Nelf Hunter and buffed her with underwater breathing.  Afterwards she saved me when I was fighting the Captain, and Kapril Dinged 30 in the help opening the footlocker.  She hearthed to Exador and summoned Aloq and went to the Pally trainer and got her pally mount and riding skill and bought an Elek, I love it.  So now I am going to get Aloq to 30 and then leave my alliance alone.  Sunday night I got Aloq to 30 and hearthed to SW and then Summoned Kapril and then ubby called me for dinner.  After I logged on, got the Warlock training and then the mount.  Then we rode across the map and bought a horsey Monday night spent most of the time trying to level my 27 mage Tiiaa and 27 druid Drame.  Spent silly time getting their skinning up thinking they could skin in South Barrens.  After getting them to 36 and 18 respectively, realized after killing my first Thunder Lizard it needed 100 skinning.  We did the Gann's quest, had fun sheeping mobs with the mage, she also had the cooking quest, killing rats in Bael. After finishing them, I realized Tiiaa was going to ding 28, when she turned in the nitro Glycerin wood pulp quest, but more importantly Drame might too, so I sent him down to blow up that flying machine and come back ding and give Tiiaa a level.  He came close, so I brought in Treshel and had her help Drame finish the Weapons of Choice and the skulls quest and ding and then he gave Tiiaa a level. So now Tiiaa is level 29.  I am thinking of signing up for a BG and then having her get some levels from Suyna get her mount and rush to the mage trainer and then have her come into bg with many higher levels and a mount. But then it was time for bed.  I waved goodbye to WoW BC and knew the next time I sat down at my desk, I would be playing the brand new beautiful Echoes of Doom, WoW 3.02 I had patched on one computer with the idea of copying to all the others.  But the patch wasn't available before I left for work.  At work I pulled out my MBA around 11am and the patch was available for dl.  I almost didn't take it because I knew I could get it at home but for some reason I couldn't connect to my desktops at home.  Spent most of the day downloading.  Did the first 1.2 gigs and then the 400mb.  All the time watching the Apple event.I tried to get in and do stuff Tues night but the server kept going down.  A couple of things I discovered, for some reason I can't put pets on the AH Got caught up with leveling herbalism and inscription. Starte some toons on herbalism and two on inscription.  Then had to run through low areas to level herbalism. Spent Wed night trying to stay on and couldn't, got frustrated and just logged off.  Thursday morning, got Vapril caught up in inscriptions and had her and Weaa dual boxing herbalism in different zones.  Then Vapril got inscription up to a point where she made these things that could only be used by Enchanters (1). SCROLLS, OH MY GOODNESS, SCROLLS! So now I"m obsessed withAshayo Didn't take notes

I. The Future is Bright? Please open your bibles to Daniel chapter 2. we're going to continue our study this morning, in the Book of Daniel, and we come to one of the great chapters in the Bible, especially for the display of the majesty of God, and his incredible power and his supernatural knowledge. And we are not going to get through all of it this time, or even the next time, there's just too much here. We're going to be looking at the first 23 verses, at the issue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Now, we use an expression when we say, "The future is bright," don't we? We think about that, and it shows that we want to be optimistic about the future. We want to look ahead to the future with brightness. We want to see hope, we want to think that good things are coming, and so we use this expression, the future is bright. But it also shows that we think about the future at all. We are a future-looking people, especially we Americans. We're always looking ahead to what's coming down the road. Very soon, for example, the year is going to change. You know what year it's going to be? It's going to be 2001. And I remember when I was a child, I watched a movie by that title, and the world seemed so futuristic at that point. It's amazing how little of that has come to pass. There aren't, for example, any mining expeditions on the surface of the moon. They have not found any shiny black obelisks, and there's no expedition going to the outer reaches of the solar system. So it's amazing how we look ahead to the future, and don't really know what's coming, but we make our guess. I was reading a book that I got at a yard sale, it's called the People's Almanac 2, and it's got all kinds of interesting things in it. It was published in 1978, but the very first chapter is entitled, Around the corner: Predicting the future. And it makes predictions for the 20 years that are going to come, which will close out the millennium, from 1979 to 2000. I'm looking back over those predictions and finding a lot of humor in them. For example, there's a prediction that there would be a Palestinian nation established north of Israel. We're still waiting for that one, hasn't happened. President Carter would be re-elected in 1980. That didn't happen either. Electric cars would replace gasoline-powered automobiles in 1982. That hasn't happened. There would be a man landing on Mars some time between 1983 and 1985, and clear evidence would be found that life once existed there. We're waiting both for the expedition and for the evidence that life once existed on Mars. That the Roman Catholic papacy would cease to exist in those 20 years. They were getting very bold in some of these predictions, but it made good reading. The United States would be torn by a massive civil war in the 1980s. That didn't happen either. Texas, would secede from the Union in 1982. I don't think that happened. I'm not sure, but I think it's still part of the nation. By 1986, ocean farming would produce a third of the world's consumable edible goods, and by the year 2000, guns, which used bullets, would cease to exist, and would be replaced by stun guns, which use electrical discharge. None of those things have happened, but it shows that we're interested in the future. We're always looking ahead. Even Bill Gates wrote a bestselling book called The Road Ahead. Looking ahead. Right around this time, people are interested in the markets, or wondering is it going to be a bear or is it going to be a bull in the year 2001? And so Forbes and other money magazines are making predictions about how the economy is going to be. In popular entertainment, other than the movie 2001, there's an ongoing interest in science fiction, and in the future. I remember when I was a child, watching The Jetsons. How many of you watched The Jetsons? Remember? All these little putt putt kind of spaceships, you're never touching ground, you're always kind of elevated up off the earth. I don't know what was wrong with the ground at the time, but there was something wrong with it, and so they were always flying around. Interesting thing about The Jetsons, really, just 1950s America put forward into the future, so it actually is a look back more than anything else. We're very interested in the future, and we want to know more than anything, all of these things are interesting to us, but we want to know what's my future? What's going to happen to me and to people I love? And we do that, don't we? Concerned about the future, we want to know what's going to happen, and we're yearning for a bright future. But, in one sense, the future is anything but bright. By that I mean it's dark to us, we don't know what's going to come, and the scripture testifies to that darkness. I'm not speaking pessimistically, just speaking that we don't know what's coming. Look at James chapter 4, for example, it says, "Now, listen, you who say 'today or tomorrow, we'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money.' You don't even know what will happen tomorrow, never mind a year from now. What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live, and do this and that.'" So the scripture testifies that the future is dark to us. And in our text today, in verse 22, it says, of God, that "he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him." What does this mean? He knows what lies in darkness. It's referring to the future, the fact that we cannot know what is coming. But the future is bright with God. You understand that? And I mean that in both senses. First of all, it lays open, like an open book, to him. There is nothing dark or hidden about the future to God. He knows all things before any of them come to pass. And we mean it in the second sense, the one we're used to using, that the future is bright, in that glorious things are coming, incredible things are coming, an establishment of a kingdom that will never end, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And Daniel chapter 2 is one of the clearest prophecies in the Old Testament of that coming kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is a bright future and a glorious one, but it's only bright to us as we're close to God, the one who reveals secrets and the one who establishes for us all of our hopes and our dreams. Listen as I read, I'm going to read just the first 23 verses of this chapter and try to understand how the future was made bright to an ancient king Nebuchadnezzar. "In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, his mind was troubled and he could not sleep, so the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, 'I have had a dream that troubles me, and I want to know what it means.' Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, 'Oh king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.' The king replied to the astrologers, 'This is what I have firmly decided, if you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble, but if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.' Once more, they replied, 'Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will interpret it.' Then the king answered, 'I am certain that you are trying to gain time because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me the dream there is but one penalty for you, you have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then tell me the dream and I will know that you can interpret it for me.' The astrologers answered the king, 'There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks. No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods and they do not live among men.' This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends, to put them to death. When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king's officer, 'Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?' Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of Heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of Heaven and said, 'Praise be to the name of God forever and ever, wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons, he sets up kings and deposes them, he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, oh God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and power. You have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.'" II. Nebuchadnezzar’s Terrifying Dream and Terrible Decree (vs. 1-12) Now, in verses 1-12, we see Nebuchadnezzar's terrifying dream and his terrible decree. In verse 1, we get the circumstances of the dream, it says that he dreamed dreams, it was not just one dream, but perhaps a series of dreams. Perhaps it was the same dream given many times, but he fixates on this one dream and it caused him incredible terror. Now, the circumstances of the dream have caused trouble for the defenders of Biblical inerrancy, shouldn't, but it does. Critics have said, "Now, there's a discrepancy here between Daniel chapter 1, in which it says that he's trained for three years, and then the circumstances of chapter 2, in which it says, in the second year of King Nebuchadnezzar, these dreams came." But there's no trouble here at all because, in the Babylonian system of reckoning, the first year of a king was his first full year. So if Nebuchadnezzar had come to power in the middle of a year, let's say, the middle of the year 604 BC, say, June or April. He would serve the rest of that year, but it would still be considered the kingship of his father, Nabopolassar. And so he would begin, for us, in our calendar, on January, the following year. Meanwhile, all that time, Daniel and his friends were getting their first full year of training. There's no difficulty here whatsoever. And so it was that he had these dreams, and it was some time between April 603 and March 602 BC. Now, what were the reasons for the dream? Well, the circumstances, we find out in verses 28 and 29, which I did not read, but when Daniel comes to reveal the matter to the king, he says, "You, oh king, were laying on your bed. And as you were laying there, your mind turned to things to come. You began to think about the future." You can understand how this would be for a king, king's thinking about his own life. He's a young man, his kingdom is being built up nicely, but what of the future? What will come after he dies? What will happen to Babylon after he is finished? And so, as he's laying there and thinking about this, he drifts into sleep, and then the dream comes. And it's an incredible dream. We'll talk about it next time. But it fills him with terror, the immensity and the magnitude of this dream fills him with terror, and he wakes up and sleep runs from him, he can't sleep, he's filled with terror. And so, he summons the counselors, in verses 2-9, and he tests them. Now, the first order of business for Nebuchadnezzar is simple, he wants to know what the dream means, he wants to know what the dream means, and so he calls in the experts. Now, there are many such lists in Daniel. This is the complete group of all of his counselors, and this is what they're called, magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and Chaldeans or astrologers. This is that whole bunch of people, the experts of his kingdom that he calls in for help here. Now, the magicians, the word is related in Hebrew to stylus or pen. They probably were just scholars or clerics of some sort. Enchanters, however, had power, supposedly, of communication with the dead. Sorcerers practiced sorcery, they were perhaps early chemists, mixing potions and doing various things, but the Chaldeans were the highest and most important of them all. Now, Chaldea was a place, a region in the former Syrian empire, that's where Abraham came. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees. Nebuchadnezzar's father, Nabopolassar, was a Chaldean. This is the pure race of Babylonians that eventually conquered the whole Assyrian Empire. And so, the Chaldeans were the highest of all of the counselors, and they spoke for the whole group, and they specialized in the planets and the stars, looking at the positions and gaining information about the future by looking at the position of the stars. They also had a specialty in dreams. That's a fascinating thing. I didn't know anything about this before. I did some research. It turns out that the Babylonians very much believed in predicting the future by dreams, especially the dreams of kings. The dreams of kings were incredibly important, but the dreams of all important people and even all common people were so vital to their system of predicting the future and thinking about their lives that they kept careful records of all dreams. You would come in and report your dream, they'd take it down, then they find out what happened to you afterwards, what was the outcome of the matter? And similar to if you were to go into a lawyer's office today and see rows and rows of legal volumes, of previous cases, court cases. So there were also, with these dreams, they were precedents. And so, if there was a dream with a river in it, and a mountain and a forest, and then something happened, they might have five or six dreams that fit that criteria, and they'd look and see what had come, and they would give an interpretation based on this. And so, they were very confident that they could interpret any dream the king gave, but he was about to throw in a monkey wrench that would throw their world upside down. They had confidence, the Chaldeans, that they could interpret any dream and say what it meant based on precedent, on previous dreams. And so the Chaldeans come in and all the others, and they give a standard greeting in verse 4, "Oh king, live forever." Now, this is kind of a throw away, you might just read it and go right over it because it's the way you address the king back then, when you walked into his presence, to say, "O king, live forever." And then you get on with your business. Even Daniel does it in chapter 6, with Darius the Mede, "O king, live forever." But I believe this is the nub of the matter here, because he's not going to live forever, he is mortal, he is going to die some day, and when he dies, his kingdom will pass on to some other person. And what is going to happen then? And not only that, but the person that takes it, he's going to die too, and so on and so on, because all men are like... All their flesh is like grass and their glory is like the flower of the field that withers and fades and perishes, and so it is with human kingdoms. So they say, "O king, live forever." Now, from this point on, to chapter 7, the text is in Aramaic. Now, that might not mean much to you, but it's caused some difficulty to those that study Daniel. I just believe that Aramaic was the court language of the king, and this is the language that they worked in, and so, the account in Daniel is written in Aramaic. Doesn't cause you any trouble, I'm sure, as you go from verse 3 to verse 4, it reads, in English, to you. Praise God for scholars who've learned both Hebrew and Aramaic, and seamlessly make the translation for you. But so it is in Aramaic. There's also a theory that this is the times of the Gentiles, as Jesus called it. And so we're in the Gentile times, and so we're going to use this Gentile language. Now, Nebuchadnezzar has, I believe, skepticism about his wise men. He doesn't believe in their powers, they claim to have a connection to supernatural insider information, and he's saying, "Prove it. I want it now. I want to be sure you can give me the interpretation." He's skeptical, he's a little bit of an agnostic when it comes to their religious system. And so, he puts the stakes immeasurably high. In verse 5 and 6, the king replied to the astrologers, the Chaldeans. "This is what I have firmly decided, if you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble, but if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me." So either they're torn to pieces or you're given a promotion. There's no middle ground with this guy. I was talking to somebody the other day, we were having a little Bible study and discussing, he said it'd be better to be a peasant, working out in the field, than be in Nebuchadnezzar's court. I don't want all of your honors, alright, because, three months later, I'm going to do something wrong and you're going to cut my head off. But so it was, he was intent that he get an accurate interpretation to this dream. Now, in the King James version, it gives an implication that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten the dream. He says, "The thing is gone from me." And some commentators have said it's possible that Nebuchadnezzar could not remember his dream. And that's not all that strange, is it? We, apparently, scientists tell us, dream every night, but we only remember a very small percentage of our dreams. But I actually don't think that's what's going on here, because if he had truly completely forgotten the dream, then the Chaldeans could simply make a dream up, it's not beyond them, and say, "This is what you dreamed, and this is the interpretation. It's a standard king dream, and this is what it means." Alright? So if he really had declared to the whole court, "I've forgotten my dream," how could he contradict them? I don't think that's actually what he said in the Aramaic. I think what he said is, "It's gone out from me. The command is gone from me, and it's firmly decided that if you don't tell me my dream, I'm going to cut you into pieces and turn your houses into piles of rubble." So I think he's actually testing them. We get that also... If you look down at verse 9, he gives his motive for it. He says, "So then, tell me the dream and I will know that you can interpret it for me." So he's setting before them two orders of business, two tests. Number one, you must tell me my dream. And number two, then you will have the right and the privilege to give me the interpretation of the dream. Now, of the two, what does he care about? He already knows, I believe, his dream, he wants to know what it means, and he wants to be absolutely certain that these wise men are not conspiring to tell him wicked things, but are actually giving him a supernatural interpretation of the dream. So the promise is wealth, riches, honor, power, or destruction, all or nothing. So, they try again, it's worth a second try, in verse 7. They say, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it." No, no, no. You didn't hear me. You have to do two things, not just one. You need to tell me my dream, and then you need to give me the interpretation. He says, "I am certain that you're trying to gain time because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me the dream, there is but one penalty for you, you have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change." So then, number one, tell me the dream, and number two, I will know that you can interpret it for me. Two things. Well, now we get the counselor's pathetic failure, verses 10 and 11. How would you feel if you were one of these? Please do a miracle or else I'll kill you. And they're standing there and they're saying, "How in the world are we going to get out of this one?" This is a dire circumstance. The astrologers answer the king. There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks, "No king," and here comes the flattery. See, when you're stuck in court, resort to flattery. "No king, however great and mighty, oh king, has ever asked such a thing of his counselors." What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it..." And I love this statement. Out of their mouths, they set the stage for God, don't they? No one can do this except the gods, and they do not live down here among men. In the Babylonian way of thinking, there's this big separation between the gods in heaven up there and the affairs on earth. Later, Nebuchadnezzar will say to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he's going to say to them "Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?" You see, there's a separation. God does his heavenly thing. I run the show down here. God says, "No, you don't." That's the whole lesson of chapter 2, 3, and 4 of Daniel. I run it down here too. Yes, I run heaven, I also run Earth, and you have your kingship through my permission and my power. I grant it to you. But there's separation. No one can reveal this to the king except the gods, and they're up there, we're down here, big separation. And so, there's no way we can do the thing you've asked. Well, like any good ancient near eastern tyrant, he goes berserk at this point, absolutely enraged, and we'll see it again in chapter 3 when he orders the fire to be stoked up seven times hotter for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In verse 12, it says, "This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon." Anger makes you lose your mind, it makes you lose your reason. Anger is an enemy of reason, and we're going to see it in chapter 3 also, but he just lost his temper, he's going to kill them all, kill them all. And, by the way, this also sets up the fact that he truly is that head of goals, as we're going to see in that statute. I don't think there's ever been a man with the kind of autocratic, tyrannical power that this one individual had. I don't think any Roman Caesar could have ever said, "Kill all the senate and all the counselors and all the tribunes." He would have been assassinated. There's no way he could have pulled it off. But Nebuchadnezzar had this kind of power, and he says, "Kill them all." Well, it's in this context that we see Daniel's astounding courage, both its fruits and its roots. III. Daniel’s Astounding Courage: It’s Fruits and Roots (vs. 13-19) Verse 13-19, Daniel has incredible serenity in the maelstrom, right in the middle of the storm, we see Daniel's calm and his peace. Versus 13-15, the decree is issued to put all the men to death, and Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel comes to him and speaks to him with wisdom and tact. Some have said, "When you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, you have not fully grasped the severity of the situation." I saw that in a bumper sticker. "You have not fully understood." But Daniel did grasp the severity of the situation, and yet, he kept his head. How did he have this kind of cool calm? How did he have this ability to see through to what the issues were, and to speak to Arioch with wisdom and tact, it was his faith in God, a supernatural serenity came in the midst of this kind of trial. Daniel's life was on the line, and yet, he was unafraid, his roots were strong, and so, in the time of testing, he stood firm. And I think God sovereignly orchestrated the meeting with Arioch. Realize if all of the wise men of Babylon were going to be executed, and, by the way, I think that's just the city of Babylon itself, not the entire empire, but just that city, there's indication in the text that that's what it is, there's going to be many people going out to gather up all of these counselors, but Daniel happens to interact with the chief head executioner, the guy in charge of all of this. That's not an accident because it enabled him to go right into the king and ask for time. So God sovereignly worked it out that it would be Arioch that would go get Daniel, who was really just a junior counselor at this point, that's why he wasn't there the first time when they brought this matter before the counselors. And, in verse 15, he says... With wisdom and tact, he says, "Why did the king issue such a harsh or a hasty decree? So we see Daniel's... He's at peace, he's confident, but he just needs some information. He said, "I don't understand this, this seems strange." "Why would the king issue such a harsh [or a hasty] decree?" And then, amazingly, instead of blowing Daniel off, and saying, "Just be quiet, fall in line with the others and let's go," he takes them in, and maybe sits down and explains the whole thing to Daniel, so that Daniel could know what's going on. So God grants Daniel favor in the eyes of Arioch, and then he makes an amazing request. Daniel makes an audacious request, with courage, and it's incredibly granted. Look at verse 16, "At this, Daniel went in to the king." You don't just go in to the king, but he boldly goes in there and he asks for time that he may interpret the dream, and that was an amazing thing. The counselors before asked one thing of the king. What did they ask? They asked for time. What's the one thing the king would not grant them? Time. What's the one thing that Daniel asks for here? Time. And what's the thing that the king does grant to Daniel? Time. It's God's sovereign hand. Now, perhaps the king can see, realizes in Daniel chapter 1 verse 20, that this is one of those Judean exiles who is 10 times better than his own counselors. Maybe he remembers him. Maybe he sees Daniel's peaceful demeanor. Maybe Daniel is already exuding a kind of a confidence that he's going to be able to interpret the dream, I don't know, but he grants him the time under God's sovereign leading. I love Proverbs 21:1. I've quoted it before, "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." That's the whole point here," and he says, "Okay, Daniel, you can have time." And so, Daniel goes back to his roots, his source of power, and that is prayer, and in this case, corporate prayer. He gathers Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah together. The four then go to God in prayer, verse 17 and 18, "Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven, concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." Daniel's roots are his personal disciplines, scripture reading, and prayer. He did them every day, all the time. If you want an elaborate root system, just like we talked about in Psalm 1, you need to go to scripture and to prayer. It says in Daniel 6, "Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, just as he had done before." This was what Daniel did all the time, private personal prayer every day, three times a day he prayed. Here, he calls together the others, and they have a time of corporate prayer. In a time of emergency, it's good for the church to get together and pray. It's good for the people of God to assemble together not just to each pray individually, but that there's power in corporate prayer, there's encouragement in corporate prayer. And there was an incredible urgency at this moment, you can see, they all had a death sentence hanging over their head, literally, a death sentence. And so they had to pray just for their lives. There was incredible urgency, and so it says, "They pleaded with the God of heaven." They pleaded with the God of heaven. And I love what it says here, twice, it calls God the God of Heaven. Who do the Babylonians look to for information about the future? Where did they look? Did they not look up to the heavens? Didn't they look to the stars and the planets and their position and alignments? Yes, but there's a God who made all of those and who rules over them. It is the God who made heaven that we're going to, even above your false religious system, we're going to the God of Heaven and the God of Earth. And so they pray. IV. God’s Astounding Power and Wisdom (vs. 19-23) Now, verses 19-23, we see God's incredible power, his astounding power and wisdom, and first, with his merciful revelation. It says in verse 19, "During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision." God's grace for his people, protecting his people. His gracious revelation to Daniel, the middle of the night, he gives a vision, and realize... And Daniel knows it well, and when we get to the next part, and have an opportunity, God willing, to preach on it, you will see Daniel has incredible humility about this. It's not because I'm righteous or because I'm wise that I know the answer to this problem, but because of God's mercy, and his power, it's for this reason that I know these things. And so we see that God gives this vision for the same reason he does everything else, for the same reason he has saved those who trust in Christ, for his own glory, for his own name's sake he does this. And so, he grants the request. Daniel's life would be spared, and so would that of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. And because of Daniel's compassion on the other wise men of Babylon, their lives will be spared too. Look at verse 24, "Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, 'Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king and I will interpret his dream for him.'" He didn't need to do that, but out of compassion for them, he stayed the execution, said, "I can resolve this matter." And so their lives are going to be saved, but there's something far bigger than that going on here, and that is the glory of God as the sovereign ruler of the affairs of humanity. The glory of God in that he raises up kings and deposes them. He changes times and seasons. This is the God of history, that is far bigger than the lives of these four Jewish exiles. And so Daniel can do nothing else other than resort to a hymn of praise. Poetry, Hebrew poetry, just flows out here, it's in Aramaic but it just flows from his heart. In verse 20, it says, "Praise be to the name of God forever and ever, wisdom and power are his, he changes times and seasons, he sets up kings and deposes them, he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning, he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, o God of my fathers, you have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to me, or to us, the dream of the king." The first thing that he talks about is God's name. God's name is his self-revelation. It's what he's taught us about who he is, his character, his purposes, his power, his plans. Furthermore, God's name could also be his reputation. The spreading of God's name to every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, that all may know this mighty God who created heaven and earth, that is God's name. And so, he begins by praising God's name. And, by the way, it is for the sake of salvation that God makes much about his own name, so that we may see his glory, and we may do what with that name? Call on that name, and be saved. Romans 10, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This is salvation. When we proclaim a great and a majestic, a mighty and sovereign God, people get saved from their sins, they have eternal life. And so, he lifts up God's name and he praises the name of God forever and ever. And then he speaks of God's wisdom. God knows all things, nothing is hidden from him. There's no secrets too difficult for God, that includes the future, the future lays open bright, but it also includes the thoughts in your mind as you lay on your bed. Did you catch that? We'll talk about that next time. But Daniel says to the king, "Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:" Ooh, that's scary. How would you like your thoughts that go through your mind as you lay on your bed to be proclaimed to the whole court? God is capable of doing it, and there will come a time he will do it, it's called judgment day. The secrets of every thought will be exposed. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be revealed, and made known. God searches our hearts, and our minds, nothing's hidden from him, even the thoughts that go through our minds as we lay on our bed. And so God's wisdom is complete. And it's not just knowing facts, it's also knowing what is right and just and fair, that is God's wisdom. He knows what's right to do and he will do it, that is God's wisdom. And then he praises God for his power. God can do anything, there's nothing too difficult for him, and there is no mighty potentate on earth too powerful for God to topple, if he should choose. We'll learn all about that in chapter 4. God can do anything with the powers on Earth, and he rules over the affairs of men. No one can resist his will. It says in the Book of Isaiah, "His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" This is our God. He is powerful. And so God... Daniel praises him for that. And then, finally, he speaks of his grace, the wisdom was given, he gives wisdom to Daniel, he thanks God for it, he gives power to Daniel, and he thanks God for it. His life is given back to him. He's not going to be executed, and also that of the other wise men of Babylon. But more than anything, he is making much of himself in order that we, who live many generations later, may be saved from our sins. God is gracious and he is merciful. V. Applications What applications can we take from this ancient story? When this happened 600 years before Jesus was born, how can this say anything to us today? Oh, it says everything to us today. First of all, it speaks of the limitations of human wisdom and power. Did you watch, in the 35 days after the election, how many times they trotted up some expert, expert on the Supreme Court, or expert on constitutional law, or expert on polling, or exit polls? All these experts, we have them too, we have our Chaldeans today, don't we? Human wisdom leads nowhere. As a matter of fact, in many cases, it's diametrically opposed to God's wisdom. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? The Chaldeans couldn't do it. They did not know the dream, and they didn't know the future. It also shows the limitations of human power, not just of wisdom, of power. What could Nebuchadnezzar do to make his counselor tell him his dream? What could he do? Didn't he turn all the knobs right up to maximum? Absolute torture and death, terrible death, or the highest wealth and honor given, he gave everything he had, that he might get an interpretation of that dream, and they couldn't do it. There's a limitation to Nebuchadnezzar's power. And there's a specific limitation to his power when it comes to the God of heaven, he cannot resist God's will. Limitation of human wisdom and power. What's the application for us? Do not trust in man. Do not trust in human wisdom. Do not trust in human power. Don't trust in your own. Lean not on your own understanding. Trust on God and his word. There are some things in his words that makes no sense to us. It doesn't make it right or wrong, it doesn't make it wrong, it makes us, in our thinking, wrong, we need to be transformed by God's wisdom, and not hold on to our own human wisdom, and we need to stop looking to our own power to save us, but rather, only to the power of God through Jesus Christ. Brings me to the second point, and that's the infinitude of God's wisdom and power. Is there anything he doesn't know? Is there anything he cannot do? This is our God. Look to him and be established and know that God knows all things, and can do all things. And then, finally, the godly character of Daniel. How would you have done in that trial? If that had been you standing there before Arioch, and the moment of truth arises, how would you be? Would you be swept away or do you have a root system strong enough to trust God for the amazing and for the miraculous? Do you have faith enough? Are you trusting God for something only God can do? Faith enough to trust God for a supernatural moving, and a demonstration of his glory. And do you have courage enough to stand firm even if your very life is threatened? And where does that courage come from? It comes from God. How are you in a crisis? Think about the last time you were in a crisis, how did you do? Did you start to feel the roots swaying and getting swept out from under you or did you stand firm? That's a time of testing. And then, finally, Daniel's compassion, his wisdom, his winsomeness, his gentleness, his compassion, all of it comes out here. This is Daniel's character. I want to conclude by going back to the greeting that the wise man gave to the king. You remember what it was? "O king, live forever." I believe that that's what God cares about here with Nebuchadnezzar, he wants Nebuchadnezzar truly to live forever. And where is eternal life found? Is it not in the kingdom of the rock cut out but not by human hands we're going to learn about next time? The kingdom of Jesus Christ, a kingdom which will never end, that there is eternal life in his name. Will you live forever? Death is coming for us all. We should all be fearing the one who, after death, can destroy both soul and body in hell. But through faith in Christ, we can live forever. That's the point of Daniel 2, and Daniel 3, and Daniel 4, that Nebuchadnezzar might have eternal life, and that we also, through these words, may have the same. Do you have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ? If not, today is a day of salvation, call on his name. Won't you close with me in prayer?