POPULARITY
4 episodes with Seymour Stein
5 episodes with Seymour Stein
5 episodes with Seymour Stein
3 episodes with Seymour Stein
2 episodes with Seymour Stein
2 episodes with Seymour Stein
2 episodes with Seymour Stein
2 episodes with Seymour Stein
2 episodes with Seymour Stein
Championed over the years by the likes of Americana superstar Scott Avett and music mogul Seymour Stein, the music of Clem Snide mainstay Eef Barzelay has become an optimistic, yet matter-of-fact touchstone in a weary world, whether crafting his own musings or covering the inspirational hits of Journey. NPR dubs him "the most underrated songwriter in the business today, with a sneakily firm grasp on poignancy and humor," and while Eef's evocative tone is of a similar caliber to Jeff Mangum or John Darnielle, his sentimental and visual lyricism puts him in a unique category. On this week's program, Eef discusses embracing the unknown, diving back into vinyl with his adult son, and the quandary of carrying on the Clem Snide moniker. Plus, a run-in with a New Jersey state trooper while shooting the album cover for 1999's Your Favorite Music. Eef hits the road later this month; tour dates and tickets are available at clemsni.de. His latest album Oh Smokey is available digitally, or on vinyl from foreignleisure.com. Follow @clemsnidemusic on Instagram.
Get an insider look at artist empowerment with Thaddeus Rudd of Mom + Pop Music. In this new episode entitled, "Mom+Pop's SECRET to Long-Term Success in the Streaming Era", join us as we explore the shift from old major label practices to new strategies in the streaming era. Celebrate 15 years of passionate dedication and hear how personalized support and long-term artist development set Mom + Pop apart. Thaddeus shares anecdotes, talks about global market growth, and discusses the reality of building a music career today.
In this episode we're joined by the esteemed Joe "Mr. C" McEwen, who Zooms in from L.A. to reminisce about his storied career as a writer, DJ and A&R man. We begin in our guest's native Philadelphia, where his teenage mind was blown by a James Brown show in 1966, and follow him up to his adopted Boston. He recalls his early reviews for The Boston Phoenix and revisits his 1975 homage to Sam Cooke for The Real Paper. His 1977 encounter with a 19-year-old Michael Jackson prompts discussion of a comparatively low point in the future superstar's career. From the same year, Joe's profile of Joe Tex leads into clips from the late Cliff White's glorious audio interview with the country-soul legend who'd just scored a hit with the discofied 'Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)'. We discuss Tex's place in the southern soul pantheon before moving on to the marvellous Lost Soul compilations "Mr. C" assembled in 1982. We hear about Joe's A&R years at Columbia and then Sire/Reprise, taking in reminiscences of British bands Ride, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine. He also revisits his working friendships with Sire founder Seymour Stein and with previous RBP podcast guests Geoff Travis, Alan McGee and Rob Dickins. We hear about his role in the '90s "alt.country" phenomenon via the signing of Uncle Tupelo and his subsequent association with spinoff bands Wilco and Son Volt. We conclude with the Sire signing of Muscle Shoals legend Dan Penn for 1994's Do Right Man album. Mark talks us out with quotes from newly-added library pieces about sometime Ikette P.P. Arnold (1967), the Stones' Keith Richard(s) (1969), doomed dub poet Mikey Smith (1983) and the deeply druggy Alice in Chains (1993)... after which Jasper wraps up the episode with his thoughts on pieces about laptop pop (2001) and Kendrick Lamar (2012). Many thanks to special guest Joe McEwen. Pieces discussed: Sam Cooke, Michael Jackson, Joe Tex: The Soul Of An Underdog, Joe Tex audio, Lost Soul, Vols. 1-3, Uncle Tupelo live, Uncle Tupelo: Are you ready for the alt. country?, Wilco: Last Twang in Town, Dan Penn: Once More With Feeling, P.P. Arnold, Keith Richard(s), Mikey Smith: Poet and His Roots, Alice in Chains: Misery loves company, Laptop punk and the powerbook pop and Kendrick Lamar: Inside the Year's Best Album.
In this 1384th episode of Toronto Mike'd, a Toronto Micro-cast, Mike speaks with Marc Nathan about Kon Kan, Meryn Cadell, introducing the Barenaked Ladies to Seymour Stein and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Electronic Products Recycling Association, Raymond James Canada and Moneris. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at mike@torontomike.com
Welcome to the episode 10 of "Women In The Music Industry", a podcast that shines a spotlight on the remarkable women who are breaking barriers and making their mark in an industry that has long been dominated by men. Today's episode features the incredibly talented and driven Meaghan Smith, a Canadian singer/songwriter/artist/illustrator who has overcome many odds to completely dominate the sync music scene, having had her music appear in hundreds of TV & Film placements. Listen to her powerful story of having it all, having it all disappear, and having it all again through sheer love and determination to chart a new and extremely successful career path in the music industry. If you are enjoying this video series, please rate/review/subscribe/tell everyone about it. Every little bit helps. Instagram: @themeaghansmith Web: www.meaghansmith.com
On today's episode Brandon pays tribute to Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein who passed away on April 2nd. During his time with Sire he was responsible for signing The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Pretenders and Madonna. And for better or for wrose he is also credited with inventing the term New Wave.
A quick set in tribute to Seymour Stein and some modern folky sike.playlist here: https://spinitron.com/m/playlist/view/17210236
On April 2, 2023, the music world lost a pivotal figure in Seymour Stein. As a teenager, Stein worked for Billboard Magazine and was instrumental in the development of the standard bearer for measuring pop music success in the United States, the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1966, Stein co-founded Sire Records with Richard Gottherer. In the earliest days of the label, much of their focus was on bringing UK underground and progressive music to US record buyers, with distribution deals with London and ABC. Stein's most fruitful alliance was with Warner Brothers, where Sire was responsible for breaking punk, new wave, and alternative artists including Ramones, Talking Heads, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Replacements, The Ocean Blue, and many more to American audiences...not to mention one of the biggest pop stars to walk the earth, Madonna. We salute the spectacular Sire Records catalogue and remember Seymour Stein this week. Our Third Lad is a self-professed rock n' roll historian and fellow Sire Records afficionado, Brian Eichenberger from the wonderful podcast Rock n Roll Bedtime Stories. Each week, Brian and his friend/co-host Murdock go deep to discuss (and set straight) the rumor, innuendo, and hidden details that surround some of your favorite bands and songs. We're big fans of the show, and think you will be too! It's only fitting for Brian's appearance that we tell a few titillating bedtime stories during the episode: How Seymour Stein chased Dee Dee Ramone out of his bedroom! Sire passes on a legendary guitarist! The artist who pestered Seymour in the hospital! Crazy Phil Spector! Find out who Uncle Gregg nearly punched! Fake bands and unscrupulous managers! Fake TV songs! Tiffany! So tuck yourself in tight and let us aurally cuddle with you. Only Three Lads is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This must be Talking Heads — A song by song, album by album look at their music
This episode is dedicated to the life and memory of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Seymour Stein. Launching into season 2, I present a portrait of David Byrne as a young artist, examine the relationship between his artistic work and his music, why he left art school, and whet your appetite for the journey ahead. Songs from this episode: Who (w. St Vincent) Heart's a lonely hunter (w. Thievery Corporation) Loco de Amor (w. Celia Cruz) Everybody's coming to my house Like humans do Lazy Miss America Strange Overtones (w. Brian Eno) Don't fence me in Let's dance (live w. Miley Cyrus) Heroes (live w. Choir! Choir! Choir!) Fame (live w. Kimbra and The Roots) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On April 2, 2023, the music world lost a pivotal figure in Seymour Stein. As a teenager, Stein worked for Billboard Magazine and was instrumental in the development of the standard bearer for measuring pop music success in the United States, the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1966, Stein co-founded Sire Records with Richard Gottherer. In the earliest days of the label, much of their focus was on bringing UK underground and progressive music to US record buyers, with distribution deals with London and ABC. Stein's most fruitful alliance was with Warner Brothers, where Sire was responsible for breaking punk, new wave, and alternative artists including Ramones, Talking Heads, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Replacements, The Ocean Blue, and many more to American audiences...not to mention one of the biggest pop stars to walk the earth, Madonna. We salute the spectacular Sire Records catalogue and remember Seymour Stein this week. Our Third Lad is a self-professed rock n' roll historian and fellow Sire Records afficionado, Brian Eichenberger from the wonderful podcast Rock n Roll Bedtime Stories. Each week, Brian and his friend/co-host Murdock go deep to discuss (and set straight) the rumor, innuendo, and hidden details that surround some of your favorite bands and songs. We're big fans of the show, and think you will be too! It's only fitting for Brian's appearance that we tell a few titillating bedtime stories during the episode: How Seymour Stein chased Dee Dee Ramone out of his bedroom! Sire passes on a legendary guitarist! The artist who pestered Seymour in the hospital! Crazy Phil Spector! Find out who Uncle Gregg nearly punched! Fake bands and unscrupulous managers! Fake TV songs! Tiffany! So tuck yourself in tight and let us aurally cuddle with you. Only Three Lads is a proud member of the Pantheon Podcasts family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot highlight new music that listeners may have missed: musical buried treasures. They're joined by their production staff as well. They also pay tribute to music industry legend Seymour Stein and hear feedback from listeners. Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9T Become a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvc Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnG Make a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lU Send us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundops Featured Songs: Kate Fagan, "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool," I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool, Captured, 2023 Sunny War, "No Reason," Anarchist Gospel, New West, 2023 Man's Body, "Dark Horse Matter," Dark Horse Matter (Single), Sofa Hablando Music/Heyday Media Group, 2023 Miko Marks and The Resurrectors, "Trouble," Feel Like Going Home, Redtone, 2022 Jen Cloher, "My Witch," I Am the River, the River Is Me, Milk!, 2023 Flycatcher, "Always Selfish," Stunt, Memory, 2023 Jim Legxacy, "Old Place," Old Place (Single), !, 2023 Jenn Howard, "Better Than You Think," Valiant Women, self-released, 2023 Kevin Atwater, "star tripping," star tripping (Single), self-released, 2022 Carol Ades, "Sunny Disposition," Sadtown USA - EP, C-Penn, 2022 Buster Williams, "The Wisdom of Silence," Unalome, Smoke Sessions, 2023 Gina Birch, "I Play My Bass Loud," I Play My Bass Loud, Third Man, 2023 Mariee Siou, "Snake Hoop," Circle of Signs, self-released, 2023 Belle and Sebastian, "Seymour Stein," The Boy with the Arab Strap, Matador, 1998 Poster Children, "She Walks," Flower Plower, Frontier, 1991 Jai Paul, "BTSTU," Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones), XL, 2011 The Specials, "Gangsters," (Single), 2-Tone, 1979 Cavetown, "Worm Food," Worm Food, Sire, 2022 Eleventh Dream Day, "Among The Pines," Prairie School Freakout, Amoeba, 1988Support The Show: https://www.patreon.com/soundopinionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode we welcome author and Guardian journalist Andy Beckett to RBP's Hammersmith HQ and ask him to discuss politics and pop from the late '70s to the present day. Andy talks about his first musical passions as a teenager in the early '80s, as well as about Rock Against Racism, Red Wedge and the politicised postpunk era in general. He recalls his first pieces for The Independent in the early '90s and explains how his broader interest in popular culture informs his perspective as an op-ed columnist and the author of When the Lights Went Out and Promised You a Miracle. In a week that saw Finland joining NATO and the indictment of Donald Trump, we ask what musicians can and can't do to change the world. The imminent new album from proto-Woke duo Everything But The Girl gives us an opportunity to address the enduring political ideals of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn, plus we travel back to 1981 via clips from an audio interview with The Beat's David Steele and Ranking Roger, who talk to John Tobler about youth unemployment and the menace of nuclear weapons. After we've paid our respects to departed legends Seymour Stein and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark talks us through his new additions to the RBP library, including pieces about the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, Joan Armatrading, Talking Heads and Sun Ra. Jasper then wraps up the episode with his thoughts on a 2002 live review of Queens of the Stone Age and a 2015 piece exploring the influence of Spaghetti Westerns on reggae. Many thanks to special guest Andy Beckett. Pieces discussed: Andy Beckett on Dylan, on Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up, on The Face, Everything But The Girl, Peter Paul and Mary, War Between the Generations, Enoch Clapton, Red Wedge, Where are the political pop stars?, The Beat audio, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Seymour Stein, Sgt. Pepper, Joan Armatrading, Talking Heads, Sun Ra, Queens of the Stone Age and dub spaghetti. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A special hour-long Sire Records-centric issue honoring the life of the legendary Seymour Stein featuring an interview with Tommy Stinson (The Replacements, Bash and Pop, Cowboys in the Campire etc.) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebottomforty/support
In this 1236th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Steven Page and discuss the role of the late Seymour Stein in Barenaked Ladies landing a US record deal. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, the Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris, The Moment Lab, Ridley Funeral Home and Electronic Products Recycling Association.
In this bonus episode, we revisit a 2015 interview Greg did with Sire Records founder Seymour Stein. Stein died April 2 at 80 years old. Join our Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3sivr9T Become a member on Patreon: https://bit.ly/3slWZvc Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/3eEvRnG Make a donation via PayPal: https://bit.ly/3dmt9lU Send us a Voice Memo: Desktop: bit.ly/2RyD5Ah Mobile: sayhi.chat/soundopsSupport The Show: https://www.patreon.com/soundopinionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode we welcome author and Guardian journalist Andy Beckett to RBP's Hammersmith HQ and ask him to discuss politics and pop from the late '70s to the present day. Andy talks about his first musical passions as a teenager in the early '80s, as well as about Rock Against Racism, Red Wedge and the politicised postpunk era in general. He recalls his first pieces for The Independent in the early '90s and explains how his broader interest in popular culture informs his perspective as an op-ed columnist and the author of When the Lights Went Out and Promised You a Miracle. In a week that saw Finland joining NATO and the indictment of Donald Trump, we ask what musicians can and can't do to change the world. The imminent new album from proto-Woke duo Everything But The Girl gives us an opportunity to address the enduring political ideals of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn, plus we travel back to 1981 via clips from an audio interview with The Beat's David Steele and Ranking Roger, who talk to John Tobler about youth unemployment and the menace of nuclear weapons. After we've paid our respects to departed legends Seymour Stein and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mark talks us through his new additions to the RBP library, including pieces about the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, Joan Armatrading, Talking Heads and Sun Ra. Jasper then wraps up the episode with his thoughts on a 2002 live review of Queens of the Stone Age and a 2015 piece exploring the influence of Spaghetti Westerns on reggae. Many thanks to special guest Andy Beckett. Pieces discussed: Andy Beckett on Dylan, on Simon Reynolds' Rip It Up, on The Face, Everything But The Girl, Peter Paul and Mary, War Between the Generations, Enoch Clapton, Red Wedge, Where are the political pop stars?, The Beat audio, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Seymour Stein, Sgt. Pepper, Joan Armatrading, Talking Heads, Sun Ra, Queens of the Stone Age and dub spaghetti.
In the latest episode of Retrosonic Podcast we welcome Mickey Bradley, bassist of The Undertones prior to their "Celebrating 45 Years of Teenage Kicks Tour" (or a 'series of weekends away' according to Mickey). We discuss his excellent book "Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone" (Omnibus Press) and he picks some of his favourite songs and music that had an impact on the early days of The Undertones. Sadly, we recorded the episode the day that Seymour Stein passed away, so Mickey pays tribute to his former Sire Records label boss and picks his favourite Sire Records release. Throughout the show, we discover his influences as a bassist, some of his favourite music related books and authors, how he missed Paul Simonon smashing his bass while touring with The Clash, the influence of Lenny Kaye's "Nuggets" compilation and he picks some pivotal early Undertones tracks. We also cover last year's excellent compilation of the best of the current Paul McLoone fronted line-up "Dig What You Need". As you would expect, Mickey is entertaining company and the episode is soundtracked by loads of Mickey's superb musical choices including Ramones, David Bowie, The Jam, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Dr, Feelgood, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Rolling Stones and 13th Floor Elevators. For full track-listing and links please check out the feature at Retro Man Blog at the following link: https://retroman65.blogspot.com/2023/04/retrosonic-podcast-with-mickey-bradley.html Retrosonic Podcast has a valid PRS Licence.
AI disruption, the circle of life; prompt engineering; AIQL; Tesla workers sharing sensitive customer images; Twitter blue ticks still around, except for organizations Elon doesn't like; SpaceX Starlink satellites "deorbiting"; Midjourney bans Jinping images; Google's Bard spins conspiracies; TikTok fined; Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy; Meta cuts more jobs; Roku picking up properties; Picard; Succession; You're Dead to Me; Shirley Manson; World's Greatest Con; Zane Lamprey; Lucky Hank; Punk Rock Museum; the Cranes; Google Drive file creation cap backlash; Apple Watch trick; the Mandalorian & Jack Black; Star Wars news; alcohol recovery startups sharing confidential user data; Oakland's ransomware attack; Operation Cookie Monster.Sponsors:Kolide - Visit kolide.com/gog to learn more or book a demo.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.Show notes at: https://gog.show/596/FOLLOW UPGoldman Sachs Predicts 300 Million Jobs Will Be Lost Or Degraded By Artificial IntelligenceThe Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic GrowthPrompt Engineer and LibrarianAI 'prompt engineer' jobs can pay up to $335,000 a year and don't always require a background in techAI prompt engineer: the hottest new job in tech?Prompt engineeringIN THE NEWSSpecial Report: Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer carsJury reduces Tesla's $137 million racism lawsuit penalty to $3.2 millionThe Morning After: Twitter keeps legacy verified blue ticks around, for nowTwitter designates NPR as 'US state-affiliated media'SpaceX's Next-Gen Starlink Satellites Have Started Falling From SpaceMidjourney Bans AI Images of Chinese President Xi JinpingYouTuber Proves ChatGPT Can Manufacture Free Windows KeysGoogle's Bard Writes Convincingly About Known Conspiracy TheoriesUK privacy watchdog fines TikTok $15.8 million for misusing kids' dataTesla sales again fall short of productionGM to reject “phone projected” audio; will develop in-car subscription platformsVirgin Orbit files for bankruptcy protection as it seeks a buyerMeta's job cuts are gutting customer service, leaving influencers and businesses with nobody to callMEDIA CANDYMany canceled HBO shows, including ‘Westworld' and ‘Raised by Wolves,' are now on RokuPicardSuccessionTed LassoYou're Dead To Me PodcastEPISODE 59: SHIRLEY MANSON: LOL & BUDGIE LOVE SHIRLEY – TRUE!WORLD'S GREATEST CONZane Lamprey: Tender LooksLucky HankAltered CarbonTravelersThe Punk Rock MuseumCranes Reunite with Original Lineup for 30th Anniversary of “Forever”How to write a Bauhaus song in 1 minuteHow to make a Depeche Mode song in 1 minuteAPPS & DOODADSGoogle removes 5 million file creation cap for Drive after backlashHere's why macOS has the Bitcoin whitepaper hidden in its filesTHE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEThe CyberWireDave BittnerHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopDon't tell anything to a chatbot you want to keep privateTwo alcohol recovery startups just got caught sharing private user dataI declined to share my medical data with advertisers at my doctor's office. One company claimed otherwiseRansomware hackers leak second batch of city data from Oakland attackFBI seizes a giant online marketplace for stolen loginsCLOSING SHOUT-OUTSRemembering Sire Records' Seymour Stein, whose musical taste shaped a generationSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Record biz giant Seymour Stein died last Sunday at age 80. He was the co-founder of Sire Records, which he ran from 1966 until he stepped down in 2018. We're have two archival interviews with Stein. Over his long career, he signed a wide range of pioneering artists from The Ramones and Madonna to Talking Heads, The Pretenders, k.d. lang and Ice-T.Also, we listen back to our interview with Joni Mitchell. She recently received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Music. Justin Chang reviews the film Air, about the origin story of Nike's Air Jordans, starring and directed by Ben Affleck.
We were lucky to talk to Seymour Stein on two occasions. In his memory, we've compiled the most memorable moments from those appearances. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bent News #53!!! -RIP Sire Records founder Seymour Stein! -Sharon Osbourne confirms Ozzy to perform at Power Trip! -Tornado kills fan at Morbid Angel show in Illinois! -Mick Mars sues the Crue! -Geezer Butler announces Into The Void autobiography! -Maynard weighs in on Tool's touring future! -Putin issues Pussy Riot warrant! -Fripp & Toyah's return, Neil Diamond faces PD diagnosis & more! #PunkRockMonth is April on the podcast! Get ready for Black Flag!!! When you want to hear any episode of the podcast, click here: https://imbalancedhistory.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Topics include:Motley Crue is beefing w/ other old rock guys Do we need an Oasis reunion ?Cee-Lo signs with Death Row MBU: mogul Seymour Stein, LFO singer Brian GillisSLAPS: SBTRKT feat. Toro y moi, Natalie Merchant, Mudhoney, Albert Hammond Jr feat. GoldlinkDoes It Slap Playlist The Hustle Season on Patreon Our Linktree:::::ADVERTISE ON THE HUSTLE SEASON PODCAST:::::Have a business/event you want to get out to listeners?Are you an out of town band coming to Richmond and want to promote your gig ?? Buy a spot on the Hustle Season Podcast, starts at $25. So easy!!
Bent News #53!!! -RIP Sire Records founder Seymour Stein! -Sharon Osbourne confirms Ozzy to perform at Power Trip! -Tornado kills fan at Morbid Angel show in Illinois! -Mick Mars sues the Crue! -Geezer Butler announces Into The Void autobiography! -Maynard weighs in on Tool's touring future! -Putin issues Pussy Riot warrant! -Fripp & Toyah's return, Neil Diamond faces PD diagnosis & more! #PunkRockMonth is April on the podcast! Get ready for Black Flag!!! When you want to hear any episode of the podcast, click here: https://imbalancedhistory.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Record biz giant Seymour Stein died last Sunday at age 80. He was the co-founder of Sire Records, which he ran from 1966 until he stepped down in 2018. We're have two archival interviews with Stein. Over his long career, he signed a wide range of pioneering artists from The Ramones and Madonna to Talking Heads, The Pretenders, k.d. lang and Ice-T.Also, we listen back to our interview with Joni Mitchell. She recently received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Music. Justin Chang reviews the film Air, about the origin story of Nike's Air Jordans, starring and directed by Ben Affleck.
Today is Thursday, so Howie Klein joins us from Down with Tyranny and the Blue America PAC where we usually talk politics. And there's lots to talk about today, including the travesty unfolding in Nashville right now as the TN state legislature is seeking to expel three Democrats from the legislature because they dared to stand with the protestors following last week's mass school shooting in Nashville. But Howie was a music industry icon back when we first met in Los Angeles almost 30 years ago. Before he was president of Reprise Records, Howie worked with Seymour Stein at the groundbreaking Sire Records. Stein died this week, so I'll ask Howie to share what he did that was so important. But we'll start today with John Nichols, national correspondent for The Nation magazine, and from a family who's been in Wisconsin for, I believe, seven generations. On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters made sure the state's Supreme Court would be controlled by Democrats, thereby blocking the Republicans from enacting an ancient provision from putting another nail in the coffin of women's reproductive rights.
Sire records Co-founder/President Seymour Stein has passed away at the age of 80. We pay tribute to a true maverick and musical pulse reader that defined multiple eras and genres. The Man who Signed the Ramones and Madonna has a legacy as rich as the amount of people touched by his life and passing. From late 70s alternative/art rock to 80s new wave - he helped cultivate a sounds of generations. Signing everyone from Echo and the Bunnymen to Depeche Mode and the Cure in the 80s, he along with his wife Linda and Team helped create an legendary roster of artists today. Many are rock and roll hall of famers and pioneers in the music industry. Later while still at the Sire records helm bands like the Hives, Tegan and Sara saw their US label bring them to the forefront of American audiences with US breakout records arriving via Sire. Albums from Ice-T to Finnish heroes HIM-Sire released an embarrassment of riches. Seymour Stein was at the helm for most, retiring in 2018 at 75. Thanks for everything Seymour!
In which we cast a warm but appraising glance in the direction of the week's news and alight upon the following sizzling topics … … the best media job in the world. … the most played record in the history of the BBC. … the Avengers franchise “is just a giant ATM for Marvel and produces argument-proof movies”. … the most influential thing about John Peel wasn't the music he liked. … found: the owner of the VW van on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. … Seymour Stein, the man who signed the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna - and met Buddy Holly. And only signed musicians if they had enough drive - “Ambition is basically dissatisfaction with where and who you are. You're born with demons that you have to harness before they kill you.” … Ben Sidran's 34 albums and how Spotify saves everyone from disappearing. … the return of the Stackwaddy game – Crushed Butler, Clog, Highly Inflammable and other deathless 1971 support acts. … the attractively unfathomable lyrics of Keith Reid and the ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale' court case. … why AO Scott left the New York Times. … and birthday guest Chris Lintott nominates his “prawn cocktail DJ”. Our Seymour Stein podcast in 2018 …https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee8319657 The campervan on the cover of the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan …https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/24/bob-dylan-iconic-vw-van-blue-camper-freewheelin-new-york--------Fancy a free case of beer? Celebrate the warmer days with a free case of exceptional beers from Beer52! Simply go to www.beer52.com/WORD and cover the meagre postage cost of £5.95 to claim your free case now.--------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377---------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In which we cast a warm but appraising glance in the direction of the week's news and alight upon the following sizzling topics … … the best media job in the world. … the most played record in the history of the BBC. … the Avengers franchise “is just a giant ATM for Marvel and produces argument-proof movies”. … the most influential thing about John Peel wasn't the music he liked. … found: the owner of the VW van on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. … Seymour Stein, the man who signed the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna - and met Buddy Holly. And only signed musicians if they had enough drive - “Ambition is basically dissatisfaction with where and who you are. You're born with demons that you have to harness before they kill you.” … Ben Sidran's 34 albums and how Spotify saves everyone from disappearing. … the return of the Stackwaddy game – Crushed Butler, Clog, Highly Inflammable and other deathless 1971 support acts. … the attractively unfathomable lyrics of Keith Reid and the ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale' court case. … why AO Scott left the New York Times. … and birthday guest Chris Lintott nominates his “prawn cocktail DJ”. Our Seymour Stein podcast in 2018 …https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee8319657 The campervan on the cover of the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan …https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/24/bob-dylan-iconic-vw-van-blue-camper-freewheelin-new-york--------Fancy a free case of beer? Celebrate the warmer days with a free case of exceptional beers from Beer52! Simply go to www.beer52.com/WORD and cover the meagre postage cost of £5.95 to claim your free case now.--------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377---------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In which we cast a warm but appraising glance in the direction of the week's news and alight upon the following sizzling topics … … the best media job in the world. … the most played record in the history of the BBC. … the Avengers franchise “is just a giant ATM for Marvel and produces argument-proof movies”. … the most influential thing about John Peel wasn't the music he liked. … found: the owner of the VW van on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. … Seymour Stein, the man who signed the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna - and met Buddy Holly. And only signed musicians if they had enough drive - “Ambition is basically dissatisfaction with where and who you are. You're born with demons that you have to harness before they kill you.” … Ben Sidran's 34 albums and how Spotify saves everyone from disappearing. … the return of the Stackwaddy game – Crushed Butler, Clog, Highly Inflammable and other deathless 1971 support acts. … the attractively unfathomable lyrics of Keith Reid and the ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale' court case. … why AO Scott left the New York Times. … and birthday guest Chris Lintott nominates his “prawn cocktail DJ”. Our Seymour Stein podcast in 2018 …https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee8319657 The campervan on the cover of the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan …https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/24/bob-dylan-iconic-vw-van-blue-camper-freewheelin-new-york--------Fancy a free case of beer? Celebrate the warmer days with a free case of exceptional beers from Beer52! Simply go to www.beer52.com/WORD and cover the meagre postage cost of £5.95 to claim your free case now.--------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377---------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Markus and Ray stagedive into this episode all about The Ramones!!! (Finally...) From the way they formed, the way they "took their Ramones names" (and our boys assume theirs), how the band evolved, and what they did to forge American Punk Rock: the guys cover it all, and then some!Approaching this amazing band from different ages at the same time lends to some great perspective on Joey and the boys! Hey! Ho! Let's go! It's The Brotherhood Of The Ramones!We love our sponsors!!! Please visit their web sites, and support them because they make this crazy show go:Boldfoot Socks https://boldfoot.comCrooked Eye Brewery https://crookedeyebrewery.com/Don't forget that you can find all of our episodes, on-demand, for free right here on our web site: https://imbalancedhistory.com/
www.iconsandoutlaws.com Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton was born June 22, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City, right here in the U.S., to Catholic parents, Fred and Catrine. Her mother was from Sicily. She has two siblings, a younger brother Fred (nicknamed Butch), and an older sister, Ellen. Her parents divorced when she was five. Her earliest childhood days were spent in Brooklyn, but when she was about four years old, the family moved to Ozone Park, Queens, where she lived in a railroad-style apartment through her teenage years. Growing up, Lauper felt like an outcast. She grew up listening to such artists as The Beatles and Judy Garland. Then, at only 12 years old, she began writing songs and playing an acoustic guitar that she got from her sister. Cyndi was primarily raised by her mother, who worked as a waitress to support the family. Mom loved the arts and frequently took Cyndi and her siblings to Manhattan to see Shakespeare plays or visit art museums. However, Cyndi did not do particularly well in school. She was reportedly kicked out of several parochial schools in her youth. Raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Cyndi Lauper recounted in Boze Hadleigh's "Inside the Hollywood Closet" the time a nun attacked her after catching a nine-year-old Lauper scratching a friend's back: "A nun ran in, ripped me off her back, threw me against the lockers, beat the s**t out of me, and called me a lesbian." As many kids do, she expressed herself with various hair colors and eccentric clothing. She took a friend's advice to spell her name as "Cyndi" rather than "Cindy." Unfortunately, her" unusual" sense of style led to classmates bullying her and even throwing stones at her. Lauper went to Richmond Hill High School, where she was expelled but later earned her GED. In her book, Cyndi revealed that after her stepfather threatened to sexually assault her and her sister and then secretly watched her take a bath, she left home for good. Cyndi left Home at 17 to escape her creepy ass stepfather, intending to study art. Her journey took her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually traveled to Vermont, taking art classes at Johnson State College and supporting herself by working odd jobs. Money was sparse, so she waitressed, served as an office assistant, and even sang in a Japanese restaurant for a time. At one point, her boyfriend at the time hunted and shot a squirrel, which she cooked up and ate. Lauper also faced an unplanned pregnancy, which she wanted, but her boyfriend did not. So, Lauper terminated the pregnancy. "Nobody wants to run in and do that," She later told HuffPost. "It's just that I didn't want to have a kid that I love come into the world and not be able to share the kid with a dad." During this period, Cyndi got around by hitchhiking. Unfortunately, she put herself into close quarters with some potentially crappy individuals, such as the man who gave her a ride and forced her to perform a sexual act on him. "I just wanted to be able to live through it, get to the other side of it." On another occasion, she was assaulted by a bandmate and two accomplices. Sometimes, it all understandably got too overwhelming for Lauper. "A lot of times I couldn't take it anymore, so I just lay in bed all the time," Lauper wrote. "When I really couldn't deal with anything, I used to get the shakes, just complete anxiety attacks." In 2019, Lauper gave the commencement address at Northern Vermont University-Johnson, the academic institution that now includes Johnson State. At this event, NVU awarded her the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. In the early 1970s, Cyndi performed as a vocalist with several different cover bands. One of those bands, Doc West, covered disco songs and Janis Joplin. A later band, Flyer, was active in the New York metropolitan area, singing songs by bands including Bad Company, Jefferson Airplane, and Logan's favorite, Led Zeppelin. Although She was performing on stage and loving that part, she was not happy singing covers. One night, while singing a cover of Kiki Dee's "I've Got the Music in Me" in 1974, her voice gave out. But it came back shortly after, and Lauper continued to sing in cover bands and a Janis Joplin tribute act. Then, in 1977, Cyndi's pipes said no more. Her voice disappeared again, and doctors discovered that she'd suffered a collapsed vocal cord. Recommended by her temporary replacement in the Joplin cover band, Lauper sought the help of vocal coach Katie Agresta. She helped heal Cyndi and provided her with the tools and techniques to prevent it from happening again. Agresta also helped her realize that she was singing the wrong music entirely, discovering that she was more suited to pop, not hard rock. As Lauper wrote in her memoir, "[I realized] what I was aching for — to sing my own songs, in my own voice, in my own style, that I made up myself." In 1978, Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper formed a band named Blue Angel, Combining a New Wave look with a '60s throwback sound, and recorded a demo tape of original music. Steve Massarsky, manager of The Allman Brothers Band, heard the tape and liked Lauper's voice. He bought Blue Angel's contract for $5,000 and became their manager. "The playing was bad. There was something interesting about the singer's voice, but that was all," he later told Rolling Stone. Massarky set up a few major label showcases, but they all thought the same thing; the band wasn't great, but the singer was something special. Lauper received recording offers as a solo artist but held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made. She even turned down the chance to record a song by herself for the soundtrack to the MeatLoaf movie Roadie, produced by legendary disco song crafter Giorgio Moroder, the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. Blue Angel was eventually signed by Polydor Records and released a self-titled album on the label in 1980. Lauper hated the artwork, saying it made her look like Big Bird. Still, Rolling Stone magazine later included it as one of the 100 best new wave album covers (2003). Despite critical acclaim, the album sold poorly ("It went lead," as Lauper later joked), and the band broke up. The members of Blue Angel had a falling-out with Massarsky and fired him as their manager. He later filed an $80,000 suit against them, which forced Cyndi into bankruptcy. She then temporarily lost her voice due to an inverted cyst in her vocal cord. After Blue Angel broke up, Cyndi worked in retail stores, waitressing at IHOP (which she quit after being demoted to the hostess when the manager sexually harassed her), and singing in local clubs. Her most frequent gigs were at El Sombrero, which sounds like they have amazing chimichangas. Music critics who saw Her perform with Blue Angel believed she had star potential due to her four-octave singing range, which was not an easy feat. Then, in 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Cyndi met David Wolff. He took over as her manager and had her sign a recording contract with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records. On October 14, 1983, Cyndi released her first solo album," She's So Unusual." The album became a worldwide hit, peaking at No. 4 in the U.S. and reaching the top five in eight other countries. She became extremely popular with teenagers and critics, partly due to her hybrid punk image, which was crafted by stylist Patrick Lucas. Lauper co-wrote four songs on She's So Unusual, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop." On the songs she did not write, Lauper sometimes changed the lyrics. Such is the case with "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," originally written and recorded by Robert Hazard, which you can find on YouTube, and it's pretty awesome. She found the original lyrics misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women. The album includes five cover songs, including The Brains' new wave track "Money Changes Everything" (No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100) and Prince's "When You Were Mine." The album made Cyndi Lauper the first female artist to have four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 top five hits from one album. The L.P. has stayed in the Top 200 charts for over 65 weeks and sold 16 million copies worldwide. Cyndi won Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards. She's So Unusual also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), and Song of the Year (for "Time After Time"). She wore almost a pound of necklaces at her award ceremony. It also won the Grammy for Best Album Package, which went to the art director, Janet Perr. The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" won the inaugural award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, making Cyndi an MTV staple. The video featured professional wrestling manager "Captain" Lou Albano as Lauper's father and her real-life mother, Catrine, as her mother, and also featured her attorney, her manager, her brother Butch, and her dog Sparkle. She was a huge wrestling fan. In 1984–85, Cyndi appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone magazine, Time, and Newsweek. In addition, she appeared twice on the cover of People and was named a Ms. magazine Woman of the Year in 1985. In 1985, she participated in "USA for Africa's" famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World," which has sold more than 20 million copies since then. At the Grammys in 1985, She appeared with another professional wrestler, a Mr. Terry" Hulk" Hogan, who played her "bodyguard." "'The Grammy means a lot to me,' said Cyndi (in the arms of Hulk Hogan) after winning Best New Artist, 'Because I never thought I would amount to anything. I always wanted to make art.'" She would later make many appearances as herself in a number of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" events and played Wendi Richter's manager in the very first WrestleMania event. Dave Wolff, Lauper's boyfriend and manager at the time, was a wrestling fan as a boy and helped set up the rock and wrestling connection. In 1985, Cyndi released the single "The Goonies' R' Good Enough," from the soundtrack to the movie The Goonies and an accompanying video that featured several wrestling stars. The song reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She then received two nominations at the 1986 Grammy Awards: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "What a Thrill" and Best Long Form Music Video for Cyndi Lauper in Paris. Cyndi released her second album, "True Colors," in 1986. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 42 and has sold roughly 7 million copies. In 1986, She appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge, with a song called "Code of Silence." She is credited with having written the lyrics with Joel, and she sings a duet with him. In the same year, Cyndi also sang the theme song for Pee-wee's Playhouse, credited as "Ellen Shaw." In 1987, David Wolff produced a concert film called Cyndi Lauper in Paris. The concert was broadcast on HBO. Cyndi made her film debut in August 1988 in the comedy Vibes, alongside a nobody named Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, and Julian Sands. She played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America. To prepare for the role, Cyndi took a few finger-waving and hair-setting classes at the Robert Fiancé School of Beauty in New York and studied with a few Manhattan psychics. The film flopped and was poorly received by critics but would later be considered a cult classic. Cyndi then contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)" for the Vibes soundtrack, but the song was not included. Instead, a high-energy, comic action/adventure romp through a Chinese laundry video for the song was released. The song reached No. 54 on the U.S. charts, but did way better in Australia, reaching No. 8. Cyndi's third album, A Night to Remember, was released in 1989. The album had one hit, the No. 6 single "I Drove All Night," originally recorded by Roy Orbison, three years before his death on December 6, 1988. Cyndi received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards for That track. Still, overall, album sales for the album were down. A side note; The music video for the song "My First Night Without You" was one of the first to be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. That record sold around 1.3 million copies. Due to her friendship with a familiar name here at Icons and Outlaws, Yoko Ono, Cyndi was a part of the May 1990 John Lennon tribute concert in Liverpool. She performed the Beatles song "Hey Bulldog" and the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero." She was also involved in Sean Lennon's project, "The Peace Choir, "performing a new version of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance." Shortly after, the album was met with a dismal response, and she split with her boyfriend and manager, David Wolff. Cyndi lived alone in a New York hotel, emotionally drained and considering suicide. "I had come so far but felt like I had failed," she wrote in Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir (via Bullyville). "I would go to the studio, and then sit in my dark room and drink vodka. I had to spend most of my time alone. I was grieving. I thought the sadness would never go away." Indirectly, it was Cyndi's best-known song that encouraged her to try to crawl out of her low place: "The only thing that always prevented me from suicide is that I never wanted a headline to read, 'Girl who wanted to have fun just didn't.'" On November 24, 1991, Cyndi married actor David Thornton, who's been in home alone 3, John Q with Denzel, and that god-awful tear-jerker, the Notebook. Cyndi's fourth album, "Hat Full of Stars," was released in June 1993 and was met with critical acclaim but failed commercially, unsupported by her label. The album tackled topics like homophobia, spousal abuse, racism, and abortion, sold fewer than 120,000 copies in the United States and peaked at No. 112 on the Billboard charts. The album's song "Sally's Pigeons" video features the then-unknown Julia Stiles playing a young Cyndi. You may remember Julia from ten things I hate about you, alongside a young Heath Ledger. In 1993, Cyndi returned to acting, playing Michael J. Fox's ditzy secretary in the movie Life with Mikey. She also won an Emmy Award for her role as Marianne Lugasso in the hugely popular sitcom Mad About You with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt. On November 19, 1997, Cyndi gave birth to her son, Declyn Wallace Lauper Thornton, who is now a trap rapper. Her fifth album," Sisters of Avalon," was released in Japan in 1996 and worldwide in 1997. Just like "Hat Full of Stars," some songs on "Sisters of Avalon" addressed dark themes. The song "Ballad of Cleo and Joe" addressed the complications of a drag queen's double life. The song "Say a Prayer" was written for a friend who had died from AIDS. "Unhook the Stars" was used in the movie of the same name. Again without support from her label, the release failed in America, spending a week on the Billboard album chart at No. 188. This album also received much critical praise, including People magazine, which declared it "'90s nourishment for body and soul. Lauper sets a scene, makes us care, gives us hope." Let's just say it… her label sucks! On January 17, 1999, Cyndi appeared as an animated version of herself in The Simpsons episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken." She sang the National Anthem to the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" melody. That same year, she opened for Cher's Do You Believe? Tour alongside Wild Orchid. Yeah, that group with a young Fergie. Cyndi also appeared in the films "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" and The "Opportunists." In addition, she contributed to the soundtrack of the 2000 animated film, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, performing the song "I Want a Mom That Will Last Forever." On October 12, 2000, Cyndi took part in the television show Women in Rock, Girls with Guitars performing with Ann Wilson of Heart and with the girl group Destiny's Child and the queen B herself!. A CD of the songs performed was released exclusively to Sears stores from September 30 to October 31, 2001, and was marketed as a fundraiser for breast cancer. In 2002, Sony issued a best-of CD, The Essential Cyndi Lauper. Cyndi also released a cover album with Sony/Epic Records entitled At Last (formerly Naked City), which was released in 2003. At Last received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for "Unchained Melody." The effort was also a commercial hit, selling 4.5 million records. In April 2004, Cyndi performed during the VH1's benefit concert, "Divas Live" 2004, alongside Ashanti, Gladys Knight, Jessica Simpson, Joss Stone, and Patti LaBelle. This event supported the Save the Music Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America's public schools and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child's complete education. She made appearances on Showtime's hit show "Queer as Folk" in 2005, directed a commercial for the Totally 80s edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit in 2006, served as a judge on the 6th Annual Independent Music Awards, and made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated "The Threepenny Opera" playing "Jenny." In addition, she performed with Shaggy, Scott Weiland of Velvet Revolver/Stone Temple Pilots, Pat Monahan of Train, Ani DiFranco, and The Hooters in the VH1 Classics special Decades Rock Live. In 2006, she sang "Message To Michael" with Dionne Warwick and "Beecharmer" with Nellie McKay on McKay's Pretty Little Head album. On October 16, 2006, Cyndi was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, she served as a guest performer on the song "Lady in Pink" on an episode of the Nick Jr. show, The Backyardigans. Cyndi's sixth studio album, "Bring Ya to the Brink," was released in the United States on May 27, 2008. Regarded as one of her best works when it was released, the Songwriters Hall of Fame has regarded the album track 'High and Mighty' as one of her essential songs. The album would be Cyndi's last release to date of original material, in addition to being her last for Epic Records, her label since her 1983 debut solo album. The album debuted at #41 on the Billboard 200, with 12,000 copies sold. Other projects for 2008 included the True Colors Tour and a Christmas duet with Swedish band The Hives, entitled "A Christmas Duel." The song was released as a CD single and a 7" vinyl in Sweden. Lauper also performed on "Girls Night Out," headlining it with Rosie O'Donnell in the U.S. On November 17, 2009, Cyndi performed with Wyclef Jean in a collaboration called "Slumdog Millionaire," on The Late Show with David Letterman. In January 2010, Mattel released a Cyndi Lauper Barbie doll as part of their "Ladies of the 80s" series. In March 2010, Cyndi appeared on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice with the then-future president, Donald Trump, coming in sixth place. Cyndi's 7th studio album, Memphis Blues, was released on June 22, 2010, and debuted on the Billboard Blues Albums chart at No. 1 and at No. 26 on the Billboard Top 200. The album remained No. 1 on the Blues Albums chart for 14 consecutive weeks; Memphis Blues was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 2011 Grammy Awards. According to the Brazilian daily newspaper O Globo, the album had sold 600,000 copies worldwide by November 2010. In addition, Cyndi set out on her most extensive tour ever, the Memphis Blues Tour, which had more than 140 shows, to support the album. Cyndi made international news in March 2011 for an impromptu performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" while waiting for a delayed flight at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires. A video was later posted on YouTube. In November 2011, she released two Christmas singles exclusive to iTunes. The first release was a Blues-inspired cover of Elvis Presley's classic "Blue Christmas," and the second was a new version of "Home for the holidays," a duet with Norah Jones. In June 2012, Lauper made her first appearance for WWE in 27 years to promote WWE Raw's 1000th episode to memorialize "Captain" Lou Albano. In September 2012, Cyndi performed at fashion designer Betsey Johnson's 40-year Retrospective Fashion show. She also released a New York Times best-selling memoir, "Cyndi Lauper A Memoir," which detailed her struggle with child abuse and depression. Cyndi then composed music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, with Harvey Fierstein writing the book. The musical was based on the 2006 independent film Kinky Boots. The musical tells the story of Charlie Price. Having inherited a shoe factory from his father, Charlie forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen Lola to produce a line of high-heeled boots and save the business. It opened in Chicago in October 2012 and on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on April 4, 2013. She won Best Score for Kinky Boots in May at the 63rd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards. The musical led the 2013 Tony Awards, with 13 nominations and six wins, including Best Musical and Best Actor. In addition, she won the award for Best Original Score. Cyndi was the first woman to win solo in this category. After a six-year run and 2,507 regular shows, Kinky Boots ended its Broadway run on April 7, 2019. It is the 25th-longest-running Broadway musical in history. It grossed $297 million on Broadway. In the summer of 2013, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her debut album "She's So Unusual," Cyndi embarked on an international tour covering America and Australia. The show consisted of a mix of fan favorites and the entirety of the She's So Unusual record. She stated:" It's been such an amazing year for me. When I realized it's also the anniversary of the album that started my solo career, I knew it was the perfect time to thank my fans for sticking with me through it all. I'm so excited to perform She's So Unusual from beginning to end, song by song and I can't wait to see everyone!" The tourtour grossed over $1 million She was a guest on 36 dates of Cher's Dressed to Kill tour, starting April 23, 2014. In addition, a new album was confirmed by her in a website interview. Cyndi hosted the Grammy Pre-Telecast at the Nokia Theatre, L.A., on January 26, later accepting a Grammy for Kinky Boots (for Best Musical Theater Album). On April 1 (March 1 in Europe), Cyndi released the 30th Anniversary edition of She's So Unusual through Epic Records. It featured a remastered version of the original album plus three new remixes. The Deluxe Edition featured bonus tracks such as demos, a live recording, and a 3D cut-out of the bedroom featured in the 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' music video with a reusable sticker set. On September 17, 2014, Cyndi sang on the finale of America's Got Talent. Then, on September 25, as part of the Today Show's "Shine a Light" series, she re-recorded "True Colors" in a mashup with Sara Bareilles' "Brave" to raise awareness and money for children battling cancer. By October, the project had raised over $300,000. The Songwriters Hall of Fame added Cyndi to its nomination list in October 2014. Also, her fourth consecutive 'Home for the Holidays' benefit concert for homeless gay youth was announced in October. Acts included 50 Cent and Laverne Cox, with 100% of the net proceeds going to True Colors United. In July 2015, She announced a project with producer Seymour Stein. She later told Rolling Stone it was a country album co-produced by Tony Brown. On September 15, 2015, Kinky Boots opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London's West End. In January 2016, Cyndi announced she would release a new album on May 6, 2016. This record was made up of her interpretations of early country classics entitled "Detour." The announcement was supported by a release of her version of Harlan Howard's "Heartaches by the Number" and a performance on Skyville Live with Kelsea Ballerini and Ingrid Michaelson. Then, on February 17, 2016, she released her version of Wanda Jackson's "Funnel of Love." In February 2016, Cyndi was nominated for an Olivier Award for contributing to the U.K. production of the play "Kinky Boots" along with Stephen Oremus, the man in charge of the arrangements. In January 2017, this production's album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. In May 2016, she was featured on "Swipe to the Right" from Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise by French producer Jean-Michel Jarre. This second album of the Electronica project is based on collaborations with artists like Tangerine Dream, Moby, Pet Shop Boys, and more. In October 2016, her son Dex Lauper was the opening act for her in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, for her dates on her Detour Tour. In January 2017, Cyndi was featured on Austin City Limits' 42nd season, performing some classic bangers alongside some of her country tunes from the "Detour." album. The episode aired on PBS. In March 2018, it was announced that Cyndi and co- "Time After Time" songwriter Rob Hyman would compose the score for the musical version of the 1988 film "Working Girl." Ya know the movie that starred Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver. She teamed up with Hyman because she wanted "the music to sound like the 80s". The musical would be staged by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley. A developmental production premiere of the musical is planned for the 2021/2022 season. For Grandin Road, Cyndi exclusively designed her own Christmas collection, 'Cyndi Lauper Loves Christmas', available from September 2018. "I've always loved Christmas. It reminds me to find some happiness in the little things," she said. Her annual Home For The Holidays concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York was held on December 8, 2018. Cyndi guest starred, playing a lawyer in an episode of the reboot of the television series Magnum P.I.. The episode, titled "Sudden Death", aired on October 22, 2018. On November 15, 2018, iBillboard announced that Cyndi would receive the Icon Award at the Billboard's 13th annual Women in Music Event on December 6 in New York City. According to Billboard's editorial director, Jason Lipshutz, "The entire world recognizes the power of Cyndi Lauper's pop music, and just as crucially, she has used her undeniable talent to soar beyond music, create positive change in modern society and become a true icon." The song "Together" was featured in the Canadian computer-animated film Race time, released in January 2019. Originally written and performed in French by Dumas, Cyndi performed the English translation in the English version of the film initially titled La Course des tuques. On June 26, 2019, she performed at the opening ceremony of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019. Backed by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Cyndi played two concerts on July 12 and 13, 2019, at the iconic Hollywood Bowl. In September 2019, it was announced that Cyndi would star alongside Jane Lynch in the new Netflix comedy series described as "kind of The Golden Girls for today." However, as of March 2021, there have been no updates on this project. On April 23, 2020, Cyndi participated in an online fundraising concert to raise money for LGBTQ nightlife workers who struggled financially because of the coronavirus pandemic. Her finale was her performing "True Colors." The show was initiated by the Stonewall Inn Gives Back nonprofit organization of the historic Greenwich Village gay bar. In November 2020, She dueted with former top ten "American Idol" finalist Casey Abrams on a cover version of the song 'Eve of Destruction. In November last year, Shea Diamond featured Cyndi as a guest vocalist on the track 'Blame it on Christmas.' An official video was released in December. She then performed at this year's MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute Show, honoring folk icon Joni Mitchell on April 1. It was announced in May this year that Alison Ellwood will direct a career retrospective documentary about Cyndi. The project is already in production but does not yet have a release date. "Let The Canary Sing" will be the title of this career-spanning documentary produced by Sony Music Entertainment. Still killing it after all these years! "Shes So Unusual" ranked No. 487 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. In addition, the album ranked No. 41 on Rolling Stone's Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2012. "Time After Time" has been covered by over a hundred artists and was ranked at No. 22 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years and at No. 19 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s. "She Bop," the third single from She's So Unusual, is the first and only top ten song to directly mention a gay porn magazine. An ode to masturbation, it was included in the PMRC's "Filthy Fifteen" list, which led to the parental advisory sticker appearing on recordings thought to be unsuitable for young listeners. Rolling Stone ranked it the 36th best song of 1984, praising its unusual playfulness regarding sexuality. "True Colors" is now considered a gay anthem, after which True Colors United, which advocates for runaway and homeless LGBT youth, is so “colorfully” named. Info used from: Nickiswift.com Wikipedia.com
The Orchard was the first digital music distributor, and it's now 25 years old – so we asked co-founder Richard Gottehrer what he has learned along the way, and what the future holds for digital distributors. Richard is a man with a rich history of varied activity and success in the music industry: starting as a successful songwriter, he went on to form Sire records with Seymour Stein, producing albums by Blondie, the Go-Gos and Dr Feelgood along the way. In 1997, he co-founded The Orchard with Scott Cohen (now Chief Innovation Officer at WMG), which later became a subsidiary of Sony Music. The Orchard: theorchard.com Richard's song choice: Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman - youtube.com/watch?v=EYb84BDMbi0 -------
The music of Forest Blakk comes from an unshakable sense of purpose, a belief in building beauty from life's most painful moments. Growing up in Montreal, with time spent in Florida and Jamaica, the singer/songwriter first took up guitar as a refuge from his chaotic home life, then spent years learning to channel his most complex emotions into song. With his breakthrough single “If You Love Her” -a fall 2020 release that marks his Billboard debut- Blakk has brought his heart-on-sleeve songwriting to a whole new level of resonance, again proving music's power to transform both audience and artist.Starkly arranged and deceptively simple, the song unfolds with a raw intensity as Blakk pays tribute to a former partner, infusing every line with his soul-stirring vocals.With its intricate detail and lucid self-expression, “If You Love Her” reveals the lyrical finesse Blakk first cultivated by writing poems as a kid. At age 15, he began exploring his musical side by learning to play a guitar given to him by his grandmother. By that point, Blakk had endured a lifetime's worth of trouble: born in Montreal, he spent much of his childhood with his mother (who struggled with addiction) and his stepfather (a notorious drug dealer), moving around constantly and finding himself on and off the streets after his stepdad went to prison. Soon after moving to Calgary at age 21, he formed a band that later earned a JUNO nomination. In the years following the band's dissolution, Blakk experienced a period of profound change, ultimately embracing the more soulful and folk-leaning sound that defines his music today. One of the first songs embodying that sound, “Love Me” earned attention from heavyweights like Pete Ganbarg (president of A&R at Atlantic Records) and legendary music exec Seymour Stein, paving the way for Blakk's signing to Atlantic in 2015.
Jeremy Bolm interviews Elijah Blue of the band Deadsy During this episode the two discuss Matt Pinfield, growing up in NYC in the 80s, Into Another and NYHC, discovering Men at Work, his love for Duran Duran, being terrified by KISS in full makeup as a small child, Guns N Roses, Gene Simmons gifting him his first guitar, the story of his Les Paul Black Beauty, learning how to play La Bamba, his first band, recording the Deadsy Demo, the Jay Gordon from Orgy and Jonathan Davis connection, Jeremy's discovery of Deadsy and a brief history of Seymour Stein, the story of Commencement getting shelved over and over, Deadsy's first shows, Commencement finally coming out and the aftermath, what brought them to cover Sebadoh, what's next for the band, and so much more! Discuss this episode with Jeremy and other listeners: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thefirsteverpodcast Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/thefirsteverpod Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/thefirsteverpatreon
Episode one hundred and twenty-one of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “The Leader of the Pack”, the rise and fall of Red Bird Records, and the end of the death disc trend. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “California Sun” by the Rivieras. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ (more…)
For three decades, one record company ruled the music charts. But in the blink of an eye, their reign was over. After crafting in-depth biographies of music legends like Brian Wilson and Bruce Springsteen, New York Time best-selling author Peter Ames Carlin decided to tackle his most sweeping subject yet: the history of Warner Bros. Records. Through a series of wide-ranging interviews with industry legends Mo Ostin, Lenny Waronker, and many others, Peter wrote the book "Sonic Boom", the amazing story of a record label that put artists before commerce, and in the process built a musical dynasty. Join Nick and Peter as they discuss the tumultuous history of Warner Bros. Records, from its formation as a way to keep the studio's actors from making money for other companies, through the heyday of the 1970's psychedelic rock era, to the corporate machinations that tanked the label in the 1990s. HIGHLIGHTS: [02:00] Peter explains how his childhood record collection led him to write his new book, "Sonic Boom" [05:26] Legendary producer Lenny Waronker returned to Warners Music, on the sole condition that he could get his first job back, as a low-level A&R guy [08:22] Peter explores the origins of Warner Bros. Records under the watch of Jack Warner [10:52] Peter faced a challenge in writing his book, in trying to balance the Mo Ostin part of his story with the Warner Bros. Music part [13:13] Peter realized early on that the personalities running the company were going to be the heart of the book [15:45] Peter put a lot of work into his book proposal to convince the major players to get on board [18:54] Writing about Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen exposed Peter to the rivalries between Warner Bros. Records and other record labels [21:52] Mo Ostin broke open the "no rock 'n roll" floodgates at Warner Bros./Reprise by signing The Kinks [25:37] Mo Ostin realized that Top 40 radio wasn't going to be the future of music, because Baby Boomers wanted more sophisticated rock music [26:37] Warner Bros. gave artists the time to build an audience and a back catalog [28:47] Stan Cornyn, who hated advertising, created a unique and humorous marketing voice for Warner Bros. Music that appealed to younger people [33:04] Warner Bros. Records missed the punk/new wave trend, but they bought Sire Records and suddenly had Talking Heads and Madonna on their roster [35:34] Mo Ostin was candid about his difficult business relationship with Seymour Stein, the founder of Sire Records [40:14] Warner Bros. Records was finally done in by Corporate America, and it ended in the most "soap opera way" ever [48:41] When Peter was a TV critic, he came to the realization that every culture-changing show was an accident that evolved from the creators working without corporate intervention [51:05] Peter describes his creative writing process, and the "creative calculus" he uses to come up with an angle that inspires him Thanks for listening! Tune in next week and don't forget to take a minute to review the podcast. In this incredibly competitive podcasting world, every piece of feedback helps. Follow our social media channels for last-minute announcements and guest reveals @theradicalpod on Instagram and Facebook. Find out more about today's guest, Peter Ames Carlin Find out more about your host, Nick Terzo MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: @nytimes @warnermusic @VerveRecords @sirerecords @RepriseRecords @AtlanticRecords @seymourstein @GeffenRecords @RollingStones @springsteen @Madonna @neilYoungNYA @fleetwoodmac @PaulSimonMusic @EricClapton @jonimitchell @JamesTaylor_com @RandyNewman @thevandykeparks @remhq @TalkingHeadsHQ @TheKinks @thebeatles @GratefulDead @Prince @JimiHendrix @franksinatra Mo Ostin Lenny Waronker Michael Ostin Ahmet Ertegun
This week’s episode looks at “Needles and Pins”, and the story of the second-greatest band to come out of Liverpool in the sixties, The Searchers. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on “Farmer John” by Don and Dewey. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ (more…)
This week’s episode looks at “Needles and Pins”, and the story of the second-greatest band to come out of Liverpool in the sixties, The Searchers. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on “Farmer John” by Don and Dewey. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many recordings by the Searchers. My two main resources for this episode have been the autobiographies of members of the group — Frank Allen’s The Searchers and Me and Mike Pender’s The Search For Myself. All the Searchers tracks and Tony Jackson or Chris Curtis solo recordings excerpted here, except the live excerpt of “What’d I Say”, can be found on this box set, which is out of print as a physical box, but still available digitally. For those who want a good budget alternative, though, this double-CD set contains fifty Searchers tracks, including all their hits, for under three pounds. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Last week we had a look at the biggest group ever to come out of Liverpool, and indeed the biggest group ever to play rock and roll music. But the Beatles weren’t the only influential band on the Merseybeat scene, and while we won’t have much chance to look at Merseybeat in general, we should at least briefly touch on the other bands from the scene. So today we’re going to look at a band who developed a distinctive sound that would go on to be massively influential, even though they’re rarely cited as an influence in the way some of their contemporaries are. We’re going to look at The Searchers, and “Needles and Pins”: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins”] The story of the early origins of the Searchers is, like everything about the Searchers, the subject of a great deal of dispute. The two surviving original members of the group, John McNally and Mike Pender, haven’t spoken to each other in thirty-six years, and didn’t get on for many years before that, and there have been several legal disputes between them over the years. As a result, literally everything about the group’s history has become a battlefield in their ongoing arguments. According to a book by Frank Allen, the group’s bass player from 1964 on and someone who took McNally’s side in the split and subsequent legal problems, McNally formed a skiffle group, which Mike Pender later joined, and was later joined first by Tony Jackson and then by a drummer then known as Chris Crummey, but who changed his name to the more euphonic Chris Curtis. According to Pender, he never liked skiffle, never played skiffle, and “if McNally had a skiffle group, it must have been before I met him”. He is very insistent on this point — he liked country music, and later rock and roll, but never liked skiffle. According to him, he and McNally got together and formed a group that was definitely absolutely not in any way a skiffle group and wasn’t led by McNally but was formed by both of them. That group split up, and then Pender became friends with Tony Jackson — and he’s very insistent that he became friends with Jackson during a period when he didn’t know McNally — and the group reformed around the three of them, when McNally and Pender got back in touch. The origin of the group’s name is similarly disputed. Everyone agrees that it came from the John Wayne film The Searchers — the same film which had inspired the group’s hero Buddy Holly to write “That’ll Be The Day” — but there is disagreement as to whose idea the name was. Pender claims that it was his idea, while McNally says that the name was coined by a singer named “Big Ron”, who sang with the band for a bit before disappearing into obscurity. Big Ron’s replacement was a singer named Billy Beck, who at the time he was with the Searchers used the stage name Johnny Sandon (though he later reverted to his birth name). The group performed as Johnny Sandon and The Searchers for two years, before Sandon quit the group to join the Remo Four, a group that was managed by Brian Epstein. Sandon made some records with the Remo Four in 1963, but they went nowhere, but they’ll give some idea of how Sandon sounded: [Excerpt: Johnny Sandon and the Remo Four, “Lies”] The Remo Four later moved on to back Tommy Quickly, who we heard last week singing a song the Beatles wrote for him. With Sandon out of the picture, the group had no lead singer or frontman, and were in trouble — they were known around Liverpool as Johnny Sandon’s backing group, not as a group in their own right. They started splitting the lead vocals between themselves, but with Tony Jackson taking most of them. And, in a move which made them stand out, Chris Curtis moved his drum kit to the front line, started playing standing up, and became the group’s front-man and second lead singer. Even at this point, though, there seemed to be cracks in the group. The Searchers were the most clean-living of the Liverpool bands — they were all devout Catholics who would go to Mass every Sunday without fail, and seem to have never indulged in most of the vices that pretty much every other rock star indulged in. But Curtis and Jackson were far less so than Pender and McNally — Jackson in particular was a very heavy drinker and known to get very aggressive when drunk, while Curtis was known as eccentric in other ways — he seems to have had some sort of mental illness, though no-one’s ever spoken about a diagnosis — the Beatles apparently referred to him as “Mad Henry”. Curtis and Jackson didn’t get on with each other, and while Jackson started out as a close friend of Pender’s, the two soon drifted apart, and by the time of their first recording sessions they appeared to most people to be a group of three plus one outsider, with Jackson not getting on well with any of the others. There was also a split in the band’s musical tastes, but that would be the split that would drive much of their creativity. Pender and McNally were drawn towards softer music — country and rockabilly, the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly — while Jackson preferred harder, stomping, music. But it was Chris Curtis who took charge of the group’s repertoire, and who was the group’s unofficial leader. While the other band members had fairly mainstream musical tastes, it was Curtis who would seek out obscure R&B B-sides that he thought the group could make their own, by artists like The Clovers and Richie Barrett — while many Liverpool groups played Barrett’s “Some Other Guy”, the Searchers would also play the B-side to that, “Tricky Dicky”, a song written by Leiber and Stoller. Curtis also liked quite a bit of folk music, and would also get the group to perform songs by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary. The result of this combination of material and performers was that the Searchers ended up with a repertoire rooted in R&B, and a heavy rhythm section, but with strong harmony vocals inspired more by the Everlys than by the soul groups that were inspiring the other groups around Liverpool. Other than the Beatles, the Searchers were the best harmony group in Liverpool, and were the only other one to have multiple strong lead vocalists. Like the Beatles, the Searchers went off to play at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962. Recordings were made of their performances there, and their live version of Brenda Lee’s “Sweet Nothin’s” later got released as a single after they became successful: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sweet Nothin’s”] Even as every talent scout in the country seemed to be turning up in Liverpool, and even bands from nearby Manchester were getting signed up in the hope of repeating the Beatles’ success, the Searchers were having no luck getting any attention from the London music industry. In part that was because of one bit of bad luck — the day that Brian Epstein turned up to see them, with the thought of maybe managing them, Tony Jackson was drunk and fell off the stage, and Epstein decided that he was going to give them a miss. As no talent scouts were coming to see them, they decided that they would record a demo session at the Iron Door, the club they regularly played, and send that out to A&R people. That demo session produced a full short album, which shows them at their stompiest and hardest-driving. Most of the Merseybeat bands sounded much more powerful in their earlier live performances than in the studio, and the Searchers were no exception, and it’s interesting to compare the sound of these recordings to the studio ones from only a few months later: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Let’s Stomp”] The group eventually signed to Pye Records. Pye was the third or fourth biggest record label in Britain at the time, but that was a relative matter — EMI and Decca between them had something like eighty-five percent of the market, and basically *were* the record industry in Britain at the time. Pye was chronically underfunded, and when they signed an artist who managed to have any success, they would tend to push that artist to keep producing as many singles as possible, chasing trends, rather than investing in their long-term career survival. That said, they did have some big acts, most notably Petula Clark — indeed the company had been formed from the merger of two other companies, one of which had been formed specifically to issue Clark’s records. Clark was yet to have her big breakthrough hit in the USA, but she’d had several big hits in the UK, including the number one hit “Sailor”: [Excerpt: Petula Clark, “Sailor”] The co-producer on that track had been Tony Hatch, a songwriter and producer who would go on to write and produce almost all of Clark’s hit records. Hatch had a track record of hits — we’ve heard several songs he was involved in over the course of the series. Most recently, we heard last week how “She Loves You” was inspired by “Forget Him”, which Hatch wrote and produced for Bobby Rydell: [Excerpt: Bobby Rydell, “Forget Him”] Hatch heard the group’s demo, and was impressed, and offered to sign them. The Searchers’ manager at the time agreed, on one condition — that Hatch also sign another band he managed, The Undertakers. Astonishingly, Hatch agreed, and so the Undertakers also got a record contract, and released several flop singles produced by Hatch, including this cover version of a Coasters tune: [Excerpt: The Undertakers, “What About Us?”] The biggest mark that the Undertakers would make on music would come many years later, when their lead singer Jackie Lomax would release a solo single, “Sour Milk Sea”, which George Harrison wrote for him. The Searchers, on the other hand, made their mark immediately. The group’s first single was a cover version of a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, which had been a top twenty hit in the US for the Drifters a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: The Drifters, “Sweets For My Sweet”] That had become a regular fixture in the Searchers’ live set, with Tony Jackson singing lead and Chris Curtis singing the high backing vocal part in falsetto. In much the same way that the Beatles had done with “Twist and Shout”, they’d flattened out the original record’s Latin cha-cha-cha rhythm into a more straightforward thumping rocker for their live performances, as you can hear on their original demo version from the Iron Door sessions: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sweets For My Sweet (live at the Iron Door)”] As you can hear, they’d also misheard a chunk of the lyrics, and so instead of “your tasty kiss”, Jackson sang “Your first sweet kiss”. In the studio, they slowed the song down very slightly, and brought up the harmony vocal from Pender on the choruses, which on the demo he seems to have been singing off-mic. The result was an obvious hit: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sweets For My Sweet”] That went to number one, helped by an endorsement from John Lennon, who said it was the best record to come out of Liverpool, and launched the Searchers into the very top tier of Liverpool groups, their only real competition being the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers — and though nobody could have known it at the time, the Pacemakers’ career had already peaked at this point. Their first album, Meet The Searchers, featured “Sweets For My Sweet”, along with a selection of songs that mixed the standard repertoire of every Merseybeat band — “Money”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Twist and Shout”, “Stand By Me”, and the Everly Brothers’ “Since You Broke My Heart”, with more obscure songs like “Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya”, by the then-unknown P.J. Proby, “Farmer John” by Don and Dewey, which hadn’t yet become a garage-rock standard (and indeed seems to have become so largely because of the Searchers’ version), and a cover of “Love Potion #9”, a song that Leiber and Stoller had written for the Clovers, which was not released as a single in the UK, but later became their biggest hit in the US (and a quick content note for this one — the lyric contains a word for Romani people which many of those people regard as a slur): [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Love Potion #9”] Their second single was an attempt to repeat the “Sweets For My Sweet” formula, and was written by Tony Hatch, although the group didn’t know that at the time. Hatch, like many producers of the time, was used to getting his artists to record his own songs, written under pseudonyms so the record label didn’t necessarily realise this was what he was doing. In this case he brought the group a song that he claimed had been written by one “Fred Nightingale”, and which he thought would be perfect for them. The song in question, “Sugar and Spice”, was a blatant rip-off of “Sweets For My Sweet”, and recorded in a near-identical arrangement: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Sugar and Spice”] The group weren’t keen on the song, and got very angry later on when they realised that Tony Hatch had lied to them about its origins, but the record was almost as big a hit as the first one, peaking at number two on the charts. But it was their third single that was the group’s international breakthrough, and which both established a whole new musical style and caused the first big rift in the group. The song chosen for that third single was one they learned in Hamburg, from Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, a London group who had recorded a few singles with Joe Meek, like “You Got What I Like”: [Excerpt: Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, “You Got What I Like”] The Rebel Rousers had picked up on a record by Jackie DeShannon, a singer-songwriter who had started up a writing partnership with Sharon Sheeley, the writer who had been Eddie Cochran’s girlfriend and in the fatal car crash with him. The record they’d started covering live, though, was not one that DeShannon was the credited songwriter on. “Needles and Pins” was credited to two other writers, both of them associated with Phil Spector. Sonny Bono was a young songwriter who had written songs at Specialty Records for people like Sam Cooke, Larry Williams, and Don and Dewey, and his most famous song up to this point was “She Said Yeah”, the B-side to Williams’ “Bad Boy”: [Excerpt: Larry Williams, “She Said Yeah”] After working at Specialty, he’d gone on to work as Phil Spector’s assistant, doing most of the hands-on work in the studio while Spector sat in the control room. While working with Spector he’d got to know Jack Nitzsche, who did most of the arrangements for Spector, and who had also had hits on his own like “The Lonely Surfer”: [Excerpt: Jack Nitzsche, “The Lonely Surfer”] Bono and Nitzsche are the credited writers on “Needles and Pins”, but Jackie DeShannon insists that she co-wrote the song with them, but her name was left off the credits. I tend to believe her — both Nitzsche and Bono were, like their boss, abusive misogynist egomaniacs, and it’s easy to see them leaving her name off the credits. Either way, DeShannon recorded the song in early 1963, backed by members of the Wrecking Crew, and it scraped into the lower reaches of the US Hot One Hundred, though it actually made number one in Canada: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, “Needles and Pins”] Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers had been covering that song, and Chris Curtis picked up on it as an obvious hit. The group reshaped the song, and fixed the main flaw with DeShannon’s original. There’s really only about ninety seconds’ worth of actual song in “Needles and Pins”, and DeShannon’s version ends with a minute or so of vamping — it sounds like it’s still a written lyric, but it’s full of placeholders where entire lines are “whoa-oh”, the kind of thing that someone like Otis Redding could make sound great, but that didn’t really work for her record. The Searchers tightened the song up and altered its dynamics — instead of the middle eight leading to a long freeform section, they started the song with Mike Pender singing solo, and then on the middle eight they added a high harmony from Curtis, then just repeated the first verse and chorus, in the new key of C sharp, with Curtis harmonising this time: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins” (middle eight on)] The addition of the harmony gives the song some much-needed dynamic variation not present in DeShannon’s version, while repeating the original verse after the key change, and adding in Curtis’ high harmony, gives it an obsessive quality. The protagonist here is spiralling – he keeps thinking the same things over and over, at a higher and higher pitch, getting more and more desperate. It’s a simple change, but one that improves the song immensely. Incidentally, one thing I should note here because it’s not something I normally do — in these excerpts of the Searchers’ version of “Needles and Pins”, I’m actually modifying the recording slightly. The mix used for the original single version of the song, which is what I’m excerpting here, is marred by an incredibly squeaky bass pedal on Chris Curtis’ drumkit, which isn’t particularly audible if you’re listening to it on early sixties equipment, which had little dynamic range, but which on modern digital copies of the track overpowers everything else, to the point that the record sounds like that Monty Python sketch where someone plays a tune by hitting mice with hammers. Here’s a couple of seconds of the unmodified track, so you can see what I mean: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins”] Most hits compilations have a stereo mix of the song, and have EQ’d it so that the squeaky bass pedal isn’t noticeable, but I try wherever possible to use the mixes that people were actually listening to at the time, so I’ve compromised and used the mono mix but got rid of the squeaky frequencies, so you can hear the music I’m talking about rather than being distracted by the squeaks. Anyway, leaving the issue of nobody telling Chris Curtis to oil his pedals aside, the change in the structure of the song turned it from something a little baggy and aimless into a tight two-and-a-half minute pop song, but the other major change they made was emphasising the riff, and in doing so they inadvertently invented a whole new genre of music. The riff in DeShannon’s version is there, but it’s just one element — an acoustic guitar strumming through the chords. It’s a good, simple, play-in-a-day riff — you basically hold a chord down and then move a single finger at a time and you can get that riff — and it’s the backbone of the song, but there’s also a piano, and horns, and the Blossoms singing: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, “Needles and Pins”] But what the Searchers did was to take the riff and play it simultaneously on two electric guitars, and then added reverb. They also played the first part of the song in A, rather than the key of C which DeShannon’s version starts in, which allowed the open strings to ring out more. The result came out sounding like an electric twelve-string, and soon both they and the Beatles would be regularly using twelve-string Rickenbackers to get the same sound: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Needles and Pins”] That record is the root of jangle-pop and folk-rock. That combination of jangling, reverb-heavy, trebly guitars and Everly Brothers inspired harmonies is one that leads directly to the Byrds, Love, Big Star, Tom Petty, REM, the Smiths, and the Bangles, among many others. While the Beatles were overall obviously the more influential group by a long way, “Needles and Pins” has a reasonable claim to be the most influential single track from the Merseybeat era. It went to number one in the UK, and became the group’s breakthrough hit in the US, reaching number sixteen. The follow-up, “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”, a cover of a B-side by the Orlons, again featuring Pender on lead vocals and Curtis on harmonies, also made number one in the UK and the US top twenty, giving them a third number one out of four singles. But the next single, “Someday We’re Gonna Love Again”, a cover of a Barbara Lewis song, only made number eleven, and caused journalists to worry if the Searchers had lost their touch. There was even some talk in the newspapers that Mike Pender might leave the group and start a solo career, which he denied. As it turned out, one of the group’s members was going to leave, but it wasn’t Mike Pender. Tony Jackson had sung lead on the first two singles, and on the majority of the tracks on the first album, and he thus regarded himself as the group’s lead singer. With Pender taking over the lead on the more recent hit singles, Jackson was being edged aside. By the third album, It’s The Searchers, which included “Needles and Pins”, Jackson was the only group member not to get a solo lead vocal — even John McNally got one, while Jackson’s only lead was an Everlys style close harmony with Mike Pender. Everything else was being sung by Pender or Curtis. Jackson was also getting involved in personality conflicts with the other band members — at one point it actually got to the point that he and Pender had a fistfight on stage. Jackson was also not entirely keen on the group’s move towards more melodic material. It’s important to remember that the Searchers had started out as an aggressive, loud, R&B band, and they still often sounded like that on stage — listen for example to their performance of “What’d I Say” at the NME poll-winners’ party in April 1964, with Chris Curtis on lead vocals clearly showing why he had a reputation for eccentricity: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “What’d I Say (live)”] The combination of these musical differences and his feelings about having his place usurped meant that Jackson was increasingly getting annoyed at the other three band members. Eventually he left the group — whether he was fired or quit depends on which version of the story you read — and was replaced by Frank Allen of Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers. Jackson didn’t take this replacement well, and publicly went round telling people that he had been pushed out of the band so that Curtis could get his boyfriend into the band, and there are some innuendoes to this effect in Mike Pender’s autobiography — although Allen denies that he and Curtis were in a relationship, and says that he doesn’t actually know what Curtis’ sexuality was, because they never discussed that kind of thing, and presumably Allen would know better than anyone else whether he was in a relationship with Curtis. Curtis is widely described as having been gay or bi by his contemporaries, but if he was he never came out publicly, possibly due to his strong religious views. There’s some suggestion, indeed, that one reason Jackson ended up out of the band was that he blackmailed the band, saying that he would publicly out Curtis if he didn’t get more lead vocals. Whatever the truth, Jackson left the group, and his first solo single, “Bye Bye Baby”, made number thirty-eight on the charts: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, “Bye Bye Baby”] However, his later singles had no success — he was soon rerecording “Love Potion Number Nine” in the hope that that would be a UK chart success as it had been in the US: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, “Love Potion Number Nine”] Meanwhile, Allen was fitting in well with his new group, and it appeared at first that the group’s run of hits would carry on uninterrupted without Jackson. The first single by the new lineup, “When You Walk In The Room”, was a cover of another Jackie DeShannon song, this time written by DeShannon on her own, and originally released as a B-side: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, “When You Walk In The Room”] The Searchers rearranged that, once again emphasising the riff from DeShannon’s original, and by this time playing it on real twelve-strings, and adding extra compression to them. Their version featured a joint lead vocal by Pender and Allen: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “When You Walk In the Room”] Do you think the Byrds might have heard that? That went to number three on the charts. The next single was less successful, only making number thirteen, but was interesting in other ways — from the start, as well as their R&B covers, Curtis had been adding folk songs to the group’s repertoire, and there’d been one or two covers of songs like “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” on their albums, but “What Have They Done to the Rain?” was the first one to become a single. It was written by Malvina Reynolds, who was a socialist activist who only became a songwriter in her early fifties, and who also wrote “Morningtown Ride” and “Little Boxes”. “What Have They Done to The Rain?” was a song written to oppose nuclear weapons testing, and Curtis had learned it from a Joan Baez album. Even though it wasn’t as big a success as some of their other hits, given how utterly different it was from their normal style, and how controversial the subject was, getting it into the top twenty at all seems quite an achievement. [Excerpt: The Searchers, “What Have They Done To The Rain?”] Their next single, “Goodbye My Love”, was their last top ten hit, and the next few singles only made the top forty, even when the Rolling Stones gave them “Take It Or Leave It”. The other group members started to get annoyed at Curtis, who they thought had lost his touch at picking songs, and whose behaviour had become increasingly erratic. Eventually, on an Australian tour, they took his supply of uppers and downers, which he had been using as much to self-medicate as for enjoyment as far as I can tell, and flushed them down the toilet. When they got back to the UK, Curtis was out of the group. Their first single after Curtis’ departure, “Have You Ever Loved Somebody”, was given to them by the Hollies, who had originally written it as an Everly Brothers album track: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Have You Ever Loved Somebody”] Unfortunately for the Searchers, Chris Curtis had also heard the song, decided it was a likely hit, and had produced a rival version for Paul and Barry Ryan, which got rushed out to compete with it: [Excerpt: Paul and Barry Ryan, “Have You Ever Loved Somebody”] Neither single made the top forty, and the Searchers would never have a hit single again. Nor would Curtis. Curtis only released one solo single, “Aggravation”, a cover of a Joe South song: [Excerpt: Chris Curtis, “Aggravation”] The musicians on that included Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Joe Moretti, but it didn’t chart. Curtis then tried to form a band, which he named Roundabout, based on the concept that musicians could hop on or hop off at any point, with Curtis as the only constant member. The guitarist and keyboard player quickly decided that it would be more convenient for them if Curtis was the one to hop off, and without Curtis Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore went on to form Deep Purple. The Searchers didn’t put out another album for six years after Curtis left. They kept putting out singles on various labels, but nothing came close to charting. Their one album between 1966 and 1979 was a collection of rerecordings of their old hits, in 1972. But then in 1979 Seymour Stein, the owner of Sire Records, a label which was having success with groups like the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders, was inspired by the Ramones covering “Needles and Pins” to sign the Searchers to a two-album deal, which produced records that fit perfectly into the late seventies New Wave pop landscape, while still sounding like the Searchers: [Excerpt: The Searchers, “Hearts in Her Eyes”] Apparently during those sessions, Curtis, who had given up music and become a civil servant, would regularly phone the studio threatening to burn it down if he wasn’t involved. Unfortunately, while those albums had some critical success, they did nothing commercially, and Sire dropped them. By 1985, the Searchers were at breaking point. They hadn’t recorded any new material in several years, and Mike Pender and John McNally weren’t getting on at all — which was a particular problem as the two of them were now the only two members based in Liverpool, and so they had to travel to and from gigs together without the other band members — the group were so poor that McNally and Pender had one car between the two of them. One of them would drive them both to the gig, the other would drive back to Liverpool and keep the car until the next gig, when they would swap over again. No-one except them knows what conversations they had on those long drives, but apparently they weren’t amicable. Pender thought of himself as the star of the group, and he particularly resented that he had to split the money from the band three ways (the drummers the group got in after Curtis were always on a salary rather than full partners in the group). Pender decided that he could make more money by touring on his own but still doing essentially the same show, with hired backing musicians. Pender and the other Searchers eventually reached an agreement that he could tour as “Mike Pender’s Searchers”, so long as he made sure that all the promotional material put every word at the same size, while the other members would continue as The Searchers with a new singer. A big chunk of the autobiographies of both Pender and Allen are taken up with the ensuing litigation, as there were suits and countersuits over matters of billing which on the outside look incredibly trivial, but which of course mattered greatly to everyone involved — there were now two groups with near-identical names, playing the same sets, in the same venues, and so any tiny advantage that one had was a threat to the other, to the extent that at one point there was a serious danger of Pender going to prison over their contractual disputes. The group had been earning very little money anyway, comparatively, and there was a real danger that the two groups undercutting each other might lead to everyone going bankrupt. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Pender still tours — or at least has tour dates booked over the course of the next year — and McNally and Allen’s band continued playing regularly until 2019, and only stopped performing because of McNally’s increasing ill health. Having seen both, Pender’s was the better show — McNally and Allen’s lineup of the group relied rather too heavily on a rather cheesy sounding synthesiser for my tastes, while Pender stuck closer to a straight guitar/bass/drums sound — but both kept audiences very happy for decades. Mike Pender was made an MBE in 2020, as a reward for his services to the music industry. Tony Jackson and Chris Curtis both died in the 2000s, and John McNally and Frank Allen are now in well-deserved retirement. While Allen and Pender exchanged pleasantries and handshakes at their former bandmates’ funerals, McNally and Pender wouldn’t even say hello to each other, and even though McNally and Allen’s band has retired, there’s still a prominent notice on their website that they own the name “The Searchers” and nobody else is allowed to use it. But every time you hear a jangly twelve-string electric guitar, you’re hearing a sound that was originally created by Mike Pender and John McNally playing in unison, a sound that proved to be greater than any of its constituent parts.
This week's episode looks at "Needles and Pins", and the story of the second-greatest band to come out of Liverpool in the sixties, The Searchers. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a sixteen-minute bonus episode available, on "Farmer John" by Don and Dewey. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many recordings by the Searchers. My two main resources for this episode have been the autobiographies of members of the group -- Frank Allen's The Searchers and Me and Mike Pender's The Search For Myself. All the Searchers tracks and Tony Jackson or Chris Curtis solo recordings excerpted here, except the live excerpt of "What'd I Say", can be found on this box set, which is out of print as a physical box, but still available digitally. For those who want a good budget alternative, though, this double-CD set contains fifty Searchers tracks, including all their hits, for under three pounds. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Last week we had a look at the biggest group ever to come out of Liverpool, and indeed the biggest group ever to play rock and roll music. But the Beatles weren't the only influential band on the Merseybeat scene, and while we won't have much chance to look at Merseybeat in general, we should at least briefly touch on the other bands from the scene. So today we're going to look at a band who developed a distinctive sound that would go on to be massively influential, even though they're rarely cited as an influence in the way some of their contemporaries are. We're going to look at The Searchers, and "Needles and Pins": [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] The story of the early origins of the Searchers is, like everything about the Searchers, the subject of a great deal of dispute. The two surviving original members of the group, John McNally and Mike Pender, haven't spoken to each other in thirty-six years, and didn't get on for many years before that, and there have been several legal disputes between them over the years. As a result, literally everything about the group's history has become a battlefield in their ongoing arguments. According to a book by Frank Allen, the group's bass player from 1964 on and someone who took McNally's side in the split and subsequent legal problems, McNally formed a skiffle group, which Mike Pender later joined, and was later joined first by Tony Jackson and then by a drummer then known as Chris Crummey, but who changed his name to the more euphonic Chris Curtis. According to Pender, he never liked skiffle, never played skiffle, and "if McNally had a skiffle group, it must have been before I met him". He is very insistent on this point -- he liked country music, and later rock and roll, but never liked skiffle. According to him, he and McNally got together and formed a group that was definitely absolutely not in any way a skiffle group and wasn't led by McNally but was formed by both of them. That group split up, and then Pender became friends with Tony Jackson -- and he's very insistent that he became friends with Jackson during a period when he didn't know McNally -- and the group reformed around the three of them, when McNally and Pender got back in touch. The origin of the group's name is similarly disputed. Everyone agrees that it came from the John Wayne film The Searchers -- the same film which had inspired the group's hero Buddy Holly to write "That'll Be The Day" -- but there is disagreement as to whose idea the name was. Pender claims that it was his idea, while McNally says that the name was coined by a singer named "Big Ron", who sang with the band for a bit before disappearing into obscurity. Big Ron's replacement was a singer named Billy Beck, who at the time he was with the Searchers used the stage name Johnny Sandon (though he later reverted to his birth name). The group performed as Johnny Sandon and The Searchers for two years, before Sandon quit the group to join the Remo Four, a group that was managed by Brian Epstein. Sandon made some records with the Remo Four in 1963, but they went nowhere, but they'll give some idea of how Sandon sounded: [Excerpt: Johnny Sandon and the Remo Four, "Lies"] The Remo Four later moved on to back Tommy Quickly, who we heard last week singing a song the Beatles wrote for him. With Sandon out of the picture, the group had no lead singer or frontman, and were in trouble -- they were known around Liverpool as Johnny Sandon's backing group, not as a group in their own right. They started splitting the lead vocals between themselves, but with Tony Jackson taking most of them. And, in a move which made them stand out, Chris Curtis moved his drum kit to the front line, started playing standing up, and became the group's front-man and second lead singer. Even at this point, though, there seemed to be cracks in the group. The Searchers were the most clean-living of the Liverpool bands -- they were all devout Catholics who would go to Mass every Sunday without fail, and seem to have never indulged in most of the vices that pretty much every other rock star indulged in. But Curtis and Jackson were far less so than Pender and McNally -- Jackson in particular was a very heavy drinker and known to get very aggressive when drunk, while Curtis was known as eccentric in other ways -- he seems to have had some sort of mental illness, though no-one's ever spoken about a diagnosis -- the Beatles apparently referred to him as "Mad Henry". Curtis and Jackson didn't get on with each other, and while Jackson started out as a close friend of Pender's, the two soon drifted apart, and by the time of their first recording sessions they appeared to most people to be a group of three plus one outsider, with Jackson not getting on well with any of the others. There was also a split in the band's musical tastes, but that would be the split that would drive much of their creativity. Pender and McNally were drawn towards softer music -- country and rockabilly, the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly -- while Jackson preferred harder, stomping, music. But it was Chris Curtis who took charge of the group's repertoire, and who was the group's unofficial leader. While the other band members had fairly mainstream musical tastes, it was Curtis who would seek out obscure R&B B-sides that he thought the group could make their own, by artists like The Clovers and Richie Barrett -- while many Liverpool groups played Barrett's "Some Other Guy", the Searchers would also play the B-side to that, "Tricky Dicky", a song written by Leiber and Stoller. Curtis also liked quite a bit of folk music, and would also get the group to perform songs by Joan Baez and Peter, Paul, and Mary. The result of this combination of material and performers was that the Searchers ended up with a repertoire rooted in R&B, and a heavy rhythm section, but with strong harmony vocals inspired more by the Everlys than by the soul groups that were inspiring the other groups around Liverpool. Other than the Beatles, the Searchers were the best harmony group in Liverpool, and were the only other one to have multiple strong lead vocalists. Like the Beatles, the Searchers went off to play at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962. Recordings were made of their performances there, and their live version of Brenda Lee's "Sweet Nothin's" later got released as a single after they became successful: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sweet Nothin's"] Even as every talent scout in the country seemed to be turning up in Liverpool, and even bands from nearby Manchester were getting signed up in the hope of repeating the Beatles' success, the Searchers were having no luck getting any attention from the London music industry. In part that was because of one bit of bad luck -- the day that Brian Epstein turned up to see them, with the thought of maybe managing them, Tony Jackson was drunk and fell off the stage, and Epstein decided that he was going to give them a miss. As no talent scouts were coming to see them, they decided that they would record a demo session at the Iron Door, the club they regularly played, and send that out to A&R people. That demo session produced a full short album, which shows them at their stompiest and hardest-driving. Most of the Merseybeat bands sounded much more powerful in their earlier live performances than in the studio, and the Searchers were no exception, and it's interesting to compare the sound of these recordings to the studio ones from only a few months later: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Let's Stomp"] The group eventually signed to Pye Records. Pye was the third or fourth biggest record label in Britain at the time, but that was a relative matter -- EMI and Decca between them had something like eighty-five percent of the market, and basically *were* the record industry in Britain at the time. Pye was chronically underfunded, and when they signed an artist who managed to have any success, they would tend to push that artist to keep producing as many singles as possible, chasing trends, rather than investing in their long-term career survival. That said, they did have some big acts, most notably Petula Clark -- indeed the company had been formed from the merger of two other companies, one of which had been formed specifically to issue Clark's records. Clark was yet to have her big breakthrough hit in the USA, but she'd had several big hits in the UK, including the number one hit "Sailor": [Excerpt: Petula Clark, "Sailor"] The co-producer on that track had been Tony Hatch, a songwriter and producer who would go on to write and produce almost all of Clark's hit records. Hatch had a track record of hits -- we've heard several songs he was involved in over the course of the series. Most recently, we heard last week how "She Loves You" was inspired by "Forget Him", which Hatch wrote and produced for Bobby Rydell: [Excerpt: Bobby Rydell, "Forget Him"] Hatch heard the group's demo, and was impressed, and offered to sign them. The Searchers' manager at the time agreed, on one condition -- that Hatch also sign another band he managed, The Undertakers. Astonishingly, Hatch agreed, and so the Undertakers also got a record contract, and released several flop singles produced by Hatch, including this cover version of a Coasters tune: [Excerpt: The Undertakers, "What About Us?"] The biggest mark that the Undertakers would make on music would come many years later, when their lead singer Jackie Lomax would release a solo single, "Sour Milk Sea", which George Harrison wrote for him. The Searchers, on the other hand, made their mark immediately. The group's first single was a cover version of a song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, which had been a top twenty hit in the US for the Drifters a couple of years earlier: [Excerpt: The Drifters, "Sweets For My Sweet"] That had become a regular fixture in the Searchers' live set, with Tony Jackson singing lead and Chris Curtis singing the high backing vocal part in falsetto. In much the same way that the Beatles had done with "Twist and Shout", they'd flattened out the original record's Latin cha-cha-cha rhythm into a more straightforward thumping rocker for their live performances, as you can hear on their original demo version from the Iron Door sessions: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sweets For My Sweet (live at the Iron Door)"] As you can hear, they'd also misheard a chunk of the lyrics, and so instead of "your tasty kiss", Jackson sang "Your first sweet kiss". In the studio, they slowed the song down very slightly, and brought up the harmony vocal from Pender on the choruses, which on the demo he seems to have been singing off-mic. The result was an obvious hit: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sweets For My Sweet"] That went to number one, helped by an endorsement from John Lennon, who said it was the best record to come out of Liverpool, and launched the Searchers into the very top tier of Liverpool groups, their only real competition being the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers -- and though nobody could have known it at the time, the Pacemakers' career had already peaked at this point. Their first album, Meet The Searchers, featured "Sweets For My Sweet", along with a selection of songs that mixed the standard repertoire of every Merseybeat band -- "Money", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Twist and Shout", "Stand By Me", and the Everly Brothers' "Since You Broke My Heart", with more obscure songs like "Ain't Gonna Kiss Ya", by the then-unknown P.J. Proby, "Farmer John" by Don and Dewey, which hadn't yet become a garage-rock standard (and indeed seems to have become so largely because of the Searchers' version), and a cover of "Love Potion #9", a song that Leiber and Stoller had written for the Clovers, which was not released as a single in the UK, but later became their biggest hit in the US (and a quick content note for this one -- the lyric contains a word for Romani people which many of those people regard as a slur): [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Love Potion #9"] Their second single was an attempt to repeat the "Sweets For My Sweet" formula, and was written by Tony Hatch, although the group didn't know that at the time. Hatch, like many producers of the time, was used to getting his artists to record his own songs, written under pseudonyms so the record label didn't necessarily realise this was what he was doing. In this case he brought the group a song that he claimed had been written by one "Fred Nightingale", and which he thought would be perfect for them. The song in question, "Sugar and Spice", was a blatant rip-off of "Sweets For My Sweet", and recorded in a near-identical arrangement: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Sugar and Spice"] The group weren't keen on the song, and got very angry later on when they realised that Tony Hatch had lied to them about its origins, but the record was almost as big a hit as the first one, peaking at number two on the charts. But it was their third single that was the group's international breakthrough, and which both established a whole new musical style and caused the first big rift in the group. The song chosen for that third single was one they learned in Hamburg, from Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, a London group who had recorded a few singles with Joe Meek, like "You Got What I Like": [Excerpt: Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, "You Got What I Like"] The Rebel Rousers had picked up on a record by Jackie DeShannon, a singer-songwriter who had started up a writing partnership with Sharon Sheeley, the writer who had been Eddie Cochran's girlfriend and in the fatal car crash with him. The record they'd started covering live, though, was not one that DeShannon was the credited songwriter on. "Needles and Pins" was credited to two other writers, both of them associated with Phil Spector. Sonny Bono was a young songwriter who had written songs at Specialty Records for people like Sam Cooke, Larry Williams, and Don and Dewey, and his most famous song up to this point was "She Said Yeah", the B-side to Williams' "Bad Boy": [Excerpt: Larry Williams, "She Said Yeah"] After working at Specialty, he'd gone on to work as Phil Spector's assistant, doing most of the hands-on work in the studio while Spector sat in the control room. While working with Spector he'd got to know Jack Nitzsche, who did most of the arrangements for Spector, and who had also had hits on his own like "The Lonely Surfer": [Excerpt: Jack Nitzsche, "The Lonely Surfer"] Bono and Nitzsche are the credited writers on "Needles and Pins", but Jackie DeShannon insists that she co-wrote the song with them, but her name was left off the credits. I tend to believe her -- both Nitzsche and Bono were, like their boss, abusive misogynist egomaniacs, and it's easy to see them leaving her name off the credits. Either way, DeShannon recorded the song in early 1963, backed by members of the Wrecking Crew, and it scraped into the lower reaches of the US Hot One Hundred, though it actually made number one in Canada: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "Needles and Pins"] Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers had been covering that song, and Chris Curtis picked up on it as an obvious hit. The group reshaped the song, and fixed the main flaw with DeShannon's original. There's really only about ninety seconds' worth of actual song in "Needles and Pins", and DeShannon's version ends with a minute or so of vamping -- it sounds like it's still a written lyric, but it's full of placeholders where entire lines are "whoa-oh", the kind of thing that someone like Otis Redding could make sound great, but that didn't really work for her record. The Searchers tightened the song up and altered its dynamics -- instead of the middle eight leading to a long freeform section, they started the song with Mike Pender singing solo, and then on the middle eight they added a high harmony from Curtis, then just repeated the first verse and chorus, in the new key of C sharp, with Curtis harmonising this time: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins" (middle eight on)] The addition of the harmony gives the song some much-needed dynamic variation not present in DeShannon's version, while repeating the original verse after the key change, and adding in Curtis' high harmony, gives it an obsessive quality. The protagonist here is spiralling – he keeps thinking the same things over and over, at a higher and higher pitch, getting more and more desperate. It's a simple change, but one that improves the song immensely. Incidentally, one thing I should note here because it's not something I normally do -- in these excerpts of the Searchers' version of "Needles and Pins", I'm actually modifying the recording slightly. The mix used for the original single version of the song, which is what I'm excerpting here, is marred by an incredibly squeaky bass pedal on Chris Curtis' drumkit, which isn't particularly audible if you're listening to it on early sixties equipment, which had little dynamic range, but which on modern digital copies of the track overpowers everything else, to the point that the record sounds like that Monty Python sketch where someone plays a tune by hitting mice with hammers. Here's a couple of seconds of the unmodified track, so you can see what I mean: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] Most hits compilations have a stereo mix of the song, and have EQ'd it so that the squeaky bass pedal isn't noticeable, but I try wherever possible to use the mixes that people were actually listening to at the time, so I've compromised and used the mono mix but got rid of the squeaky frequencies, so you can hear the music I'm talking about rather than being distracted by the squeaks. Anyway, leaving the issue of nobody telling Chris Curtis to oil his pedals aside, the change in the structure of the song turned it from something a little baggy and aimless into a tight two-and-a-half minute pop song, but the other major change they made was emphasising the riff, and in doing so they inadvertently invented a whole new genre of music. The riff in DeShannon's version is there, but it's just one element -- an acoustic guitar strumming through the chords. It's a good, simple, play-in-a-day riff -- you basically hold a chord down and then move a single finger at a time and you can get that riff -- and it's the backbone of the song, but there's also a piano, and horns, and the Blossoms singing: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "Needles and Pins"] But what the Searchers did was to take the riff and play it simultaneously on two electric guitars, and then added reverb. They also played the first part of the song in A, rather than the key of C which DeShannon's version starts in, which allowed the open strings to ring out more. The result came out sounding like an electric twelve-string, and soon both they and the Beatles would be regularly using twelve-string Rickenbackers to get the same sound: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Needles and Pins"] That record is the root of jangle-pop and folk-rock. That combination of jangling, reverb-heavy, trebly guitars and Everly Brothers inspired harmonies is one that leads directly to the Byrds, Love, Big Star, Tom Petty, REM, the Smiths, and the Bangles, among many others. While the Beatles were overall obviously the more influential group by a long way, "Needles and Pins" has a reasonable claim to be the most influential single track from the Merseybeat era. It went to number one in the UK, and became the group's breakthrough hit in the US, reaching number sixteen. The follow-up, "Don't Throw Your Love Away", a cover of a B-side by the Orlons, again featuring Pender on lead vocals and Curtis on harmonies, also made number one in the UK and the US top twenty, giving them a third number one out of four singles. But the next single, "Someday We're Gonna Love Again", a cover of a Barbara Lewis song, only made number eleven, and caused journalists to worry if the Searchers had lost their touch. There was even some talk in the newspapers that Mike Pender might leave the group and start a solo career, which he denied. As it turned out, one of the group's members was going to leave, but it wasn't Mike Pender. Tony Jackson had sung lead on the first two singles, and on the majority of the tracks on the first album, and he thus regarded himself as the group's lead singer. With Pender taking over the lead on the more recent hit singles, Jackson was being edged aside. By the third album, It's The Searchers, which included "Needles and Pins", Jackson was the only group member not to get a solo lead vocal -- even John McNally got one, while Jackson's only lead was an Everlys style close harmony with Mike Pender. Everything else was being sung by Pender or Curtis. Jackson was also getting involved in personality conflicts with the other band members -- at one point it actually got to the point that he and Pender had a fistfight on stage. Jackson was also not entirely keen on the group's move towards more melodic material. It's important to remember that the Searchers had started out as an aggressive, loud, R&B band, and they still often sounded like that on stage -- listen for example to their performance of "What'd I Say" at the NME poll-winners' party in April 1964, with Chris Curtis on lead vocals clearly showing why he had a reputation for eccentricity: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "What'd I Say (live)"] The combination of these musical differences and his feelings about having his place usurped meant that Jackson was increasingly getting annoyed at the other three band members. Eventually he left the group -- whether he was fired or quit depends on which version of the story you read -- and was replaced by Frank Allen of Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers. Jackson didn't take this replacement well, and publicly went round telling people that he had been pushed out of the band so that Curtis could get his boyfriend into the band, and there are some innuendoes to this effect in Mike Pender's autobiography -- although Allen denies that he and Curtis were in a relationship, and says that he doesn't actually know what Curtis' sexuality was, because they never discussed that kind of thing, and presumably Allen would know better than anyone else whether he was in a relationship with Curtis. Curtis is widely described as having been gay or bi by his contemporaries, but if he was he never came out publicly, possibly due to his strong religious views. There's some suggestion, indeed, that one reason Jackson ended up out of the band was that he blackmailed the band, saying that he would publicly out Curtis if he didn't get more lead vocals. Whatever the truth, Jackson left the group, and his first solo single, "Bye Bye Baby", made number thirty-eight on the charts: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, "Bye Bye Baby"] However, his later singles had no success -- he was soon rerecording "Love Potion Number Nine" in the hope that that would be a UK chart success as it had been in the US: [Excerpt: Tony Jackson and the Vibrations, "Love Potion Number Nine"] Meanwhile, Allen was fitting in well with his new group, and it appeared at first that the group's run of hits would carry on uninterrupted without Jackson. The first single by the new lineup, "When You Walk In The Room", was a cover of another Jackie DeShannon song, this time written by DeShannon on her own, and originally released as a B-side: [Excerpt: Jackie DeShannon, "When You Walk In The Room"] The Searchers rearranged that, once again emphasising the riff from DeShannon's original, and by this time playing it on real twelve-strings, and adding extra compression to them. Their version featured a joint lead vocal by Pender and Allen: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "When You Walk In the Room"] Do you think the Byrds might have heard that? That went to number three on the charts. The next single was less successful, only making number thirteen, but was interesting in other ways -- from the start, as well as their R&B covers, Curtis had been adding folk songs to the group's repertoire, and there'd been one or two covers of songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" on their albums, but "What Have They Done to the Rain?" was the first one to become a single. It was written by Malvina Reynolds, who was a socialist activist who only became a songwriter in her early fifties, and who also wrote "Morningtown Ride" and "Little Boxes". "What Have They Done to The Rain?" was a song written to oppose nuclear weapons testing, and Curtis had learned it from a Joan Baez album. Even though it wasn't as big a success as some of their other hits, given how utterly different it was from their normal style, and how controversial the subject was, getting it into the top twenty at all seems quite an achievement. [Excerpt: The Searchers, “What Have They Done To The Rain?”] Their next single, "Goodbye My Love", was their last top ten hit, and the next few singles only made the top forty, even when the Rolling Stones gave them "Take It Or Leave It". The other group members started to get annoyed at Curtis, who they thought had lost his touch at picking songs, and whose behaviour had become increasingly erratic. Eventually, on an Australian tour, they took his supply of uppers and downers, which he had been using as much to self-medicate as for enjoyment as far as I can tell, and flushed them down the toilet. When they got back to the UK, Curtis was out of the group. Their first single after Curtis' departure, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody", was given to them by the Hollies, who had originally written it as an Everly Brothers album track: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody"] Unfortunately for the Searchers, Chris Curtis had also heard the song, decided it was a likely hit, and had produced a rival version for Paul and Barry Ryan, which got rushed out to compete with it: [Excerpt: Paul and Barry Ryan, "Have You Ever Loved Somebody"] Neither single made the top forty, and the Searchers would never have a hit single again. Nor would Curtis. Curtis only released one solo single, "Aggravation", a cover of a Joe South song: [Excerpt: Chris Curtis, "Aggravation"] The musicians on that included Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Joe Moretti, but it didn't chart. Curtis then tried to form a band, which he named Roundabout, based on the concept that musicians could hop on or hop off at any point, with Curtis as the only constant member. The guitarist and keyboard player quickly decided that it would be more convenient for them if Curtis was the one to hop off, and without Curtis Jon Lord and Richie Blackmore went on to form Deep Purple. The Searchers didn't put out another album for six years after Curtis left. They kept putting out singles on various labels, but nothing came close to charting. Their one album between 1966 and 1979 was a collection of rerecordings of their old hits, in 1972. But then in 1979 Seymour Stein, the owner of Sire Records, a label which was having success with groups like the Ramones, Talking Heads, and the Pretenders, was inspired by the Ramones covering "Needles and Pins" to sign the Searchers to a two-album deal, which produced records that fit perfectly into the late seventies New Wave pop landscape, while still sounding like the Searchers: [Excerpt: The Searchers, "Hearts in Her Eyes"] Apparently during those sessions, Curtis, who had given up music and become a civil servant, would regularly phone the studio threatening to burn it down if he wasn't involved. Unfortunately, while those albums had some critical success, they did nothing commercially, and Sire dropped them. By 1985, the Searchers were at breaking point. They hadn't recorded any new material in several years, and Mike Pender and John McNally weren't getting on at all -- which was a particular problem as the two of them were now the only two members based in Liverpool, and so they had to travel to and from gigs together without the other band members -- the group were so poor that McNally and Pender had one car between the two of them. One of them would drive them both to the gig, the other would drive back to Liverpool and keep the car until the next gig, when they would swap over again. No-one except them knows what conversations they had on those long drives, but apparently they weren't amicable. Pender thought of himself as the star of the group, and he particularly resented that he had to split the money from the band three ways (the drummers the group got in after Curtis were always on a salary rather than full partners in the group). Pender decided that he could make more money by touring on his own but still doing essentially the same show, with hired backing musicians. Pender and the other Searchers eventually reached an agreement that he could tour as "Mike Pender's Searchers", so long as he made sure that all the promotional material put every word at the same size, while the other members would continue as The Searchers with a new singer. A big chunk of the autobiographies of both Pender and Allen are taken up with the ensuing litigation, as there were suits and countersuits over matters of billing which on the outside look incredibly trivial, but which of course mattered greatly to everyone involved -- there were now two groups with near-identical names, playing the same sets, in the same venues, and so any tiny advantage that one had was a threat to the other, to the extent that at one point there was a serious danger of Pender going to prison over their contractual disputes. The group had been earning very little money anyway, comparatively, and there was a real danger that the two groups undercutting each other might lead to everyone going bankrupt. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Pender still tours -- or at least has tour dates booked over the course of the next year -- and McNally and Allen's band continued playing regularly until 2019, and only stopped performing because of McNally's increasing ill health. Having seen both, Pender's was the better show -- McNally and Allen's lineup of the group relied rather too heavily on a rather cheesy sounding synthesiser for my tastes, while Pender stuck closer to a straight guitar/bass/drums sound -- but both kept audiences very happy for decades. Mike Pender was made an MBE in 2020, as a reward for his services to the music industry. Tony Jackson and Chris Curtis both died in the 2000s, and John McNally and Frank Allen are now in well-deserved retirement. While Allen and Pender exchanged pleasantries and handshakes at their former bandmates' funerals, McNally and Pender wouldn't even say hello to each other, and even though McNally and Allen's band has retired, there's still a prominent notice on their website that they own the name "The Searchers" and nobody else is allowed to use it. But every time you hear a jangly twelve-string electric guitar, you're hearing a sound that was originally created by Mike Pender and John McNally playing in unison, a sound that proved to be greater than any of its constituent parts.
There's no boredom around here! On this episode, Damian is joined the LEGEND: STEVE DIGGLE from the godly Buzzcocks! Listen in as the two discuss the birth of punk in the UK, Krautrock, Gorilla Biscuits, touring with Nirvana & tons of other goodness! From "A conscientious objector to work" to punk icon: NOT TO BE MISSED! Also, grab that ESSENTIAL Buzzcocks singles boxset out now on Domino Records! Also Touched On: Influencing everybody Sick of Yes The Pistols and the Ramones Forming two days before the Clash The R and B influence of Pub rock The slowness of everything in 70’s music the Kraut rock influence Thrift store punks Malcolm McLaren’s mistake completes the Buzzcocks Promises was a political song pre-Buzzcocks’ Buzzcocks demos The Buzzcocks’ practice space becomes Joy Division’s Jamming for the first album in a rehab centre Autonomy: An English person trying to sound like a German person singing English “The riff of Manchester” “I love those weird little bits you do in those songs!” - Joey Ramone “We aren’t entertainers!” Getting paid not to play a biker bar the 100 club the Screen on the Green the kids in Slaughter and the Dogs Morrissey cribbing notes Hearing the Gorilla Biscuits’ cover for the first time Flag Of Convenience Meeting with Seymour Stein and saying you wanna sound like the Stooges reforming the band Touring with Nirvana AND SO MUCH MORE!!!! BROUGHT TO YOU BY VANS
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, conocida como Madonna, es una cantante, bailarina y actriz estadounidense. Considerada la reina del pop, nació el 16 de agosto de 1958 en Bay City (Michigan). A principios de los 80, la joven Madonna se inició en la música. Formó parte de dos grupos en los que llamó la atención de Seymour Stein, fundador de la primera discográfica de Madonna. En 1982 firmó su primer contrato y lanzó su primer single: Everybody. Fue todo un éxito y poco después comenzó a trabajar en su primer álbum: Madonna. Salió a la venta en julio de 1983 y se colocó en el número 8 en la lista de Billboard 200 en 1984, tras solo seis meses desde su lanzamiento. Su música, pop con reminiscencias de disco, junto a su manera de vestir, maquillajes y peinados, marcaron una época. Su estilo empezó a ser imitado por mujeres y niñas de todo el mundo, convirtiéndose también en icono de moda. El reconocimiento le vino en 1984, con el sencillo Like a virgin, uno de los temas más famosos y polémicos de la cantante estadounidense. Vendió más de 25 millones de copias en todo el mundo y fue disco de diamante. La fama de Madonna no dejaba de aumentar. Sus canciones se convertían en éxitos de ventas y se colaban entre las listas de hits de todo el mundo. Material girl, La isla bonita o Like a prayer enseguida fueron coreados como himnos. La rubia continuó cosechando éxitos durante los 90 y los 2000. Además, también dio el salto a la gran pantalla. Uno de sus papeles más destacados fue el de Eva Perón en Evita (1996). Sus álbumes, giras, actuaciones y estilo le han valido para tener legiones de fans en todo el mundo que la han coronado como “La reina del pop”. (Programa realizado en el año 2013) - - - Ruta 89 es un programa de radio que trae de vuelta lo mejor del Rock & Pop de los 80s y 90s, con versiones inéditas, en vinilo, artistas en vivo y las canciones que hoy son ya, clásicos. Todo esto en un ambiente relajado, con los datos y anécdotas que realmente queremos saber. Cada programa es un especial diferente dedicado a bandas o músicos de los 80s y 90s que transitaron por el rock y pop en inglés y en español. Así mismo, tenemos programas dedicados a los eventos que marcaron estas dos décadas, tales como grandes conciertos, bandas sonoras, movimientos culturales, entre otros. Conducen: Juan Carlos López - @jcmovie y Mauricio Parada Beltrán - @maopb Sigue Ruta 89 en facebook, instagram y twitter: @ruta89radio
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, conocida como Madonna, es una cantante, bailarina y actriz estadounidense. Considerada la reina del pop, nació el 16 de agosto de 1958 en Bay City (Michigan). A principios de los 80, la joven Madonna se inició en la música. Formó parte de dos grupos en los que llamó la atención de Seymour Stein, fundador de la primera discográfica de Madonna. En 1982 firmó su primer contrato y lanzó su primer single: Everybody. Fue todo un éxito y poco después comenzó a trabajar en su primer álbum: Madonna. Salió a la venta en julio de 1983 y se colocó en el número 8 en la lista de Billboard 200 en 1984, tras solo seis meses desde su lanzamiento. Su música, pop con reminiscencias de disco, junto a su manera de vestir, maquillajes y peinados, marcaron una época. Su estilo empezó a ser imitado por mujeres y niñas de todo el mundo, convirtiéndose también en icono de moda. El reconocimiento le vino en 1984, con el sencillo Like a virgin, uno de los temas más famosos y polémicos de la cantante estadounidense. Vendió más de 25 millones de copias en todo el mundo y fue disco de diamante. La fama de Madonna no dejaba de aumentar. Sus canciones se convertían en éxitos de ventas y se colaban entre las listas de hits de todo el mundo. Material girl, La isla bonita o Like a prayer enseguida fueron coreados como himnos. La rubia continuó cosechando éxitos durante los 90 y los 2000. Además, también dio el salto a la gran pantalla. Uno de sus papeles más destacados fue el de Eva Perón en Evita (1996). Sus álbumes, giras, actuaciones y estilo le han valido para tener legiones de fans en todo el mundo que la han coronado como “La reina del pop”. (Programa realizado en el año 2013) - - - Ruta 89 es un programa de radio que trae de vuelta lo mejor del Rock & Pop de los 80s y 90s, con versiones inéditas, en vinilo, artistas en vivo y las canciones que hoy son ya, clásicos. Todo esto en un ambiente relajado, con los datos y anécdotas que realmente queremos saber. Cada programa es un especial diferente dedicado a bandas o músicos de los 80s y 90s que transitaron por el rock y pop en inglés y en español. Así mismo, tenemos programas dedicados a los eventos que marcaron estas dos décadas, tales como grandes conciertos, bandas sonoras, movimientos culturales, entre otros. Conducen: Juan Carlos López - @jcmovie y Mauricio Parada Beltrán - @maopb Sigue Ruta 89 en facebook, instagram y twitter: @ruta89radio
Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! El embrión de los Ramones empezó a gestarse en Forest Hills, un barrio de clase media de Queens, Nueva York, donde vivían todos sus miembros fundadores. Jeffrey Hyman era un adolescente desempleado, hijo de un matrimonio divorciado, que ocupaba su tiempo tocando la batería y coleccionando discos, mientras su madre intentaba inculcarle el interés por la pintura y su padre le pedía que siguiese con su negocio de camiones.Jeffrey sufría un trastorno obsesivo-compulsivo que necesitó su ingreso en un centro psiquiátrico.A finales de los 60 formó parte de una banda de glam rock de corta vida llamada Sniper. John Cummings había sido alumno de una academia militar a la que entró por mandato de su madre. Como amigo de la infancia de Jeffrey, intentó formar un grupo con él y otro amigo durante su etapa en el instituto. A finales de los 60 fundó una banda de garage rock llamada Tangerine Puppets junto con Thomas Erdelyi, un húngaro de nacimiento que llevaba inmerso en el mundo de la música desde mucho antes que sus futuros compañeros. Douglas Colvin pasó toda su infancia en Alemania debido al trabajo de su padre.? miembro de la División de Investigación Criminal del ejército estadounidense. Se mudó a Nueva York con su madre y sus hermanas a los 14 años, y cuando entró en el grupo era el único de los componentes que tenía un trabajo (peluquero).A principios de los años 1970, Jeffrey era cantante en una banda local. En uno de sus conciertos conoció a Douglas, a quien volvió a ver en un concierto de los New York Dolls. John era amigo de Douglas y también amigo de Jeffrey (estuvo con su hermano Mitch Hyman en la misma banda), y a su vez amigo de Thomas.De este modo, la primera alineación del embrión de los Ramones tenía como integrantes al guitarrista John Cummings, el guitarrista rítmico y vocalista Douglas Colvin, el batería Jeffrey Hyman y Richie, un amigo de todos, al bajo, quien acabaría abandonando al poco de comenzar.Thomas actuaría como representante del grupo, y fue el que consiguió la primera sala de ensayos del grupo, Performance Studio, en Manhattan.9? En esta sala tocaron su primer concierto, el 30 de marzo de 1974 ante una audiencia de 30 personas y con un repertorio compuesto únicamente por versiones de otros artistas.12? En este concierto la banda ya era conocida como Ramones, un nombre inventado por Douglas.14? A partir de ese momento, todos los miembros llevarían el apellido Ramone (el mismo que utilizaba Paul McCartney en el periodo Silver Beetles ),14? de modo que los tres miembros serían conocidos como Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) y Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Colvin). Este primer concierto resultó un desastre, causado principalmente por la imposibilidad de Dee Dee de tocar y cantar a la vez. Como solución, Dee Dee se dedicó solamente al bajo y Joey se hizo con el puesto de cantante. Para rellenar su hueco en la batería se eligió a Thomas, el representante y amigo de los componentes, que pasó a llamarse Tommy Ramone.6? El 16 de agosto se produjo su debut oficial en un local llamado CBGB. A partir de esta primera actuación pasaron a tocar allí una vez a la semana junto con otros músicos emergentes como Blondie, Johnny Thunders, Talking Heads, Patti Smith o Television.12? Su primer concierto fuera de Nueva York tuvo lugar como teloneros de Johnny Winter ante 20 000 personas en Waterbury, Connecticut, y fue un sonado desastre.12?6? En diciembre de ese año grabaron una demo de 15 canciones producidas por Tommy, de las cuales siete irían a parar al primer álbum y dos al segundo. Otras dos fueron publicadas en All the Stuff (and More), mientras que aún hay cuatro de estas canciones inéditas. En junio de 1975, una compañía discográfica semidesconocida, Sire Records, les ofreció grabar un sencillo, pero declinaron la oferta. Linda Stein, la mujer de uno de los fundadores de esta compañía, Seymour Stein, los había visto actuar en el CBGB y les recomendó a su marido, que consiguió convencer a Sire para ofrecerles un contrato de cinco años.12? El 2 de febrero de 1976, los Ramones empezaron a grabar su primer álbum, Ramones, con un presupuesto de 6400 dólares,15? en contraste con los altos presupuestos que gastaban los grandes grupos de rock.2? Dos semanas y media después, el disco ya estaba terminado, y salió a la venta el 23 de abril. El 10 de mayo compartieron escenario con la banda inglesa Dr. Feelgood. Este concierto fue presenciado por un empresario inglés que les ofreció realizar un concierto en el Roundhouse de Londres el 4 de julio junto con el grupo de San Francisco The Flamin' Groovies y los ingleses The Stranglers. El concierto resultó un éxito y allanó considerablemente el camino a las bandas inglesas de punk como Sex Pistols o The Clash.14? De este concierto se dice que lo presenciaron los futuros líderes de estas bandas que se harían famosas poco después, un hecho falso puesto que ese mismo día The Clash se encontraba teloneando a los Sex Pistols en el Black Swan de Sheffield.16? El concierto de los Ramones en el Roundhouse está considerado como un momento crucial en el desarrollo del punk en todo el mundo.2? Los siguientes dos álbumes fueron publicados en 1977 bajo los nombres de Leave Home y Rocket to Russia, este último alabado por la revista Rolling Stone como "el mejor ‘rock & roll’ estadounidense del año". Ambos álbumes fueron producidos por Tony Bongiovi, primo de Jon Bon Jovi. Rocket to Russia contiene los tres únicos sencillos que consiguieron entrar en las listas de éxitos de los Estados Unidos: "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" (número 81), "Rockaway Beach" (puesto 66) y "Do You Wanna Dance" (puesto 86).2? El 31 de diciembre de 1977 grabaron el directo It's Alive, un álbum doble que recoge su actuación en el Rainbow Theatre de Londres, finalmente publicado en 1979 solo en Europa y Asia.2? El título es una referencia a la película de terror del mismo nombre. Tommy, cansado de hacer giras con el grupo, abandonó la banda para ser productor,12? y fue sustituido por Mark Bell, que accedió al puesto con el nombre de Marky Ramone. Marky había trabajado anteriormente con un grupo de rock sureño llamado Dust, que publicó dos álbumes en 1971 y 1972, y había grabado junto a Richard Hell el disco Blank Generation.12? En 1978 la banda publicó el primer álbum con su nuevo miembro, Road to Ruin. Este álbum incluye por primera vez en la discografía de los Ramones canciones con guitarras acústicas, varias baladas, el primer solo de guitarra de Johnny y las dos primeras canciones de más de tres minutos, aunque los resultados de ventas siguieron siendo desfavorables. No obstante, la canción "I Wanna Be Sedated" se convirtió en una de las más famosas del cuarteto neoyorquino.Tras el debut de la banda en la industria del cine en la película Rock 'n' Roll High School, dirigida por Allan Arkush y producida por Roger Corman (1979), el legendario productor Phil Spector, que había alcanzado la fama produciendo discos de las Ronettes, los Beatles y Tina Turner entre muchos otros, se interesó por la banda y produjo su álbum End of the Century en 1980,14? que ascendió hasta el puesto 44.º en los Estados Unidos, siendo el disco que más alto llegó en las listas de éxitos en la carrera de la banda.2? Sin embargo, el resultado no satisfizo a los miembros del grupo, alegando diferencias entre ellos y Spector, quien llegó a apuntar a Dee Dee con una pistola para que repitiera un riff.14?18? En varias entrevistas, Johnny declaró que él siempre había estado a favor del punk más agresivo, mientras que End of the Century presenta un material más apartado del sonido clásico del grupo debido a la influencia de Spector, destacando el sonido suave de "Baby, I Love You" (una versión de las Ronettes que, no obstante, se convirtió en el sencillo más exitoso del grupo, alcanzando el octavo lugar en el Reino Unido),2? muy lejos del característico punk del cuarteto neoyorquino. A pesar de las diferencias musicales, el álbum resultó un éxito de público y la banda se dirigió por primera vez a España, donde dieron tres conciertos. En 1981, el cuarteto publicó el disco Pleasant Dreams, que continuó la senda establecida por End of the Century al presentar un punk mucho menos agresivo que en los cuatro primeros álbumes. En esta ocasión el productor fue Graham Gouldman, componente del dúo británico de música pop 10 cc.1? En posteriores declaraciones, Johnny dijo que tomar esta dirección fue una decisión de la compañía discográfica en un vano intento por atraer la atención del público estadounidense. En esta época comenzaron las primeras diferencias serias entre integrantes y los primeros problemas con las drogas y el alcohol. El 1 de agosto los Ramones se convirtieron en la primera banda entrevistada en la MTV, que por aquel entonces daba sus primeros pasos, aunque con la expansión del canal la banda salió de su programación.6? Hacia esta época comenzaron los primeros problemas serios entre los miembros de la banda, especialmente entre Joey y Johnny. Ambos músicos habían sido fuente de múltiples discusiones anteriormente, especialmente políticas (mientras Johnny era un firme conservador, Joey se consideraba como una persona de izquierdas),6? y continuaron en la tortuosa grabación de End of the Century: por un lado, Johnny intentaba que el grupo siguiese la senda de los primeros discos del grupo, mientras que por otro, Joey quería explorar otros caminos musicales más allá del punk.6? Su relación llegó al límite cuando Johnny le "robó" a Joey su novia, llamada Linda Danielle, para acabar casándose con ella.19? Ante esto, Joey compuso la canción "The KKK Took My Baby Away" (incluida en Pleasant Dreams) en referencia a este suceso ("KKK" son las siglas del Ku Klux Klan, lo que pone de manifiesto las tendencias conservadoras de Johnny). En una entrevista a Johnny Ramone poco antes de morir, este dijo: «Nos llevábamos mal de cualquier modo. La situación no ayudó, pero tampoco nos poníamos de acuerdo en nada. No sé. Simplemente, éramos diferentes». La relación entre el vocalista y el guitarrista nunca pudo recuperarse completamente, y permaneció así hasta la muerte de Joey en 2001.19? Tras la edición de Subterranean Jungle en 1983, Marky Ramone fue despedido del grupo a causa de sus problemas de alcoholismo.6? Este disco pone de manifiesto los problemas creativos del grupo, al camuflar en dos canciones el riff de "Blitzkrieg Bop" e incluir tres versiones de otros artistas en un ligero viraje hacia el new wave.20? Además, Johnny Ramone fue herido en una pelea y tuvo que pasar por una delicada operación en la que su vida llegó a correr peligro, aunque pudo recuperarse satisfactoriamente.12? Tras la vuelta de Johnny, el objetivo era suplir la baja de Marky, y el elegido fue Richie Ramone (nacido como Richard Reinhardt). Una vez superadas las dificultades, la banda reapareció con el disco Too Tough to Die (Demasiado duro para morir, nombre que proviene del incidente de Johnny) en 1984, producido por Tommy Ramone. Este álbum resultó una vuelta a las raíces musicales del grupo tras los fracasos de los tres anteriores trabajos y presenta su primer tema instrumental, "Durango 95". Algunos críticos musicales consideran que este fue el último álbum de calidad de la banda.21? En 1986, los Ramones fueron invitados a grabar la banda sonora de la película Sid and Nancy, que narra los últimos años de vida del bajista de los Sex Pistols Sid Vicious. Durante la grabación hubo varios problemas con el contrato, que fue finalmente cancelado. Sin embargo, el grupo aprovechó algunas de las canciones compuestas para este proyecto fallido para introducirlas en el álbum Animal Boy, que vio la luz ese mismo año. Este trabajo fue producido por Jean Beauvoir, miembro de Plasmatics, y presenta tanto canciones agresivas como canciones más comerciales. Una de las canciones de este trabajo, "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg", habla sobre la visita de Ronald Reagan a un cementerio nazi.1?22? El revuelo que causó y las protestas del propio Johnny Ramone obligaron a cambiarla de título en las ediciones del álbum en los Estados Unidos a "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down".22? Un año después se grabó el último álbum con Richie, que llevó por título Halfway to Sanity y que fue producido por Daniel Rey, exguitarrista de Shrapnel (otro de los grupos de la escena de Nueva York). Richie abandonó la banda en agosto de 1987, molesto con el trío porque, tras cinco años, no habían compartido los beneficios de la venta de camisetas con él.6? Richie fue sustituido por Clem Burke (Elvis Ramone), de Blondie.12? Según Johnny, los conciertos con Burke fueron un desastre, y fue despedido tras el segundo porque no era capaz de seguir el ritmo del resto al tocar.6? Su reemplazo fue un sobrio y recuperado Marky Ramone. Los cambios en la formación continuaron en 1989, con la salida de Dee Dee Ramone, por aquel entonces el compositor más prolífico del grupo,6? después de la publicación de Brain Drain. Dee Dee fue repuesto por Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), que mantuvo su puesto hasta la ruptura del grupo. Sin embargo, Dee Dee continuó componiendo para la banda,2?23? a pesar de comenzar una breve e infructuosa carrera como rapero bajo el nombre de Dee Dee King,14? aunque antes había adoptado el seudónimo de Dougie Fresh.12? Su debut como rapero salió al mercado con el título de Standing at the Spotlight en 1989.En enero de 1990 Joey Ramone sufrió un accidente durante un concierto en el Ritz de Nueva York en el cual sufrió una rotura de ligamentos cruzados en su rodilla que lo obligó a mantener seis semanas de reposo.12? Ese año, Sire Records lanzó All the Stuff (and More), un álbum doble donde se incluyeron versiones reeditadas de sus dos primeros discos y otras demos y temas inéditos que sirvió para dar a conocer los inicios del grupo en aquellos países en los que no habían sido publicados los primeros álbumes.12? Poco después, el grupo viajó a Toronto y actuó en la película de Bill Fishman Car 54, Where Are You?, una película inspirada en la serie del mismo nombre trasmitida a finales de los años 1960.12? Además, los Ramones organizaron conciertos en Canadá, Bélgica, Suecia y Finlandia y tocaron en el primer festival de música realizado tras la reunificación de Alemania. En los shows tocaron nuevamente junto a Iggy Pop y en Bélgica lo hicieron con Sonic Youth y The Pogues. En el año 1991 se editó Loco Live, un álbum grabado en vivo en Barcelona, España, que recibió malas críticas al ser comparado con It's Alive.12? A su vez, el 26, 27 y 28 de abril de 1991 los Ramones hicieron su segunda incursión en Buenos Aires, Argentina presentándose en el estadio Obras Sanitarias. En julio de ese año, Marky y Joey participaron como panelistas del seminario Rock the Vote, una entidad encargada del registro de votantes y la adopción de incentivos para que la gente participe en la política activamente. Los Ramones filmaron un vídeo para esta organización que se difundió por MTV. Un año más tarde la banda grabó Mondo Bizarro, álbum editado por Radioactive Records y producido por Ed Stasium que contó nuevamente con la participación de Dee Dee Ramone en la composición de dos temas.24? El 16 de septiembre los Ramones se presentaron nuevamente en la Argentina realizando cuatro shows a sala llena en el estadio Obras Sanitarias, dando también varios conciertos en España. El siguiente disco del grupo fue Acid Eaters, un álbum de versiones de temas de los años 60 grabado en tan solo una semana. Ya en 1995, dos años después de Acid Eaters, el grupo grabó el que sería su último álbum de estudio, ¡Adiós Amigos!, donde Daniel Rey y Dee Dee Ramone colaboraron activamente en la composición. Más tarde ese año, los Ramones tocaron seis días seguidos con todas las entradas vendidas en el estadio Obras Sanitarias de Argentina. Los telonearon bandas importantes de la escena punk argentina como Flema, Attaque 77, 2 minutos, Doble Fuerza, Mal Momento, Cadena Perpetua y Superuva y el grupo tocó "Spider-Man" (por primera vez) y "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." (una canción original de Motörhead que compuso Lemmy Kilmister a modo de homenaje al cuarteto neoyorquino) en vivo.12? El 26 de febrero de 1996 la banda tocó en The Academy, Nueva York en un recital que daría lugar al álbum en directo Greatest Hits Live. El 16 de marzo de ese año Ramones volvió una vez más a la Argentina para dar su último concierto en Sudamérica y, según lo que habían calculado, el último de su carrera. El grupo llenó el estadio Estadio de River Plate, Antonio Vespucio Liberti con 65.000 personas presenciando el recital.25? Sin embargo, poco después Ramones decidió tocar en algunos recitales del festival Lollapalooza en los Estados Unidos antes de su separación. Su último recital fue el 6 de agosto de 1996, en The Palace, Los Ángeles y su último disco, We're Outta Here, contiene la grabación de ese concierto.Después de la fallida incursión en el mundo del rap, Dee Dee regresó al punk con su disco solista I Hate Freaks Like You, en la vuelta del bajista original de los Ramones al sonido de su antiguo grupo. El disco fue publicado en 1996 y grabado en los Países Bajos.26? El 20 de julio de 1999, Dee Dee, Joey, Johnny, Marky, C. J. y Tommy aparecieron juntos en una tienda de la cadena de música Virgin en Nueva York para firmar autógrafos. Esta fue la última vez que se reunieron los exmiembros del grupo antes de la muerte de Joey el 15 de abril de 2001 a causa de un linfoma.3? Los trabajos inacabados de Joey fueron recopilados en el álbum Don't Worry About Me.27? En homenaje a su memoria, el ayuntamiento de Nueva York descubrió una placa con su nombre en la esquina entre las calles Bowery (la calle en la que estaba el CBGB) y 2nd Street en noviembre de 2003, pasándose a llamar Joey Ramone Place.En 2002, Johnny, Dee Dee, Joey, Tommy y Marky Ramone fueron incluidos en el Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll, el que fue uno de las últimas apariciones de Dee Dee antes de su muerte. El 5 de junio de ese mismo año fue encontrado muerto en su casa de Hollywood a causa de una sobredosis de heroína.13? En febrero de 2003 salió a la venta el CD We're a Happy Family. A Tribute to Ramones, un disco de versiones de los temas más famosos de la banda coordinado por Rob Zombie (líder de White Zombie) y Johnny Ramone, en el que participaron artistas como U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits, Metallica, Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Garbage, Eddie Vedder, The Pretenders, Green Day, The Offspring y el propio Rob Zombie.29? En el verano de 2004 se publicó un documental sobre la banda, End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones. Johnny Ramone murió el 15 de septiembre tras una lucha contra un cáncer de próstata.30? Un año después, en conmemoración de su muerte, abrió sus puertas el primer museo dedicado a la banda en Berlín, Alemania, con una colección de casi trescientos objetos relacionados con el cuarteto neoyorquino.31? A lo largo de 2006 se estrenó un musical de teatro llamado Gabba Gabba Hey basado en la historia de los Ramones, en el que se incluyen dieciocho canciones del grupo neoyorquino y que contó con la participación de Tommy Ramone, tanto en la producción del mismo como en escena.32? En octubre de 2007 se publicó un DVD en directo llamado It's Alive 1974-1996, con 118 canciones tocadas en 33 conciertos que repasan la carrera musical del grupo. En 2012 se publicó el segundo álbum póstumo de Joey Ramone titulado Ya Know? El 11 de julio del 2014 falleció en Queens, Estados Unidos el último miembro original de la banda. Tommy Ramone, de cáncer de vías biliares.Los Ramones formaron parte de la primera ola del punk, que tuvo a la ciudad de Nueva York como uno de sus centros neurálgicos, junto con Londres.2? Además de los Ramones, surgieron en Nueva York otros grupos de punk como Television, Blondie o Talking Heads y artistas como Richard Hell y Patti Smith, pero que sonaban distintos a los Ramones.1? Mientras estos grupos eran más intelectuales y concebían la música que hacían de un modo más artístico, los Ramones componían canciones muy cortas de un puñado de acordes con letras muy simples o incluso sin sentido.1? El resultado fue una fórmula que volvía a las raíces del rock and roll de los 50 y 60,33?2? antes de la llegada de los Beatles, pero con un tempo considerablemente más rápido que el de este género y que sonaba como algo totalmente nuevo.1? La música minimalista, ruidosa y rápida está influida por la música rock con la que los miembros de la banda crecieron en la década de los años 50 y 60, como The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Who,7? The Beatles y The Rolling Stones, así como algunas de las bandas de proto punk como The Stooges y New York Dolls.6? También significa una reacción contra el rock complejo y muy producido de los 70, con exponentes como Led Zeppelin o los artistas de rock progresivo y que dominaban las listas de popularidad en esta década. Los Ramones fueron considerados como los líderes de la escena punk, gracias en gran medida a sus cuatro primeros álbumes, que constituyeron la base sobre la que se asentaron las demás bandas de punk posteriores.1? Este sonido influyó en buena medida al de la nueva ola del heavy metal británico que surgió en Gran Bretaña a mediados y finales de los 70, con bandas como Motörhead (que compuso la canción "R.A.M.O.N.E.S."), Judas Priest y Iron Maiden, así como al speed metal.2? La carrera de los Ramones en los años 80 se adentró en los terrenos del hardcore punk, con álbumes como Too Tough to Die o Halfway to Sanity, ejerciendo también una considerable influencia en este género.2? Por otra parte, la frescura y melodía del grupo (plasmada en temas como Rock N Roll Highschool) los sitúa como una importante influencia para el llamado pop punk, con bandas como Green Day. Los Ramones y el resto de grupos de punk posteriores ayudaron a trasladar el rock de estadio a clubes más pequeños de acuerdo con la filosofía más simple que predica este género musical.2? En escena, la banda siempre se colocaba de cara al público, teniendo el bajista y el guitarrista las piernas abiertas y el instrumento inclinado entre ellas. A Johnny Ramone no le gustaban los guitarristas que tocaban mirando hacia la batería, el amplificador o cualquier otra cosa que no fuera el público.Durante la carrera de los Ramones, la tensión entre Johnny y Joey fue patente. Tenían ideas políticas contrarias, siendo Joey un liberal y Johnny un conservador. Sus personalidades también chocaban: Johnny provenía de una familia militar que le inculcó valores de autodisciplina,34? mientras Joey padecía trastorno obsesivo compulsivo.35? Johnny, en ocasiones atormentaba a Joey con comentarios antisemitas.36? A principios de los 80, Johnny empezó salir con la novia de Joey, Linda, con quien más tarde se casaría. Como consecuencia y a pesar de que siguieron tocando juntos, dejaron de hablarse.37? Johnny no volvió a llamarle hasta el día de su muerte. En un documental posterior dijo que la semana después de la muerte del vocalista fue la peor de su vida. Aparte del conflicto principal, el trastorno bipolar de Dee Dee y su frecuente adicción a las drogas también causaron numerosos roces.38? Tommy dejó la banda afirmando haber sido "amenazado por Johnny, despreciado por Dee Dee e ignorado por Joey".36? Conforme se fueron uniendo nuevos miembros, los asuntos de dinero y actuaciones fueron fuente de conflicto.39? En 1997 Marky y Joey protagonizaron una discusión en la radio sobre sus respectivos problemas con el alcoholLa imagen de los Ramones en escena complementaba la temática de sus temas y sus conciertos. Todos los miembros de la banda salían a los conciertos con chaquetas de cuero, pantalones vaqueros rasgados, deportivas, camisetas y pelo largo,5? en honor a las estrellas de rock de los 50,1? y poniendo de manifiesto que no era necesario vestir de manera extravagante y lujosa para tocar música rock.4? Esta moda enfatizaba el minimalismo de su música, que constituyó una gran influencia en la escena neoyorquina de los 70. Tommy Ramone recalcó que, tanto musical como visualmente, "estábamos influidos por los cómics, el trabajo de Andy Warhol y el cine vanguardista". El logo de la banda fue creado por el artista Arturo Vega,9? un amigo de Joey y Dee Dee que les ofreció alojarse en su piso.6? Vega produjo las camisetas de la banda, su mayor fuente de ingresos, basando la mayor parte de las imágenes en una fotografía en blanco y negro que había sacado de su cinturón con la hebilla del águila calva, y que aparecía en la contraportada del primer álbum de la banda.41? El artista se inspiró en un viaje a Washington D.C. para crear el logo: Los vi como la última banda de todos los estadounidenses. Para mí, ellos reflejaban el carácter estadounidense en general; una casi infantil agresividad inocente. Entonces, la primera vez que fui a Washington D.C., estaba impresionado por la atmósfera oficial de los edificios y organismos y con banderas por todas partes. Pensé: "El gran sello del presidente de los Estados Unidos sería perfecto para los Ramones, con el águila sosteniendo las flechas, para simbolizar la fuerza y la agresividad que se usa contra cualquiera que se atreva a atacarnos, y una rama de olivo, que se ofrece a aquellos que quieren ser amigos". Pero decidimos cambiar un poquito. En lugar de la rama de olivo, teníamos una rama de manzano, ya que los Ramones eran tan estadounidenses como el pastel de manzana. Y como Johnny era un fanático del béisbol, pusimos al águila con un bate en lugar de las flechas.41? En el rollo del pico del águila originalmente ponía "Look Out/Below" (Cuidado/Abajo), pero fue cambiado por "Hey ho! Let's go!" por los gritos de apertura de "Blitzkrieg Bop", mientras que las cabezas de flecha del escudo venían de un diseño de una camiseta del propio Vega. Donde en el sello presidencial ponía "Seal of the President of the United States" alrededor del águila, Vega puso en su lugar los nombres de los cuatro miembros de la banda, que cambiarían según los movimientos en la alineación de la misma. Finalmente, Vega fue contratado también como el encargado de la iluminación de la banda en los conciertos y como encargado del merchandising..
Episode 2 of In Loving Recollection tells the story of Clem Snide’s 2000 record Your Favorite Music. Singer and songwriter Eef Barzelay recounts the circumstances that influenced the writing and recording of the album, touching on how New Jersey inspired much of the record’s lyrical content and the thrill of signing with music industry legend Seymour Stein.
Suite de notre rétrospective dédiée à Aphex Twin. On se concentre sur la naissance du logo mythique et Selected Ambient Works ii Avec la participation de Guillaume de Révisons nos Classiques, Nyx M. Cavalier, Lolly de Je conte jusqu'à toi, Christophe de Enjoy the Noise et Corentin de La Bonne Oreille
Nominating Committee all-stars Seymour Stein, Bob Merlis, and Andy Paley return to the show to talk about all things Rock Hall and many things not. The discussion includes Seymour's list of who should be inducted, female acts who've never been on the ballot, and singing, so much singing. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
Nominating Committee all-stars Seymour Stein, Bob Merlis, and Andy Paley return to the show to talk about all things Rock Hall and many things not. The discussion includes Seymour's list of who should be inducted, female acts who've never been on the ballot, and singing, so much singing. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
Nominating Committee all-stars Seymour Stein, Bob Merlis, and Andy Paley return to the show to talk about all things Rock Hall and many things not. The discussion includes Seymour's list of who should be inducted, female acts who've never been on the ballot, and singing, so much singing. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
Nominating Committee all-stars Seymour Stein, Bob Merlis, and Andy Paley return to the show to talk about all things Rock Hall and many things not. The discussion includes Seymour's list of who should be inducted, female acts who've never been on the ballot, and singing, so much singing. This show is part of Pantheon Podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ice -T - Colors (Marc Hype & Petko Turner Edit) Marc Is Here > https://soundcloud.com/marchype Ice-T started out with other West Coast hip-hop pioneers such as Kid Frost, DJ Flash, and Egyptian Lover with Electro recordings. Later on, he changed his style and was the first West Coast MC to be accepted by the East Coast. “6 ’N The Mornin’” is sometimes seen as the track that triggered the whole gangsta movement, which was produced by the Unknown DJ, who produced electro funk tracks before and went on to produce Compton's Most Wanted. The song was inspired by Schoolly D's "PSK" and became the inspiration for Eazy E and N.W.A.'s "Boyz N The Hood." Ice-T’s raw style captured the ears of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, who signed him to a multi-album countract, and then went on to work with Afrika Islam, the man behind the beats on his debut album, 1987’s Rhyme Pays; 1988’s Power; and 1989’s The Iceberg/Freedom of Speech...Just Watch What You Say. As the title of this third album suggests, Ice-T was from the start not merely a gangsta MC—although he was one of the driving forces behind the new style—but also used hip-hop music as a platform for social and political activism; Seymour Stein called him “the Bob Dylan of hip-hop.” On “Freedom of Speech,” Ice attacked Tipper Gore for introducing the Parental Advisory sticker. In 1991, Ice T's fourth album, O.G. Original Gangster, was released, which included rhymes about child abuse and drunk driving as well as the theme song from the movie “New Jack City” by Mario Van Peebles, the movie that launched Ice's career as an actor. The same year, Ice formed the heavy metal band Body Count. Its debut self-titled album contained a song called “Cop Killer,” which led to a giant controversy over song lyrics. This escalated to the point where death threats were sent to Sire/Warner Bros executives, and Time Warner stockholders threatened to pull out of the company. Sire/Warner Bros., however, defended Ice all the way. This eventually caused the album to be re-issued with “Cop Killer” removed, and the title track from “The Iceberg” was added to the album as a replacement. He answered the controversy by saying the song was written in character, and that "if you believe that I'm a cop killer, you believe David Bowie is an astronaut." Indeed, Ice-T has portrayed police officers many times in his acting career. 1993’s Home Invasion, a politically-oriented album that featured a new female MC named Grip and Ice T's longtime DJ Evil E as an MC himself. Sire/Warner Bros. had issued the first single from the album—and even assigned a catalog number to the album—but Ice parted company with Sire because of the controversial album artwork before it was released formally. Rhyme $yndicate/Priority/EMI Records released the album with the intended artwork intact. On 1997’s VI—Return of the Real, Ice returned to his gangsta roots. 1999’s 7th Deadly Sin was one of the first records to be distributed via mp3 before appearing in record stores and continued in this vein. In 2000, Ice-T teamed up with East Coast hip-hop pioneer Kool Keith from Ultramagnetic MCs to form the Analog Brothers, widely considered an artistically successful experiment. The same year also brought Ice-T's Greatest Hits: The Evidence. More recently, Ice-T formed a new group called SMG (Sex, Money, and Gunz) with East Coast gangster MCs Smoothe Da Hustler and Trigga da Gambla. Ice-T has written and performed songs for many movie soundtracks including "Big Gun" for “Tank Girl” as well as title tracks for “Colors,” “Dick Tracy,” “New Jack City,” “Ricochet,” and “Trespass” (He starred in all of them, save for “Dick Tracy” and “Colors.”). He teamed up with the pioneering Latino MC Kid Frost to perform "Tears of a Mother" for the film “No Mothers Crying, No Babies Dying.”
In this very special episode, Joe & Kristen are joined by former Nominating Committee members Andy Paley & Bob Merlis, alongside current member and INDUCTEE, the legendary Seymour Stein. Much is discussed (and sung!) in this super-sized episode featuring these very knowledgeable guests.
For decades, people have maligned disco music. This week, hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot take an in-depth look at the genre from its origins in marginalized communities to its height of popularity. They'll also explore groundbreaking artists like Sylvester, the Bee Gees and more. Also, Greg talks to Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein about signing acts like the Ramones and Madonna.
Legendary record label executive, Seymour Stein, is the ears behind countless amazing careers including The Talking Heads, Madonna and The Ramones. Stein shares stories from his early years helping to compile the Billboard charts in NYC and spending a summer in Cincinnati to learn the record business from Syd Nathan when he was only 15 years old. For Stein, the songs are what attracts him to a band, musicianship comes second. He is not only an great businessman but a true music fan and fountain of knowledge. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Seymour Stein - "Interview" https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/80460
Seymour Stein - "Interview" http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/80460
Comedian and podcaster Joey Devine (Roundball Rock podcast) comes by to talk about the divisive They Might Be Giants with Joe & Kristen. Also discussed is Joey's run-in with Seymour Stein, a potential Eagles Broadway musical, and good rock books/documentaries.
Meet Dan and Dan! Dan Reed, Music Director and Afternoon Host at WXPN/Philadelphia and Dan DeLuca, Music Critic and Columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer sit down on a bi-weekly basis to talk MUSIC! We’re at the halfway point of 2018 and this time around on the podcast we revisit some of our favorite interviews of the year so far. We’ll listen back to a conversation the Dan’s had with legendary record man, Seymour Stein! Plus, Morgan Lander of the heavy metal band Kittie opened our eyes to what it’s like being an all-female band in a male dominated genre. Both were fantastic guests, and you can relive their interviews now!
We couldn't get over the fact that Seymour Stein actually met Buddy Holly. It shouldn't surprise us really because after all he is 76 and his first job in the music business was at Billboard when he was a teenager. It's well known that as the boss of the Sire label he signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, the Undertones and Madonna. What's less well-known is the part played in the Sire story by Focus, the Deviants and the Climax Blues Band. The full story is written in "Siren Song" which he's written with Gareth Murphy. He came to Word In Your Ear to talk about it. We let him get on with it. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We couldn't get over the fact that Seymour Stein actually met Buddy Holly. It shouldn't surprise us really because after all he is 76 and his first job in the music business was at Billboard when he was a teenager. It's well known that as the boss of the Sire label he signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, the Undertones and Madonna. What's less well-known is the part played in the Sire story by Focus, the Deviants and the Climax Blues Band. The full story is written in "Siren Song" which he's written with Gareth Murphy. He came to Word In Your Ear to talk about it. We let him get on with it.
We couldn't get over the fact that Seymour Stein actually met Buddy Holly. It shouldn't surprise us really because after all he is 76 and his first job in the music business was at Billboard when he was a teenager. It's well known that as the boss of the Sire label he signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, the Undertones and Madonna. What's less well-known is the part played in the Sire story by Focus, the Deviants and the Climax Blues Band. The full story is written in "Siren Song" which he's written with Gareth Murphy. He came to Word In Your Ear to talk about it. We let him get on with it. Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Meet Dan and Dan! Dan Reed, Music Director and Afternoon Host at WXPN/Philadelphia and Dan DeLuca, Music Critic and Columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer sit down on a bi-weekly basis to talk MUSIC! Dan and Dan welcome Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and legendary music executive Seymour Stein to the podcast. From signing Depeche Mode to Madonna to The Pretenders, Seymour tells some amazing stories from throughout his years in the industry. As the founder of Sire Records, Seymour has been as influential as anyone in the music industry. He shares stories about signing The Ramones, The Talking Heads, Richard Hell, The Smiths, Ice T and more. He also gives his insight on the current state of the music industry and talks about an upcoming auction, just outside of Philadelphia, that he’s participating in.
Radio Birdman: Radio Birdman was one of the first Australian independent bands to carry the punk label. The name comes from a misheard The Stooges lyric from the song “1970” (the actual lyric is “radio burnin’”). They formed in Sydney, 1974 with Deniz Tek and Rob Younger wanted to create a band that challenged the commercial mainstream whilst being completely uncompromising. With the addition of Pip Hoyle on keys, Ron Keeley playing drums and bassist Carl Rorke, Radio Birdman started playing DIY shows in rented garages and community spaces after being rejected from multiple venues. Once signing with Trafalgar Records, the band released their debut, 1977’s Radios Appear to critical acclaim, leading them to expand their touring circuit to include Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide. When Sire Records president Seymour Stein came to Australia to sign Brisbane punk band The Saints, he saw Radio Birdman and immediately invited them to join his label. The band moved their base of operations to London, and toured extensively in the UK and Europe, both headlining and as support for Sire label-mates the Flamin Groovies. Their overseas success was short-lived as Sire Records began having financial difficulties and were forced to drop Radio Birdman and many other bands from their label. Without a label, with no tour support and no distribution for Radios Appear, the band continued on, while suffering deteriorating interpersonal relations. Radio Birdman played one last show at Oxford University in June 1978, after which the band split up - on the eve of an explosion of independent music in Australia, which they had played a large role in creating. Recorded at The Tivoli in Brisbane on the 23rd of June 2017. Recorded and Mixed by Branko Cosic. Airing details: Originally via Zed Digital, 7-8pm, Sunday 7th of January 2018. Show production and engineering: Reuben Aptroot.
In the 60s, he cowrote ”My Boyfriend's Back" and "I Want Candy” and cofounded Sire records with Seymour Stein. But Richard Gottehrer isn’t one to dwell on the past. Six decades on, he’s still a guiding force in the music industry. Over the years, he’s produced Blondie, the Go-Gos, Richard Hell and, more recently, The Dum-Dum Girls. In 1997, Gottehrer cofounded the forward-looking digital distribution company, The Orchard. His latest project, Instant Love, is the brainchild of New Orleans native, Allison Zatarain, an employee of The Orchard and GM of its subsidiary label, Instant Records. The project pair female performers with songs traditional sung by men about women. Now 17 tracks deep, the pair regard the work as a “living album,” a growing collections of songs that lives on streaming services like Spotify, that will one day be collected in a more permanent form.Thus far, the project includes legendary performers like Irma Thomas, who performs Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love,” and less established artists like Erin Durant, who takes on Buffalo Springfield’s “Kind Woman.” Zatarain and Gottehrer regard the project as a kind of on-going conversation with female, as well as a experiment in music distribution in a time that’s been fairly tumultuous for both.
Greg Glover, co-founder of the Arena Rock Recording Company stops by for a lengthy chat. After some initial Goonies talk, we revisit our recent review of Harvey Danger’s Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone to fill in some blanks and learn some information about the behind the scene machinations involving the record business. We cover Greg’s childhood and college days, running a fanzine and how he got into “the music industry.” He share how Superdrag ended up being release number one for Arena Rock and the story of how they returned to the label years later. We get into reissuing previous releases, and how the Mineral rereleases came together, as well as the dreaded “unsolicited demos,” signing Elf Power, MTV and 1980s, dinners with Seymour Stein at Sire, how to get free shipping and much, much more. Songs in this Episode: Intro - NA Kicker by Superdrag 8:12 - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger 15:34 - Private Helicopter by Harvey Danger 40:20 - Lighting The Way by Superdrag 47:34 - Let It Out by The Life And Times Outro - Calling All Lovers by The Sheila Divine Request a 2017 Review / Subscribe at Patreon Facebook / Twitter / Instagram Zazzle Merch Store http://www.digmeoutpodcast.com
Greg Glover, co-founder of the Arena Rock Recording Company stops by for a lengthy chat. After some initial Goonies talk, we revisit our recent review of Harvey Danger's Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone to fill in some blanks and learn some information about the behind the scene machinations involving the record business. We cover Greg's childhood and college days, running a fanzine and how he got into “the music industry.” He share how Superdrag ended up being release number one for Arena Rock and the story of how they returned to the label years later. We get into reissuing previous releases, and how the Mineral rereleases came together, as well as the dreaded “unsolicited demos,” signing Elf Power, MTV and 1980s, dinners with Seymour Stein at Sire, how to get free shipping and much, much more. Songs in this Episode: Intro - NA Kicker by Superdrag 8:12 - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger 15:34 - Private Helicopter by Harvey Danger 40:20 - Lighting The Way by Superdrag 47:34 - Let It Out by The Life And Times Outro - Calling All Lovers by The Sheila Divine Request a 2017 Review / Subscribe at Patreon Facebook / Twitter / Instagram Zazzle Merch Store http://www.digmeoutpodcast.com
EVENING IN PARADISEThe life of Jimmy Scott is not one of meteoric stardom but a journey that has taken nearly seventy years to find its much deserved success.James Victor Scott, one of ten children, was born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 17, 1925. He's known for his high haunting soprano voice & poignant balladeering. His up & down recording career, started in the early 1950's, saw a resurgence in the 1990's when he was signed to Sire Records and received a Grammy nomination after a long period of commercial inactivity. Soon after coming out of retirement, he was seen on stages around the world, performing magical & heart breaking interpretations of old torch songs, Broadway standards and even a smattering of choice modern rock tunes done with generally sparse jazz arrangements.Almost strangled by the umbilical cord at birth, then orphaned as a boy in depression era Cleveland, the odds against Jimmy Scott ever suceeding were further stacked by an abnormal genetic pituitary hormonal defect known as "Kallman's Syndrome" which accounts for his somewhat effeminate looks & unnaturally high singing voice.Finding solace onstage, he sang in combos of the post war R&B era, notably as a featured singer with band leader Lionel Hampton, with whom he made his recorded debut in 1950(although his name did not appear on the label). He was finally signed to a steady record deal when he was almost 30, when Herman Lubinsky of Newark's Savoy Records offered Cleveland's finest balladeer a shot circa 1954. Lubinsky, whose label was a great repository of jazz & blues recordings, was also a notorious shyster. In David Ritz's 2002 bio of Jimmy Scott "Faith In Time", Seymour Stein of Sire Records recalls past colleagues at the time calling Savoy Record's Newark HQ the "Slave Barracks". Savoy recorded some well received Little Jimmy Scott sides, but due to Lubinsky's malfeasance, Scott went mostly uncompensated. As time wore on, he grew discontent, started retreating into booze and left the label's fold by the beginning of the 1960's.Over the years the Lubinsky/Savoy contract would stifle Scott in numerous ways, particularly when he tried to break free and record for Ray Charles' Tangerine label in the early 1960's and another time with Atlantic in the late 1960's. Lubinsky would battle to have the records withdrawn, keeping Scott's music from ever hitting the streets en masse.1969's attempt at a comeback LP "The Source" was produced by Joel Dorn for Atlantic, featuring backing from a hot group of players including David Fathead Newman on tenor sax, Eric Gale on guitar and Ron Carter on bass...The record was withdrawn due to lawsuit after the first pressing, for a longtme making it a rare and often bootleged masterpiece.Jimmy's numerous shots at stardom were so hampered by the fiscal mismanagement & bad business dealings, it lead him to frustration, failed relationships, drinking and drugging, and a career ending downward spiral that took him away from the limelight.His talent was never in doubt, but his successes were measured at best.A favorite of performers ranging from Billie Holiday & Dinah Washington, to Frankie Valli, Stevie Wonder, and John Lennon, all whom knew of and expressed respect of his work. Said Quincy Jones once,'Jimmy would tear my heart out every night with his soul-penetrating style"...Even Madonna has said "Jimmy Scott is the only singer who makes me cry,"Strangely enough, it appears death that actually the catalyst that brought Scott's career back to life...By the late 70's and early 80's some of his only gigs were occasional charity appearances at senior citizen homes. Scott's day jobs at Bob's Big Boy and in a Cleveland Sheraton hotel gave him a mindset that was set far from keeping abreast of the changing tastes of a fickle record buying public at the tail end of the 20th century.In 1985, at age 60, he returned to the eastern seaboard, and for the first time in over a decade started working small clubs in New York and Harlem, perhaps getting occasional nostalgic write ups in the NY Times or Village Voice. Scott's subsequent shift back into the public eye ironically began to truly gather momentum at The Riverside Funeral Home on St.Patrick's Day 1991. The sad/happy occasion was legendary rock n roll songwriter and old friend Doc Pomus' funeral.Jimmy had met Pomus back in the 40's, and they had stayed in touch. In fact, in 1987 Doc even wrote a letter to trade publication Billboard extolling Scott's virtues, decrying the hard times he was going through, and warning the record industry not to sleep on a chance to catch the long overdue second coming of Little Jimmy Scott.Now a few years later, Scott sat Shiva and was asked by Doc's family to perform "Someone To Watch Over Me" at the funeral, along with backing from fellow old timers Dr. John on piano and Fathead Newman on sax. Scott arrived early and sat unasumedly with hands folded in the back with his 4th wife Earlene. After the colorful eulogies, Jimmy's haunting voice over the tinkling keys stunned the room, with many so far back they could barely see his tiny head over the crowd. The room was filled with dozens of music biz luminaries, like Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, and the aforementioned Seymour Stein of Sire who felt it was almost his spiritual duty to Doc to simply offer Scott a dignified deal.Jimmy later told a reporter in 2000 of the bittersweet good fortune coming from his friend's death, " The next day, this cat from Warners comes over with a contract. It was like Doc's hand reaching out from the grave."He went on to many new career highights ranging from appearing in David Lynch's Twin Peaks & having sold out shows across the US & Europe to performing onstage at Bill Clinton's inaugural ball gala in DC.Still Scott copes with the fact that his type of fame is fleeting, and has duly noted this phenomena when he sang onstage in the 1990's with the Grateful Dead to a crowd of thousands in his hometown of Cleveland, where the local daily paper referred to him as an "unknown female singer".Since the quirky career kickstart given to Scott from Pomus' funeral, he has continued touring, recorded some 8 or so albums on half dozn labels, and added a 5th wife to his bio as well. Now with his aged infirmities creeping in, Scott is restricted to moving around onstage via wheelchair...Music continues to be his life into his eighties, once telling ajournalist “I love performing. You live with reality every day. You can’t miss it. We can try to avoid a lot of trials in life, but it’s better to overcome than avoid. That’s what music has been for me. It’s been my opportunity to overcome.”"All I can do is give what I really feel." "It'll work out in the end. You gotta believe" Jimmy ScottTo Visit JIMMY SCOTT'S website CLICK HERE
Scenes, Screens, and Schemes: The Multifarious Politics of Pop in Los Angeles
MAGcast is an online talkshow/video bulletin created by the Music Australia Guide an its publisher The Slattery Media Group. Each episode MAG’s Jonathan Alley and Julia Gaw discuss the content of MAG that appears in JB Hi Stores monthly. They talk about all things music and tech, and take an occasionally irreverent look at both. MAGcast is available at musicaustraliaguide.com, via You tube, Vimeo and is available for subscription via iTunes. MAGCAST features Placebo, Sire Records’ Seymour Stein talking about Dream Inc, a Blu Ray music DVD round up, and Grizzly Bear‘s clip for Two Weeks. MAG looks at Jeff Buckley’s Grace Around the World DVD and gives away copy, and promote a subscription offer.
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
