20th-century American singer, songwriter and guitarist
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33 episodes with Ritchie Valens
10 episodes with Ritchie Valens
6 episodes with Ritchie Valens
8 episodes with Ritchie Valens
3 episodes with Ritchie Valens
2 episodes with Ritchie Valens
6 episodes with Ritchie Valens
3 episodes with Ritchie Valens
3 episodes with Ritchie Valens
We kick things off with former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, now spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance. He joins the show to expose Big Pharma's runaway profits—with margins more than twice the average of S&P 500 companies—and their outrageous spending, including $36 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising. Hayworth explains how President Trump has assembled a nonpartisan, pro-American team to tackle this crisis head-on. This is an American problem that demands an American solution, and the people are united in their demand for change. 84% blame pharmaceutical companies for high prices, and they overwhelmingly support reforms to force drugmakers to put patients before profits. Then we're joined by Michael Deibert, journalist and longtime Haiti expert, who just returned from the region. He gives us a look at the current humanitarian crisis, political collapse, and gang violence that has displaced over 1.3 million Haitians. We also hear from Shay Khatiri, a young Iranian-American man who shares his moving personal story of escape and perseverance while raising awareness for the ongoing fight for freedom in Iran. And as always, stay tuned for Kiley's Corner, where Brennen shares the La Bamba story—the tragic plane crash that took the life of rock and roll legend Ritchie Valens.www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegroundsTruth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@breakingbattlegroundsShow sponsors:Invest Yrefy - investyrefy.comOld Glory DepotSupport American jobs while standing up for your values. OldGloryDepot.com brings you conservative pride on premium, made-in-USA gear. Don't settle—wear your patriotism proudly.Learn more at: OldGloryDepot.comDot VoteWith a .VOTE website, you ensure your political campaign stands out among the competition while simplifying how you reach voters.Learn more at: dotvote.vote4Freedom MobileExperience true freedom with 4Freedom Mobile, the exclusive provider offering nationwide coverage on all three major US networks (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile) with just one SIM card. Our service not only connects you but also shields you from data collection by network operators, social media platforms, government agencies, and more.Use code ‘Battleground' to get your first month for $9 and save $10 a month every month after.Learn more at: 4FreedomMobile.comAbout our guest:Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth is the spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Reform Alliance, advocating for drug‑pricing reforms and criticizing Big Pharma's pricing strategies.-My name is Michael Deibert, and I am a journalist, author and Researcher at the Centro de Estudos Internacionais at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. For the more than two decades, my work as a reporter and analyst has focused on conflict, peacebuilding, democratic movements and organized crime, with regional focuses on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, especially Haiti. With my writing here, as with all of my work, I hope to increases awareness of that which binds us together and the common humanity we all share. This kind of reporting, though I believe it is vitally important, is often a struggle financially, being both labour and cost-intensive with very modest remuneration. Please consider supporting this work if you can.-Shay Khatiri is the VP of development and a senior fellow at Yorktown Institute. An immigrant from Iran, he is an alumnus of Arizona State University and the Strategic Studies Department at Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He publishes the Substack newsletter, The Russia–Iran File. Get full access to Breaking Battlegrounds at breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 136 throws it way back to 1958 when Ritchie Valens made this classic that still gets played today - "La Bamba", that then Los Lobos imitated in 1987.It's our second ever translation episode (first being Gangnam Style) where we try to decipher what this song is really all about, who did it better, and determine if it might have the best guitar breakdown in music history. LA BAMBA is NEXT!Watch the video podcast on YouTube at https://youtu.be/nkMqn8KXu2U
Musician Quetzal Flores celebrates the birthday of Ritchie Valens by sharing the journey of his most famous song, “La Bamba,” from African communities in Mexico, to the top of the U.S. charts, and eventually as an anti-racism protest song on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.
Luis Herrero y Felipe Couselo hablan de la carrera del cantante estadounidense.
On the May 13 edition of the Music History Today podcast, the PMRC usher in a new era of censorship and the Rolling Stones make the list twice. Also, happy birthday to Stevie Wonder and Ritchie Valens.For more music history, subscribe to my Spotify Channel or subscribe to the audio version of my music history podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts fromALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY PODCAST NETWORK LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday
Il live unplugged di "Come On, Let's Go" di Ritchie Valens e l'ospitata live di Carlo Pastore per Miami 2025.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hoy Carol Kaye cumple 90 años. ¿Quién es? Vas a alucinar. Bajista y guitarrista grabó su instrumento en varios, en muchos de los mayores éxitos de la música popular estadounidense desde finales de los años cincuenta del siglo pasado para los artistas más históricos: Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Barbra Streisand, Sam Cooke, Quincy Jones, Buffalo Springfield, J.J. Cale, Simon & Garfunkel, Joe Cocker, etc, etc, etc. He aquí una selección sucinta. ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Carol! DISCO 1 LALO SCHIFRIN Mission Impossible (ESCA) DISCO 2 THE BEACH BOYS California Girls (ESCA) DISCO 3 GLORIA JONES Tainted Love (ESCA) DISCO 4 THE MONKEES I’m A Believer (ESCA) DISCO 5 RITCHIE VALENS La Bamba (ESCA) DISCO 6 ELVIS PRESLEY Suspicious Mind (ESCA) DISCO 7 NANCY SINATRA These Boots Are Made For Walking (ESCA) DISCO 8 J.J. CALE Carry On (ESCA) DISCO 9 THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling (ESCA) DISCO 10 BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD Expecting To Fly (ESCA) DISCO 11 QUINCY JONES Them From Bill Cosby Show (ESCA) DISCO 12 SIMON & GARFUNKEL Homeward Bound (ESCA) DISCO 13 GLEN CAMPBELL Wichita Lineman (ESCA) DISCO 14 SAM COOKE Summertime (ESCA) DISOC 15 JOE COCKER Feeling Alright (ESCA)Escuchar audio
Ritchie Valens and his flying podcast! - Phil takes 1987's La Bamba off the shelf this week as he remember the day the music died for the second time. Phil is so captivated by the performance of Esai Morales as Bob that it threatens to take the attention away from Lou Diamond Phillips. That being said, the movie is successful in taking a different approach to similar material as the 1979's The Buddy Holly Story (available in the archives) Dave found it challenging to get into the story overall as the characters were too thinly drawn to be understood without knowing the story previous. The performances and structure of the movie start to be a little melodramatic by the end. Phil, of course, is moved to tears.
THIS WEEK'S EPISODE CELEBRATES THE 66TH ANNIVERSARY OF "THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED". WE HONOR THE MEMORIES OF BUDDY HOLLY, THE BIG BOPPER, & RITCHIE VALENS. ALSO WE TAKE A LOOK AT FUNNY MISSPELLED GROCERY LISTS. OUR GUESTS ARE EAST COAST BANDMATES JAY WILLIE & BOBBY T TORELLO! Show is recorded at Grand Forks Best Source. For studio information, visit www.gfbestsource.com – Or message us at bit.ly/44meos1 – Help support GFBS at this donation link - https://bit.ly/3vjvzgX - Access past GFBS Interviews - https://gfbsinterviews.podbean.com/ #gfbs #gfbestsource.com #grandforksnd #interview #local #grandforks #grandforksbestsource #visitgreatergrandforks @grandforksnd @THECHAMBERGFEGF #belegendary #followers #everyone #RENEGADERADIO #THEDAYTHEMUSICDIED
February 3, 1959. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and “The Big Bopper” die in a plane crash on their way from Iowa to Minnesota.Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On this day 66 years ago (February 3, 1959) a plane crashed in a cornfield outside Clear Lake, Iowa. The crash unfortunately resulted in the deaths of musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), as well as pilot Roger Peterson. The date is now remembered as the “day the music died”. […]
El 3 de febrero de 1959 los músicos de rock and roll Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens y The Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson), junto con el piloto Roger Peterson, fallecieron en un accidente aéreo en Iowa. Posteriormente, a este día se le conoció como "El día que murió la música" ("The day the music died"), después de que Don McLean se refiriese a él de tal forma en su canción «American Pie» de 1971.
Découvrez l'histoire de Richie Valens, un jeune musicien qui a brillé pendant seulement 7 mois dans le monde du rock. À 17 ans, ce Californien d'origine mexicaine a créé un style unique en mélangeant rock énergique et musique traditionnelle mexicaine. Sa reprise de « La Bamba » est devenue un tube mondial et a inspiré beaucoup d'artistes hispaniques.Sa vie s'est tragiquement arrêtée le 3 février 1959 dans un accident d'avion qui a aussi coûté la vie aux stars Buddy Holly et The Big Bopper. Cet événement, appelé « le jour où la musique est morte », a changé l'histoire du rock. Grâce à des interviews de sa famille et des spécialistes, on comprend comment ce talentueux guitariste a réussi à percer malgré les difficultés, devenant un modèle pour les musiciens issus des minorités. Son influence reste forte aujourd'hui encore.Notre équipe a utilisé un outil d'Intelligence artificielle via les technologies d'Audiomeans© pour accompagner la création de ce contenu écrit.
El 3 de febrero de 1959 perdían la vida en un accidente de avioneta tres brillantes y jóvenes músicos: Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly y The Big Bopper. Ese día, sería conocido, años más tarde y gracias a una canción de Don McLean como "El día que murió la música". A la historia de ese fatídico día dedicamos este episodio. Guion: Emma Mussoll Locución y edición: Margot Martín Conoce los temas que suenan visitando este enlace: https://elrecuentomusical.com/dia-que-murio-la-musica/ Este episodio de “El Recuento Musical” cuenta con la colaboración del Ministerio de Cultura y su financiación, a través de las ayudas para la promoción del sector del podcast, que se enmarcan dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia financiado por la Union Europea con los fondos Next Generation EU.
On this week's show, the man who defined punk rock, Sid Vicious, burned out but never faded away, Karen Carpenter passed away & brought a disease to the forefront of a nation's attention, famous producer Phil Spector murdered actress Lana Clarkson, & we'll talk about the day the music died and the deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. National Eating Disorders Association Helpline: 1-800-931-2237 eatingdisorderhope.com/treatment-for-eating-disorders/eating-disorder-hotlines ALL MUSIC HISTORY TODAY NETWORK PODCAST LINKS - https://allmylinks.com/musichistorytoday
Recovery from the death of a spouse is a lifelong healing process. Each year brings a measure of healing as we move toward being able to reclaim life's joy. Lori Tucker-Sullivan has been widowed for 14 years and shares her journey as she authored her book, I Can't Remember If I Cried: Rock Widows on Life, Love, and Legacy. https://bit.ly/40hKe9c In this Episode:01:31 - Recipe: Maltese Soppa Tal-armla - Widow's Soup04:25 - The Day the Music Died; "I can't remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride"06:40 - Interview with Lori Tucker-Sullivan49:03 - "Widowhood is More Than..." excerpt from blog Hope Grows in the Wilderness by Alisha Bozarth53:40 - OutroDid you know: "The Day the Music Died" is a term that refers to the plane crash that killed rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson on February 3, 1959. The term was popularized by Don McLean's 1971 song, "American Pie", which may have also referred to Buddy Holly's widow, 7 months pregnant. Support the showGet show notes and resources at our website: every1dies.org. Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | mail@every1dies.org
Elsie Saldaña still gets nervous on stage, almost six decades after she first started performing as a drag king in the Central Valley. She's the country's oldest drag king, and her first performance was in 1965 at Red Robin, a gay bar in her hometown. She performed Ritchie Valens' “La Bamba” and was instantly hooked. Right then and there, El Daña, her stage name, was born. Saldaña still graces the stage occasionally, but doesn't perform as much as she used to. But she still feels like the stage is where she belongs. This week we're re-airing a profile of El Daña from reporter Celeste Hamilton Dennis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What a Creep“The Day the Music Died” Season 27, Episode 10"The Day the Music Died" is a phrase coined by singer-songwriter Don McLean in 1971 in his 8-and-a-half-minute song “American Pie.” The tragic deaths of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens on February 3, 1959, shocked the world and have been the subject of study for decades. In this episode, I will discuss the lives of the men who lost their lives that night and the harsh realities of life on tour during the early days of rock and roll.Sources for this episode:Britannica Video KCCI-TV “This Day in History”The Day in Weather Fox NewsAll Things CruisingBuddy Holly: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Musicians) Wisconsin Life.orgTrigger warning: Plane crashBe sure to follow us on social media. But don't follow us too closely … don't be a creep about it! Subscribe to us on Apple PodcastsBlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatacreep.bsky.social Facebook: Join the private group! Instagram @WhatACreepPodcastVisit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/whatacreepEmail: WhatACreepPodcast@gmail.com We've got merch here! https://whatacreeppodcast.threadless.com/#Our website is www.whatacreeppodcast.com Our logo was created by Claudia Gomez-Rodriguez. Follow her on Instagram @ClaudInCloud
Lou Diamond Phillips is on Celebrity Jobber with Jeff Zito this week. What would have been if Lou never got his big break? What type of work would he be doing if he weren't a famous Actor best known for when he starred as Ritchie Valens in the film La Bamba? This Episode is Sponsored By: UNCOMMON GOODS. Take 15% off @ UncommonGoods.com/JOBBER Uncommon Goods. We’re all out of the ordinary. Many celebrities will tell you that if not for that one lucky break or meeting, they might have been a duck taper or a box ticker somewhere. They may have been just a jobber. Thanks for listening, Please rate, review, and subscribe to the Celebrity Jobber with Jeff Zito wherever you pod.
17 años de edad, 8 meses únicamente de éxito rotundo, muere en un accidente de aviación junto a dos grandes estrellas del rock and roll, y jóvenes igual que él hablamos de: Ritchie Valens! Estrella, divo, y una efímera carrera, que lo convierte al igual que James Dean, en una leyenda, salón de la fama del Rock and Roll, y una estrella en el paseo de Hollywood. En esta edición especial Hollywood, vamos a hacer un gran homenaje a su infancia, su vida, sus padres, el amor por la música desde pequeño, sus inicios, hasta su corto y grande estrellato. Una leyenda e inmortal de la música, sólo aquí su vida, en Divas & Divos del Cine Mexicano 8Edición Especial Hollywood).
In this exciting episode of Backstage Pass with Gentry Thomas, we sit down with the legendary Lou Diamond Phillips to discuss his illustrious career and exciting new projects. Lou shares insights about his latest film, Get Fast, giving listeners a sneak peek into the high-octane action and the character he brings to life. He also reflects on his unforgettable role as Ritchie Valens in the iconic film La Bamba, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and the impact the movie has had on his career and fans around the world. Additionally, Lou delves into his involvement with the beloved Young Guns series, reminiscing about the classic Western adventures and revealing updates on the highly anticipated Young Guns 3, which is currently in development. This episode is packed with stories, insights, and reflections from one of Hollywood’s most versatile and enduring stars. Don’t miss this exclusive conversation with Lou Diamond Phillips, only on Backstage Pass with Gentry Thomas. This episode is brought to you by Manscaped! Upgrade your grooming game with Manscaped's premium tools and products. Use promo code Backstage at checkout for 20% off plus free shipping. Visit Manscaped.com today and experience the best in men's grooming.
Lou Diamond Phillips has an old-school, theater-based work ethic, which is why there's almost nothing he can't or won't do—from appearing on The Masked Singer to imitating the look of Buffalo Bill Cody for his newest film Get Fast, now available on VOD. He doesn't mind that people still talk to him about playing Ritchie Valens in La Bamba because he's (justly) proud of the film and his performance in it, as you will hear. Leonard and Jessie also have a personal connection to this gracious and talented man.
What do Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, patsy cline, Jim Croce, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ricky Nelson, and Stevie Ray Vaughn have in common? ...they all died when the private aircraft in which they were flying crashed. Holly, the Big Bopper, and Valens were on a single-engine six-seater Beechcraft bonanza when it went down in bad weather in an Iowa cornfield in February 1959…Cline and two other musicians died in March 1963 when their six-seater piper Comanche…bad weather was to blame there, too. Jim Croce was onboard an 11-seater Beechcraft twin-engine when it hit a tree on takeoff from and airport in Louisiana…fog and pilot error. In October 1977, a chartered Convair CV-240 carrying members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and their crew somehow ran out of gas and crashed into a Mississippi swamp…i tell that story in episode 1 of this podcast. On December 3, 1985, Ricky Nelson was on an old DC-3 when an heater on the plane caught fire and crash-landed in a Texas cow pasture. And Stevie Ray Vaughn was in a helicopter leaving a Wisconsin music festival on August 27, 1990…it ended up all over the side of a ski hill…it was foggy and while the pilot was certified to fly a fixed-wing aircraft under such conditions, he wasn't licensed to fly a helicopter. There are many more examples, but I think I've made my point. On this episode, I want take a close look at two more private plane crashes that are still widely discussed…there's the accident that nearly killed blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and killed several other people…and the other crazy story of the aircraft accident that killed Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads. I'm Alan Cross and this is episode 26 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Our beloved classic "La Bamba" is getting a remake!? This movie has been embedded in our culture! From the iconic performances of Lou Diamond Phillips as the forefather of the Chicano Rock movement "Ritchie Valens", Esai Morales' unforgettable role as his older brother "Bob" to the amazing performance of Rosanna DeSoto as "Connie". This movie is nothing short of perfection! We out way the pro's & con's of remaking such an iconic film!The infamous Fyre Festival is setting up for a comeback!? Yes, this is not a drill lol We break down what we know so far!The VMA's went down last week & we have something to say about the mostly lackluster performances this year.Plus we break down some trailers for the upcoming "Wolfman" & "House Of Spoils" & much more fun! Time to sip some Tea With Joey & Marie!Send us a textSupport the showSocial Media Handles:Tik Tok: @joeybravo208 @aaliyahmarie208Instagram: @joeybravo208 @aaliyahmarie208 @sippinteawithjoeyandmarieFacebook: @joeybravo208 @aaliyahmarie208 @sippinteawithjoeyandmarieYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@sippinteawithjoeymarie5867
Bushy and Metal Mike sit down and talk about the Day The Music Died, February 3, 1959. More importantly, we discuss how things might have changed in the world of rock n' roll music. How important would Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper have become? A plethora of possibilities exist. If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, leave us a 5 Star Review!
ICYMI: Hour Three of ‘Later, with Mo'Kelly' Presents – An in-depth conversation with award-winning Nigerian creator and producer Roye Okupe, alongside Story Editor - Brandon Easton, Writer - Kerri Grant, and Supervising Director - Vincent Edwards; the immensely talented creative team behind the highly-anticipated new Max/Cartoon Network superhero animated-series ‘Iyanu: Child of Wonder,' which follows a teenage heroine who must uncover the mystery behind her newfound powers to save her people from an ancient curse threatening to destroy humanity…PLUS – Thoughts on Sylvester Stallone rebooting his '90s Action Classic ‘Cliffhanger' AND Mucho Mas Media & Sony Pictures developing a remake of the 1987 musical biopic ‘La Bamba,' which chronicled the life and career of Pacoima, CA. Rock-N-Roll pioneer Ritchie Valens - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
MUSICDavid Lee Roth tells the Van Halen News Desk (VHND.com) that he's “planning some fun vacations” for the rest of the year. Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley has shot down rumors that he's joining Linkin Park. The rumors got started on Monday afternoon when the band's social media said Whibley was had an announcement slated for Wednesday. That's the same day that Linkin Park's mysterious countdown ends, and since Whibley sang with the band at their 2017 tribute show to Chester Bennington...fans put two and two together. The tribute special Toby Keith: American Icon airs on NBC. Artists include: Luke Bryan, Tyler Hubbard, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson, Darius Rucker, Parker McCollum, Reba McEntire, Jelly Roll, Krystal KeithMOVING ON INTO MOVIE NEWS:Channing Tatum hated laundry when he was younger. One of Paul Rudd's very first television commercials is going viral! X users highlighted the vintage 1991 commercial that showed Rudd, in his 20s at the time, showcasing the brand-new Super Nintendo game system on the big screen. Mucho Mas Media and Sony Pictures are rebooting 'La Bamba', the 1987 film about rock and roll pioneer Ritchie Valens. · Director Francis Ford Coppola did NOT want "Megalopolis" to be considered a WOKE production that lectures viewers, so he was particular about the casting. MISCPrince Harry's memoir Spare will be released in paperback this October. Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce signed a nine-figure deal with the Amazon-owned podcast studio Wondery for the rights to their popular New Heights podcast AND FINALLYThe 25 most awkward dinner scenes in movies1. Hereditary (2018)2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)3. Lars and the Real Girl (2007)4. Dinner for Schmucks (2010)5. Beetlejuice (1988)6. August: Osage County (2013)7. Meet the Parents (2000)8. Edward Scissorhands (1990)9. Wedding Crashers (2005)10. Back to the Future (1985)AND THAT IS YOUR CRAP ON CELEBRITIES!Follow us @RizzShow @MoonValjeanHere @KingScottRules @LernVsRadio @IamRafeWilliams > Check out King Scott's band @FreeThe2SG and Check out Moon's bands GREEK FIRE @GreekFire GOLDFINGER @GoldfingerMusic THE TEENAGE DIRTBAGS @TheTeenageDbags and Lern's band @LaneNarrows http://www.1057thepoint.com/Rizz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
MUSIC David Lee Roth tells the Van Halen News Desk (VHND.com) that he's “planning some fun vacations” for the rest of the year. Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley has shot down rumors that he's joining Linkin Park. The rumors got started on Monday afternoon when the band's social media said Whibley was had an announcement slated for Wednesday. That's the same day that Linkin Park's mysterious countdown ends, and since Whibley sang with the band at their 2017 tribute show to Chester Bennington...fans put two and two together. The tribute special Toby Keith: American Icon airs on NBC. Artists include: Luke Bryan, Tyler Hubbard, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson, Darius Rucker, Parker McCollum, Reba McEntire, Jelly Roll, Krystal Keith MOVING ON INTO MOVIE NEWS: Channing Tatum hated laundry when he was younger. One of Paul Rudd's very first television commercials is going viral! X users highlighted the vintage 1991 commercial that showed Rudd, in his 20s at the time, showcasing the brand-new Super Nintendo game system on the big screen. Mucho Mas Media and Sony Pictures are rebooting 'La Bamba', the 1987 film about rock and roll pioneer Ritchie Valens. · Director Francis Ford Coppola did NOT want "Megalopolis" to be considered a WOKE production that lectures viewers, so he was particular about the casting. MISC Prince Harry's memoir Spare will be released in paperback this October. Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce signed a nine-figure deal with the Amazon-owned podcast studio Wondery for the rights to their popular New Heights podcast AND FINALLY The 25 most awkward dinner scenes in movies 1. Hereditary (2018) 2. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) 3. Lars and the Real Girl (2007) 4. Dinner for Schmucks (2010) 5. Beetlejuice (1988) 6. August: Osage County (2013) 7. Meet the Parents (2000) 8. Edward Scissorhands (1990) 9. Wedding Crashers (2005) 10. Back to the Future (1985) AND THAT IS YOUR CRAP ON CELEBRITIES! Follow us @RizzShow @MoonValjeanHere @KingScottRules @LernVsRadio @IamRafeWilliams > Check out King Scott's band @FreeThe2SG and Check out Moon's bands GREEK FIRE @GreekFire GOLDFINGER @GoldfingerMusic THE TEENAGE DIRTBAGS @TheTeenageDbags and Lern's band @LaneNarrows http://www.1057thepoint.com/Rizz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Throwback Trivia Question
Much has been made of Mexico's rich Spanish and indigenous heritage, but until recently there's been little talk of Mexico's so-called "Third Root": Africa. Africans came to Mexico with the Spanish as soldiers and slaves -- so many that by 1810, the black population of Mexico was equal to that of the United States. Today, African heritage persists throughout Mexico, yet for a variety of reasons, black history has long been silenced. In this Hip Deep episode, we use music to explore that history as we take a road trip across the country in search of sonic traces of Afro-Mexico. We visit the state of Veracruz to learn the history of the Afro-Mexican son jarocho sound, made famous by Ritchie Valens' 1958 hit cover of "La Bamba," a traditional jarocho tune. Then, we visit the Costa Chica of Guerrero, where Afro-Mexican communities are fighting for government recognition to help preserve faltering musical traditions. And we'll stop by the golden-age halls of Mexico City, where the Afro-Cuban danzón thrives far from its ancestral home in Havana. Along the way, we hear from top scholars in the field such as Ben Vinson III and Alejandro Madrid, as well as Afro-Mexican music stars past and present, from Los Cojolites to Las Cafeteras. ¡Que padre! APWW #658
Send us a Text Message.Brandon Benavides, who goes by the stage name B3, is a Bakersfield/SoCal based lyricist and rapper who believes in the power of his music. His 2023 album, "Mark of The Beast" stands a testament to his dedication to the demands of an ever-changing rap music industry. When he's not onstage or in the recording studio, he's working behind the scenes of the Hollywood movie industry. Meet the man, the myth, the beast! EPK: B3OFFICIAL.COM. Episode includes the B3 songs: "La Raza", "Just Being Honest", "Better", "Smiling Faces", plus the songs, "Sky's The Limit" - Notorious B.I.G., "La Bamba" - Ritchie Valens, "La Raza" - Kid Frost. Also includes snippet of "Eating Raoul" (1982)**Included for promotional use only.Sponsored by Chain Cohn Clark - Kern County's leading accident, injury, and workers' compensation law firm. Subscribe to Bakotunes at all podcast outlets and follow our socials!Instagram / More LinksContact: mattomunoz@gmail.com
Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba, Young Guns) joins us this week and shares his gratitude for being able to sustain a successful career in the arts for over 40 years, while highlighting the importance in open conversations about mental health along the peaks and valleys that come with it. Lou talks a lot about his experience in La Bamba - going from a day player to being Ritchie Valens, having just seven days to prepare the songs, and the biggest shock that came with his portrayal. We also talk about his pursuit for acting coming out of Texas, his hopes for a return to Young Guns, and the work ethic that propels him into so many different projects. Thank you to our sponsors:
The plane crash that changed the course, not just of Music History but arguably of the United States of America. The Day the Music Died is about so much more than just Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson (aka the "Big Bopper"). In a lot of ways, it's about the loss of innocence in America as the nation would soon be faced with a Presidential Assassination, a Vietnam War, and more. Don McLean's song American Pie was written about this tragic day that a beachcraft bonanza charter plane killed these three young musicians. But what is the full story behind that fateful day on February 3rd, 1959? Join me on this episode of ROOTS as we dig up the events that led up to the plane crash, and the most chilling detail of all (in my opinion) about Tommy Allsup's wallet and the spirit of Buddy Holly making his presence known over 20 years later...(you don't want to miss that chilling detail so be sure to watch until the end).
Today we finish up Ritchie's story with some more background on the filmmaker and the movie I've come to love even more and apparently get goddamn defensive about. Reviewing the legacy of the film via a look back with Valdez and Lou Diamond Phillips TV Tropes about "La Bamba!" My takeaways about the making of the film in 3 parts A look back at Luis Valdez's career and activism featuring a note about his cousin ("that vato?") Caesar Chavez and the work of Teatro Campesino A brief look at the historical significance of American Pauchocos with a detour into some James Ellroy because I wanted to and it's my show, dammit More of Ritchie Valens' life story and rock n' roll legacy continued from last episode Me getting REAL cranky about a douchey Pitchfork article I read while conducting research for this one An update on the show's ongoing relationship with Radish Mattress, Inc Monthly exclusive Rock History bonus feed here https://www.patreon.com/rockfilmrock Choose your preferred method of supporting the show for no money or maybe some money: PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/whatsamatta Shirt designs with defeatist messaging delivered via bright colors and childish graphics: https://www.bonfire.com/store/justtheworstshirtsever/ Subscribe to me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4Up7xGgjioEC07bjwu4mQ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justtheworstever/ Send me an email with show suggestions: Justtheworstever@gmail.com Suicide Prevention, Text/Call: 988 https://afsp.org/ National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673 https://www.rainn.org/resources
A lot's changed since 1987: Biopics are much more common (and darker). Chicano artists are more mainstream, and Lou Diamond Phillips is a household name. So we acknowledge "La Bamba' was groundbreaking ... and not very good. Listener Mark C. commissioned this episode and the upcoming "American Me" to celebrate his heritage as a first-generation Hispanic-American. He noted the blockbuster soundtrack, janky lip-syncing and performances from Esai Morales, Joe Pantaliano and Elizabeth Pena. But Mark didn't prepare us for laughably large talismans, breakneck pacing and Ritchie Valens' "golly-gee" persona. In this episode, the Shat Crew debates whether Ritchie's brother, Bob, got a fair shake in the movie, what really happened that night in Tijuana and how much racism is appropriate for this story. Gene spots a Mystical Mexican. Ash yearns for some Buddy Holly, and Dick wants more details about the plane crash and aftermath. Android: https://shatpod.com/android Apple: https://shatpod.com/apple All: https://shatpod.com/subscribe CONTACT Email: hosts@shatpod.com Website: https://shatpod.com/movies Leave a Voicemail: Web: https://shatpod.com/voicemail Leave a Voicemail: Call: (914) 719-7428 SUPPORT THE PODCAST Donate or Commission: https://shatpod.com/support Shop Merchandise: https://shatpod.com/shop Theme Song - Die Hard by Guyz Nite: https://www.facebook.com/guyznite
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File this under ‘right place, right time'. Harold Bronson was a teenager in mid-60's Los Angeles and saw every act imaginable. Then wrote for the Daily Bruin and Rolling Stone and interviewed everyone that interested him. Then managed a music store and co-founded Rhino Records, pretty much inventing the idea of the top-end reissue – “Sooner or later everyone ends up in a box.” All of this is in his memoir, ‘Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007', and many of its cast of thousands appear in this podcast, among them Johnny Horton and ‘the Battle of New Orleans', the Purple People Eaters, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, the Doors at the Hollywood Bowl, the Stones supported by Ike & Tina (for $12), Ozzy Osbourne (“I'd never meet anybody with a tattoo before”), Hilton Valentine working at a Henry The Eighth-themed restaurant, Groucho Marx at a Led Zeppelin launch, a ‘Best of Louie Louie' that sold 100,000 copies and a Ritchie Valens record made on a dictaphone. You can order Harold's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Has-Come-Today-Diaries/dp/B0CGTX2YN8Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
File this under ‘right place, right time'. Harold Bronson was a teenager in mid-60's Los Angeles and saw every act imaginable. Then wrote for the Daily Bruin and Rolling Stone and interviewed everyone that interested him. Then managed a music store and co-founded Rhino Records, pretty much inventing the idea of the top-end reissue – “Sooner or later everyone ends up in a box.” All of this is in his memoir, ‘Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007', and many of its cast of thousands appear in this podcast, among them Johnny Horton and ‘the Battle of New Orleans', the Purple People Eaters, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, the Doors at the Hollywood Bowl, the Stones supported by Ike & Tina (for $12), Ozzy Osbourne (“I'd never meet anybody with a tattoo before”), Hilton Valentine working at a Henry The Eighth-themed restaurant, Groucho Marx at a Led Zeppelin launch, a ‘Best of Louie Louie' that sold 100,000 copies and a Ritchie Valens record made on a dictaphone. You can order Harold's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Has-Come-Today-Diaries/dp/B0CGTX2YN8Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
File this under ‘right place, right time'. Harold Bronson was a teenager in mid-60's Los Angeles and saw every act imaginable. Then wrote for the Daily Bruin and Rolling Stone and interviewed everyone that interested him. Then managed a music store and co-founded Rhino Records, pretty much inventing the idea of the top-end reissue – “Sooner or later everyone ends up in a box.” All of this is in his memoir, ‘Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007', and many of its cast of thousands appear in this podcast, among them Johnny Horton and ‘the Battle of New Orleans', the Purple People Eaters, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, the Doors at the Hollywood Bowl, the Stones supported by Ike & Tina (for $12), Ozzy Osbourne (“I'd never meet anybody with a tattoo before”), Hilton Valentine working at a Henry The Eighth-themed restaurant, Groucho Marx at a Led Zeppelin launch, a ‘Best of Louie Louie' that sold 100,000 copies and a Ritchie Valens record made on a dictaphone. You can order Harold's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Has-Come-Today-Diaries/dp/B0CGTX2YN8Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I don't know how to warn you I might get a little wibbly-bibbly in the wobbles during this one. Verklempt, if you will. Similar to the way I was on the CROW episodes processing the loss of Brandon Lee all over again. Ritchie was clearly a marvel and a unique talent in ways I didn't understand until now. To be a guitar hero and a hit songwriter and a teen idol at the same time is a hurculean accomplishment for a 17-year-old kid from Pacoima, California in 1958. And I struggled a bit when jumping on the mic right after my research. This goes back to me being a little kid when I saw the film and begged my dad for a cassette tape of the soundtrack, which I treasured. Rock n' Roll, baby. Rock n' roll. It's gonna be a bit of this n' that: The first impressions of Ritchie by his most prominent biographer, Beverly Mendheim, while she struggled to suss out his ethnicity as an impressionable teenager The career struggles and ongoing activism of Lou Diamond Phillips, who is more consistently successful as an actor than many would realize (Me. I mean me, until now) The masterful music editing of Curt Sobel on La Bamba! while working closely with Los Lobos and director Luis Valdez (more on him in the next episode!!!) Ed Ward's dumbass take on Ritchie in the modern era that rivals even his awful reviews of The Beatles back in the late 60s Readings from a very concise, but effective bio on Ritchie taken from a guitar tab book that I highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Ritchie-Valens-His-Guitars-Music/dp/1574243802 https://www.salon.com/2021/03/09/lou-diamond-phillips-adverse-prodigal-son-representation/ (Bev's out of print book) https://archive.org/details/ritchievalensfir00mend/page/n5/mode/2up movie scene comparisons Monthly exclusive Rock History bonus feed! https://www.patreon.com/rockfilmrock Choose your preferred method of supporting the show for no money or maybe some money: PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/whatsamatta Shirt designs with defeatist messaging delivered via bright colors and childish graphics: https://www.bonfire.com/store/justtheworstshirtsever/ Subscribe to me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV4Up7xGgjioEC07bjwu4mQ Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justtheworstever/ Send me an email with show suggestions: Justtheworstever@gmail.com Suicide Prevention, Text/Call: 988 https://afsp.org/ National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673 https://www.rainn.org/resources
The Life & Times of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain#kurtcobain #nirvana #kurtcobainforever On April 8, 1994, the music world was shocked by the news of Kurt Cobain's death, a moment as impactful as the losses of John Lennon and the musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper in earlier decades. Cobain's body had been there for days; the coroner's report estimated he died on April 5, 1994, at the age of 27.Cobain's band, Nirvana, dramatically changed rock music, achieving both critical and commercial success. Their iconic album, "Nevermind," has sold over 10.3 million copies in the United States, making Nirvana the standout band of the 1990s. Today, we have a special guest, Danny Goldberg, Kurt Cobain's manager, who will share personal stories and insights into Kurt's legacy and Nirvana's enduring impact.Get The Book: DANNY GOLDBERG : SERVING THE SERVANT➜https://amzn.to/4al2qRX********************************************************************************************************************************************Join this channel to get access to perks:➜https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpDurwXKpDiXuGBdsklxigg/joinSupport the show
It's that Airbnb pasta-taxonomy poster in pop-song form: "Lasagna," Weird Al's take on Los Lobos's take on Ritchie Valens's take on the Mexican folk song Sarah and her classmates dutifully droned during first-period Spanish. Before we cast our votes (and yours!), we talk about the restaurant from Big, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dr. Melfi's ex-husband, Sophia Petrillo, forgetting the word "benefit," and Polish jokes. Are we putting the "no" back in "buongiorno"? Listen and see! Our intro is by Laura Barger and Giacomo Baldelli, and our outro is by Claudio Villa for the Big Night soundtrack. For more information/to become a patron of the show and hear all episodes of this season, visit patreon.com/mastas. SHOW NOTES "What...is this thing?" Start at the beginning! The "La Bamba" video The "Lasagna" "video" One somewhat prosaic but accurate translation of the lyrics Angelique Kidjo's website The Asti restaurant (RIP) Episode 150: 10,000 Maniacs' "In My Tribe," Ranked Pop Chart's "Permutations of Pasta" poster Sophia Sicily-stories supercut SDB's Quiet on Set review "Fact Check: Did Rudy Giuliani Marry His Cousin?"
716. Shake it up and quake it up with your ol' Aztec Werewolf buddy, DJ Del Villarreal and his 4 hour radio extravaganza, "Go Kat, GO! The Rock-A-Billy Show!" Educate your ears with the most scholarly playlist heard on the airwaves! Hear NEW favorites from The Nut Jumpers, The Sirocco Bros., Eddie Clendening, The Glad Rags, The Shook Boys, Darrel Higham, The Country Side Of Harmonica Sam, The Same Old Shoes, Deke Dickerson & The Whippersnappers, Jack Rabbit Slim, Seatbelt, The Rock-A-Sonics and even neobilly-rockers The Quakes! Stay after class and dig deep the classical cues of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, Little Richard, Jimmy Heap & The Melody Masters, Baker Knight, Oscar McLollie and his "Honey Jumpers," Conway Twitty, The Collins Kids, Hasil Adins, Nat Couty, Roddy Jackson, Ritchie Valens, Ronnie Hawkins, Charlie Feathers, Rudy "Tutti" Grayzell, Danny Wolfe, Warren Smith and Shirley Collie, Johnny Horton, Carl Perkins and even Chuck Berry! Whew! Real 50's rock n' roll for teens of ALL ages! Keep your hi-fi flyin' HIGH with the Aztec Werewolf™, DJ Del Villarreal's "Go Kat, GO! The Rock-A-Billy Show!" LIVE from the Motorbilly Studio Tuesday & Wednesday nights: make a request, roll back that rug and go, go, GO! Good to the last bop!™ del@motorbilly.comPlease follow on FaceBook, Instagram & Twitter!
Thirty episodes ago, that week's guest discussed with me the notion of this podcast being a one-man weekly endeavor."That's a grind, man," he said. "That's a grind."He was right when he made that comment, and it made me realize that that was a good summation of what the thing had been to that point. And it hasn't changed. It really is a grind to do the outreach and the scheduling, the interviewing and the editing, the prep and the getting the thing to the places it needs to be.There are five essential components that make it all worthwhile:1) meeting new people and hearing their stories2) getting exposed to music I've either never heard of or listened to before3) having guests tell me that they've enjoyed the interview4) experiencing real-life, there's-still-good-in-the-world moments with each interaction5) personal weekly pride in task completion and productivitySo, when I sit in the chair across from a total stranger like DINKC, and I get to learn about him, his family, his culture, his story, his wishes and dreams, and I then get to put it out there for whoever might be interested in sharing that same experience with me, it's worth it. You cannot put a price tag on the opportunity to meet a guy like DINKC. Now, I only sat with him for a couple of hours, and -- who knows -- we may never see one another for the rest of our lives. As DINKC says and lives and is, Death Is Not Knowing Certainty. It doesn't matter, though; my life and my time on this planet are richer for those two hours, and nothing can change that.So, please check out our conversation. DINKC is a son and a brother and an uncle and a father and a husband and an artist. He's a businessman, a dreamer, a friend to many, and an asset to the Kansas City metro area.We talked about his upbringing, his culture, his values, his art studio -- DINKC Studios (600 Ohio Ave. in Strawberry Hill), and we also talked a little bit about some of his favorite records, which were these:Ritchie Valens (1959), Ritchie ValensNotorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die (1994)Barrio Bravo (2001), Celso PiñaYou can give DINKC a follow on Instagram here and here, and you can check out Zoe Strohm's The Pitch article on him here.copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the audio samples featured in this episode. They are clips from a track called, "Slow Jam" by Vieux Farke Touré off of his 2009 album, Fondo (c/o Six Degrees Records).
After last week’s micro-show, Johnnie Putman and Steve King return to form with a heaping pile of content and not enough hours in the day to talk about it! We also commemorate the Day the Music Died, a day that pays tribute to the loss of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. We […]
Listen as Sonny reaches into his radio archives to share one of his most treasured interviews with an American music icon: Bobby Vee. Their visit took place on Sonny's show at KMPC Radio in Los Angeles in 1974. Bobby shares his journey of being catapulted into the world of popular music and then looking back, a decade later, as he set out to reinvent himself. He was born Robert Velline in Fargo, ND, and, although he started playing music when he was just a young teenager, it was country music, not rock. However, he, his brother and some friends eventually formed a rock band, "The Shadows", and began to attract some attention in the Fargo area. His big "break" came when rock legends Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in 1959 en route to a concert in Minnesota. The concert's promoters decided to put on the show anyway, and asked for help from local talent. Bobby, who knew the words to all of the songs that were to be played, found himself on stage and, at 15 years old, began his career as a rock star. He and his group had a local hit with "Susie Baby", which came to the attention of executives at Liberty Records in Hollywood, and he and The Shadows were signed to the label. The next few records they cut went basically nowhere, however, and Liberty was all set to cancel their contract when a DJ in Pittsburgh played the "B" side to one of their records, a remake of an old ballad by The Clovers called "Devil or Angel". It became a hit in Pittsburgh and then spread throughout the Northeast, eventually hitting #6 on the national pop charts. Liberty then signed Vee to a five-year contract. He had a string of hits for the label, such as "Take Good Care of My Baby", "Rubber Ball", "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and "Come Back When You Grow Up, Girl". The rest, as they say is history. *Bobby died on October 24, 2026 from complications of Alzheimer's disease, but not before leaving a legacy unforgettable music, lasting friendships and wonderful memories as a husband, father and grandfather. May he rest in peace.
Episode 169 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Piece of My Heart" and the short, tragic life of Janis Joplin. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a half-hour bonus episode available, on "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat & Tears. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Resources There are two Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here — one, two . For information on Janis Joplin I used three biographies -- Scars of Sweet Paradise by Alice Echols, Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren, and Buried Alive by Myra Friedman. I also referred to the chapter '“Being Good Isn't Always Easy": Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Dusty Springfield, and the Color of Soul' in Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination by Jack Hamilton. Some information on Bessie Smith came from Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay, a book I can't really recommend given the lack of fact-checking, and Bessie by Chris Albertson. I also referred to Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis And the best place to start with Joplin's music is this five-CD box, which contains both Big Brother and the Holding Company albums she was involved in, plus her two studio albums and bonus tracks. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I start, this episode contains discussion of drug addiction and overdose, alcoholism, mental illness, domestic abuse, child abandonment, and racism. If those subjects are likely to cause you upset, you may want to check the transcript or skip this one rather than listen. Also, a subject I should probably say a little more about in this intro because I know I have inadvertently caused upset to at least one listener with this in the past. When it comes to Janis Joplin, it is *impossible* to talk about her without discussing her issues with her weight and self-image. The way I write often involves me paraphrasing the opinions of the people I'm writing about, in a mode known as close third person, and sometimes that means it can look like I am stating those opinions as my own, and sometimes things I say in that mode which *I* think are obviously meant in context to be critiques of those attitudes can appear to others to be replicating them. At least once, I have seriously upset a fat listener when talking about issues related to weight in this manner. I'm going to try to be more careful here, but just in case, I'm going to say before I begin that I think fatphobia is a pernicious form of bigotry, as bad as any other form of bigotry. I'm fat myself and well aware of how systemic discrimination affects fat people. I also think more generally that the pressure put on women to look a particular way is pernicious and disgusting in ways I can't even begin to verbalise, and causes untold harm. If *ANYTHING* I say in this episode comes across as sounding otherwise, that's because I haven't expressed myself clearly enough. Like all people, Janis Joplin had negative characteristics, and at times I'm going to say things that are critical of those. But when it comes to anything to do with her weight or her appearance, if *anything* I say sounds critical of her, rather than of a society that makes women feel awful for their appearance, it isn't meant to. Anyway, on with the show. On January the nineteenth, 1943, Seth Joplin typed up a letter to his wife Dorothy, which read “I wish to tender my congratulations on the anniversary of your successful completion of your production quota for the nine months ending January 19, 1943. I realize that you passed through a period of inflation such as you had never before known—yet, in spite of this, you met your goal by your supreme effort during the early hours of January 19, a good three weeks ahead of schedule.” As you can probably tell from that message, the Joplin family were a strange mixture of ultraconformism and eccentricity, and those two opposing forces would dominate the personality of their firstborn daughter for the whole of her life. Seth Joplin was a respected engineer at Texaco, where he worked for forty years, but he had actually dropped out of engineering school before completing his degree. His favourite pastime when he wasn't at work was to read -- he was a voracious reader -- and to listen to classical music, which would often move him to tears, but he had also taught himself to make bathtub gin during prohibition, and smoked cannabis. Dorothy, meanwhile, had had the possibility of a singing career before deciding to settle down and become a housewife, and was known for having a particularly beautiful soprano voice. Both were, by all accounts, fiercely intelligent people, but they were also as committed as anyone to the ideals of the middle-class family even as they chafed against its restrictions. Like her mother, young Janis had a beautiful soprano voice, and she became a soloist in her church choir, but after the age of six, she was not encouraged to sing much. Dorothy had had a thyroid operation which destroyed her singing voice, and the family got rid of their piano soon after (different sources say that this was either because Dorothy found her daughter's singing painful now that she couldn't sing herself, or because Seth was upset that his wife could no longer sing. Either seems plausible.) Janis was pushed to be a high-achiever -- she was given a library card as soon as she could write her name, and encouraged to use it, and she was soon advanced in school, skipping a couple of grades. She was also by all accounts a fiercely talented painter, and her parents paid for art lessons. From everything one reads about her pre-teen years, she was a child prodigy who was loved by everyone and who was clearly going to be a success of some kind. Things started to change when she reached her teenage years. Partly, this was just her getting into rock and roll music, which her father thought a fad -- though even there, she differed from her peers. She loved Elvis, but when she heard "Hound Dog", she loved it so much that she tracked down a copy of Big Mama Thornton's original, and told her friends she preferred that: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog"] Despite this, she was still also an exemplary student and overachiever. But by the time she turned fourteen, things started to go very wrong for her. Partly this was just down to her relationship with her father changing -- she adored him, but he became more distant from his daughters as they grew into women. But also, puberty had an almost wholly negative effect on her, at least by the standards of that time and place. She put on weight (which, again, I do not think is a negative thing, but she did, and so did everyone around her), she got a bad case of acne which didn't ever really go away, and she also didn't develop breasts particularly quickly -- which, given that she was a couple of years younger than the other people in the same classes at school, meant she stood out even more. In the mid-sixties, a doctor apparently diagnosed her as having a "hormone imbalance" -- something that got to her as a possible explanation for why she was, to quote from a letter she wrote then, "not really a woman or enough of one or something." She wondered if "maybe something as simple as a pill could have helped out or even changed that part of me I call ME and has been so messed up.” I'm not a doctor and even if I were, diagnosing historical figures is an unethical thing to do, but certainly the acne, weight gain, and mental health problems she had are all consistent with PCOS, the most common endocrine disorder among women, and it seems likely given what the doctor told her that this was the cause. But at the time all she knew was that she was different, and that in the eyes of her fellow students she had gone from being pretty to being ugly. She seems to have been a very trusting, naive, person who was often the brunt of jokes but who desperately needed to be accepted, and it became clear that her appearance wasn't going to let her fit into the conformist society she was being brought up in, while her high intelligence, low impulse control, and curiosity meant she couldn't even fade into the background. This left her one other option, and she decided that she would deliberately try to look and act as different from everyone else as possible. That way, it would be a conscious choice on her part to reject the standards of her fellow pupils, rather than her being rejected by them. She started to admire rebels. She became a big fan of Jerry Lee Lewis, whose music combined the country music she'd grown up hearing in Texas, the R&B she liked now, and the rebellious nature she was trying to cultivate: [Excerpt: Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"] When Lewis' career was derailed by his marriage to his teenage cousin, Joplin wrote an angry letter to Time magazine complaining that they had mistreated him in their coverage. But as with so many people of her generation, her love of rock and roll music led her first to the blues and then to folk, and she soon found herself listening to Odetta: [Excerpt: Odetta, "Muleskinner Blues"] One of her first experiences of realising she could gain acceptance from her peers by singing was when she was hanging out with the small group of Bohemian teenagers she was friendly with, and sang an Odetta song, mimicking her voice exactly. But young Janis Joplin was listening to an eclectic range of folk music, and could mimic more than just Odetta. For all that her later vocal style was hugely influenced by Odetta and by other Black singers like Big Mama Thornton and Etta James, her friends in her late teens and early twenties remember her as a vocal chameleon with an achingly pure soprano, who would more often than Odetta be imitating the great Appalachian traditional folk singer Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, "Lord Randall"] She was, in short, trying her best to become a Beatnik, despite not having any experience of that subculture other than what she read in books -- though she *did* read about them in books, devouring things like Kerouac's On The Road. She came into conflict with her mother, who didn't understand what was happening to her daughter, and who tried to get family counselling to understand what was going on. Her father, who seemed to relate more to Janis, but who was more quietly eccentric, put an end to that, but Janis would still for the rest of her life talk about how her mother had taken her to doctors who thought she was going to end up "either in jail or an insane asylum" to use her words. From this point on, and for the rest of her life, she was torn between a need for approval from her family and her peers, and a knowledge that no matter what she did she couldn't fit in with normal societal expectations. In high school she was a member of the Future Nurses of America, the Future Teachers of America, the Art Club, and Slide Rule Club, but she also had a reputation as a wild girl, and as sexually active (even though by all accounts at this point she was far less so than most of the so-called "good girls" – but her later activity was in part because she felt that if she was going to have that reputation anyway she might as well earn it). She also was known to express radical opinions, like that segregation was wrong, an opinion that the other students in her segregated Texan school didn't even think was wrong, but possibly some sort of sign of mental illness. Her final High School yearbook didn't contain a single other student's signature. And her initial choice of university, Lamar State College of Technology, was not much better. In the next town over, and attended by many of the same students, it had much the same attitudes as the school she'd left. Almost the only long-term effect her initial attendance at university had on her was a negative one -- she found there was another student at the college who was better at painting. Deciding that if she wasn't going to be the best at something she didn't want to do it at all, she more or less gave up on painting at that point. But there was one positive. One of the lecturers at Lamar was Francis Edward "Ab" Abernethy, who would in the early seventies go on to become the Secretary and Editor of the Texas Folklore Society, and was also a passionate folk musician, playing double bass in string bands. Abernethy had a great collection of blues 78s. and it was through this collection that Janis first discovered classic blues, and in particular Bessie Smith: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Black Mountain Blues"] A couple of episodes ago, we had a long look at the history of the music that now gets called "the blues" -- the music that's based around guitars, and generally involves a solo male vocalist, usually Black during its classic period. At the time that music was being made though it wouldn't have been thought of as "the blues" with no modifiers by most people who were aware of it. At the start, even the songs they were playing weren't thought of as blues by the male vocalist/guitarists who played them -- they called the songs they played "reels". The music released by people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Son House, Robert Johnson, Kokomo Arnold and so on was thought of as blues music, and people would understand and agree with a phrase like "Lonnie Johnson is a blues singer", but it wasn't the first thing people thought of when they talked about "the blues". Until relatively late -- probably some time in the 1960s -- if you wanted to talk about blues music made by Black men with guitars and only that music, you talked about "country blues". If you thought about "the blues", with no qualifiers, you thought about a rather different style of music, one that white record collectors started later to refer to as "classic blues" to differentiate it from what they were now calling "the blues". Nowadays of course if you say "classic blues", most people will think you mean Muddy Waters or John Lee Hooker, people who were contemporary at the time those white record collectors were coming up with their labels, and so that style of music gets referred to as "vaudeville blues", or as "classic female blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] What we just heard was the first big blues hit performed by a Black person, from 1920, and as we discussed in the episode on "Crossroads" that revolutionised the whole record industry when it came out. The song was performed by Mamie Smith, a vaudeville performer, and was originally titled "Harlem Blues" by its writer, Perry Bradford, before he changed the title to "Crazy Blues" to get it to a wider audience. Bradford was an important figure in the vaudeville scene, though other than being the credited writer of "Keep A-Knockin'" he's little known these days. He was a Black musician and grew up playing in minstrel shows (the history of minstrelsy is a topic for another day, but it's more complicated than the simple image of blackface that we are aware of today -- though as with many "more complicated than that" things it is, also the simple image of blackface we're aware of). He was the person who persuaded OKeh records that there would be a market for music made by Black people that sounded Black (though as we're going to see in this episode, what "sounding Black" means is a rather loaded question). "Crazy Blues" was the result, and it was a massive hit, even though it was marketed specifically towards Black listeners: [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] The big stars of the early years of recorded blues were all making records in the shadow of "Crazy Blues", and in the case of its very biggest stars, they were working very much in the same mould. The two most important blues stars of the twenties both got their start in vaudeville, and were both women. Ma Rainey, like Mamie Smith, first performed in minstrel shows, but where Mamie Smith's early records had her largely backed by white musicians, Rainey was largely backed by Black musicians, including on several tracks Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider"] Rainey's band was initially led by Thomas Dorsey, one of the most important men in American music, who we've talked about before in several episodes, including the last one. He was possibly the single most important figure in two different genres -- hokum music, when he, under the name "Georgia Tom" recorded "It's Tight Like That" with Tampa Red: [Excerpt: Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, "It's Tight Like That"] And of course gospel music, which to all intents and purposes he invented, and much of whose repertoire he wrote: [Excerpt: Mahalia Jackson, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"] When Dorsey left Rainey's band, as we discussed right back in episode five, he was replaced by a female pianist, Lil Henderson. The blues was a woman's genre. And Ma Rainey was, by preference, a woman's woman, though she was married to a man: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "Prove it on Me"] So was the biggest star of the classic blues era, who was originally mentored by Rainey. Bessie Smith, like Rainey, was a queer woman who had relationships with men but was far more interested in other women. There were stories that Bessie Smith actually got her start in the business by being kidnapped by Ma Rainey, and forced into performing on the same bills as her in the vaudeville show she was touring in, and that Rainey taught Smith to sing blues in the process. In truth, Rainey mentored Smith more in stagecraft and the ways of the road than in singing, and neither woman was only a blues singer, though both had huge success with their blues records. Indeed, since Rainey was already in the show, Smith was initially hired as a dancer rather than a singer, and she also worked as a male impersonator. But Smith soon branched out on her own -- from the beginning she was obviously a star. The great jazz clarinettist Sidney Bechet later said of her "She had this trouble in her, this thing that would not let her rest sometimes, a meanness that came and took her over. But what she had was alive … Bessie, she just wouldn't let herself be; it seemed she couldn't let herself be." Bessie Smith was signed by Columbia Records in 1923, as part of the rush to find and record as many Black women blues singers as possible. Her first recording session produced "Downhearted Blues", which became, depending on which sources you read, either the biggest-selling blues record since "Crazy Blues" or the biggest-selling blues record ever, full stop, selling three quarters of a million copies in the six months after its release: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Downhearted Blues"] Smith didn't make royalties off record sales, only making a flat fee, but she became the most popular Black performer of the 1920s. Columbia signed her to an exclusive contract, and she became so rich that she would literally travel between gigs on her own private train. She lived an extravagant life in every way, giving lavishly to her friends and family, but also drinking extraordinary amounts of liquor, having regular affairs, and also often physically or verbally attacking those around her. By all accounts she was not a comfortable person to be around, and she seemed to be trying to fit an entire lifetime into every moment. From 1923 through 1929 she had a string of massive hits. She recorded material in a variety of styles, including the dirty blues: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Empty Bed Blues] And with accompanists like Louis Armstrong: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong, "Cold in Hand Blues"] But the music for which she became best known, and which sold the best, was when she sang about being mistreated by men, as on one of her biggest hits, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do" -- and a warning here, I'm going to play a clip of the song, which treats domestic violence in a way that may be upsetting: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "'Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness if I Do"] That kind of material can often seem horrifying to today's listeners -- and quite correctly so, as domestic violence is a horrifying thing -- and it sounds entirely too excusing of the man beating her up for anyone to find it comfortable listening. But the Black feminist scholar Angela Davis has made a convincing case that while these records, and others by Smith's contemporaries, can't reasonably be considered to be feminist, they *are* at the very least more progressive than they now seem, in that they were, even if excusing it, pointing to a real problem which was otherwise left unspoken. And that kind of domestic violence and abuse *was* a real problem, including in Smith's own life. By all accounts she was terrified of her husband, Jack Gee, who would frequently attack her because of her affairs with other people, mostly women. But she was still devastated when he left her for a younger woman, not only because he had left her, but also because he kidnapped their adopted son and had him put into a care home, falsely claiming she had abused him. Not only that, but before Jack left her closest friend had been Jack's niece Ruby and after the split she never saw Ruby again -- though after her death Ruby tried to have a blues career as "Ruby Smith", taking her aunt's surname and recording a few tracks with Sammy Price, the piano player who worked with Sister Rosetta Tharpe: [Excerpt: Ruby Smith with Sammy Price, "Make Me Love You"] The same month, May 1929, that Gee left her, Smith recorded what was to become her last big hit, and most well-known song, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out": [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] And that could have been the theme for the rest of her life. A few months after that record came out, the Depression hit, pretty much killing the market for blues records. She carried on recording until 1931, but the records weren't selling any more. And at the same time, the talkies came in in the film industry, which along with the Depression ended up devastating the vaudeville audience. Her earnings were still higher than most, but only a quarter of what they had been a year or two earlier. She had one last recording session in 1933, produced by John Hammond for OKeh Records, where she showed that her style had developed over the years -- it was now incorporating the newer swing style, and featured future swing stars Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden in the backing band: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Gimme a Pigfoot"] Hammond was not hugely impressed with the recordings, preferring her earlier records, and they would be the last she would ever make. She continued as a successful, though no longer record-breaking, live act until 1937, when she and her common-law husband, Lionel Hampton's uncle Richard Morgan, were in a car crash. Morgan escaped, but Smith died of her injuries and was buried on October the fourth 1937. Ten thousand people came to her funeral, but she was buried in an unmarked grave -- she was still legally married to Gee, even though they'd been separated for eight years, and while he supposedly later became rich from songwriting royalties from some of her songs (most of her songs were written by other people, but she wrote a few herself) he refused to pay for a headstone for her. Indeed on more than one occasion he embezzled money that had been raised by other people to provide a headstone. Bessie Smith soon became Joplin's favourite singer of all time, and she started trying to copy her vocals. But other than discovering Smith's music, Joplin seems to have had as terrible a time at university as at school, and soon dropped out and moved back in with her parents. She went to business school for a short while, where she learned some secretarial skills, and then she moved west, going to LA where two of her aunts lived, to see if she could thrive better in a big West Coast city than she did in small-town Texas. Soon she moved from LA to Venice Beach, and from there had a brief sojourn in San Francisco, where she tried to live out her beatnik fantasies at a time when the beatnik culture was starting to fall apart. She did, while she was there, start smoking cannabis, though she never got a taste for that drug, and took Benzedrine and started drinking much more heavily than she had before. She soon lost her job, moved back to Texas, and re-enrolled at the same college she'd been at before. But now she'd had a taste of real Bohemian life -- she'd been singing at coffee houses, and having affairs with both men and women -- and soon she decided to transfer to the University of Texas at Austin. At this point, Austin was very far from the cultural centre it has become in recent decades, and it was still a straitlaced Texan town, but it was far less so than Port Arthur, and she soon found herself in a folk group, the Waller Creek Boys. Janis would play autoharp and sing, sometimes Bessie Smith covers, but also the more commercial country and folk music that was popular at the time, like "Silver Threads and Golden Needles", a song that had originally been recorded by Wanda Jackson but at that time was a big hit for Dusty Springfield's group The Springfields: [Excerpt: The Waller Creek Boys, "Silver Threads and Golden Needles"] But even there, Joplin didn't fit in comfortably. The venue where the folk jams were taking place was a segregated venue, as everywhere around Austin was. And she was enough of a misfit that the campus newspaper did an article on her headlined "She Dares to Be Different!", which read in part "She goes barefooted when she feels like it, wears Levi's to class because they're more comfortable, and carries her Autoharp with her everywhere she goes so that in case she gets the urge to break out into song it will be handy." There was a small group of wannabe-Beatniks, including Chet Helms, who we've mentioned previously in the Grateful Dead episode, Gilbert Shelton, who went on to be a pioneer of alternative comics and create the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and Shelton's partner in Rip-Off Press, Dave Moriarty, but for the most part the atmosphere in Austin was only slightly better for Janis than it had been in Port Arthur. The final straw for her came when in an annual charity fundraiser joke competition to find the ugliest man on campus, someone nominated her for the "award". She'd had enough of Texas. She wanted to go back to California. She and Chet Helms, who had dropped out of the university earlier and who, like her, had already spent some time on the West Coast, decided to hitch-hike together to San Francisco. Before leaving, she made a recording for her ex-girlfriend Julie Paul, a country and western musician, of a song she'd written herself. It's recorded in what many say was Janis' natural voice -- a voice she deliberately altered in performance in later years because, she would tell people, she didn't think there was room for her singing like that in an industry that already had Joan Baez and Judy Collins. In her early years she would alternate between singing like this and doing her imitations of Black women, but the character of Janis Joplin who would become famous never sang like this. It may well be the most honest thing that she ever recorded, and the most revealing of who she really was: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, "So Sad to Be Alone"] Joplin and Helms made it to San Francisco, and she started performing at open-mic nights and folk clubs around the Bay Area, singing in her Bessie Smith and Odetta imitation voice, and sometimes making a great deal of money by sounding different from the wispier-voiced women who were the norm at those venues. The two friends parted ways, and she started performing with two other folk musicians, Larry Hanks and Roger Perkins, and she insisted that they would play at least one Bessie Smith song at every performance: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin, Larry Hanks, and Roger Perkins, "Black Mountain Blues (live in San Francisco)"] Often the trio would be joined by Billy Roberts, who at that time had just started performing the song that would make his name, "Hey Joe", and Joplin was soon part of the folk scene in the Bay Area, and admired by Dino Valenti, David Crosby, and Jerry Garcia among others. She also sang a lot with Jorma Kaukonnen, and recordings of the two of them together have circulated for years: [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and Jorma Kaukonnen, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out"] Through 1963, 1964, and early 1965 Joplin ping-ponged from coast to coast, spending time in the Bay Area, then Greenwich Village, dropping in on her parents then back to the Bay Area, and she started taking vast quantities of methamphetamine. Even before moving to San Francisco she had been an occasional user of amphetamines – at the time they were regularly prescribed to students as study aids during exam periods, and she had also been taking them to try to lose some of the weight she always hated. But while she was living in San Francisco she became dependent on the drug. At one point her father was worried enough about her health to visit her in San Francisco, where she managed to fool him that she was more or less OK. But she looked to him for reassurance that things would get better for her, and he couldn't give it to her. He told her about a concept that he called the "Saturday night swindle", the idea that you work all week so you can go out and have fun on Saturday in the hope that that will make up for everything else, but that it never does. She had occasional misses with what would have been lucky breaks -- at one point she was in a motorcycle accident just as record labels were interested in signing her, and by the time she got out of the hospital the chance had gone. She became engaged to another speed freak, one who claimed to be an engineer and from a well-off background, but she was becoming severely ill from what was by now a dangerous amphetamine habit, and in May 1965 she decided to move back in with her parents, get clean, and have a normal life. Her new fiance was going to do the same, and they were going to have the conformist life her parents had always wanted, and which she had always wanted to want. Surely with a husband who loved her she could find a way to fit in and just be normal. She kicked the addiction, and wrote her fiance long letters describing everything about her family and the new normal life they were going to have together, and they show her painfully trying to be optimistic about the future, like one where she described her family to him: "My mother—Dorothy—worries so and loves her children dearly. Republican and Methodist, very sincere, speaks in clichés which she really means and is very good to people. (She thinks you have a lovely voice and is terribly prepared to like you.) My father—richer than when I knew him and kind of embarrassed about it—very well read—history his passion—quiet and very excited to have me home because I'm bright and we can talk (about antimatter yet—that impressed him)! I keep telling him how smart you are and how proud I am of you.…" She went back to Lamar, her mother started sewing her a wedding dress, and for much of the year she believed her fiance was going to be her knight in shining armour. But as it happened, the fiance in question was described by everyone else who knew him as a compulsive liar and con man, who persuaded her father to give him money for supposed medical tests before the wedding, but in reality was apparently married to someone else and having a baby with a third woman. After the engagement was broken off, she started performing again around the coffeehouses in Austin and Houston, and she started to realise the possibilities of rock music for her kind of performance. The missing clue came from a group from Austin who she became very friendly with, the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and the way their lead singer Roky Erickson would wail and yell: [Excerpt: The 13th Floor Elevators, "You're Gonna Miss Me (live)"] If, as now seemed inevitable, Janis was going to make a living as a performer, maybe she should start singing rock music, because it seemed like there was money in it. There was even some talk of her singing with the Elevators. But then an old friend came to Austin from San Francisco with word from Chet Helms. A blues band had formed, and were looking for a singer, and they remembered her from the coffee houses. Would she like to go back to San Francisco and sing with them? In the time she'd been away, Helms had become hugely prominent in the San Francisco music scene, which had changed radically. A band from the area called the Charlatans had been playing a fake-Victorian saloon called the Red Dog in nearby Nevada, and had become massive with the people who a few years earlier had been beatniks: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "32-20"] When their residency at the Red Dog had finished, several of the crowd who had been regulars there had become a collective of sorts called the Family Dog, and Helms had become their unofficial leader. And there's actually a lot packed into that choice of name. As we'll see in a few future episodes, a lot of West Coast hippies eventually started calling their collectives and communes families. This started as a way to get round bureaucracy -- if a helpful welfare officer put down that the unrelated people living in a house together were a family, suddenly they could get food stamps. As with many things, of course, the label then affected how people thought about themselves, and one thing that's very notable about the San Francisco scene hippies in particular is that they are some of the first people to make a big deal about what we now call "found family" or "family of choice". But it's also notable how often the hippie found families took their model from the only families these largely middle-class dropouts had ever known, and structured themselves around men going out and doing the work -- selling dope or panhandling or being rock musicians or shoplifting -- with the women staying at home doing the housework. The Family Dog started promoting shows, with the intention of turning San Francisco into "the American Liverpool", and soon Helms was rivalled only by Bill Graham as the major promoter of rock shows in the Bay Area. And now he wanted Janis to come back and join this new band. But Janis was worried. She was clean now. She drank far too much, but she wasn't doing any other drugs. She couldn't go back to San Francisco and risk getting back on methamphetamine. She needn't worry about that, she was told, nobody in San Francisco did speed any more, they were all on LSD -- a drug she hated and so wasn't in any danger from. Reassured, she made the trip back to San Francisco, to join Big Brother and the Holding Company. Big Brother and the Holding Company were the epitome of San Francisco acid rock at the time. They were the house band at the Avalon Ballroom, which Helms ran, and their first ever gig had been at the Trips Festival, which we talked about briefly in the Grateful Dead episode. They were known for being more imaginative than competent -- lead guitarist James Gurley was often described as playing parts that were influenced by John Cage, but was equally often, and equally accurately, described as not actually being able to keep his guitar in tune because he was too stoned. But they were drawing massive crowds with their instrumental freak-out rock music. Helms thought they needed a singer, and he had remembered Joplin, who a few of the group had seen playing the coffee houses. He decided she would be perfect for them, though Joplin wasn't so sure. She thought it was worth a shot, but as she wrote to her parents before meeting the group "Supposed to rehearse w/ the band this afternoon, after that I guess I'll know whether I want to stay & do that for awhile. Right now my position is ambivalent—I'm glad I came, nice to see the city, a few friends, but I'm not at all sold on the idea of becoming the poor man's Cher.” In that letter she also wrote "I'm awfully sorry to be such a disappointment to you. I understand your fears at my coming here & must admit I share them, but I really do think there's an awfully good chance I won't blow it this time." The band she met up with consisted of lead guitarist James Gurley, bass player Peter Albin, rhythm player Sam Andrew, and drummer David Getz. To start with, Peter Albin sang lead on most songs, with Joplin adding yelps and screams modelled on those of Roky Erickson, but in her first gig with the band she bowled everyone over with her lead vocal on the traditional spiritual "Down on Me", which would remain a staple of their live act, as in this live recording from 1968: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me (Live 1968)"] After that first gig in June 1966, it was obvious that Joplin was going to be a star, and was going to be the group's main lead vocalist. She had developed a whole new stage persona a million miles away from her folk performances. As Chet Helms said “Suddenly this person who would stand upright with her fists clenched was all over the stage. Roky Erickson had modeled himself after the screaming style of Little Richard, and Janis's initial stage presence came from Roky, and ultimately Little Richard. It was a very different Janis.” Joplin would always claim to journalists that her stage persona was just her being herself and natural, but she worked hard on every aspect of her performance, and far from the untrained emotional outpouring she always suggested, her vocal performances were carefully calculated pastiches of her influences -- mostly Bessie Smith, but also Big Mama Thornton, Odetta, Etta James, Tina Turner, and Otis Redding. That's not to say that those performances weren't an authentic expression of part of herself -- they absolutely were. But the ethos that dominated San Francisco in the mid-sixties prized self-expression over technical craft, and so Joplin had to portray herself as a freak of nature who just had to let all her emotions out, a wild woman, rather than someone who carefully worked out every nuance of her performances. Joplin actually got the chance to meet one of her idols when she discovered that Willie Mae Thornton was now living and regularly performing in the Bay Area. She and some of her bandmates saw Big Mama play a small jazz club, where she performed a song she wouldn't release on a record for another two years: [Excerpt: Big Mama Thornton, "Ball 'n' Chain"] Janis loved the song and scribbled down the lyrics, then went backstage to ask Big Mama if Big Brother could cover the song. She gave them her blessing, but told them "don't" -- and here she used a word I can't use with a clean rating -- "it up". The group all moved in together, communally, with their partners -- those who had them. Janis was currently single, having dumped her most recent boyfriend after discovering him shooting speed, as she was still determined to stay clean. But she was rapidly discovering that the claim that San Franciscans no longer used much speed had perhaps not been entirely true, as for example Sam Andrew's girlfriend went by the nickname Speedfreak Rita. For now, Janis was still largely clean, but she did start drinking more. Partly this was because of a brief fling with Pigpen from the Grateful Dead, who lived nearby. Janis liked Pigpen as someone else on the scene who didn't much like psychedelics or cannabis -- she didn't like drugs that made her think more, but only drugs that made her able to *stop* thinking (her love of amphetamines doesn't seem to fit this pattern, but a small percentage of people have a different reaction to amphetamine-type stimulants, perhaps she was one of those). Pigpen was a big drinker of Southern Comfort -- so much so that it would kill him within a few years -- and Janis started joining him. Her relationship with Pigpen didn't last long, but the two would remain close, and she would often join the Grateful Dead on stage over the years to duet with him on "Turn On Your Lovelight": [Excerpt: Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, "Turn on Your Lovelight"] But within two months of joining the band, Janis nearly left. Paul Rothchild of Elektra Records came to see the group live, and was impressed by their singer, but not by the rest of the band. This was something that would happen again and again over the group's career. The group were all imaginative and creative -- they worked together on their arrangements and their long instrumental jams and often brought in very good ideas -- but they were not the most disciplined or technically skilled of musicians, even when you factored in their heavy drug use, and often lacked the skill to pull off their better ideas. They were hugely popular among the crowds at the Avalon Ballroom, who were on the group's chemical wavelength, but Rothchild was not impressed -- as he was, in general, unimpressed with psychedelic freakouts. He was already of the belief in summer 1966 that the fashion for extended experimental freak-outs would soon come to an end and that there would be a pendulum swing back towards more structured and melodic music. As we saw in the episode on The Band, he would be proved right in a little over a year, but being ahead of the curve he wanted to put together a supergroup that would be able to ride that coming wave, a group that would play old-fashioned blues. He'd got together Stefan Grossman, Steve Mann, and Taj Mahal, and he wanted Joplin to be the female vocalist for the group, dueting with Mahal. She attended one rehearsal, and the new group sounded great. Elektra Records offered to sign them, pay their rent while they rehearsed, and have a major promotional campaign for their first release. Joplin was very, very, tempted, and brought the subject up to her bandmates in Big Brother. They were devastated. They were a family! You don't leave your family! She was meant to be with them forever! They eventually got her to agree to put off the decision at least until after a residency they'd been booked for in Chicago, and she decided to give them the chance, writing to her parents "I decided to stay w/the group but still like to think about the other thing. Trying to figure out which is musically more marketable because my being good isn't enough, I've got to be in a good vehicle.” The trip to Chicago was a disaster. They found that the people of Chicago weren't hugely interested in seeing a bunch of white Californians play the blues, and that the Midwest didn't have the same Bohemian crowds that the coastal cities they were used to had, and so their freak-outs didn't go down well either. After two weeks of their four-week residency, the club owner stopped paying them because they were so unpopular, and they had no money to get home. And then they were approached by Bob Shad. (For those who know the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Bob Shad in that film is named after this one -- Judd Apatow, the film's director, is Shad's grandson) This Shad was a record producer, who had worked with people like Big Bill Broonzy, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, and Billy Eckstine over an eighteen-year career, and had recently set up a new label, Mainstream Records. He wanted to sign Big Brother and the Holding Company. They needed money and... well, it was a record contract! It was a contract that took half their publishing, paid them a five percent royalty on sales, and gave them no advance, but it was still a contract, and they'd get union scale for the first session. In that first session in Chicago, they recorded four songs, and strangely only one, "Down on Me", had a solo Janis vocal. Of the other three songs, Sam Andrew and Janis dueted on Sam's song "Call on Me", Albin sang lead on the group composition "Blindman", and Gurley and Janis sang a cover of "All Is Loneliness", a song originally by the avant-garde street musician Moondog: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "All is Loneliness"] The group weren't happy with the four songs they recorded -- they had to keep the songs to the length of a single, and the engineers made sure that the needles never went into the red, so their guitars sounded far more polite and less distorted than they were used to. Janis was fascinated by the overdubbing process, though, especially double-tracking, which she'd never tried before but which she turned out to be remarkably good at. And they were now signed to a contract, which meant that Janis wouldn't be leaving the group to go solo any time soon. The family were going to stay together. But on the group's return to San Francisco, Janis started doing speed again, encouraged by the people around the group, particularly Gurley's wife. By the time the group's first single, "Blindman" backed with "All is Loneliness", came out, she was an addict again. That initial single did nothing, but the group were fast becoming one of the most popular in the Bay Area, and almost entirely down to Janis' vocals and on-stage persona. Bob Shad had already decided in the initial session that while various band members had taken lead, Janis was the one who should be focused on as the star, and when they drove to LA for their second recording session it was songs with Janis leads that they focused on. At that second session, in which they recorded ten tracks in two days, the group recorded a mix of material including one of Janis' own songs, the blues track "Women is Losers", and a version of the old folk song "the Cuckoo Bird" rearranged by Albin. Again they had to keep the arrangements to two and a half minutes a track, with no extended soloing and a pop arrangement style, and the results sound a lot more like the other San Francisco bands, notably Jefferson Airplane, than like the version of the band that shows itself in their live performances: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Coo Coo"] After returning to San Francisco after the sessions, Janis went to see Otis Redding at the Fillmore, turning up several hours before the show started on all three nights to make sure she could be right at the front. One of the other audience members later recalled “It was more fascinating for me, almost, to watch Janis watching Otis, because you could tell that she wasn't just listening to him, she was studying something. There was some kind of educational thing going on there. I was jumping around like the little hippie girl I was, thinking This is so great! and it just stopped me in my tracks—because all of a sudden Janis drew you very deeply into what the performance was all about. Watching her watch Otis Redding was an education in itself.” Joplin would, for the rest of her life, always say that Otis Redding was her all-time favourite singer, and would say “I started singing rhythmically, and now I'm learning from Otis Redding to push a song instead of just sliding over it.” [Excerpt: Otis Redding, "I Can't Turn You Loose (live)"] At the start of 1967, the group moved out of the rural house they'd been sharing and into separate apartments around Haight-Ashbury, and they brought the new year in by playing a free show organised by the Hell's Angels, the violent motorcycle gang who at the time were very close with the proto-hippies in the Bay Area. Janis in particular always got on well with the Angels, whose drugs of choice, like hers, were speed and alcohol more than cannabis and psychedelics. Janis also started what would be the longest on-again off-again relationship she would ever have, with a woman named Peggy Caserta. Caserta had a primary partner, but that if anything added to her appeal for Joplin -- Caserta's partner Kimmie had previously been in a relationship with Joan Baez, and Joplin, who had an intense insecurity that made her jealous of any other female singer who had any success, saw this as in some way a validation both of her sexuality and, transitively, of her talent. If she was dating Baez's ex's lover, that in some way put her on a par with Baez, and when she told friends about Peggy, Janis would always slip that fact in. Joplin and Caserta would see each other off and on for the rest of Joplin's life, but they were never in a monogamous relationship, and Joplin had many other lovers over the years. The next of these was Country Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish, who were just in the process of recording their first album Electric Music for the Mind and Body, when McDonald and Joplin first got together: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Grace"] McDonald would later reminisce about lying with Joplin, listening to one of the first underground FM radio stations, KMPX, and them playing a Fish track and a Big Brother track back to back. Big Brother's second single, the other two songs recorded in the Chicago session, had been released in early 1967, and the B-side, "Down on Me", was getting a bit of airplay in San Francisco and made the local charts, though it did nothing outside the Bay Area: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Down on Me"] Janis was unhappy with the record, though, writing to her parents and saying, “Our new record is out. We seem to be pretty dissatisfied w/it. I think we're going to try & get out of the record contract if we can. We don't feel that they know how to promote or engineer a record & every time we recorded for them, they get all our songs, which means we can't do them for another record company. But then if our new record does something, we'd change our mind. But somehow, I don't think it's going to." The band apparently saw a lawyer to see if they could get out of the contract with Mainstream, but they were told it was airtight. They were tied to Bob Shad no matter what for the next five years. Janis and McDonald didn't stay together for long -- they clashed about his politics and her greater fame -- but after they split, she asked him to write a song for her before they became too distant, and he obliged and recorded it on the Fish's next album: [Excerpt: Country Joe and the Fish, "Janis"] The group were becoming so popular by late spring 1967 that when Richard Lester, the director of the Beatles' films among many other classics, came to San Francisco to film Petulia, his follow-up to How I Won The War, he chose them, along with the Grateful Dead, to appear in performance segments in the film. But it would be another filmmaker that would change the course of the group's career irrevocably: [Excerpt: Scott McKenzie, "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"] When Big Brother and the Holding Company played the Monterey Pop Festival, nobody had any great expectations. They were second on the bill on the Saturday, the day that had been put aside for the San Francisco acts, and they were playing in the early afternoon, after a largely unimpressive night before. They had a reputation among the San Francisco crowd, of course, but they weren't even as big as the Grateful Dead, Moby Grape or Country Joe and the Fish, let alone Jefferson Airplane. Monterey launched four careers to new heights, but three of the superstars it made -- Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and the Who -- already had successful careers. Hendrix and the Who had had hits in the UK but not yet broken the US market, while Redding was massively popular with Black people but hadn't yet crossed over to a white audience. Big Brother and the Holding Company, on the other hand, were so unimportant that D.A. Pennebaker didn't even film their set -- their manager at the time had not wanted to sign over the rights to film their performance, something that several of the other acts had also refused -- and nobody had been bothered enough to make an issue of it. Pennebaker just took some crowd shots and didn't bother filming the band. The main thing he caught was Cass Elliot's open-mouthed astonishment at Big Brother's performance -- or rather at Janis Joplin's performance. The members of the group would later complain, not entirely inaccurately, that in the reviews of their performance at Monterey, Joplin's left nipple (the outline of which was apparently visible through her shirt, at least to the male reviewers who took an inordinate interest in such things) got more attention than her four bandmates combined. As Pennebaker later said “She came out and sang, and my hair stood on end. We were told we weren't allowed to shoot it, but I knew if we didn't have Janis in the film, the film would be a wash. Afterward, I said to Albert Grossman, ‘Talk to her manager or break his leg or whatever you have to do, because we've got to have her in this film. I can't imagine this film without this woman who I just saw perform.” Grossman had a talk with the organisers of the festival, Lou Adler and John Phillips, and they offered Big Brother a second spot, the next day, if they would allow their performance to be used in the film. The group agreed, after much discussion between Janis and Grossman, and against the wishes of their manager: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Ball and Chain (live at Monterey)"] They were now on Albert Grossman's radar. Or at least, Janis Joplin was. Joplin had always been more of a careerist than the other members of the group. They were in music to have a good time and to avoid working a straight job, and while some of them were more accomplished musicians than their later reputations would suggest -- Sam Andrew, in particular, was a skilled player and serious student of music -- they were fundamentally content with playing the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore and making five hundred dollars or so a week between them. Very good money for 1967, but nothing else. Joplin, on the other hand, was someone who absolutely craved success. She wanted to prove to her family that she wasn't a failure and that her eccentricity shouldn't stop them being proud of her; she was always, even at the depths of her addictions, fiscally prudent and concerned about her finances; and she had a deep craving for love. Everyone who talks about her talks about how she had an aching need at all times for approval, connection, and validation, which she got on stage more than she got anywhere else. The bigger the audience, the more they must love her. She'd made all her decisions thus far based on how to balance making music that she loved with commercial success, and this would continue to be the pattern for her in future. And so when journalists started to want to talk to her, even though up to that point Albin, who did most of the on-stage announcements, and Gurley, the lead guitarist, had considered themselves joint leaders of the band, she was eager. And she was also eager to get rid of their manager, who continued the awkward streak that had prevented their first performance at the Monterey Pop Festival from being filmed. The group had the chance to play the Hollywood Bowl -- Bill Graham was putting on a "San Francisco Sound" showcase there, featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and got their verbal agreement to play, but after Graham had the posters printed up, their manager refused to sign the contracts unless they were given more time on stage. The next day after that, they played Monterey again -- this time the Monterey Jazz Festival. A very different crowd to the Pop Festival still fell for Janis' performance -- and once again, the film being made of the event didn't include Big Brother's set because of their manager. While all this was going on, the group's recordings from the previous year were rushed out by Mainstream Records as an album, to poor reviews which complained it was nothing like the group's set at Monterey: [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] They were going to need to get out of that contract and sign with somewhere better -- Clive Davis at Columbia Records was already encouraging them to sign with him -- but to do that, they needed a better manager. They needed Albert Grossman. Grossman was one of the best negotiators in the business at that point, but he was also someone who had a genuine love for the music his clients made. And he had good taste -- he managed Odetta, who Janis idolised as a singer, and Bob Dylan, who she'd been a fan of since his first album came out. He was going to be the perfect manager for the group. But he had one condition though. His first wife had been a heroin addict, and he'd just been dealing with Mike Bloomfield's heroin habit. He had one absolutely ironclad rule, a dealbreaker that would stop him signing them -- they didn't use heroin, did they? Both Gurley and Joplin had used heroin on occasion -- Joplin had only just started, introduced to the drug by Gurley -- but they were only dabblers. They could give it up any time they wanted, right? Of course they could. They told him, in perfect sincerity, that the band didn't use heroin and it wouldn't be a problem. But other than that, Grossman was extremely flexible. He explained to the group at their first meeting that he took a higher percentage than other managers, but that he would also make them more money than other managers -- if money was what they wanted. He told them that they needed to figure out where they wanted their career to be, and what they were willing to do to get there -- would they be happy just playing the same kind of venues they were now, maybe for a little more money, or did they want to be as big as Dylan or Peter, Paul, and Mary? He could get them to whatever level they wanted, and he was happy with working with clients at every level, what did they actually want? The group were agreed -- they wanted to be rich. They decided to test him. They were making twenty-five thousand dollars a year between them at that time, so they got ridiculously ambitious. They told him they wanted to make a *lot* of money. Indeed, they wanted a clause in their contract saying the contract would be void if in the first year they didn't make... thinking of a ridiculous amount, they came up with seventy-five thousand dollars. Grossman's response was to shrug and say "Make it a hundred thousand." The group were now famous and mixing with superstars -- Peter Tork of the Monkees had become a close friend of Janis', and when they played a residency in LA they were invited to John and Michelle Phillips' house to see a rough cut of Monterey Pop. But the group, other than Janis, were horrified -- the film barely showed the other band members at all, just Janis. Dave Getz said later "We assumed we'd appear in the movie as a band, but seeing it was a shock. It was all Janis. They saw her as a superstar in the making. I realized that though we were finally going to be making money and go to another level, it also meant our little family was being separated—there was Janis, and there was the band.” [Excerpt: Big Brother and the Holding Company, "Bye Bye Baby"] If the group were going to make that hundred thousand dollars a year, they couldn't remain on Mainstream Records, but Bob Shad was not about to give up his rights to what could potentially be the biggest group in America without a fight. But luckily for the group, Clive Davis at Columbia had seen their Monterey performance, and he was also trying to pivot the label towards the new rock music. He was basically willing to do anything to get them. Eventually Columbia agreed to pay Shad two hundred thousand dollars for the group's contract -- Davis and Grossman negotiated so half that was an advance on the group's future earnings, but the other half was just an expense for the label. On top of that the group got an advance payment of fifty thousand dollars for their first album for Columbia, making a total investment by Columbia of a quarter of a million dollars -- in return for which they got to sign the band, and got the rights to the material they'd recorded for Mainstream, though Shad would get a two percent royalty on their first two albums for Columbia. Janis was intimidated by signing for Columbia, because that had been Aretha Franklin's label before she signed to Atlantic, and she regarded Franklin as the greatest performer in music at that time. Which may have had something to do with the choice of a new song the group added to their setlist in early 1968 -- one which was a current hit for Aretha's sister Erma: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] We talked a little in the last episode about the song "Piece of My Heart" itself, though mostly from the perspective of its performer, Erma Franklin. But the song was, as we mentioned, co-written by Bert Berns. He's someone we've talked about a little bit in previous episodes, notably the ones on "Here Comes the Night" and "Twist and Shout", but those were a couple of years ago, and he's about to become a major figure in the next episode, so we might as well take a moment here to remind listeners (or tell those who haven't heard those episodes) of the basics and explain where "Piece of My Heart" comes in Berns' work as a whole. Bert Berns was a latecomer to the music industry, not getting properly started until he was thirty-one, after trying a variety of other occupations. But when he did get started, he wasted no time making his mark -- he knew he had no time to waste. He had a weak heart and knew the likelihood was he was going to die young. He started an association with Wand records as a songwriter and performer, writing songs for some of Phil Spector's pre-fame recordings, and he also started producing records for Atlantic, where for a long while he was almost the equal of Jerry Wexler or Leiber and Stoller in terms of number of massive hits created. His records with Solomon Burke were the records that first got the R&B genre renamed soul (previously the word "soul" mostly referred to a kind of R&Bish jazz, rather than a kind of gospel-ish R&B). He'd also been one of the few American music industry professionals to work with British bands before the Beatles made it big in the USA, after he became alerted to the Beatles' success with his song "Twist and Shout", which he'd co-written with Phil Medley, and which had been a hit in a version Berns produced for the Isley Brothers: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] That song shows the two elements that existed in nearly every single Bert Berns song or production. The first is the Afro-Caribbean rhythm, a feel he picked up during a stint in Cuba in his twenties. Other people in the Atlantic records team were also partial to those rhythms -- Leiber and Stoller loved what they called the baion rhythm -- but Berns more than anyone else made it his signature. He also very specifically loved the song "La Bamba", especially Ritchie Valens' version of it: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, "La Bamba"] He basically seemed to think that was the greatest record ever made, and he certainly loved that three-chord trick I-IV-V-IV chord sequence -- almost but not quite the same as the "Louie Louie" one. He used it in nearly every song he wrote from that point on -- usually using a bassline that went something like this: [plays I-IV-V-IV bassline] He used it in "Twist and Shout" of course: [Excerpt: The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout"] He used it in "Hang on Sloopy": [Excerpt: The McCoys, "Hang on Sloopy"] He *could* get more harmonically sophisticated on occasion, but the vast majority of Berns' songs show the power of simplicity. They're usually based around three chords, and often they're actually only two chords, like "I Want Candy": [Excerpt: The Strangeloves, "I Want Candy"] Or the chorus to "Here Comes the Night" by Them, which is two chords for most of it and only introduces a third right at the end: [Excerpt: Them, "Here Comes the Night"] And even in that song you can hear the "Twist and Shout"/"La Bamba" feel, even if it's not exactly the same chords. Berns' whole career was essentially a way of wringing *every last possible drop* out of all the implications of Ritchie Valens' record. And so even when he did a more harmonically complex song, like "Piece of My Heart", which actually has some minor chords in the bridge, the "La Bamba" chord sequence is used in both the verse: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] And the chorus: [Excerpt: Erma Franklin, "Piece of My Heart"] Berns co-wrote “Piece of My Heart” with Jerry Ragavoy. Berns and Ragavoy had also written "Cry Baby" for Garnet Mimms, which was another Joplin favourite: [Excerpt: Garnet Mimms, "Cry Baby"] And Ragavoy, with other collaborators
If you’re a parent of a music-loving toddler or grade schooler in the Portland metro area, you may not have heard of Andy Furgeson. You may, however, have heard of Red Yarn, the musical persona that Furgeson has embodied for more than a decade with his signature red beard, acoustic guitar and family-friendly puppets in tow. By his estimation, he performs 200 to 300 shows a year, most of which take place at community events, daycare centers, schools, and the occasional music festival, including Pickathon, the long-running festival at which he’s performed for the past seven years. Furgeson’s 10th and latest studio album, “The Get-Together,” is being released this Friday. It was inspired by his love of ‘50s and ‘60s music when artists like Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, Ritchie Valens and The Drifters mingled on the radio, but reimagined to explore themes like friendship and reading, aimed at appealing to younger audiences. Furgeson joins us in the studio for a live performance and conversation about his musical journey, new album and why he feels like he’s found his calling as Red Yarn.
Who's to blame for The Day the Music Died?This week, The Alarmist (Rebecca Delgado Smith) speaks with prolific musical comedian Caitlin Cook about the tragic plane crash which took the lives of music icons Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. An event later coined “The Day the Music Died,” could the music industry have something to do with it? Perhaps tour manager Pat Mason's poor planning was to blame? Or was this just a tragic act of nature? Fact Checker Chris Smith and Producer Clayton Early join the conversation. Join our Patreon!We have merch!Join our Discord!Tell us who you think is to blame at http://thealarmistpodcast.comEmail us at thealarmistpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram @thealarmistpodcastFollow us on Twitter @alarmistThe Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/alarmist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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