Podcasts about his eyes

Stupid News 6-23-2025 6am ...It was as Simple as just changing the Sign from Men to Women ...She found a Phone at the Bottom of her Food ...His Eyes are Too Small for that SUV

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - John 17:20-26 - Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, so that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one, as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that You sent Me, and that You loved them even as You loved Me. Father, they are Your gift to Me. I wish that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may see my glory that You gave Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know You, but I know You, and they know that You sent Me. I made known to them Your Name and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them." Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr Saint Boniface, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Sam Shamoun on everything you have ever wanted to know about Islam

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - John 17:1-11a - Jesus raised His Eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all people, so that Your Son may give eternal life to all You gave Him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know You, the only true God, and the One Whom You sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work that You gave Me to do. Now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world began. “I revealed Your Name to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They belonged to You, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything You gave Me is from You, because the words you gave to Me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones You have given Me, because they are Yours, and everything of Mine is Yours and everything of Yours is Mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to You.” Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga, and Companions, Martyrs Saint Charles Lwanga, and Companions, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3, 4) Joshua Charles. on The Four Marks of the Church

Today's Topics: 1, 2, 3, 4) Gospel - John 6:1-15 - Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs He was performing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. The Jewish feast of Passover was near. When Jesus raised His Eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to Him, He said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?" He said this to test him, because He Himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered Him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little." One of His disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Him, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. When they had had their fill, He said to His disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign He had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the One Who is to come into the world." Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry Him off to make Him king, He withdrew again to the mountain alone. Special Edition with Bishop Strickland on the upcoming Papal Conclave

Brock Lindow returns to Talk Toomey to dive into With Hell in His Eyes, the debut album from his new band Paradise Slaves. He talks melodic vocals, forming the band during COVID, opening for Five Finger Death Punch, and embracing music at 50. Plus: wild tour stories, radio days in Alaska, intense music videos, and hockey dad life. Joshua Toomey on Facebook/Twitter @talktoomeytalk Support Toomey on Patreon www.patreon.com/talktoomey Shop Talk Toomey Depop www.depop.com/talktoomey Subscribe to Talk Toomey on YouTube for in-depth interviews with the most exciting artists in aggressive music, deep dives into iconic artists' discography, and more. #paradiseslaves #36crazyfists #brocklindow #alaska

This week we're joined by special guest, Mother Iliana. Mother Natalia and Mother Iliana talk about a mistake that was made that impacted their relationship. They give background on all the other things going on in their individual lives before the mistake was made, and how those things made the mistake seem much bigger and smaller. They talk about the repair that was made in their relationship, and how each of them experienced the healing.References:What Suffering is Not with Mother IlianaThe Light of His Eyes with Mother IlianaThe Light of His Eyes: Journeying from Self-Contempt to the Father's Delight by Mother IlianaThat's Not the Point Part 1That's Not the Point Part 2Pray for Us: 75 Saints who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness by Meg Hunter-KilmerPilgrimage:We're going on pilgrimage! You can find all the details including dates, itinerary, and cost at the 206tours website. Want to hear this directly from Fr. Michael and Mother Natalia? Check out our announcement video.Follow and Contact Us!Follow us on Instagram and FacebookWe're on YouTube!Join our Goodreads GroupFr. Michael's TwitterChrist the Bridegroom MonasteryOur WebsiteOur NonprofitSend us a textSupport the show

Radio Ronin makes Thursday's awesome!!!Chunga is in a bad way... why!?  He sunburned his eyes!!!  HIS EYES!!!!!  How do you sunburn your eyes!?!?The arctic blast is freezing most of the country! Except the one place that REALLY needs things to cool down!  Southern California is on fire again.  This time it's in Santa Clarita and Dan Diego!There's more drama surrounding the future name of the Utah Hockey Club, but Chunga, Chandler, Gregg, and Chris all think there's something very odd about this entire scenario.  Legendary guitar hero John Sykes had passed away.  His influence will live on for decades.CHUNGA POLL: If you could bring back ONE celebrity back from the dead, who would you choose?  You can only pick one! Post your answers below!!!!PLUS, Gregg has a new Big, Dumb, Fun, Movie Shout Out!!!! Listen NOW!!!!It's on www.radioronin.com and everywhere you get your podcasts!!

Radio Ronin makes Thursday's awesome!!!Chunga is in a bad way... why!?  He sunburned his eyes!!!  HIS EYES!!!!!  How do you sunburn your eyes!?!?The arctic blast is freezing most of the country! Except the one place that REALLY needs things to cool down!  Southern California is on fire again.  This time it's in Santa Clarita and Dan Diego!There's more drama surrounding the future name of the Utah Hockey Club, but Chunga, Chandler, Gregg, and Chris all think there's something very odd about this entire scenario.  Legendary guitar hero John Sykes had passed away.  His influence will live on for decades.CHUNGA POLL: If you could bring back ONE celebrity back from the dead, who would you choose?  You can only pick one! Post your answers below!!!!PLUS, Gregg has a new Big, Dumb, Fun, Movie Shout Out!!!! Listen NOW!!!!It's on www.radioronin.com and everywhere you get your podcasts!!

AN UNDERRATED SPINOFF!! Download the PrizePicks today & use code REJECTS to $50 instantly when you play $5! https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/RE... Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:  https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thereelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/thereelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Andrew Gordon & Tara Erickson are BACK to continue their Paranormal Activity journey as they give their FIRST-TIME Reaction, Commentary, Analysis, Easter Eggs, Breakdown, & Full Movie Spoiler Review for the first spinoff in the series, The Marked Ones!! The 5th installment in the Paranormal Activity franchise sees The Midwives' machinations spreading beyond the likes of Katie & Kristi to a new group of California teens making for some fresh haunting with a latino twist. Andrew & Tara REACT to all the Best Scenes & Scariest Moments including Simon Says, The Trapdoor, Strange Powers, Demonic Strength, Something in His Eyes, Cleansing the Evil Spirit, Surrounded by Witches, Katie and Micah, & Beyond!! Follow Andrew Gordon on Socials:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MovieSource Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/agor711/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Agor711 Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sermon Outline: God is Sovereign (Ps. 11:4) A. His Throne, 4a B. His Eyes, 4b and knows our hearts! (Ps. 11:5) A. The Righteous, 5a B. The Wicked, 5b

Chuck Edwards - "Downtown Soulville" - 45 [0:00:00] Music behind DJ: Lebaron Strings - "Baby I Owe You Something" - 45 [0:03:20] The Adorables - "School's All Over" - 45 [0:06:15] The Adorables - "Daddy Please" - 45 [0:07:26] The Adorables - "Devil in His Eyes" - 45 [0:10:02] The Adorables - "Be" - 45 [0:12:46] The Adorables - "Ooh Boy" - 45 [0:15:52] The Adorables - "Deep Freeze" - 45 [0:16:51] Music behind DJ: Lebaron Strings - "Baby I Owe You Something" - 45 [0:19:18] Pat Lewis - "Can't Shake It Loose" - 45 [0:21:34] Pat Lewis - "Warning" - 45 [0:23:42] Pat Lewis - "No Baby No" - 45 [0:26:05] Pat Lewis - "(I Owe You) Something" - 45 [0:31:01] Music behind DJ: Lebaron Strings - "Baby I Owe You Something" - 45 [0:32:06] Pat Lewis - "Let's Go Together" - 45 [0:33:49] Pat Lewis - "I'll Wait" - 45 [0:36:56] Pat Lewis - "Look at What I Almost Missed" - 45 [0:39:01] Pat Lewis - "The Loser" - 45 [0:42:25] Pat Lewis - "No One to Love" - 45 [0:43:59] Lil Bob and the Lollipops - "Peaches (You Got Love)" - 45 [0:47:55] Lloyd Hendricks - "The Sno-Cone" - 45 [0:50:24] Richard Knight - "Back to School" - 45 [0:52:48] The T.M.G.'s - "Aggravation" - 45 [0:56:57] Music behind DJ: Dave Hamilton - "Cracklin Bread" - 45 [0:58:32] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/143806

Terry Barber and Jesse Romero React to Harrison Butker's Commencement Speech as it echoes what Barber and Romero have been saying on their previous shows. Barber and Romero use the Kansas City Chief's Kicker and his speech to call out the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Jesse Romero later interviews Bob Trussell on his new book from Sophia Press: https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-logic-that-god-exists/   Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Jn 17:20-26 - Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name that You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are One. When I was with them I protected them in Your Name that You gave Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You. I speak this in the world so that they may share My joy completely. I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world but that You keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2) Harrison Butker commencement speech at Catholic college sends woke leftist media over the edge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JS7RIKSaCc 3, 4) Bob Trussell on his book: The Logic that God Exists (Sophia Institute Press) https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-logic-that-god-exists/

PragerU makes a feature on this episode of The TJ Show comparing the moral case of both capitalism and socialism. Terry Barber and Jesse Romero later go on to point out how Christian's have been victims of too many attacks, as of recent. Barber and Romero encourage churches to go into wartime mode. Activating all members of your local Knights of Colombus or strategically placing members are just some ways to avoid any kind of brutal attack. In a Wartime Church, the priest actually I called upon to lead his parish as a spiritual warrior and we encourage everyone to be vigilant. Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Jn 17:11b-19 - Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name that you have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are One. When I was with them I protected them in Your Name that You gave Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You. I speak this in the world so that they may share My joy completely. I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world but that You keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2) A moral case for capitalism https://www.prageru.com/video/a-moral-case-for-capitalism 3) The war time Church https://news.gab.com/2024/05/the-war-time-church/ 4) Dropping the (spiritual) blinders https://spiritdailyblog.com/inspiration/dropping-the-blinders

Saint Athanasius was 4th Century Bishop who was fighting a heresy that consumed popular opinion. With zealous and faithful preaching, Bishop Athanasius was responsible for numerous letters clarifying the deposit of the faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church. In times like today, many Catholics have been put in a situation similar to Bishop Athanasius. It may seem hard but Bishop encourages that is exactly where we should be. The world does not want to accept Christ's message and it is the role of the Catholic Church to preach it anyway. Today's Topics: 1, 2, 3, 4) Gospel - Jn 17:11b-19 - Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name that You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are One. When I was with them I protected them in Your Name that You gave Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You. I speak this in the world so that they may share My joy completely. I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world but that You keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Memorial of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Saint Isidore, pray for us! Bishop Strickland and Terry discuss the need to model the fourth century Saint Athanasius, a Bishop who suffered great persecution by those in the Church because he spoke the truth in defending the Deposit of Faith

What's up, dudes? I'm running up that hill with Mike and Rusty from Snow in Southtown to talk about Kate: Kate Bush Christmas Special and her song “December Will Be Magic Again!” Released in 1979, it proves that the singer, only 21 at the time, was already a tour de force. A year later she released the Christmas song as a single.The special is a mix of live performances and choreographed dance to prerecorded music. The live portion was recorded BBC Pebble Mills Studios in front of an audience. The music for the dance was done at EMI Studios in London. After a rotoscoped animated introduction, Kate launches into renditions off “Violin,” Gymnopédie No. 1 by Satie, and “Symphony in Blue.” “Them Heavy People” follows with Kate garbed in sequins. Immediately a trio sings Peter Gabriel's in, and he serenades the audience with “Here Comes the Flood.” Kate performs “Ran Tan Waltz” then premieres “December Will Be Magic Again” on solo piano. Next comes “The Wedding List” about a vengeful bride and the duet “Another Day” with Peter Gabriel about a failed marriage. Finally, Kate enthralls us with “Egypt,” “The Man with a Child in His Eyes,” and “Don't Push Your Foot on the Heart Brake.” Does she hop in a garbage can and come out dressed like Sandy from the end of “Grease?” Why, yes. Yes she does.Stevie Nicks-like flowing black outfit? Yep. Fake beard and “Fiddler on the Roof” getup? Uh huh.  Kate doing interpretative dance superimposed over her playing piano? Definitely! So grab your violin and head to Egypt to this episode about Kate Bush!Snow in SouthtownFB: @snowinsouthtownTwitter: @snowinsouthtownIG: @snowinsouthtownPatreon: @snowinsouthtownCheck us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com! Later, dudes!

The Man with a Storm in His Eyes – Volume 4NOTE: If you have not listened to Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of this 4-part miniseries, please pause this episode, and go listen to the first three installments, otherwise the story won't make much sense.Over Thanksgiving I spent a few days house- and cat-sitting for a friend. The moment I met Russell the cat I was completely charmed by the milky cloudiness of his eyes. What fascinated me most was that he appeared to be able to see just fine... to the point where sometimes he appeared to be seeing things that I myself couldn't see. I found myself inspired and fully credit Russell with breaking through my writer's block.This story is available in written form in its entirety exclusively to Patreon Supporters, visit the link below to join.Join Melissa's Patreon for early access to podcast episodes, music downloads, and more: http://www.patreon.com/melissaoliveriContact: theskylarkbell@gmail.comThe Skylark Bell official website - http://www.theskylarkbell.comThe Skylark Bell on Instagram: @theskylarkbellAuthor/Producer: Melissa Oliveri - http://www.melissaoliveri.comAll music by Cannelle: http://www.cannellemusic.comCannelle on Instagram: @cannelle.musicFULL TRANSCRIPT:Things with Wings Productions presents: The Man with a Storm in His Eyes - A Skylark Special Miniseries written exclusively for The Skylark Bell podcast. I am your host, Melissa Oliveri.  Before I begin, if you haven't listened to the first three installments of this story, I strongly suggest you hit pause on this episode and go listen to volumes 1, 2 and 3, otherwise this episode won't make much sense. In last week's episode, Marie broke the sisters' one rule and brewed a cup of the forbidden tea for herself, but she was interrupted by their early return. Disgraced and embarrassed, she returned home... only for the twins to appear outside her window a few days later.Today we conclude this wild and eerie tale... fair warning, the ending made me cry the first time I re-read the story in its entirety.Lastly, I'd like to thank Lauren and Rachel for the use of their apartment over the Thanksgiving holiday. The opportunity to house and cat sit for them gave me the calm and space I needed to to start writing, and in the end, their cat, Russell, provided the inspiration for the story I wanted to write. The spark has grown into a flame, and there are more stories to come in the future, so stay tuned.But for now, it's time to get settled in… grab a blanket, and a warm drink... perhaps a handkerchief, just in case… and let's read the conclusion of The Man with a Storm in His Eyes. The spell broken, I shook my head and scurried down the stairs and out the front door to collect the book they had left behind. I ran my hand over the smoothness of its cover, and noted the leather was embossed with a collection of odd symbols. I clutched the book to my chest and hurried back up to my flat as quickly as my fuzzy slippers would allow, completely oblivious to the neighbours gawking at the sight of me outside in the cold wearing only a short frilly nighty. I threw myself onto the sofa and placed the book on my lap, puzzling over the symbols on the cover before unbuckling its leather strap and cracking it open. I flipped through the book haphazardly and was met with page upon page of tight cursive handwriting. Every so often I would land on a carefully drawn illustration with labels and notations. About halfway through the book I found a folded piece of paper tucked between the pages. I gingerly pulled it out, the ornate handwriting was different than the one filling up the pages of the book. I squinted in concentration as I began to read:Dearest Marie,You must have endless questions about the goings on at 51 Dimly Court. We did not mean for you to get pulled into the vortex of our stormy existence, and I apologise for our poor handling of the situation the day you left. Winifred and I have decided to share with you the story that is neither ours, nor Russell's, nor even little Jones'. The story is our mother's. Her name was Fiona Merriwell, and she was what many would, for better or worse, call... a witch.  Our mother grew up in the “old world”, a time and culture filled with mystique and superstition. It would be easy to brush aside these traditions as hogwash, but as you now know, there was truth to at least some of it. Our maternal grandmother was a gifted seer and would warn people of things to come, or describe things that had happened long before any of them were born. Our mother was always envious of this gift, but her talents lay elsewhere. She was an expert healer and could create concoctions to heal most ailments common in her time. Her one wish, however, was to find a way to recreate her mother's capabilities using her knowledge of plants, herbs, tinctures, and the like. She made it her life mission... and it cost not only her, but several of us dearly. The teas in the canisters were created by her, and she was the last one to brew a cup, until you came along, of course... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Our mother raised us on her own after our father passed away. She worked odd jobs and kept herself busy making salves and teas to sell at local markets. Behind the scenes, however, she continued to work on her plan to create a tea that would allow her to see through veils of time, and she eventually succeeded, but things did not go as planned. She had just finished perfecting a recipe one day when there was a knock at the door. A young man, sharply dressed in a grey wool suit, stood on our front steps, he was selling top-of-the-line cookware. Our mother, always willing to indulge young entrepreneurs, invited him in and put the kettle on. She was fully intending to simply listen to his presentation, but as their conversation wore on an idea crossed her mind. The young man mentioned that his brother had recently passed away, and that he missed his him terribly, and wished he could see him again, if only for a moment. The gears in our mother's mind began turning; if she served her tea to the young man and it was effective, it might provide him with an opportunity to see his brother again, and if it failed, he would be none-the-wiser and would simply have enjoyed a nice cup of tea, no harm done.I must say at this point that our mother was neither conniving nor cruel, she was entirely under the impression that the effects of the tea would be temporary, there was no way for her to know her spontaneous decision and, ironically, lack of foresight would change the course of all our lives.And so it was that Russell J. Holcomb, luxury cookware salesman, came to sit at our kitchen table and drink the tea our mother had aptly named Violet Storm. He remained in our kitchen for a few hours, demonstrating his goods. Winifred and I came home our jobs at the hospital partway through his sales pitch and sat at the table listening to him, enthralled. Russell was very charismatic; he would certainly have had a successful career in sales if he had never had the misfortune of knocking on our door. Winifred was especially taken with him; she would later tell me it was his smile that won her over so quickly. Little did she know we would only rarely ever see that smile again.We were there when the tea began to take effect. I remember it so clearly because, unfortunately for Russell, there was a storm brewing outside. Winifred and I had rushed home from work due to the dark, threatening clouds hovering in the sky above. We would later learn that stormy weather exacerbates the effects of this specific tea... but once again, I'm getting ahead of myself. Russell was just finishing a demonstration that involved cooking an omelet, he slid it onto a plate and placed it on the table for us to see. It was then that he stumbled backwards and fell to the floor. His eyes darted back and forth as a mist began to rise in them. He started to shake and pointed at something behind us. The three of us turned in unison, but there was nothing there. Our mother crouched next to him, put a hand on his shoulder, and asked if he was okay. Through rapid breaths Russell explained that he could see other people, dozens of other people, all semi-transparent, moving throughout the kitchen. Walking, cooking, sitting at the table... he could even see different furniture, and he could see grass on the ground as well as different versions of the kitchen floor, layer upon layer upon layer of the past all visible at once. He let out a scream that still echoes in my mind to this day, then squeezed his eyes shut and clutched his head in his hands shouting, “Make it stop! Please! Make them go away! Make it all go away!”Distraught, our mother wrapped a dishtowel around his eyes and tied it at the back of his head, then lead him to the sofa to lay down and wait until the effect of the tea wore off. Once the storm passed the effects did diminish considerably, but the clouds never left Russell's eyes, and he never stopped seeing relics of the past all around him at all times. Our mother settled him in the empty flat upstairs, no one had lived there for years, and it didn't have much of a past to speak of, or see. The outside world was far too overwhelming for Russell, so he remained in the upstairs flat from that day forward. Because he had no family to speak of, Russell decided it was best to leave him flagged as a missing person to the outside world, it seemed simpler than trying to explain the reality of what had happened. The four of us agreed to never speak of that day's events, and our mother immediately set to work trying to create a remedy.Days turned into weeks and months. Winifred spent a lot of time upstairs keeping Russell company, and the two fell deeply in love. One day our mother announced she had come up with a remedy, a tea she called Black Moon. She brewed a pot, and Winifred volunteered to bring it up to Russell, promising to report back if it had any noticeable effects. But as Winifred was climbing the stairs to the apartment, a shadow of doubt came over her... What if this new concoction made Russell worse? Her heart ached at the thought of involuntarily harming him in any way, so she sat on the top stair outside his door and slowly drank the cup of tea herself to see how it would affect her before giving any to Russell. Russell never did drink any Black Moon tea, because within a short period of time Winifred came crashing down the stairs screaming and waving her arms in the air as though swatting away a swarm of bees. Unlike Russell, her eyes never clouded over, instead they turned into two deep, dark, inky pools. We came to discover that Winifred was now plagued with incessant visions of the future: Buildings being torn down, new ones being erected, wars, unrest, and the cacophony of centuries of living beyond anything she'd ever known... Her condition worsened during the new moon when the sky was at its darkest. On these nights, her existence became nearly unbearable. Layers of the future would wrap around her like a snake wraps its body around its prey, squeezing the air out of its lungs, and effectively crushing it. On these nights,Winnifred would wear a blindfold, which helped to alleviate some of the stress of her condition. I paused my reading then, thinking back to Christmas Eve dinner with Russell, and his odd behaviour as the storm rolled in. He must have been suffering through a similar experience, a ramping up of the effects of his condition... My heart ached for him, for Winifred who was similarly afflicted, for Florence who was tasked with caring for them both, and for Jones the cat who had now joined their ranks. I heaved a sigh, then dove back into the letter. In our mother's mind, the tea she had concocted to view the future would have cancelled out the tea Russell had ingested which gave him visions of the past, but after seeing what happened to Winifred, we didn't dare let him drink any. It became difficult for Russell and Winifred to be in the same room, they were essentially living on different plains now, he in the past, she in the future, with only a bridge of present between them so small they could never stand on it long enough to truly be in one another's company. Heartbroken, Winnifred stopped going upstairs to visit, and only rarely ever spoke.Our mother, devastated by the tragedy she had inadvertently unleashed on our family, made one last attempt at setting things straight. She poured over her craft for several months, studying herbs and tinctures used by our ancestors. Some ingredients she foraged for herself, others she sourced locally or from overseas, until finally one day she came to us with the resulting Golden Sunset tea. This tea, she was certain, would fix both Winifred and Russell's conditions, but she insisted she would drink a cup first to ensure there were no unexpected results. As you may have guessed, the results were, indeed, unexpected, and very tragic.The last entry in our mother's book was written moments after she drank the Golden Sunset tea. She detailed a scene from the future, of a young woman living in our flat, and a cat named Jones with glowing amber eyes. She said this woman would be instrumental to the future of our family history as she would carry on guarding the tea until she reached the age of 93. That is where the diary ends, there were no details beyond that.After drinking her tea and writing in her diary, our mother walked out our front door and stood on the stoop. Winifred and I stood at the window, watching her back as she stared at the world outside, motionless. Perhaps a few minutes went by, perhaps a few hours, neither one of us could tell, but eventually our mother exclaimed “It's all so beautiful!”, then she fell to the ground. Shaken out of our reverie we ran to her, but she was already gone. Presumably, whatever it was the tea caused her to see, it was more than the human mind and body could take.In the decades that followed I continued to care for Mr. Holcomb and Winifred. Winifred would provide guidance on future events and occurrences, which is how we knew you were planning on drinking the tea, and that we were going to arrive just in time to stop you. We tried to change the course of history and arrive in time to also prevent Jones from drinking the tea, but as with every other time we've attempted to change the future, we failed.From what Winifred has shared, and she only shares things she feels are absolutely necessary, I am to make you the beneficiary of our estate upon our passing, which, Winifred has assured me, is much farther away than anyone would ever dream. Perhaps our mother's longevity tea worked better than her other ones. I wish you all the best Marie. We shall not see you again after today, but from what I can gather, someday in the distant future, you will once again see us. Take care,FlorenceI refolded the letter and placed it back between the pages of the book, then closed the cover, re-buckled the strap, and placed the book on the coffee table in front of me. There would be ample time to sift through its pages down the road, right now I needed to process the events of the past week.I carried on with my life over the next few days. Those days turned into weeks, months, years, and before I knew it nearly three decades had gone by. In that time, I earned a nursing degree and used some of the knowledge from Fiona's diary to help patients. I married and divorced, had two children whose careers eventually took them to opposite ends of the country, adopted and went through the heartache of saying goodbye to 3 different cats, all with glowing amber eyes, and... well... I grew older. Not nearly as old as the twins however, who died within days of one another at the ripe old age of 103. It was on a Wednesday afternoon a couple of weeks after the twins' passing that my postman Gordy placed a small package on the stoop outside my front door. I happened to be looking out the window when he came and waved to him as he carried on to my neighbour's house. He smiled and waved back; he was always such a pleasant young man. I reached into my post box and pulled out a small stack of letters, then bent down to pick up the package. I felt my stomach tighten when I saw the return address for the solicitor's office on the parcel. I knew this day would come, this wasn't a surprise per se, and I had only briefly met the sisters on two occasions nearly 30 years ago, yet I still felt the sting of tears in my eyes. Inside the package was a letter from the solicitor detailing the legal intricacies of the estate and the steps I needed to take to finalise things. The only other item in the box was an old antique key. I recognized it immediately as the key Florence had left for me that fateful day all those years ago. I placed the key in my palm and closed my fingers around it. If I focused enough, I could almost feel a low electrical pulse emanating from it.My first time stepping back through the front door of 51 Dimly court was surreal. Everything was exactly the same as it had been the last time I was there. Every trinket, every book, every curtain and pillow and blanket, even down to the plush towel and robe set I had used after taking a bath that Boxing Day afternoon three decades ago. I walked through the flat in wonder, gently tracing my finger along the edges of the sisters' belongings, the items strewn atop their dressers and vanities. Winifred's copy of The House on the Strand was still on her nightstand, I understood the significance now, with her experiencing time differently than the rest of us. I stood at the bottom of the stairway to Russel's flat for a long time staring at the off-center number 7 on the door. I'd read his obituary years ago, I'd lost track of how long it had been exactly, but I remembered it said he had passed peacefully in his sleep with his loved ones, presumably Winifred and Florence, by his side. Eventually I made my way up the stairs and let myself into Russell's flat, which was also frozen in time. I stepped into his office, noting his satchel was still on the desk. I peered inside and saw a collection of marketing materials for cookware. This was the bag he was carrying the day he disappeared, that fateful day he met Fiona Merriwell and her enchanted, or cursed depending on how one views these things, collection of teas.I stepped into the little kitchen; bright sunshine was streaming through the window. I smiled as I remembered sitting at the table sharing a meal with Russell, telling stories, and laughing together. He was a lovely man, lovely and lonely. His fate was not one anyone would have been envious of, unable to leave the confines of his apartment, destined to pine away for an impossible love just within his reach but never attainable... my heart ached for him.I lived on in the flat for forty more years, keeping everything the same as it had always been. I eventually retired from my decades-long career as head nurse at a care home, and before I knew it found myself older than the twins were when I first met them. I surprised myself gravitating toward some of Florence's dresses and coats. Winifred's wardrobe, however, remained too gothic for my taste. As time wore on, I became rather uninterested in the outside world, preferring to focus on my own private little secret world inside the sisters' flat. I never stopped thinking of it as the sisters' flat. My children rarely visited and would only stay in town long enough for a meal, always at a fancy restaurant of course, before returning to their busy lives, and I was okay with that because they were happy.And now we've come to today. Today is my 93rd birthday. I am celebrating alone, and rather enjoying my own company. I finished my cup of tea 15 minutes ago; I can feel its effect taking hold. I see a warm glow around everything in the flat, as though every object has been wrapped in goldleaf and the setting sun is shining through the window, even though in reality today the sky is grey and loaded with a mass of storm clouds. I walk to the sitting room and lower my tired body into a chair by the window, turning to face the inside of the room. I watch as the past fades into view. I see Florence and Winifred as children with their mother reading stories by the fireplace, the same fireplace in which the contents of the tea canisters and Fiona's diary are burning right now. I see young Russell looking dapper in his grey wool suit with his satchel strapped over his shoulder, he's coming in to do a presentation of the luxury cookware he is selling, and Fiona is guiding him toward the kitchen. I see all the events Florence described in her letter unfold before my eyes.Eventually I see myself walking into the flat for the first time, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other waiting for Winifred to speak through the garish red lipstick streaked across her mouth. I marvel at my youth, how naïve and innocent I was then. I watch the entire Christmas holiday unfold, cooking for Mr. Holcomb, rushing outside to rescue Jones, cuddling with him on the sofa, staring into his beautiful golden eyes. Then the fateful night when he drank the tea...Layers of past begin to pile atop one another in rapid succession now, and I see events flash before me. First, I watch the twins grow old and eventually disappear altogether. Then I see myself, older, but still young by my current standards, returning to the flat after several decades away. I watch myself age at a breakneck pace and eventually see myself, dressed the way I am dressed right now, walk into the room. I gasp as I catch of glimpse of my eyes, now turned into two glowing orbs filled with a swirling mass of mauve, gold, coral, and burnt orange. Now I understand why Fiona named this tea Golden Sunset. I watch as I gingerly lower myself into the chair I am sitting in at this very moment. That's when things truly take off, when past, present and future finally collide.In a flash of amber, coral, and lilac everything sets off at lightning speed. I see the future, I see what happens to me, what happens in the decades and centuries beyond this moment in time. I see the people who lived here before the twins, before Fiona, and those who will live here after. I see the field that was here before the apartment building, and the structure that will be built after its demolition decades from now. I turn to look out the window, the view is breathtaking. I can see everything that has come before and everything yet to come, all awash in a swirl sunset colours. It's chaotic, it's heartbreaking, it's electric, it's inspiring, it's... life......and it's all so beautiful.Thank you so much for listening, I truly hope you enjoyed The Man with a Storm in His Eyes. It has been my pleasure to write and record this story for you, and I am very much looking forward to doing it again. Stay tuned for more spooky and unusual tales in the future!If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a rating or a review, they are both greatly appreciated. You can also support my work by subscribing to Patreon. Patreon supporters get early access to ad-free podcast episodes, digital downloads of my music, and so much more. It's the first place I share my creations. However, if you prefer not to subscribe, but would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so via your podcast platform. Any and all financial support is greatly appreciated.Once again, thank you for listening – I'm Melissa Oliveri, writer, composer, and producer of The Skylark Bell Podcast. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/theskylarkbell/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Cet épisode… c'est l'histoire de l'enregistrement d'un groupe de musiciens qui jouera un rôle important dans le développement de la musique des années 1960, ainsi que sur les premières années de Stax Records, un label qui deviendra aussi important que Chess, Motown ou Sun. Aujourd'hui, nous nous penchons sur "Green Onions" de Booker T. and the MGs, et sur la façon dont un violoniste blanc a accidentellement donné le coup d'envoi au label le plus important de la musique soul (celle du sud) Booker T. and the MGs, "Green Onions" Hoyt Jackson, "Enie Meanie Minie Moe" Ray Scott, "Boppin' Wig Wam WIllie" Hoyt Jackson, "It's A Little More Like Heaven (Where You Are)" Hank Locklin "It's a Little More Like Heaven" Johnny Cash, "You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven" Fred Byler, "Blue Roses" Don Willis, "Boppin' High School Baby" Warren Smith, "Rock and Roll Ruby" The Vel-Tones, "Fool in Love" Bill Black Combo : "Smokie (Part 2)" Rufus Thomas, "Bear Cat" Rufus and Carla Thomas, "'Cause I Love You" Carla Thomas, "Gee Whizz, Look at His Eyes" The Mar-Keys, "Last Night" The Mar-Keys, "The Morning After" [Excerpt: The Triumphs, “Burnt Biscuits” William Bell, "You Don't Miss Your Water" Nick Charles, "The Three Dogwoods" Billy Lee Riley et les Little Green Men, "Flyin' Saucers Rock 'n' Roll" Booker T and the MGs, "Behave Yourself" Booker T. and the MGs, "Green Onions" Johnny Jenkins, "Spunky" Otis Redding, "Hey Hey Baby" Otis Redding, "These Arms of Mine"

The Man with a Storm in His Eyes – Volume 3NOTE: If you have not listened to Volumes 1 and 2 of this 4-part miniseries, please pause this episode, and go listen to the first two installments, otherwise the story won't make much sense.Over Thanksgiving I spent a few days house- and cat-sitting for a friend. The moment I met Russell the cat I was completely charmed by the milky cloudiness of his eyes. What fascinated me most was that he appeared to be able to see just fine... to the point where sometimes he appeared to be seeing things that I myself couldn't see. I found myself inspired and fully credit Russell with breaking through my writer's block.This story is available in written form in its entirety exclusively to Patreon Supporters, visit the link below to join.Join Melissa's Patreon for early access to podcast episodes, music downloads, and more: http://www.patreon.com/melissaoliveriContact: theskylarkbell@gmail.comThe Skylark Bell official website - http://www.theskylarkbell.comThe Skylark Bell on Instagram: @theskylarkbellAuthor/Producer: Melissa Oliveri - http://www.melissaoliveri.comAll music by Cannelle: http://www.cannellemusic.comCannelle on Instagram: @cannelle.musicFULL TRANSCRIPT:Things with Wings Productions presents: The Man with a Storm in His Eyes - A Skylark Special Miniseries written exclusively for The Skylark Bell podcast. I am your host, Melissa Oliveri.  Before I begin, if you haven't listened to the first two installments of this story, I strongly suggest you hit pause on this episode and go listen to volume 1 and volume 2, otherwise this episode won't make much sense. In last week's episode, Marie rescued a kitten named Jones, and made the startling discovery that Mr. Holcomb had been labeled a missing person decades prior.Now, get settled in… grab a blanket, and a warm drink… and let's dive back into the story.I didn't need to worry about waking the next morning as Jones took it upon himself to serve as an alarm clock when he felt it was time to be fed. “You little rascal, you're just loving this aren't you?” I teased as I placed a bowl of turkey pieces with a strong pour of gravy in front of him. I was about to go take a shower when the phone on the kitchen wall rang so loudly I was sure the neighbours three houses away could hear it. I grabbed my chest with my hand and waited a moment to catch my breath before lifting the receiver off the hook. “Hello?” I asked tentatively. “Oh, hello Marie dear, this is Florence,” came the voice on the other end of the line. “I was simply calling to let you know we plan on returning home early tomorrow morning. I trust things are going well?” she asked.I could still feel my heart beating out of my chest, but I managed to compose myself enough to reply. “Yes, everything is great. Mr. Holcomb is quite lovely. Oh, I should probably tell you, I found a stray kitten that I'm caring for, I hope that's okay?” I figured I should probably make mention of the fact that I'd brought an animal into their home.There was a moment of silence at the other end of the line, and I grew nervous that Florence was displeased. “That's quite alright dear. I'm sure Jones is thoroughly enjoying spending the holidays with you,” she eventually replied, and I heaved a sigh of relief. “Right then, we'll see you in the morning,” she added before promptly ending the call.I put the phone back in its cradle. Something about the conversation was bothering me... I stood barefoot on the cold ceramic kitchen floor running the conversation through my head again, then it finally hit me: How did Florence know the kitten's name was Jones? On cue, Jones wandered into the room and rubbed up against my legs. I picked him up and held him at arm's length. Of course! Jones had a name tag, perhaps Florence had seen him before, maybe he even had a reputation for visiting neighbourhood homes and getting a few extra meals out of it. “I knew you were a rascal!” I giggled. I pulled him in and bumped my nose against his, mesmerized by those unearthly amber eyes, before gently placing him back on the ground.I showered and put on a festive sweater and some dressy trousers before heading upstairs to join Mr. Holcomb for Boxing Day breakfast. I told him about the rowdy boys and the kitten, and how Jones and I had eaten Christmas dinner by candlelight before I spent a couple of hours reading Alice in Wonderland in the reading room. I was itching to ask him about the newspaper clippings, but something about his expression stopped me. His brow was knit, and his eyes had turned that stormy charcoal grey again. I realized then that I'd been speaking non-stop since we'd sat down, so I quieted myself and waited for him to speak.“So... Jones is here now,” was all he said. I nodded but wasn't sure if he noticed as he seemed to be staring off into space. I let the quiet linger between us, hoping he would elaborate, but his lips remained tightly pressed together.“Mr. Holcomb...” I began, unsure of how to broach the subject. “Your questions will all be answered in due time, my dear Marie,” he said, sparing me the trouble of asking. “There are things that should not be known before one is ready to know them...” he mused obscurely, still with that faraway, stormy look in his eyes. I didn't dare ask him to elaborate, I would just have to be patient. We spent the rest of breakfast speaking of innocuous things; childhood Christmas gifts, funny stories about relatives falling off chairs or spilling food and drink on one another at holiday parties. Though we only talked about surface things, the conversation was merry, and Mr. Holcomb's eyes progressively morphed from steely grey to an appealing feathery white.It was past noon by the time I got back downstairs to the sisters' flat. Jones meowed at me in greeting and climbed up my shin to be picked up. I curled him into my arms like a baby and stared into his eyes, bordering on chartreuse in the midday light, while feeling the soft rumble of his purring against my chest. I felt the weight of the world disappear then, there was such comfort in the softness of his fur and his desire for companionship. A sudden chill passed through the air causing Jones and I to shiver in unison. “I think I'm going to run a bath,” I said, lowering him to the hardwood floor. “Don't worry, I have no expectation that you will want to get anywhere near the water,” I laughed. “Why don't I make a fire in the fireplace for you, and you can wait for me on the sofa with a blanket?” I suddenly became aware that I was speaking to Jones as though he were human and felt simultaneously ridiculous and grateful that there was no one around to hear. I got Jones settled then made my way to the bathroom. I took the time to admire the vintage Art Deco tile pattern on the floor and walls before turning the hot water faucet on the claw foot tub to its maximum, then adding a bit of cold water and two capfuls of green apple bath bubbles. I placed a thick fluffy towel and a bathrobe on a nearby wooden stool in preparation for the aftermath of my soak, then draped my clothes over the edge of the sink before carefully slipping into the steaming hot water. I closed my eyes and breathed in the sweet, fruity fragrance while listening to the crackling of the bubbles.I sat quietly in the tub, keeping thoughts of cloudy eyes and mysterious disappearances at bay, choosing to think instead of what I would prepare for dinner and which tea from the three forbidden tea canisters I would brew first. Eventually the water grew uncomfortably tepid, and the skin on my fingers began to wrinkle. I used my toe to pull the chain attached to the bathtub stopper and let the water drain a moment before standing to step out of the tub. The towel and bathrobe were both luxuriously plush, and I relished the warm, cozy feeling of being wrapped in them. I walked to the living room and rooted through my weekender bag for a fresh change of clothes. Jones was fast asleep on the sofa, curled up on a throw pillow with the glow of the fire reflecting off the sheen of his velvety fur.I made my way to the kitchen and perused the pantry and refrigerator contents for inspiration. I grabbed some zucchini, carrots, peas, and broccoli from the fridge and a box of pasta out of the cupboard. With a little butter, cream, and spoonful of flour I could whip together a mean pasta primavera, there was even a block of fresh parmesan cheese in the fridge to top it all off. I still had leftover rum raisin cake and custard for dessert. “That will pair perfectly with a cup of forbidden tea!” I chucked to myself out loud in the empty kitchen. I set to work making a roux and roasting the vegetables. My mum had always loved my pasta primavera; the secret was roasting the vegetables rather than boiling or steaming them, the caramelization added a lovely depth of flavour to the dish. “Jones, time to eat!” I called as I placed a bowl of shredded turkey with a dollop of cream sauce at his place setting across the table from me. I set my plate on the table as well, then gave each of us a generous sprinkle of parmesan. “Now I don't want you to think this is what you get to eat every day, this is a Boxing Day special, okay?” I said to him as he hopped onto the table. I patted the top of his head then sat down to eat. A flood of memories of suppers with my mother came to me as I took my first bite. I could see her smile, hear her laugh... what I wouldn't do to see and hear her again...Jones finished his meal long before I did and stretched out in front of the stove, rolling onto his back to let its warmth tickle his belly. I cleared the table and quickly did the washing up, then put the kettle on. While waiting for the water to boil I unwrapped the rum raisin cake, cut a generous piece and placed it onto a plate. “Perfect timing!” I exclaimed as the kettle sounded its whistle. I turned off the stove, then stood in front of the shelf with the three glass tea canisters, I hadn't yet decided which one I was going to brew. I noticed a label at the bottom of each one, and squinted to read the ornate cursive handwriting in hopes it would help inform my decision. I started with the canister to the left, the tea inside was black and appeared rather nondescript. “Dark Moon, sounds like something Winifred would come up with!” I said, laughing at my own humour. I moved on to the next canister, the tea inside was shades of purple with delicate dark pink rose petals mixed in, its label read “Violet Storm”. Intriguing! The last canister was filled with a mixture of gold tea leaves, yellow and orange flower petals, and citrus rinds, the label on that one read “Golden Sunset”. I pondered a moment longer, and decided Violet Storm sounded like a good accompaniment to rum raisin cake. I gingerly lifted the canister off the shelf and placed it on the counter. I popped open its lid, and the aroma of lavender, elderberry, hibiscus, and a strange sickly-sweet smell I couldn't pinpoint rose from its contents. I found a scoop in the utensil drawer and placed three spoonfulls into the infuser part of the teapot, then poured the boiling water in and stepped away to let it steep for a few minutes. I walked to the stove and crouched next to Jones, running my hand over the sleek fur of his body. He looked up at me with those amber eyes and blinked that slow blink cats do when they're rather satisfied with their circumstances; a full belly, a warm napping spot, and a human to do their bidding. I finally admitted to myself that I'd grown unusually attached to this kitten over the past couple of days, as though we were kindred spirits from the start.“Tea time!” I said as I stood up. I poured tea from the pot into the teacup Mr. Holcomb had gifted me. I left the teacup on the counter while I brought my plate of cake and the little pot of custard to the table. Then I grabbed the saucer with the teacup precariously balanced on it and held it up to my face, breathing in the steam. The unidentified sweet smell was even more pungent now, and I desperately wondered what it would taste like. I shifted the saucer to my other hand and grabbed the teacup by its delicate handle, slowly lifting it to my mouth. Suddenly, a loud slam came from behind me. Startled beyond belief I jumped and spun on my heel. Before I could wrap my brain around what was happening the teacup flew out of my hand and went crashing to the floor, leaving the echo of a shattering sound ringing through the kitchen. I stared in shock at the purple streak of tea spreading across the black and white tile of the floor.“I told you not to drink the tea!”I gathered my wits about me and looked up. Standing a few paces away was Winifred. She had a small cut on her hand, presumably from when she slapped the teacup out of my grasp. It took me a moment to notice Florence was standing directly next to her. “Oh dear,” breathed Florence, looking at something behind me with sadness in her eyes. I turned and saw Jones voraciously drinking from the puddle of tea on the floor.“Oh Jones, that's not for you!” I said, bending to pull him into my arms.“It's too late,” croaked Winifred. I instantly recognized the voice on the phone that stormy Christmas Eve night in Mr. Holcomb's flat. What in the world was going on?!“I- I wasn't expecting you back so soon,” I stumbled over my words, both nervous and embarrassed. “Winifred felt strongly that we should come home early,” said Florence. “It's probably best that you go home now, Marie,” she added. Her voice was neutral, neither kind nor unkind, neither soft nor stern. I sheepishly bent to clean up the mess of broken porcelain on the floor. “Leave it,” she said. I kept my gaze glued to the floor and withdrew to the living room to tidy up and pack my things.As I made my way into the hall Jones sauntered over and looked up at me with those glorious glowing yellow eyes. I pondered whether I should scoop him up and take him with me, but Winifred came through the doorway to the right and stood between us, her inky eyes piercing into my soul, and slowly shook her head no. I muttered an apology and made a swift exit.I wallowed in self-pity and embarrassment for a few days, then decided to leave the confines of my flat to take a walk. I wandered through the woods where the crows cawed to one another as though saying “Look at that ridiculous girl, a guest in someone's home and doing as she pleases with no regard for them!” I felt disgraced, and disappointed in myself. Making a cup of tea seemed like such a small, innocuous, harmless thing at the time, but clearly it wasn't, clearly there was a valid reason why the sisters had forbidden it... and I should have respected their wishes.I wandered aimlessly, stopping at one point to select a drink at the local café. I stared hopelessly at the menu board, unable to make up my mind, and finally settled on some iced tea, then chuckled bitterly at the irony of my selection. My walk eventually took me to the top of Dimly Court. I looked down the street past the brick row houses and perfectly manicured shrubs, hesitating. Would it be out of place for me to walk by? The sisters were hermits, the odds of one of them seeing me were rather low. I decided to take my chances and turned onto their street. Every window covering at 51 Dimly court was drawn, but I could see Jones' silhouette sitting on the windowsill, the patterned chenille of the drapes hanging behind him like backdrop. I stood in front of the window, admiring the velvety sheen of his coat. “Jones!” I whispered as loudly as I dared. The kitten turned his head and I gasped. I instinctively took a step back and nearly tumbled off walkway. In the place of those glorious golden eyes that I had stared into just days before were two orbs filled with a swirl of thunderous grey clouds. The cat's head suddenly darted back and forth as though watching something behind me. I turned to look but there was nothing there. I stood on the empty street watching him get increasingly agitated. “Oh Jones, what happened to you?” I choked. Suddenly, the curtain was pulled aside and Winifred's pallid face came into view, that eternal streak of red lipstick still across her mouth. Her carbon-coloured eyes locked firmly on me as she pulled the kitten into her arms, then she quickly stepped back into the shadows from whence she came. The curtain closed behind her, a supple but effective barrier between us.I trudged back home in slow, plodding steps, my head hung low. My mind, however, was in overdrive. Jones' eyes were now in the same condition as Mr. Holcomb's... what on earth could have caused it? I let different scenarios play out my head, then stopped dead in my tracks as it hit me: The tea! It had to be the tea! That would explain why the sisters had instructed me not to drink it. Jones had lapped it up after it spilled on the floor, and now he had a storm in his eyes. I let the swirling thoughts keep coming; perhaps Mr. Holcomb had ingested some of the tea as well, and that's how he ended up the way he did. I suddenly remembered the glimpse of him I'd caught the night of the storm when he'd sat rod-straight in his chair, a blindfold strapped across his eyes. My next thought sent a shiver down my spine... What was it he was avoiding looking at that night? What was it, exactly, that Jones and Mr. Holcomb were able to see with those cloudy eyes that I apparently could not? I shuddered as I realised how closely I had come to joining their ranks.I spent the next few days alone, only going out for the odd walk in the woods and to do a bit of shopping at times when I was least likely to encounter other people. Thankfully, I didn't have to return to work until after the holidays. I rang in the new year by myself in my dark living room, doing my best to ignore the cacophony of the festivities outside the walls of my apartment. I simply wasn't in a celebratory mood, and other people's cheer was the last thing I needed.I woke at the crack of dawn the first day of the new year with the unsettling feeling that something was amiss. I heard the sound of a car door outside my window, and got out of bed, tugging my twisted nighty back into place. I slid into my fuzzy slippers, then walked to the living room so I could look out the front windows. My stomach clenched instantly. There, standing immobile on the walkway to my apartment building, a black 1940s style car parked behind them, were the twins. Winifred was dressed all in black with a black strip of fabric draped over her eyes, which made her white powdery makeup and smear of red lipstick stand out even more. In complete contrast, Florence was decked out in a floral dress with a long brown chequered coat draped over her shoulders. The sisters' arms were laced together, presumably so Florence could guide Winifred who surely couldn't see much, if anything, with the blindfold. Florence locked eyes with me, then carefully and deliberately bent down to place a brown leather-bound book onto the pavers of the walkway to my building. She gave me a small nod, then the pair turned and methodically walked back to the old-fashioned car. Florence helped Winifred get in her seat, then walked to the driver's side, and eased herself behind the wheel. I watched, equally confused, and mesmerized, as the pair drove off.Thank you so much for listening, I truly hope you enjoyed this third installment of The Man with a Storm in His Eyes.Be sure to check in next week for the final portion of the story!If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating or a review, they are both greatly appreciated. You can also support my work by subscribing to Patreon. Patreon supporters get early access to ad-free podcast episodes, digital downloads of my music, and so much more. It's the first place I share my creations. However, if you prefer not to subscribe, but would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so via your podcast platform. Any and all financial support is greatly appreciated.Once again, thank you for listening – I'm Melissa Oliveri, writer, composer, and producer of The Skylark Bell Podcast. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/theskylarkbell/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Man with a Storm in His Eyes – Volume 2NOTE: If you have not listened to Volume 1 of this 4-part miniseries, please pause this episode, and go listen to the first installment, otherwise the story won't make much sense.Over Thanksgiving I spent a few days house- and cat-sitting for a friend. The moment I met Russell the cat I was completely charmed by the milky cloudiness of his eyes. What fascinated me most was that he appeared to be able to see just fine... to the point where sometimes he appeared to be seeing things that I myself couldn't see. I found myself inspired and fully credit Russell with breaking through my writer's block.This story is available in written form in its entirety exclusively to Patreon Supporters, visit the link below to join.Join Melissa's Patreon for early access to podcast episodes, music downloads, and more: http://www.patreon.com/melissaoliveriContact: theskylarkbell@gmail.comThe Skylark Bell official website - http://www.theskylarkbell.comThe Skylark Bell on Instagram: @theskylarkbellAuthor/Producer: Melissa Oliveri - http://www.melissaoliveri.comAll music by Cannelle: http://www.cannellemusic.comCannelle on Instagram: @cannelle.musicFULL TRANSCRIPT:Things with Wings Productions presents: The Man with a Storm in His Eyes - A Skylark Special Miniseries written exclusively for The Skylark Bell podcast. I am your host, Melissa Oliveri.  Before I begin, if you haven't listened to the first installment of this story, I strongly suggest you hit pause on this episode and go listen to volume 1 or the story won't make much sense. In last week's episode, we met Marie, who agreed to take on a job house-sitting for twin sisters Florence and Winifred over the holiday weekend and will help care for their elderly tenant, Mr. Holcomb who lives upstairs. When we left Marie, she had just exited Mr. Holcomb's apartment after Christmas Eve dinner went awry as a thunderous storm rolled in. Now, get settled in… grab a blanket, and a warm drink… and let's dive back into the story, shall we?I must have fallen asleep at some point because the next time I glanced at the fire it had been rendered to a pile of glowing embers, and a small stream of sunlight was coming through a crack in the floral chenille fabric of the drapes. I got up, neatly folded, and piled the blankets, and pulled the drapes open to let the full force of the sun shine into the room. A cloud of dust lifted from the drapes and swirled into the air before slowly settling onto the surrounding surfaces. In the bright light of day, the space didn't seem nearly so threatening, and I began to feel ridiculous about overreacting to the phone call the night before. The line was crackly, I probably misheard. In all likelihood it was a wrong number, or a prank call. “Merry Christmas, Marie,” I said out loud to the empty flat as I padded down the hall to the kitchen. I cooked some eggs and toast, poured myself a glass of orange juice, and put the kettle on for tea. I eyed the tea canisters on the shelf above the cookbooks but decided to save that for the evening. I washed up my dishes, changed clothes, brushed my teeth, then decided to go upstairs to check on Mr. Holcomb. I climbed the narrow stairs and was about to knock on the door when it swung open, revealing Mr. Holcomb's silhouette in the hallway. “I told you my hearing was good,” he uttered before I could ask how he knew I was there. “Merry Christmas,” he added without any merriment in his voice. He looked exhausted.I opened my mouth to ask what had happened the night before, but he had already started walking down the hallway on velvet feet. I followed him to the kitchen where two cups of steaming coffee and a plate of biscuits sat waiting on the table. “How did you...” I let the question trail, unable to wrap my brain around his impeccable timing.“My senses are above average, I knew you were coming upstairs before you did,” he replied with a wink. I noticed with wonder that when he winked the clouds in his other eye swirled faster for a moment as though a gust of wind was passing through.We sat at the table in silence. I became self-conscious of the crunching of biscuits in the quiet little kitchen and was about to begin a conversation when Mr. Holcomb beat me to it. “I have a gift for you,” he said out of the blue. I stared at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion. I had never seen him leave his flat, how in the world did he manage to find a gift for me? He turned to take a small box off the counter and handed it to me. I freed the box from the blue velvet ribbon wrapped around it and gently lifted its lid. Inside was a fine china teacup with matching saucer, both white but painted with a black floral pattern that bordered on ink blots. There was something very Winifred-esque about them and I briefly wondered if this was a re-gift situation, but it didn't matter to me, I was touched by the thoughtfulness of his gesture.“This is lovely Mr. Holcomb, and so very kind, thank you. I'm afraid I have nothing to offer in return, I didn't realise...”“Not to worry dear, I wasn't expecting anything at all, I simply wanted to show some appreciation for keeping me company at this time of year,” he replied. His stormy eyes took on a darker tone then, almost like the deep, heavy grey of a rain cloud about to unleash its tears on the world. “Well, I shall leave you to your own devices for the rest of the day. Nothing personal, I simply prefer to be alone at Christmas.”I frowned but acquiesced with a polite nod as I rose from my chair. “I insist on bringing you a tray with Christmas dinner though, I'll leave it by your door around 6pm, okay?” I asked. He smiled and gave me a nod, understanding my need to reciprocate the kindness of his gift. “I shall see you tomorrow morning then?” my question was tentative; I still hadn't sorted out what had happened the night before.“Yes, I shall cook us a nice Boxing Day breakfast. Now go on, enjoy your time downstairs, there is much to read, much to discover, much to learn...” he said. Had his eyes been clear, they'd have been staring into my soul then. I looked at him intently, his eyes suddenly seemed lighter, almost white, and feathery, there was a calm to them, and I got a shiver down my spine as I realised he was attempting to convey a message.I took the box containing Mr. Holcomb's gift and made my way back to the sisters' flat. I gently pulled the cup and saucer out of the box and placed them on the counter. It was here that I finally noted the black flowers were painted in a swirling pattern eerily reminiscent of Mr. Holcomb's cloudy eyes.I was intimately familiar with the kitchen and sitting rooms already, so I decided it was time to explore the rest of the flat. I first went down the hall and hesitantly stepped into Winifred's room. I perused the items on her dresser, they were few; an empty perfume bottle, a hairbrush with long strands of dark hair tangled into it, a collection of multicoloured glass bottles and vials that appeared to contain various tinctures and what looked like animal teeth... Curiouser and curiouser! Winifred was definitely the creepy sister. Laying askew atop her nightstand was a copy of Daphne DuMaurier's The House on the Strand. I picked up the book and read the synopsis on the back, it had to do with time travel and such. I placed it back down, making a mental note to get myself a copy, I found the idea of time travel fascinating!I exited Winifred's room and let myself into Florence's living quarters. Her space was much larger and included a sitting area. I ran my hand along the wood of her antique loveseat, then down its striped salmon-coloured satin fabric. I walked to her dresser and noticed the top drawer was slightly open. I peeked in and saw it was filled with handwritten notes and illustrations on various bits of paper. I was about to pull it open further to explore the contents when I heard a commotion outside the window. “What was that?” I asked the empty room. I walked to the window and looked out to see a group of boys running down the street at breakneck speed. My eyes followed them until they were out of sight, then darted back to the sidewalk. Sitting just outside the window, quietly staring up at me with stunning yellow eyes, was a kitten, its velvety grey fur covered in mud. Clearly the boys had been mistreating it. Concerned for the kitten's safety, I rushed down the hallway, grabbing the antique key to the front door off the entryway console as I whizzed by, and flew down the steps to the sidewalk. Thankfully the kitten was still there. From this proximity I could see it had a blue velvet ribbon for a collar, with small silver tag dangling from it. I approached cautiously, not wanting to scare it away, and crouched down while reaching my hand out. The kitten immediately got up and walked toward me, pushing its little head against my palm, its friendliness completely unhindered by the abuse it had just suffered at the hands of the unruly boys. “Hello there small friend,” I cooed, running my hand down the softness of its back. I used my other hand to grab hold of the tag. “Jones,” I read, “is that your name, or your family's name?” The kitten remained silent; its amber eyes transfixed on me as I carefully bent down to scoop it up.I cradled the kitten in my arms as I made my way back into the sisters' flat. It took a few tries opening various cupboards, but I eventually found two shallow bowls. I filled one with water, and placed a few pieces of cooked chicken from the fridge into the other one. “There you go, Jones, Merry Christmas,” I told him as I placed the bowls on the tile floor. He meowed at me, and I told myself he was wishing me a merry Christmas in return. I didn't know then it wasn't going to be a merry Christmas for him at all...I gave Jones a bath as best I could in the large porcelain sink, then settled him on a pillow by the stove to dry. I spent the rest of the day in the cozy kitchen cooking and baking. First, I prepared a hearty vegetable soup with cheddar and chive biscuits, then some lentil fritters using my nan's recipe from memory, and finally a rum raisin cake with homemade custard for dessert. I also made a point to prepare a little Christmas meal for Jones using odds and ends I found in the fridge. I put together a tray for Mr. Holcomb and left it by his door, promptly at 6pm, as promised, then came back downstairs to eat. I found a festive tartan tablecloth and some tapered candles with accompanying pewter candle holders on the bottom shelf of the pantry. “It's just you and me, Jones,” I said to the cat, “might as well make the most of it!” I spooned a bit of custard onto a plate for him. His golden eyes glowed with gratitude as he lapped it up.We finished dinner and I tidied the kitchen, then wandered aimlessly about the flat, eventually landing in the reading room.  I perused the books housed on the multitude of shelves, and finally chose Alice in Wonderland. I plopped myself in the leather chair stationed in front of the massive oak desk in the center of the room and lost myself down the rabbit hole alongside Alice for a couple of hours. Eventually, I tore myself away from the pages to give my eyes a break. I set the book down on the desktop and pushed the chair back slightly to take a look at the drawers. The top drawer had a keyhole, which of course made me desperately want to open it. I scoured the items strewn on top of the desk and eventually found a small key with a black satin ribbon tied in a bow around the top of it. I turned the key in the lock and heard the satisfying click that meant my curiosity would soon be satiated. Alas, behind the barrier of the lock, the drawer contained only an assortment of pens and blank notepads.I moved onto the top right drawer and found a collection of folders detailing much of the history of the building including the original owners and a collection of past tenants. Fascinating! I had done so much reading already though, I decided to save this for the following day. I shifted to the left and pulled that top drawer open. At first, I thought it was empty, but just as I was about to close it, I noticed there was a black folder laying on the very bottom, almost imperceptible. The folder was wedged so tightly into the bottom of the drawer I had to use my thumbnail to pry it free. I didn't immediately realise it, but the mystery I was about to discover would call into question everything I thought I knew about Mr. Holcomb and the twins.I lifted the folder out of the drawer and a series of newspaper clippings fell out onto the desk. I turned on the antique desk lamp, picked up one of the clippings, and held it under the light to get a better look. “Young Salesman From Edgewick Goes Missing” read the headline. Despite my tired eyes I dove in, completely enthralled by the mystery. It wasn't long before my breath caught in my throat. The article went on to explain that a young man had gone missing after leaving for work the Tuesday morning prior. He was last seen dressed in a charcoal-coloured wool suit and carrying a brown satchel. His name? Russell James Holcomb. I let the piece of paper fall from my hand to the surface of the hardwood desktop. I stared at the portrait of the young man; with a little imagination it wasn't hard to see the resemblance with the old cloud-eyed man living upstairs. My brow knit as I tried to come to terms with this discovery. Mr. Holcomb had gone missing as a young man, was anyone aware of his whereabouts now? I sifted through the other newspaper clippings in search of answers. Most of them were from the same era as the first one, days to weeks after Mr. Holcomb first disappeared, but one of them stood out. It was written nearly a decade later and was part of a collection of stories about people who had mysteriously vanished without a trace, never to be seen or heard from again. I had half a mind to march upstairs and ask Mr. Holcomb what this was all about, but it dawned on me then that perhaps he didn't want to be found, perhaps he had good reason for never speaking up about his whereabouts. From the news articles it didn't sound like he was the type to have done anything nefarious. I was desperately curious about his story but knew better than to go charging in asking questions. The grandfather clock in the corner struck twice, it was 2am already, and I had promised Mr. Holcomb I would join him for breakfast in a few hours. I wandered back into the living room and settled on the sofa with my trusty pile of blankets. Jones hopped onto the couch as well and curled up on top of my feet. I fell asleep to the steady rumble of his purring as the fire in the fireplace slowly waned to embers.Thank you so much for listening, I truly hope you enjoyed this second installment of The Man with a Storm in His Eyes.Be sure to check in next week for the next part of the story!If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating or a review, they are both greatly appreciated. You can also support my work by subscribing to Patreon. Patreon supporters get early access to ad-free podcast episodes, digital downloads of my music, and so much more. It's the first place I share my creations. However, if you prefer not to subscribe, but would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so via your podcast platform. Any and all financial support is greatly appreciated.Once again, thank you for listening – I'm Melissa Oliveri, writer, composer, and producer of The Skylark Bell Podcast.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/theskylarkbell/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Man with a Storm in His Eyes – Volume 1Happy holidays dear listeners. I know it's been some time since I released a new episode of The Skylark Bell, but I believe you'll feel it was worth the wait as you listen to what I have in store for you over the next few weeks. Over Thanksgiving I spent a few days house- and cat-sitting for a friend. The moment I met Russell the cat I was completely charmed by the milky cloudiness of his eyes. What fascinated me most was that he appeared to be able to see just fine... to the point where sometimes he appeared to be seeing things that I myself couldn't see. I found myself inspired and fully credit Russell with breaking through my writer's block. And so begins the first of 4 installments of what was supposed to be a short story, but ended up being much longer, and far more meaningful than I could ever have imagined.NOTE - This story is available in written form in its entirety exclusively to Patreon Supporters, visit the link below to join.Contact: theskylarkbell@gmail.comThe Skylark Bell official website - http://www.theskylarkbell.comThe Skylark Bell on Instagram: @theskylarkbellAuthor/Producer: Melissa Oliveri - http://www.melissaoliveri.comJoin Melissa's Patreon for early access to podcast episodes, music downloads, and more: http://www.patreon.com/melissaoliveriAll music by Cannelle: http://www.cannellemusic.comCannelle on Instagram: @cannelle.musicFULL TRANSCRIPTThings with Wings Productions presents: The Man with a Storm in His Eyes - A Skylark Special Miniseries written exclusively for The Skylark Bell podcast. I am your host, Melissa Oliveri.  Happy holidays dear listeners. I know it's been some time since I released a new episode of The Skylark Bell, but I believe you'll feel it was worth the wait as you listen to what I have in store for you over the next few weeks. Over Thanksgiving I spent a few days house- and cat-sitting for a friend. The moment I met Russell the cat I was completely charmed by the milky cloudiness of his eyes. What fascinated me most was that he appeared to be able to see just fine... to the point where sometimes he appeared to be seeing things that I myself couldn't see. I found myself inspired and fully credit Russell with breaking through my writer's block. And so begins the first of 4 installments of what was supposed to be a short story, but ended up being much longer, and far more meaningful than I could ever have imagined.So, dear friends, it is my pleasure to suggest that you get settled in… grab a blanket, and a warm drink… because we're getting started.I was standing on the brink of the holiday season with nothing but my own company to look forward to. Off work, no family or friends to visit, not enough money to whisk myself away from my mundane life... things were looking rather bleak. Then I saw the advertisement in my town newspaper: “In search of responsible adult to assist elderly man Dec 22nd-27th”. I stared at the phone number on the listing, and let the scenario run through my head: Christmas with a stranger... what could go wrong?! I laughed out loud, then dialed the number. I had nothing to lose... or so I thought.A pleasant woman answered the phone with a jovial, “This is Florence!” “Hello Florence, my name is Marie. I saw your advertisement in the paper looking for someone to help with an elderly man over the holidays...” My voice sounded insecure; I wasn't entirely sure I'd dialed the right number.“Ah, yes...” Florence's voice took on a more somber tone. “Our upstairs tenant is quite elderly, my sister and I check in on him daily to help with tidying up and cooking, but we're going out of town for the holidays and don't feel comfortable leaving him alone.”“I see...” I replied, curious about the dynamics of the two sisters and the old man living upstairs. “Are you looking for someone to visit a couple of times a day or...”Florence cut in, “Well, ideally, we'd love to find someone to stay overnight in our flat to keep an eye on things and assist our tenant when necessary. Unfortunately, we can't offer much in the way of financial compensation, but you could help yourself to anything in the fridge or pantry, both are well-stocked, and we have plenty of books and movies to entertain you.” She paused then, leaving the static air between us hanging for a moment before tentatively carrying on. “If that sounds agreeable, perhaps we could meet tomorrow for introductions?”I thought it was strange she didn't ask me for any references and that she was so quickly and easily willing to hand over access to both her home and the well-being of an elderly man to a complete stranger. Lucky for her, I was a kind, honest, trustworthy person. We agreed to meet at her flat for lunch the next day, the address was less than a mile from my apartment, very convenient if I needed to zip home for anything.I easily found the 2-storey row house at the end of a cul-de-sac after following a long stretch of nearly identical brown brick buildings down a hill. My mother had always insisted I should never go to anyone's home without bringing a token of appreciation, so I shifted the bag of pastries I had brought into my left hand and used my free hand to tap the door knocker against the heavy wooden door. I heard the sound reverberate on the other side, followed by a quick succession of echoing footsteps. A moment later I was standing in a long dim hallway with a petite woman who appeared to be in her 70s. Her appearance was quite striking; dressed all in black with chalky white makeup on her face and garish red lipstick swiped across her mouth like a child's crayon mark on a blank page.“Hello, you must be Florence?” I asked, noting that she hadn't said a word of welcome to me after opening the door. Her irises and pupils were almost the same colour, making her eyes, which were fixated on me, look like two dark, bottomless pools. This, coupled with her completely static facial expression began to make me squirm. I shifted nervously from one foot to the other waiting for her to say something.“This is my sister Winifred, she doesn't speak much,” came a voice from the room to my left. My gaze quickly shifted to the doorway where a woman, identical to the one standing next to me, but with a much warmer countenance and more relaxed clothing style, was standing in the doorframe wiping flour from her hands onto a maroon apron. “I am Florence,” she added with a warm smile that put me only slightly more at ease. “I'm Marie, it's lovely to meet you both... Oh, these are for you,” I said, awkwardly handing the bag of pastries to Winifred. The entire situation, identical twins, one apparently mute and very inept at applying makeup, an elderly man upstairs... it was all quite bizarre, and I began to question why I ever thought this would be a good idea. Winifred sniffled in acknowledgment then shuffled away, disappearing into the shadows of the endless hallway.“Why don't we begin by going upstairs to meet Mr. Holcomb,” suggested Florence, gently but purposefully laying a guiding hand on my shoulder and turning me toward a doorway to our left. We walked down a short hallway to a narrow set of wooden stairs leading up to an even narrower door with a brass number 7 hanging on it slightly askew. Florence marched up the stairs ahead of me, the ribbon of her apron bouncing back and forth as she made her way up. I followed closely, preferring the creepy narrow stairs to the company of her creepy sister Winifred.“Mr. Holcomb? It's Florence, I've got the caregiver here with me,” shouted Florence through the door. Caregiver? I was surprised to hear her coin the term as I had never insinuated I had any kind of caregiving experience. We waited a moment, Florence on the tiny landing and me a couple of stairs below her. Slow, shuffling footsteps grew louder on the other side of the door and the sound of the bolt slipping out of its casing echoed down the stairs behind me. The door creaked loudly as it was pulled open, and Florence walked through. I came up the last few steps and stepped into the flat. The man was already several steps ahead, his back to me as he walked toward the back of the apartment. Florence and I followed him, she more at ease than I by a long shot. The hallway was lined with mirrors streaked with gold, like something straight out of the 1960s. I peered into the adjacent rooms, and each one also appeared frozen in a similar era. We finally arrived at a small kitchen, bright sunlight pouring in through the small window above the sink. It was only then that I realised every other room I had seen had the curtains drawn and was bathed in darkness. The man finally turned to face me, and the sharp intake of my breath caused Florence to put a hand on my arm.“Mr. Holcomb can see much more clearly than his appearance would suggest,” she leaned in to whisper in my ear.“My hearing is quite stellar as well,” said the man, with no hint of banter in his voice. I stood transfixed. The man's eyes were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. When I was young our family dog's eyes had become milky as it grew older, but this was something entirely different. The clouds in his eyes weren't static but rolling, like an impending storm, a mixture of white, grey, and charcoal. I shook my head and cleared my throat. “It's lovely to meet you Mr. Holcomb, my name is Marie. It sounds like we're going to be spending the holidays together!” The words were strung together as though someone else was speaking them, the voice coming out of my throat unrecognizable to me. I couldn't believe I was listening to myself agree to stay in a strange building owned by strange sisters to look after a strange man. It felt like I had no control over my body or my mind in that moment.Somehow or other, arrangements were made. It was like an out of body experience, and before I knew it December 22ndarrived and I found myself standing in front of 51 Dimly Court with an antique key in my hand that had been slipped into my postbox by Florence the day before along with instructions on how to ensure the furnace was running, how to use the antique stove, and how to reach her in case of emergency. Scribbled in a shaky hand at the bottom of the note, as though added in haste, were words that left me perplexed: “Do not drink the tea in the canisters above the cookbooks.” It must have been a collection of very rare, expensive teas for it to be their only rule! I decided then and there I would have a cup before my stay was over.I let myself into the flat and slowly made the rounds, exploring every room. Each one was filled top to bottom with knick-knacks and antique furniture. Cluttered didn't even begin to describe it. I could tell which space belonged to which sister. The tell-tale sign in Winifred's room was the dusty black swath of lacey fabric draped across the top of her four-poster bed. Florence's room on the other hand featured a vintage floral bedspread with matching curtains. I had already decided to simply sleep on the couch, a luxury I could afford at my age without having to concern myself with stiff joints or a sore back. I found the bathroom and kitchen, and immediately thought of the tea. My eyes scanned the space, and I saw a shelf lined with cookbooks on the far wall. Above it was another smaller shelf with a set of 3 glass cannisters each filled with loose-leaf teas: One gold, one black, and one purple. Bingo! I reached up to grab the gold canister, but just as my fingers closed around it, I was startled by a crash above my head. My heart raced as I scurried down the hall, through the doorway, and up the narrow stairs to Mr. Holcomb's flat. I knocked on the door and shouted “Mr. Holcomb? It's Marie, is everything alright?” I stood nervously listening to the wave of silence behind the door, and almost fell backwards down the stairs when it suddenly creaked open. Mr. Holcomb's silhouette blocked what little light was emanating from the kitchen at the end of the hall. “I- I heard a loud crash, is everything okay?” I asked in a shaky voice.Mr. Holcomb nodded and motioned for me to come in. “Yes, I do apologise, I'm afraid I sent a houseplant crashing to the floor. Sometimes the greenery and I have disagreements,” said the old man. “Would you like a cup of tea?”I couldn't tell if he was joking about arguing with houseplants, his face seemed to remain expressionless much of the time, but I was surprised by his offer to make me some tea, and by the warmth of his tone, as he hadn't been all that friendly when I'd first met him. I nodded and followed him to the kitchen where he set about preparing tea and a plate of biscuits. “If I may ask, Mr. Holcomb, what sorts of tasks does Florence help you with? She wasn't very specific if I'm being honest...” He was sitting across the table from me, and I was finding it rather difficult to focus with those rolling storm cloud eyes of his, but decided to simply look at his forehead instead and hoped he wouldn't notice.“The truth is Miss, I don't need help with anything at all, but I know it pleases Florence to visit, makes her feel useful. Did she mention she was a nurse during the war? She and her sister both, but that was before we met...” he said. We carried on chatting, and I found myself surprised at how easy it was to converse with him. By the time we were done I hardly even noticed his unusual eyes and was happy I had taken on the job after all. Little did I know...The next couple of days were uneventful. I spent much of my time reading, napping, and visiting with Mr. Holcomb. He insisted on making us Christmas Eve dinner and handed me a shopping list of ingredients in preparation. Not wanting to arrive empty-handed, I also grabbed ingredients to make dessert. I spent most of Christmas Eve sorting out the antique oven, and somehow managed to bake up a decent batch of shortbread. It was my Nan's recipe and I had made it so often I had it memorised. We sat down to a traditional holiday meal and chatted back and forth. I was hoping Mr. Holcomb would touch on how his cloud eyes came to be, but he never broached the subject, and I didn't dare inquire about it. He mentioned being sent to war, but strayed from providing any details of his experience, instead speaking of the bravery and brilliance of Florence and Winifred who saved countless lives with very little means as nurses in the war zone. He talked about his childhood Christmases in the poverty-stricken area of the city, and how his mother once saved all the money she could to buy him and his brother each an orange and a mincemeat pie the Christmas after their father had passed away. His stories were like relics of a time gone by, and I soaked them in like a sponge, leaning in to gaze upon every crevice on his weathered face, and eventually getting lost in the swirling mist of his eyes.The conversation flowed naturally, easily, and I found myself rather enjoying Mr. Holcomb's company, but as the night wore on, I noticed he began to shift in his seat and appeared to grow increasingly uncomfortable. Before I knew it the antique clock in the next room was chiming midnight. Almost simultaneously, a roll of thunder rattled the windows of the tiny kitchen.“Oh, dear...” Mr. Holcomb turned toward the window. “It's best that you go,” he said, turning back toward me. There was an expression on his face that I couldn't read, and the clouds in his eyes began to roll, not unlike the low-lying swirl of an incoming fog, except they were the colour of slate. “Yes, it is late. Time flies!” I said a little too loudly, suddenly uncomfortable myself. I began to gather up the dishes as a distraction.“Never mind that, you need to go,” commanded Mr. Holcomb again, this time with a sharper tone. He abruptly rose from his chair and disappeared down the hall.I quickly placed the dishes on the counter and scrambled after him, but he had already vanished. I tentatively peered into the first room off the hallway. “Mr. Holcomb?” I spoke into the darkness of the room. My eyes quickly adjusted to the dim light, and I saw the room was empty. I could make out a set of built-in bookshelves and large oak desk with a worn brown satchel sat atop it. I took a few steps into the room and noticed a collection of picture frames on the wall, and a certificate awarded to Russell J. Holcomb, but I couldn't see what it was for. Through the doorway at the opposite end of the office I saw Mr. Holcomb in the room across the hall. He was seated in a brown leather wing-back chair, the kind with brass studs around the edges. The sight of him made my breath catch in my throat; he was wearing a blindfold and sitting rod-straight and perfectly still, his lips pressed tightly together in concentration. I opened my mouth to ask if he was alright but was cut off by a monstrous clap of thunder and subsequent flickering of the apartment lights. I stood in the hallway, transfixed, like my feet were glued to the floor. Out of nowhere I heard the front door to Mr. Holcomb's flat creak open of its own accord. That did it, I felt my fear take over the mechanics of my body, and quickly scurried toward it.Just as I was about to exit, the phone on the narrow table by the door began to ring. I stopped to stare at it, unsure what to do. I looked down the hall, but didn't dare approach Mr. Holcomb, blindfolded and unresponsive in his chair. I tentatively reached down to grab the receiver, it was an old-style phone with a curvy silhouette and a turn-dial. I put the phone to my ear and heard a voice come through the static on the other end. It sounded like Florence, but with a deadpan, monotonous tone. “Go back... ...stairs... ...and... ...door.” “Errrmm... I'm having trouble hearing you, would you mind repeating?” I hoped my voice carried through the receiver, but I was shaking so much it wasn't quite lined up with my mouth anymore.“Go downstairs... lock... door... ...should've warned y-” Out of the corner of my eye I saw the shadow of a hand slam down onto the top of the phone, effectively disconnecting the call. I didn't wait to see who or what it was, turned on my heels and raced down the narrow stairs to the sisters' flat, closing and locking the door in one swift move. I leaned my back against the door to catch my breath, and only then did it dawn on me whose voice it was on the other end of the line... It had sounded like Florence, but darker... it had to be Winifred! But... what was she going on about? I eventually gathered my wits about me and made my way to the sofa. I made a fire in the fireplace, letting its warmth, light, and gentle crackling sounds calm my nerves. I piled a few blankets on top of me and lay staring at the ceiling, wondering what on earth was going on in the flat upstairs. Winifred's voice echoed in my head as I drifted off to sleep: “Should've warned you...”Thank you so much for listening, I truly hope you enjoyed the first installment of The Man with a Storm in His Eyes.Be sure to check in next week for the next part of the story!If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating or a review, they are both greatly appreciated. You can also support my work by subscribing to Patreon. Patreon supporters get early access to ad-free podcast episodes, digital downloads of my music, and so much more. It's the first place I share my creations. However, if you prefer not to subscribe, but would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so via your podcast platform. Any and all financial support is greatly appreciated.Once again, thank you for listening – I'm Melissa Oliveri, writer, composer, and producer of The Skylark Bell Podcast.  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/theskylarkbell/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Chuck Edwards - "Downtown Soulville" [0:00:00] Music behind DJ: Preston Love - "Omaha Mash" [0:06:48] The Sting Rays - "I'm Gonna Suprise You" [0:06:49] Lionel Torrence - "Moscow Twist" [0:09:05] Tommy Love - "Ninety Days In August" [0:09:42] Timmy Shaw - "No More" [0:12:06] Music behind DJ: Big Sam Mason & the House Rockers - "Bright Day" [0:14:03] Carolyn Crawford - "Devil in His Eyes" [0:17:39] Carolyn Crawford - "When Someone Is Good to You" [0:18:37] Carolyn Crawford - "My Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down)" [0:21:15] Music behind DJ: The Theo-Coff Invasion - "Lucky Day" [0:23:39] The Zircons - "Was It Meant to Be This Way" [0:25:05] Emanuel Laskey - "(I've Got to) Run for My Life" [0:28:59] Dee Dee Barnes - "Do What You Wanna Do" [0:31:21] The Stratoliners - "What Do You Want With My Love" [0:33:33] Mamie Galore - "No Right to Cry" [0:35:37] Music behind DJ: Lebaron Taylor's Orchestra - "All Your Goodies Are Gone" [0:38:14] Sheppard Brothers - "Night Flight" [0:41:46] Billy John & the Continentals - "Slap It to Me" [0:44:02] The Original Cousins - "Sock-It" [0:46:00] Cook E. Jarr and the Krums - "Rose" [0:48:10] Music behind DJ: The Tears - "1808 East Broad" [0:50:18] Lindell Hill - "Used to Be Love" [0:51:55] Vernon Garrett - "I Had a Dream" [0:54:59] Music behind DJ: Major & the Lieutenants - "Communicating" [0:57:40] https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/131913

The post Acts 8v26-40 His Eyes are on the Searching Heart appeared first on Calvary Chapel Crossover.

This week we're joined by Mother Iliana who has released a new book, The Light of His Eyes. We talk about how the book came to be, some concepts from the book, and ways Mother Iliana  has seen the Lord working in her life.References:The Light of His Eyes by Mother IlianaTaare Zameen Par (Every Child is Special movie)The Soul of Shame by Dr. Curt ThompsonFollow and Contact Us!Follow us on Instagram and FacebookWe're on YouTube!Join our Goodreads GroupFr. Michael's TwitterChrist the Bridegroom MonasteryOur WebsiteOur NonprofitSupport the show

What happens when we are NOT delivered from evil and we have some righteous suffering to do?  Well, 1 Peter answers that and says: you get Psalm 34you get His EYES upon youyou get His EARS open to your prayeryou get His FACE against the bad guysoccasionally you get deliverance OUT OF all your troubles but usuallyyou get His NEARNESS to you being brokenhearted andyou get His SAVING you when crushed in spiritSo, when you suffer, I hope you get PSALM 34.  I hope you get His NEARNESS. bewithme.us Spotify, Facebook, YouTube, follow on instagram @mjsm1th or https://instagram.com/mjsm1th?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw==

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Jn 17:20-26 - Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, so that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one, as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that You sent Me, and that You loved them even as You loved Me. Father, they are Your gift to Me. I wish that where I am they also may be with Me, that they may see My glory that You gave Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know You, but I know You, and they know that You sent Me. I made known to them Your Name and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them." Memorial of Saint Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church Memorial of Saint Gregory VII, Pope, Religious Memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, Virgin Saints Bede, Gregory, and Mary, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2) The Deposit of Faith: What it is and why Catholics must know about it https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/the-deposit-of-faith-what-it-is-and-why-catholics-should-know-about-it/ 3) Doug Barry joins Terry to discuss his group, the Be Ready Coalition 4) Why Deposit of Faith cannot change or "evolve" https://www.lifesitenews.com/analysis/why-the-churchs-deposit-of-faith-cannot-change-or-evolve/

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Jn 17:11b-19 - Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name that You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are One. When I was with them I protected them in Your Name that You gave Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You. I speak this in the world so that they may share My joy completely. I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world but that You keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3) Joshua Charles on his book: War of the Antichrist. Today's freemasonry influence is certainly a worthwhile discussion 4) Update with Church Militant on news as it relates to the Church & Culture

Today's Topics: 1) Gospel - Jn 17:1-11a - Jesus raised His Eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all people, so that Your Son may give eternal life to all You gave Him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know You, the only true God, and the One Whom You sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work that You gave me to do. Now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world began. "I revealed Your Name to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They belonged to You, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything You gave Me is from You, because the words You gave to Me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones You have given Me, because they are Yours, and everything of Mine is Yours and everything of Yours is Mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you." Bishop Sheen quote of the day 2, 3) 10 Reasons Why Homosexual “Marriage” is Harmful and Must be Opposed https://www.tfp.org/10-reasons-why-homosexual-marriage-is-harmful-and-must-be-opposed/ 4) Why I am participating in the "Hope Is Fuel" conference

Singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman joins the Tim DeMoss Show today!  Chapman is the most awarded artist in Christian music history, winning 59 GMA Dove Awards, five Grammy Awards, an American Music Award. Among his 49 #1 singles: tender songs like His Eyes, I Will Be Here and Cinderella; lively, fun songs like The Great Adventure, No Better Place, Dive, Let Us Pray and All About Love, plus many more such as More To This Life, Not Home Yet, Signs of Life and Fingerprints of God. We discuss Chapman's brand new album “Still” and feature several songs from it including the title track. We also cover a lot of other SCC musical ground and hear his thoughts on the Lord and what He has been doing in he and his family's lives. On a personal note, Chapman's 2009 album "Beauty Will Rise"--birthed out of the loss of his adopted five-year old daughter in a tragic accident--has been an ongoing source of encouragement and hope in my (Tim's) life while seeking to persevere through various challenges including the health of our children. I highly recommend it as a way to be encouraged and do the same for friends and family who may be struggling with pain or loss, with God Himself as ultimate source of help and hope. You can find out more about SCC's new album, music, touring and the rest at www.stevencurtischapman.com :). Thank you for listening & Happy Thanksgiving!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broken-down buses, long lines, fractious tourists, strikes—and countless encounters with God's immense providence. These are just some of the memorable experiences recounted by Irish tour guide Kieran Troy in his new book, “In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes,” which takes the reader to some of the most evocative Catholic pilgrimage sites: Vatican City, the Holy House of Nazareth in Loreto, the shrine of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo, the Abbey of Montecassino, and many more. In this episode, Troy speaks with Ignatius Press editor Thomas Jacobi about the book, and about the inspiring, exhausting, and often comical experiences he's had over decades of leading groups of pilgrims to many of Christendom's most beloved places. With wit and charm, Troy gives a first-hand account of Christ at work in all the beautiful messiness of pilgrimage. Find the book, “In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes: Tales of an Irish Tour Guide in Rome,” here: https://bit.ly/3E8aWG5

Catherine Bush CBE (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, pianist, dancer, and record producer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. Bush has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", "Babooshka", "Running Up That Hill", "Don't Give Up" (a duet with Peter Gabriel) and "King of the Mountain". All ten of her studio albums reached the UK Top 10, including the UK number one albums Never for Ever (1980), Hounds of Love (1985) and the compilation The Whole Story (1986). She was the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist to enter the album chart at number one.Bush began writing songs at 11. She was signed to EMI Records after the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour helped produce a demo tape. Her debut album, The Kick Inside, was released in 1978. Bush slowly gained artistic independence in album production and has produced all her studio albums since The Dreaming (1982). She took a hiatus between her seventh and eighth albums, The Red Shoes (1993) and Aerial (2005). Bush drew attention again in 2014 with her concert residency Before the Dawn, her first shows since 1979's The Tour of Life. In 2022 her 1985 song "Running Up That Hill" received renewed global attention after being featured in the fourth season of the Netflix series Stranger Things, which led to the single becoming her second UK number one and reaching the top of several other charts. The song also reached number 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Bush's first release to reach the top 10 of a US singles chart; its parent album, Hounds of Love, became Bush's first album to reach the top of a Billboard albums chart.Bush's eclectic musical style, unconventional lyrics, performances, and literary themes have influenced a diverse range of artists. She has been nominated for 13 Brit Awards, winning for Best British Female Artist in 1987, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. In 2002, Bush was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. She was appointed a CBE in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music. She also became a Fellow of The Ivors Academy in the UK in 2020. The same year, Rolling Stone ranked Hounds of Love at number 68 on its list of their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2021, "Running Up That Hill" was also listed at number 60 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Bush has been nominated three times for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: 2018, 2021 and 2022.

Heathcliff! It's us, it's Strong Songs, we've come home!In March of 2021, the time was right for a deep dive into the music of the great Kate Bush, and what better song to analyze than her breakthrough 1978 hit, "Wuthering Heights." (And in July of 2022, with Bush's fame at new heights thanks to Netflix's Stranger Things, the time is perhaps even more right.) This song has it all - odd phrasing, shifting key centers, soaring vocals, character narration, an epic guitar solo, a red dress, and a celesta.Written by: Kate BushAlbum: The Kick Inside (1978)Listen/Buy: Apple Music | Amazon | SpotifyALSO FEATURED/DISCUSSED:“James and the Cold Gun” and “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” by Kate Bush from The Kick Inside, 1978“Sat In Your Lap” and “The Dreaming” by Kate Bush from The Dreaming, 1982“Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush from Hounds of Love, 1985Richard Buskin's 2004 Sound on Sound article about the writing and recording of "Wuthering Heights" - https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-kate-bush-wuthering-heightsThe 1886 remake/remix of "Wuthering Heights"Kate Bush's iconic Red Dress music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjsNoel Fielding's incredible live reenactment of the Red Dress video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du4uH1fC9B8A demonstration of the bell tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhStPnEcXrk“The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from The Nutcracker Suite, 1892 performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, 1999“Starman” by David Bowie from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972“Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra from Out of the Blue, 1977OUTRO SOLOIST: Charles McNealCharles McNeal is a killin' Oakland-based sax player who plays all over the bay area. He's also a master jazz transcriber, and has chronicled tons of great solos. You can find him playing out in a variety of bands and settings; the best way to keep up with his music is to subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram @charlesonsax2 - https://www.instagram.com/charlesonsax2-----LINKS-----SUPPORT STRONG SONGSPaypalme/kirkhamiltonmusic | Patreon.com/strongsongsMERCH STOREstore.strongsongspodcast.comSOCIAL MEDIA@StrongSongs | @Kirkhamilton | IG: @Kirk_HamiltonNEWSLETTERhttps://kirkhamilton.substack.com/subscribeJOIN THE DISCORDhttps://discord.gg/GCvKqAM8SmTHE STRONG SONGS PLAYLISTSpotify | Apple Music | YouTube MusicThe Hollow Knight music video Kirk mentioned at the end of this episode: https://youtu.be/eIVtGlcpZS0

As has been observed more than once, Christ's healings are rarely performed in a same way. Their many differing details are doubtless to teach us many lessons. One of the most important is, that the ways and experiences of conversion are also many and varied. What is to be noticed above all is the fruit of a forgiven soul- -1- Christ Sets Him Apart-2- Christ Spits on His Eyes-3- Christ Sends Him Home

Author : R.S.A. Garcia Narrator : Omega Francis Host : Matt Dovey Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Devil’s Ways anthology Content warning for domestic violence Rated R Fire In His Eyes, Blood On His Teeth By R.S.A. Garcia   He comes to me with fire in his eyes […] The post PodCastle 732: Fire in His Eyes, Blood on His Teeth appeared first on PodCastle.

In today's chapter, the girls are doing another Convince Me to Read where they pitch each other books! Also, Madeline talks about her interaction with law enforcement... Books Discussed: A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover Ghost in His Eyes by Carrie Aarons ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses) by Sarah J. Maas Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn Heartstopper Series by Alice Oseman

l disco que vamos a escuchar hoy es ‘The Kick Inside’, algo así como ‘La patada interior’. El álbum alcanzó el puesto número 3 en la lista de álbumes del Reino Unido y ha sido certificado Platino por la Industria Fonográfica Británica (BPI). El disco lo grabó cuando sólo tenía 19 años de edad, saliendo al siguiente año. Kate Bush fue descubierta nada menos que por el ex-Pink Floyd Dave Gilmour cuando ésta contaba con 16 años de edad. Una de las características que más le definen es su gran voz, pudiendo alcanzar nada menos que un rango de 4 octavas. * Una infancia muy musical Catherine Bush nació el 30 de julio de 1958 en el condado de Kent, Inglaterra. Su padre era un médico inglés de nombre Robert Bush, y su madre una irlandesa llamada County Waterford, ambos ya fallecidos. Estudió en una escuela católica, junto a sus hermanos mayores John y Paddy. Kate también gozó de un gran ambiente musical en casa: su madre era una reconocida bailarina de baile tradicional irlandés y su padre era también un aventajado pianista, su hermano Paddy trabajaba como constructor de instrumentos musicales y su otro hermano John era poeta y fotógrafo, además de que ambos hermanos estaban muy involucrados en la escena folk de la zona. Por lo tanto, no fue difícil que Kate se sintiese atraída por el piano, el órgano y el violín con sólo 11 años de edad. Pronto empezó a componer y poner letras a sus canciones. Fue mientras estudiaba en la escuela, cuando sus padres recogieron una demo con 50 temas creados por la joven para mostrar su trabajo a las discográficas. * Su relación con Dave Gilmour, de Pink Floyd La vida da muchas vueltas y fue la casualidad que un amigo de la familia, un tal Ricky Hopper lo fuese también del entonces componente de Pink Floyd, David Gilmour que quedó impresionado tras la escucha y pensó que la demo no tenía suficiente calidad para ser mostrada a las compañías fonográficas del momento. Así que decidió ayudarla para hacer una nueva demo. Gilmour pagó de su propio bolsillo la grabación de 3 nuevos temas que fueron producidos a su vez, por otro amigo de Gilmour, el músico Andrew Powell, músico y arreglista que participaría en casi todos los discos de Alan Parsons. Andrew decidió ser el productor de los dos primeros larga duración de Kate. 'The Kick Inside' y 'Lionheart' ambos aparecidos en 1978. También trabajó en estos discos, como ingeniero de sonido Geoffrey Emerick, que ya había estado con The Beatles en discos como 'Revolver', 'Sgt. Peppers' o 'Abbey Road', entre otros. Al final, esa demo con tres canciones cayó en manos de Terry Staler, un ejecutivo de EMI que quedó gratamente impresionado con la labor de la joven. En un acto realmente impensable en la industria discográfica actual, Bob Mercer, un director ejecutivo de EMI, pensó que a pesar que Kate contaba con muy buen trabajo, un éxito a edad tan temprana podía ser poco beneficioso, y un fracaso realmente dañino. Así que pensó que era mejor que la chica se dedicase a sus estudios, y a pesar de estar en nómina de la discográfica, se lo tomaron con calma, dando tiempo a que Kate madurase como artista y personalmente, fuese el resultado que fuese. La percepción de Kate, como contaba hace pocos años era algo distinta, tal vez Radcliffe la contrató para que no pudiese ir a la competencia. De todas formas, con el generoso avance de honorarios de una persona que, recordemos, todavía no había grabado nada en absoluto, la joven aprovechó para acabar sus estudios con una nota más que notable y tomar clases de interpretación con el actor Lindsay Kemp, que también trabajó con David Bowie en sus inicios. También tomaría clases de mímica con Adam Darius. A pesar de todo, Kate siguió escribiendo canciones, algunas de las cuales se pueden encontrar hoy en un disco pirata conocido como ‘Phoenix Recordings’, llegándose a contar alrededor de 200 composiciones. * Preparando todo para su primer disco Para la grabación de este disco, se pidió a Bush utilizar músicos de sesión en lugar de la KT Bush Band, aunque siguió conservando a algunos de ellos, como su hermano Paddy que tocaba la armónica y la mandolina o Stuart Elliott que tocó algunos de los tambores y se convirtió en su baterista principal en álbumes posteriores. David Gilmour produce dos de los temas del mismo. Una de las canciones más conocidas de este disco es ‘Wutherings Heights’, que fue el primer éxito de su carrera, llegando a ser la primera vez que una cantautora encabezó las listas con una canción escrita por ella misma. Está inspirada en la novela única novela que escribió en 1847 Emily Brontë. Se mantuvo en el número uno en la lista de singles del Reino Unido durante cuatro semanas y sigue siendo el sencillo más exitoso de Bush. Pitchfork la nombró la quinta mejor canción de la década de 1970, y en 2020, The Guardian la clasificó como el decimocuarto mejor sencillo número uno del Reino Unido. Bush escribió la canción a los 18 años, después de ver la adaptación de la BBC de 1967 de la novela Cumbres Borrascosas de 1847. Al leer el libro descubrió que compartía su cumpleaños con la autora del mismo. Otro de los temas más conocidos del disco es “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”, que fue sacada como segundo single. Escribió la canción cuando tenía 13 años y la grabó a los 16 bajo la dirección de David Gilmour. En 2010, el ex presentador de radio y televisión Steve Blacknell, que fue el primer novio de Bush, ofreció a la venta la letra original escrita a mano de la canción a través del sitio web de recuerdos musicales 991.com. La propia Bush nunca ha dicho sobre quién escribió la canción, pero Backnell ha declarado que una persona cercana a Bush le había dicho que la canción estaba escrita sobre él. Durante mucho tiempo se supuso que se trataba de Gilmour. A día de hoy, Kate Bush ha sido nominada a 13 galardones de la industria fonográfica británica, ganó como Mejor Artista Femenina Británica en 1987 y ha sido nominada a tres premios Grammy. En 2002, Bush fue reconocida con un premio Ivor Novello por su destacada contribución a la música británica. Bush fue nombrado CBE en los Honores de Año Nuevo de 2013 por sus servicios a la música. Fue nominada tres veces para aparecer en elSalón de la Fama del Rock and Roll de 2018, 2021 y 2022.

Willie Nelson "Phases and Stages / Pick Up the Tempo / Phases and Stages (Theme)"Eilen Jewell "It's Your Voodoo Working"Lucero "Went Looking for Warren Zevon's Los Angeles"Warren Zevon "Keep Me In Your Heart"Steve Earle "Little Rock 'N' Roller"Justin Townes Earle "Memphis in the Rain"Patterson Hood "Come Back Little Star"Vic Chesnutt "Panic Pure"Valerie June "Summer's End"St. Louis Jimmy "Trying To Change My Ways"Sunnyland Slim "Orphan Boy Blues"Otis Redding "Let Me Come On Home"Margo Price "Sweet Revenge"Slobberbone "Trust Jesus"The Black Keys "Crawling Kingsnake"Brandi Carlile "Broken Horses"Dolly Parton "After the Gold Rush"Doc & Merle Watson "Milk Cow Blues"Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It"Kid Thomas & The Original Algiers Stompers "I Believe I Can Make It By Myself"Memphis Minnie "Killer Diller Blues"Kitty Wells "Queen Of Honky Tonk Street"Big Mama Thornton "Born Under A Bad Sign"Marie/Lepanto "Gramps And Grandma"Ernest Tubb "My Hillbilly Baby"Curtis Harding "Explore"Buffalo Nichols "Living Hell"Ry Cooder "Nitty Gritty Mississippi"Leon Russell "Jesus On My Side"Old 97's "Murder (Or a Heart Attack)"Gillian Welch "Tear My Stillhouse Down"Patsy Cline "Ain't No Wheels On This Ship"Drag the River "Embrace the Sound"Hayes Carll "Help Me Remember"Ray Wylie Hubbard "Cooler-N-Hell"Jolie Holland "Old Fashioned Morphine"Carla Thomas "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)"Sly & The Family Stone "Sing a Simple Song "Nina Simone "Break Down And Let It All Out"Lucinda Williams "Pineola"Al Green "I Can't Stop"Funkadelic "One Nation Under A Groove"The Mynabirds "Numbers Don't Lie"Aretha Franklin "See Saw"

Keep breathing girl ~ Playlist 1. Tom, Dick & Harry (OP8) 2. Trigger Happy Jack (Poe) 3. Groovey (Macy Rodman) 4. Sugar (Heather Nova) 5. His Eyes are a Blue Million Miles (Joan Osborne)

Hebrews 4:12-16 1. I need Jesus because His Word judges my heart. 2. I need Jesus because His Eyes see my sin. 3. I need Jesus because He is my only Hope.

We reach the midpoint of the Midnight Hunt stories with the third main story, The Fall of the House of Betzold by K. Arsenault Rivera, and the third side story, His Eyes, All of Them, by Margaret Killjoy. If you enjoy The Vorthos Cast, consider supporting us on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thevorthoscast!

Today's spirited Daily Star Devotion audio podcast dubbed - APPLE OF GOD'S EYES is by Pastor Mike S. Banda of Glorious Trinity Synagogues (G.T.S) in Accra, Ghana. You are the apple of God's Eyes and He loves you eternally. God loves everyone and calling everyone back home especially the unbelievers and sinners. Come back into the heavenly kingdom of light and love, where Jesus Christ reigns as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. People are capable of neglecting and not loving including husbands, wives, friends, parents, siblings, colleagues, neighbors because of one's shortcomings, offences, mistakes or whatever but God always loves, eternally faithful and dear to us. You may have made few or several mistakes and have been shun, forsaken, forgotten, rejected by all but God says you are still the apple of His Eyes and therefore come back to Him in Christ. God always loves sinners not the sins because in Jesus Christ we are sanctified, redeemed, adopted, insured, graced, divinely born and heavenly partners. You are the apple of God's Eyes. Therefore come to God in Christ where mansions, blessings, healings, good stuffs, fruitfulness, Miracles, supernatural opportunities, openings, breakthroughs etc ; are reserved for you. For all enquiries & related issues, contact Pastor Mike S. Banda of Glorious Trinity Synagogues (G.T.S), on +233266450929 (whatapps) or thewatered @aol.com.

DN89 - Ash Cash Here's a snapshot of a few things we talked about…         Who is the Clark Kent, When It Comes to Ash Cash?         Was He Mentored by Someone on How to Make Money?         How Did His Family and Friends Perceive His Role as a Banker?         What Was Stuck into His Mind When He Was Learning About Financial Literacy?         Is a Home an Asset or a Liability in His Eyes?         How to Get the Right Mindset, to Create Passive Income and Generational Wealth?         What it Means to ‘Pay Yourself First'         What People Can do to Start Bringing in Additional Income?         How to Package Your Knowledge if you Don't Have a Backstory?         What's the Smallest Amount that People Can Start Investing?         The Best Business Book That He's Read and His Best Book?         Best Advice That He Has Been Given in the Last Two Years?         His Advice for People Looking to Take Action In This Episode You'll Learn: In this episode, Casanova and Ash talk about financial literacy, how to be financially savvy.   

Ingestion. Embarrassment. Pain. These are things that, apparently, Would-You-Rathers can be about. We're just drawin' some random ones out of a Zobmondo box and hittin' em up with our analysis. We're like, experts, maybe, sort of, in a way.  Topics include: Whoopsie, When No News is Good News, Monicagate, Mel Gibson's Disease, Medicine Is a Mystery, GutscheGate, The Sewer Tsar, Naked Witch, Evil in His Eyes, and She's Kissed for Sure. *** Come chat with us, and other rad fans of the show, in our FACEBOOK GROUP! iTunes FacebookTwitter InstagramYOUTUBE Or, search for us on SPOTIFY if you'd like to hear children come on our show live and ridicule us. 

☆"It's Testimony Time, God will Provide, He Promised He Would Be A Father to the Fatherless"☆ make no bones about it it's my hope and prayer through these podcast testimonies but you will begin to stop and realize you got to get off to do nothing shelf and go to work for yourself working out your own Soul Salvation, Yeah, If you're one who's been sitting idly by day after Day, month after Month, year after Year waiting on God to change you! Think Again! Remember when you had children under your Authority, could you change them, absolutely not! The care you have and had for your children, God has Greater Care and Concern for you and just like your children wouldn't listen to you, you aren't listening to God, don't think for one minute that God hates you because you went through this and that. No! He had nothing to do with your choices He Would Never Violate Our Right to Choose! ☆"Our Choices Determine our Destiny"☆ It's time to wake up out of your Slumber Sleep, by now you ought to be teaching this preaching this telling this word as I'm trying to Help you do for you and anyone else who's listening, I don't know who I'm talking to but you know you and you know you do what you do but don't make any more excuses, talking about, "God ain't finished with you yet!" it's not a reason but an excuse! Hello somebody are you listening as long as God keeps allowing you to wake up and say good morning, it's time to make a serious, sincere, systemic study of his word putting an end to your spirit so that you can leave it out in your life guess what he wants to be your GPS, {☆"GOD'S POWER @ your SERVICE"☆] God wants to lead and guide you into all truth if you willing the trusten Hebrews 4 shows us the children of Israel were not willing to trust God so God said of the children of Israel they will not enter my rest why was it because he didn't want them to or he knew they weren't going to well he knew they weren't going to you see man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart what are you showing to God by your inner attitude producing your outer actions chew on that for a minute! I'm just trying to help you understand this is not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get reality of life but somebody's watching you and there are consequences even if you don't know, So hear me now! What You Don't See Is What You Get but God wants you to be able to see what you getting when you look at life through His Eyes! Oh help me Holy Spirit. You're listening to a dynamic word from the station with truth, WLRH! In His Care, L R aka Reno

Jesus says that few of His sacred servants are prepared for His Second Coming. He says it is time to awaken your spirit, read the Words contained in the Bible and then pray for the Gift of discernment. You must be willing to listen and humble yourselves before His Eyes.

Today I had the pleasure of welcoming our newest book club member and fellow podcaster Shane Wilson. Shane stopped by to tell us about his books The Boy Who Kissed the Rain, A Year Since the Rain and The Smoke in His Eyes. Shane shares his writing journey and gave the right answer to my Godfather question. Welcome the club Shane! To learn more about Shane and his books visit: https://www.shanewilsonauthor.com/ . About Shane Wilson Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Shane is a child of the southeastern United States where he feels simultaneously at-home and out-of-place. He graduated from Valdosta State University in south Georgia with a Masters in English. He taught college English in Georgia for four years before moving to North Carolina in 2013. No matter the temperature outside, there is always an iced coffee in his hand when he walks into class in the mornings. He tends to chase the day with a whiskey and a re-run of The Office. Shane has published poetry in Tethered by Letters and the Stonepile Writers' Anthology, Volume III. He is currently at work on a new novel as well as a collection of short stories based on the mythos of and set in the same town as A Year Since the Rain --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bright-headed-publishing/message

OMG! Shane and I had one of the best conversation. We spoke with each other like we have known each other for years. We laughed and had a very positive vibe. I asked Shane to tell the listeners a fun fact about him and he told me he was a "mobile DJ" how cool. He also told me that "Wild Turkey 101" is his favorite Whiskey and he loves watching reruns of "The Office." When I asked Shane what was his why and he told me that he is a teacher and he wants to impact his students and the readers lives. He also said he didn't know what he would do without music, storytelling or teaching, he loves it and he is going to keep doing it. Let's know more about Shane: ALL ABOUT SHANE: Shane Wilson is a storyteller. No matter the medium, the emphasis of his work is on the magical act of the story, and how the stories we tell immortalize us and give voice to the abstractions of human experience. His first two contemporary fantasy novels as well as a stage play, set in his World of Muses universe, are currently available. Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, Shane is a child of the southeastern United States where he feels simultaneously at-home and out-of-place. He graduated from Valdosta State University in south Georgia with a Masters in English. He taught college English in Georgia for four years before moving to North Carolina in 2013. Shane plays guitar and writes songs with his two-man-band, Sequoia Rising. He writes songs as he writes stories--with an emphasis on the magic of human experience. He tends to chase the day with a whiskey (Wild Turkey 101) and a re-run of The Office. Shane's novels are A Year Since the Rain (Snow Leopard Publishing, 2016) and The Smoke in His Eyes (GenZ Publishing, 2018). Shane's short story, "The Boy Who Kissed the Rain" was the 2017 Rilla Askew Short Fiction Prize winner and was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize. An adaptation of that story for the stage was selected for the Independence Theater Reading Series in Fayetteville, NC. Shane is currently at work on a new novel. Shane has a new song called "Of All Things I've Ever Said." Alittle about Shane novel called "Smoke In His Eyes"-‘When he opened his eyes, the room was full of chaotic visions' - Prelude to a life. His journey into Muna's past is a journey to discover where inspiration originates and what happens to an artist when that inspiration is gone. You can find more of Shane's novel on Amazon.com:  Amazon.com: The Smoke in His Eyes: A Magical Realism, Musical Novel eBook: Wilson, Shane, Publishing, GenZ, Bishop, Rachel: Kindle Store Amazon.ca: The Smoke in His Eyes: A Magical Realism, Musical Novel eBook: Wilson, Shane, Publishing, GenZ, Bishop, Rachel: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store Barnes and Noble: The Smoke in His Eyes by Shane Wilson, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com) You can also find Shane on social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as @ThatShaneWilson and if you want to know more about Shane and want to contact him go to his website at www.shanewilsonauthor.com Shane is the perfect person to contact and if you are looking for a musician contact Shane.

HIS EYES range to and fro looking for those who love HIM!

It's a nightmare scenario… Imagine that you have gone through all of your life. You THOUGHT that you've been walking with God. You prayed. You occasionally went to church. Sometimes you read the Bible, or you heard in church. You did some charitable deeds. You think you're okay. You assume that your Christian. Then, the Day of Judgment comes, and both the Father and the Messiah declare, that they have not known you, and that you didn't really walk with them. Now that is a nightmare scenario. How could such a terrible thing happen? It can happen if we do not pay attention and overcome Vain Worship. We all know that the 3rd Commandment teaches us that it is possible to use God's Name in vain (Exodus 20:7). To do something in vain means to cause it to become useless, worthless or to render it meaningless. Did you know that Scripture says that it is possible that we could cause our entire religion to become meaningless or useless, if we don't control our mouth, (James 1:26)? According to Jesus and the Scriptures it is possible for our prayers to become vain, meaningless and useless, (Matthew 6:7; James 4:3; Proverbs 28:9). According to Scripture, it is possible to study in vain, if we don't allow the Scriptures to direct how we think and change how we behave. It's possible to be always studying, but never quite be walking in the truth, (2 Timothy 3:1-7). According to Messiah, it is also possible to offer God worship, but for God to consider the worship that we offered to be a worthless and meaningless vanity in His Eyes, (Matthew 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-13). Imagine trying to worship God all your life, and having none of it count or do you any good, as far as God is concerned. Let's avoid that nightmare scenario. In this episode of Discipleship Answers, I answer the question, what is vain worship, & how do we avoid it. Come listen in, so that we can study and remind ourselves to offer God worship that He will accept and honor. Shalom.

God's Way, Follow Him, Solid Rock, Loving our Enemies, Seeing through His Eyes

The Sound Chaser Progressive Rock Podcast is on the web. The show this time is just a general tour of styles and eras of prog. There are some well-known tunes and a few obscurities. You also get news of tours and releases. So, sit back and relax for over three hours of progressive music. Playlist 1. Kansas - Lightning's Hand, from Point of Know Return 2. John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu - Mitch Match, from Adventures in Radioland 3. Gentle Giant [Ray Shulman] - Volcano, from Scraping the Barrel 4. Art Zoyd - Migrations, from Les Espaces Inquiets 5. String Driven Thing - Let Me Down, from It's a Game 6. Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe - Gone But Not Forgotten / Catherine Parr / Merlin the Magician, from An Evening of Yes Music Plus 7. Richard Sinclair - Heather, from Caravan of Dreams 8. Richard Sinclair - Keep on Caring, from Caravan of Dreams 9. Richard Sinclair - Emily, from Caravan of Dreams 10. Kate Bush - The Man with the Child in His Eyes, from The Kick Inside 11. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - All I Want Is You, from Love Beach 12. Illusion - Everywhere You Go, from Out of the Mist THE SYMPHONIC ZONE 13. The Black Codex - Hauntings Pt. I & Pt. II, from The Black Codex Episodes 27-39 14. Exodus - Jeszcze Czezam, from Supernova 15. Finnforest - Lähtö Matkalle II, from Lähtö Matkalle 16. Fruupp - Mystery Might, from Modern Masquerades 17. Eloy - Follow the Light, from Chronicles II 18. Karfagen - Alight Again, from 7 LEAVING THE SYMPHONIC ZONE 19. Steve Roach - Westwind, from Proof Positive 20. Darling - End of the Beginning, from Darling 21. Sensations' Fix - Finest Finger, from Finest Finger 22. Gilgamesh - T.N.T.F.X., from Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into 23. Oregon - Interstate, from Friends 24. John Abercrombie Quartet - Nightlake, from Arcade 25. Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes - Aria Populaire, from Âme Debout 26. Greenslade - An English Western, from Greenslade 27. Supersister - The Groupies of the Band, from Superstarshine 28. Gong - Model Village, from Rejoice! I'm Dead!

Shane Wilson is a storyteller born in Alabama and raised in Georgia; a child of the southeastern United States where he feels simultaneously at-home and out-of-place. He graduated from Valdosta State University in south Georgia with a Masters in English and taught college English in Georgia for four years before moving to North Carolina in 2013.   Shane plays guitar and writes songs with his two-man-band, Sequoia Rising. He writes songs as he writes stories--with an emphasis on the magic of human experience.   Shane's novels are A Year Since the Rain (Snow Leopard Publishing, 2016) and The Smoke in His Eyes (GenZ Publishing, 2018). Shane's short story, "The Boy Who Kissed the Rain" was the 2017 Rilla Askew Short Fiction Prize winner and was nominated for a 2018 Pushcart Prize.   Shane is currently at work on a new novel. https://www.shanewilsonauthor.com _________________________________ Today’s Host: H. M. Gooden www.hmgoodenauthor.com Thanks to Pam Stack - Executive Producer - Authors on the Air Global Radio Network https://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorsontheair  Thanks to Roman Sirotin - Video/Audio Producer Authors on the Air Global Radio Network www.romansirotin.com   Thanks to our sponsor Mickey Mikkelson  https://www.creative-edge.services  @Copyrighted by Authors on the Air

Episode one hundred and sixteen of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Where Did Our Love Go?” by the Supremes, and how the “no-hit Supremes” became the biggest girl group in history. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “She’s Not There” by the Zombies. 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/ —-more—-   Resources As usual, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.  For Motown-related information in this and other Motown episodes, I’ve used the following resources: Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George is an excellent popular history of the various companies that became Motown.  To Be Loved by Berry Gordy is Gordy’s own, understandably one-sided, but relatively well-written, autobiography. Women of Motown: An Oral History by Susan Whitall is a collection of interviews with women involved in Motown. I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by J. Andrew Flory is an academic look at Motown. The Motown Encyclopaedia by Graham Betts is an exhaustive look at the people and records involved in Motown’s thirty-year history. How Sweet It Is by Lamont Dozier and Scott B. Bomar is Dozier’s autobiography, while Come and Get These Memories by Brian and Eddie Holland and Dave Thompson is the Holland brothers’. And Motown Junkies is an infrequently-updated blog looking at (so far) the first 694 tracks released on Motown singles. Girl Groups by John Clemente contains potted biographies of many groups of the era. The Supremes biography I mention in the podcast is The Supremes by Mark Ribowsky, which seems factually accurate but questionable in its judgments of people. I also used this omnibus edition of Mary Wilson’s two volumes of autobiography. This box set contains everything you could want by the Supremes, but is extraordinarily expensive in physical form at the moment, though cheap as MP3s. This is a good budget substitute, though oddly doesn’t contain “Stop in the Name of Love”. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains a brief mention of rape, and the trauma of a victim, and a glancing mention of an eating disorder. The discussion is not particularly explicit, but if you think you might find it upsetting, you might be advised to check the transcript before listening, which as always can be found on the site website, or to skip this episode. Today, we’re going to look at the first big hit from the group who would become the most successful female vocal group of the sixties, the group who would become the most important act to come out of Motown, and who would be more successful in chart terms than anyone in the sixties except the Beatles and Elvis.  We’re going to look at the record that made Holland, Dozier, and Holland the most important team in Motown, and that made a group that had been regarded as a joke into superstars. We’re going to look at “Where Did Our Love Go?” by the group that up until this record was known in Motown as “the no-hit Supremes”: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “Where Did Our Love Go?”] The story of the Supremes starts, like almost every Motown act, in Detroit. Specifically, it starts with a group called the Primes, a trio who had grown up in Birmingham, Alabama, and then had moved to Cleveland, before moving in turn to Detroit. The Primes consisted of Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and Kell Osborne, and were gaining popularity around the city. But their act was lacking something, and their manager, Milton Jenkins, was inspired by Ray Charles’ backing vocalists, the Raelettes. What if, he thought, his male vocal group had a group of female backing singers, the Primettes? Stories vary about exactly how Jenkins pulled the group members together, including the idea that he literally stopped girls on the streets of the housing projects where the eventual members all lived. But what everyone seems to agree on is that Betty McGlown was dating Paul Williams, so she was an obvious choice. Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard knew each other and were good singers, especially Ballard, and they joined together, with Ballard becoming the new group’s leader. And nobody seems to be clear who asked Diana Ross to join, but she was invited in. Ross says she was already singing with the other three around the neighbourhood. Wilson insisted that they didn’t know her, and that she was brought in by Jenkins. While Ballard and Wilson were friendly enough, and all of them were from the same small area and so knew each other by sight, this wasn’t a group that came together as friends, but people who were put together by a third party. This would make a big difference to them over the years. Ross was probably introduced to the group because she already had a reputation among the people who were playing Detroit’s talent shows. For example there’s Melvin Franklin, who in the late fifties was singing with The Distants: [Excerpt: The Distants, “Come On”] Franklin was an old friend of Ross’ from school, and he would rave about Ross to his friends, so much so that Otis Williams, another member of the Distants (which would soon merge with the Primes to become the Temptations) knew Ross’ name long before he ever met her, and later remembered thinking “Jesus, this girl must be something special.” So Jenkins would have known about Ross through these connections. Incidentally, before we go any further, I should mention the issue of Diana Ross’ name. At this point, she was mostly known by the name on her birth certificate, Diane, and that’s how many people who knew her in this period still refer to her when talking about the late fifties and early sixties. However, she says herself that her parents always intended to name her Diana and the person filling in the birth certificate misspelled it, and she’s used Diana for many decades now. As a general rule on this podcast I always refer to someone by the name they choose for themselves unless there’s a very good reason not to, and so I’m going to be referring to her as Diana throughout — and later when we talk about the Byrds, I will always refer to Roger McGuinn, and so on. It’s difficult to talk about Diana Ross in any sensible way, because she is not a person who has inspired the greatest affection among her colleagues, or among people writing about her. But almost all the negative things said about her have a deep undercurrent of misogyny. One of the biographies I used for researching this episode, for example, in the space of four consecutive sentences in the introduction, compares her face to that of ET, says she looked “emaciated and vacant” (and this is a woman who suffered from anorexia), talks about how inviting her mouth is and her “bedroom eyes”, and then talks about how she used her sexuality to get ahead. You will be shocked, I am sure, to hear that this book was written by a male biographer. Oddly, the books I’m using for the upcoming episodes on Manfred Mann and the Beach Boys don’t talk of their lead singers in this way… In particular, there is a recurring theme in almost everything written about Ross, which criticises her for having affairs with prominent people at Motown, most notably Berry Gordy, and accuses her of doing this in order to further her own ambitions. That sort of criticism is rooted in misogyny. This is not a podcast that will ever deal in shaming women for their sexuality, and what consenting adults do with each other is their business alone. I would also point out that Ross’ affair with Gordy is always portrayed as ethical misconduct on Ross’ part, but *if* there was anything unethical about their relationship, the fault in a relationship between a rich, powerful, married man in his thirties and his much younger employee is unlikely to have been due to the latter. That’s not to say that Ross is flawless — far from it, as the narrative will make clear — but to say that it’s very difficult, when relying on reportage either from people with personal grudges against her or from writers who take attitudes like that, to separate the real flaws in the real woman from the monster of the popular imagination. But that’s all for later in the story. At this point, Ross was merely one of four girls brought together by Jenkins to form the Primettes – but Jenkins soon realised that this group could be better used as a group in their own right, rather than merely as backing vocalists for the Primes.  At this point, early on, there was no question but that Florence Ballard was the leader of the group. She had the most outspoken personality, and also had the best voice. When Jenkins had asked to hear the girls sing together, all the others had just looked at each other, while she had burst out into Ray Charles’ “Night Time is the Right Time”: [Excerpt: Ray Charles, “Night Time is the Right Time”] That would become a staple of the girls’ early act, along with “The Twist” and “There Goes My Baby”. All of the girls would take lead vocals on stage, but Florence was the first among equals. At that time, indeed, Ballard thought that Ross should not be a lead singer at all, but Ross got very angry at this, and kept working at her vocals, trying to get them more commercial and make better use of her more limited voice. Ballard was a natural singer, who sang passionately in a way that apparently blew audiences away with relatively little effort, because she was singing from the heart. Ross, on the other hand, was a calculated performer who was deliberately trying to gain the audience’s popularity, and was improving with every show as she learned what worked. The combination worked, at least for a time, though the two never got on even from the start. Of the other members, Mary Wilson was always the peacemaker, someone who was so conflict-averse she would find a way to get Florence and Diana to stop fighting, no matter what. Meanwhile, Betty was the least interested in being in a group — she was just doing it as a favour for her boyfriend. And finally, there was a fifth member, Marvin Tarplin, who didn’t sing but who played guitar, which made them one of the few vocal groups in the city who had their own accompaniment. Fairly quickly, Franklin dropped out of management — he spent some time in hospital, and after getting out he just never got back in touch with the girls — and the Primettes took over looking after themselves. There are various stories about them being approached by different people within Motown at different points, but everyone agrees that their first real contact with Motown came through Ross. Ross had, a year or so before the group formed, been friendly with Smokey Robinson, on whom she had a bit of an adolescent crush. Knowing that Robinson was now recording for Motown, she got in touch with him, and he made a suggestion — her group should audition for him, and if he thought they were good enough, he’d get them an appointment with Berry Gordy. The group sang for Robinson, who wasn’t hugely impressed, except with their guitarist. So Robinson made a deal with them — he’d get the girls an audition for Motown, if he could borrow their guitarist for a tour the Miracles were about to do. They agreed, and Robinson’s temporary borrowing of Tarplin lasted fifty years, as Tarplin continued working with Robinson, both in the Miracles and on Robinson’s solo records, until 2008, and co-wrote many of Robinson’s biggest hits. But Robinson kept his word, and the girls did indeed audition for Berry Gordy, who was encouraging but told them to come back after they had finished school.  But two other producers at Motown, Richard Morris and Robert Bateman, decided they weren’t going to wait around. If Berry Gordy didn’t want to sign them yet, they’d get the Primettes work with other labels. Morris became their manager, and they started getting session work on early recordings by future soul legends like Wilson Pickett: [Excerpt: Wilson Pickett, “Let Me Be Your Boy”] And Eddie Floyd: [Excerpt: Eddie Floyd, “I am Her Yo-Yo Man”] The group also eventually got to put out their own single. The A-side featured Ross on lead: [Excerpt: The Primettes, “Tears of Sorrow”] While the B-side had Wilson singing lead, but also featured a prominent high part from Ballard: [Excerpt: The Primettes, “Pretty Baby”] Shortly after this, several things happened that would change the group forever. One was that Betty decided to leave the group to get married. She had never been as committed to the group as the other three, and she was quickly replaced with a new singer, Barbara Martin. The other, far more devastating, thing was that Florence Ballard was raped by an acquaintance. This traumatised Ballard deeply, and from this point on she became unable to trust anyone, even her friends. She would suffer for the rest of her life from what would now be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, and while it’s likely that the later problems between her and Ross would have occurred in some form, the way they occurred was undoubtedly affected by the fact of Ballard’s untreated mental illness as a result of this trauma. After refusing to speak to anyone at all for a couple of weeks, Ballard managed to get herself well enough to start singing again, and then only a few days later Richard Morris was arrested for a parole violation and found himself in prison.  With all these devastating changes, many groups would have given up. But  the Primettes were ambitious, and they decided that they were going to force their way into Motown, whether Berry Gordy wanted them or not. They took to hanging around Hitsville, acting like they belonged there, and they soon found themselves doing minor bits of work on sessions — handclaps and backing vocals and so on, as almost everyone who hung around the studio long enough would. Eventually they got lucky. Freddie Gorman, who was the girls’ postman in his day job and had not yet written “Please Mr. Postman”, had been working on a song with Brian Holland, and the girls happened to be around.  Gorman suggested they try the song out, to see what it sounded like with harmonies, and the result was good enough that Holland and Gorman called in Gordy, who tinkered with the song to get his name on the credits, and then helped produce the session: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “I Want a Guy”] That came out under the name The Supremes, with a Berry Gordy song on the B-side, a knock-off of “Maybe” by the Chantels called “Never Again”. How the group got their new name has also been a subject of some dispute, in part because of legal issues later on, as Florence Ballard tried to claim some intellectual property rights in the group name as the one who had chosen it. Everyone involved has a different story about how the name was chosen, but it seems to be the consensus that Ballard did pick the name from a shortlist, with the dispute being over whether that shortlist was of names that the group members had come up with between them, or whether it was created by Janie Bradford, and whether Ballard made a conscious choice of the name or just picked it out of a hat. Whatever the case, the Primettes had now become the Supremes. The problem was that Berry Gordy wasn’t really interested in them as a group. Right from the start, he was only interested in Diana Ross as an individual, though at least at first all the members would get to take lead vocals on album tracks — though the singles would be saved for Diana. With one exception — after the group’s first single flopped, they decided to go in a very different direction for the second single.  For that, Gordy wrote a knock-off of a knock-off. In 1959 the Olympics had had a very minor hit with “Hully Gully”: [Excerpt: The Olympics, “Hully Gully”] Which had been remade a few months later by the Marathons as “Peanut Butter”: [Excerpt: The Marathons, “Peanut Butter”] Gordy chose to rework this song as “Buttered Popcorn”, a song that’s just an excuse for extremely weak double entendres, and Florence got to sing lead: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “Buttered Popcorn”] That was no more successful than “I Want a Guy”, and that would be the last time Florence Ballard ever got to sing lead on a Supremes single. It would also be the last single the Supremes released as a four-piece. While Barbara Martin had recorded some material with the group that would be released later, she became pregnant and decided to leave the group. Having decided that they clearly couldn’t keep a fourth singer around, the other three decided to continue on as a trio. By this time, Motown had signed the Marvelettes, and they’d leapfrogged over the Supremes to become major stars. The Supremes, meanwhile had had two flops in a row, and their third did little better, though “Your Heart Belongs to Me”,  written and produced for them by Smokey Robinson, did make number ninety-five in the charts. That was followed by a string of flops that often did, just, make the Hot One Hundred but didn’t qualify as hits by any measure — and many of them were truly terrible. The group got the nickname “the no-hit Supremes” and tended to get the songs that wouldn’t pass muster for other groups. Their nadir was probably the B-side “The Man with the Rock & Roll Banjo Band”, a song that seems to have been based around Duane Eddy’s “Dance With the Guitar Man”: [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, “Dance With the Guitar Man”] But instead of the electric guitar, the Supremes’ song was about the banjo, an instrument which has many virtues, but which does not really fit into the Motown sound: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “The Man with the Rock and Roll Banjo Band”] This sort of thing continued for two years, with the Supremes now being passed in chart success not only by the Marvelettes but also by the Vandellas, who also signed to Motown after them and had hits before. The “no-hit Supremes” at their best only just scraped the bottom of the Hot One Hundred, no matter who produced them — Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, Clarence Paul, Berry Gordy, and Smokey Robinson all had multiple attempts at recording with the group, because of Gordy’s belief in Ross’ star potential, but nothing happened until they were paired with Holland, Dozier, and Holland, fresh off their success with the Vandellas. The musical side of the Holland/Dozier/Holland team had already worked with the group, but with little success. But once Holland/Dozier/Holland became a bona fide hit-making team, they started giving the Supremes additional backing vocal parts. They’re in the vocal stack, for example, on Marvin Gaye’s extraordinary “Can I Get a Witness”: [Excerpt: Marvin Gaye, “Can I Get a Witness”] The first song that Holland, Dozier, and Holland wrote as a team for the Supremes is very different from the heavy, soulful, records they’d specialised in up until that point. Lamont Dozier has said that when he came up with the idea for “When the Lovelight Starts Shining in His Eyes” he was thinking of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, although it’s unlikely he was actually thinking of Wilson, who at this point in 1963 was still making rather garagey surf-rock records rather than the symphonic pop he would start to specialise in the next year. Which is not to say that Holland, Dozier, and Holland weren’t paying attention to Wilson — after all, they wrote “Surfer Boy” for the Supremes in 1965 — but Dozier is probably misremembering here. It’s entirely plausible, though, that he was thinking of Spector, and the song definitely has a wall of sound feel, albeit filtered through Motown’s distinctly funkier, non-Wrecking-Crew, sound, and with more than a little Bo Diddley influence: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes”] That also featured additional backing vocals from the Four Tops, another group with whom Holland, Dozier, and Holland were working, and who we’ll be hearing more of in future episodes. “When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes” went to number twenty-three, the first bona fide hit the Supremes had ever had. So they were set. They even had a surefire smash follow-up. With Holland, Dozier, and Holland they’d recorded *another* Phil Spector knock-off, *before* “Lovelight”, a record modelled on “Da Doo Ron Ron”, titled “Run Run Run”, but they’d held it back so they could release it next — they decided to release a record that sounded like a medium-sized hit first, to get some momentum and name recognition, so they could then release the big smash hit. But “Run Run Run” only went to number ninety-four. The group were at a low point, and as far as they could tell they were only going to get lower. They’d had their hit and it looked like a fluke. The big one they’d had hopes for had gone nowhere. The story of their next single has been told many ways by many different people. This is a version of the story as best I can put it together, but everything that follows might be false, because as with so much of Motown, everyone has their own agenda. As best I can make out, Holland, Dozier, and Holland were working on tracks for a proposed Marvelettes album and came up with a simple, stomping, song based on a repetitive eight-bar verse, with no bridge, chorus, or middle eight. The Holland brothers disagree about what happened next, and it sounds odd, but Lamont Dozier, Mary Wilson, and Katherine Anderson of the Marvelettes all say the same thing — while normally Motown artists had no say in what songs they recorded, this time the Marvelettes were played a couple of backing tracks which had been proposed as their next recording, and they chose to dump the eight-bar one, and go instead with “Too Many Fish in the Sea”: [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, “Too Many Fish in the Sea”] The way Dozier tells the story, that presented Holland, Dozier, and Holland with a problem. They’d recorded the backing track, and one of the many ways that Motown caused problems for its creative workers was that they would be charged against royalties for studio time. If the track didn’t get released, they’d lost all the money. So they turned to the Supremes, and Dozier tried to persuade Mary Wilson that he’d written this great new song, just for them, they’d love it, but by this point they’d already talked to the Marvelettes and been told about this dreadful song they’d managed to get out of doing, and advised to avoid it if they could. But while the Marvelettes were a big, successful group, the Supremes weren’t yet, and didn’t have any choice. They were going to record the song whether they liked it or not. They didn’t like it. Having already been poisoned against the song by the Marvelettes, there were further problems in the studio because one of the production team had originally told Mary Wilson she could sing lead on the song. Everyone seems agreed that Brian Holland insisted on Diana Ross singing it instead, but Eddie Holland remembers that he thought that Wilson should sing and it was Brian and Dozier who insisted on Ross, while Dozier remembers that *he* thought that Wilson should sing, and it was the Holland brothers who insisted on Ross. Somehow, if all these memories are to be believed, Brian Holland outvoted his partners one to two, possibly because Berry Gordy had declared that Ross should be the lead singer on all Supremes singles. Mary was devastated, while Ross was annoyed that she was having to sing what she thought was a terrible song, in a key that was much lower than she was used to. She got more annoyed when Eddie Holland kept coaching her on how he wanted the song sung — she was playing with the phrasing and Holland insisted she sing it straight. Eventually she started threatening to get Gordy to come down, at which point Eddie told her that she could do that, but then Gordy could just produce the session and they needn’t bother hoping for any more Holland/Dozier/Holland songs.  She sang through her lead putting as little emotion as she could into her voice, while glaring daggers at the producers, before storming off as soon as she’d completed the take they wanted, complaining about being given everyone else’s leftovers: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “Where Did Our Love Go?”] Holland, Dozier, and Holland then got on with trying to get the other two Supremes to do the backing vocal parts. But the parts Lamont Dozier had come up with were difficult, nobody was in a good mood, and Mary Wilson was still upset that she wasn’t going to be singing lead. They couldn’t get the vocals down, and eventually, frustrated, Dozier told them to just sing “baby baby” when he pointed, and they went with that. Towards the end of the session, Ross came back in, with Berry Gordy, who she had clearly been complaining to about the song. He asked to hear it, and they played back this recording that nobody was happy with. Gordy, much to Ross’ shock, was convinced it was a hit, and said to them “Cheer up, everybody! From now on, you’re the big-hit Supremes!”: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “Where Did Our Love Go?”] Motown was in a bit of a slump at that point — several of the label’s big stars had had disappointing follow-ups to their hits, and they’d just lost Mary Wells, one of their biggest stars, to another label. Gordy decided that they were going to give “Where Did Our Love Go?” a huge push, and persuaded Dick Clark to put the Supremes on his Caravan of Stars tour. When the record came out in June, they were at the bottom of the bill, opening the show on a bill with more than a dozen other acts, from the Zombies to the Shirelles to Freddie “Boom Boom” Cannon above them. By the end of the tour, their record was at number one in the charts and they had already recorded a follow-up. As “Where Did Our Love Go?” had included the word “baby” sixty-eight times, the production team had decided not to mess with a winning formula: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “Baby Love”] That went to number one by the end of October 1964, making the Supremes the first Motown act to have two number ones. There would be a lot more where that came from. But there was already trouble brewing in the group. Even on the Dick Clark tourbus, there were rumours that Diana Ross wanted a solo career, and there was talk of her forcing Florence Ballard out of the group. We’ll look at that, and what happened with the Supremes in the latter part of the sixties in a few months’ time.  But I can’t end this time without acknowledging the sad death, a month ago today, of Mary Wilson, the only member of the Supremes who stayed with the group from the beginning right through to their split in 1977. For a member of a group who were second only to the Beatles for commercial success in the sixties, she was underrewarded in life, and her death went underreported. She’ll be missed.

Episode one hundred and sixteen of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Where Did Our Love Go?" by the Supremes, and how the "no-hit Supremes" became the biggest girl group in history. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "She's Not There" by the Zombies. 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/ ----more----   Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.  For Motown-related information in this and other Motown episodes, I've used the following resources: Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound by Nelson George is an excellent popular history of the various companies that became Motown.  To Be Loved by Berry Gordy is Gordy's own, understandably one-sided, but relatively well-written, autobiography. Women of Motown: An Oral History by Susan Whitall is a collection of interviews with women involved in Motown. I Hear a Symphony: Motown and Crossover R&B by J. Andrew Flory is an academic look at Motown. The Motown Encyclopaedia by Graham Betts is an exhaustive look at the people and records involved in Motown's thirty-year history. How Sweet It Is by Lamont Dozier and Scott B. Bomar is Dozier's autobiography, while Come and Get These Memories by Brian and Eddie Holland and Dave Thompson is the Holland brothers'. And Motown Junkies is an infrequently-updated blog looking at (so far) the first 694 tracks released on Motown singles. Girl Groups by John Clemente contains potted biographies of many groups of the era. The Supremes biography I mention in the podcast is The Supremes by Mark Ribowsky, which seems factually accurate but questionable in its judgments of people. I also used this omnibus edition of Mary Wilson's two volumes of autobiography. This box set contains everything you could want by the Supremes, but is extraordinarily expensive in physical form at the moment, though cheap as MP3s. This is a good budget substitute, though oddly doesn't contain "Stop in the Name of Love". Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains a brief mention of rape, and the trauma of a victim, and a glancing mention of an eating disorder. The discussion is not particularly explicit, but if you think you might find it upsetting, you might be advised to check the transcript before listening, which as always can be found on the site website, or to skip this episode. Today, we're going to look at the first big hit from the group who would become the most successful female vocal group of the sixties, the group who would become the most important act to come out of Motown, and who would be more successful in chart terms than anyone in the sixties except the Beatles and Elvis.  We're going to look at the record that made Holland, Dozier, and Holland the most important team in Motown, and that made a group that had been regarded as a joke into superstars. We're going to look at "Where Did Our Love Go?" by the group that up until this record was known in Motown as "the no-hit Supremes": [Excerpt: The Supremes, "Where Did Our Love Go?"] The story of the Supremes starts, like almost every Motown act, in Detroit. Specifically, it starts with a group called the Primes, a trio who had grown up in Birmingham, Alabama, and then had moved to Cleveland, before moving in turn to Detroit. The Primes consisted of Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, and Kell Osborne, and were gaining popularity around the city. But their act was lacking something, and their manager, Milton Jenkins, was inspired by Ray Charles' backing vocalists, the Raelettes. What if, he thought, his male vocal group had a group of female backing singers, the Primettes? Stories vary about exactly how Jenkins pulled the group members together, including the idea that he literally stopped girls on the streets of the housing projects where the eventual members all lived. But what everyone seems to agree on is that Betty McGlown was dating Paul Williams, so she was an obvious choice. Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard knew each other and were good singers, especially Ballard, and they joined together, with Ballard becoming the new group's leader. And nobody seems to be clear who asked Diana Ross to join, but she was invited in. Ross says she was already singing with the other three around the neighbourhood. Wilson insisted that they didn't know her, and that she was brought in by Jenkins. While Ballard and Wilson were friendly enough, and all of them were from the same small area and so knew each other by sight, this wasn't a group that came together as friends, but people who were put together by a third party. This would make a big difference to them over the years. Ross was probably introduced to the group because she already had a reputation among the people who were playing Detroit's talent shows. For example there's Melvin Franklin, who in the late fifties was singing with The Distants: [Excerpt: The Distants, "Come On"] Franklin was an old friend of Ross' from school, and he would rave about Ross to his friends, so much so that Otis Williams, another member of the Distants (which would soon merge with the Primes to become the Temptations) knew Ross' name long before he ever met her, and later remembered thinking "Jesus, this girl must be something special." So Jenkins would have known about Ross through these connections. Incidentally, before we go any further, I should mention the issue of Diana Ross' name. At this point, she was mostly known by the name on her birth certificate, Diane, and that's how many people who knew her in this period still refer to her when talking about the late fifties and early sixties. However, she says herself that her parents always intended to name her Diana and the person filling in the birth certificate misspelled it, and she's used Diana for many decades now. As a general rule on this podcast I always refer to someone by the name they choose for themselves unless there's a very good reason not to, and so I'm going to be referring to her as Diana throughout -- and later when we talk about the Byrds, I will always refer to Roger McGuinn, and so on. It's difficult to talk about Diana Ross in any sensible way, because she is not a person who has inspired the greatest affection among her colleagues, or among people writing about her. But almost all the negative things said about her have a deep undercurrent of misogyny. One of the biographies I used for researching this episode, for example, in the space of four consecutive sentences in the introduction, compares her face to that of ET, says she looked "emaciated and vacant" (and this is a woman who suffered from anorexia), talks about how inviting her mouth is and her "bedroom eyes", and then talks about how she used her sexuality to get ahead. You will be shocked, I am sure, to hear that this book was written by a male biographer. Oddly, the books I'm using for the upcoming episodes on Manfred Mann and the Beach Boys don't talk of their lead singers in this way... In particular, there is a recurring theme in almost everything written about Ross, which criticises her for having affairs with prominent people at Motown, most notably Berry Gordy, and accuses her of doing this in order to further her own ambitions. That sort of criticism is rooted in misogyny. This is not a podcast that will ever deal in shaming women for their sexuality, and what consenting adults do with each other is their business alone. I would also point out that Ross' affair with Gordy is always portrayed as ethical misconduct on Ross' part, but *if* there was anything unethical about their relationship, the fault in a relationship between a rich, powerful, married man in his thirties and his much younger employee is unlikely to have been due to the latter. That's not to say that Ross is flawless -- far from it, as the narrative will make clear -- but to say that it's very difficult, when relying on reportage either from people with personal grudges against her or from writers who take attitudes like that, to separate the real flaws in the real woman from the monster of the popular imagination. But that's all for later in the story. At this point, Ross was merely one of four girls brought together by Jenkins to form the Primettes - but Jenkins soon realised that this group could be better used as a group in their own right, rather than merely as backing vocalists for the Primes.  At this point, early on, there was no question but that Florence Ballard was the leader of the group. She had the most outspoken personality, and also had the best voice. When Jenkins had asked to hear the girls sing together, all the others had just looked at each other, while she had burst out into Ray Charles' "Night Time is the Right Time": [Excerpt: Ray Charles, "Night Time is the Right Time"] That would become a staple of the girls' early act, along with "The Twist" and "There Goes My Baby". All of the girls would take lead vocals on stage, but Florence was the first among equals. At that time, indeed, Ballard thought that Ross should not be a lead singer at all, but Ross got very angry at this, and kept working at her vocals, trying to get them more commercial and make better use of her more limited voice. Ballard was a natural singer, who sang passionately in a way that apparently blew audiences away with relatively little effort, because she was singing from the heart. Ross, on the other hand, was a calculated performer who was deliberately trying to gain the audience's popularity, and was improving with every show as she learned what worked. The combination worked, at least for a time, though the two never got on even from the start. Of the other members, Mary Wilson was always the peacemaker, someone who was so conflict-averse she would find a way to get Florence and Diana to stop fighting, no matter what. Meanwhile, Betty was the least interested in being in a group -- she was just doing it as a favour for her boyfriend. And finally, there was a fifth member, Marvin Tarplin, who didn't sing but who played guitar, which made them one of the few vocal groups in the city who had their own accompaniment. Fairly quickly, Franklin dropped out of management -- he spent some time in hospital, and after getting out he just never got back in touch with the girls -- and the Primettes took over looking after themselves. There are various stories about them being approached by different people within Motown at different points, but everyone agrees that their first real contact with Motown came through Ross. Ross had, a year or so before the group formed, been friendly with Smokey Robinson, on whom she had a bit of an adolescent crush. Knowing that Robinson was now recording for Motown, she got in touch with him, and he made a suggestion -- her group should audition for him, and if he thought they were good enough, he'd get them an appointment with Berry Gordy. The group sang for Robinson, who wasn't hugely impressed, except with their guitarist. So Robinson made a deal with them -- he'd get the girls an audition for Motown, if he could borrow their guitarist for a tour the Miracles were about to do. They agreed, and Robinson's temporary borrowing of Tarplin lasted fifty years, as Tarplin continued working with Robinson, both in the Miracles and on Robinson's solo records, until 2008, and co-wrote many of Robinson's biggest hits. But Robinson kept his word, and the girls did indeed audition for Berry Gordy, who was encouraging but told them to come back after they had finished school.  But two other producers at Motown, Richard Morris and Robert Bateman, decided they weren't going to wait around. If Berry Gordy didn't want to sign them yet, they'd get the Primettes work with other labels. Morris became their manager, and they started getting session work on early recordings by future soul legends like Wilson Pickett: [Excerpt: Wilson Pickett, "Let Me Be Your Boy"] And Eddie Floyd: [Excerpt: Eddie Floyd, "I am Her Yo-Yo Man"] The group also eventually got to put out their own single. The A-side featured Ross on lead: [Excerpt: The Primettes, "Tears of Sorrow"] While the B-side had Wilson singing lead, but also featured a prominent high part from Ballard: [Excerpt: The Primettes, "Pretty Baby"] Shortly after this, several things happened that would change the group forever. One was that Betty decided to leave the group to get married. She had never been as committed to the group as the other three, and she was quickly replaced with a new singer, Barbara Martin. The other, far more devastating, thing was that Florence Ballard was raped by an acquaintance. This traumatised Ballard deeply, and from this point on she became unable to trust anyone, even her friends. She would suffer for the rest of her life from what would now be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder, and while it's likely that the later problems between her and Ross would have occurred in some form, the way they occurred was undoubtedly affected by the fact of Ballard's untreated mental illness as a result of this trauma. After refusing to speak to anyone at all for a couple of weeks, Ballard managed to get herself well enough to start singing again, and then only a few days later Richard Morris was arrested for a parole violation and found himself in prison.  With all these devastating changes, many groups would have given up. But  the Primettes were ambitious, and they decided that they were going to force their way into Motown, whether Berry Gordy wanted them or not. They took to hanging around Hitsville, acting like they belonged there, and they soon found themselves doing minor bits of work on sessions -- handclaps and backing vocals and so on, as almost everyone who hung around the studio long enough would. Eventually they got lucky. Freddie Gorman, who was the girls' postman in his day job and had not yet written "Please Mr. Postman", had been working on a song with Brian Holland, and the girls happened to be around.  Gorman suggested they try the song out, to see what it sounded like with harmonies, and the result was good enough that Holland and Gorman called in Gordy, who tinkered with the song to get his name on the credits, and then helped produce the session: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "I Want a Guy"] That came out under the name The Supremes, with a Berry Gordy song on the B-side, a knock-off of "Maybe" by the Chantels called "Never Again". How the group got their new name has also been a subject of some dispute, in part because of legal issues later on, as Florence Ballard tried to claim some intellectual property rights in the group name as the one who had chosen it. Everyone involved has a different story about how the name was chosen, but it seems to be the consensus that Ballard did pick the name from a shortlist, with the dispute being over whether that shortlist was of names that the group members had come up with between them, or whether it was created by Janie Bradford, and whether Ballard made a conscious choice of the name or just picked it out of a hat. Whatever the case, the Primettes had now become the Supremes. The problem was that Berry Gordy wasn't really interested in them as a group. Right from the start, he was only interested in Diana Ross as an individual, though at least at first all the members would get to take lead vocals on album tracks -- though the singles would be saved for Diana. With one exception -- after the group's first single flopped, they decided to go in a very different direction for the second single.  For that, Gordy wrote a knock-off of a knock-off. In 1959 the Olympics had had a very minor hit with "Hully Gully": [Excerpt: The Olympics, "Hully Gully"] Which had been remade a few months later by the Marathons as "Peanut Butter": [Excerpt: The Marathons, "Peanut Butter"] Gordy chose to rework this song as "Buttered Popcorn", a song that's just an excuse for extremely weak double entendres, and Florence got to sing lead: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "Buttered Popcorn"] That was no more successful than "I Want a Guy", and that would be the last time Florence Ballard ever got to sing lead on a Supremes single. It would also be the last single the Supremes released as a four-piece. While Barbara Martin had recorded some material with the group that would be released later, she became pregnant and decided to leave the group. Having decided that they clearly couldn't keep a fourth singer around, the other three decided to continue on as a trio. By this time, Motown had signed the Marvelettes, and they'd leapfrogged over the Supremes to become major stars. The Supremes, meanwhile had had two flops in a row, and their third did little better, though "Your Heart Belongs to Me",  written and produced for them by Smokey Robinson, did make number ninety-five in the charts. That was followed by a string of flops that often did, just, make the Hot One Hundred but didn't qualify as hits by any measure -- and many of them were truly terrible. The group got the nickname "the no-hit Supremes" and tended to get the songs that wouldn't pass muster for other groups. Their nadir was probably the B-side "The Man with the Rock & Roll Banjo Band", a song that seems to have been based around Duane Eddy's "Dance With the Guitar Man": [Excerpt: Duane Eddy, "Dance With the Guitar Man"] But instead of the electric guitar, the Supremes' song was about the banjo, an instrument which has many virtues, but which does not really fit into the Motown sound: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "The Man with the Rock and Roll Banjo Band"] This sort of thing continued for two years, with the Supremes now being passed in chart success not only by the Marvelettes but also by the Vandellas, who also signed to Motown after them and had hits before. The "no-hit Supremes" at their best only just scraped the bottom of the Hot One Hundred, no matter who produced them -- Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland, Clarence Paul, Berry Gordy, and Smokey Robinson all had multiple attempts at recording with the group, because of Gordy's belief in Ross' star potential, but nothing happened until they were paired with Holland, Dozier, and Holland, fresh off their success with the Vandellas. The musical side of the Holland/Dozier/Holland team had already worked with the group, but with little success. But once Holland/Dozier/Holland became a bona fide hit-making team, they started giving the Supremes additional backing vocal parts. They're in the vocal stack, for example, on Marvin Gaye's extraordinary "Can I Get a Witness": [Excerpt: Marvin Gaye, "Can I Get a Witness"] The first song that Holland, Dozier, and Holland wrote as a team for the Supremes is very different from the heavy, soulful, records they'd specialised in up until that point. Lamont Dozier has said that when he came up with the idea for "When the Lovelight Starts Shining in His Eyes" he was thinking of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, although it's unlikely he was actually thinking of Wilson, who at this point in 1963 was still making rather garagey surf-rock records rather than the symphonic pop he would start to specialise in the next year. Which is not to say that Holland, Dozier, and Holland weren't paying attention to Wilson -- after all, they wrote "Surfer Boy" for the Supremes in 1965 -- but Dozier is probably misremembering here. It's entirely plausible, though, that he was thinking of Spector, and the song definitely has a wall of sound feel, albeit filtered through Motown's distinctly funkier, non-Wrecking-Crew, sound, and with more than a little Bo Diddley influence: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes"] That also featured additional backing vocals from the Four Tops, another group with whom Holland, Dozier, and Holland were working, and who we'll be hearing more of in future episodes. "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes" went to number twenty-three, the first bona fide hit the Supremes had ever had. So they were set. They even had a surefire smash follow-up. With Holland, Dozier, and Holland they'd recorded *another* Phil Spector knock-off, *before* "Lovelight", a record modelled on "Da Doo Ron Ron", titled "Run Run Run", but they'd held it back so they could release it next -- they decided to release a record that sounded like a medium-sized hit first, to get some momentum and name recognition, so they could then release the big smash hit. But "Run Run Run" only went to number ninety-four. The group were at a low point, and as far as they could tell they were only going to get lower. They'd had their hit and it looked like a fluke. The big one they'd had hopes for had gone nowhere. The story of their next single has been told many ways by many different people. This is a version of the story as best I can put it together, but everything that follows might be false, because as with so much of Motown, everyone has their own agenda. As best I can make out, Holland, Dozier, and Holland were working on tracks for a proposed Marvelettes album and came up with a simple, stomping, song based on a repetitive eight-bar verse, with no bridge, chorus, or middle eight. The Holland brothers disagree about what happened next, and it sounds odd, but Lamont Dozier, Mary Wilson, and Katherine Anderson of the Marvelettes all say the same thing -- while normally Motown artists had no say in what songs they recorded, this time the Marvelettes were played a couple of backing tracks which had been proposed as their next recording, and they chose to dump the eight-bar one, and go instead with "Too Many Fish in the Sea": [Excerpt: The Marvelettes, "Too Many Fish in the Sea"] The way Dozier tells the story, that presented Holland, Dozier, and Holland with a problem. They'd recorded the backing track, and one of the many ways that Motown caused problems for its creative workers was that they would be charged against royalties for studio time. If the track didn't get released, they'd lost all the money. So they turned to the Supremes, and Dozier tried to persuade Mary Wilson that he'd written this great new song, just for them, they'd love it, but by this point they'd already talked to the Marvelettes and been told about this dreadful song they'd managed to get out of doing, and advised to avoid it if they could. But while the Marvelettes were a big, successful group, the Supremes weren't yet, and didn't have any choice. They were going to record the song whether they liked it or not. They didn't like it. Having already been poisoned against the song by the Marvelettes, there were further problems in the studio because one of the production team had originally told Mary Wilson she could sing lead on the song. Everyone seems agreed that Brian Holland insisted on Diana Ross singing it instead, but Eddie Holland remembers that he thought that Wilson should sing and it was Brian and Dozier who insisted on Ross, while Dozier remembers that *he* thought that Wilson should sing, and it was the Holland brothers who insisted on Ross. Somehow, if all these memories are to be believed, Brian Holland outvoted his partners one to two, possibly because Berry Gordy had declared that Ross should be the lead singer on all Supremes singles. Mary was devastated, while Ross was annoyed that she was having to sing what she thought was a terrible song, in a key that was much lower than she was used to. She got more annoyed when Eddie Holland kept coaching her on how he wanted the song sung -- she was playing with the phrasing and Holland insisted she sing it straight. Eventually she started threatening to get Gordy to come down, at which point Eddie told her that she could do that, but then Gordy could just produce the session and they needn't bother hoping for any more Holland/Dozier/Holland songs.  She sang through her lead putting as little emotion as she could into her voice, while glaring daggers at the producers, before storming off as soon as she'd completed the take they wanted, complaining about being given everyone else's leftovers: [Excerpt: The Supremes, “Where Did Our Love Go?”] Holland, Dozier, and Holland then got on with trying to get the other two Supremes to do the backing vocal parts. But the parts Lamont Dozier had come up with were difficult, nobody was in a good mood, and Mary Wilson was still upset that she wasn't going to be singing lead. They couldn't get the vocals down, and eventually, frustrated, Dozier told them to just sing "baby baby" when he pointed, and they went with that. Towards the end of the session, Ross came back in, with Berry Gordy, who she had clearly been complaining to about the song. He asked to hear it, and they played back this recording that nobody was happy with. Gordy, much to Ross' shock, was convinced it was a hit, and said to them "Cheer up, everybody! From now on, you're the big-hit Supremes!": [Excerpt: The Supremes, "Where Did Our Love Go?"] Motown was in a bit of a slump at that point -- several of the label's big stars had had disappointing follow-ups to their hits, and they'd just lost Mary Wells, one of their biggest stars, to another label. Gordy decided that they were going to give "Where Did Our Love Go?" a huge push, and persuaded Dick Clark to put the Supremes on his Caravan of Stars tour. When the record came out in June, they were at the bottom of the bill, opening the show on a bill with more than a dozen other acts, from the Zombies to the Shirelles to Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon above them. By the end of the tour, their record was at number one in the charts and they had already recorded a follow-up. As "Where Did Our Love Go?" had included the word "baby" sixty-eight times, the production team had decided not to mess with a winning formula: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "Baby Love"] That went to number one by the end of October 1964, making the Supremes the first Motown act to have two number ones. There would be a lot more where that came from. But there was already trouble brewing in the group. Even on the Dick Clark tourbus, there were rumours that Diana Ross wanted a solo career, and there was talk of her forcing Florence Ballard out of the group. We'll look at that, and what happened with the Supremes in the latter part of the sixties in a few months' time.  But I can't end this time without acknowledging the sad death, a month ago today, of Mary Wilson, the only member of the Supremes who stayed with the group from the beginning right through to their split in 1977. For a member of a group who were second only to the Beatles for commercial success in the sixties, she was underrewarded in life, and her death went underreported. She'll be missed.

Heathcliff! It's us, it's Strong Songs, we've come home! The time has come for a deep dive into the music of the great Kate Bush, and what better song to analyze than her breakthrough 1978 hit, "Wuthering Heights." This song has it all - odd phrasing, shifting key centers, soaring vocals, character narration, an epic guitar solo, a red dress, and a celesta. Written by: Kate Bush Album: The Kick Inside (1978) Listen/Buy: Apple Music | Amazon | Spotify ALSO FEATURED/DISCUSSED: “James and the Cold Gun” and “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” by Kate Bush from The Kick Inside, 1978 “Sat In Your Lap” and “The Dreaming” by Kate Bush from The Dreaming, 1982 “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush from Hounds of Love, 1985 Richard Buskin's 2004 Sound on Sound article about the writing and recording of "Wuthering Heights" - https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-kate-bush-wuthering-heights The 1886 remake/remix of "Wuthering Heights" Kate Bush's iconic Red Dress music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW3gKKiTvjs Noel Fielding's incredible live reenactment of the Red Dress video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du4uH1fC9B8 “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from The Nutcracker Suite, 1892 performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, 1999 “Starman” by David Bowie from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, 1972 “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra from Out of the Blue, 1977 OUTRO SOLOIST: Charles McNeal Charles McNeal is a killin' Oakland-based sax player who plays all over the bay area. He's also a master jazz transcriber, and has chronicled tons of great solos. You can find him playing out in a variety of bands and settings; the best way to keep up with his music is to subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram @charlesonsax2 - https://www.instagram.com/charlesonsax2 NEW MUSIC VIDEO! Kirk just finished a new music video - it's a multi-instrumental arrangement of "Greenpath" from the video game Hollow Knight. It features 18 different instruments, including solos on tenor sax and wine glasses. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eIVtGlcpZS0 You can also listen on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kirkhamilton/greenpath-from-hollow-knight-multi-instrumental-arrangement STRONG MERCH! Visit the Strong Songs merch store for some cool t-shirts, mugs, totes, and more: store.strongsongspodcast.com KEEP IT SOCIAL You can follow Strong Songs on Twitter @StrongSongs: http://twitter.com/strongsongs And you can find Kirk on Twitter @Kirkhamilton and on Instagram at @Kirk_Hamilton: https://www.instagram.com/kirk_hamilton/ NEWSLETTER/MAILING LIST Sign up for Kirk's mailing list to start getting monthly-ish newsletters with music recommendations, links, news, and extra thoughts on new Strong Songs episodes: https://kirkhamilton.substack.com/subscribe STRONG PLAYLISTS Kirk has condensed his Strong Songs picks into a single new list, which you can find on Spotify and Apple Music, and YouTube Music. SUPPORT STRONG SONGS ON PATREON! THANK YOU to all of Strong Songs' patrons for supporting the creation of this show. For more on how to become a patron, go here: https://Patreon.com/StrongSongs MARCH 2021 WHOLE-NOTE PATRONS Christopher Miller Tim Byrne Allison Clift-Jennings Patrick Funston Jamie White Johanna L. Branson Thomas König Angus McKimm Christopher Kupski Christopher McConnell Joshua Jarvis Rick Klaras Niko Laurie Acreman Ken Hirsh Jez Jenness Gardner Simon Cammell Guinevere Boostrom Narelle Horn Nathaniel Bauernfeind Bill Rosinger Anne Britt David Zahm Erin Aidan Coughlan Jeanneret Manning Family Four Matt Butler Doug Paton Robert Paul R Watson Viki Dun Christer Lindqvist Sami Samhuri Craig J Covell AccessViolation Ryan Torvik Merlin Mann Fraser Glenn CALEB ROTACH Andre Bremer Mark Schechter Dave Florey Dan Apczynski MARCH 2021 HALF-NOTE PATRONS Bernard Khoo Andrew Shpall Robert Heuer Matthew Golden Brian Meldrum David Noah Ben Hunt Geraldine Butler Richard Cambier Madeleine Mader Andy Smith will reddell Fernando Rodriguez Timothy Dougherty Jason Pratt John Hargis Stewart Oak Caroline Miller Abbie Berg Sam Norton Nicole Schleicher Doug Belew Dermot Crowley Achint Srivastava Ryan Rairigh Michael Berman stephen matthews Bridget Lyons Melody Valdez Olivia Bishop Jeremy Schwartz John Gisselquist Elaine Martin Belinda Mcgrath-steer Eoin de Burca Kevin Potter M Shane Borders Pete Simm Shawn McCarthy Dallas Hockley Jana J Terron Ishihara Jason Gerry Rich Roskopf Melissa Gallo Nathan Gouwens Will Dwyer Alethea Lee Lauren Reay Eric Prestemon Erika L Austin Cookies250 Damian Brady Angela Livingstone Jeffrey C. Yarnell David Friedman Phillip Dalton Christopher Cudnoski Sarah Sulan Diane Hughes Kenneth Tiong Jo Sutherland David Catlett Joe Laska Michael Casner Michael York Barb Courtney Derek Bender Jen Small Don Hutchison Lowell Meyer Etele Illes Jeff Almond Stephen Tsoneff Lorenz Schwarz Becca Sample Wen Jack Sjogren Aparajit Raghavan Benedict Pennington Geoff Golden Robyn Fraser Alexander Geddes Pascal Rueger Randy Souza JC Brendan Jubb Clare Holberton Jake Tinsley Diane Turner Tom Coleman Judy Chapple Stuart Terry Mark Perry Malory Dhu Wik Mel Eric Helm Jake Roberts Briony Leo Bill Fuller Jonathan Daniels Steven Maron Michael Flaherty Jarrod Schindler Zoe Little Albukitty Caro Field Judith Stansfield michael bochner Duncan Dave Sharpe brant brantphillip Markus Koester David Cushman Alexander Jeremy Dawson Gavin Doig Sam Fenn Tanner Morton AJ Schuster Jennifer Bush David Stroud Amanda Furlotti Andrew Baker Brooke Wilford Cyrus N. White Chris Brown Juan Carlos Montemayor Elosua Matt Gaskell Jules Bailey Eero Wahlstedt Bill Thornton Brian Amoebas Brett Douville Jeffrey Olson Matt Betzel Mueller Nate from Kalamazoo Melanie Stivers Richard Toller Alexander Polson John and Sharon Stenglein Tom Lauer Earl Lozada Jon O’Keefe Justin McElroy Arjun Sharma James Johnson Andrew Lee Kevin Morrell Tom Clewer Kevin Pennyfeather Nicholas Schechter Justin Liew

Dr. David H. Levy has  discovered 23 comets and is also the first to have discovered comets visually, photographically and electronically. In this episode, he shares with us the journey leading up to the discovery of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 that collided with Jupiter in July 1994, recognised as the biggest impact in the Solar system witnessed by mankind. Dr. David Levy's career has straddled two disciplines, English literature and astronomy. He also recites some of his favourite prose and poetry in English literature that has a relationship with the night sky and astronomy.Time stamps :04:38 : Journey leading up to the discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 918:20 : Dr. David H. Levy's exploration of the relationship between English literature and astronomy22:51 : Quotation of The Song of Honour by Ralph Hodgson23:29 : A poem written by Dr. David H. Levy about his Father-in-law27:03 : Dr. David H. Levy's adaptation My Eyes on the Sky of Sevilla de Martin's poem His Eyes on the Sparrow28:08 : Recitation of the Welsh hymn All Through the Night written by John Ceiriog Hughes and translated into English by Sir Harold Boulton33:10 : Quotation of speech given by Senator Carl Schurz at Faneuil Hall in Boston on April 18th, 1859.33:59 : Quotation of poem The Castle of Knowledge by Robert Recorde (1556)34:34 : Quotation of poem The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service38:16 : Recitation of poem I am like a slip of comet by Gerard Manley Hopkins40:35 : Recitation of poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Useful links and resources :A Nightwatchman's Journey: The Road Not Taken (Starizona)A Nightwatchman's Journey: The Road Not Taken (RASC)Shoemaker by Levy: The Man Who Made an ImpactComets: Creators and DestroyersDeep Sky Objects: The Best And Brightest from Four Decades of Comet ChasingDavid Levy's Guide to Observing and Discovering CometsThe Quest for Comets: An Explosive Trail of Beauty and DangerStarlight Nights: The Adventures of a Star-GazerIf you liked this episode, please consider buying me a coffee.

1978年2月17日，Kate Bush发行出道专辑《The Inside Kick》，专辑在英国专辑榜最高达到第3位。奇怪的是Kate Bush出道的小样，竟然是Pink Floyd的David Gilmour制作的，这究竟是怎么一回事？ 今日推荐歌曲： 来自Kate Bush《The Inside Kick》的《The Man with the Child in His Eyes》

1978年2月17日，Kate Bush发行出道专辑《The Inside Kick》，专辑在英国专辑榜最高达到第3位。奇怪的是Kate Bush出道的小样，竟然是Pink Floyd的David Gilmour制作的，这究竟是怎么一回事？ 今日推荐歌曲： 来自Kate Bush《The Inside Kick》的《The Man with the Child in His Eyes》

Enter into the Power and the Glory of God! Because we are in Christ, seated in the Heavenly Places in Christ, ALL THAT POWER AND GLORY – that Paul describes to us here in Ephesians Chapter 1 – is ours! It’s in the Church! You are His Hands, His Feet, His Eyes, His Mouth – YOU are the only manifestation of Jesus that the people on earth can ever see! And they HAVE to see that Glory in YOU! The Inheritance, the Glory – is in Christ, in Heaven. 

Psalms 119:81-88 1. A troubling Soul, but not without Hope a. His Soul b. His Eyes c. His Life d. His Enemies e. His Time 2. Questioning Spirit, But not without Answers a. When will you comfort me? b. How Many are the days of your servant? c. When will you execute Judgement on those who persecute me? 3. Trusting Servant but not without truth a. Hope b. Searching c. Dont forget d. Be Faithful e. Help me f. Did not Forsake g. Revive Me

Welcome to Soul Chat- the conversation with your soul! Today's guest is very special to us as we've personally collaborated with her, prayed with her, and built a beautiful friendship with. She is beyond amazing, and truly represents excellence, which to us is being who you say you were... CONSISTENTLY. We being with chatting about the topic of female empowerment, things we see, and how women can move past jealousy and insecurity with other females. With 2020 being so tumultuous for many, we also discussed what building a strong mental foundation could look like. Even some of the strongest people were tested this year, and it taught all of us about ourselves on a deeper level. Estacy leaves us with the most beautiful piece of advice and wisdom. She speaks from a place of assurance and having done the work. Make sure you follow her on Instagram and Facebook, and add to a must-follow as a strong friend! Check out her inspirational business card deck on her website Estacyporter.com More about her here! Dr. Estacy Porter, is a Doctor of Nursing Practice who is licensed as a Community Health Primary Care NP and Board certified as a nurse in public health. She is an award-winning, Army Veteran with over 22 years of leadership experience who served abroad and locally. Retiring as Chief, Preventive Medicine and Public Health Emergency Officer. Prior to becoming a nurse, she was a Senior instructor with the Department of Defense Chemical Defense toxic agent facility. Dr. Porter has devoted her career to helping others reach their highest potential in their personal and professional lives. She is the President and Chief Executive Officer of non for profit Jewel in His Eyes Inc. where she works to empower girls, women, nurses and strengthen communities through public health leadership and mentorship development, coaching and consulting with a purpose to equip others to lead and be the healthiest versions of themselves. In 2015, Jewel in His Eyes was recognized by the White House as a change-maker during the inaugural United State of Women Summit. Dr. Porter (CPT) is also the creator of Garifuna Nurses United, Wholistic Wellness Concierge & Consulting Solutions and Editor-in-Chief of Voices of Virtuous Veterans. She’s been featured as the 2012 Ebony Military Mom, Essence, Todays purpose Women,For Nurses by Nurses and many more. She’s a sought out speaker, recipient of numerous awards, author of Jewels of Wisdom and co-author of Wholistic Women Win. Dr. Porter is married, has 4 children and enjoys reading, traveling, writing, humanitarian missions and spending time with family and friends. DO YOU LOVE THIS PODCAST? Support us by becoming an anchor sponsor or send a love donation to our cashapp at $healandthrive --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/queensrecognizequeen/support

Nothing But the Word, The Apple in His Eyes, Psalm 139*3-4 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tyronda-jackson/support

Episode 105 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Green Onions”, and how a company started by a Western Swing fiddle player ended up making the most important soul records of the sixties. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons. 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/ —-more—- Resources I used three main books when creating this episode. Two were histories of Stax — Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax by Rob Bowman, and Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon.  Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a more general overview of soul music made in Tennessee and Alabama in the sixties, but is useful as it’s less likely to take statements about racial attitudes entirely at face value. This is a good cheap compilation of Booker T and the MGs’ music. If the Erwin Records tracks here interest you, they’re all available on this compilation. The Complete Stax-Volt Singles vol. 1: 1959-1968 is a nine-CD box set containing much of the rest of the music in this episode. It’s out of print physically, but the MP3 edition, while pricey, is worth it. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   And now we come to the end of the backfilling portion of the story. Since “Telstar” we’ve been looking at records from 1962 that came out just before “Love Me Do” — we’ve essentially been in an extended flashback. This is the last of those flashback episodes, and from next week on we’re moving forward into 1963. Today we’re going to look at a record by a group of musicians who would be as important to the development of music in the 1960s as any, and at the early years of Stax Records, a label that would become as important as Chess, Motown, or Sun. Today, we’re looking at “Green Onions” by Booker T. and the MGs, and how a white country fiddle player accidentally kickstarted the most important label in soul music: [Excerpt: Booker T. and the MGs, “Green Onions”] Our story starts in Memphis, with Jim Stewart, a part-time fiddle player. Stewart was in a Western Swing band, and was hugely influenced by Bob Wills, but he wasn’t making any real money from music. Instead, he was working a day job at a bank. But he was still interested in music, and wanted to be involved in the industry. One of the gigs he’d had was in the house band at a venue where Elvis sometimes played in his early years, and he’d seen how Elvis had gone from an obscure local boy all the way to the biggest star in the world. He knew he couldn’t do that himself, but he was irresistibly attracted to any field where that was *possible*. He found his way into the industry, and into music history as a result of a tip from his barber. The barber in question, Erwin Ellis, was another country fiddle player, but he owned his own record label, Erwin Records. Erwin Records was a tiny label — it was so tiny that its first release, by Ellis himself, seems not to exist anywhere. Even on compilations of Erwin Records material, it’s not present, which is a shame, as it would be interesting from a historical perspective to hear Ellis’ own playing. But while Ellis was unsuccessful both as a fiddle player and as a record company owner, he did manage to release a handful of rockabilly classics on Erwin Records, like Hoyt Jackson’s “Enie Meanie Minie Moe”: [Excerpt: Hoyt Jackson, “Enie Meanie Minie Moe”] and “Boppin’ Wig Wam Willie” by Ray Scott, who had written “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll” for Billy Lee Riley, and who was backed by Riley’s Little Green Men on this single: [Excerpt: Ray Scott, “Boppin’ Wig Wam WIllie”] Ellis’ label wasn’t hugely successful, but he made some decent money from it, and he explained the realities of the music industry to Stewart as Stewart was sat in his barber’s chair. He told Stewart that you didn’t make money from the records themselves — small labels didn’t sell much — but that he was making some good money from the songs. The formula for success in the music business, Ellis explained, was that when you got a new artist through the door, you told them they could only record originals, not cover versions — and then you made sure they signed the publishing over to you. If you sold a record, you were just selling a bit of plastic, and you’d already paid to make the bit of plastic. There was no real money in that. But if you owned the song, every time that record was played on the radio, you got a bit of money with no extra outlay — and if you owned enough songs, then some of them might get covered by a big star, and then you’d get some real money. Hoyt Jackson, Ellis’ biggest act, hadn’t had any hits himself, but he’d written “It’s A Little More Like Heaven (Where You Are)”: [Excerpt: Hoyt Jackson, “It’s A Little More Like Heaven (Where You Are)”] Hank Locklin had recorded a cover version of it, which had gone to number three on the country charts: [Excerpt: Hank Locklin “It’s a Little More Like Heaven”] And Johnny Cash had rewritten it a bit, as “You’re the Nearest Thing to Heaven”, and had also had a top five country hit with it: [Excerpt: Johnny Cash, “You’re the Nearest Thing to Heaven”] Ellis explained to Stewart that he was still getting cheques every few months because he owned the publishing for this song that someone else had written and brought to him. If you owned the publishing for a song that became a hit, then you had a steady source of income without having to lift a finger. And people would just give you the publishing on their songs if you agreed to put a record of them out. For someone like Stewart, who worked in a bank and knew a little bit about finance, that sounded just about perfect. He pulled together a singing DJ, a piano player, and a rhythm guitarist he knew, and they pooled their savings and raised a thousand dollars to put out a record. Stewart wrote a song — the only song he’d ever write — Fred Byler, the DJ, sang it, and they hired Ellis and his tape recorder to record it in Jim’s wife’s uncle’s garage. They came up with the name Satellite Records for their label — nobody liked it, but they couldn’t think of anything better, and satellites were in the news with the recent launch of Sputnik. “Blue Roses” by Fred Byler, came out to pretty much no sales or airplay: [Excerpt: Fred Byler, “Blue Roses”] The next record was more interesting — “Boppin’ High School Baby” by Don Willis is a prime slice of Memphis rockabilly, though one with so much slapback echo that even Joe Meek might have said “hang on, isn’t that a bit much?”: [Excerpt: Don Willis, “Boppin’ High School Baby”] That also didn’t sell — Stewart and his partners knew nothing about the music business. They didn’t know how to get the records distributed to shops, and they had no money left. And then Erwin Ellis moved away and took his tape recorder with him, and Stewart’s wife’s uncle wanted to use his garage again and so wouldn’t let them record there any more. It looked like that would be the end of Satellite Records. But then three things changed everything for Jim Stewart, and for music history. The first of these was that Stewart’s new barber was also interested in music — he had a daughter who he thought could sing, and he had a large storage space he wasn’t using, in Brunswick on the outskirts of the city. If they’d record his daughter, they could use the storage space as a studio. The second was Chips Moman. Chips was a teenage guitarist who had been playing a friend’s guitar at a drugstore in Memphis, just hanging around after work, when Warren Smith walked in. Smith was a Sun Records rockabilly artist, who’d had a minor hit with “Rock and Roll Ruby”: [Excerpt: Warren Smith, “Rock and Roll Ruby”] Smith liked Moman’s playing, and offered him a job — Moman’s initial response was “doing what?” Moman had joined Smith’s band on guitar, then played with Johnny and Dorsey Burnette. He went with the Burnettes to California, where he was a session player for a time — though I’ve never been able to find a list of any of the records he played on, just people saying he played at Gold Star Studios. He’d then joined Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps, before being in an accident which had led him to come back to Memphis. He’d played guitar on the Don Willis session, and he’d essentially produced it, applying some of the techniques he’d learned in Californian studios. He was young, he was eager to make records, and he knew what he was doing. And the third event was that Stewart managed to persuade his sister, Estelle Axton, to buy out his business partners. Estelle was a naturally business-minded person who also had a yearning to do something involving music, and had been doing things in little ways. For example, the people where she worked all liked music but found they were too busy to go to the record shop — so Estelle would make a list of records they liked, go to one of the wholesalers that distributed music to record shops, buy records there for seventy-six cents, and sell them to her colleagues for a dollar. Estelle persuaded her husband, against his better judgement, to remortgage their house, and she used the money to buy recording equipment. Moman helped them set it up in the barber’s storage space, and Satellite Records started up again, restarting their numbering as if from scratch with what they were now considering their first real release — a song that Moman had co-written, sung by a black vocal group, the Vel-Tones: [Excerpt: The Vel-Tones, “Fool in Love”] The record was pretty much in the style of the white pop semi-doo-wop that was charting at the time, but the singers were black, and so it had to be promoted as R&B, and Jim Stewart made visits to Black DJs like Al Bell and Rufus Thomas, and managed to get the record some airplay. It was popular enough that the record got picked up for distribution by Mercury, and actually brought Satellite a small profit. But the label still wasn’t doing well, and they were finding it difficult to persuade musicians to trek all the way out to Brunswick. And the studio space was bad in other ways — it was right near a train track, and the noise of the trains would disrupt the sessions. And while it was free, at some point they would actually have to make a record featuring Stewart’s barber’s daughter, which nobody actually fancied doing.  So they decided to move studios again, and in doing so they were inspired by another Memphis record label. Hi Records had started around the same time as Satellite, and it had had a few big hits, most notably “Smokie (Part 2)” by the Bill Black Combo, the group that Elvis’ former bass player had formed when Elvis had joined the army: [Excerpt: Bill Black Combo: “Smokie (Part 2)”] For their studio, Hi used an old cinema — a lot of cinemas were closing down in the late fifties, due to the combination of television and the drive-in making indoor cinemas less appealing, and because white flight to the suburbs meant that people with money no longer lived in walking distance of cinemas the way they used to. The Satellite team found an old cinema on East McLemore Avenue, much closer to the centre of Memphis and easier for musicians to get to. That cinema had stopped showing films a year or two earlier, and there’d been a brief period where it had been used for country music performances, but the area was becoming increasingly Black, as white people moved away, and while plenty of Black people liked country music, they weren’t exactly welcomed to the performances in segregated 1950s Memphis, and so the building was abandoned, and available cheap. Meanwhile, Estelle’s son Charles was trying to get into the music business, too. Before I go any further in talking about him, I should say that I’ve had to depart from my normal policy when talking about him. Normally, I refer to people by the name they chose to go by, but in his case he was known by a nickname which was harmless in that time and place, but later became an extremely offensive racist slur in the UK, used against people of Pakistani descent. The word didn’t have those connotations in the US at the time, and he died before its use as a slur became widely known over there, but I’m just going to call him Charles. And speaking of words which might be considered racial slurs, the band that Charles joined — an all-white group who loved to play R&B — was called the Royal Spades. This was supposedly because of their love of playing cards, but there’s more than a suspicion that the racial connotations of the term were used deliberately, and that these white teenage boys were giggling at their naughty racial transgressiveness. The group had originally just been a guitar/bass/drum band, but Charles Axton had approached them and suggested they should get a horn section, offering his services as a tenor player. They’d laughed when he told them he’d only been playing a couple of weeks, but once he explained that his mother and uncle owned a record label, he was in the group, and they’d expanded to have a full horn section. The group was led by guitarist Steve Cropper and also included his friend, the bass player Duck Dunn, and Cropper and Charles Axton helped with the refurbishing of the cinema into a recording studio. The cinema had another advantage, too — as well as the auditorium, which became the studio, it had a lobby and concession stand. Estelle Axton turned that into a record shop, which she ran herself — with Cropper often helping out behind the counter. She instituted a policy that, unlike other record shops, people could hang around all day listening to music, without necessarily buying anything. She also brought in a loyalty card scheme — buy nine records and get a tenth record for free — which allowed her to track what individual customers were buying. She soon became so knowledgeable about what was selling to the Black teenagers of the area that she boasted that if you came into the shop with twenty dollars, she’d have sold you nineteen dollars’ worth of records before you left — she’d leave you with a dollar so you could pay for your transport home, to make sure you could come back with more money. By having a record shop in the record studio itself, they knew what was selling and could make more music that sounded like that. By having a crowd around all day listening to music, they could put the new recordings on and gauge the response before pressing a single copy. Satellite Records suddenly had a market research department. And they soon had an ally in getting them airplay. Rufus Thomas was the most important man in Black entertainment in Memphis. He was a popular DJ and comedian, he was the compere at almost every chitlin’ circuit show in the area, and he was also a popular singer. He’d been the one to record the first hit on Sun Records, “Bear Cat”, the answer record to “Hound Dog” we talked about way back in episode fifteen: [Excerpt: Rufus Thomas, “Bear Cat”] Rufus Thomas knew Jim Stewart from when Stewart had been promoting the Vel-Tones single, and so he came into the newly opened studio and suggested he cut a few tracks. If you’ve got a record label, and a DJ wants to make a record with you, that’s a godsend — you’re guaranteed airplay, not only for that record, but for a few of your others. And if that DJ also happens to be a genuine talent who’d made hit records before, you jump at the chance. Thomas also brought in his daughter, Carla, who happened to have an astonishing voice.  For the first session in the new studio, they recorded a song Rufus had written, “‘Cause I Love You”, with a few musicians that he knew, including a bass player called Wilbur Steinberg, and with Steve Cropper sitting in on guitar and Chips Moman producing. Also in the studio was David Porter, a teenager who sang in a band with Bob Tally, the trumpet player on the session — Porter was skipping school so he could be in a real recording studio, even though he wasn’t going to be singing on the session. When they started playing the song, Tally decided that it would sound good with a baritone sax on it. Nobody in the studio played saxophone, but then Porter remembered one of his classmates at Booker T Washington High School. This classmate was also called Booker T. — Booker T. Jones — and he could play everything. He played oboe, sax, trombone, double bass, guitar, and keyboards, and played them all to a professional standard. Porter popped over to the school, walked into the classroom Jones was in, told the teacher that another teacher wanted to see Jones, pulled him out of the class, and told him he was going to make a record. They borrowed a baritone sax from the school’s music room, went back to the studio, and Jones played on “‘Cause I Love You” by Rufus and Carla Thomas: [Excerpt: Rufus and Carla Thomas, “‘Cause I Love You”] “‘Cause I Love You” became a local hit, and soon Jim Stewart got a call from Jerry Wexler at Atlantic, offering to start distributing it, and any future records by Rufus and Carla Thomas. Stewart didn’t really know anything about the business, but when Wexler explained to Stewart that he was the producer of “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles, Stewart knew that was someone he needed to work with — he’d recently had a sort of Damascene conversion after hearing that record, and was now fully committed to his company’s new R&B style. For a five thousand dollar advance, Atlantic ended up with the rights to press and distribute all future masters from Satellite. The next single from the label was a Carla Thomas solo record, “Gee Whizz, Look at His Eyes”. For that session, they booked in some string players, and Bob Tally was meant to write an arrangement for them. However, he didn’t turn up to the session, and when Stewart went round to his house to find him, he discovered that Tally hadn’t written the arrangement, and had been up all night playing at a gig and was in no fit state to write one. Stewart had to make the string players play from a head arrangement — something string players normally never do — and ended up giving them directions like “just play donuts!”, meaning semibreves or whole notes, which are drawn as ovals with a hole in the middle, like a donut. Despite this, “Gee Whizz” went to number five on the R&B charts and ten on the pop charts. Satellite Records had a real hit: [Excerpt: Carla Thomas, “Gee Whizz, Look at His Eyes”] Satellite were starting to build up a whole team of people they could call on. Steve Cropper was working in the record shop, so he was available whenever they needed a guitar part playing or a second keyboard adding. David Porter was working at Big Star, the grocery store across the road, and he turned out to be a talented songwriter and backing vocalist. And of course there was the band that Cropper and Charles Axton were in, which had now been renamed to the Mar-Keys, a pun on “marquis” as in the noble title, and “keys” as in keyboards, as Estelle Axton thought — entirely correctly — that their original name was inappropriate. They also had a pool of Black session players they could call on, mostly older people who’d been brought to them by Rufus Thomas, and there were always eager teenagers turning up wanting to do anything they could in order to make a record. It was the Mar-Keys who finally gave Satellite the distinctive sound they were looking for. Or, at least, it was under the Mar-Keys’ name that the record was released. An instrumental, “Last Night”, was recorded at several sessions run by Moman, often with different lineups of musicians. The Mar-Keys at this point consisted of Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Charles Axton, Wayne Jackson, Terry Johnson, Smoochy Smith, and Don Nix, but the lineup on the finished recording had Smith on keyboards, Axton on sax and Jackson on trumpet, with some sources saying that Cropper provided the second keyboard part while others say he only played on outtakes, not on the final version. The other four musicians were Black session players — Lewie Steinberg, Wilbur’s brother, on bass, Gilbert Caples and Floyd Newman on saxes, and Curtis Green on drums. Floyd Newman also did the spoken “Ooh, last night!” that punctuated the record: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, “Last Night”] Jim Stewart and Chips Moman were both convinced that would be a flop, as was Jerry Wexler when he heard it. But Estelle Axton believed in its potential — and also believed in her son, who Stewart had little time for. Jim Stewart didn’t want his useless nephew’s band on his label at all if he could help it, but Estelle Axton wanted her son to have a hit. She got a test pressing to a DJ, who started playing it, and people started coming into the shop asking for the record. Eventually, Stewart gave in to his sister’s pressure, and agreed to release the record. There was only one problem — when they pulled the tape out, they found that the first section of the track had somehow been erased. They had to hunt through the rubbish, looking through discarded bits of tape, until they found another take of the song that had a usable beginning they could splice in. They did a very good job — I *think* I can hear the splice, but if it’s where I think it is, it’s about the cleanest editing job on analogue tape I’ve ever heard. If I’m right, the edit comes right in the middle of this passage: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, “Last Night”] Did you hear it? The song’s authorship has been debated over the years, because the horn part and the keyboard part were written separately. Caples and Newman, the session sax players, had come up with the horn part, and so always said they should get solo composition credit. Smoochy Smith had separately written the keyboard part, which came from something he’d been working on on his own, so he got credit too. Chips Moman had suggested combining the keyboard and horn lines, and so he got songwriting credit as well. And Charles Axton didn’t contribute anything to the song other than playing on the record, but because his family owned the record label, he got credit as well. The record became a big hit, and there are a couple of hypotheses as to why. Steve Cropper always argued that it was because you could dance the Twist to it, and so it rode the Twist craze, while others have pointed out that at one point in the record they leave a gap instead of saying “Ooh last night” as they do the rest of the way through. That gap allowed DJs to do the interjection themselves, which encouraged them to play it a lot. It made number three on the pop charts and number two on the R&B charts, and it led to Satellite Records coming to the attention of another label, also called Satellite, in California, who offered to sell the Memphis label the rights to use the name. Jim Stewart had never liked Satellite as a name anyway, and so they quickly reissued the record with a new label, named after the first letters of Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton’s surnames. Stax Records was born. The Mar-Keys immediately hit the road to promote the single — which brought resentment from the Black session players, some of whom claim that during the session it hadn’t even been intended as a Mar-Keys record, and who were annoyed that even though the record was primarily their work they weren’t getting the recognition and a bunch of white boys were.  Cropper soon got tired of the tour, quit the group and came back to Memphis — he was annoyed partly because the other band members, being teenage boys, many of them away from home for the first time, acted like wild animals, and partly because Cropper and Charles Axton both believed themselves to be the band’s leader and that the other should obey them. Cropper went back to working in the record shop, and playing on sessions at Stax. The second Mar-Keys single was recorded by the studio musicians while the group were out on tour — the first they even knew about it was when they saw it in the shop: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, “The Morning After”] That was much less successful, but the label was still interested in making instrumentals. They started a subsidiary label, Volt — if you put records out with two different label names, it was more likely that radio stations would play more of your records, because it wouldn’t seem like they were playing one label too much — and the first single on it was an instrumental that Chips Moman wrote, “Burnt Biscuits”, by a group consisting of Moman, Rufus Thomas’ son Mavell, Lewie Steinberg, and Howard Grimes: [Excerpt: The Triumphs, “Burnt Biscuits”] That wasn’t a hit, though Moman thought it had the potential to become as big as “Last Night”. It was released under the name “the Triumphs”, after the sports car Moman drove. Shortly after that, Moman produced what would be the last classic record he’d make for Stax, when he produced “You Don’t Miss Your Water” by a new singer, William Bell, who had previously been one of the backing vocalists on “Gee Whiz”. That track had Mavell Thomas on piano, Lewie Steinberg on bass, Ron Capone on drums, and Booker T. Jones on organ — by this point Booker T. was being called on a lot to play keyboards, as Floyd Newman recommended him as a reliable piano player in the hopes that if Jones was on keyboards, he wouldn’t be playing baritone sax, so Newman would get more of those gigs: [Excerpt: William Bell, “You Don’t Miss Your Water”] That was a great record, one of the defining records of the new country-soul genre along with Arthur Alexander’s records, but it would be the last thing Moman would do at Stax. He’d not been getting on with Estelle Axton, and he also claims that he had been promised a third of the company, but Jim Stewart changed his mind and refused to cut him in. Everyone has a different story about what happened, but the upshot was that Moman left the company, went to Nashville for a while, and then founded his own studio, American, in another part of Memphis. Moman would become responsible for writing and producing a whole string of soul, country, and rock classics, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from him in the next couple of years. After Moman left, the label floundered a little bit for a few months. Jim Stewart and Steve Cropper split the production duties that Moman had had between them. Stewart had already produced several records for Carla Thomas, and Cropper was a great musician who had been spending every second he could learning how to make records, so they could cope, but they released a mixture of really good soul records that failed to hit the charts, and truly dire novelty country songs like “The Three Dogwoods” by Nick Charles, a song from the perspective of the tree that became the cross on which Jesus was crucified: [Excerpt: Nick Charles, “The Three Dogwoods”] That was co-written by Cropper, which shows that even the man who co-wrote “In the Midnight Hour”, “Dock of the Bay” and “Knock on Wood” had his off days. The record that would prove Stax to be capable of doing great things without Chips Moman came about by accident. Stax was still not exclusively a soul label, and it was cutting the odd country and rockabilly record, and one of the people who was going to use the studio was Billy Lee Riley. You might remember Riley from a year ago, when we looked at his “Flyin’ Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll”: [Excerpt: Billy Lee Riley and the Little Green Men, “Flyin’ Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll”] Riley was running his own label at the time, and doing various bits of session work and singing for other people. No-one’s quite sure what he was using the studio for in early 1962 — some say he was cutting a jingle, some say he cut a few actual tracks but that they were awful, and others that he turned up too drunk to record. Either way, the session ended early, and the musicians were at a loose end. The musicians on this session were three of the regular Stax musicians — Steve Cropper, who had just turned twenty, on guitar, Booker T. Jones, who was still a teenager, on organ, and Lewie Steinberg, a decade older than either, on bass. The fourth musician was Al Jackson, who like Steinberg was an older Black man who had cut his teeth playing jazz and R&B throughout the fifties. Booker had played with Jackson in Willie Mitchell’s band, and had insisted to everyone at Stax that they needed to get this man in, as he was the best drummer Jones had ever heard. Jackson was making money from gigging, and didn’t want to waste his time playing sessions, which he thought would not be as lucrative as his regular gigs with Willie Mitchell. Eventually, Stax agreed to take him on on a salary, rather than just paying him one-off session fees, and so he became the first musician employed by Stax as a full-time player — Cropper was already on salary, but that was for his production work and his work at the record shop. As the session had ended rather disappointingly, the four were noodling on some blues as they had nothing better to do. Jim Stewart clicked on the talkback from the control room to tell them to go home, but then heard what they were playing, and told them to start it again so he could get it down on tape: [Excerpt: Booker T and the MGs, “Behave Yourself”] Stewart was happy with that track, but singles needed two sides, and so they needed to come up with something else. Cropper remembered a little musical lick he’d heard on the radio one day when he’d been driving with Booker — they’d both been fascinated by that lick, but neither could remember anything else about the song (and to this day no-one’s figured out what the song they’d heard was). They started noodling around with that lick, and shaped it into a twelve-bar instrumental: [Excerpt: Booker T. and the MGs, “Green Onions”] That was even better than the other track, and they needed a funky name to go with such a funky track. Lewie Steinberg thought that onions were the funkiest thing he could think of, and so the track became “Green Onions”. As the last instrumental they’d released with food as a title, “Burnt Biscuits”, had been by the Triumphs, they thought the group name should be another sports car name, and so it came out as by Booker T and the MGs. (They later said that MG stood either for Memphis Group or for Mixed Group, because they had both Black and white members, but the original idea was definitely the car – they just didn’t want to have a trademark lawsuit on their hands). “Green Onions” went to number one on the R&B charts and number three on the pop charts, and became the biggest thing Stax had ever recorded. That core group became the Stax house band, playing on every session from that point on. If they recorded an instrumental on their own, it went out as by Booker T and the MGs. If they recorded an instrumental with horn players, it went out as by the Mar-Keys, and they also played backing all the singers who came through the door of Stax, and there would be a lot of them over the next few years. There were a couple of changes — Booker T actually went off to university soon after recording “Green Onions”, so for a couple of years he could only play on weekends and during holidays — on weekdays, the studio used another keyboard player, again suggested by Floyd Newman, who had hired a young man for his bar band when the young man could only play piano with one hand, just because he seemed to have a feel for the music. Luckily, Isaac Hayes had soon learned to play with both hands, and he fit right in while Booker was away at university. The other change came a couple of years later, when after the MGs had had a few hits, Lewie Steinberg was replaced by Duck Dunn. Steinberg always claimed that the main reason he was dropped from the MGs was because he was Black and Steve Cropper wanted another white man. Cropper has always said it was because Duck Dunn had a harder-edged style that fit their music better than Steinberg’s looser feel, but also that Dunn had been his best friend for years and he wanted to play more with him. The two Black members of the MGs have never commented publicly, as far as I can tell, on the change. But whether with Jones or Hayes, Steinberg or Dunn, the MGs would be the foundation of Stax’s records for the rest of the sixties, as well as producing a string of instrumental hits. And it was those instrumental hits that led to the arrival of the person who would make Stax a legendary label. Joe Galkin, a record promoter to whom Jim Stewart owed a favour, was managing a local guitarist, Johnny Jenkins, and brought him into the studio to see if Stax could get him an instrumental hit, since they’d had a few of those. Jenkins did eventually release a single on Stax, but it wasn’t particularly special, and didn’t have any success: [Excerpt: Johnny Jenkins, “Spunky”] The day of Jenkins’ first session was a flop, they’d not been able to get anything decent recorded, and the musicians started to pack up. But Galkin had made a deal with the singer in Jenkins’ band — if he’d drive Jenkins to the studio, since Jenkins couldn’t drive, he’d try to get a record cut with him as well. Nobody was interested, but Galkin wore Jim Stewart down and he agreed to listen to this person who he just thought of as Johnny Jenkins’ driver. After hearing him, Steve Cropper ran out to get Lewie Steinberg, who was packing his bass away, and tell him to bring it back into the studio. Cropper played piano, Jenkins stayed on guitar, and Booker, Al, and Lewie played their normal instruments. Jim Stewart wasn’t particularly impressed with the results, but he owed Galkin a favour, so he released the record, a fun but unoriginal Little Richard soundalike: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, “Hey Hey Baby”] But soon DJs flipped the record, and it was the B-side that became the hit: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, “These Arms of Mine”] Otis Redding would never again be thought of as just Johnny Jenkins’ driver, and Stax Records was about to hit the big time.  

Episode 105 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Green Onions", and how a company started by a Western Swing fiddle player ended up making the most important soul records of the sixties. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "He's So Fine" by the Chiffons. 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/ ----more---- Resources I used three main books when creating this episode. Two were histories of Stax -- Soulsville USA: The Story of Stax by Rob Bowman, and Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon.  Country Soul by Charles L Hughes is a more general overview of soul music made in Tennessee and Alabama in the sixties, but is useful as it's less likely to take statements about racial attitudes entirely at face value. This is a good cheap compilation of Booker T and the MGs' music. If the Erwin Records tracks here interest you, they're all available on this compilation. The Complete Stax-Volt Singles vol. 1: 1959-1968 is a nine-CD box set containing much of the rest of the music in this episode. It's out of print physically, but the MP3 edition, while pricey, is worth it. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   And now we come to the end of the backfilling portion of the story. Since "Telstar" we've been looking at records from 1962 that came out just before "Love Me Do" -- we've essentially been in an extended flashback. This is the last of those flashback episodes, and from next week on we're moving forward into 1963. Today we're going to look at a record by a group of musicians who would be as important to the development of music in the 1960s as any, and at the early years of Stax Records, a label that would become as important as Chess, Motown, or Sun. Today, we're looking at "Green Onions" by Booker T. and the MGs, and how a white country fiddle player accidentally kickstarted the most important label in soul music: [Excerpt: Booker T. and the MGs, "Green Onions"] Our story starts in Memphis, with Jim Stewart, a part-time fiddle player. Stewart was in a Western Swing band, and was hugely influenced by Bob Wills, but he wasn't making any real money from music. Instead, he was working a day job at a bank. But he was still interested in music, and wanted to be involved in the industry. One of the gigs he'd had was in the house band at a venue where Elvis sometimes played in his early years, and he'd seen how Elvis had gone from an obscure local boy all the way to the biggest star in the world. He knew he couldn't do that himself, but he was irresistibly attracted to any field where that was *possible*. He found his way into the industry, and into music history as a result of a tip from his barber. The barber in question, Erwin Ellis, was another country fiddle player, but he owned his own record label, Erwin Records. Erwin Records was a tiny label -- it was so tiny that its first release, by Ellis himself, seems not to exist anywhere. Even on compilations of Erwin Records material, it's not present, which is a shame, as it would be interesting from a historical perspective to hear Ellis' own playing. But while Ellis was unsuccessful both as a fiddle player and as a record company owner, he did manage to release a handful of rockabilly classics on Erwin Records, like Hoyt Jackson's "Enie Meanie Minie Moe": [Excerpt: Hoyt Jackson, "Enie Meanie Minie Moe"] and "Boppin' Wig Wam Willie" by Ray Scott, who had written "Flyin' Saucers Rock & Roll" for Billy Lee Riley, and who was backed by Riley's Little Green Men on this single: [Excerpt: Ray Scott, "Boppin' Wig Wam WIllie"] Ellis' label wasn't hugely successful, but he made some decent money from it, and he explained the realities of the music industry to Stewart as Stewart was sat in his barber's chair. He told Stewart that you didn't make money from the records themselves -- small labels didn't sell much -- but that he was making some good money from the songs. The formula for success in the music business, Ellis explained, was that when you got a new artist through the door, you told them they could only record originals, not cover versions -- and then you made sure they signed the publishing over to you. If you sold a record, you were just selling a bit of plastic, and you'd already paid to make the bit of plastic. There was no real money in that. But if you owned the song, every time that record was played on the radio, you got a bit of money with no extra outlay -- and if you owned enough songs, then some of them might get covered by a big star, and then you'd get some real money. Hoyt Jackson, Ellis' biggest act, hadn't had any hits himself, but he'd written "It's A Little More Like Heaven (Where You Are)": [Excerpt: Hoyt Jackson, "It's A Little More Like Heaven (Where You Are)"] Hank Locklin had recorded a cover version of it, which had gone to number three on the country charts: [Excerpt: Hank Locklin "It's a Little More Like Heaven"] And Johnny Cash had rewritten it a bit, as "You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven", and had also had a top five country hit with it: [Excerpt: Johnny Cash, "You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven"] Ellis explained to Stewart that he was still getting cheques every few months because he owned the publishing for this song that someone else had written and brought to him. If you owned the publishing for a song that became a hit, then you had a steady source of income without having to lift a finger. And people would just give you the publishing on their songs if you agreed to put a record of them out. For someone like Stewart, who worked in a bank and knew a little bit about finance, that sounded just about perfect. He pulled together a singing DJ, a piano player, and a rhythm guitarist he knew, and they pooled their savings and raised a thousand dollars to put out a record. Stewart wrote a song -- the only song he'd ever write -- Fred Byler, the DJ, sang it, and they hired Ellis and his tape recorder to record it in Jim's wife's uncle's garage. They came up with the name Satellite Records for their label -- nobody liked it, but they couldn't think of anything better, and satellites were in the news with the recent launch of Sputnik. "Blue Roses" by Fred Byler, came out to pretty much no sales or airplay: [Excerpt: Fred Byler, "Blue Roses"] The next record was more interesting -- "Boppin' High School Baby" by Don Willis is a prime slice of Memphis rockabilly, though one with so much slapback echo that even Joe Meek might have said "hang on, isn't that a bit much?": [Excerpt: Don Willis, "Boppin' High School Baby"] That also didn't sell -- Stewart and his partners knew nothing about the music business. They didn't know how to get the records distributed to shops, and they had no money left. And then Erwin Ellis moved away and took his tape recorder with him, and Stewart's wife's uncle wanted to use his garage again and so wouldn't let them record there any more. It looked like that would be the end of Satellite Records. But then three things changed everything for Jim Stewart, and for music history. The first of these was that Stewart's new barber was also interested in music -- he had a daughter who he thought could sing, and he had a large storage space he wasn't using, in Brunswick on the outskirts of the city. If they'd record his daughter, they could use the storage space as a studio. The second was Chips Moman. Chips was a teenage guitarist who had been playing a friend's guitar at a drugstore in Memphis, just hanging around after work, when Warren Smith walked in. Smith was a Sun Records rockabilly artist, who'd had a minor hit with "Rock and Roll Ruby": [Excerpt: Warren Smith, "Rock and Roll Ruby"] Smith liked Moman's playing, and offered him a job -- Moman's initial response was "doing what?" Moman had joined Smith's band on guitar, then played with Johnny and Dorsey Burnette. He went with the Burnettes to California, where he was a session player for a time -- though I've never been able to find a list of any of the records he played on, just people saying he played at Gold Star Studios. He'd then joined Gene Vincent's Blue Caps, before being in an accident which had led him to come back to Memphis. He'd played guitar on the Don Willis session, and he'd essentially produced it, applying some of the techniques he'd learned in Californian studios. He was young, he was eager to make records, and he knew what he was doing. And the third event was that Stewart managed to persuade his sister, Estelle Axton, to buy out his business partners. Estelle was a naturally business-minded person who also had a yearning to do something involving music, and had been doing things in little ways. For example, the people where she worked all liked music but found they were too busy to go to the record shop -- so Estelle would make a list of records they liked, go to one of the wholesalers that distributed music to record shops, buy records there for seventy-six cents, and sell them to her colleagues for a dollar. Estelle persuaded her husband, against his better judgement, to remortgage their house, and she used the money to buy recording equipment. Moman helped them set it up in the barber's storage space, and Satellite Records started up again, restarting their numbering as if from scratch with what they were now considering their first real release -- a song that Moman had co-written, sung by a black vocal group, the Vel-Tones: [Excerpt: The Vel-Tones, "Fool in Love"] The record was pretty much in the style of the white pop semi-doo-wop that was charting at the time, but the singers were black, and so it had to be promoted as R&B, and Jim Stewart made visits to Black DJs like Al Bell and Rufus Thomas, and managed to get the record some airplay. It was popular enough that the record got picked up for distribution by Mercury, and actually brought Satellite a small profit. But the label still wasn't doing well, and they were finding it difficult to persuade musicians to trek all the way out to Brunswick. And the studio space was bad in other ways -- it was right near a train track, and the noise of the trains would disrupt the sessions. And while it was free, at some point they would actually have to make a record featuring Stewart's barber's daughter, which nobody actually fancied doing.  So they decided to move studios again, and in doing so they were inspired by another Memphis record label. Hi Records had started around the same time as Satellite, and it had had a few big hits, most notably "Smokie (Part 2)" by the Bill Black Combo, the group that Elvis' former bass player had formed when Elvis had joined the army: [Excerpt: Bill Black Combo: "Smokie (Part 2)"] For their studio, Hi used an old cinema -- a lot of cinemas were closing down in the late fifties, due to the combination of television and the drive-in making indoor cinemas less appealing, and because white flight to the suburbs meant that people with money no longer lived in walking distance of cinemas the way they used to. The Satellite team found an old cinema on East McLemore Avenue, much closer to the centre of Memphis and easier for musicians to get to. That cinema had stopped showing films a year or two earlier, and there'd been a brief period where it had been used for country music performances, but the area was becoming increasingly Black, as white people moved away, and while plenty of Black people liked country music, they weren't exactly welcomed to the performances in segregated 1950s Memphis, and so the building was abandoned, and available cheap. Meanwhile, Estelle's son Charles was trying to get into the music business, too. Before I go any further in talking about him, I should say that I've had to depart from my normal policy when talking about him. Normally, I refer to people by the name they chose to go by, but in his case he was known by a nickname which was harmless in that time and place, but later became an extremely offensive racist slur in the UK, used against people of Pakistani descent. The word didn't have those connotations in the US at the time, and he died before its use as a slur became widely known over there, but I'm just going to call him Charles. And speaking of words which might be considered racial slurs, the band that Charles joined -- an all-white group who loved to play R&B -- was called the Royal Spades. This was supposedly because of their love of playing cards, but there's more than a suspicion that the racial connotations of the term were used deliberately, and that these white teenage boys were giggling at their naughty racial transgressiveness. The group had originally just been a guitar/bass/drum band, but Charles Axton had approached them and suggested they should get a horn section, offering his services as a tenor player. They'd laughed when he told them he'd only been playing a couple of weeks, but once he explained that his mother and uncle owned a record label, he was in the group, and they'd expanded to have a full horn section. The group was led by guitarist Steve Cropper and also included his friend, the bass player Duck Dunn, and Cropper and Charles Axton helped with the refurbishing of the cinema into a recording studio. The cinema had another advantage, too -- as well as the auditorium, which became the studio, it had a lobby and concession stand. Estelle Axton turned that into a record shop, which she ran herself -- with Cropper often helping out behind the counter. She instituted a policy that, unlike other record shops, people could hang around all day listening to music, without necessarily buying anything. She also brought in a loyalty card scheme -- buy nine records and get a tenth record for free -- which allowed her to track what individual customers were buying. She soon became so knowledgeable about what was selling to the Black teenagers of the area that she boasted that if you came into the shop with twenty dollars, she'd have sold you nineteen dollars' worth of records before you left -- she'd leave you with a dollar so you could pay for your transport home, to make sure you could come back with more money. By having a record shop in the record studio itself, they knew what was selling and could make more music that sounded like that. By having a crowd around all day listening to music, they could put the new recordings on and gauge the response before pressing a single copy. Satellite Records suddenly had a market research department. And they soon had an ally in getting them airplay. Rufus Thomas was the most important man in Black entertainment in Memphis. He was a popular DJ and comedian, he was the compere at almost every chitlin' circuit show in the area, and he was also a popular singer. He'd been the one to record the first hit on Sun Records, "Bear Cat", the answer record to "Hound Dog" we talked about way back in episode fifteen: [Excerpt: Rufus Thomas, "Bear Cat"] Rufus Thomas knew Jim Stewart from when Stewart had been promoting the Vel-Tones single, and so he came into the newly opened studio and suggested he cut a few tracks. If you've got a record label, and a DJ wants to make a record with you, that's a godsend -- you're guaranteed airplay, not only for that record, but for a few of your others. And if that DJ also happens to be a genuine talent who'd made hit records before, you jump at the chance. Thomas also brought in his daughter, Carla, who happened to have an astonishing voice.  For the first session in the new studio, they recorded a song Rufus had written, "'Cause I Love You", with a few musicians that he knew, including a bass player called Wilbur Steinberg, and with Steve Cropper sitting in on guitar and Chips Moman producing. Also in the studio was David Porter, a teenager who sang in a band with Bob Tally, the trumpet player on the session -- Porter was skipping school so he could be in a real recording studio, even though he wasn't going to be singing on the session. When they started playing the song, Tally decided that it would sound good with a baritone sax on it. Nobody in the studio played saxophone, but then Porter remembered one of his classmates at Booker T Washington High School. This classmate was also called Booker T. -- Booker T. Jones -- and he could play everything. He played oboe, sax, trombone, double bass, guitar, and keyboards, and played them all to a professional standard. Porter popped over to the school, walked into the classroom Jones was in, told the teacher that another teacher wanted to see Jones, pulled him out of the class, and told him he was going to make a record. They borrowed a baritone sax from the school's music room, went back to the studio, and Jones played on "'Cause I Love You" by Rufus and Carla Thomas: [Excerpt: Rufus and Carla Thomas, "'Cause I Love You"] "'Cause I Love You" became a local hit, and soon Jim Stewart got a call from Jerry Wexler at Atlantic, offering to start distributing it, and any future records by Rufus and Carla Thomas. Stewart didn't really know anything about the business, but when Wexler explained to Stewart that he was the producer of "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles, Stewart knew that was someone he needed to work with -- he'd recently had a sort of Damascene conversion after hearing that record, and was now fully committed to his company's new R&B style. For a five thousand dollar advance, Atlantic ended up with the rights to press and distribute all future masters from Satellite. The next single from the label was a Carla Thomas solo record, "Gee Whizz, Look at His Eyes". For that session, they booked in some string players, and Bob Tally was meant to write an arrangement for them. However, he didn't turn up to the session, and when Stewart went round to his house to find him, he discovered that Tally hadn't written the arrangement, and had been up all night playing at a gig and was in no fit state to write one. Stewart had to make the string players play from a head arrangement -- something string players normally never do -- and ended up giving them directions like "just play donuts!", meaning semibreves or whole notes, which are drawn as ovals with a hole in the middle, like a donut. Despite this, "Gee Whizz" went to number five on the R&B charts and ten on the pop charts. Satellite Records had a real hit: [Excerpt: Carla Thomas, "Gee Whizz, Look at His Eyes"] Satellite were starting to build up a whole team of people they could call on. Steve Cropper was working in the record shop, so he was available whenever they needed a guitar part playing or a second keyboard adding. David Porter was working at Big Star, the grocery store across the road, and he turned out to be a talented songwriter and backing vocalist. And of course there was the band that Cropper and Charles Axton were in, which had now been renamed to the Mar-Keys, a pun on "marquis" as in the noble title, and "keys" as in keyboards, as Estelle Axton thought -- entirely correctly -- that their original name was inappropriate. They also had a pool of Black session players they could call on, mostly older people who'd been brought to them by Rufus Thomas, and there were always eager teenagers turning up wanting to do anything they could in order to make a record. It was the Mar-Keys who finally gave Satellite the distinctive sound they were looking for. Or, at least, it was under the Mar-Keys' name that the record was released. An instrumental, "Last Night", was recorded at several sessions run by Moman, often with different lineups of musicians. The Mar-Keys at this point consisted of Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Charles Axton, Wayne Jackson, Terry Johnson, Smoochy Smith, and Don Nix, but the lineup on the finished recording had Smith on keyboards, Axton on sax and Jackson on trumpet, with some sources saying that Cropper provided the second keyboard part while others say he only played on outtakes, not on the final version. The other four musicians were Black session players -- Lewie Steinberg, Wilbur's brother, on bass, Gilbert Caples and Floyd Newman on saxes, and Curtis Green on drums. Floyd Newman also did the spoken "Ooh, last night!" that punctuated the record: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, "Last Night"] Jim Stewart and Chips Moman were both convinced that would be a flop, as was Jerry Wexler when he heard it. But Estelle Axton believed in its potential -- and also believed in her son, who Stewart had little time for. Jim Stewart didn't want his useless nephew's band on his label at all if he could help it, but Estelle Axton wanted her son to have a hit. She got a test pressing to a DJ, who started playing it, and people started coming into the shop asking for the record. Eventually, Stewart gave in to his sister's pressure, and agreed to release the record. There was only one problem -- when they pulled the tape out, they found that the first section of the track had somehow been erased. They had to hunt through the rubbish, looking through discarded bits of tape, until they found another take of the song that had a usable beginning they could splice in. They did a very good job -- I *think* I can hear the splice, but if it's where I think it is, it's about the cleanest editing job on analogue tape I've ever heard. If I'm right, the edit comes right in the middle of this passage: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, "Last Night"] Did you hear it? The song's authorship has been debated over the years, because the horn part and the keyboard part were written separately. Caples and Newman, the session sax players, had come up with the horn part, and so always said they should get solo composition credit. Smoochy Smith had separately written the keyboard part, which came from something he'd been working on on his own, so he got credit too. Chips Moman had suggested combining the keyboard and horn lines, and so he got songwriting credit as well. And Charles Axton didn't contribute anything to the song other than playing on the record, but because his family owned the record label, he got credit as well. The record became a big hit, and there are a couple of hypotheses as to why. Steve Cropper always argued that it was because you could dance the Twist to it, and so it rode the Twist craze, while others have pointed out that at one point in the record they leave a gap instead of saying "Ooh last night" as they do the rest of the way through. That gap allowed DJs to do the interjection themselves, which encouraged them to play it a lot. It made number three on the pop charts and number two on the R&B charts, and it led to Satellite Records coming to the attention of another label, also called Satellite, in California, who offered to sell the Memphis label the rights to use the name. Jim Stewart had never liked Satellite as a name anyway, and so they quickly reissued the record with a new label, named after the first letters of Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton's surnames. Stax Records was born. The Mar-Keys immediately hit the road to promote the single -- which brought resentment from the Black session players, some of whom claim that during the session it hadn't even been intended as a Mar-Keys record, and who were annoyed that even though the record was primarily their work they weren't getting the recognition and a bunch of white boys were.  Cropper soon got tired of the tour, quit the group and came back to Memphis -- he was annoyed partly because the other band members, being teenage boys, many of them away from home for the first time, acted like wild animals, and partly because Cropper and Charles Axton both believed themselves to be the band's leader and that the other should obey them. Cropper went back to working in the record shop, and playing on sessions at Stax. The second Mar-Keys single was recorded by the studio musicians while the group were out on tour -- the first they even knew about it was when they saw it in the shop: [Excerpt: The Mar-Keys, "The Morning After"] That was much less successful, but the label was still interested in making instrumentals. They started a subsidiary label, Volt -- if you put records out with two different label names, it was more likely that radio stations would play more of your records, because it wouldn't seem like they were playing one label too much -- and the first single on it was an instrumental that Chips Moman wrote, "Burnt Biscuits", by a group consisting of Moman, Rufus Thomas' son Mavell, Lewie Steinberg, and Howard Grimes: [Excerpt: The Triumphs, "Burnt Biscuits"] That wasn't a hit, though Moman thought it had the potential to become as big as "Last Night". It was released under the name "the Triumphs", after the sports car Moman drove. Shortly after that, Moman produced what would be the last classic record he'd make for Stax, when he produced "You Don't Miss Your Water" by a new singer, William Bell, who had previously been one of the backing vocalists on "Gee Whiz". That track had Mavell Thomas on piano, Lewie Steinberg on bass, Ron Capone on drums, and Booker T. Jones on organ -- by this point Booker T. was being called on a lot to play keyboards, as Floyd Newman recommended him as a reliable piano player in the hopes that if Jones was on keyboards, he wouldn't be playing baritone sax, so Newman would get more of those gigs: [Excerpt: William Bell, "You Don't Miss Your Water"] That was a great record, one of the defining records of the new country-soul genre along with Arthur Alexander's records, but it would be the last thing Moman would do at Stax. He'd not been getting on with Estelle Axton, and he also claims that he had been promised a third of the company, but Jim Stewart changed his mind and refused to cut him in. Everyone has a different story about what happened, but the upshot was that Moman left the company, went to Nashville for a while, and then founded his own studio, American, in another part of Memphis. Moman would become responsible for writing and producing a whole string of soul, country, and rock classics, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more from him in the next couple of years. After Moman left, the label floundered a little bit for a few months. Jim Stewart and Steve Cropper split the production duties that Moman had had between them. Stewart had already produced several records for Carla Thomas, and Cropper was a great musician who had been spending every second he could learning how to make records, so they could cope, but they released a mixture of really good soul records that failed to hit the charts, and truly dire novelty country songs like "The Three Dogwoods" by Nick Charles, a song from the perspective of the tree that became the cross on which Jesus was crucified: [Excerpt: Nick Charles, "The Three Dogwoods"] That was co-written by Cropper, which shows that even the man who co-wrote "In the Midnight Hour", "Dock of the Bay" and "Knock on Wood" had his off days. The record that would prove Stax to be capable of doing great things without Chips Moman came about by accident. Stax was still not exclusively a soul label, and it was cutting the odd country and rockabilly record, and one of the people who was going to use the studio was Billy Lee Riley. You might remember Riley from a year ago, when we looked at his "Flyin' Saucers Rock 'n' Roll": [Excerpt: Billy Lee Riley and the Little Green Men, "Flyin' Saucers Rock 'n' Roll"] Riley was running his own label at the time, and doing various bits of session work and singing for other people. No-one's quite sure what he was using the studio for in early 1962 -- some say he was cutting a jingle, some say he cut a few actual tracks but that they were awful, and others that he turned up too drunk to record. Either way, the session ended early, and the musicians were at a loose end. The musicians on this session were three of the regular Stax musicians -- Steve Cropper, who had just turned twenty, on guitar, Booker T. Jones, who was still a teenager, on organ, and Lewie Steinberg, a decade older than either, on bass. The fourth musician was Al Jackson, who like Steinberg was an older Black man who had cut his teeth playing jazz and R&B throughout the fifties. Booker had played with Jackson in Willie Mitchell's band, and had insisted to everyone at Stax that they needed to get this man in, as he was the best drummer Jones had ever heard. Jackson was making money from gigging, and didn't want to waste his time playing sessions, which he thought would not be as lucrative as his regular gigs with Willie Mitchell. Eventually, Stax agreed to take him on on a salary, rather than just paying him one-off session fees, and so he became the first musician employed by Stax as a full-time player -- Cropper was already on salary, but that was for his production work and his work at the record shop. As the session had ended rather disappointingly, the four were noodling on some blues as they had nothing better to do. Jim Stewart clicked on the talkback from the control room to tell them to go home, but then heard what they were playing, and told them to start it again so he could get it down on tape: [Excerpt: Booker T and the MGs, "Behave Yourself"] Stewart was happy with that track, but singles needed two sides, and so they needed to come up with something else. Cropper remembered a little musical lick he'd heard on the radio one day when he'd been driving with Booker -- they'd both been fascinated by that lick, but neither could remember anything else about the song (and to this day no-one's figured out what the song they'd heard was). They started noodling around with that lick, and shaped it into a twelve-bar instrumental: [Excerpt: Booker T. and the MGs, "Green Onions"] That was even better than the other track, and they needed a funky name to go with such a funky track. Lewie Steinberg thought that onions were the funkiest thing he could think of, and so the track became "Green Onions". As the last instrumental they'd released with food as a title, "Burnt Biscuits", had been by the Triumphs, they thought the group name should be another sports car name, and so it came out as by Booker T and the MGs. (They later said that MG stood either for Memphis Group or for Mixed Group, because they had both Black and white members, but the original idea was definitely the car – they just didn't want to have a trademark lawsuit on their hands). "Green Onions" went to number one on the R&B charts and number three on the pop charts, and became the biggest thing Stax had ever recorded. That core group became the Stax house band, playing on every session from that point on. If they recorded an instrumental on their own, it went out as by Booker T and the MGs. If they recorded an instrumental with horn players, it went out as by the Mar-Keys, and they also played backing all the singers who came through the door of Stax, and there would be a lot of them over the next few years. There were a couple of changes -- Booker T actually went off to university soon after recording "Green Onions", so for a couple of years he could only play on weekends and during holidays -- on weekdays, the studio used another keyboard player, again suggested by Floyd Newman, who had hired a young man for his bar band when the young man could only play piano with one hand, just because he seemed to have a feel for the music. Luckily, Isaac Hayes had soon learned to play with both hands, and he fit right in while Booker was away at university. The other change came a couple of years later, when after the MGs had had a few hits, Lewie Steinberg was replaced by Duck Dunn. Steinberg always claimed that the main reason he was dropped from the MGs was because he was Black and Steve Cropper wanted another white man. Cropper has always said it was because Duck Dunn had a harder-edged style that fit their music better than Steinberg's looser feel, but also that Dunn had been his best friend for years and he wanted to play more with him. The two Black members of the MGs have never commented publicly, as far as I can tell, on the change. But whether with Jones or Hayes, Steinberg or Dunn, the MGs would be the foundation of Stax's records for the rest of the sixties, as well as producing a string of instrumental hits. And it was those instrumental hits that led to the arrival of the person who would make Stax a legendary label. Joe Galkin, a record promoter to whom Jim Stewart owed a favour, was managing a local guitarist, Johnny Jenkins, and brought him into the studio to see if Stax could get him an instrumental hit, since they'd had a few of those. Jenkins did eventually release a single on Stax, but it wasn't particularly special, and didn't have any success: [Excerpt: Johnny Jenkins, "Spunky"] The day of Jenkins' first session was a flop, they'd not been able to get anything decent recorded, and the musicians started to pack up. But Galkin had made a deal with the singer in Jenkins' band -- if he'd drive Jenkins to the studio, since Jenkins couldn't drive, he'd try to get a record cut with him as well. Nobody was interested, but Galkin wore Jim Stewart down and he agreed to listen to this person who he just thought of as Johnny Jenkins' driver. After hearing him, Steve Cropper ran out to get Lewie Steinberg, who was packing his bass away, and tell him to bring it back into the studio. Cropper played piano, Jenkins stayed on guitar, and Booker, Al, and Lewie played their normal instruments. Jim Stewart wasn't particularly impressed with the results, but he owed Galkin a favour, so he released the record, a fun but unoriginal Little Richard soundalike: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "Hey Hey Baby"] But soon DJs flipped the record, and it was the B-side that became the hit: [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "These Arms of Mine"] Otis Redding would never again be thought of as just Johnny Jenkins' driver, and Stax Records was about to hit the big time.  

THE MOST HIGH can't take HIS EYES off the righteous!

Many in the world have crafted a false image of Jesus in their own minds that views Him as merely a helpless baby in a manger -especially around Christmas- or as a mere teacher who taught some good ideas. Their view of Jesus is one who welcomes all religions. This worldly image of Jesus is one who is impotent to change sinful hearts. In fact, this worldly Jesus doesn't even want to change the hearts of sinners. He simply wants to be a cheerleader who approves of whatever path you choose in fulfilling your dreams. This is simply idolatry-creating a Jesus that suits us.----From our text today, we look not to some false image of Jesus, but to a faithful poetic description of Jesus Christ in all His glory. This is the Jesus who is to be received, worshipped, and loved by the Christian. The bride focuses her attention on ten qualities that infinitely surpass all lovers one might bring forward as a rival to Jesus Christ. We consider the first three qualities of Jesus this week- -1- His Head- -2- His Hair- and -3- His Eyes.

The Revelation Series - His Hair White as Wool and Eyes as a Flame of Fire II Revelation 1:14 “And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;” Over the last three weeks we have been looking at the description of the Son of Man as His Eyes as a Flame of Fire.  We have seen in scripture that it is declared there were seven lamps of fire before His Throne, and these seven lamps of fire were are the seven Spirits of God.  We saw that the seven Spirits of God were sent out into all the earth.  We also see in Scripture and know in reality that there is only ONE SPIRIT of God, but in the Book of Revelation the One Spirit is described as seven or seven-fold.  We have looked at the number seven and its relationship to Christ as our Sabbath Day.  The seven-fold Spirit here speaks of completion and fullness and rest that are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. On the Day of Pentecost, as written in Acts 2 the Holy Ghost sat upon the disciples with cloven tongues of fire.  This fire began to transform those believers and consume all that was in them to refine them in the knowledge of Christ.  This is the work of the Holy Ghost to refine us in Word and Deed into the Image of Jesus Christ.  John 15 and 16 declares that the Holy Spirit will show you the things of Christ, “He shall take of mine and show it to you,” John 16:14.  As the Holy Spirit shows you that of Christ you come to a seeing of Him.  In this process of seeing you are refined in your heart to Image of Christ.  Hallelujah! In Ezekiel Chapter 1, the prophet of God sees a Cloud with Fire.  In this Cloud are living creatures and above their heads is ONE on a throne.  This one Ezekiel sees has fire from His waist downward and fire from His waist upward, our God is a consuming fire.  When Ezekiel sees Him, he falls on his face as dead before him like John’s experience in Revelation Chapter one.  The Prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah Chapter 6 I saw the Lord High and lifted up.  When he saw Him, he said I am a man undone with unclean lips.  The answer to Isaiah was fire from the altar to purify His Speech. The answer to our hearts and to our speech is the Revealing of the Living Christ within us.  As we see Him by the Spirit of God we are transformed inside and out.  Our speech will begin to align with what we see in our hearts, “of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” Matthew 12:34.   As he is revealed within our hearts, He becomes our abundance.  We begin to speak of Him, or out of the understanding of Him.  Let us see, as the Holy Spirit takes of Him and shows Him to us and declare Him that we see to one another!  Praise God!

Welcome back to Season 3, Episode of Rise of the Runelords!  This is session 2 of the siege of Fort Rannick.  In this weeks installment of Clinton's Core Classics Podcast: Ullr cracks an egg, Gintaras discusses dragons with Reetin, Reetin is desparate to find any out he can get, Seres and Harper are desperate to create fire and the remaining Black Arrows reconsider who they have decided to call allies.  Everyone critically fumbles all over the place. Music Credits: The Curtain Rises Interloper Chee-Zee Caves Arcane Rising Tide Exotic Battle Steel Rods The Way Out by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Wanderer by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) His Eyes are Fire by Matthias Gleichmann (www.loewenklang.de) This End by Evan King (evanking.bandcamp.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hear the heart of Felipe and Val, leaders of His Eyes for Honduras. Felipe tells: What the voice of God sounds like, how to pray in Kroger with a stranger, and more! See images from the trip at csfindiana.org/annualreport

Clinton considers the pronunciation of his PC's names, Seres considers who she can pull off sneak attacks on, Harper considers where she would keep her potions stored away at, Gintaras considers some fallback weapons, Ullr considers who he can be friends with and Reetin considers how long you should wait after a party member falls to consider their gear 'loot.' Music Credits: Music from https://filmmusic.io: The Curtain Rises Stormfront Malicious We got Trouble Harmful or Fatal Undaunted Intuit256 Snake Lady The Escalation by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) His Eyes are Fire By Matthias Gleichmann (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scotty is on the phone with Tiffany Helm, who played Violet in Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning. Tiffany discusses with Scotty on why she went vegan and why everyone else should try to be more understanding about veganism, her death scene, the song "His Eyes" and how she got it to be in the film, her robot dance, his lifestyle when filming Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning, her relationship with her mom and if her mom gave her any advice regarding acting, and her audition for the film. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/slasherscotty/support

Scotty is on the phone with Tiffany Helm, who played Violet in Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning. Tiffany discusses with Scotty on why she went vegan and why everyone else should try to be more understanding about veganism, her death scene, the song "His Eyes" and how she got it to be in the film, her robot dance, his lifestyle when filming Friday the 13th Part 5: A New Beginning, her relationship with her mom and if her mom gave her any advice regarding acting, and her audition for the film.

It's my prayer that God shift your perspective to see things through His Eyes, Giving You His Mind to Hold the Thoughts Feelings and Purposes of His Heart, Hear the Good Shepherd Voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”‭‭John‬ ‭10:27‬ ‭ so You Know Those Things That Please Him and Have a Desire to Want to Do Those Things He Directs You to Do.‬‬In Today's World Many People Are Self Absorbed and Self Focused. Culture Pushes a Focus on M. A What's in It for Me Mentality. However, God has a Different Instruction. God's says: Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians ‭2:3-4‬ Another way to put it is…Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, and in a True Sense of Humility, think of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians ‭2:3-4‬ This can only be done by letting the Holy Spirit guide your live, when you habitually let the Holy Spirit respond to and control you; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh, the human nature without God. Galatians ‭5:16‬ God instructs in Philippians 2:3 To HUMBLE yourselves, under the mighty hand of God, that at the right time he will honor you.1 Peter ‭5:6‬ You humble yourself by putting God first.Putting God First is an Act of Humility that GOD HONORS; He Tells you: Humble yourself, to Show Humility, to Lower your Estimation of Yourself, what you can do in your own strengths, and resources and talents. This Happens by Being FULLY DEPENDENT o on the LORD – Dismiss Self-Reliance upon self, self-governance, and EMPTYING your carnal ego. This EXALTS the LORD as your ALL IN ALL and prompts the Gift of His Fullness in You as a Believer.1. You Can Rest Assured of Your True Value in Christ Jesus, As God's Own Child. And that is what you are! 1 John 3:12. Draw Your Energy from God and Not from Man for Others. God alone is your source. You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus, draw your energy from Him. He gives you Strength for ALL THINGS, Who Empowers You by Infusing Inner Strength into You, Making You Self-Sufficient in Christ Sufficiency. So You're Ready for Anything and Equal to Anything through Him. Philippians ‭4:13‬ When you put others first instead of you, looking out for their own best interest just as you would your own; then your for filling the Word of God.In Isaiah 58:1-12 there's an example of a pious Me Centered generation.No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. 1. Then your salvation will come like the dawn, 2. and your wounds will quickly heal. 3. Your godliness will lead you forward, 4. and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. 4. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,' he will quickly reply. 5. Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. 6. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, 7. and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. 8. The Lord will guide you continually, 9. giving you water when you are dry 10. and restoring your strength. 11. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then 12. you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭58:6-12‬ ‬

On this week's episode of Theology Gals, Coleen and Angela talk about the popular book Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. This book is marketed to Christian women and is even used in women's Bible studies. The Gals compare passages from the book and quotes from Rachel Hollis with the truths in the Word of God. You can find Theology Gals merchandise here. Episode Resources: Wise in His Eyes blog by Rebekah Womble Girl, Wash Your Face? What Rachel Hollis Gets Right...and Wrong by Alisa Childers Theology Gals Episodes pertaining to this episode l: The Regulative Principle of Worship Law & Gospel Women can join our Facebook Group Theology Gals-Ladies Theology Discussion and Encouragement Follow us: On Facebook On Twitter @TheologyGals On Instagram theologygals Email us at theologygals@gmail.com If you'd like to ask Theology Gals a question which may be answered on a future episode, you can text or leave a voicemail at (951) 407-0234. You may also send an email. Consider supporting Theology Gals with just a few dollars a month

This episode features a short story written by Sheikha Helawy, a Bedouin woman living in Jaffa. The story, published on the Short Story Project, was originally written in Arabic and was translated by Basma Ghalayini. Helawy was born in the unmarked Bedouin village of El-Roi, on the outskirts of the city of Haifa. Helawy currently works as a supervisor and advisor at the Institute for Democratic Education in Israel. Her Arabic-language publications, published in Amman, Jordan, include two books of short stories, as well as a book of poetry. Her work has also been translated into French, German, and Hebrew. Text: Sheikah Helawy, “R.A. Looks for His Eyes,” translated from Arabic by Basma Ghalayini.

John Lydon regner hende blandt sine yndlingssangere. Björk betragter hende som et feministisk ikon. Big Boi er ”infatuated with her”.Roy Harper synes hun er ”en af vor tids helt store”. Martha Wainwright mener, hun er genial. Tricky påstår hun er bedre end The Beatles. Og Lee ”Scratch” Perry er overbevist om, at hun er en engel, ”scary, but also comforting”.De taler om Kate Bush, der blev 6o i juli og samtidig fejrer 40-års jubilæum, idet hun debuterede det herrens år 1978 med ”Wuthering Heights”, der endte på de britiske hitlisters førsteplads. Lidt af en bedrift for en så unik, anderledes og sært klingende sang, fremført af en kun nittenårig kvinde.Bush udsendte samme år to album i rap og etablerede sig øjeblikkeligt som en dybt original kunstner, der delte vandene: Enten elskede man hende eller også kunne man ikke døje hende. For som sanger er Bush helt sin egen og hendes tilgang til sangskrivning uden sidestykke, dengang som nu.Verdensgennembruddet kom i 1985 med mesterværket Hounds of Love, hvorefter der er blevet stedse længere mellem udgivelserne.Kate Bush turnerede en enkelt gang i 1979, men derefter stod hun først på en scene igen i 2014: Det år fremførte hun 22 gange musikforestillingen Before the Dawn på spillestedet Hammersmith Apollo i London.Hun har karrieren igennem bevaret fuld kontrol over alle aspekter af sin karriere, kunstnerisk som forretningsmæssigt. Værket er ikke overvældende stort, 10 album plus det løse på 40 år, til gengæld er det et af populærmusikkens vægtigste og vigtigste.Tag Rockhistorier i hånden og hør med, når vi spiller personlige favoritter fra hele karrieren med den uforlignelige Kate Bush.Playliste:1. Wuthering Heights (1978)2. The Man with the Child in His Eyes (1978)3. The Kick Inside (1978)4. Wow (1978)5. Kashka from Bagdad (1978)6. Breathing (1980)7. Babooshka (1980)8. Pull Out the Pin (1982)9. Suspended in Gaffa (1982)10. Running Up That Hill (1985)11. Watching You Without Me (1985)12. Love and Anger (1989)13. The Song of Solomon (1993)14. King of the Mountain (2005)15. This Woman’s Work (2011)16. Wild Man (2011)

A detailed look at black, African-American, culture during the "Sixties". (1960-1969) (Bonus Artists: hidingtobefound & Luck Pacheco)   Overview   "The Sixties":  the counterculture and revolution in social norms about clothing, music, drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, and schooling – or - irresponsible excess, flamboyance, and decay of social order.   Also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the fall or relaxation of social taboos especially relating to racism and sexism that occurred during this time.   Also described as a classical Jungian nightmare cycle, where a rigid culture, unable to contain the demands for greater individual freedom, broke free of the social constraints of the previous age through extreme deviation from the norm.   The confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union dominated geopolitics during the '60s, with the struggle expanding into developing nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia characterized by proxy wars, funding of insurgencies, and puppet governments.   In response to civil disobedience campaigns from groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), U.S. President John F. Kennedy, pushed for social reforms. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 was a shock.   Liberal reforms were finally passed under Lyndon B. Johnson including civil rights for African Americans· and healthcare for the elderly and the poor. Despite his large-scale Great Society programs, Johnson was increasingly reviled. The heavy-handed American role in the Vietnam War outraged student protestors around the globe.   The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., anti-Vietnam War movement, and the police response towards protesters of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, defined a politics of violence in the United States.   The 1960s were marked by several notable assassinations:   12 June 1963 – Medgar Evers, an NAACP field secretary. Assassinated by Byron de la Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Jackson, Mississippi.   22 November 1963 – John F. Kennedy, President of the United States. Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.   21 February 1965 – Malcolm X. Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in New York City. There is a dispute about which members killed Malcolm X.   4 April 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader. Assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee.   5 June 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator. Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles, after taking California in the presidential national primaries.   Social and political movements (counterculture)   Flower Power/Hippies In the second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the time. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.     Anti-war movement The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. The antiwar movement was heavily influenced by the American Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "sit-in".   Civil rights movement Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing into the late 1960s, African-Americans in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and voting rights to them. The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and anti-imperialism. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama.; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities. Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the civil rights movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.   Hispanic and Chicano movement Another large ethnic minority group, the Mexican-Americans, are among other Hispanics in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. In the 1960s and the following 1970s, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across the country.   Second-wave feminism A second wave of feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. While the first wave of the early 20th century was centered on gaining suffrage and overturning de jure inequalities, the second wave was focused on changing cultural and social norms and de facto inequalities associated with women. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, writing books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with Betty Friedan's revolutionary book, The Feminine Mystique, the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded the National Organization for Women. In 1968, "Women's Liberation" became a household term.   Gay rights movement The United States, in the middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by the civil-rights movement and the women's movement, early gay-rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing that gay men and women are no different from those who are straight and deserve full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after AIDS, but by the very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraging gay pride.   Crime The 1960s was also associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidences of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to the levels of the early 1960s. Large riots broke out in many cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Oakland, California and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians like George Wallace and Richard Nixon campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.   Economics The decade began with a recession and at that time unemployment was considered high at around 7%. John F. Kennedy promised to "get America moving again." To do this, he instituted a 7% tax credit for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment. By the end of the decade, median family income had risen from $8,540 in 1963 to $10,770 by 1969. Minimum wage was $1.30 per hour / ~$2,700 per year (~$18,700 in 2018)   Popular culture   The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out". Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and several prominent musicians died of drug overdoses. There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism.   Music   British Invasion: The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964   "The 60's were a leap in human consciousness. Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Mother Teresa, they led a revolution of conscience. The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix created revolution and evolution themes. The music was like Dalí, with many colors and revolutionary ways. The youth of today must go there to find themselves." – Carlos Santana.     As the 1960s began, the major rock-and-roll stars of the '50s such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the US came to be dominated by Motown girl groups and novelty pop songs. Another important change in music during the early 1960s was the American folk music revival which introduced Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Odetta, and many other Singer-songwriters to the public.   Girl groups and female singers, such as the Shirelles, Betty Everett, Little Eva, the Dixie Cups, the Ronettes, and the Supremes dominated the charts in the early 1960s. This style consisted typically of light pop themes about teenage romance, backed by vocal harmonies and a strong rhythm. Most girl groups were African-American, but white girl groups and singers, such as Lesley Gore, the Angels, and the Shangri-Las emerged by 1963.   Around the same time, record producer Phil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the Wall of Sound. This style emphasized higher budgets and more elaborate arrangements, and more melodramatic musical themes in place of a simple, light-hearted pop sound. Spector's innovations became integral to the growing sophistication of popular music from 1965 onward.   Also during the early '60s, the “car song” emerged as a rock subgenre and coupled with the surf rock subgenre. Such notable songs include "Little Deuce Coupe," "409," and "Shut Down," all by the Beach Boys; Jan and Dean's "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "Drag City," among many others.   While rock 'n' roll had 'disappeared' from the US charts in the early '60s, it never died out in Europe and Britain was a hotbed of rock-and-roll activity during this time. In late 1963, the Beatles embarked on their first US tour. A few months later, rock-and-roll founding father Chuck Berry emerged from a 2-1/2-year prison stint and resumed recording and touring. The stage was set for the spectacular revival of rock music.   In the UK, the Beatles played raucous rock 'n' roll – as well as doo wop, girl-group songs, show tunes. Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group's appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.   As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to electric guitar that replaced Chuck Berry, previously seen as the gold standard of rock guitar. Rock artists began to take on serious themes and social commentary/protest instead of simplistic pop themes.   A major development in popular music during the mid-1960s was the movement away from singles and towards albums.   Blues also continued to develop strongly during the '60s, but after 1965, it increasingly shifted to the young white rock audience and away from its traditional black audience, which moved on to other styles such as soul and funk.   Jazz music during the first half of the '60s was largely a continuation of '50s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such as John Coltrane and Nat King Cole precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late '60s largely spelled the end of jazz as a mainstream form of music, after it had dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.   Significant events in music in the 1960s:   Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel in Los Angeles, California [11 December 1964] at age 33 under suspicious circumstances.   Motown Record Corporation was founded in 1960. Its first Top Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Motown's first million-selling record.   The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US No. 1 pop hit, "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Motown would score 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits during its run.   The Supremes scored twelve number-one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with "Where Did Our Love Go".   John Coltrane released A Love Supreme in late 1964, considered among the most acclaimed jazz albums of the era.   In 1966, The Supremes A' Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.   The Jimi Hendrix Experience released two successful albums during 1967, Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love, that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.   R & B legend Otis Redding has his first No. 1 hit with the legendary Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. He also played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash.   The Bee Gees released their international debut album Bee Gees 1st in July 1967 which included the pop standard "To Love Somebody".   1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin was formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album Led Zeppelin.   Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, became an overnight sensation after their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and released their second album Cheap Thrills in 1968.   Gram Parsons with The Byrds released the extremely influential LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo in late 1968, forming the basis for country rock.   The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the highly influential double LP Electric Ladyland in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums.   Woodstock Festival, 1969   Sly & the Family Stone revolutionized black music with their massive 1968 hit single "Dance to the Music" and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their hit record Stand!. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the Woodstock Festival.   Film Some of Hollywood's most notable blockbuster films of the 1960s include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Apartment, The Birds, I Am Curious (Yellow), Bonnie and Clyde, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bullitt, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Carnival of Souls, Cleopatra, Cool , and Luke, The Dirty Dozen, Doctor Zhivago, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, Exodus, Faces, Funny Girl, Goldfinger, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, , Head, How the West Was Won, The , Hustler, Ice Station Zebra, In the Heat of the Night, The Italian Job, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Jason and the Argonauts, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Jungle Book, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, The Longest Day, The Love Bug, A Man for All Seasons, The Manchurian Candidate, Mary Poppins, Medium Cool, Midnight Cowboy, My Fair Lady, Night of the Living Dead, The Pink Panther, The Odd Couple, Oliver!, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, One Million Years B.C., Planet of the Apes, Psycho, Romeo and Juliet, Rosemary's Baby, The Sound of Music, Spartacus, Swiss Family Robinson, To Kill a Mockingbird, Valley of the Dolls, West Side Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Wild Bunch.   Television   The most prominent American TV series of the 1960s include: The Ed Sullivan Show, Star Trek, Peyton Place, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Andy Williams Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Batman, McHale's Navy, Laugh-In, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive, The Tonight Show, Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan's Island, Mission: Impossible, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie, The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, The Red Skelton Show, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.   The Flintstones was a favored show, receiving 40 million views an episode with an average of 3 views a day.   Some programming such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour became controversial by challenging the foundations of America's corporate and governmental controls; making fun of world leaders, and questioning U.S. involvement in and escalation of the Vietnam War.   Fashion   Significant fashion trends of the 1960s include:     The Beatles exerted an enormous influence on young men's fashions and hairstyles in the 1960s which included most notably the mop-top haircut, the Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket.   The hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints.   The bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the film Beach Party.   Mary Quant invented the miniskirt, which became one of the most popular fashion rages in the late 1960s among young women and teenage girls. Its popularity continued throughout the first half of the 1970s and then disappeared temporarily from mainstream fashion before making a comeback in the mid-1980s.   Men's mainstream hairstyles ranged from the pompadour, the crew cut, the flattop hairstyle, the tapered hairstyle, and short, parted hair in the early part of the decade, to longer parted hairstyles with sideburns towards the latter half of the decade.   Women's mainstream hairstyles ranged from beehive hairdos, the bird's nest hairstyle, and the chignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade, to very short styles popularized by Twiggy and Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby towards the latter half of the decade.   African-American hairstyles for men and women included the afro.       James Brown "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" (1965) "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (1965) "Say It Loud--I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968)     Ray Charles "Georgia On My Mind' (1960) "Hit the Road Jack" (1961) "I Can't Stop Loving You" (1962)     Marvin Gaye "Ain't That Peculiar?" (1965) "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968) "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" (1969)     The Temptations "My Girl" (1965) "Ain't Too to Beg" (1966) "I Can't Get Next to You" (1969)     Bobby "Blue" Bland "I Pity the Fool" (1961) "Turn On Your Lovelight" (1961) "Ain't Nothing You Can Do" (1964)     Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" (1967) "Respect" (1967) "Chain of Fools" (1967-68)     The Supremes "Where Did Our Love Go?" (1964) "Stop! In the Name of Love" (1965) "Love Child" (1968)     Smokey Robinson & The Miracles "Shop Around" (1960-61) "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" (1962-63) "The Tracks of My Tears" (1965)     The Impressions "Gypsy Woman" (1961) "It's All Right" (1963) "People Get Ready" (1965)     Brook Benton "Kiddio" (1960) "Think Twice" (1961) "Hotel Happiness" (1962-63)     Jackie Wilson "Doggin' Around" (1960) "Baby Workout" (1963) "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" (1967)     Sam Cooke "Wonderful World" (1960) "Bring It On Home To Me" (1962) "A Change is Gonna Come" (1965)     Otis Redding "These Arms of Mine" (1963) "Try a Little Tenderness" (1966-67) "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (1968)     Jerry Butler "He Will Break Your Heart" (1960) "Never Give You Up" (1968) "Only the Strong Survive" (1969)     Wilson Pickett "In the Midnight Hour" (1965) "Land of 1000 Dances" (1966) "Funky Broadway" (1967)     Stevie Wonder "Fingertips, Part 2" (1963) "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" (1965-66) "I Was Made to Love Her" (1967)     B.B. King "Beautician Blues" (1964) "Waiting on You" (1966) "Paying the Cost To Be the Boss" (1968)     Joe Tex "Hold What You've Got" (1964-65) "A Sweet Woman Like You" (1965-66) "Skinny Legs and All" (1967)     The Marvelettes "Please Mr. Postman" (1961) "Beechwood 4-5789" (1962) "Too Many Fish in the Sea" (1965)     Mary Wells "Bye Bye Baby" (1960-61) "The One Who Really Loves You" (1962) "My Guy" (1964)     The Four Tops "Baby, I Need Your Loving" (1964) "I Can't Help Myself (A/K/A Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (1965) "Reach Out, I'll Be There" (1966)     Martha & The Vandellas "Heat Wave" (1963) "Dancing in the Street" (1964) "Nowhere to Run" (1965)     Dionne Warwick "Don't Make Me Over" (1962-63) "Anyone Who Had a Heart" (1963-64) "Walk On By" (1964)     Solomon Burke "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (1961) "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" (1964) "Got To Get You Off My Mind" (1965)     Etta James "At Last" (1960-61) "Tell Mama" (1967-68) "I'd Rather Go Blind" (1967-68)     The Shirelles "Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (1960-61) "Dedicated to the One I Love" (1961) "Baby It's You" (1961-62)     Chuck Jackson "I Don't Want to Cry" (1961) "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" (1962) "Beg Me" (1964)     Gene Chandler "Duke of Earl" (1962) "Rainbow" (1963) "I Fooled You This Time" (1966)     The Drifters "This Magic Moment" (1960) "Save the Last Dance for Me" (1960) "Up on the Roof" (1962-63)     Jr. Walker & The All-Stars "Shotgun" (1965) "(I'm A) Road Runner" (1966) "Home Cookin'" (1968-69)     Gladys Knight & The Pips "Every Beat of My Heart" (1961) "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (1967) "Friendship Train" (1969)     Carla Thomas "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" (1961) "B-A-B-Y" (1966) "Another Night Without My Man" (1966)     Chubby Checker "The Twist" (1960) "Pony Time" (1961) "Dancin' Party" (1962)     Sam & Dave "Hold On! I'm A Comin'" (1966) "When Something is Wrong With My Baby" (1967) "Soul Man" (1967)     Joe Simon "My Adorable One" (1964) "Nine Pound Steel" (1967) "The Chokin' Kind" (1969)     The Dells "There Is" (1967-68) "Stay in My Corner" (1968) "Oh, What a Night" (1969)     Little Milton "So Mean To Me" (1962) "We're Gonna Make It" (1965) "Grits Ain't Groceries" (1969)     Ben E. King "Spanish Harlem" (1960-61) "Stand By Me" (1961) "That's When it Hurts" (1964)     Betty Everett "You're No Good" (1963) "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" (1964) "There'll Come a Time" (1969)     Hank Ballard & The Midnighters "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" (1960) "Finger Poppin' Time" (1960) "Nothing But Good" (1961)     Major Lance "The Monkey Time" (1963) "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" (1964) "Investigate" (1966)     Booker T. & The MGs "Green Onions" (1962) "Hip-Hug-Her" (1967) "Time is Tight" (1969)     The Intruders "Together" (1967) "Cowboys to Girls" (1968) "(Love is Like a) Baseball Game" (1968)     Ike & Tina Turner "A Fool in Love" (1960) "Goodbye, So Long" (1965) "River Deep--Mountain High" (1966)     Johnnie Taylor "I Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (1966) "Who's Making Love" (1968) "I Could Never Be President" (1969)     The Orlons "The Wah Watusi" (1962) "Don't Hang Up" (1962) "South Street" (1963)     Barbara Lewis "Hello Stranger" (1963) "Baby, I'm Yours" (1965) "Make Me Your Baby" (1965)     Maxine Brown "All in My Mind" (1960-61) "Oh No, Not My Baby" (1964) "One in a Million" (1966)     Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters "Cry Baby" (1963) "Tell Me Baby" (1964) "I'll Take Good Care of You" (1966)     Ramsey Lewis "The In Crowd" (1965) "Hang On Sloopy" (1965) "Wade in the Water" (1966)  

A detailed look at black, African-American, culture during the "Sixties". (1960-1969)   Overview   "The Sixties":  the counterculture and revolution in social norms about clothing, music, drugs, dress, sexuality, formalities, and schooling – or - irresponsible excess, flamboyance, and decay of social order.   Also labeled the Swinging Sixties because of the fall or relaxation of social taboos especially relating to racism and sexism that occurred during this time.   Also described as a classical Jungian nightmare cycle, where a rigid culture, unable to contain the demands for greater individual freedom, broke free of the social constraints of the previous age through extreme deviation from the norm.   The confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union dominated geopolitics during the '60s, with the struggle expanding into developing nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia characterized by proxy wars, funding of insurgencies, and puppet governments.   In response to civil disobedience campaigns from groups like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), U.S. President John F. Kennedy, pushed for social reforms. Kennedy's assassination in 1963 was a shock.   Liberal reforms were finally passed under Lyndon B. Johnson including civil rights for African Americans· and healthcare for the elderly and the poor. Despite his large-scale Great Society programs, Johnson was increasingly reviled. The heavy-handed American role in the Vietnam War outraged student protestors around the globe.   The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., anti-Vietnam War movement, and the police response towards protesters of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, defined a politics of violence in the United States.   The 1960s were marked by several notable assassinations:   12 June 1963 – Medgar Evers, an NAACP field secretary. Assassinated by Byron de la Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan in Jackson, Mississippi.   22 November 1963 – John F. Kennedy, President of the United States. Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.   21 February 1965 – Malcolm X. Assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in New York City. There is a dispute about which members killed Malcolm X.   4 April 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader. Assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee.   5 June 1968 – Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator. Assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles, after taking California in the presidential national primaries.   Social and political movements (counterculture)   Flower Power/Hippies In the second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the time. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies. These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution, questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including LSD and marijuana) and psychedelic music.     Anti-war movement The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in the United States. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. The antiwar movement was heavily influenced by the American Communist Party, but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a "sit-in".   Civil rights movement Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing into the late 1960s, African-Americans in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against black Americans and voting rights to them. The emergence of the Black Power movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency, and anti-imperialism. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama; "sit-ins" such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama.; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities. Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the civil rights movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights; the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.   Hispanic and Chicano movement Another large ethnic minority group, the Mexican-Americans, are among other Hispanics in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. In the 1960s and the following 1970s, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across the country.   Second-wave feminism A second wave of feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. While the first wave of the early 20th century was centered on gaining suffrage and overturning de jure inequalities, the second wave was focused on changing cultural and social norms and de facto inequalities associated with women. At the time, a woman's place was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. Feminists took to the streets, marching and protesting, writing books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with Betty Friedan's revolutionary book, The Feminine Mystique, the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded the National Organization for Women. In 1968, "Women's Liberation" became a household term.   Gay rights movement The United States, in the middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by the civil-rights movement and the women's movement, early gay-rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing that gay men and women are no different from those who are straight and deserve full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after AIDS, but by the very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraging gay pride.   Crime The 1960s was also associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidences of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to the levels of the early 1960s. Large riots broke out in many cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, New Jersey, Oakland, California and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians like George Wallace and Richard Nixon campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest.   Economics The decade began with a recession and at that time unemployment was considered high at around 7%. John F. Kennedy promised to "get America moving again." To do this, he instituted a 7% tax credit for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment. By the end of the decade, median family income had risen from $8,540 in 1963 to $10,770 by 1969. Minimum wage was $1.30 per hour / ~$2,700 per year (~$18,700 in 2018)   Popular culture   The counterculture movement dominated the second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs, especially LSD, were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan "Turn on, tune in, drop out". Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and several prominent musicians died of drug overdoses. There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism.   Music   British Invasion: The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964   "The 60's were a leap in human consciousness. Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Mother Teresa, they led a revolution of conscience. The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix created revolution and evolution themes. The music was like Dalí, with many colors and revolutionary ways. The youth of today must go there to find themselves." – Carlos Santana.     As the 1960s began, the major rock-and-roll stars of the '50s such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard had dropped off the charts and popular music in the US came to be dominated by Motown girl groups and novelty pop songs. Another important change in music during the early 1960s was the American folk music revival which introduced Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Odetta, and many other Singer-songwriters to the public.   Girl groups and female singers, such as the Shirelles, Betty Everett, Little Eva, the Dixie Cups, the Ronettes, and the Supremes dominated the charts in the early 1960s. This style consisted typically of light pop themes about teenage romance, backed by vocal harmonies and a strong rhythm. Most girl groups were African-American, but white girl groups and singers, such as Lesley Gore, the Angels, and the Shangri-Las emerged by 1963.   Around the same time, record producer Phil Spector began producing girl groups and created a new kind of pop music production that came to be known as the Wall of Sound. This style emphasized higher budgets and more elaborate arrangements, and more melodramatic musical themes in place of a simple, light-hearted pop sound. Spector's innovations became integral to the growing sophistication of popular music from 1965 onward.   Also during the early '60s, the “car song” emerged as a rock subgenre and coupled with the surf rock subgenre. Such notable songs include "Little Deuce Coupe," "409," and "Shut Down," all by the Beach Boys; Jan and Dean's "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "Drag City," among many others.   While rock 'n' roll had 'disappeared' from the US charts in the early '60s, it never died out in Europe and Britain was a hotbed of rock-and-roll activity during this time. In late 1963, the Beatles embarked on their first US tour. A few months later, rock-and-roll founding father Chuck Berry emerged from a 2-1/2-year prison stint and resumed recording and touring. The stage was set for the spectacular revival of rock music.   In the UK, the Beatles played raucous rock 'n' roll – as well as doo wop, girl-group songs, show tunes. Beatlemania abruptly exploded after the group's appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.   As the counterculture movement developed, artists began making new kinds of music influenced by the use of psychedelic drugs. Guitarist Jimi Hendrix emerged onto the scene in 1967 with a radically new approach to electric guitar that replaced Chuck Berry, previously seen as the gold standard of rock guitar. Rock artists began to take on serious themes and social commentary/protest instead of simplistic pop themes.   A major development in popular music during the mid-1960s was the movement away from singles and towards albums.   Blues also continued to develop strongly during the '60s, but after 1965, it increasingly shifted to the young white rock audience and away from its traditional black audience, which moved on to other styles such as soul and funk.   Jazz music during the first half of the '60s was largely a continuation of '50s styles, retaining its core audience of young, urban, college-educated whites. By 1967, the death of several important jazz figures such as John Coltrane and Nat King Cole precipitated a decline in the genre. The takeover of rock in the late '60s largely spelled the end of jazz as a mainstream form of music, after it had dominated much of the first half of the 20th century.   Significant events in music in the 1960s:   Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a motel in Los Angeles, California [11 December 1964] at age 33 under suspicious circumstances.   Motown Record Corporation was founded in 1960. Its first Top Ten hit was "Shop Around" by the Miracles in 1960. "Shop Around" peaked at number-two on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Motown's first million-selling record.   The Marvelettes scored Motown Record Corporation's first US No. 1 pop hit, "Please Mr. Postman" in 1961. Motown would score 110 Billboard Top-Ten hits during its run.   The Supremes scored twelve number-one hit singles between 1964 and 1969, beginning with "Where Did Our Love Go".   John Coltrane released A Love Supreme in late 1964, considered among the most acclaimed jazz albums of the era.   In 1966, The Supremes A' Go-Go was the first album by a female group to reach the top position of the Billboard magazine pop albums chart in the United States.   The Jimi Hendrix Experience released two successful albums during 1967, Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love, that innovate both guitar, trio and recording techniques.   R & B legend Otis Redding has his first No. 1 hit with the legendary Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. He also played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 just before he died in a plane crash.   The Bee Gees released their international debut album Bee Gees 1st in July 1967 which included the pop standard "To Love Somebody".   1968: after The Yardbirds fold, Led Zeppelin was formed by Jimmy Page and manager Peter Grant, with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones; and, released their debut album Led Zeppelin.   Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin as lead singer, became an overnight sensation after their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and released their second album Cheap Thrills in 1968.   Gram Parsons with The Byrds released the extremely influential LP Sweetheart of the Rodeo in late 1968, forming the basis for country rock.   The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the highly influential double LP Electric Ladyland in 1968 that furthered the guitar and studio innovations of his previous two albums.   Woodstock Festival, 1969   Sly & the Family Stone revolutionized black music with their massive 1968 hit single "Dance to the Music" and by 1969 became international sensations with the release of their hit record Stand!. The band cemented their position as a vital counterculture band when they performed at the Woodstock Festival.   Film Some of Hollywood's most notable blockbuster films of the 1960s include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Apartment, The Birds, I Am Curious (Yellow), Bonnie and Clyde, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bullitt, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Carnival of Souls, Cleopatra, Cool , and Luke, The Dirty Dozen, Doctor Zhivago, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, Exodus, Faces, Funny Girl, Goldfinger, The Graduate, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, , Head, How the West Was Won, The , Hustler, Ice Station Zebra, In the Heat of the Night, The Italian Job, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Jason and the Argonauts, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Jungle Book, Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion in Winter, The Longest Day, The Love Bug, A Man for All Seasons, The Manchurian Candidate, Mary Poppins, Medium Cool, Midnight Cowboy, My Fair Lady, Night of the Living Dead, The Pink Panther, The Odd Couple, Oliver!, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, One Million Years B.C., Planet of the Apes, Psycho, Romeo and Juliet, Rosemary's Baby, The Sound of Music, Spartacus, Swiss Family Robinson, To Kill a Mockingbird, Valley of the Dolls, West Side Story, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Wild Bunch.   Television   The most prominent American TV series of the 1960s include: The Ed Sullivan Show, Star Trek, Peyton Place, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Andy Williams Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Batman, McHale's Navy, Laugh-In, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive, The Tonight Show, Gunsmoke, The Andy Griffith Show, Gilligan's Island, Mission: Impossible, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Lassie, The Danny Thomas Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, The Red Skelton Show, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.   The Flintstones was a favored show, receiving 40 million views an episode with an average of 3 views a day.   Some programming such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour became controversial by challenging the foundations of America's corporate and governmental controls; making fun of world leaders, and questioning U.S. involvement in and escalation of the Vietnam War.   Fashion   Significant fashion trends of the 1960s include:     The Beatles exerted an enormous influence on young men's fashions and hairstyles in the 1960s which included most notably the mop-top haircut, the Beatle boots and the Nehru jacket.   The hippie movement late in the decade also had a strong influence on clothing styles, including bell-bottom jeans, tie-dye and batik fabrics, as well as paisley prints.   The bikini came into fashion in 1963 after being featured in the film Beach Party.   Mary Quant invented the miniskirt, which became one of the most popular fashion rages in the late 1960s among young women and teenage girls. Its popularity continued throughout the first half of the 1970s and then disappeared temporarily from mainstream fashion before making a comeback in the mid-1980s.   Men's mainstream hairstyles ranged from the pompadour, the crew cut, the flattop hairstyle, the tapered hairstyle, and short, parted hair in the early part of the decade, to longer parted hairstyles with sideburns towards the latter half of the decade.   Women's mainstream hairstyles ranged from beehive hairdos, the bird's nest hairstyle, and the chignon hairstyle in the early part of the decade, to very short styles popularized by Twiggy and Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby towards the latter half of the decade.   African-American hairstyles for men and women included the afro.       James Brown "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag" (1965) "I Got You (I Feel Good)" (1965) "Say It Loud--I'm Black and I'm Proud" (1968)     Ray Charles "Georgia On My Mind' (1960) "Hit the Road Jack" (1961) "I Can't Stop Loving You" (1962)     Marvin Gaye "Ain't That Peculiar?" (1965) "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (1968) "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" (1969)     The Temptations "My Girl" (1965) "Ain't Too to Beg" (1966) "I Can't Get Next to You" (1969)     Bobby "Blue" Bland "I Pity the Fool" (1961) "Turn On Your Lovelight" (1961) "Ain't Nothing You Can Do" (1964)     Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" (1967) "Respect" (1967) "Chain of Fools" (1967-68)     The Supremes "Where Did Our Love Go?" (1964) "Stop! In the Name of Love" (1965) "Love Child" (1968)     Smokey Robinson & The Miracles "Shop Around" (1960-61) "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" (1962-63) "The Tracks of My Tears" (1965)     The Impressions "Gypsy Woman" (1961) "It's All Right" (1963) "People Get Ready" (1965)     Brook Benton "Kiddio" (1960) "Think Twice" (1961) "Hotel Happiness" (1962-63)     Jackie Wilson "Doggin' Around" (1960) "Baby Workout" (1963) "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" (1967)     Sam Cooke "Wonderful World" (1960) "Bring It On Home To Me" (1962) "A Change is Gonna Come" (1965)     Otis Redding "These Arms of Mine" (1963) "Try a Little Tenderness" (1966-67) "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (1968)     Jerry Butler "He Will Break Your Heart" (1960) "Never Give You Up" (1968) "Only the Strong Survive" (1969)     Wilson Pickett "In the Midnight Hour" (1965) "Land of 1000 Dances" (1966) "Funky Broadway" (1967)     Stevie Wonder "Fingertips, Part 2" (1963) "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" (1965-66) "I Was Made to Love Her" (1967)     B.B. King "Beautician Blues" (1964) "Waiting on You" (1966) "Paying the Cost To Be the Boss" (1968)     Joe Tex "Hold What You've Got" (1964-65) "A Sweet Woman Like You" (1965-66) "Skinny Legs and All" (1967)     The Marvelettes "Please Mr. Postman" (1961) "Beechwood 4-5789" (1962) "Too Many Fish in the Sea" (1965)     Mary Wells "Bye Bye Baby" (1960-61) "The One Who Really Loves You" (1962) "My Guy" (1964)     The Four Tops "Baby, I Need Your Loving" (1964) "I Can't Help Myself (A/K/A Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" (1965) "Reach Out, I'll Be There" (1966)     Martha & The Vandellas "Heat Wave" (1963) "Dancing in the Street" (1964) "Nowhere to Run" (1965)     Dionne Warwick "Don't Make Me Over" (1962-63) "Anyone Who Had a Heart" (1963-64) "Walk On By" (1964)     Solomon Burke "Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)" (1961) "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" (1964) "Got To Get You Off My Mind" (1965)     Etta James "At Last" (1960-61) "Tell Mama" (1967-68) "I'd Rather Go Blind" (1967-68)     The Shirelles "Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (1960-61) "Dedicated to the One I Love" (1961) "Baby It's You" (1961-62)     Chuck Jackson "I Don't Want to Cry" (1961) "Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird)" (1962) "Beg Me" (1964)     Gene Chandler "Duke of Earl" (1962) "Rainbow" (1963) "I Fooled You This Time" (1966)     The Drifters "This Magic Moment" (1960) "Save the Last Dance for Me" (1960) "Up on the Roof" (1962-63)     Jr. Walker & The All-Stars "Shotgun" (1965) "(I'm A) Road Runner" (1966) "Home Cookin'" (1968-69)     Gladys Knight & The Pips "Every Beat of My Heart" (1961) "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" (1967) "Friendship Train" (1969)     Carla Thomas "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" (1961) "B-A-B-Y" (1966) "Another Night Without My Man" (1966)     Chubby Checker "The Twist" (1960) "Pony Time" (1961) "Dancin' Party" (1962)     Sam & Dave "Hold On! I'm A Comin'" (1966) "When Something is Wrong With My Baby" (1967) "Soul Man" (1967)     Joe Simon "My Adorable One" (1964) "Nine Pound Steel" (1967) "The Chokin' Kind" (1969)     The Dells "There Is" (1967-68) "Stay in My Corner" (1968) "Oh, What a Night" (1969)     Little Milton "So Mean To Me" (1962) "We're Gonna Make It" (1965) "Grits Ain't Groceries" (1969)     Ben E. King "Spanish Harlem" (1960-61) "Stand By Me" (1961) "That's When it Hurts" (1964)     Betty Everett "You're No Good" (1963) "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" (1964) "There'll Come a Time" (1969)     Hank Ballard & The Midnighters "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" (1960) "Finger Poppin' Time" (1960) "Nothing But Good" (1961)     Major Lance "The Monkey Time" (1963) "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" (1964) "Investigate" (1966)     Booker T. & The MGs "Green Onions" (1962) "Hip-Hug-Her" (1967) "Time is Tight" (1969)     The Intruders "Together" (1967) "Cowboys to Girls" (1968) "(Love is Like a) Baseball Game" (1968)     Ike & Tina Turner "A Fool in Love" (1960) "Goodbye, So Long" (1965) "River Deep--Mountain High" (1966)     Johnnie Taylor "I Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (1966) "Who's Making Love" (1968) "I Could Never Be President" (1969)     The Orlons "The Wah Watusi" (1962) "Don't Hang Up" (1962) "South Street" (1963)     Barbara Lewis "Hello Stranger" (1963) "Baby, I'm Yours" (1965) "Make Me Your Baby" (1965)     Maxine Brown "All in My Mind" (1960-61) "Oh No, Not My Baby" (1964) "One in a Million" (1966)     Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters "Cry Baby" (1963) "Tell Me Baby" (1964) "I'll Take Good Care of You" (1966)     Ramsey Lewis "The In Crowd" (1965) "Hang On Sloopy" (1965) "Wade in the Water" (1966)