Podcasts about Malvina Reynolds

Benjamin Mertz is a bi-racial man who is the Director of Diversity & Inclusion for the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute (BECI). He serves on the board of directors of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and is the founder and director of the Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers. He's a composer, performer, and song leader who specializes in the music of the Black Spiritual tradition and is a human rights and racial justice activist. When not performing music he writes and speaks on issues of racial justice, economic justice and Black History, and he works on creating interfaith and interracial alliances. He can often be found leading songs at benefit concerts, vigils, protest actions, sacred services, and workshops. His albums include: Climbing Up the Mountain (Benjamin Mertz 2019) and I Dream: Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers (Joyful Noise! Gospel Singers 2020)Interview Date: 5/13/2024 Tags: Benjamin Mertz, Civil Rights music, oral tradition, protest events, San Quentin prison, musical benefits, Alabama freedom singers, Sister Mamie Brown, Pete Seeger, Malvina Reynolds, Music, Social Change/Politics

(NOTAS Y ENLACES DEL CAPÍTULO: https://www.jaimerodriguezdesantiago.com/kaizen/202-vivimos-en-la-era-de-la-mediocridad/)A principios de los 90, dos artistas rusos llamados Vitaly Komar y Alexander Melamid tuvieron una idea bastante original. Decidieron que contratarían a empresas de investigación de mercados para averiguar cómo era el arte que más se valoraba en distintas partes del mundo. Y después las pintarían. Querían crear una serie de obras que reflejaran las diferencias culturales entre países tan diferentes como Rusia, China, Francia, Kenia o Estados Unidos. La titularían: «La elección del pueblo». Cada una sería diferente y única, un símbolo de la manera especial que tenían los habitantes de cada país de ver el mundo. Pero la cosa no salió como esperaban. En casi todos los países lo único que la gente quería era un paisaje con algunas figuras alrededor y animales en un segundo plano, con un fondo principalmente azul. Tras terminar aquel trabajo, Komar, uno de los autores, se lamentaba: «Viajamos por todo el mundo negociando con empresas de estudios de mercado, consiguiendo fondos para hacer las encuestas y acabamos recibiendo una y otra vez los mismos resultados. Pintando una y otra vez, los mismo fondos azules. Buscando la libertad encontramos la esclavitud»Sin embargo, esa fue precisamente la gracia de su obra. Nos gusta pensar que somos individuos únicos, pero nos parecemos, todos a todos, mucho más de lo que querríamos admitir. Es más: hay quien cree que hoy, 30 años después, vivimos en un tiempo en el que la originalidad ha muerto. En el cine, la moda, la arquitectura, la publicidad o la música todo se parece a todo y todo está dominado por las convenciones y los clichés. Bienvenidos a la era de la mediocridad. ¿O quizás no?Hace unos meses surgió un pequeño debate en el Programa de desarrollo directivo y liderazgo del Instituto Tramontana. Hablábamos de marketing y yo contaba cómo desde la llegada de Internet se había producido un efecto interesante: se había desbloqueado un mercado que hasta entonces era casi imposible de atender. Lo que en inglés llaman el “long-tail” o la cola larga; es decir, toda esa demanda de productos, servicios o contenidos súper específicas que nadie antes podía abastecer. Piensa en música rara, en espadas decorativas o en, no sé, podcasts sobre cualquier frikada posible. Vamos, esos mercados que antes eran nichos que no era rentable servir porque estaban dispersos por todo el mundo y ahora, de pronto, sí podemos conectar. Y entonces Irene, una de las alumnas, me llevó la contraria. E hizo bien. Esa es la gracia de las clases, que todos aprendemos, yo el primero. Bueno, no me llevó la contraria exactamente. Pero sí dijo cómo parece que en lugar de en un mundo cada vez más variado, vivimos en uno cada vez más uniforme. Y nos compartió un artículo realmente interesante de un tipo llamado Alex Murrell sobre el tema en el que cuenta precisamente esa misma historia sobre aquellos artistas rusos con la que hemos empezado. Y yo, que tiendo a ser obsesivo cuando no encuentro respuestas, llevo dándole vueltas a este debate desde aquella clase. Y ya va siendo hora de llegar a alguna conclusión.  PATROCINADOR DEL CAPÍTULO: Triple Magnesio de BeLevels (descuento con el código KAIZEN) ¡Ya están abiertas las inscripciones para la 2ª edición del programa de desarrollo directivo y liderazgo que dirijo en Tramontana! ¿Te interesa? Toda la info aquí: https://www.tramontana.net/desarrollo-directivo-liderazgo¿Te gusta kaizen? Apoya el podcast uniéndote a la Comunidad y accede a contenidos y ventajas exclusivas: https://www.jaimerodriguezdesantiago.com/comunidad-kaizen/

The American tenor Nicholas Phan has just released an album of protest songs, many from the 1960s by legendary singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds. It also contains a new work by Errollyn Wallen. ‘A Change in Gonna Come', featuring Palaver Strings, and a couple of guest appearances by Farayi Malek, is just out from Azica. James Jolly talked recently to Nicholas Phan about the album, and also about another song project that he's currently in the studio working on …

What does the punk band, The Descendents, folk musician and activist Malvina Reynolds' song "Little Boxes" and the 1998 movie, Pleasantville, have in common? They all spark a conversation about finding your place in a world that feels like it squashes personhood and originality. Screen Cares hosts, Sarah & Jennie, discuss how a move to the dreaded suburbs can still result in honoring your identity in this fun episode.Screen Shares Rating: Pleasantville (1998) is a great Family Screen to spark conversations about what your residential values are when you have the privilege to choose where to live, and most importantly, how to maintain your individuality.Click HERE for a transcript of today's episode. This episode originally aired on April 3, 2023. Visit www.ScreenCares.com for all of the resources mentioned in the episode and for additional Screen Cares content.Follow the podcast on Instagram @screencarespod and Facebook!Subscribe to Screen Cares wherever you enjoy podcasts to make sure you never miss an opportunity to watch better, together.

For a special themed show, FFRF co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker discuss the harm of belief in heaven and hell. Songs include "Heaven" by Rupert Brooke, "Pack Up Your Sins (and Go to the Devil in Hades)" by Irving Berlin, "Declaration of the Free" by Robert Ingersoll, "Preacher & the Slave" by Joe Hill, "Spooky Mormon Hell" from The Book of Mormon, "This World" by Malvina Reynolds, "Reincarnation" by Wallace D. McRae, "Joy To The World" by Godless Gospel, and "None of the Above" by Dan Barker.

Snedtänkt gästas av en levande legend som hellre kallar sig sångdiktare som sysslar med visprogg: Jan Hammarlund, aktiv på scener och barrikader sedan sent sextiotal. Cirka en promille av de namn som nämns: Malvina Reynolds, Violeta Parra, Joan Baez, Melanie, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Franz Schubert, paret Barsotti, Karin Biribakken, Maritza Horn, Marie Bergman, Turid och Ville. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play.

Surviving the Suburbs: Pleasantville Sarah and her family make a big decision from her nightmares…a move to the ‘burbs. As a self-proclaimed “weirdo” and non-conformist, Sarah and Screen Cares co-host, Jennie, work through a fun watch of Pleasantville (1998) - IMDb in the hopes of finding peace with living in a neighborhood where everything is the same. Instead of focusing on the film's political implications, we try to figure out how can we consolidate our need to be part of a community while reconciling our own individual needs, while asking ourselves: Is the safety of the suburbs worth risking homogeneity and living away from the opportunities afforded by city life?  For those who are Deaf or hard of hearing, please visit this link for the transcript of this episode of Screen Cares: Episode Transcript Episode Page with Pictures Episode Host: Sarah Woolverton-Mohler Co-Host: Jennie Ziverk Carr                 Screen Shares Rating:  Pleasantville (1998) is a great Family Screen with your entire family to spark conversations about what your residential values are when choosing where to live and most importantly: how to maintain your own individuality, no matter where you reside.   Screen Sparks: Have a real, old-fashioned conversation with someone about suburbia, feeling “at home,” individuality, conformity, truth and Pleasantville by using our Screen Sparks to get it started: Do you believe that children should be denied access to specific content, subjects, art forms, literature, etc. in order to “keep the peace” and to maintain pleasantness? Are there specific ways of living that feel “you” such as living in an apartment in a large city, living in a rural area with lots of acreage, etc.? And has this always been the way that has felt appealing to you? Which is more important- being part of a community member or focusing on your individuality?  Which Pleasantville character do you feel most accurately reflects who you are in your current stage of life? What unlocks the color, the passion, your life's motivation for you?    Resources & Background Suburb Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster The History and Evolution of Suburbs Malvina Reynolds' Song ‘Little Boxes' Connects Suburbia with Conformity Tony Lombardo from The Descendents Actually Wanted “a Suburban Home” The Big Orange Splot is a classic children's book that introduces the power of individuality, even in a neighborhood filled with the “little boxes” that Malvina Reynolds cautioned about.          

What does using our intuition feel like? In this episode, we talk with Diana's mom, Theresa Lebeiko. Diana considers Theresa to be a huge inspiration and source of support throughout her entrepreneurial journey. She was an English teacher, a vision disability rehabilitation educator, and considers herself a fan of literature and the arts. She talks about her experience with being first-generation college educated, her husband being an entrepreneur, and now supporting Diana through her ventures. In this episode, we referenced: · The passage that Theresa reads is from Circle of Grace by Jan Richardson, which is a Christian spiritual book of blessings and poems. (affiliate link) · Diana outed herself as a picky eater. · The song about tacky housing may have been a reference to Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds. --- I'm Jacen from Hawthorne Union, a professional coach. Join me as I discuss career development, personal and professional growth, and leadership from a coach's point of view. Contact: jacen@hawthorneunion.com

Join me in this overdue episode for World Bee Day, as we review the causes and effects of the declining bee population.Credit intro: Dean MartinCredit outro: Malvina Reynolds 

Kindness Brings Happiness! And a song by Malvina Reynolds too! “If You Love Me Plant a Rose for Me” A sixteen - minute mindfulness adventure for preschool/ kindergarteners including melodious chimes and music, interactive listening, Bumblebee Breathing and movement practices. 0:00-1:29 Welcoming Chimes: Listening with Wide Open Ears 1:30-3:24 Mindfulness Is: A Mindful Listening Practice 3:25-4:58 Stretches, Shakin' and a Tappin' 4:59-6:13 Sensing Inside Your Body 6:14-10:32 Breath Game: Bumblebee Breathing 10:33-12:50 Kindness Sentences to Say 12:51 – 15:16 Song: “If You Love Me Plant a Rose for Me” 15:17-16:05 Notable Healing Tools and Thank yous.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/notable-healing/donations

I'm so burnt out. Something by Malvina Reynolds.    Join Rosie and Carrie as they review minute 233 of the deplorable Zack Snyder's Justice League. 

Everything I love to hear that I couldn't squeeze in before: Malvina Reynolds, sacred harp, "Pear Bog Soldiers",,,on and on...

This morning’s show takes a free form journey across that long grey ribbon of America’s roots highways. We’ll be sharing a coast-to-coast collection of sounds including surf sounds, a tincture of Mose Allison, swamp gold from Cookie and the Cupcakes, folk sounds of Pete Seeger and Malvina Reynolds, forties pop sounds of Johnny Mercer, and highlights from a songwriter you may never have heard of but who made a profound impact across the board: John D. Loudermilk. dusty digital bins. Join Dave Stroud for an eclectic blend of classic soul, folk, rock, jazz, blues, and country on a Friday morning brought to you live from the KOWS studios in the heart of downtown Santa Rosa.

Dans cet épisode, Véro et Cédric nous parlent de Malvina Reynolds (Weeds) - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (le prince de Bel Air) - Frank Sinatra (Mariés deux enfants) - Dave Porter (Preacher) - Queen (Highlander) Chez Radio Localitiz, on parle très souvent musique entre nous. Tous styles de musiques, toutes époques, c'est tout le temps varié... Enfin ça dépend. Si on laisse trop Vero et Cédric parler ensemble ça devient vite « l'amicale des anciens combattants de la musicolatrie ». Mode « et tu te souviens de machin qui jouait dans tel groupe » et l'autre de répondre « ah oui je les ai vu dans telle salle, tu sais celle où le patron c'était bidule ».  Du coup, pour que vous ne ratiez rien de ces échanges (ok et aussi un peu pour avoir la paix lors de nos réunions) on leur a conseillé de faire Le Coin des Souvenirs Dans ce coin tout ce qui fait la vie d'un musicolâtre est à portée d'oreille, sans basculer pour autant dans le “c'était mieux avant”.  Souvenirs au téléphone, autour d'une table ou chez des amis à l'apéro, Vero et Cédric nous distillent des pépites et anecdotes dont vous nous direz des nouvelles. Et n'hésitez surtout pas à partager un souvenir qui vous hante, ces deux là en sont friands !!.  Le Coin des Souvenirs : https://www.radiolocalitiz.fr/le-coin-des-souvenirs/ Titres diffusés :  Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes : https://music.apple.com/fr/album/little-boxes/648682561?i=648682842 DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - The Fresh Prince of Bel Air  : https://music.apple.com/fr/album/the-fresh-prince-of-bel-air-theme-from-the-fresh-prince/206201734?i=206201765 Frank Sinatra - Love and Marriage : https://music.apple.com/fr/album/love-and-marriage/749752194?i=749752838 Dave Porter - Preacher Main Title Theme : https://music.apple.com/fr/album/preacher-main-title-theme-extended/1481284239?i=1481284240 Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever : https://music.apple.com/fr/album/who-wants-to-live-forever/1440821736?i=1440822383

This week the kids want to learn about Poop. So we dive right in... Interviews: Ian Kerr-Wilson, curator Museum of Steam and Technology guides us through "Sitting Pretty: the history of the toilet" Rodrigo Venturelli, Plan B Organic Farm talks about the closed-loop of poop Music: "A piece of pie," The Frantics, Boot To the Head. "The Faucets are dripping," Malvina Reynolds, The Best of Broadside. "25th Floor," Patti Smith, Easter. Poetry: "The Gardener" Shel Silverstein, Falling Up. Tech: Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko Randy Kay

This week's episode looks at "Needles and Pins", and the story of the second-greatest band to come out of Liverpool in the sixties, The Searchers. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Farmer John" by Don and Dewey. 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 No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many recordings by the Searchers.  My two main resources for this episode have been the autobiographies of members of the group -- Frank Allen's The Searchers and Me and Mike Pender's The Search For Myself.  All the Searchers tracks and Tony Jackson or Chris Curtis solo recordings excerpted here, except the live excerpt of "What'd I Say", can be found on this box set, which is out of print as a physical box, but still available digitally. For those who want a good budget alternative, though, this double-CD set contains fifty Searchers tracks, including all their hits, for under three pounds.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Last week we had a look at the biggest group ever to come out of Liverpool, and indeed the biggest group ever to play rock and roll music. But the Beatles weren't the only influential band on the Merseybeat scene, and while we won't have much chance to look at Merseybeat in general, we should at least briefly touch on the other bands from the scene. So today we're going to look at a band who developed a distinctive sound that would go on to be massively influential, even though they're rarely cited as an influence in the way some of their contemporaries are. We're going to look at The Searchers, and "Needles and Pins": [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] The story of the early origins of the Searchers is, like everything about the Searchers, the subject of a great deal of dispute. The two surviving original members of the group, John McNally and Mike Pender, haven't spoken to each other in thirty-six years, and didn't get on for many years before that, and there have been several legal disputes between them over the years. As a result, literally everything about the group's history has become a battlefield in their ongoing arguments. According to a book by Frank Allen, the group's bass player from 1964 on and someone who took McNally's side in the split and subsequent legal problems, McNally formed a skiffle group, which Mike Pender later joined, and was later joined first by Tony Jackson and then by a drummer then known as Chris Crummey, but who changed his name to the more euphonic Chris Curtis.  According to Pender, he never liked skiffle, never played skiffle, and "if McNally had a skiffle group, it must have been before I met him". He is very insistent on this point -- he liked country music, and later rock and roll, but never liked skiffle. According to him, he and McNally got together and formed a group that was definitely absolutely not in any way a skiffle group and wasn't led by McNally but was formed by both of them. That group split up, and then Pender became friends with Tony Jackson -- and he's very insistent that he became friends with Jackson during  a period when he didn't know McNally -- and the group reformed around the three of them, when McNally and Pender got back in touch. The origin of the group's name is similarly disputed. Everyone agrees that it came from the John Wayne film The Searchers -- the same film which had inspired the group's hero Buddy Holly to write "That'll Be The Day" -- but there is disagreement as to whose idea the name was. Pender claims that it was his idea, while McNally says that the name was coined by a singer named "Big Ron", who sang with the band for a bit before disappearing into obscurity. Big Ron's replacement was a singer named Billy Beck, who at the time he was with the Searchers used the stage name Johnny Sandon (though he later reverted to his birth name). The group performed as Johnny Sandon and The Searchers for two years, before Sandon quit the group to join the Remo Four, a group that was managed by Brian Epstein. Sandon made some records with the Remo Four in 1963, but they went nowhere, but they'll give some idea of how Sandon sounded: [Excerpt: Johnny Sandon and the Remo Four, "Lies"] The Remo Four later moved on to back Tommy Quickly, who we heard last week singing a song the Beatles wrote for him. With Sandon out of the picture, the group had no lead singer or frontman, and were in trouble -- they were known around Liverpool as Johnny Sandon's backing group, not as a group in their own right. They started splitting the lead vocals between themselves, but with Tony Jackson taking most of them. And, in a move which made them stand out, Chris Curtis moved his drum kit to the front line, started playing standing up, and became the group's front-man and second lead singer. Even at this point, though, there seemed to be cracks in the group. The Searchers were the most clean-living of the Liverpool bands -- they were all devout Catholics who would go to Mass every Sunday without fail, and seem to have never indulged in most of the vices that pretty much every other rock star indulged in. But Curtis and Jackson were far less so than Pender and McNally -- Jackson in particular was a very heavy drinker and known to get very aggressive when drunk, while Curtis was known as eccentric in other ways -- he seems to have had some sort of mental illness, though no-one's ever spoken about a diagnosis -- the Beatles apparently referred to him as "Mad Henry". Curtis and Jackson didn't get on with each other, and while Jackson started out as a close friend of Pender's, the two soon drifted apart, and by the time of their first recording sessions they appeared to most people to be a group of three plus one outsider, with Jackson not getting on well with any of the others. There was also a split in the band's musical tastes, but that would be the split that would drive much of their creativity. Pender and McNally were drawn towards softer music -- country and rockabilly, the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly -- while Jackson preferred harder, stomping, music. But it was Chris Curtis who took charge of the group's repertoire, and who was the group's unofficial leader. While the other band members had fairly mainstream musical tastes, it was Curtis who would seek out obscure R&B B-sides that he thought the group could make their own, by artists like The Clovers and Richie Barrett -- while many Liverpool groups played Barrett's "Some Other Guy", the Searchers would also play the B-side to that, "Tricky Dicky", a song written by Leiber and Stoller. Curtis also liked quite a bit of folk music, and would also get the group to perform songs by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary. The result of this combination of material and performers was that the Searchers ended up with a repertoire rooted in R&B, and a heavy rhythm section, but with strong harmony vocals inspired more by the Everlys than by the soul groups that were inspiring the other groups around Liverpool. Other than the Beatles, the Searchers were the best harmony group in Liverpool, and were the only other one to have multiple strong lead vocalists. Like the Beatles, the Searchers went off to play at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962. Recordings were made of their performances there, and their live version of Brenda Lee's "Sweet Nothin's" later got released as a single after they became successful: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sweet Nothin's"] Even as every talent scout in the country seemed to be turning up in Liverpool, and even bands from nearby Manchester were getting signed up in the hope of repeating the Beatles' success, the Searchers were having no luck getting any attention from the London music industry. In part that was because of one bit of bad luck -- the day that Brian Epstein turned up to see them, with the thought of maybe managing them, Tony Jackson was drunk and fell off the stage, and Epstein decided that he was going to give them a miss. As no talent scouts were coming to see them, they decided that they would record a demo session at the Iron Door, the club they regularly played, and send that out to A&R people. That demo session produced a full short album, which shows them at their stompiest and hardest-driving. Most of the Merseybeat bands sounded much more powerful in their earlier live performances than in the studio, and the Searchers were no exception, and it's interesting to compare the sound of these recordings to the studio ones from only a few months later: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Let's Stomp"] The group eventually signed to Pye Records. Pye was the third or fourth biggest record label in Britain at the time, but that was a relative matter -- EMI and Decca between them had something like eighty-five percent of the market, and basically *were* the record industry in Britain at the time. Pye was chronically underfunded, and when they signed an artist who managed to have any success, they would tend to push that artist to keep producing as many singles as possible, chasing trends, rather than investing in their long-term career survival. That said, they did have some big acts, most notably Petula Clark -- indeed the company had been formed from the merger of two other companies, one of which had been formed specifically to issue Clark's records. Clark was yet to have her big breakthrough hit in the USA, but she'd had several big hits in the UK, including the number one hit "Sailor": [Excerpt: Petula Clark, "Sailor"] The co-producer on that track had been Tony Hatch, a songwriter and producer who would go on to write and produce almost all of Clark's hit records. Hatch had a track record of hits -- we've heard several songs he was involved in over the course of the series. Most recently, we heard last week how "She Loves You" was inspired by "Forget Him", which Hatch wrote and produced for Bobby Rydell: [Excerpt: Bobby Rydell, "Forget Him"] Hatch heard the group's demo, and was impressed, and offered to sign them. The Searchers' manager at the time agreed, on one condition -- that Hatch also sign another band he managed, The Undertakers. Astonishingly, Hatch agreed, and so the Undertakers also got a record contract, and released several flop singles produced by Hatch, including this cover version of a Coasters tune: [Excerpt: The Undertakers, "What About Us?"] The biggest mark that the Undertakers would make on music would come many years later, when their lead singer Jackie Lomax would release a solo single, "Sour Milk Sea", which George Harrison wrote for him. The Searchers, on the other hand, made their mark immediately. The group's first single was a cover version of a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, which had been a top twenty hit in the US for the Drifters a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Sweets For My Sweet"] That had become a regular fixture in the Searchers' live set, with Tony Jackson singing lead and Chris Curtis singing the high backing vocal part in falsetto. In much the same way that the Beatles had done with "Twist and Shout", they'd flattened out the original record's Latin cha-cha-cha rhythm into a more straightforward thumping rocker for their live performances, as you can hear on their original demo version from the Iron Door sessions: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sweets For My Sweet (live at the Iron Door)"] As you can hear, they'd also misheard a chunk of the lyrics, and so instead of "your tasty kiss", Jackson sang "Your first sweet kiss". In the studio, they slowed the song down very slightly, and brought up the harmony vocal from Pender on the choruses, which on the demo he seems to have been singing off-mic. The result was an obvious hit: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sweets For My Sweet"] That went to number one, helped by an endorsement from John Lennon, who said it was the best record to come out of Liverpool, and launched the Searchers into the very top tier of Liverpool groups, their only real competition being the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers -- and though nobody could have known it at the time, the Pacemakers' career had already peaked at this point.  Their first album, Meet The Searchers, featured "Sweets For My Sweet", along with a selection of songs that mixed the standard repertoire of every Merseybeat band -- "Money", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Twist and Shout", "Stand By Me", and the Everly Brothers' "Since You Broke My Heart", with more obscure songs like "Ain't Gonna Kiss Ya", by the then-unknown P.J. Proby, "Farmer John" by Don and Dewey, which hadn't yet become a garage-rock standard (and indeed seems to have become so largely because of the Searchers' version), and a cover of "Love Potion #9", a song that Leiber and Stoller had written for the Clovers, which was not released as a single in the UK, but later became their biggest hit in the US (and a quick content note for this one -- the lyric contains a word for Romani people which many of those people regard as a slur): [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Love Potion #9"] Their second single was an attempt to repeat the "Sweets For My Sweet" formula, and was written by Tony Hatch, although the group didn't know that at the time. Hatch, like many producers of the time, was used to getting his artists to record his own songs, written under pseudonyms so the record label didn't necessarily realise this was what he was doing. In this case he brought the group a song that he claimed had been written by one "Fred Nightingale", and which he thought would be perfect for them. The song in question, "Sugar and Spice", was a blatant rip-off of "Sweets For My Sweet", and recorded in a near-identical arrangement: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sugar and Spice"] The group weren't keen on the song, and got very angry later on when they realised that Tony Hatch had lied to them about its origins, but the record was almost as big a hit as the first one, peaking at number two on the charts. But it was their third single that was the group's international breakthrough, and which both established a whole new musical style and caused the first big rift in the group. The song chosen for that third single was one they learned in Hamburg, from Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, a London group who had recorded a few singles with Joe Meek, like "You Got What I Like": [Excerpt: Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, "You Got What I Like"] The Rebel Rousers had picked up on a record by Jackie DeShannon, a singer-songwriter who had started up a writing partnership with Sharon Sheeley, the writer who had been Eddie Cochran's girlfriend and in the fatal car crash with him. The record they'd started covering live, though, was not one that DeShannon was the credited songwriter on. "Needles and Pins" was credited to two other writers, both of them associated with Phil Spector.  Sonny Bono was a young songwriter who had written songs at Specialty Records for people like Sam Cooke, Larry Williams, and Don and Dewey, and his most famous song up to this point was "She Said Yeah", the B-side to Williams' "Bad Boy": [Excerpt: Larry Williams, "She Said Yeah"] After working at Specialty, he'd gone on to work as Phil Spector's assistant, doing most of the hands-on work in the studio while Spector sat in the control room. While working with Spector he'd got to know Jack Nitzsche, who did most of the arrangements for Spector, and who had also had hits on his own like "The Lonely Surfer": [Excerpt: Jack Nitzsche, "The Lonely Surfer"] Bono and Nitzsche are the credited writers on "Needles and Pins", but Jackie DeShannon insists that she co-wrote the song with them, but her name was left off the credits. I tend to believe her -- both Nitzsche and Bono were, like their boss, abusive misogynist egomaniacs, and it's easy to see them leaving her name off the credits. Either way, DeShannon recorded the song in early 1963, backed by members of the Wrecking Crew, and it scraped into the lower reaches of the US Hot One Hundred, though it actually made number one in Canada: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "Needles and Pins"] Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers had been covering that song, and Chris Curtis picked up on it as an obvious hit. The group reshaped the song, and fixed the main flaw with DeShannon's original.  There's really only about ninety seconds' worth of actual song in "Needles and Pins", and DeShannon's version ends with a minute or so of vamping -- it sounds like it's still a written lyric, but it's full of placeholders where entire lines are "whoa-oh", the kind of thing that someone like Otis Redding could make sound great, but that didn't really work for her record. The Searchers tightened the song up and altered its dynamics -- instead of the middle eight leading to a long freeform section, they started the song with Mike Pender singing solo, and then on the middle eight they added a high harmony from Curtis, then just repeated the first verse and chorus, in the new key of C sharp, with Curtis harmonising this time: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins" (middle eight on)] The addition of the harmony gives the song some much-needed dynamic variation not present in DeShannon's version, while repeating the original verse after the key change, and adding in Curtis' high harmony, gives it an obsessive quality. The protagonist here is spiralling – he keeps thinking the same things over and over, at a higher and higher pitch, getting more and more desperate. It's a simple change, but one that improves the song immensely. Incidentally, one thing I should note here because it's not something I normally do -- in these excerpts of the Searchers' version of "Needles and Pins", I'm actually modifying the recording slightly. The mix used for the original single version of the song, which is what I'm excerpting here, is marred by an incredibly squeaky bass pedal on Chris Curtis' drumkit, which isn't particularly audible if you're listening to it on early sixties equipment, which had little dynamic range, but which on modern digital copies of the track overpowers everything else, to the point that the record sounds like that Monty Python sketch where someone plays a tune by hitting mice with hammers. Here's a couple of seconds of the unmodified track, so you can see what I mean: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] Most hits compilations have a stereo mix of the song, and have EQ'd it so that the squeaky bass pedal isn't noticeable, but I try wherever possible to use the mixes that people were actually listening to at the time, so I've compromised and used the mono mix but got rid of the squeaky frequencies, so you can hear the music I'm talking about rather than being distracted by the squeaks. Anyway, leaving the issue of nobody telling Chris Curtis to oil his pedals aside, the change in the structure of the song turned it from something a little baggy and aimless into a tight two-and-a-half minute pop song, but the other major change they made was emphasising the riff, and in doing so they inadvertently invented a whole new genre of music.  The riff in DeShannon's version is there, but it's just one element -- an acoustic guitar strumming through the chords. It's a good, simple, play-in-a-day riff -- you basically hold a chord down and then move a single finger at a time and you can get that riff -- and it's the backbone of the song, but there's also a piano, and horns, and the Blossoms singing: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "Needles and Pins"] But what the Searchers did was to take the riff and play it simultaneously on two electric guitars, and then added reverb. They also played the first part of the song in A, rather than the key of C which DeShannon's version starts in, which allowed the open strings to ring out more. The result came out sounding like an electric twelve-string, and soon both they and the Beatles would be regularly using twelve-string Rickenbackers to get the same sound: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] That record is the root of jangle-pop and folk-rock. That combination of jangling, reverb-heavy, trebly guitars and Everly Brothers inspired harmonies is one that leads directly to the Byrds, Love, Big Star, Tom Petty, REM, the Smiths, and the Bangles, among many others. While the Beatles were overall obviously the more influential group by a long way, "Needles and Pins" has a reasonable claim to be the most influential single track from the Merseybeat era. It went to number one in the UK, and became the group's breakthrough hit in the US, reaching number sixteen. The follow-up, "Don't Throw Your Love Away", a cover of a B-side by the Orlons, again featuring Pender on lead vocals and Curtis on harmonies, also made number one in the UK and the US top twenty, giving them a third number one out of four singles. But the next single, "Someday We're Gonna Love Again", a cover of a Barbara Lewis song, only made number eleven, and caused journalists to worry if the Searchers had lost their touch. There was even some talk in the newspapers that Mike Pender might leave the group and start a solo career, which he denied. As it turned out, one of the group's members was going to leave, but it wasn't Mike Pender. Tony Jackson had sung lead on the first two singles, and on the majority of the tracks on the first album, and he thus regarded himself as the group's lead singer. With Pender taking over the lead on the more recent hit singles, Jackson was being edged aside. By the third album, It's The Searchers, which included "Needles and Pins", Jackson was the only group member not to get a solo lead vocal -- even John McNally got one, while Jackson's only lead was an Everlys style close harmony with Mike Pender. Everything else was being sung by Pender or Curtis. Jackson was also getting involved in personality conflicts with the other band members -- at one point it actually got to the point that he and Pender had a fistfight on stage. Jackson was also not entirely keen on the group's move towards more melodic material. It's important to remember that the Searchers had started out as an aggressive, loud, R&B band, and they still often sounded like that on stage -- listen for example to their performance of "What'd I Say" at the NME poll-winners' party in April 1964, with Chris Curtis on lead vocals clearly showing why he had a reputation for eccentricity: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "What'd I Say (live)"] The combination of these musical differences and his feelings about having his place usurped meant that Jackson was increasingly getting annoyed at the other three band members. Eventually he left the group -- whether he was fired or quit depends on which version of the story you read -- and was replaced by Frank Allen of Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.  Jackson didn't take this replacement well, and publicly went round telling people that he had been pushed out of the band so that Curtis could get his boyfriend into the band, and there are some innuendoes to this effect in Mike Pender's autobiography -- although Allen denies that he and Curtis were in a relationship, and says that he doesn't actually know what Curtis' sexuality was, because they never discussed that kind of thing, and presumably Allen would know better than anyone else whether he was in a relationship with Curtis.  Curtis is widely described as having been gay or bi by his contemporaries, but if he was he never came out publicly, possibly due to his strong religious views. There's some suggestion, indeed, that one reason Jackson ended up out of the band was that he blackmailed the band, saying that he would publicly out Curtis if he didn't get more lead vocals. Whatever the truth, Jackson left the group, and his first solo single, "Bye Bye Baby", made number thirty-eight on the charts: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, "Bye Bye Baby"] However, his later singles had no success -- he was soon rerecording "Love Potion Number Nine" in the hope that that would be a UK chart success as it had been in the US: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, "Love Potion Number Nine"] Meanwhile, Allen was fitting in well with his new group, and it appeared at first that the group's run of hits would carry on uninterrupted without Jackson. The first single by the new lineup, "When You Walk In The Room", was a cover of another Jackie DeShannon song, this time written by DeShannon on her own, and originally released as a B-side: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "When You Walk In The Room"] The Searchers rearranged that, once again emphasising the riff from DeShannon's original, and by this time playing it on real twelve-strings, and adding extra compression to them. Their version featured a joint lead vocal by Pender and Allen: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "When You Walk In the Room"] Do you think the Byrds might have heard that? That went to number three on the charts. The next single was less successful, only making number thirteen, but was interesting in other ways -- from the start, as well as their R&B covers, Curtis had been adding folk songs to the group's repertoire, and there'd been one or two covers of songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" on their albums, but "What Have They Done to the Rain?" was the first one to become a single.  It was written by Malvina Reynolds, who was a socialist activist who only became a songwriter in her early fifties, and who also wrote "Morningtown Ride" and "Little Boxes". "What Have They Done to The Rain?" was a song written to oppose nuclear weapons testing, and Curtis had learned it from a Joan Baez album. Even though it wasn't as big a success as some of their other hits, given how utterly different it was from their normal style, and how controversial the subject was, getting it into the top twenty at all seems quite an achievement. [Excerpt: The Searchers, “What Have They Done To The Rain?”] Their next single, "Goodbye My Love", was their last top ten hit, and the next few singles only made the top forty, even when the Rolling Stones gave them "Take It Or Leave It". The other group members started to get annoyed at Curtis, who they thought had lost his touch at picking songs, and whose behaviour had become increasingly erratic. Eventually, on an Australian tour, they took his supply of uppers and downers, which he had been using as much to self-medicate as for enjoyment as far as I can tell, and flushed them down the toilet. When they got back to the UK, Curtis was out of the group. Their first single after Curtis' departure, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody", was given to them by the Hollies, who had originally written it as an Everly Brothers album track: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody"] Unfortunately for the Searchers, Chris Curtis had also heard the song, decided it was a likely hit, and had produced a rival version for Paul and Barry Ryan, which got rushed out to compete with it: [Excerpt: Paul and Barry Ryan, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody"] Neither single made the top forty, and the Searchers would never have a hit single again. Nor would Curtis. Curtis only released one solo single, "Aggravation", a cover of a Joe South song: [Excerpt: Chris Curtis, "Aggravation"] The musicians on that included Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Joe Moretti, but it didn't chart. Curtis then tried to form a band, which he named Roundabout, based on the concept that musicians could hop on or hop off at any point, with Curtis as the only constant member. The guitarist and keyboard player quickly decided that it would be more convenient for them if Curtis was the one to hop off, and without Curtis Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore went on to form Deep Purple. The Searchers didn't put out another album for six years after Curtis left. They kept putting out singles on various labels, but nothing came close to charting. Their one album between 1966 and 1979 was a collection of rerecordings of their old hits, in 1972. But then in 1979 Seymour Stein, the owner of Sire Records, a label which was having success with groups like the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders, was inspired by the Ramones covering "Needles and Pins" to sign the Searchers to a two-album deal, which produced records that fit perfectly into the late seventies New Wave pop landscape, while still sounding like the Searchers: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Hearts in Her Eyes"] Apparently during those sessions, Curtis, who had given up music and become a civil servant, would regularly phone the studio threatening to burn it down if he wasn't involved. Unfortunately, while those albums had some critical success, they did nothing commercially, and Sire dropped them. By 1985, the Searchers were at breaking point. They hadn't recorded any new material in several years, and Mike Pender and John McNally weren't getting on at all -- which was a particular problem as the two of them were now the only two members based in Liverpool, and so they had to travel to and from gigs together without the other band members -- the group were so poor that McNally and Pender had one car between the two of them. One of them would drive them both to the gig, the other would drive back to Liverpool and keep the car until the next gig, when they would swap over again. No-one except them knows what conversations they had on those long drives, but apparently they weren't amicable. Pender thought of himself as the star of the group, and he particularly resented that he had to split the money from the band three ways (the drummers the group got in after Curtis were always on a salary rather than full partners in the group). Pender decided that he could make more money by touring on his own but still doing essentially the same show, with hired backing musicians. Pender and the other Searchers eventually reached an agreement that he could tour as "Mike Pender's Searchers", so long as he made sure that all the promotional material put every word at the same size, while the other members would continue as The Searchers with a new singer. A big chunk of the autobiographies of both Pender and Allen are taken up with the ensuing litigation, as there were suits and countersuits over matters of billing which on the outside look incredibly trivial, but which of course mattered greatly to everyone involved -- there were now two groups with near-identical names, playing the same sets, in the same venues, and so any tiny advantage that one had was a threat to the other, to the extent that at one point there was a serious danger of Pender going to prison over their contractual disputes. The group had been earning very little money anyway, comparatively, and there was a real danger that the two groups undercutting each other might lead to everyone going bankrupt. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Pender still tours -- or at least has tour dates booked over the course of the next year -- and McNally and Allen's band continued playing regularly until 2019, and only stopped performing because of McNally's increasing ill health. Having seen both, Pender's was the better show -- McNally and Allen's lineup of the group relied rather too heavily on a rather cheesy sounding synthesiser for my tastes, while Pender stuck closer to a straight guitar/bass/drums sound -- but both kept audiences very happy for decades. Mike Pender was made an MBE in 2020, as a reward for his services to the music industry. Tony Jackson and Chris Curtis both died in the 2000s, and John McNally and Frank Allen are now in well-deserved retirement. While Allen and Pender exchanged pleasantries and handshakes at their former bandmates' funerals, McNally and Pender wouldn't even say hello to each other, and even though McNally and Allen's band has retired, there's still a prominent notice on their website that they own the name "The Searchers" and nobody else is allowed to use it. But every time you hear a jangly twelve-string electric guitar, you're hearing a sound that was originally created by Mike Pender and John McNally playing in unison, a sound that proved to be greater than any of its constituent parts.

This week’s episode looks at “Needles and Pins”, and the story of the second-greatest band to come out of Liverpool in the sixties, The Searchers. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on “Farmer John” by Don and Dewey. 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 No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many recordings by the Searchers.  My two main resources for this episode have been the autobiographies of members of the group — Frank Allen’s The Searchers and Me and Mike Pender’s The Search For Myself.  All the Searchers tracks and Tony Jackson or Chris Curtis solo recordings excerpted here, except the live excerpt of “What’d I Say”, can be found on this box set, which is out of print as a physical box, but still available digitally. For those who want a good budget alternative, though, this double-CD set contains fifty Searchers tracks, including all their hits, for under three pounds.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Last week we had a look at the biggest group ever to come out of Liverpool, and indeed the biggest group ever to play rock and roll music. But the Beatles weren’t the only influential band on the Merseybeat scene, and while we won’t have much chance to look at Merseybeat in general, we should at least briefly touch on the other bands from the scene. So today we’re going to look at a band who developed a distinctive sound that would go on to be massively influential, even though they’re rarely cited as an influence in the way some of their contemporaries are. We’re going to look at The Searchers, and “Needles and Pins”: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins”] The story of the early origins of the Searchers is, like everything about the Searchers, the subject of a great deal of dispute. The two surviving original members of the group, John McNally and Mike Pender, haven’t spoken to each other in thirty-six years, and didn’t get on for many years before that, and there have been several legal disputes between them over the years. As a result, literally everything about the group’s history has become a battlefield in their ongoing arguments. According to a book by Frank Allen, the group’s bass player from 1964 on and someone who took McNally’s side in the split and subsequent legal problems, McNally formed a skiffle group, which Mike Pender later joined, and was later joined first by Tony Jackson and then by a drummer then known as Chris Crummey, but who changed his name to the more euphonic Chris Curtis.  According to Pender, he never liked skiffle, never played skiffle, and “if McNally had a skiffle group, it must have been before I met him”. He is very insistent on this point — he liked country music, and later rock and roll, but never liked skiffle. According to him, he and McNally got together and formed a group that was definitely absolutely not in any way a skiffle group and wasn’t led by McNally but was formed by both of them. That group split up, and then Pender became friends with Tony Jackson — and he’s very insistent that he became friends with Jackson during  a period when he didn’t know McNally — and the group reformed around the three of them, when McNally and Pender got back in touch. The origin of the group’s name is similarly disputed. Everyone agrees that it came from the John Wayne film The Searchers — the same film which had inspired the group’s hero Buddy Holly to write “That’ll Be The Day” — but there is disagreement as to whose idea the name was. Pender claims that it was his idea, while McNally says that the name was coined by a singer named “Big Ron”, who sang with the band for a bit before disappearing into obscurity. Big Ron’s replacement was a singer named Billy Beck, who at the time he was with the Searchers used the stage name Johnny Sandon (though he later reverted to his birth name). The group performed as Johnny Sandon and The Searchers for two years, before Sandon quit the group to join the Remo Four, a group that was managed by Brian Epstein. Sandon made some records with the Remo Four in 1963, but they went nowhere, but they’ll give some idea of how Sandon sounded: [Excerpt: Johnny Sandon and the Remo Four, “Lies”] The Remo Four later moved on to back Tommy Quickly, who we heard last week singing a song the Beatles wrote for him. With Sandon out of the picture, the group had no lead singer or frontman, and were in trouble — they were known around Liverpool as Johnny Sandon’s backing group, not as a group in their own right. They started splitting the lead vocals between themselves, but with Tony Jackson taking most of them. And, in a move which made them stand out, Chris Curtis moved his drum kit to the front line, started playing standing up, and became the group’s front-man and second lead singer. Even at this point, though, there seemed to be cracks in the group. The Searchers were the most clean-living of the Liverpool bands — they were all devout Catholics who would go to Mass every Sunday without fail, and seem to have never indulged in most of the vices that pretty much every other rock star indulged in. But Curtis and Jackson were far less so than Pender and McNally — Jackson in particular was a very heavy drinker and known to get very aggressive when drunk, while Curtis was known as eccentric in other ways — he seems to have had some sort of mental illness, though no-one’s ever spoken about a diagnosis — the Beatles apparently referred to him as “Mad Henry”. Curtis and Jackson didn’t get on with each other, and while Jackson started out as a close friend of Pender’s, the two soon drifted apart, and by the time of their first recording sessions they appeared to most people to be a group of three plus one outsider, with Jackson not getting on well with any of the others. There was also a split in the band’s musical tastes, but that would be the split that would drive much of their creativity. Pender and McNally were drawn towards softer music — country and rockabilly, the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly — while Jackson preferred harder, stomping, music. But it was Chris Curtis who took charge of the group’s repertoire, and who was the group’s unofficial leader. While the other band members had fairly mainstream musical tastes, it was Curtis who would seek out obscure R&B B-sides that he thought the group could make their own, by artists like The Clovers and Richie Barrett — while many Liverpool groups played Barrett’s “Some Other Guy”, the Searchers would also play the B-side to that, “Tricky Dicky”, a song written by Leiber and Stoller. Curtis also liked quite a bit of folk music, and would also get the group to perform songs by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary. The result of this combination of material and performers was that the Searchers ended up with a repertoire rooted in R&B, and a heavy rhythm section, but with strong harmony vocals inspired more by the Everlys than by the soul groups that were inspiring the other groups around Liverpool. Other than the Beatles, the Searchers were the best harmony group in Liverpool, and were the only other one to have multiple strong lead vocalists. Like the Beatles, the Searchers went off to play at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962. Recordings were made of their performances there, and their live version of Brenda Lee’s “Sweet Nothin’s” later got released as a single after they became successful: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sweet Nothin’s”] Even as every talent scout in the country seemed to be turning up in Liverpool, and even bands from nearby Manchester were getting signed up in the hope of repeating the Beatles’ success, the Searchers were having no luck getting any attention from the London music industry. In part that was because of one bit of bad luck — the day that Brian Epstein turned up to see them, with the thought of maybe managing them, Tony Jackson was drunk and fell off the stage, and Epstein decided that he was going to give them a miss. As no talent scouts were coming to see them, they decided that they would record a demo session at the Iron Door, the club they regularly played, and send that out to A&R people. That demo session produced a full short album, which shows them at their stompiest and hardest-driving. Most of the Merseybeat bands sounded much more powerful in their earlier live performances than in the studio, and the Searchers were no exception, and it’s interesting to compare the sound of these recordings to the studio ones from only a few months later: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Let’s Stomp”] The group eventually signed to Pye Records. Pye was the third or fourth biggest record label in Britain at the time, but that was a relative matter — EMI and Decca between them had something like eighty-five percent of the market, and basically *were* the record industry in Britain at the time. Pye was chronically underfunded, and when they signed an artist who managed to have any success, they would tend to push that artist to keep producing as many singles as possible, chasing trends, rather than investing in their long-term career survival. That said, they did have some big acts, most notably Petula Clark — indeed the company had been formed from the merger of two other companies, one of which had been formed specifically to issue Clark’s records. Clark was yet to have her big breakthrough hit in the USA, but she’d had several big hits in the UK, including the number one hit “Sailor”: [Excerpt: Petula Clark, “Sailor”] The co-producer on that track had been Tony Hatch, a songwriter and producer who would go on to write and produce almost all of Clark’s hit records. Hatch had a track record of hits — we’ve heard several songs he was involved in over the course of the series. Most recently, we heard last week how “She Loves You” was inspired by “Forget Him”, which Hatch wrote and produced for Bobby Rydell: [Excerpt: Bobby Rydell, “Forget Him”] Hatch heard the group’s demo, and was impressed, and offered to sign them. The Searchers’ manager at the time agreed, on one condition — that Hatch also sign another band he managed, The Undertakers. Astonishingly, Hatch agreed, and so the Undertakers also got a record contract, and released several flop singles produced by Hatch, including this cover version of a Coasters tune: [Excerpt: The Undertakers, “What About Us?”] The biggest mark that the Undertakers would make on music would come many years later, when their lead singer Jackie Lomax would release a solo single, “Sour Milk Sea”, which George Harrison wrote for him. The Searchers, on the other hand, made their mark immediately. The group’s first single was a cover version of a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, which had been a top twenty hit in the US for the Drifters a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: The Drifters, “Sweets For My Sweet”] That had become a regular fixture in the Searchers’ live set, with Tony Jackson singing lead and Chris Curtis singing the high backing vocal part in falsetto. In much the same way that the Beatles had done with “Twist and Shout”, they’d flattened out the original record’s Latin cha-cha-cha rhythm into a more straightforward thumping rocker for their live performances, as you can hear on their original demo version from the Iron Door sessions: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sweets For My Sweet (live at the Iron Door)”] As you can hear, they’d also misheard a chunk of the lyrics, and so instead of “your tasty kiss”, Jackson sang “Your first sweet kiss”. In the studio, they slowed the song down very slightly, and brought up the harmony vocal from Pender on the choruses, which on the demo he seems to have been singing off-mic. The result was an obvious hit: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sweets For My Sweet”] That went to number one, helped by an endorsement from John Lennon, who said it was the best record to come out of Liverpool, and launched the Searchers into the very top tier of Liverpool groups, their only real competition being the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers — and though nobody could have known it at the time, the Pacemakers’ career had already peaked at this point.  Their first album, Meet The Searchers, featured “Sweets For My Sweet”, along with a selection of songs that mixed the standard repertoire of every Merseybeat band — “Money”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Twist and Shout”, “Stand By Me”, and the Everly Brothers’ “Since You Broke My Heart”, with more obscure songs like “Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya”, by the then-unknown P.J. Proby, “Farmer John” by Don and Dewey, which hadn’t yet become a garage-rock standard (and indeed seems to have become so largely because of the Searchers’ version), and a cover of “Love Potion #9”, a song that Leiber and Stoller had written for the Clovers, which was not released as a single in the UK, but later became their biggest hit in the US (and a quick content note for this one — the lyric contains a word for Romani people which many of those people regard as a slur): [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Love Potion #9”] Their second single was an attempt to repeat the “Sweets For My Sweet” formula, and was written by Tony Hatch, although the group didn’t know that at the time. Hatch, like many producers of the time, was used to getting his artists to record his own songs, written under pseudonyms so the record label didn’t necessarily realise this was what he was doing. In this case he brought the group a song that he claimed had been written by one “Fred Nightingale”, and which he thought would be perfect for them. The song in question, “Sugar and Spice”, was a blatant rip-off of “Sweets For My Sweet”, and recorded in a near-identical arrangement: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sugar and Spice”] The group weren’t keen on the song, and got very angry later on when they realised that Tony Hatch had lied to them about its origins, but the record was almost as big a hit as the first one, peaking at number two on the charts. But it was their third single that was the group’s international breakthrough, and which both established a whole new musical style and caused the first big rift in the group. The song chosen for that third single was one they learned in Hamburg, from Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, a London group who had recorded a few singles with Joe Meek, like “You Got What I Like”: [Excerpt: Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, “You Got What I Like”] The Rebel Rousers had picked up on a record by Jackie DeShannon, a singer-songwriter who had started up a writing partnership with Sharon Sheeley, the writer who had been Eddie Cochran’s girlfriend and in the fatal car crash with him. The record they’d started covering live, though, was not one that DeShannon was the credited songwriter on. “Needles and Pins” was credited to two other writers, both of them associated with Phil Spector.  Sonny Bono was a young songwriter who had written songs at Specialty Records for people like Sam Cooke, Larry Williams, and Don and Dewey, and his most famous song up to this point was “She Said Yeah”, the B-side to Williams’ “Bad Boy”: [Excerpt: Larry Williams, “She Said Yeah”] After working at Specialty, he’d gone on to work as Phil Spector’s assistant, doing most of the hands-on work in the studio while Spector sat in the control room. While working with Spector he’d got to know Jack Nitzsche, who did most of the arrangements for Spector, and who had also had hits on his own like “The Lonely Surfer”: [Excerpt: Jack Nitzsche, “The Lonely Surfer”] Bono and Nitzsche are the credited writers on “Needles and Pins”, but Jackie DeShannon insists that she co-wrote the song with them, but her name was left off the credits. I tend to believe her — both Nitzsche and Bono were, like their boss, abusive misogynist egomaniacs, and it’s easy to see them leaving her name off the credits. Either way, DeShannon recorded the song in early 1963, backed by members of the Wrecking Crew, and it scraped into the lower reaches of the US Hot One Hundred, though it actually made number one in Canada: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, “Needles and Pins”] Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers had been covering that song, and Chris Curtis picked up on it as an obvious hit. The group reshaped the song, and fixed the main flaw with DeShannon’s original.  There’s really only about ninety seconds’ worth of actual song in “Needles and Pins”, and DeShannon’s version ends with a minute or so of vamping — it sounds like it’s still a written lyric, but it’s full of placeholders where entire lines are “whoa-oh”, the kind of thing that someone like Otis Redding could make sound great, but that didn’t really work for her record. The Searchers tightened the song up and altered its dynamics — instead of the middle eight leading to a long freeform section, they started the song with Mike Pender singing solo, and then on the middle eight they added a high harmony from Curtis, then just repeated the first verse and chorus, in the new key of C sharp, with Curtis harmonising this time: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins” (middle eight on)] The addition of the harmony gives the song some much-needed dynamic variation not present in DeShannon’s version, while repeating the original verse after the key change, and adding in Curtis’ high harmony, gives it an obsessive quality. The protagonist here is spiralling – he keeps thinking the same things over and over, at a higher and higher pitch, getting more and more desperate. It’s a simple change, but one that improves the song immensely. Incidentally, one thing I should note here because it’s not something I normally do — in these excerpts of the Searchers’ version of “Needles and Pins”, I’m actually modifying the recording slightly. The mix used for the original single version of the song, which is what I’m excerpting here, is marred by an incredibly squeaky bass pedal on Chris Curtis’ drumkit, which isn’t particularly audible if you’re listening to it on early sixties equipment, which had little dynamic range, but which on modern digital copies of the track overpowers everything else, to the point that the record sounds like that Monty Python sketch where someone plays a tune by hitting mice with hammers. Here’s a couple of seconds of the unmodified track, so you can see what I mean: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins”] Most hits compilations have a stereo mix of the song, and have EQ’d it so that the squeaky bass pedal isn’t noticeable, but I try wherever possible to use the mixes that people were actually listening to at the time, so I’ve compromised and used the mono mix but got rid of the squeaky frequencies, so you can hear the music I’m talking about rather than being distracted by the squeaks. Anyway, leaving the issue of nobody telling Chris Curtis to oil his pedals aside, the change in the structure of the song turned it from something a little baggy and aimless into a tight two-and-a-half minute pop song, but the other major change they made was emphasising the riff, and in doing so they inadvertently invented a whole new genre of music.  The riff in DeShannon’s version is there, but it’s just one element — an acoustic guitar strumming through the chords. It’s a good, simple, play-in-a-day riff — you basically hold a chord down and then move a single finger at a time and you can get that riff — and it’s the backbone of the song, but there’s also a piano, and horns, and the Blossoms singing: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, “Needles and Pins”] But what the Searchers did was to take the riff and play it simultaneously on two electric guitars, and then added reverb. They also played the first part of the song in A, rather than the key of C which DeShannon’s version starts in, which allowed the open strings to ring out more. The result came out sounding like an electric twelve-string, and soon both they and the Beatles would be regularly using twelve-string Rickenbackers to get the same sound: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins”] That record is the root of jangle-pop and folk-rock. That combination of jangling, reverb-heavy, trebly guitars and Everly Brothers inspired harmonies is one that leads directly to the Byrds, Love, Big Star, Tom Petty, REM, the Smiths, and the Bangles, among many others. While the Beatles were overall obviously the more influential group by a long way, “Needles and Pins” has a reasonable claim to be the most influential single track from the Merseybeat era. It went to number one in the UK, and became the group’s breakthrough hit in the US, reaching number sixteen. The follow-up, “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”, a cover of a B-side by the Orlons, again featuring Pender on lead vocals and Curtis on harmonies, also made number one in the UK and the US top twenty, giving them a third number one out of four singles. But the next single, “Someday We’re Gonna Love Again”, a cover of a Barbara Lewis song, only made number eleven, and caused journalists to worry if the Searchers had lost their touch. There was even some talk in the newspapers that Mike Pender might leave the group and start a solo career, which he denied. As it turned out, one of the group’s members was going to leave, but it wasn’t Mike Pender. Tony Jackson had sung lead on the first two singles, and on the majority of the tracks on the first album, and he thus regarded himself as the group’s lead singer. With Pender taking over the lead on the more recent hit singles, Jackson was being edged aside. By the third album, It’s The Searchers, which included “Needles and Pins”, Jackson was the only group member not to get a solo lead vocal — even John McNally got one, while Jackson’s only lead was an Everlys style close harmony with Mike Pender. Everything else was being sung by Pender or Curtis. Jackson was also getting involved in personality conflicts with the other band members — at one point it actually got to the point that he and Pender had a fistfight on stage. Jackson was also not entirely keen on the group’s move towards more melodic material. It’s important to remember that the Searchers had started out as an aggressive, loud, R&B band, and they still often sounded like that on stage — listen for example to their performance of “What’d I Say” at the NME poll-winners’ party in April 1964, with Chris Curtis on lead vocals clearly showing why he had a reputation for eccentricity: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “What’d I Say (live)”] The combination of these musical differences and his feelings about having his place usurped meant that Jackson was increasingly getting annoyed at the other three band members. Eventually he left the group — whether he was fired or quit depends on which version of the story you read — and was replaced by Frank Allen of Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.  Jackson didn’t take this replacement well, and publicly went round telling people that he had been pushed out of the band so that Curtis could get his boyfriend into the band, and there are some innuendoes to this effect in Mike Pender’s autobiography — although Allen denies that he and Curtis were in a relationship, and says that he doesn’t actually know what Curtis’ sexuality was, because they never discussed that kind of thing, and presumably Allen would know better than anyone else whether he was in a relationship with Curtis.  Curtis is widely described as having been gay or bi by his contemporaries, but if he was he never came out publicly, possibly due to his strong religious views. There’s some suggestion, indeed, that one reason Jackson ended up out of the band was that he blackmailed the band, saying that he would publicly out Curtis if he didn’t get more lead vocals. Whatever the truth, Jackson left the group, and his first solo single, “Bye Bye Baby”, made number thirty-eight on the charts: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, “Bye Bye Baby”] However, his later singles had no success — he was soon rerecording “Love Potion Number Nine” in the hope that that would be a UK chart success as it had been in the US: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, “Love Potion Number Nine”] Meanwhile, Allen was fitting in well with his new group, and it appeared at first that the group’s run of hits would carry on uninterrupted without Jackson. The first single by the new lineup, “When You Walk In The Room”, was a cover of another Jackie DeShannon song, this time written by DeShannon on her own, and originally released as a B-side: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, “When You Walk In The Room”] The Searchers rearranged that, once again emphasising the riff from DeShannon’s original, and by this time playing it on real twelve-strings, and adding extra compression to them. Their version featured a joint lead vocal by Pender and Allen: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “When You Walk In the Room”] Do you think the Byrds might have heard that? That went to number three on the charts. The next single was less successful, only making number thirteen, but was interesting in other ways — from the start, as well as their R&B covers, Curtis had been adding folk songs to the group’s repertoire, and there’d been one or two covers of songs like “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” on their albums, but “What Have They Done to the Rain?” was the first one to become a single.  It was written by Malvina Reynolds, who was a socialist activist who only became a songwriter in her early fifties, and who also wrote “Morningtown Ride” and “Little Boxes”. “What Have They Done to The Rain?” was a song written to oppose nuclear weapons testing, and Curtis had learned it from a Joan Baez album. Even though it wasn’t as big a success as some of their other hits, given how utterly different it was from their normal style, and how controversial the subject was, getting it into the top twenty at all seems quite an achievement. [Excerpt: The Searchers, “What Have They Done To The Rain?”] Their next single, “Goodbye My Love”, was their last top ten hit, and the next few singles only made the top forty, even when the Rolling Stones gave them “Take It Or Leave It”. The other group members started to get annoyed at Curtis, who they thought had lost his touch at picking songs, and whose behaviour had become increasingly erratic. Eventually, on an Australian tour, they took his supply of uppers and downers, which he had been using as much to self-medicate as for enjoyment as far as I can tell, and flushed them down the toilet. When they got back to the UK, Curtis was out of the group. Their first single after Curtis’ departure, “Have You Ever Loved Somebody”, was given to them by the Hollies, who had originally written it as an Everly Brothers album track: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Have You Ever Loved Somebody”] Unfortunately for the Searchers, Chris Curtis had also heard the song, decided it was a likely hit, and had produced a rival version for Paul and Barry Ryan, which got rushed out to compete with it: [Excerpt: Paul and Barry Ryan, “Have You Ever Loved Somebody”] Neither single made the top forty, and the Searchers would never have a hit single again. Nor would Curtis. Curtis only released one solo single, “Aggravation”, a cover of a Joe South song: [Excerpt: Chris Curtis, “Aggravation”] The musicians on that included Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Joe Moretti, but it didn’t chart. Curtis then tried to form a band, which he named Roundabout, based on the concept that musicians could hop on or hop off at any point, with Curtis as the only constant member. The guitarist and keyboard player quickly decided that it would be more convenient for them if Curtis was the one to hop off, and without Curtis Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore went on to form Deep Purple. The Searchers didn’t put out another album for six years after Curtis left. They kept putting out singles on various labels, but nothing came close to charting. Their one album between 1966 and 1979 was a collection of rerecordings of their old hits, in 1972. But then in 1979 Seymour Stein, the owner of Sire Records, a label which was having success with groups like the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders, was inspired by the Ramones covering “Needles and Pins” to sign the Searchers to a two-album deal, which produced records that fit perfectly into the late seventies New Wave pop landscape, while still sounding like the Searchers: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Hearts in Her Eyes”] Apparently during those sessions, Curtis, who had given up music and become a civil servant, would regularly phone the studio threatening to burn it down if he wasn’t involved. Unfortunately, while those albums had some critical success, they did nothing commercially, and Sire dropped them. By 1985, the Searchers were at breaking point. They hadn’t recorded any new material in several years, and Mike Pender and John McNally weren’t getting on at all — which was a particular problem as the two of them were now the only two members based in Liverpool, and so they had to travel to and from gigs together without the other band members — the group were so poor that McNally and Pender had one car between the two of them. One of them would drive them both to the gig, the other would drive back to Liverpool and keep the car until the next gig, when they would swap over again. No-one except them knows what conversations they had on those long drives, but apparently they weren’t amicable. Pender thought of himself as the star of the group, and he particularly resented that he had to split the money from the band three ways (the drummers the group got in after Curtis were always on a salary rather than full partners in the group). Pender decided that he could make more money by touring on his own but still doing essentially the same show, with hired backing musicians. Pender and the other Searchers eventually reached an agreement that he could tour as “Mike Pender’s Searchers”, so long as he made sure that all the promotional material put every word at the same size, while the other members would continue as The Searchers with a new singer. A big chunk of the autobiographies of both Pender and Allen are taken up with the ensuing litigation, as there were suits and countersuits over matters of billing which on the outside look incredibly trivial, but which of course mattered greatly to everyone involved — there were now two groups with near-identical names, playing the same sets, in the same venues, and so any tiny advantage that one had was a threat to the other, to the extent that at one point there was a serious danger of Pender going to prison over their contractual disputes. The group had been earning very little money anyway, comparatively, and there was a real danger that the two groups undercutting each other might lead to everyone going bankrupt. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Pender still tours — or at least has tour dates booked over the course of the next year — and McNally and Allen’s band continued playing regularly until 2019, and only stopped performing because of McNally’s increasing ill health. Having seen both, Pender’s was the better show — McNally and Allen’s lineup of the group relied rather too heavily on a rather cheesy sounding synthesiser for my tastes, while Pender stuck closer to a straight guitar/bass/drums sound — but both kept audiences very happy for decades. Mike Pender was made an MBE in 2020, as a reward for his services to the music industry. Tony Jackson and Chris Curtis both died in the 2000s, and John McNally and Frank Allen are now in well-deserved retirement. While Allen and Pender exchanged pleasantries and handshakes at their former bandmates’ funerals, McNally and Pender wouldn’t even say hello to each other, and even though McNally and Allen’s band has retired, there’s still a prominent notice on their website that they own the name “The Searchers” and nobody else is allowed to use it. But every time you hear a jangly twelve-string electric guitar, you’re hearing a sound that was originally created by Mike Pender and John McNally playing in unison, a sound that proved to be greater than any of its constituent parts.

This song has an important message about love.

Episode 392 also includes an E.W. Essay titled "Heart." We share two poems by Argentinian Writer Jorge Luis Borges titled "Music Box" and "A Compass." We have an E.W. poem called " Soul."  Our music this go round is provided by these wonderful artists: Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grapelli, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Malvina Reynolds, Zaz, Rin', Todd Rundgren & Rivers Cuomo, Future Island, Branford Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard.  Commercial Free, Small Batch Radio Crafted within the West Mountain Range of Northeastern Pennsylvania... Heard All Over The World. Tell Your Friends and Neighbors...

I stumble. You stumble. We all stumble. May we learn the fine art of forgiveness. Chalice Lighting Words by Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro, Read by Stephen Downen & Reverend Amy KindredMusic "O What a Piece of Work Are We" Words by Malvina Reynolds,Melody by Charles H. Webb. (From Singing the Living Tradition, Unitarian Universalist Association, 1993) Verse One: O what a piece of work are we, how marvelously wrought, the quick contrivance of the hand, the wonder of our thought, the wonder of our thought. Verse Two: Why need to look for miracles outside of nature's law? Humanity we wonder at with every breath we draw, with every breath we draw. Verse Three: But give us room to move and grow, but give our spirit play, and we can make a world of light out of the common clay, out of the common clay.Keyboard Amy RosebushVoice Stephen DownenMessage The Reverend Amy KindredClosing Words by Orlando Brugnola, Read by Amy Rosebush.Dear Listener,Do you love what you hear? Go to uuffpspacecoast.org and show us some love by donating online. Signed, Gratitude Always

"Little boxes on the hillside. Little boxes made of ticky tacky. Little boxes on the hillside. Little boxes all the same. There’s a pink one, and a green one, and a blue one and a yellow one. And they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.And the people in the houses all went to the university, where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same. And there's doctors and lawyers and business executives, and they're all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same."That's the first part of the song "Little Boxes," written by Berkeley alumna and political activist Malvina Reynolds in 1962. In the first episode of a new campus podcast — the Berkeley Podcast for Music — professor Nicholas Mathew talks with Reynolds' daughter, Nancy Schimmel, as well as Berkeley professors Margaret Crawford from architecture, Timothy Hampton from French and comparative literature and Maria Sonevytsky from music. They discuss Reynolds' life, music, activism and the contested politics of her most famous song "Little Boxes" — a satire of suburban conformity inspired by the 1960s housing developments in Daly City.Listen to the episode and read a transcript on Berkeley News. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 1, presented by Nicholas Mathew. Remembering the singer and political activist Malvina Reynolds, the former Berkeleyan who would have turned 120 this month. We discuss her life, music, and activism, as well as the contested politics of her most famous song, "Little Boxes" -- a satire of suburban conformity inspired by the sixties housing developments around Daly City. Featuring Reynolds' daughter Nancy Schimmel (also a former Berkeleyan), Professor Margaret Crawford from Architecture, Professor Timothy Hampton from French and Comparative Literature, and Professor Maria Sonevytsky from Music. Suggested reading and listening: This blog by Nancy Schimmel about her mother's life and work http://www.malvinareynolds.com/ Malvina Reynolds singing "Little Boxes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs Peter Seeger singing "Little Boxes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-sQSp5jbSQ Margaret Crawford's Everyday Urbanism https://www.monacellipress.com/book/?isbn=9781580932011&csrt=5224477157824831410 and Building the Working Man's Paradise https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/232614/building-the-workingmans-paradise-by-margaret-crawford/ Timothy Hampton's book on Bob Dylan's Poetics https://www.zonebooks.org/books/134-bob-dylan-how-the-songs-work Maria Sonevytsky's Wild Music https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/wild-music-sonevytsky/

In a slight digression from the usual Bunkering I have recorded a new show exploring the figure of the ‘Outsider’ in music, in the term's broader sense. At first I focused on unusual tales: psychic composers, self professed extraterrestrials and diy instrument makers, however came to consider the Outsider as also describing figures who were marginalised: exiles, nomads and the oppressed. At the end of this collation I felt unsure about grouping together people who are 'different', but hope the compression of all these alternative visions inspires some fresh perspectives. This programme was originally produced in a shorter format for Angel Radio down in Havant, which has a pre-1964 license, hence the focus on pre-Beatles artists. Featuring: Joe Meek, Rosemary Brown, Sun Ra, Vince Taylor, Screaming Lord Sutch, Lord Buckley, Jack Kerouac, Connie Converse, eden ahbez, Moondog, John Fahey, Washington Phillips, Bunker Hill, Link Wray, Chiyo Ishii, Chiyo and the Crescents, Dorothy Ashby, Rae Bourbon, Hasil Adkins, Sophie Tucker, Lydia Mendoza, Tejano Music, Hafize Leskovicu, Albanian Saze Music, Shin Joong Hyeon, The Cherry Sisters, Songs in the Key of Z, Irwin Chusid, Leona Anderson, Robert Graettinger, Raymond Scott, Ivor Cutler, Malvina Reynolds

Both girls saw the big black house behind the big black gates and started shouting in excitement: Fernie, because she loved the idea of living in a haunted house, and Pearlie because she loved the idea of living in any house that was black and mysterious...   Invite your shadow along to book club for gothic middle grade adventure "Gustav Gloom and the People Taker" written by Adam-Troy Castro and illustrated by Kristen Margiotta. It's the spooky, silly story of Fernie, our plucky heroine; Gustav, who might be the loneliest boy in the world; and a crazy night in a house full of shadows (and a monster or two).    Share your thoughts, suggest a read, or guest-host an episode - drop me a line at spookysistersbookclub@gmail.com, and stay safe out there, spooky friends! -- * Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod * Additional sound effects from zapsplat.com and music clips by Alan Silvestri and Malvina Reynolds

This week we discuss state/church victories and defeats in Florida, Kentucky and Colorado, and celebrate the lives of February freethinkers such as NAACP founder W. E. B. Du Bois and actor Tony Randall. After hearing folksinger Malvina Reynolds sing about "This World," we talk with Swedish-born Yale professor Martin Hägglund about his book This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom, in which he explains that the concept of eternity destroys true meaning and value.

La chanson du générique de Weeds est interprétée par Malvina Reynolds. L'interprète est une chanteuse populaire américaine née en 1900, activiste politique, et ce choix est succulent. Tel un disque qui déraille, cette chanson met en exergue une société conformiste pathétique qui foire... Cet article Weeds est paru en primeur sur AFDS.tv - Aux Frontières Des Séries.

Across the country, cities big and small are facing a housing affordability crisis, yet many single-family houses sit vacant. Many of the same cities have serious infrastructure funding shortages. We examine the role of single-family zoning in shaping these issues and more—and we explore why there is momentum building to re-legalize other housing types, such as duplexes and fourplexes. "Are We Doing This Right?" is our new podcast series where we dig deeper into an issue that affects cities across North America, bust (or uphold) a few myths, set some context, and give our frank opinions about whether or not we could be doing things better. (Hint: we usually think we could be doing things better than we currently are, but we always try to find examples of places that already are doing a good job.) Your hosts for this episode: Jordan Clark & AJ Fawver. -- The Go Cultivate! podcast is a project of Verdunity. Find more about this and other episodes (and our blog) at verdunity.com/go-cultivate. You can also find us on social media. Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn -- (Music in this episode is from No Future, Custodian of Records, & Malvina Reynolds.) verdunity.com/podcast/episode-35

Daddy’s In The Jail by Malvina Reynolds, Cutting Incarceration, Jury Duty, Community Health Centers, Patagonia, Gymboree, Perseverance Porn, Living Wage Fight, On Civility, Way Too Many People Like the World The Way It Is by Joe Solo Bernie-2020.com twitch.tv/unrelatedthings #Bernie2020

It's all right, it's all right, If you're righteous it's all right, Tho you've had your hands in blood up to the elbow; You can always wash them clean with Boraxo. -Boraxo by Malvina Reynolds Watch Over Them | Ms. Dynamite : Peace Not War [Disc 2] You Turn the Screws | Cake : Prolonging the Magic Santo Domingo | Phil Ochs : There But For Fortune Chile, Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto | Billy Bragg : Help Save the Youth of America Kinky Sex Makes the World Go 'Round | Dead Kennedys : Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death The Panama Deception | Anti-Flag : The Underground Network Cuba and Chile | Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, Victor Jara, Joan Jara & Fernando Alegria : The Roots of Resistance: Selected Highlights from the Freedom Archives, Vol. 1 We Hate to See Them Go | Malvina Reynolds : Another Country Heard from Boraxo | Malvina Reynolds : Malvina Reynolds D.D.T. | Malvina Reynolds : Malvina Reynolds What's Goin' On Down There | Malvina Reynolds : Sings the Truth Seasons | Rebel Diaz : Buy This Fracking Album OUR REVOLUTION!!!!, BERNIE SANDERS 2020 THEME SONG!!! | Tony Tig : - polyrical.com #politicalmusic twitch.tv/unrelatedthings

Animals are people, too. Overrated Grammy winning songs. Get your tickets for Matt Woods here! Music in this episode: Charles Wesley Godwin - “Pour It On” (Seneca) Hayes Carll - Times Like These (Times Like These/Be There 7”) Elise Davis -- “33” AND “Married Young” (Cactus) Jared & The Mill - “Broken Bird” AND “Dark Highways” (This Story Is No Longer Available) “It Isn’t Nice” by Malvina Reynolds AND “Zuni Rain Dance” (The Social Power of Music) The Southern Gothic - “16 Bars” AND “Hang My Head” (New Hometown) Songs of Our Native Daughters - “Quasheba, Quasheba” AND “Mama’s Cryin’ Long” (Songs of Our Native Daughters) Tylor & The Train Robbers - “Lost and Lonely Miles” AND “Before It’s Too Late” (Best Of The Worst Kind) Brandon Stansell - “Hometown” (Slow Down) Josh Ritter - “Old Black Magic” (Fever Breaks) Rachel wrote a comic! Check it out here! Send us music via SubmitHub. Send us money via Ko-fi or Patreon. Contact Von via linktr.ee/vonreviews and say hi to Rachel on Twitter @adobeteardrops

FFRF’s lead attorney Rebecca Markert tells us about our recent victory by the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, who refused to rehear their decision declaring unconstitutional the practice of the Chino Hills (California) School Board opening sessions with prayer. After hearing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declare that Christians should fight marriage equality "until the Rapture," we listen to folksinger Malvina Reynolds perform "This World." Then we speak with Nigerian activist and scholar Leo Igwe, who tells us about next week's humanism convention in Abuja, "Leaving Religion: Risks, Challenges and Opportunities," and the dangers nonbelievers face in that country.

Compelled by recent anti-SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) education in classrooms by candidate for Burnaby School District, Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson (@LauraLynnTT), Andrew Willis ditches the usual show format to devote an entire episode to highlighting the benefits of SOGI 123 in minimizing transgender discrimination. Music by Malvina Reynolds and David Bowie.

Mister and Height Keech talk Malvina Reynolds, Run-DMC and The Four Tops.

Nobody Knows features the voice of Nobody, with sound design by Somebody. Ann Stromgren asked the question. Somebody listens to Malvina Reynolds records when Nobody is around. Go find Malvina's song "The Little Mouse" to get the story straight.

Under 1960- och 70-talen ändrade flera kvinnliga singer/songwriters fokus i sina texter; från de privata erfarenheterna till de mer övergripande. Andra gav sig in i en starkt kommersiell musikbransch. Titeln Skuggor och ljus kommer från Joni Mitchells komposition Shadows and Light från 1976. I singer/songwriter-genren har kvinnor tagit sig stor plats. Med hjälp av musiken steg kvinnor och kvinnliga erfarenheter, tankar, känslor och kamp ut ur skuggorna och in i ljuset på musikscenerna. Nina Simone kämpade för de svartas medborgerliga rättigheter, Malvina Reynolds skrev sånger mot kärnvapen och miljöförstöring, Buffy Sainte-Marie arbetade för indianernas rätt till sin mark och ett värdigt liv, Peggy Seeger och Frankie Armstrong för kvinnors rättigheter. Bredvid de alternativa politiska scenerna jobbade mainstream-artister med en helt annan kommersiell uppbackning: Dolly Parton, Melanie Safka, Judy Collins och Carol King. Kvinnliga singer/songwriters blev en dörröppnare för många kvinnor in i en kommersiell musikbransch. Del 2 av 4.   Spellista: Shadows And Light   Joni Mitchell Joni Mitchell The Last Waltz Rhino 81227827823  Wild Women dont have the Blues Ida Cox Ida Cox (sång), Coleman Hawkins (tsax) Roy Eldridge (trp), m fl. Blues for Rampart Street Fantasy / Riverside Mississippi Goddam Nina Simone Nina Simone, m fl The Best Of Nina Simone PolyGram Records 822 846-2 Four Women Nina Simone Nina Simone The Best Of Nina Simone PolyGram Records 822 846-2 What Have They Done To The Rain Malvina Reynolds Marianne Faithfull  The Very Best Of Marianne Faithfull  DECCA LONDON 820 482-2 Little Boxes Malvina Reynolds Malvina Reynolds Washington Square Memoirs: Urban Folk (1950-1970) (Disc 1) RHINO R2 74264 Starwalker Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie Up Where We Belong Angel 7243 8 35059 2 0   Universal Soldier Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie Up Where We Belong Angel 7243 8 35059 2 0 Im Gonna Be an Engineer Peggy Seeger Peggy Seeger Period Pieces: Womens Songs for Men & Women Tradition TCD 1078 Ways Of Seeing Frankie Armstrong Frankie Armstrong Ways Of Seeing HARBOUR Records HARCD 009 Shall There Be Womanly Times Frankie Armstrong Frankie Armstrong Ways Of Seeing HARBOUR Records HARCD 009 What Have They Done To My Song Ma? Melanie Melanie Safka The Very Best of Melanie CAMDEN 74321 558502 Jolene Dolly Parton Dolly Parton m fl. Jolene Buddha Records Coal Miners Daughter Loretta Lynn Loretta Lynn Coal Miners Daughter: Live Country Stars (Holland) My Father Judy Collins Judy Collins The Very Best Of Judy Collins Elektra / Wea Will You Love Me Tomorrow Carole King The Shirelles  Will You Love Me Tomorrow Castle Music UK

In this week's “Life Together” podcast, Marianne leads off a discussion of an article about joy: who needs it? We discuss some practical ways to have joy together. Next, Bernard clarifies how, as a moneyless pauper under a vow of poverty, he would go about procuring a particular book that he wants. Following updates on what's happening around various Bruderhof communities there is an interview with Sir Paul Coleridge on marriage and family. Finally, as we continue our discussion of our spiritual forerunners, we ponder the importance of Thomas a Kempis and Meister Eckhardt. Here are the articles, books, film, and music mentioned in this podcast: * “The Right Needs Joy” by Felix Miller - https://jacobitemag.com/2017/09/03/the-right-needs-joy/ * G.K. Chesterton's “Father Brown” books - http://a.co/ccz8y2C * “The Two Voices” by Tennyson - http://www.online-literature.com/tennyson/the-early-poems/65/ * “The Gospel in George MacDonald” - https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/literature/the-gospel-in-george-macdonald * “The Shepherd” of Hermas - http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/shepherd-lightfoot.html * “This Is My Father's World” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIBNWZmb6y8 * Marriage Foundation - http://marriagefoundation.org.uk/ * Interview with Robert P. George about marriage - https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/marriage/marriage-can-we-have-justice-without-it * “Cheap Sex” by Mark Regnerus - https://www.amazon.com/Cheap-Sex-Transformation-Marriage-Monogamy/dp/0190673613 * “Forerunners” from “Foundations of our Faith and Calling” - http://www.bruderhof.com/en/our-faith/foundations/heritage/forerunners * G.K. Chesterton's “The Man Who Was Thursday” - http://a.co/5k6vq3i * Meister Eckhardt on Plough.com - https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/discipleship/on-inner-detachment * “Remarriage Is Adultery Unless. . .“ by David Pawson - http://a.co/hpRR9Xu * “God Bless the Grass” by Malvina Reynolds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRxvaVhVN7A * “Milwaukee 53206” film - https://www.milwaukee53206.com/ * Bruderhof.com blog post about Derrick Jamison - http://www.bruderhof.com/en/voices-blog/justice/ninety-minutes-to-live Rate us and leave us a comment on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out the Bruderhof's website at http://www.bruderhof.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thebruderhof Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheBruderhof Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/bruderhofcommunities Email: contact@bruderhof.com

For a change of pace while Annie Laurie and Dan are busy with FFRF’s 40th annual convention, FFRF’s Director of First Impressions Lisa Treu hosts this week’s show featuring music by strong women. Marlene Dietrich, Shelley Segal, Joan Baez, Peggy Seeger, Malvina Reynolds, Kristin Lems, Lena Horne, Ani DiFranco, and more, singing about evolution, equality, the (non)afterlife, peace, Eve, and life as a freethinking woman.

Troubadours and Raconteurs... Baby it's cold outside in my neck of the woods. I hope you are feeling warm inside and out wherever you are at the moment. We have for your listening pleasure Episode 218 of "Troubadours and Raconteurs with E.W. Conundrum Demure" Heard All Over The World. This week's sixty minutes includes an EW Essay titled "Today We Change." Our featured guest this week is NYC Blues Hall of Fame Inductee and Grammy Award Nominee Clarence Spady. We discuss his Early Years, How He Found Music, His Influences, The Cosmic Connection He Seeks With a Live Audience, The Creative Process, Getting Through Some Difficult Times, Touring, Music as a Catharsis, and the Role of An Artist In Society. We share another superb essay written and read by Dr. Michael Pavese (aka Uncle Cesare) titled "The Latin Quarter." We also share a poem called "Sleigh Riding on Old Coal." This week's music is provided by these wonderful artists: Malvina Reynolds, Clarence Spady, Willie Nelson, Beth Orton, Branford Marsalis, and Terrence Blanchard. Commercial Free, Community Radio at its Finest. Share this episode with whomever you choose. Episode 218 of "Troubadours and Raconteurs with E.W. Conundrum Demure" Heard All Over The World. Tell your Friends and Neighbors... A new episode of "Troubadours & Raconteurs with EW Conundrum Demure..." debuts every Sunday. Get Some T n R whenever you want, wherever you are... Also, become a friend via facebook - Freespeakandsome Withewconundrum. Follow us on Twitter @FreespeakWit. FreeSpeak and Some Radio and our program "Troubadours & Raconteurs with EW Conundrum Demure" - Community Radio at its finest.

An all ukulele tribute to American folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger.

3. Morningtown Ride (Popular Australian children’s song made famous by The Seekers)Written by Malvina Reynolds, Amadeo Music, ASCAP Train whistle blowin’ makes asleepy noise, Underneath the blankets are all the girls and boys. Rockin’rollin’ ridin’ out along the bay, all bound for morning town many miles away. Driver at the engine, fireman rings the bell, sandman swings the lantern toshow that all is well. Rockin’ rollin’ ridin’ out along the bay, all bound for morning town many miles away. Maybe it is raining, when our train will ride, all the little travelers are warm and snug inside. Rockin’ rollin’ ridin’ outalong the bay, all bound for morning town many miles away. Somewhere there is sunshine, somewhere there is day, somewhere there is morning town many miles away. Rockin’ rollin’ ridin’ out along the bay, all bound for morning town many miles away. 更多内容，关注Anna老师亲子英语微课 个人微信:15942686862； ...

This week, Josh digs deep into Malvina Reynolds' life and work, specifically her second album, 1967's Malvina Reynolds...Sings the Truth!

The Soul as Inner Connection The late Malvina Reynolds, a Bay Area Unitarian activist and singer-songwriter, once wrote a prose piece she called her “Soul Book,” arguing that the soul is something we acquire in the course of living rather than something inherent. Whether you believe the soul exists or not, is inherent or acquired, we hope you’ll find your own soul expanded by the reflection offered by Ben Bear.   Rev. John Buehrens,Senior Minister Ben Bear, Worship Associate Dr. Mark Sumner, Music Director Reiko Oda Lane, organist Wm. García Ganz, piano Gayle Reynolds, Vice Moderator Jonathan Silk, OOS, Sound & Worship Archives/Podcast

The Soul as Inner Connection The late Malvina Reynolds, a Bay Area Unitarian activist and singer-songwriter, once wrote a prose piece she called her “Soul Book,” arguing that the soul is something we acquire in the course of living rather than something inherent. Whether you believe the soul exists or not, is inherent or acquired, we hope you’ll find your own soul expanded by the reflection offered by Ben Bear.   Rev. John Buehrens,Senior Minister Ben Bear, Worship Associate Dr. Mark Sumner, Music Director Reiko Oda Lane, organist Wm. García Ganz, piano Gayle Reynolds, Vice Moderator Jonathan Silk, OOS, Sound & Worship Archives/Podcast

The great Unitarian minister A. Powell Davies reportedly said that "Life is just a chance to grow a  soul." Another Unitarian, the Bay Area's own poet-songwriter-activist, Malvina Reynolds, wrote a prose poem she called "The Soul Book." Come, join us in exploring what it might really mean to "grow a soul." Rev. John Buehrens, Senior Minister Cindy Pincus, Intern Minister Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director Reiko Oda Lane, Organ Kerry Parker, Sopranos Soloist Margaret Pearce, Welcome Jonathan Silk, Sound, Order of Service & Worship Archives/Podcast

The great Unitarian minister A. Powell Davies reportedly said that "Life is just a chance to grow a  soul." Another Unitarian, the Bay Area's own poet-songwriter-activist, Malvina Reynolds, wrote a prose poem she called "The Soul Book." Come, join us in exploring what it might really mean to "grow a soul." Rev. John Buehrens, Senior Minister Cindy Pincus, Intern Minister Dr. Mark Sumner, Choir Director Reiko Oda Lane, Organ Kerry Parker, Sopranos Soloist Margaret Pearce, Welcome Jonathan Silk, Sound, Order of Service & Worship Archives/Podcast

I first heard this Malvina Reynolds tune while watching Weeds. Many covered it for the show's intro, but I always preferred the original. So I covered it. Her version remains my favourite, but it was fun trying. "My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Hondawhere she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time Magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn't find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered." - Malvina Reynolds

I first heard this Malvina Reynolds tune while watching Weeds. Many covered it for the show's intro, but I always preferred the original. So I covered it. Her version remains my favourite, but it was fun trying. "My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Hondawhere she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time Magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn't find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered." - Malvina Reynolds

I first heard this Malvina Reynolds tune while watching Weeds. Many covered it for the show's intro, but I always preferred the original. So I covered it. Her version remains my favourite, but it was fun trying. "My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Hondawhere she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time Magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn't find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered." - Malvina Reynolds

I first heard this Malvina Reynolds tune while watching Weeds. Many covered it for the show's intro, but I always preferred the original. So I covered it. Her version remains my favourite, but it was fun trying. "My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Hondawhere she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time Magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn't find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered." - Malvina Reynolds

Actress, comedian, author and atheist Julia Sweeney discusses her new book, If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother. Her hilarious yet poignant writings -- from one intriguing month of her life -- cover marriage, motherhood, adoption, Santa Claus, abortion, and the death of her brother, all in her uniquely humanistic and comedic way. We also hear the Malvina Reynolds song "The Judge Said," about the successful recall of a sexist Wisconsin judge (and hear about Annie Laurie dressed as a nun in 1977).

This episode of Smithsonian Folkways: Sounds to Grow On focuses on topical songs, mostly from a small-distribution, widely influential magazine from the 1960s and 70s and 80s called Broadside Magazine. In 1962, the first issue cost 35 cents and consisted of a meager 300 copies. But it included songs from such masters as Malvina Reynolds, Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Broadside brought many topical singer songwriters to the public’s attention, including, in addition to Reynolds, Ochs and Dylan; Tom Paxton, Richard Farina, Janis Ian and Buffy St. Marie, to name just a few. Smithsonian Folkways: Sounds to Grow On is a 26-part series hosted by Michael Asch that features the original recordings of Folkways Records.

Features an interview with Jan Nikolay, spokeswoman and co-chair of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families. Ms. Nikolay was in the South Dakota Legislature for many years and is a Republican who is part of the nonpartisan group. The Campaign is spearheading the referendum on Nov. 7 to overturn the draconian ban on abortion passed by the South Dakota legislature this spring at the behest of the religious right. The show will also feature secular news, Theocracy Alert, a pop disbelief quiz, and a song celebrating "grassroots fury" by the celebrated folksinger Malvina Reynolds. (MP3, 53 min, 24 MB)

Comedian/actress Julia Sweeney is interviewed about her amazing and hilarious new monolog, "Letting Go of God," on Freethought Radio, FFRF's weekly production co-hosted by Foundation co-presidents Dan Barker & Annie Laurie Gaylor. The Saturday Night Live alumna, known for her character "Androgynous Pat," tells how she came to leave the Roman Catholic Church and become an atheist. Music featured: "My Father's House" by Dan Barker, and "This World," by Malvina Reynolds, performed by Kristin Lems. (MP3, 47 min, 21.6 MB)