Podcast appearances and mentions of Smokey Robinson

It was great reconnecting with Yochanan Marcellino at the Messiah Conference this past July. Here's a little background on him:Yochanan Marcellino was the son of legendary Motown A&R producer Jerry Marcellino (Michael Jackson, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Lionel Richie & the Commodores and Smokey Robinson). Yochanan Marcellino was also the founder of FM Management, managing such artists as Kerry Livgren of Kansas ("Dust in the Wind"), Cindy Birdsong of The Supremes, Kyle Henderson of The Producers and John Waller, who has featured songs in the Fireproof, Courageous andWar Room motion pictures and soundtracks. Marcellino also founded several successful record labels over his 40-year career, including Kerygma Records/Bright Star Records,City of Peace Media and its affiliates, and most recently, Identical Production Company (The Identical motion picture). Marcellino has released over 70 major music projects worldwide through his record labels and has led key divisions of several other music companies.He is the founder, president, and CEO of City of Peace Media, City of Peace Films, and Galilee of the Nations and has been instrumental  in producing  much of the music we have come to enjoy within the Messianic Community.

Happy Thanksgiving! This is a sequel Thanksgiving countdown I made since 2020. Dedicated to you for listening these last 4 years, enjoy and thank you!Theme Song: "Dance Track", composed by Jessica Ann CatenaThanksgiving Countdown 2 playlist11. “Turkey in the Straw” - Traditional10. “Black Friday” - Steely Dan (1975)9. “Pumpkin Soup” - Kate Nash (2007-2008)8. “Shop Around” - The Miracles (1960-1961)7. “Family Is Family” - Kacey Musgraves (2015)6. “Mashed Potato Time” - Dee Dee Sharp (1962)5. “Price Tag” - Jessie J feat. B.o.B. (2010, 2011)4. “Alright” - Darius Rucker (2009)3. “We Are Family” - Sister Sledge (1979)2. “Coming Home” - Keith Urban feat. Julia Michaels (2018)1. “Home” - Michael Bublé (2005)Blake Shelton's 2008 music video2012 performance with Blake SheltonRelated Episodes:Ep. 59 - Thanksgiving CountdownEp. 88 - Blake Shelton Top 20Ep. 98 - Kacey Musgraves BiographyEp. 142 - 4th of July - America SongsEp. 163 - Monarch (TV Show)Ep. 210 - Darius Rucker Top 10

Adam Sandler jokingly gets called the "Mariah Carey of Hanukkah" because of his famous "The Chanukah Song".  But he told "Access Hollywood" that he almost didn't sing it on "SNL".  Here he is reminiscing about it.  Adam Sandler Says Rosanne Almost sang. Hammer and Nigel play great moments in Hanukkah history. Smokey Robinson Chanukah. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There were several ambitious projects in the 1980s where the music industry tried to make a difference by raising money to make a difference. One of those projects happened in 1985, when dozens of musicians formed a supergroup called USA for Africa and recorded We Are the World.  Written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by the legendary Quincy Jones, We Are the World included dozens of performers in a star-studded ensemble cast made up of some of the biggest names in music at the time: Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Kenny Loggins, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Huey Lewis, Hall & Oats, the Pointer Sisters, and more.  All walked into a studio where they were greeted by a sign that said “check your egos at the door.” And they did.  The finished product sold more than 20 million copies and was simultaneously played on 8,000 radio stations around the world. The project raised more than $63 million for famine relief in Africa. Nearly 40 years later, USA For Africa, is still active and fighting poverty.  In this episode of Prisoners of Rock and World, we're taking a look at We Are the World – the idea behind the project, the recording, and it's impact. Get In Touch Check us out online, on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. or drops us an email at show@prisonersofrockandroll.com. Or if you're in Philadelphia, come visit our home base at McCusker's Tavern. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nina DiGregorio, a Yamaha string artist, is a classically trained violinist, bass player, writer/arranger, vocalist, and pianist, but is most well known for being a pioneer of the electric rock violin, as well as a music business mogul and entrepreneur. She has performed as a soloist and string arranger with the some of the biggest names in the business.  She arranged and performed strings with The Killers for President Obama and on one of their recent albums.Television credits include the Latin Grammys with Shakira, being featured on the Beyonce “I am…Yours” DVD and both “David Foster and Friends” DVDs and PBS specials, alongside Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Boz Scaggs, and Peter Cetera among others, as well as the featured soloist with Charice. Other television credits include a performance with Andrea Bocelli for the DVD and PBS special “Amore Under the Desert Sky,” The Muhammad Ali 70th Birthday Celebration, “Michel Legrand and Friends,” “Bell'aria PBS special,” and America's Got Talent Season One with Bella Electric Strings, of which she is founder, writer, and lead violinist.She was the solo violinist in Toni Braxton's band for 2 years. Nina was also featured in a recent Blues Traveler performance, dueling with harmonica virtuoso John Popper on The Devil Went Down To Georgia. Other performance credits include Stevie Wonder, Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Wayne Newton, Cee-lo Green, John Legend, Johnny Mathis, Smokey Robinson, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Donna Summer, Mary J Blige and Jay Z, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Marco Antonio Solis, and many more.As a writer/arranger, her work has been heard in shows such as “Toni Braxton Revealed,” “Beyonce I Am….Yours,” The Fab; Beatle's Tribute Band, The Las Vegas Tenors, The Killers, The Yellow Brick Road Symphonic Rock Show, as well as on many studio recordings.Nina's work with her project Bella Electric Strings can best be described as, “imagine if Hendrix played a violin.” Utilizing full effects pedals and blistering solos, she brings to life many famous rock tunes for electric string ensemble. On top of opening for Michael McDonald and Charlie Daniels, Bella recently performed as the featured string quartet with Richard Marx in his Las Vegas show. Richard also hired twenty Bella girls to be featured on camera performing with himself, Kenny Loggins, and Eric Benet for a DirecTV special that aired over the summer of 2016. Bella Strings has also had the privilege of being affiliated with the prestigious “Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp,” performing alongside such artists as Kip Winger and Todd Rundgren at the facility. The group keeps a busy corporate schedule, as well as traveling for Yamaha String Educator Development Seminars, in which Nina's arrangements are featured around the country to demonstrate the Yamaha Silent and Electric violins.Nina created/produced a rock production show called “FEMMES OF ROCK starring Bella Electric Strings,” which has been selling out theaters nation wide. Other creations include Bella Bottoms; a disco string show, an LED Laser string show, Trifecta; a vocal string show, Jingle Bellas; a holiday string show, among others.Nina holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo, as well as a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance. She also holds a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She was a recent recipient of the coveted Distinguished Alumni award from the University at Buffalo; one of the youngest to receive the award. Support the showThanks for listening for more information or to listen to other podcasts or watch YouTube videos click on this link >https://thetroutshow.com/

When Betty White died in 2021, we were somehow surprised. Even at 99-years-old, it felt like she was gone too soon. Smokey Robinson just released a new album at 83 years of age. Martha Stewart posed in a bathing suit on the cover of Sports Illustrated at 81.   How we think about aging is much different than it used to be, and Ken Dychtwald is one of the foremost authorities on these changing perceptions. For more than 45 years, he's been an original thinker on the lifestyle, marketing, health care, economic, and workforce implications of the age wave.   In today's episode, he tells us that older adults no longer have to put up with being called “golden agers” because they're too busy leading vibrant, productive lives beyond traditional retirement. As shown by the growing unretirement trend across the country, happy retirees don't necessarily stop working. They just start saying “no” to the things they never liked in the first place.   With a mindset of 'usefulness' over 'youthfulness,' Ken Dychtwald encourages older individuals to balance work and personal pursuits. He wants them to focus on the significance of life's moments and connections and reimagine retirement as a dynamic stage of life.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ken from the Sounds of Christmas talks to singer/songwriter Aubrey Logan about her new album "Christmas", and the journey she's been on that led her to it, including performing with the Cincinnati Pops and Postmodern Jukebox (plus Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach and Smokey Robinson)!

Dave Swift may not be a household name but he's shared the stage with legendary musicians such as Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Cher, Joss Stone, Eric Clapton, Roger Daughtry, Paul Simon ... and those are just a few.  He's been a member of Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra since 1991 and also a with the house band on Later with Jools Holland (one of the top tv shows in the UK) He's been called by Bass Guitar magazine as  "one of UK's top bassists" We had a great conversation with Dave and probably one of our longest interviews.  We covered a lot of ground from Dave's early beginnings learning his first instrument (not the bass) to auditioning for Jools Holland and recently recording with Rod Stewart for his upcoming album.  There's a lot in between and some great stories from Dave about some legendary musicians he's worked with.  Like the time they needed a guitar player to fill in (for the house guitarist) when Smokey Robinson was set to do a live show... you won't beleive who they got to fill in.   We thank Dave for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.  He's currently on tour and also in rehearsals for the tv show so he's got a lot going on.  Dave was such a pleasure to talk to and you'll hear it in his voice how serious he is about what he does and the love for his art of making music. At the end of the interview we did ask some "non-music" questions and when we got into food you would not believe it but we ended up talking about cheeses (like our last interview).. this may be a new thing .. or not ..  ************ A little about Dave Swift: Since joining Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra in 1991, Dave Swift has established himself as one of the UK's finest, high-profile bass players. In his career, which expands beyond three decades, Dave boasts a musician's portfolio that seconds no other. Dave Swift has played for an array of renowned artists, from George Benson, Chaka Khan, Eric Clapton to Amy Winehouse, Adele and Paul Simon.   Over the years he has performed at many prestigious events, such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Dubai International Jazz Festival, Blue Note Tokyo, Amnesty International, the Montreux Jazz Festival, Glastonbury Music Festival, and a G8 Conference for world leaders, which included former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and President Bill Clinton. Additional performances include the Millennium Night celebration at the Millennium Dome for Her Majesty the Queen and a sell-out concert at the Sydney Opera House during their 2008 tour of Australia and New Zealand. Dave Swift is currently on a UK tour with the Jools Holland Band throughout this month and December.  Joss Stone will join them on some dates along with Rod Stewart (who will show up for some shows as a surprise guest)   *********** You can find Dave on Instagram and be sure to check out his website at : daveswiftbass.com KNOW GOOD MUSIC can be found on Podbean (host site), Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Iheart Radio, Pandora and almost anywhere you listen to podcasts.     If you go to www.linktr.ee/knowgoodmusic you can find all the links to the podcast platforms we are on.     Visit our YouTube Channel where you can see 2 video segments from some of our interviews.  Just search "know good music".  

Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump taking the stand today in an angry and combative appearance in his New York civil fraud trial, marking the first time he's faced direct questioning from prosecutors in court.Then, Jennifer Hudson talks about Missy Elliott's iconic response to her Halloween costume, being on the other side of a talk show and keeping her cool around Smokey Robinson.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this Episode of #WeNeedToTalk, Malynda chats with Sleuth App startup founder, Sehreen Ali Noor. They discuss parenting, medical care, why she created the app and how parents need more support. Sehreen is the co-founder of Sleuth, an app that enables parents to understand, manage, and predict their child's health. Backed by investors like Gary Vaynerchuk, Sleuth is the first platform to combine crowdsourced health histories with AI to give parents comprehensive, evidence-backed information about their kid's health and development that can be taken to a pediatrician. Sehreen is passionate about supporting founders, serving on the leadership team of VC Backed Moms (300 founders, $2B+ raised) and an EIR at Brown University. The journey to Sleuth is inspired by her struggle navigating her daughter's health and she is a vocal advocate for more inclusive policies towards all kids, especially ones with medical and special needs.   All Listeners of #WeNeedToTalk can use the promo code: Malynda20 for 20% discount. To download the app click here: Sleuth.   #WeNeedToTalk is hosted by singer, songwriter, actress and activist Malynda Hale.  She won “Best Female Vocalist” at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, “Best Pop Music Video” at the Indie Music Channel Awards, and “Pop Song of the Year” at The Josie Music Awards. She has been a headliner for the NAMM show, has opened for artists such as Tyrone Wells, Ernie Halter, Levi Kreis, OTOWN and Smokey Robinson and sung background for Melissa Manchester, Terron Brooks and Foreigner. She has toured the world as a guest entertainer on cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Regent, and Celebrity. She has also  sung the national anthem numerous times for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, LA Galaxy, and the California Democratic National Convention. She recently had music featured on the CBS hit soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful as well as the Disney channel TV show Saturdays.  She was also a featured soloist in WhyHunger's: Drum Together version of The Beatles classic “Come Together”. The project featured over 100 drummers and musicians including Ringo Starr and a featured soloist for the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in numerous stage productions, national commercials, independent films and TV movies.She hosts the #WeNeedToTalk Podcast that is centered around meaningful conversations, is the owner of JMV Entertainment  and a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and NARAS. Website: www.malyndahale.com | Instagram: @malyndahale | Twitter & Threads: @malyndahale | TikTok: @malyndahale  

Alabama Senator Katie Boyd Britt joins "CBS Mornings" to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and why she opposes a cease-fire. Her new book, "God Calls Us to Do Hard Things: Lessons from the Alabama Wiregrass," is set to be released this week.One of the finalists in the running for the Earthshot grand prize of $1.2 million is an innovation that can process the hardest types of "fast fashion" to recycle — poly-cotton blended garments. CBS News senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy reports.Nate Burleson sits down with the "The NFL Today" host James Brown to talk about the storylines from Week 9, and which teams look primed for a Super Bowl push.EGOT winner Jennifer Hudson, the executive producer and host of "The Jennifer Hudson Show" joins "CBS Mornings" to discuss the second season of her Emmy-nominated talk show. Hudson talks about what she learned from Season 1, the surprises in store for this new season, and her unforgettable performance with iconic guests like Smokey Robinson."CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King sits down with living legend Barbra Streisand at her Malibu home. Streisand shares the thoughtful gift her husband, actor James Brolin, gave her for their 25th wedding anniversary.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're heading to the 70s on Blow Up this week with tracks from Symarip, Smokey Robinson, The Kinks and Diana Ross.Plus Fidel is back with a new Catalan Connection featuring Los Nivram.All that and some great requests from our listeners and a banging new tune from Brisbane's own Kerbside Collection.Tune into new broadcasts of Blow-Up, Sunday from 8 - 10 AM EST / 1 PM - 3 PM GMT, in association with Brisbane's 4ZZZ.For more info visit: https://thefaceradio.com/blow-up///Dig this show? Please consider supporting The Face Radio: http://support.thefaceradio.com Support The Face Radio with PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/thefaceradio. Join the family at https://plus.acast.com/s/thefaceradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ABC frontman Martin Fry on his love of late footballer George Best, starting as a music journalist before finding success in performing, the music scene in Sheffield, seeing James Brown at a convention, recording with Smokey Robinson, and how his Hodgkin's Lymphoma diagnosis aged 27 made him see a “different side to humanity”.

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For this week's episode of Sample Sunday , Ball Hog Beats samples “Much Better Off” by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ballhogbeats/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ballhogbeats/support

In this episode, Jennifer chats with singer, actress, and activist, Malynda Hale. Her unwavering faith and spirituality guide her in speaking out for marginalized groups with earnestness, vulnerability, and kindness. As such, they talk about the challenges of engaging in difficult conversations in today's fast-paced and divided world, especially on social media. They share insights on giving oneself permission to start and speak out even in the face of adversity. They also explore the importance of learning directly from others lived experiences in order to foster understanding and create change. Plus they emphasize the value of kindness, empathy, and active listening in addressing social issues and breaking down barriers.   About Malynda: Malynda Hale was born and raised in sunny Santa Barbara, California where she began singing at the age of 5. At the age of seven she learned to play the piano, and by the age of nine, she was writing her own music. Her love for music and desire to make a difference in the world has led her to be recognized many times for her work. She won “Best Female Vocalist” at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, “Best Pop Music Video” at the Indie Music Channel Awards, and “Pop Song of the Year” at The Josie Music Awards. She has been a headliner for the NAMM show, has opened for artists such as Tyrone Wells, Ernie Halter, Levi Kreis, OTOWN and Smokey Robinson and sung background for Melissa Manchester, Terron Brooks and Foreigner. Pre-covid she was touring the world as a guest entertainer on cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Regent, and Celebrity. As an actress she has appeared in stage productions of Once of This Island, Dreamgirls, and Bye Bye Birdie as well as numerous national commercials, independent films and the Lifetime TV Network movie ” A Hunt for Truth” alongside Willa Ford. Most recently she starred in a feature film alongside Loretta Divine and Amy Madigan and a short film with Danielle Beckman and Bobby Moynihan. She currently hosts her own podcast called #WeNeedToTalk that focuses on powerful one-on-one conversations. #WeNeedtoTalk drives home the message that “Everything begins with a conversation.” She loves tackling hard hitting topics like politics, religion, social justice, mental health, and more. No topic is off limits for her. She specifically has a deep passion for discussing social justice from a Christian perspective and encourages all people of faith to do the same. Because of her love for telling people's stories, in January 2021 she created the Black Voices Heard Project, an ongoing video and photo series that seeks to amplify the experiences of Black Americans. Through this project, it is her hope that the negative perceptions of the Black community will be dismantled and the door will open for more understanding and empathy. Malynda uses her voice through her music and social media presence as an educating activist to effect change within social justice, female empowerment, LGBTQ+ rights, veganism, the Black Lives Matter movement, Antisemitism and Progressive Christianity. Malynda has partnered with many organizations such as ACE For Change, Vocal Media, and Yahoo to spread messaging on voting rights, climate change and world hunger and has been a featured commentator on CNN, ABC News Live & Good Morning America. She currently serves as a curriculum and development consultant for ROC Era, a nonprofit committed to providing arts and mentorship programs to inner city youth,  she is on the board for the Religions Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and for The New Evangelicals Non Profit and is an assistant producer at the Garry Marshall Theatre. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and dog.  Malynda's IGs: @malyndahale Malynda's Website: www.malyndahale.com Want to coach with Jennifer? Schedule a session here! https://appt.link/jenniferapple Monologue Sourcing Promo Link! https://empoweredartistcollective.com/podcastpromo Learn more: https://www.empoweredartistcollective.com/podcast EAC IG: @EmpoweredArtistCollective  EAC TikTok: @EmpowerArtistCollective EAC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empoweredartistcollective/ Nominate a Podcast Guest! https://form.jotform.com/220608577638162 Sign up for our newsletter! https://mailchi.mp/8e72e8dcb662/stay-in-touch Check Out Our Merch! https://www.empoweredartistcollective.threadless.com/ Any thoughts you'd like to share? Email us at EmpoweredArtistCollective@gmail.com

Gamble & Huff, Philadelphia International Rock & Soul ClassicCharlie Ingui,  Original Lead Vocalist still records & tours  go check him out! ~ thesoulsurvivors.comR.I.P. Ritchie Ingui, original vocal half of the Soul Survivors. He transitioned in early 2017.Original group member Kenny Jeremiah Transitioned in December of 2020.Memorable Intro, AWESOME Classic Hit, a Kenny Gamble &Leon Huff hit that Helped launch the Legendary Philadelphia International Record Label.I am a Music Lover of All Styles, Generations. This Week I Flashback.......The Soul Survivors, originally from New York City, grew up listening to the R & B groups of the 1950's. The sounds of groups like the Moonglows, Heartbeats, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers had a great influence on brothers Charlie and Rich Ingui. With various street corner groups, they developed their vocal skills. While in high school, Charlie joined the vocal group from Queens, N.Y. the Dedications. When, a year later the group's lead singer decided to leave, brother Rich was recruited. While performing at clubs in the New York area, they found themselves at the mercy of various house bands and decided to find a group of musicians who would become permanent members of the group therefore creating a self contained unit. The group would be renamed THE SOUL SURVIVORS.Shortly thereafter, the group began to build a strong following, playing venues in Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Enjoying great success in Philadelphia, they attracted the attention of record producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Into the recording studio they went, emerging with " Expressway To Your Heart " a song that would climb to #3 on Billboard's R&B chart and #4 on it's Top 100 list. The success of " Expressway " became Gamble and Huff's first "crossover" hit when it began to be played on both black and white radio stations. It's success enabled Gamble and Huff to reach the large audiences they sought in order to bring their " Sound Of Philadelphia " to the mass Market. In polls taken by both the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia's City Paper, " Expressway" was voted the number one record ever to come out of Philadelphia. "Expressway " was followed by two other chart records, "Explosion In My Soul" and " Mission Impossible". Their first album, released in 1968, was " When The Whistle Blows ". A second LP, on Atco Records, called "Take Another Look" appeared in 1969.During this time, the group toured extensively throughout the U.S. appearing with many different types of artists...everyone from Jackie Wilson, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles to Janis Joplin, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Sly and the Family Stone and countless others. In 1974, the Soul Survivors reunited with Gamble and Huff to record their self titled album "The Soul Survivors" on TSOP Records. It was written and performed in a style that would define the unique sound of The Soul Survivors.The album produced "City Of Brotherly Love" which would show up on Billboard's R&B Top 100 and become the group's fourth charted outing.The Soul Survivors recorded new music and covers several years ago, most recently working with David Uosikkinen of The Hooters and his project "In the Pocket" which is paying tribute to the vast catalog of music created in Philadelphia.© 2023 All Rights Reserved© 2023 Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

New York born, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, guitarist /singer- songwriter Ricky Byrd (inducted in 2015 with Joan Jett and The Blackhearts), has had a career in music, spanning more than 40 years. He spent over a decade as a member of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts where he contributed music and background vocals to two platinum albums, I Love Rock 'n Roll and Up Your Alley, the gold certified Album, and four others for the band. Although best known for his time spent with The Blackhearts, Ricky has also recorded and played with Roger Daltrey, and toured with Ian Hunter and Southside Johnny. He has shared the stage with music royalty including Paul McCartney, Ringo, Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, Joe Walsh, Mavis Staples, Dion, Brian Wilson, Smokey Robinson, Jimmy Page, Graham Nash, and Elvis Costello…to name just a few. While the lead guitarist is grateful for all his many musical achievements, Ricky often says one of his greatest gifts came about in 1987 when he started his journey in recovery. He's been clean and sober ever since, doing whatever he can to help others recover. It's his passion and what he's most proud of. Ricky began combining music with recovery in 2012, when he co-wrote a song with his friend, Richie Supa. The two wound up writing what is now considered a recovery classic “Broken Is A Place.” He wrote a second song, and then a third, and he didn't stop until the seeds of his 2017 Clean Getaway album were planted. Today, when he's not performing shows, he visits treatment facilities with his guitar and performs for residents. He also does a great deal of public speaking to help as many people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction as he can.  Ricky has a new single out now – "Louanne" his first in many years that is unrelated to recovery . Ricky says, “My last 2 records “Clean Getaway” and “Sobering Times” had lyrics that spoke to the issues of addiction and recovery. With this new batch of tunes that I'm releasing as singles, I was consciously staying away from that subject matter. 'Louanne' started with the riff and chords, as do most of the songs I write. Then I start to mumble words and fool with a melody. As I was going through the usual process I blurted out “Louanne.. if anybody could you can.” Then came the line“Why don't you go on and get yourself right .. Louanne.” I knew at that point where I was headed! So I guess you can say lyrically Louanne is a song of encouragement for someone struggling with something, and the music is being driven by a nasty RnR riff.” Ricky Byrd joins us this week as our special guest to share his amazing story.    

On this episode of #WeNeedtoTalk, Malynda chats with Psychotherapist and Author Matthias Roberts. The two discuss his personal faith journey, the future of the church, reclaming your faith and his new book Holy Runaways. Matthias Roberts (he/him) is a psychotherapist specializing in religious and spiritual trauma and the author of Beyond Shame: Creating a Healthy Sex Life on Your Own Terms. He hosts Queerology: A Podcast on Belief and Being and holds two master's degrees from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, one in theology and culture, and one in counseling psychology. His work has been featured by O: The Oprah Magazine, Bustle, Woman's Day, Sojourners, The Seattle Times, and many others. He lives in Seattle.   Website: matthiasroberts.com/  | Instagram: matthiasroberts/ | Twitter:  matthiasroberts | Facebook: matthiasroberts  #WeNeedToTalk is hosted by singer, songwriter, actress and activist Malynda Hale.  She won “Best Female Vocalist” at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, “Best Pop Music Video” at the Indie Music Channel Awards, and “Pop Song of the Year” at The Josie Music Awards. She has been a headliner for the NAMM show, has opened for artists such as Tyrone Wells, Ernie Halter, Levi Kreis, OTOWN and Smokey Robinson and sung background for Melissa Manchester, Terron Brooks and Foreigner. She has toured the world as a guest entertainer on cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Regent, and Celebrity. She has also  sung the national anthem numerous times for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, LA Galaxy, and the California Democratic National Convention. She recently had music featured on the CBS hit soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful as well as the Disney channel TV show Saturdays.  She was also a featured soloist in WhyHunger's: Drum Together version of The Beatles classic “Come Together”. The project featured over 100 drummers and musicians including Ringo Starr and a featured soloist for the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in numerous stage productions, national commercials, independent films and TV movies.She hosts the #WeNeedToTalk Podcast that is centered around meaningful conversations, is the owner of JMV Entertainment  and a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and NARAS. Website: www.malyndahale.com | Instagram: @malyndahale | Twitter & Threads: @malyndahale | TikTok: @malyndahale      

We continue our Let Motown Roll mini-series with a recast of Nate and Brooks Long's 2022 discussion of the autobiography "Smokey Robinson: Inside My Life" (co-written by David Ritz). Buy the book and support the show. CHECK OUT THE NEW LET IT ROLL WEB SITE -- We've got all 350+ episodes listed, organized by mini-series, genre, era, co-host, guest and more. Please sign up for the email list on the site and get music essays from Nate as well as (eventually) transcriptions of every episode. Also if you can afford it please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support the show. Thanks! Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WeNeedToTalk Returns next week on October 9th! #WeNeedTo Talk is hosted by MALYNDA HALE. SHE IS A SINGER/SONGWRITER, ACTRESS, ENTREPRENEUR & ACTIVIST.   Malynda was born and raised in sunny Santa Barbara, California where she began singing at the age of 5. At the age of seven she learned to play the piano, and by the age of nine, she was writing her own music. Her love for music and desire to make a difference in the world has led her to be recognized many times for her work. She won “Best Female Vocalist” at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, “Best Pop Music Video” at the Indie Music Channel Awards, and “Pop Song of the Year” at The Josie Music Awards. She has been a headliner for the NAMM show, has opened for artists such as Tyrone Wells, Ernie Halter, Levi Kreis, OTOWN and Smokey Robinson and sung background for Melissa Manchester, Terron Brooks and Foreigner. Pre-covid she was touring the world as a guest entertainer on cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean, Regent, and Celebrity. She has sung the national anthem numerous times for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, LA Galaxy, and the California Democratic National Convention and she recently had music featured on the CBS hit soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful as well as the Disney channel tv show Saturdays.  She was also a featured soloist in WhyHunger's: Drum Together version of The Beatles classic “Come Together”. The project featured over 100 drummers and musicians including Ringo Starr. As an actress she has appeared in stage productions of Once of This Island, Dreamgirls, and Bye Bye Birdie as well as numerous national commercials, independent films and the Lifetime TV Network movie ” A Hunt for Truth” alongside Willa Ford. Most recently she starred in a feature film alongside Loretta Divine and Amy Madigan and a short film with Danielle Beckman and Bobby Moynihan. She also played “Tanta Kringle” in the Troubadour Theatre company's performance of “Santa Claus is coming to Motown” and The Soul Sister Fairy Godmother in Cindy and the Disco Ball, a 70's version of Cinderella at the Garry Marshall Theatre. Past guests on the show have included: Cornel West, John Pavlovitz, Shaun King, Kyla Pratt, Frederick Joseph, Richard Marx, Michelle Williams, Elisa Donovan, Jonah Platt, Sarah Jakes Roberts, Noa Tishby, Grace Semler Baldridge, Angel Parker, Dewayne Perkins, Nick Jones Jr., and more! Because of her love for telling people's stories, in January 2021 she created the Black Voices Heard Project, an ongoing video and photo series that seeks to amplify the experiences of Black Americans. Through this project, it is her hope that the negative perceptions of the Black community will be dismantled and the door will open for more understanding and empathy. Malynda uses her voice through her music and social media presence as an educating activist to effect change within social justice, female empowerment, LGBTQ+ rights, veganism, the Black Lives Matter movement, Antisemitism and Progressive Christianity. Malynda has partnered with many organizations such as ACE For Change, Vocal Media, and Yahoo to spread messaging on voting rights, climate change and world hunger and has been a featured commentator on CNN, ABC News Live & Good Morning America. She currently serves as a curriculum and development consultant for ROC Era, a nonprofit committed to providing arts and mentorship programs to inner city youth,  she is on the board for the Religions Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and for The New Evangelicals Non Profit and is an assistant producer at the Garry Marshall Theatre. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and dog. She is the owner of JMV Music Entertainment Agency and a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and NARAS.. When she's not working she loves to binge watch a good Netflix series.

"Tedeschi Trucks Band: Rocking the Garden Party with Warren Haynes and Trey Anastasio"Larry Mishkin discusses various topics related to marijuana law, culture, and music. He mentions updates on Tedeschi Trucks Band shows, including performances with Warren Haynes and Trey Anastasio. Larry also delves into the history of the song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," originally written by Bob Dylan, and how it marked a pivotal moment in the transition to electric music. He discusses the Dead's cover of the song and its significance, along with other Dylan covers. Additionally, Larry touches on the Jerry Garcia and Merle Saunders performance from 50 years ago, featuring songs like "Finders Keepers" and "The Harder They Come." He highlights the guest musicians and the significance of these performances within the context of rock and roll history. Finally, he shares insights on Jerry Garcia's cover of "That's All Right, Mama" and its historical significance in the development of rock and roll music..Produced by PodConx  Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-showLarry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkinRob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-huntJay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesbergSound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/Recorded on Squadcast Going with a Garcia/Saunders show:October 2, 1973 (50 years ago)Winterland, S.F.Garcia & Saunders 1973 Winterland SF KSAN : KSAN : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveBand members:Jerry – guitar and vocalsMerle – KeyboardJohn Kahn – bassBill Vitt – drumsGuests:Sara Fulcher – vocalsMatt Kelly – harmonicaRoger “Jellyroll” Troy – bass, vocalsMartin Fierro – saxBill Atwood - trumpet     INTRO:                  It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry                                (this one is really from 10.12.1973 at Keystone because the Archive.org show is missing this song as the opener and this is the one closes in date I could find)                                Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders • It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 10/12/73 Fixed SBD - YouTube                                7:35 – 9:09                                 "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a song written by Bob Dylan, that was originally released on his album Highway 61 Revisited released Aug. 30, 1965. It was recorded barely a month earlier on July 29, 1965. The song was also included on an early, European Dylan compilation album entitled Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2.An earlier, alternate version of the song has been released, in different takes, beginning with the appearance of one take on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 in 1991.Covered by Steven Stills, Leon Russell, Marianne Faithful, Taj Mahal, Paul Westerberg, Robyn Hitchcock and Lucinda Williams Dylan's live debut of the song came as part of Dylan's controversial electric set, backed by members of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Al Kooper, at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965, after "Maggie's Farm".[2][4][5][7] After being heckled during the electric set, and especially during "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", by fans who wanted Dylan to play acoustic folk music, Dylan returned to play acoustic versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".[4][7] The Newport performance of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" features jamming by guitarist Bloomfield and organist Al Kooper.[4] Dylan played it live as part of his set in the August 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. This version was included in the concert film and Grammy Award-winning album of the same title.[2]A.         Dead played it 7 times:first time on June 10, 1973 at RFK Stadium (D.C.) with Allman Brothersfive times in 1991 and once on March 16, 1992 at the Spectrum, Philly Released on Dead album:  Postcards of the Hanging (March, 2002) B.         Jerry's various bands played it about 60 times,first time on January 15, 1972 at Keystone Korner in S.F. w/Merle SaundersLast time by JGB: March 4, 1995 at the Warfield in S.F.                                SHOW #1:           Finders Keepers                                Track No. 1                                3:00 – 4:13                 Finders Keepers was performed over 20 times by Jerry Garcia with the Garcia/Saunders band, Legion of Mary and Reconstruction between 1973 and 1979.On the 1973 Garcia/Saunders Keystone double album the song is called Finders Keepers and is correctly credited to Johnston and Bowen. The song was written by General Johnson, a member of the group Chairmen Of The Board, and Jeffrey Bowen, the producer of the Chairmen Of The Board recording. The song was originally released by the Chairmen Of The Board as a single with a vocal version of the song on the A side and an instrumental version on the B-side.  Chairmen of the Board is an American-Canadian, Detroit, Michigan-based soul musicgroup, who saw their greatest commercial success in the 1970s.  SHOW #2:           The Harder They Come                                Track No. 2                                1:05 – 2:18 "The Harder They Come" is a reggae song by the Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff. It was first recorded for the soundtrack of the 1972 movie of the same name, in which it is supposed to have been written by the film's main character, Ivanhoe Martin. In 1969, singer Jimmy Cliff met film director Perry Henzell, who was intending to make a film about a musician who turned to crime. Cliff agreed to take the lead role, and the film was shot over the next two years. During filming, Cliff came up with the line "the harder they come". Henzell thought it would make a good title for the film, and asked Cliff to write and record a theme song for it.[2]The actual recording of the track, at Dynamic Sounds (Muscle Shoals, 1971), was filmed for inclusion in the movie. Cliff wrote the melody, and improvised the lyrics. The musicians were Gladstone Anderson (piano), Winston Wright (organ), Winston Grennan (drums), Linford "Hux" Brown (lead guitar), Ranford "Ranny Bop" Williams (rhythm guitar), and Clifton "Jackie" Jackson (bass).[2]Reggae track recorded in Jamaica in 1972 Covered by:  JGB (Kean College 2.2.80), Cher, Keith Richards (b-side to his single, Run Rudolph Run 1978), Rancid, Joe Strummer, Wayne Kramer, moe., Willie Nelson, Guster, Widespread Panic and many others The Harder They Come was performed over 350 times by Jerry Garcia/Merl Saunders groups and by the Jerry Garcia Band between 1973 and 1995. The lyrics and music for the song are included in the Jerry Garcia Songbook. Also played by Phil Lesh & Friends, Billy & The Kids, Voodoo Dead and Bob Weir with Soul Ska.                                SHOW #3:           That's All Right Mama                                Track No. 3                                2:20 – 3:59                                Featuring:  Bill Atwood on Trumpet and Sara Fulcher on vocals                                                              The song was written by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and originally recorded by him in Chicago on September 6, 1946, as "That's All Right". Some of the lyrics are traditional blues verses first recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926.[5][6] Crudup's recording was released as a single in 1947 on RCA Victor 20–2205, but was less successful than some of his previous recordings. One of the experts who consider the Crudup recording to be the "first rock and roll song" is Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns, who adds that "this song could contain the first ever guitar solo break". Elvis Presley's version was recorded in July 1954.[10] While recording an album as part of a trio called The Blue Moon Boys, the band played "That's All Right" in between takes, and the uptempo style characteristic of rockabilly caught the attention of studio executive Sam Phillips, who asked for a refinement of the interpretation that was later recorded.[11] Its catalogue number was Sun 209.[12] The song was released under its original title, "That's All Right", and names the performers as Elvis Presley, Scotty, and Bill.[13] The Presley version was not identical to Crudup's since it was "at least twice as fast as the original".[2] His version is considered by some music critics as one of the records that was the first in the rock n'roll genre.  A 2004 article in The Guardian argues that rather than Presley's version being one of the first records of rock and roll, it was simply one of "the first white artists' interpretations of a sound already well-established by black musicians almost a decade before [...] a raucous, driving, unnamed variant of rhythm and blues". Covered by the Grateful Dead once with allman Brothers on June 10, 1973 (RFK great version with Jerry and Dickey Betts trading off lead licks) and once om April 18, 1986 at Berkeley Community TheaterPlayed regularly by JGB and other versions from the ‘70's until the end in 1995.                               SHOW #4:           Second That Emotion                                Track No. 5                                7:00 – 8:29 "I Second That Emotion" is a 1967 song written by Smokey Robinson and Al Cleveland. First charting as a hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on the Tamla/Motown label in 1967, "I Second That Emotion" was later a hit single for the group duet Diana Ross & the Supremes and The Temptations, also on the Motown label. One morning in 1967, Robinson and Cleveland were shopping at Hudson's, a Detroit department store. Robinson found a set of pearls for his wife, Claudette. "They're beautiful." he said to the salesperson. "I sure hope she likes them." Cleveland then added "I second that emotion." Both songwriters laughed at Cleveland's malapropism; he had meant to say "I second that motion." The two were immediately inspired to write a song using the incorrect phrase. Was performed a handful of times (7) by the Grateful Dead in April, 1971First:  April 8, 1971 at The Music Hall, BostonLast:  April 29, 1971 at Fillmore East NYC Part of Jerry's bands repertoire between 1973 and 1994 (played almost 200 times)  OUTRO:                Sweet Little Angel                                Track #7                                2:20 – 3:59                 Written by BB King and Jules Taub in September, 1956                Some say it is an adaption of Black Angel Blues written by Lucille Bogan in December, 1930 In 1956, B.B. King recorded "Sweet Little Angel" (RPM Records 468). According to King, "I got the idea for 'Sweet Little Angel' from Robert Nighthawk's 'Sweet Black Angel', though I later discovered that the song had been recorded by someone before Nighthawk. At the time 'black' was not a popular word, as it is now. Instead of using the old title, I changed it to 'Sweet Little Angel'—and that was a pretty big record for me".[6] King's version, which included a horn section, was a stylistic shift for the song and it became a hit, reaching number eight on the Billboard R&B chart.[7] In 1957, he re-recorded "Sweet Little Angel" for his first album Singin' the Blues. Both versions prominently feature B.B. King's guitar work, with his note-bends "sounding almost like a lap steel in places.”

This week we welcome Legendary Comedian Tom Dreesen. Tom Dreesen has been in show business for 50 years. Along the way, Tom has made over 500 appearances on national television as a stand-up comedian, including more than 60 appearances on The Tonight Show.He was one of David Letterman's favorite guests and frequently hosted the show in Letterman's absence. He also appeared countless times in Las Vegas, Tahoe, Reno, and Atlantic City with artists like Smokey Robinson, Liza Minnelli, and Sammy Davis, Jr. And, for 13 years, he toured the nation as the opening act for Frank Sinatra. A career like this is rich in stories, and no one tells them better than Tom does.He is also responsible for negotiating the famous 1979 Comedy Store Strike!Check them out at https://tomdreesen.com/We now have an INSTAGRAM! Check it out @thecleancomedypodcast on Instagram and add @jdcrevistoncomedy on IG as well!Turn your funny into money! Check out the official website here: http://comedypreneur.com Pick up a copy of “How To Produce Comedy Shows For Fun & Profit” here.Do you have a topic that you would like to hear discussed? Are you a clean comedian looking for an awesome podcast to be in? Do you have life-burning questions? Reach out to us at HERE! This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4825680/advertisement

This one goes out to all the late night FM radio dial explorers. The Quiet Storm radio format originated back in the 1970s and gave rise to a new RnB sub-genre. On today's show we discuss albums from the genres creation through modern day. Smokey Robinson – A Quiet Storm (Andy)Roberta Flack – Killing Me […]

DJ St. Paul neemt de muzikale week door met liedjes van o.a. Sarah Morrison, Smokey Robinson & Romy. Deze keer in de albumrubriek een uitgebreid gesprek met DJ Sander Hoogendoorn over In Rainbows van Radiohead.  Benieuwd naar de tracklist en shownotes? Check ze via: tivolivredenburg.nl/studio/podcast/st-pauls-boutique/

DJ St. Paul neemt de muzikale week door met liedjes van o.a. Sarah Morrison, Smokey Robinson & Romy. Deze keer in de albumrubriek een uitgebreid gesprek met DJ Sander Hoogendoorn over In Rainbows van Radiohead.  Benieuwd naar de tracklist en shownotes? Check ze via: tivolivredenburg.nl/studio/podcast/st-pauls-boutique/

Electric violinist/guitarist for Kansas and lead singer/violinist of Stratospheerius Joe Deninzon talks about his latest release “Behind the Curtain (Live at ProgStock) featuring “One Foot in the Next World” and “Game of Chicken” plus his previous works including “ Guilty of Innocence”, “Headspace” and “The Next World”! Joe is hailed by critics as “The Jimi Hendrix of the Violin” and has worked with The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, 50 Cent, Richie Blackmore, Smokey Robinson, Les Paul plus performed with numerous symphonies and formed “The Grand Canyon School of Rock”! Check out the amazing Joe Deninzon on all streaming platforms and www.joedeninzon.com today! #joedeninzon #electricviolinist #guitarist #leadsinger #stratospheerius #kansas #behindthecurtain #progstock #onefootinthenextworld #gameofchicken #guiltyofinnoncence #headspace #jimihendrix #thewho #brucespringsteen #sherylcrow #50cent #lespaul #grandcanyonschoolofrock #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerjoedeninzon #themikewagnershowjoedeninzon   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/support

Electric violinist/guitarist for Kansas and lead singer/violinist of Stratospheerius Joe Deninzon talks about his latest release “Behind the Curtain (Live at ProgStock) featuring “One Foot in the Next World” and “Game of Chicken” plus his previous works including “ Guilty of Innocence”, “Headspace” and “The Next World”! Joe is hailed by critics as “The Jimi Hendrix of the Violin” and has worked with The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, 50 Cent, Richie Blackmore, Smokey Robinson, Les Paul plus performed with numerous symphonies and formed “The Grand Canyon School of Rock”! Check out the amazing Joe Deninzon on all streaming platforms and ⁠www.joedeninzon.com⁠ today! #joedeninzon #electricviolinist #guitarist #leadsinger #stratospheerius #kansas #behindthecurtain #progstock #onefootinthenextworld #gameofchicken #guiltyofinnoncence #headspace #jimihendrix #thewho #brucespringsteen #sherylcrow #50cent #lespaul #grandcanyonschoolofrock #iheartradio #spotify #applemusic #youtube #anchorfm #bitchute #rumble #mikewagner #themikewagnershow #mikewagnerjoedeninzon #themikewagnershowjoedeninzon --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themikewagnershow/support

George Noory and author Harvey Kubernik explore his career as a music journalist, how he developed his interest in Rock N' Roll growing up in Los Angeles, and the creative influences of the Beach Boys, Smokey Robinson and Motown records, and Johnny Cash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back to basics, Slackers!This week is all about the Billboard Hot 100 for 1981. The top song of the year was once described as "haunting", with the rest of the list comprised of country superstars, R&B legends, a posthumous release from a former Beatle, and a fair amount of "yacht rockers".Sheena Easton had what was probably her best year on the charts, while Smokey Robinson was still charting hits nearly 30 years into his already legendary career. And Sting...well, let's just say he had some interesting lyrics in 1981.I did find it hard to get a feel for what the "vibe" of the time was based on the charts - given I was only 7 years old at the time - I don't recall what was happening in society. But there definitely seemed to be a general sense of melancholy. This feeling permeates many of the tunes on the charts, even the most benign soft rockers.So, what are your favorites from 1981?!

Obioma Ugoala is currently playing the Narrator in the musical adaptation of The Book Thief which is based on the best-selling novel of the same name. The show opens at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre before heading to Leicester Curve.Obioma has had an incredible and varied career; in the world on musical theatre he was Kristoff in the original West End cast of Frozen (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), George Washington in the original West End cast of Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre) and Smokey Robinson in the West End production of Motown (Shaftesbury Theatre).Obioma's credits for the RSC include Rugby / Robert in The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Rat/Shrew in The Mouse And His Child, Keeper in Richard II, Bullcalf / Fang in Henry IV Part Two, Vintner / Ostler in Henry IV Part One, Gower/Grey in Henry V and Bartholomew in Hamnet. His credits also include Shorty in The Lost Love Speakeasy (The Lost Estate), Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing (New English Shakespeare Company), Troubadour in Holy Warriors & Mardian/Scarus in Antony And Cleopatra (Shakespeare's Globe), Baloo in The Jungle Book Theatre & Razumikhin in Crime And Punishment (Glasgow Citizens Theatre) and Fantam Murillo in The Physicists (Donmar Warehouse). Alongside all of that, Obiama has worked on screen and has written a booked called The Problem with My Normal Penis which was later renamed The Making Of A Man (and why we're so afraid to talk about it) for its paperback release. The book is all about the myths of race, sex and masculinity.The Book Thief runs at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry 11th - 16th September and at Leicester Curve 29th September - 14th October 2023.  Visit www.thebookthiefmusical.com for info and tickets. Hosted by Andrew Tomlins  @AndrewTomlins32  Thanks for listening! Email: andrew@westendframe.co.uk Visit westendframe.co.uk for more info about our podcasts.  

Today, we're chillin. On this solo ep, we pop on an ambient track and talk about movie scores, being a theater kid, tyrannical teachers, Smokey Robinson, I Think You Should Leave, and more! To listen along with the TV gLitter track, check out Vespers here and sync up with us: https://on.soundcloud.com/JZFfh. Follow us on Twitter at @leightonnight and on Instagram at @leighton_night. You can find Brian on Twitter/Instagram at @bwecht, and Leighton at @graylish (Twitter)/@buttchamps (Instagram).

For years the city of Cleveland was known for their terrible sports teams, a steel industry that went belly up, and having a river that was so polluted it caught fire. But in 1986 it was finally Cleveland's time to shine! City leaders concocted an event so grand that the Mistake on the Lake would no longer be the laughingstock of the country. It would be called Balloonfest '86 and would see the release of 1.5 million balloons over the city to raise money for charity. Balloons are fun and colorful, what could possibly go wrong? On this episode of Wiki U Kyle and Jheisson dive into Balloonfest '86 a disaster fitting for Cleveland.---Follow Wiki U on all social platforms @wikiuniversityMusic provided by Daisy and the Chains

In this exclusive sit-down (and first-ever podcast interview) with drummer extraordinaire Jerrod "J-Rod" Sullivan, we dive into the mindset and secrets to success of one of the industry's most in-demand drummers and prolific content creators.  In 2006, J-Rod uploaded his first Youtube video, and the reactions confirmed what he knew all along, his musical talent would be used as a gift to educate and inspire others. As a social media influencer with a growing community of 700K+ followers, he is a model for how to grown your online presence as a creative.  An alumnus of the Atlanta Institute of Music, J-Rod is the current drummer for The 4 Korners, Jeffrey Osborne, & Avery Sunshine, and has performed alongside musical artists such as Bebe Winans, Smokey Robinson, Chantae Moore, Johnny Gill, Kenny Latimore, and Byron Cage. In addition, he's made television appearances on Being Mary Jane (BET), SingleLadies (VH1), Greenleaf (OWN), American Soul (BET), Dynasty (CBS), and BET HER. As the founder and owner of the style-centered streetwear brand "Got Pocket?", he has united musicians in over 25 countries. His style, method, and dedication creates an energetic community of aspiring and talented musicians. In this episode, J-Rod shares how he went from zero to hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, his strategy for creating consistently engaging content, why the idea for "Got Pocket" almost never happened, and how he juggles these responsibilities with being an in-demand drummer in the music industry. This one is so good we had to break it down into two parts! Be sure to tap in for this one! #contentcreator #professionalmusician #touringdrummer #socialmedia #recordingartist #entrepreneur #musicindustry #musicallyhitched    FOLLOW the podcast by pressing (+) above and turn on notifications.   SUBSCRIBE to @musicallyhitched on YouTube to watch video episodes. *** Grab your Musically Hitched apparel via the SHOP at  www.musicallyhitched.com    Follow us on IG: @musicallyhitched Follow J-Rod on IG: @jrodsullivan Follow Zack on IG: @zackreynoldsjr   Advertising Inquiries: info@morey-entertainment.com         

In this exclusive sit-down (and first-ever podcast interview) with drummer extraordinaire Jerrod "J-Rod" Sullivan, we dive into the mindset and secrets to success of one of the industry's most in-demand drummers and prolific content creators.  In 2006, J-Rod uploaded his first Youtube video, and the reactions confirmed what he knew all along, his musical talent would be used as a gift to educate and inspire others. As a social media influencer with a growing community of 700K+ followers, he is a model for how to grown your online presence as a creative.  An alumnus of the Atlanta Institute of Music, J-Rod is the current drummer for The 4 Korners, Jeffrey Osborne, & Avery Sunshine, and has performed alongside musical artists such as Bebe Winans, Smokey Robinson, Chantae Moore, Johnny Gill, Kenny Latimore, and Byron Cage. In addition, he's made television appearances on Being Mary Jane (BET), SingleLadies (VH1), Greenleaf (OWN), American Soul (BET), Dynasty (CBS), and BET HER. As the founder and owner of the style-centered streetwear brand "Got Pocket?", he has united musicians in over 25 countries. His style, method, and dedication creates an energetic community of aspiring and talented musicians. In this episode, J-Rod shares how he went from zero to hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, his strategy for creating consistently engaging content, why the idea for "Got Pocket" almost never happened, and how he juggles these responsibilities with being an in-demand drummer in the music industry. This one is so good we had to break it down into two parts! Be sure to tap in for this one! #contentcreator #professionalmusician #touringdrummer #socialmedia #recordingartist #entrepreneur #musicindustry #musicallyhitched    FOLLOW the podcast by pressing (+) above and turn on notifications.   SUBSCRIBE to @musicallyhitched on YouTube to watch video episodes. *** Grab your Musically Hitched apparel via the SHOP at  www.musicallyhitched.com    Follow us on IG: @musicallyhitched Follow J-Rod on IG: @jrodsullivan Follow Zack on IG: @zackreynoldsjr   Advertising Inquiries: info@morey-entertainment.com         

You've heard of Polynesians carrying eight suitcases at the airport and Kenyans running for miles, but have you ever wondered about the diversity of body types and strength across cultures? Well, we've got a treat for you. We dive into a fascinating conversation about our high school experiences, the seemingly superhuman strength of some people, and the varying body types across differing cultures. We'll have you reminiscing about that high school prom and the Polynesian girl who threw the discus.Moving on, we unpack the enigma that is the music industry. Ever wonder how Rihanna and Mandy Moore make money off streaming platforms? Or what the deal is with licensing beats and copyright issues? We've got you covered. We'll also give our take on a hotly debated topic: who sings a song better - the original artist or the one who samples it? Artists like Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson, and others are up for discussion. We even go on a little detour to talk about Taylor Swift's impressive concert sales and the fanbases of other top artists.Finally, we shift gears to the financial and societal implications of having children. We discuss the high costs of child support and the impact of having children on personal finances. We touch upon the challenges faced by vegetarian children and outdated government systems, and how these can have far-reaching implications on society. To keep things light and fun, we also discuss the documentary 'The Blackening' and the horror movie 'Stretch Somebody', reminding everyone to kick back and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. So, sit back and enjoy this whirlwind of discussions, debates, and stories in this episode of Nobody's Talking.Thanks for listening to the Nobody's Talking Podcast. Follow us on Twitter: (nobodystalking1), Instagram : (nobodystalkingpodcast) and email us at (nobodystalkingpodcast@gmail.com) Thank you!

On Episode 103, today's guest hails from Harlem, New York. He's a Beatmaker, Live Performer, gamer, Sleep Lover and well respected in these here streets. Please welcome The Great Lordt $txn (Pronounced Stan so Lordt Stan) to the show. He's modest but a definite Mutant. Enjoy and check the links below!During this episode, we chopped it up about his music journey, inspirations, aspirations and more. Lordt $txn started making beats in 2010 and has amassed like 13 years in the beat community. His Moms was into the Smokey Robinson, Luther Vandross on the weekends his two other brothers were playing 50 Cent, Eminem, NORE, Capone, Miles Davis and Ahmad Jamal. Hanging out with his cousins, recording their rhymes and posting on Myspace. He started his Hip Hop journey practicing the art of Emceeing and bought a USB microphone, started rapping over Lil Wayne beats. His spark got bigger when his teacher Mr. Foster (Jazz Musician) encouraged him and his friend DeAndre were making loops into GarageBand. He started making beats using MixCraft. He names his Greatest Beats of All Time from "Royalty" by Gang Starr. He names his Beatmaker/Music Producer Superheros like Lord Finesse, Q Tip, Large Professor, Easy Mo Bee, DJ Buckwild and more. Learning about samplers like Koala Sampler, SP404 MK II and Ableton. We also discussed his involvement with the Koala Sampler vs SP 404 World Tournament (watch here) and his second live beat set with The Donut Lounge (Watch Reels here) ***Card was stacked with amazing creatives***Lordt $txn gave details about albums like THANX 4EVERTHING, WZRD [sp404sx tape], 4.2.22 [koala tape] 404///Extra_[v.1] and more. Lordt $txn left crazy jewels, inspiring words for Beatmakers and detailed what's in store for the rest of 2023.Lordt $txn's Gems:1. Not every beat is a banger (Most are ideas). Keep going 2. Keep making music fun and not a job. Keep the fun and work on your own pace3. Increase your music portfolio4. Watch Interviews of your favorite Beatmaker, Music Producer or Composer (YouTube University)5. Be involved in the community with which you resonate. ***Show Love...It Means A Lot***6. There's a lot of opportunity out there. Don't be stingy showing genuine love7. Focus on your supporters showing love. Build with them. Others will come soon enoughIntro Track: Quality Time & Waves To A Beach from Surf Mania by Sample (Available Here)Featured Music: Various tracks from Lordt $txn's Music Discography (Available Here)Social Media: @LordtStxnWebsite: https://linktr.ee/lordtstxnCheck out Koala vs SP404 World Tournament Tape HereSupport the showEdited, Mixed and Mastered by GldnmndPodcast Website Link: The Rec Show PodcastNEW!!! TheRecShowPodcast Music Playlist Available Here

Hey y'all! We are back this week talking about death, life, healing, and being at peace! Join the discussion on Twitter or IG! Song of the day: Crusin' by Smokey Robinson

There's no other way to put it, Smokey Robinson is a legend. The Motown great and former frontman of The Miracles is responsible for some of the greatest pop hits of the 20th century – "You've really got ahold of me," "Tears of a clown," "I Second That Emotion," "Crusin'" and many others. In 1960, The Miracles released "Shop Around." The song became a huge success. It became Motown's first million-selling hit record. Robinson eventually became Motown Records vice president and helped turn the label into a household name. Smokey Robinson is now 83. He's still recording. He is still writing. Earlier this year, he released Gasms. We'll talk with the Motown legend about his time with The Miracles, his solo career, his songwriting process and his brand new erotic concept album.

On this Carmen Grillo Interview: Great stories about seeing Jeff Beck (Truth era), 10 Years After, Delaney & Bonnie (w/ Eric Clapton), Billy Preston in concert at the Fillmore West… playing with BB King at 14… going from sleeping in his car to working with top artists like David Foster, Smokey Robinson, Boz Scaggs, Rita Coolidge… co-writing a Chicago hit, some dark days for him during the 80's, discipline, kindness, 3rd time's a charm, and more: Discover Where the Money's Hiding in the Music Business in 2023: https://MusicReboot.com Support this show: https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/support Carmen played with Tower of Power for 10 years, and is currently with The Max Weinberg Band and Sons of Champlin. He's also a GRAMMY voting member. Subscribe & Website:  https://www.everyonelovesguitar.com/subscribe Cool Guitar & Music T-Shirts, ELG Merch!: https://www.GuitarMerch.com 

“Born To Archive" Alright, so imagine this: The thing you do really well as a kid becomes your career. In the case of my guest today on the program, that's exactly what happened. Jackie Clary is a born archivist. As a young girl growing up, she was a huge fan of Wham! and George Michael, and she started collecting ephemera that was related to them and their music. But it wasn't just that—Jackie had a librarian like penchant for cataloging and preserving a lot of things that extended far past Wham! Jackie has had a really cool career and this list of her accomplishments is only a partial one, but one eI read through it, you'll get the idea of what she's done. She worked at Reelin' In The Years, researching and cataloging a 20,000 hour strong cache of interview and music performance, she ran the tape library for ABC news affiliates, she worked for MTV News and Docs, produced the videos for the Roots Rhymes and Rage: The Hip-Hop Story at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was the lead curator of the Hall's first Teen Idols exhibit, she worked on a lot of DVDs, including Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Definitive Performances 1963-1987, The Temptations 1963-1972 and she interviewed Englebert Humperdinck for h is Greatest Performances DVD. She was the associate producer on the 12-DVD Merv Griffin box set, produced an oral history on Newport Beach's Carden Hall School, and she worked as the archivist on documentaries by everyone ranging from Little Richard to the new movie Still: A Michael J. Fox. Jackie is the coolest and in this chat she talks about how her curatorial skills emerged early on as a kid packed the road to where she is now. www.jackieclary.com www.bombshellradio.com www.embersarts.com www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.alexgreenonline.com Stereo Embers: Twitter: @emberseditor IG: @emberspodcast Email: editor@stereoembersmagazine.com

Episode 166 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Crossroads", Cream, the myth of Robert Johnson, and whether white men can sing the blues. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-eight-minute bonus episode available, on “Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips" by Tiny Tim. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I talk about an interview with Clapton from 1967, I meant 1968. I mention a Graham Bond live recording from 1953, and of course meant 1963. I say Paul Jones was on vocals in the Powerhouse sessions. Steve Winwood was on vocals, and Jones was on harmonica. Resources As I say at the end, the main resource you need to get if you enjoyed this episode is Brother Robert by Annye Anderson, Robert Johnson's stepsister. There are three Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Cream, Robert Johnson, John Mayall, and Graham Bond excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here -- one, two, three. This article on Mack McCormick gives a fuller explanation of the problems with his research and behaviour. The other books I used for the Robert Johnson sections were McCormick's Biography of a Phantom; Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow; Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick; and Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald. I can recommend all of these subject to the caveats at the end of the episode. The information on the history and prehistory of the Delta blues mostly comes from Before Elvis by Larry Birnbaum, with some coming from Charley Patton by John Fahey. The information on Cream comes mostly from Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm by Dave Thompson. I also used Ginger Baker: Hellraiser by Ginger Baker and Ginette Baker, Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins, Motherless Child by Paul Scott, and  Alexis Korner: The Biography by Harry Shapiro. The best collection of Cream's work is the four-CD set Those Were the Days, which contains every track the group ever released while they were together (though only the stereo mixes of the albums, and a couple of tracks are in slightly different edits from the originals). You can get Johnson's music on many budget compilation records, as it's in the public domain in the EU, but the double CD collection produced by Steve LaVere for Sony in 2011 is, despite the problems that come from it being associated with LaVere, far and away the best option -- the remasters have a clarity that's worlds ahead of even the 1990s CD version it replaced. And for a good single-CD introduction to the Delta blues musicians and songsters who were Johnson's peers and inspirations, Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson, compiled by Elijah Wald as a companion to his book on Johnson, can't be beaten, and contains many of the tracks excerpted in this episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a quick note that this episode contains discussion of racism, drug addiction, and early death. There's also a brief mention of death in childbirth and infant mortality. It's been a while since we looked at the British blues movement, and at the blues in general, so some of you may find some of what follows familiar, as we're going to look at some things we've talked about previously, but from a different angle. In 1968, the Bonzo Dog Band, a comedy musical band that have been described as the missing link between the Beatles and the Monty Python team, released a track called "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?": [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Band, "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?"] That track was mocking a discussion that was very prominent in Britain's music magazines around that time. 1968 saw the rise of a *lot* of British bands who started out as blues bands, though many of them went on to different styles of music -- Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Chicken Shack and others were all becoming popular among the kind of people who read the music magazines, and so the question was being asked -- can white men sing the blues? Of course, the answer to that question was obvious. After all, white men *invented* the blues. Before we get any further at all, I have to make clear that I do *not* mean that white people created blues music. But "the blues" as a category, and particularly the idea of it as a music made largely by solo male performers playing guitar... that was created and shaped by the actions of white male record executives. There is no consensus as to when or how the blues as a genre started -- as we often say in this podcast "there is no first anything", but like every genre it seems to have come from multiple sources. In the case of the blues, there's probably some influence from African music by way of field chants sung by enslaved people, possibly some influence from Arabic music as well, definitely some influence from the Irish and British folk songs that by the late nineteenth century were developing into what we now call country music, a lot from ragtime, and a lot of influence from vaudeville and minstrel songs -- which in turn themselves were all very influenced by all those other things. Probably the first published composition to show any real influence of the blues is from 1904, a ragtime piano piece by James Chapman and Leroy Smith, "One O' Them Things": [Excerpt: "One O' Them Things"] That's not very recognisable as a blues piece yet, but it is more-or-less a twelve-bar blues. But the blues developed, and it developed as a result of a series of commercial waves. The first of these came in 1914, with the success of W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues", which when it was recorded by the Victor Military Band for a phonograph cylinder became what is generally considered the first blues record proper: [Excerpt: The Victor Military Band, "Memphis Blues"] The famous dancers Vernon and Irene Castle came up with a dance, the foxtrot -- which Vernon Castle later admitted was largely inspired by Black dancers -- to be danced to the "Memphis Blues", and the foxtrot soon overtook the tango, which the Castles had introduced to the US the previous year, to become the most popular dance in America for the best part of three decades. And with that came an explosion in blues in the Handy style, cranked out by every music publisher. While the blues was a style largely created by Black performers and writers, the segregated nature of the American music industry at the time meant that most vocal performances of these early blues that were captured on record were by white performers, Black vocalists at this time only rarely getting the chance to record. The first blues record with a Black vocalist is also technically the first British blues record. A group of Black musicians, apparently mostly American but led by a Jamaican pianist, played at Ciro's Club in London, and recorded many tracks in Britain, under a name which I'm not going to say in full -- it started with Ciro's Club, and continued alliteratively with another word starting with C, a slur for Black people. In 1917 they recorded a vocal version of "St. Louis Blues", another W.C. Handy composition: [Excerpt: Ciro's Club C**n Orchestra, "St. Louis Blues"] The first American Black blues vocal didn't come until two years later, when Bert Williams, a Black minstrel-show performer who like many Black performers of his era performed in blackface even though he was Black, recorded “I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,” [Excerpt: Bert Williams, "I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,”] But it wasn't until 1920 that the second, bigger, wave of popularity started for the blues, and this time it started with the first record of a Black *woman* singing the blues -- Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] You can hear the difference between that and anything we've heard up to that point -- that's the first record that anyone from our perspective, a hundred and three years later, would listen to and say that it bore any resemblance to what we think of as the blues -- so much so that many places still credit it as the first ever blues record. And there's a reason for that. "Crazy Blues" was one of those records that separates the music industry into before and after, like "Rock Around the Clock", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Sgt Pepper, or "Rapper's Delight". It sold seventy-five thousand copies in its first month -- a massive number by the standards of 1920 -- and purportedly went on to sell over a million copies. Sales figures and market analysis weren't really a thing in the same way in 1920, but even so it became very obvious that "Crazy Blues" was a big hit, and that unlike pretty much any other previous records, it was a big hit among Black listeners, which meant that there was a market for music aimed at Black people that was going untapped. Soon all the major record labels were setting up subsidiaries devoted to what they called "race music", music made by and for Black people. And this sees the birth of what is now known as "classic blues", but at the time (and for decades after) was just what people thought of when they thought of "the blues" as a genre. This was music primarily sung by female vaudeville artists backed by jazz bands, people like Ma Rainey (whose earliest recordings featured Louis Armstrong in her backing band): [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider Blues"] And Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues", who had a massive career in the 1920s before the Great Depression caused many of these "race record" labels to fold, but who carried on performing well into the 1930s -- her last recording was in 1933, produced by John Hammond, with a backing band including Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Give Me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer"] It wouldn't be until several years after the boom started by Mamie Smith that any record companies turned to recording Black men singing the blues accompanied by guitar or banjo. The first record of this type is probably "Norfolk Blues" by Reese DuPree from 1924: [Excerpt: Reese DuPree, "Norfolk Blues"] And there were occasional other records of this type, like "Airy Man Blues" by Papa Charlie Jackson, who was advertised as the “only man living who sings, self-accompanied, for Blues records.” [Excerpt: Papa Charlie Jackson, "Airy Man Blues"] But contrary to the way these are seen today, at the time they weren't seen as being in some way "authentic", or "folk music". Indeed, there are many quotes from folk-music collectors of the time (sadly all of them using so many slurs that it's impossible for me to accurately quote them) saying that when people sang the blues, that wasn't authentic Black folk music at all but an adulteration from commercial music -- they'd clearly, according to these folk-music scholars, learned the blues style from records and sheet music rather than as part of an oral tradition. Most of these performers were people who recorded blues as part of a wider range of material, like Blind Blake, who recorded some blues music but whose best work was his ragtime guitar instrumentals: [Excerpt: Blind Blake, "Southern Rag"] But it was when Blind Lemon Jefferson started recording for Paramount records in 1926 that the image of the blues as we now think of it took shape. His first record, "Got the Blues", was a massive success: [Excerpt: Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Got the Blues"] And this resulted in many labels, especially Paramount, signing up pretty much every Black man with a guitar they could find in the hopes of finding another Blind Lemon Jefferson. But the thing is, this generation of people making blues records, and the generation that followed them, didn't think of themselves as "blues singers" or "bluesmen". They were songsters. Songsters were entertainers, and their job was to sing and play whatever the audiences would want to hear. That included the blues, of course, but it also included... well, every song anyone would want to hear.  They'd perform old folk songs, vaudeville songs, songs that they'd heard on the radio or the jukebox -- whatever the audience wanted. Robert Johnson, for example, was known to particularly love playing polka music, and also adored the records of Jimmie Rodgers, the first country music superstar. In 1941, when Alan Lomax first recorded Muddy Waters, he asked Waters what kind of songs he normally played in performances, and he was given a list that included "Home on the Range", Gene Autry's "I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle", and Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". We have few recordings of these people performing this kind of song though. One of the few we have is Big Bill Broonzy, who was just about the only artist of this type not to get pigeonholed as just a blues singer, even though blues is what made him famous, and who later in his career managed to record songs like the Tin Pan Alley standard "The Glory of Love": [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "The Glory of Love"] But for the most part, the image we have of the blues comes down to one man, Arthur Laibley, a sales manager for the Wisconsin Chair Company. The Wisconsin Chair Company was, as the name would suggest, a company that started out making wooden chairs, but it had branched out into other forms of wooden furniture -- including, for a brief time, large wooden phonographs. And, like several other manufacturers, like the Radio Corporation of America -- RCA -- and the Gramophone Company, which became EMI, they realised that if they were going to sell the hardware it made sense to sell the software as well, and had started up Paramount Records, which bought up a small label, Black Swan, and soon became the biggest manufacturer of records for the Black market, putting out roughly a quarter of all "race records" released between 1922 and 1932. At first, most of these were produced by a Black talent scout, J. Mayo Williams, who had been the first person to record Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, but in 1927 Williams left Paramount, and the job of supervising sessions went to Arthur Laibley, though according to some sources a lot of the actual production work was done by Aletha Dickerson, Williams' former assistant, who was almost certainly the first Black woman to be what we would now think of as a record producer. Williams had been interested in recording all kinds of music by Black performers, but when Laibley got a solo Black man into the studio, what he wanted more than anything was for him to record the blues, ideally in a style as close as possible to that of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Laibley didn't have a very hands-on approach to recording -- indeed Paramount had very little concern about the quality of their product anyway, and Paramount's records are notorious for having been put out on poor-quality shellac and recorded badly -- and he only occasionally made actual suggestions as to what kind of songs his performers should write -- for example he asked Son House to write something that sounded like Blind Lemon Jefferson, which led to House writing and recording "Mississippi County Farm Blues", which steals the tune of Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean": [Excerpt: Son House, "Mississippi County Farm Blues"] When Skip James wanted to record a cover of James Wiggins' "Forty-Four Blues", Laibley suggested that instead he should do a song about a different gun, and so James recorded "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues"] And Laibley also suggested that James write a song about the Depression, which led to one of the greatest blues records ever, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"] These musicians knew that they were getting paid only for issued sides, and that Laibley wanted only blues from them, and so that's what they gave him. Even when it was a performer like Charlie Patton. (Incidentally, for those reading this as a transcript rather than listening to it, Patton's name is more usually spelled ending in ey, but as far as I can tell ie was his preferred spelling and that's what I'm using). Charlie Patton was best known as an entertainer, first and foremost -- someone who would do song-and-dance routines, joke around, play guitar behind his head. He was a clown on stage, so much so that when Son House finally heard some of Patton's records, in the mid-sixties, decades after the fact, he was astonished that Patton could actually play well. Even though House had been in the room when some of the records were made, his memory of Patton was of someone who acted the fool on stage. That's definitely not the impression you get from the Charlie Patton on record: [Excerpt: Charlie Patton, "Poor Me"] Patton is, as far as can be discerned, the person who was most influential in creating the music that became called the "Delta blues". Not a lot is known about Patton's life, but he was almost certainly the half-brother of the Chatmon brothers, who made hundreds of records, most notably as members of the Mississippi Sheiks: [Excerpt: The Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting on Top of the World"] In the 1890s, Patton's family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, and he lived in and around that county until his death in 1934. Patton learned to play guitar from a musician called Henry Sloan, and then Patton became a mentor figure to a *lot* of other musicians in and around the plantation on which his family lived. Some of the musicians who grew up in the immediate area around Patton included Tommy Johnson: [Excerpt: Tommy Johnson, "Big Road Blues"] Pops Staples: [Excerpt: The Staple Singers, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken"] Robert Johnson: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Crossroads"] Willie Brown, a musician who didn't record much, but who played a lot with Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson and who we just heard Johnson sing about: [Excerpt: Willie Brown, "M&O Blues"] And Chester Burnett, who went on to become known as Howlin' Wolf, and whose vocal style was equally inspired by Patton and by the country star Jimmie Rodgers: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "Smokestack Lightnin'"] Once Patton started his own recording career for Paramount, he also started working as a talent scout for them, and it was him who brought Son House to Paramount. Soon after the Depression hit, Paramount stopped recording, and so from 1930 through 1934 Patton didn't make any records. He was tracked down by an A&R man in January 1934 and recorded one final session: [Excerpt, Charlie Patton, "34 Blues"] But he died of heart failure two months later. But his influence spread through his proteges, and they themselves influenced other musicians from the area who came along a little after, like Robert Lockwood and Muddy Waters. This music -- or that portion of it that was considered worth recording by white record producers, only a tiny, unrepresentative, portion of their vast performing repertoires -- became known as the Delta Blues, and when some of these musicians moved to Chicago and started performing with electric instruments, it became Chicago Blues. And as far as people like John Mayall in Britain were concerned, Delta and Chicago Blues *were* the blues: [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "It Ain't Right"] John Mayall was one of the first of the British blues obsessives, and for a long time thought of himself as the only one. While we've looked before at the growth of the London blues scene, Mayall wasn't from London -- he was born in Macclesfield and grew up in Cheadle Hulme, both relatively well-off suburbs of Manchester, and after being conscripted and doing two years in the Army, he had become an art student at Manchester College of Art, what is now Manchester Metropolitan University. Mayall had been a blues fan from the late 1940s, writing off to the US to order records that hadn't been released in the UK, and by most accounts by the late fifties he'd put together the biggest blues collection in Britain by quite some way. Not only that, but he had one of the earliest home tape recorders, and every night he would record radio stations from Continental Europe which were broadcasting for American service personnel, so he'd amassed mountains of recordings, often unlabelled, of obscure blues records that nobody else in the UK knew about. He was also an accomplished pianist and guitar player, and in 1956 he and his drummer friend Peter Ward had put together a band called the Powerhouse Four (the other two members rotated on a regular basis) mostly to play lunchtime jazz sessions at the art college. Mayall also started putting on jam sessions at a youth club in Wythenshawe, where he met another drummer named Hughie Flint. Over the late fifties and into the early sixties, Mayall more or less by himself built up a small blues scene in Manchester. The Manchester blues scene was so enthusiastic, in fact, that when the American Folk Blues Festival, an annual European tour which initially featured Willie Dixon, Memhis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and John Lee Hooker, first toured Europe, the only UK date it played was at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, and people like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page had to travel up from London to see it. But still, the number of blues fans in Manchester, while proportionally large, was objectively small enough that Mayall was captivated by an article in Melody Maker which talked about Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies' new band Blues Incorporated and how it was playing electric blues, the same music he was making in Manchester. He later talked about how the article had made him think that maybe now people would know what he was talking about. He started travelling down to London to play gigs for the London blues scene, and inviting Korner up to Manchester to play shows there. Soon Mayall had moved down to London. Korner introduced Mayall to Davey Graham, the great folk guitarist, with whom Korner had recently recorded as a duo: [Excerpt: Alexis Korner and Davey Graham, "3/4 AD"] Mayall and Graham performed together as a duo for a while, but Graham was a natural solo artist if ever there was one. Slowly Mayall put a band together in London. On drums was his old friend Peter Ward, who'd moved down from Manchester with him. On bass was John McVie, who at the time knew nothing about blues -- he'd been playing in a Shadows-style instrumental group -- but Mayall gave him a stack of blues records to listen to to get the feeling. And on guitar was Bernie Watson, who had previously played with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages. In late 1963, Mike Vernon, a blues fan who had previously published a Yardbirds fanzine, got a job working for Decca records, and immediately started signing his favourite acts from the London blues circuit. The first act he signed was John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and they recorded a single, "Crawling up a Hill": [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "Crawling up a Hill (45 version)"] Mayall later called that a "clumsy, half-witted attempt at autobiographical comment", and it sold only five hundred copies. It would be the only record the Bluesbreakers would make with Watson, who soon left the band to be replaced by Roger Dean (not the same Roger Dean who later went on to design prog rock album covers). The second group to be signed by Mike Vernon to Decca was the Graham Bond Organisation. We've talked about the Graham Bond Organisation in passing several times, but not for a while and not in any great detail, so it's worth pulling everything we've said about them so far together and going through it in a little more detail. The Graham Bond Organisation, like the Rolling Stones, grew out of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. As we heard in the episode on "I Wanna Be Your Man" a couple of years ago, Blues Incorporated had been started by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, and at the time we're joining them in 1962 featured a drummer called Charlie Watts, a pianist called Dave Stevens, and saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, as well as frequent guest performers like a singer who called himself Mike Jagger, and another one, Roderick Stewart. That group finally found themselves the perfect bass player when Dick Heckstall-Smith put together a one-off group of jazz players to play an event at Cambridge University. At the gig, a little Scottish man came up to the group and told them he played bass and asked if he could sit in. They told him to bring along his instrument to their second set, that night, and he did actually bring along a double bass. Their bluff having been called, they decided to play the most complicated, difficult, piece they knew in order to throw the kid off -- the drummer, a trad jazz player named Ginger Baker, didn't like performing with random sit-in guests -- but astonishingly he turned out to be really good. Heckstall-Smith took down the bass player's name and phone number and invited him to a jam session with Blues Incorporated. After that jam session, Jack Bruce quickly became the group's full-time bass player. Bruce had started out as a classical cellist, but had switched to the double bass inspired by Bach, who he referred to as "the guv'nor of all bass players". His playing up to this point had mostly been in trad jazz bands, and he knew nothing of the blues, but he quickly got the hang of the genre. Bruce's first show with Blues Incorporated was a BBC recording: [Excerpt: Blues Incorporated, "Hoochie Coochie Man (BBC session)"] According to at least one source it was not being asked to take part in that session that made young Mike Jagger decide there was no future for him with Blues Incorporated and to spend more time with his other group, the Rollin' Stones. Soon after, Charlie Watts would join him, for almost the opposite reason -- Watts didn't want to be in a band that was getting as big as Blues Incorporated were. They were starting to do more BBC sessions and get more gigs, and having to join the Musicians' Union. That seemed like a lot of work. Far better to join a band like the Rollin' Stones that wasn't going anywhere. Because of Watts' decision to give up on potential stardom to become a Rollin' Stone, they needed a new drummer, and luckily the best drummer on the scene was available. But then the best drummer on the scene was *always* available. Ginger Baker had first played with Dick Heckstall-Smith several years earlier, in a trad group called the Storyville Jazzmen. There Baker had become obsessed with the New Orleans jazz drummer Baby Dodds, who had played with Louis Armstrong in the 1920s. Sadly because of 1920s recording technology, he hadn't been able to play a full kit on the recordings with Armstrong, being limited to percussion on just a woodblock, but you can hear his drumming style much better in this version of "At the Jazz Band Ball" from 1947, with Mugsy Spanier, Jack Teagarden, Cyrus St. Clair and Hank Duncan: [Excerpt: "At the Jazz Band Ball"] Baker had taken Dobbs' style and run with it, and had quickly become known as the single best player, bar none, on the London jazz scene -- he'd become an accomplished player in multiple styles, and was also fluent in reading music and arranging. He'd also, though, become known as the single person on the entire scene who was most difficult to get along with. He resigned from his first band onstage, shouting "You can stick your band up your arse", after the band's leader had had enough of him incorporating bebop influences into their trad style. Another time, when touring with Diz Disley's band, he was dumped in Germany with no money and no way to get home, because the band were so sick of him. Sometimes this was because of his temper and his unwillingness to suffer fools -- and he saw everyone else he ever met as a fool -- and sometimes it was because of his own rigorous musical ideas. He wanted to play music *his* way, and wouldn't listen to anyone who told him different. Both of these things got worse after he fell under the influence of a man named Phil Seaman, one of the only drummers that Baker respected at all. Seaman introduced Baker to African drumming, and Baker started incorporating complex polyrhythms into his playing as a result. Seaman also though introduced Baker to heroin, and while being a heroin addict in the UK in the 1960s was not as difficult as it later became -- both heroin and cocaine were available on prescription to registered addicts, and Baker got both, which meant that many of the problems that come from criminalisation of these drugs didn't affect addicts in the same way -- but it still did not, by all accounts, make him an easier person to get along with. But he *was* a fantastic drummer. As Dick Heckstall-Smith said "With the advent of Ginger, the classic Blues Incorporated line-up, one which I think could not be bettered, was set" But Alexis Korner decided that the group could be bettered, and he had some backers within the band. One of the other bands on the scene was the Don Rendell Quintet, a group that played soul jazz -- that style of jazz that bridged modern jazz and R&B, the kind of music that Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock played: [Excerpt: The Don Rendell Quintet, "Manumission"] The Don Rendell Quintet included a fantastic multi-instrumentalist, Graham Bond, who doubled on keyboards and saxophone, and Bond had been playing occasional experimental gigs with the Johnny Burch Octet -- a group led by another member of the Rendell Quartet featuring Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, Baker, and a few other musicians, doing wholly-improvised music. Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, and Baker all enjoyed playing with Bond, and when Korner decided to bring him into the band, they were all very keen. But Cyril Davies, the co-leader of the band with Korner, was furious at the idea. Davies wanted to play strict Chicago and Delta blues, and had no truck with other forms of music like R&B and jazz. To his mind it was bad enough that they had a sax player. But the idea that they would bring in Bond, who played sax and... *Hammond* organ? Well, that was practically blasphemy. Davies quit the group at the mere suggestion. Bond was soon in the band, and he, Bruce, and Baker were playing together a *lot*. As well as performing with Blues Incorporated, they continued playing in the Johnny Burch Octet, and they also started performing as the Graham Bond Trio. Sometimes the Graham Bond Trio would be Blues Incorporated's opening act, and on more than one occasion the Graham Bond Trio, Blues Incorporated, and the Johnny Burch Octet all had gigs in different parts of London on the same night and they'd have to frantically get from one to the other. The Graham Bond Trio also had fans in Manchester, thanks to the local blues scene there and their connection with Blues Incorporated, and one night in February 1963 the trio played a gig there. They realised afterwards that by playing as a trio they'd made £70, when they were lucky to make £20 from a gig with Blues Incorporated or the Octet, because there were so many members in those bands. Bond wanted to make real money, and at the next rehearsal of Blues Incorporated he announced to Korner that he, Bruce, and Baker were quitting the band -- which was news to Bruce and Baker, who he hadn't bothered consulting. Baker, indeed, was in the toilet when the announcement was made and came out to find it a done deal. He was going to kick up a fuss and say he hadn't been consulted, but Korner's reaction sealed the deal. As Baker later said "‘he said “it's really good you're doing this thing with Graham, and I wish you the best of luck” and all that. And it was a bit difficult to turn round and say, “Well, I don't really want to leave the band, you know.”'" The Graham Bond Trio struggled at first to get the gigs they were expecting, but that started to change when in April 1963 they became the Graham Bond Quartet, with the addition of virtuoso guitarist John McLaughlin. The Quartet soon became one of the hottest bands on the London R&B scene, and when Duffy Power, a Larry Parnes teen idol who wanted to move into R&B, asked his record label to get him a good R&B band to back him on a Beatles cover, it was the Graham Bond Quartet who obliged: [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "I Saw Her Standing There"] The Quartet also backed Power on a package tour with other Parnes acts, but they were also still performing their own blend of hard jazz and blues, as can be heard in this recording of the group live in June 1953: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Quartet, "Ho Ho Country Kicking Blues (Live at Klooks Kleek)"] But that lineup of the group didn't last very long. According to the way Baker told the story, he fired McLaughlin from the group, after being irritated by McLaughlin complaining about something on a day when Baker was out of cocaine and in no mood to hear anyone else's complaints. As Baker said "We lost a great guitar player and I lost a good friend." But the Trio soon became a Quartet again, as Dick Heckstall-Smith, who Baker had wanted in the band from the start, joined on saxophone to replace McLaughlin's guitar. But they were no longer called the Graham Bond Quartet. Partly because Heckstall-Smith joining allowed Bond to concentrate just on his keyboard playing, but one suspects partly to protect against any future lineup changes, the group were now The Graham Bond ORGANisation -- emphasis on the organ. The new lineup of the group got signed to Decca by Vernon, and were soon recording their first single, "Long Tall Shorty": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Long Tall Shorty"] They recorded a few other songs which made their way onto an EP and an R&B compilation, and toured intensively in early 1964, as well as backing up Power on his follow-up to "I Saw Her Standing There", his version of "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "Parchman Farm"] They also appeared in a film, just like the Beatles, though it was possibly not quite as artistically successful as "A Hard Day's Night": [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat trailer] Gonks Go Beat is one of the most bizarre films of the sixties. It's a far-future remake of Romeo and Juliet. where the two star-crossed lovers are from opposing countries -- Beatland and Ballad Isle -- who only communicate once a year in an annual song contest which acts as their version of a war, and is overseen by "Mr. A&R", played by Frank Thornton, who would later star in Are You Being Served? Carry On star Kenneth Connor is sent by aliens to try to bring peace to the two warring countries, on pain of exile to Planet Gonk, a planet inhabited solely by Gonks (a kind of novelty toy for which there was a short-lived craze then). Along the way Connor encounters such luminaries of British light entertainment as Terry Scott and Arthur Mullard, as well as musical performances by Lulu, the Nashville Teens, and of course the Graham Bond Organisation, whose performance gets them a telling-off from a teacher: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat!] The group as a group only performed one song in this cinematic masterpiece, but Baker also made an appearance in a "drum battle" sequence where eight drummers played together: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat drum battle] The other drummers in that scene included, as well as some lesser-known players, Andy White who had played on the single version of "Love Me Do", Bobby Graham, who played on hits by the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five, and Ronnie Verrell, who did the drumming for Animal in the Muppet Show. Also in summer 1964, the group performed at the Fourth National Jazz & Blues Festival in Richmond -- the festival co-founded by Chris Barber that would evolve into the Reading Festival. The Yardbirds were on the bill, and at the end of their set they invited Bond, Baker, Bruce, Georgie Fame, and Mike Vernon onto the stage with them, making that the first time that Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce were all on stage together. Soon after that, the Graham Bond Organisation got a new manager, Robert Stigwood. Things hadn't been working out for them at Decca, and Stigwood soon got the group signed to EMI, and became their producer as well. Their first single under Stigwood's management was a cover version of the theme tune to the Debbie Reynolds film "Tammy". While that film had given Tamla records its name, the song was hardly an R&B classic: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Tammy"] That record didn't chart, but Stigwood put the group out on the road as part of the disastrous Chuck Berry tour we heard about in the episode on "All You Need is Love", which led to the bankruptcy of  Robert Stigwood Associates. The Organisation moved over to Stigwood's new company, the Robert Stigwood Organisation, and Stigwood continued to be the credited producer of their records, though after the "Tammy" disaster they decided they were going to take charge themselves of the actual music. Their first album, The Sound of 65, was recorded in a single three-hour session, and they mostly ran through their standard set -- a mixture of the same songs everyone else on the circuit was playing, like "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Working", and "Wade in the Water", and originals like Bruce's "Train Time": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Train Time"] Through 1965 they kept working. They released a non-album single, "Lease on Love", which is generally considered to be the first pop record to feature a Mellotron: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Lease on Love"] and Bond and Baker also backed another Stigwood act, Winston G, on his debut single: [Excerpt: Winston G, "Please Don't Say"] But the group were developing severe tensions. Bruce and Baker had started out friendly, but by this time they hated each other. Bruce said he couldn't hear his own playing over Baker's loud drumming, Baker thought that Bruce was far too fussy a player and should try to play simpler lines. They'd both try to throw each other during performances, altering arrangements on the fly and playing things that would trip the other player up. And *neither* of them were particularly keen on Bond's new love of the Mellotron, which was all over their second album, giving it a distinctly proto-prog feel at times: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Baby Can it Be True?"] Eventually at a gig in Golders Green, Baker started throwing drumsticks at Bruce's head while Bruce was trying to play a bass solo. Bruce retaliated by throwing his bass at Baker, and then jumping on him and starting a fistfight which had to be broken up by the venue security. Baker fired Bruce from the band, but Bruce kept turning up to gigs anyway, arguing that Baker had no right to sack him as it was a democracy. Baker always claimed that in fact Bond had wanted to sack Bruce but hadn't wanted to get his hands dirty, and insisted that Baker do it, but neither Bond nor Heckstall-Smith objected when Bruce turned up for the next couple of gigs. So Baker took matters into his own hands, He pulled out a knife and told Bruce "If you show up at one more gig, this is going in you." Within days, Bruce was playing with John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers had gone through some lineup changes by this point. Roger Dean had only played with the Bluesbreakers for a short time before Mayall had replaced him. Mayall had not been impressed with Eric Clapton's playing with the Yardbirds at first -- even though graffiti saying "Clapton is God" was already starting to appear around London -- but he had been *very* impressed with Clapton's playing on "Got to Hurry", the B-side to "For Your Love": [Excerpt: The Yardbirds, "Got to Hurry"] When he discovered that Clapton had quit the band, he sprang into action and quickly recruited him to replace Dean. Clapton knew he had made the right choice when a month after he'd joined, the group got the word that Bob Dylan had been so impressed with Mayall's single "Crawling up a Hill" -- the one that nobody liked, not even Mayall himself -- that he wanted to jam with Mayall and his band in the studio. Clapton of course went along: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan and the Bluesbreakers, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] That was, of course, the session we've talked about in the Velvet Underground episode and elsewhere of which little other than that survives, and which Nico attended. At this point, Mayall didn't have a record contract, his experience recording with Mike Vernon having been no more successful than the Bond group's had been. But soon he got a one-off deal -- as a solo artist, not with the Bluesbreakers -- with Immediate Records. Clapton was the only member of the group to play on the single, which was produced by Immediate's house producer Jimmy Page: [Excerpt: John Mayall, "I'm Your Witchdoctor"] Page was impressed enough with Clapton's playing that he invited him round to Page's house to jam together. But what Clapton didn't know was that Page was taping their jam sessions, and that he handed those tapes over to Immediate Records -- whether he was forced to by his contract with the label or whether that had been his plan all along depends on whose story you believe, but Clapton never truly forgave him. Page and Clapton's guitar-only jams had overdubs by Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart, and drummer Chris Winter, and have been endlessly repackaged on blues compilations ever since: [Excerpt: Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, "Draggin' My Tail"] But Mayall was having problems with John McVie, who had started to drink too much, and as soon as he found out that Jack Bruce was sacked by the Graham Bond Organisation, Mayall got in touch with Bruce and got him to join the band in McVie's place. Everyone was agreed that this lineup of the band -- Mayall, Clapton, Bruce, and Hughie Flint -- was going places: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Jack Bruce, "Hoochie Coochie Man"] Unfortunately, it wasn't going to last long. Clapton, while he thought that Bruce was the greatest bass player he'd ever worked with, had other plans. He was going to leave the country and travel the world as a peripatetic busker. He was off on his travels, never to return. Luckily, Mayall had someone even better waiting in the wings. A young man had, according to Mayall, "kept coming down to all the gigs and saying, “Hey, what are you doing with him?” – referring to whichever guitarist was onstage that night – “I'm much better than he is. Why don't you let me play guitar for you?” He got really quite nasty about it, so finally, I let him sit in. And he was brilliant." Peter Green was probably the best blues guitarist in London at that time, but this lineup of the Bluesbreakers only lasted a handful of gigs -- Clapton discovered that busking in Greece wasn't as much fun as being called God in London, and came back very soon after he'd left. Mayall had told him that he could have his old job back when he got back, and so Green was out and Clapton was back in. And soon the Bluesbreakers' revolving door revolved again. Manfred Mann had just had a big hit with "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", the same song we heard Dylan playing earlier: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] But their guitarist, Mike Vickers, had quit. Tom McGuinness, their bass player, had taken the opportunity to switch back to guitar -- the instrument he'd played in his first band with his friend Eric Clapton -- but that left them short a bass player. Manfred Mann were essentially the same kind of band as the Graham Bond Organisation -- a Hammond-led group of virtuoso multi-instrumentalists who played everything from hardcore Delta blues to complex modern jazz -- but unlike the Bond group they also had a string of massive pop hits, and so made a lot more money. The combination was irresistible to Bruce, and he joined the band just before they recorded an EP of jazz instrumental versions of recent hits: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"] Bruce had also been encouraged by Robert Stigwood to do a solo project, and so at the same time as he joined Manfred Mann, he also put out a solo single, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'" [Excerpt: Jack Bruce, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'"] But of course, the reason Bruce had joined Manfred Mann was that they were having pop hits as well as playing jazz, and soon they did just that, with Bruce playing on their number one hit "Pretty Flamingo": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "Pretty Flamingo"] So John McVie was back in the Bluesbreakers, promising to keep his drinking under control. Mike Vernon still thought that Mayall had potential, but the people at Decca didn't agree, so Vernon got Mayall and Clapton -- but not the other band members -- to record a single for a small indie label he ran as a side project: [Excerpt: John Mayall and Eric Clapton, "Bernard Jenkins"] That label normally only released records in print runs of ninety-nine copies, because once you hit a hundred copies you had to pay tax on them, but there was so much demand for that single that they ended up pressing up five hundred copies, making it the label's biggest seller ever. Vernon eventually convinced the heads at Decca that the Bluesbreakers could be truly big, and so he got the OK to record the album that would generally be considered the greatest British blues album of all time -- Blues Breakers, also known as the Beano album because of Clapton reading a copy of the British kids' comic The Beano in the group photo on the front. [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Ramblin' On My Mind"] The album was a mixture of originals by Mayall and the standard repertoire of every blues or R&B band on the circuit -- songs like "Parchman Farm" and "What'd I Say" -- but what made the album unique was Clapton's guitar tone. Much to the chagrin of Vernon, and of engineer Gus Dudgeon, Clapton insisted on playing at the same volume that he would on stage. Vernon later said of Dudgeon "I can remember seeing his face the very first time Clapton plugged into the Marshall stack and turned it up and started playing at the sort of volume he was going to play. You could almost see Gus's eyes meet over the middle of his nose, and it was almost like he was just going to fall over from the sheer power of it all. But after an enormous amount of fiddling around and moving amps around, we got a sound that worked." [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Hideaway"] But by the time the album cane out. Clapton was no longer with the Bluesbreakers. The Graham Bond Organisation had struggled on for a while after Bruce's departure. They brought in a trumpet player, Mike Falana, and even had a hit record -- or at least, the B-side of a hit record. The Who had just put out a hit single, "Substitute", on Robert Stigwood's record label, Reaction: [Excerpt: The Who, "Substitute"] But, as you'll hear in episode 183, they had moved to Reaction Records after a falling out with their previous label, and with Shel Talmy their previous producer. The problem was, when "Substitute" was released, it had as its B-side a song called "Circles" (also known as "Instant Party -- it's been released under both names). They'd recorded an earlier version of the song for Talmy, and just as "Substitute" was starting to chart, Talmy got an injunction against the record and it had to be pulled. Reaction couldn't afford to lose the big hit record they'd spent money promoting, so they needed to put it out with a new B-side. But the Who hadn't got any unreleased recordings. But the Graham Bond Organisation had, and indeed they had an unreleased *instrumental*. So "Waltz For a Pig" became the B-side to a top-five single, credited to The Who Orchestra: [Excerpt: The Who Orchestra, "Waltz For a Pig"] That record provided the catalyst for the formation of Cream, because Ginger Baker had written the song, and got £1,350 for it, which he used to buy a new car. Baker had, for some time, been wanting to get out of the Graham Bond Organisation. He was trying to get off heroin -- though he would make many efforts to get clean over the decades, with little success -- while Bond was starting to use it far more heavily, and was also using acid and getting heavily into mysticism, which Baker despised. Baker may have had the idea for what he did next from an article in one of the music papers. John Entwistle of the Who would often tell a story about an article in Melody Maker -- though I've not been able to track down the article itself to get the full details -- in which musicians were asked to name which of their peers they'd put into a "super-group". He didn't remember the full details, but he did remember that the consensus choice had had Eric Clapton on lead guitar, himself on bass, and Ginger Baker on drums. As he said later "I don't remember who else was voted in, but a few months later, the Cream came along, and I did wonder if somebody was maybe believing too much of their own press". Incidentally, like The Buffalo Springfield and The Pink Floyd, Cream, the band we are about to meet, had releases both with and without the definite article, and Eric Clapton at least seems always to talk about them as "the Cream" even decades later, but they're primarily known as just Cream these days. Baker, having had enough of the Bond group, decided to drive up to Oxford to see Clapton playing with the Bluesbreakers. Clapton invited him to sit in for a couple of songs, and by all accounts the band sounded far better than they had previously. Clapton and Baker could obviously play well together, and Baker offered Clapton a lift back to London in his new car, and on the drive back asked Clapton if he wanted to form a new band. Clapton was as impressed by Baker's financial skills as he was by his musicianship. He said later "Musicians didn't have cars. You all got in a van." Clearly a musician who was *actually driving a new car he owned* was going places. He agreed to Baker's plan. But of course they needed a bass player, and Clapton thought he had the perfect solution -- "What about Jack?" Clapton knew that Bruce had been a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, but didn't know why he'd left the band -- he wasn't particularly clued in to what the wider music scene was doing, and all he knew was that Bruce had played with both him and Baker, and that he was the best bass player he'd ever played with. And Bruce *was* arguably the best bass player in London at that point, and he was starting to pick up session work as well as his work with Manfred Mann. For example it's him playing on the theme tune to "After The Fox" with Peter Sellers, the Hollies, and the song's composer Burt Bacharach: [Excerpt: The Hollies with Peter Sellers, "After the Fox"] Clapton was insistent. Baker's idea was that the band should be the best musicians around. That meant they needed the *best* musicians around, not the second best. If Jack Bruce wasn't joining, Eric Clapton wasn't joining either. Baker very reluctantly agreed, and went round to see Bruce the next day -- according to Baker it was in a spirit of generosity and giving Bruce one more chance, while according to Bruce he came round to eat humble pie and beg for forgiveness. Either way, Bruce agreed to join the band. The three met up for a rehearsal at Baker's home, and immediately Bruce and Baker started fighting, but also immediately they realised that they were great at playing together -- so great that they named themselves the Cream, as they were the cream of musicians on the scene. They knew they had something, but they didn't know what. At first they considered making their performances into Dada projects, inspired by the early-twentieth-century art movement. They liked a band that had just started to make waves, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band -- who had originally been called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band -- and they bought some props with the vague idea of using them on stage in the same way the Bonzos did. But as they played together they realised that they needed to do something different from that. At first, they thought they needed a fourth member -- a keyboard player. Graham Bond's name was brought up, but Clapton vetoed him. Clapton wanted Steve Winwood, the keyboard player and vocalist with the Spencer Davis Group. Indeed, Winwood was present at what was originally intended to be the first recording session the trio would play. Joe Boyd had asked Eric Clapton to round up a bunch of players to record some filler tracks for an Elektra blues compilation, and Clapton had asked Bruce and Baker to join him, Paul Jones on vocals, Winwood on Hammond and Clapton's friend Ben Palmer on piano for the session. Indeed, given that none of the original trio were keen on singing, that Paul Jones was just about to leave Manfred Mann, and that we know Clapton wanted Winwood in the band, one has to wonder if Clapton at least half-intended for this to be the eventual lineup of the band. If he did, that plan was foiled by Baker's refusal to take part in the session. Instead, this one-off band, named The Powerhouse, featured Pete York, the drummer from the Spencer Davis Group, on the session, which produced the first recording of Clapton playing on the Robert Johnson song originally titled "Cross Road Blues" but now generally better known just as "Crossroads": [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] We talked about Robert Johnson a little back in episode ninety-seven, but other than Bob Dylan, who was inspired by his lyrics, we had seen very little influence from Johnson up to this point, but he's going to be a major influence on rock guitar for the next few years, so we should talk about him a little here. It's often said that nobody knew anything about Robert Johnson, that he was almost a phantom other than his records which existed outside of any context as artefacts of their own. That's... not really the case. Johnson had died a little less than thirty years earlier, at only twenty-seven years old. Most of his half-siblings and step-siblings were alive, as were his son, his stepson, and dozens of musicians he'd played with over the years, women he'd had affairs with, and other assorted friends and relatives. What people mean is that information about Johnson's life was not yet known by people they consider important -- which is to say white blues scholars and musicians. Indeed, almost everything people like that -- people like *me* -- know of the facts of Johnson's life has only become known to us in the last four years. If, as some people had expected, I'd started this series with an episode on Johnson, I'd have had to redo the whole thing because of the information that's made its way to the public since then. But here's what was known -- or thought -- by white blues scholars in 1966. Johnson was, according to them, a field hand from somewhere in Mississippi, who played the guitar in between working on the cotton fields. He had done two recording sessions, in 1936 and 1937. One song from his first session, "Terraplane Blues", had been a very minor hit by blues standards: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"] That had sold well -- nobody knows how well, but maybe as many as ten thousand copies, and it was certainly a record people knew in 1937 if they liked the Delta blues, but ten thousand copies total is nowhere near the sales of really successful records, and none of the follow-ups had sold anything like that much -- many of them had sold in the hundreds rather than the thousands. As Elijah Wald, one of Johnson's biographers put it "knowing about Johnson and Muddy Waters but not about Leroy Carr or Dinah Washington was like knowing about, say, the Sir Douglas Quintet but not knowing about the Beatles" -- though *I* would add that the Sir Douglas Quintet were much bigger during the sixties than Johnson was during his lifetime. One of the few white people who had noticed Johnson's existence at all was John Hammond, and he'd written a brief review of Johnson's first two singles under a pseudonym in a Communist newspaper. I'm going to quote it here, but the word he used to talk about Black people was considered correct then but isn't now, so I'll substitute Black for that word: "Before closing we cannot help but call your attention to the greatest [Black] blues singer who has cropped up in recent years, Robert Johnson. Recording them in deepest Mississippi, Vocalion has certainly done right by us and by the tunes "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and "Terraplane Blues", to name only two of the four sides already released, sung to his own guitar accompaniment. Johnson makes Leadbelly sound like an accomplished poseur" Hammond had tried to get Johnson to perform at the Spirituals to Swing concerts we talked about in the very first episodes of the podcast, but he'd discovered that he'd died shortly before. He got Big Bill Broonzy instead, and played a couple of Johnson's records from a record player on the stage. Hammond introduced those recordings with a speech: "It is tragic that an American audience could not have been found seven or eight years ago for a concert of this kind. Bessie Smith was still at the height of her career and Joe Smith, probably the greatest trumpet player America ever knew, would still have been around to play obbligatos for her...dozens of other artists could have been there in the flesh. But that audience as well as this one would not have been able to hear Robert Johnson sing and play the blues on his guitar, for at that time Johnson was just an unknown hand on a Robinsonville, Mississippi plantation. Robert Johnson was going to be the big surprise of the evening for this audience at Carnegie Hall. I know him only from his Vocalion blues records and from the tall, exciting tales the recording engineers and supervisors used to bring about him from the improvised studios in Dallas and San Antonio. I don't believe Johnson had ever worked as a professional musician anywhere, and it still knocks me over when I think of how lucky it is that a talent like his ever found its way onto phonograph records. We will have to be content with playing two of his records, the old "Walkin' Blues" and the new, unreleased, "Preachin' Blues", because Robert Johnson died last week at the precise moment when Vocalion scouts finally reached him and told him that he was booked to appear at Carnegie Hall on December 23. He was in his middle twenties and nobody seems to know what caused his death." And that was, for the most part, the end of Robert Johnson's impact on the culture for a generation. The Lomaxes went down to Clarksdale, Mississippi a couple of years later -- reports vary as to whether this was to see if they could find Johnson, who they were unaware was dead, or to find information out about him, and they did end up recording a young singer named Muddy Waters for the Library of Congress, including Waters' rendition of "32-20 Blues", Johnson's reworking of Skip James' "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "32-20 Blues"] But Johnson's records remained unavailable after their initial release until 1959, when the blues scholar Samuel Charters published the book The Country Blues, which was the first book-length treatment ever of Delta blues. Sixteen years later Charters said "I shouldn't have written The Country Blues when I did; since I really didn't know enough, but I felt I couldn't afford to wait. So The Country Blues was two things. It was a romanticization of certain aspects of black life in an effort to force the white society to reconsider some of its racial attitudes, and on the other hand it was a cry for help. I wanted hundreds of people to go out and interview the surviving blues artists. I wanted people to record them and document their lives, their environment, and their music, not only so that their story would be preserved but also so they'd get a little money and a little recognition in their last years." Charters talked about Johnson in the book, as one of the performers who played "minor roles in the story of the blues", and said that almost nothing was known about his life. He talked about how he had been poisoned by his common-law wife, about how his records were recorded in a pool hall, and said "The finest of Robert Johnson's blues have a brooding sense of torment and despair. The blues has become a personified figure of despondency." Along with Charters' book came a compilation album of the same name, and that included the first ever reissue of one of Johnson's tracks, "Preaching Blues": [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues"] Two years later, John Hammond, who had remained an ardent fan of Johnson, had Columbia put out the King of the Delta Blues Singers album. At the time no white blues scholars knew what Johnson looked like and they had no photos of him, so a generic painting of a poor-looking Black man with a guitar was used for the cover. The liner note to King of the Delta Blues Singers talked about how Johnson was seventeen or eighteen when he made his recordings, how he was "dead before he reached his twenty-first birthday, poisoned by a jealous girlfriend", how he had "seldom, if ever, been away from the plantation in Robinsville, Mississippi, where he was born and raised", and how he had had such stage fright that when he was asked to play in front of other musicians, he'd turned to face a wall so he couldn't see them. And that would be all that any of the members of the Powerhouse would know about Johnson. Maybe they'd also heard the rumours that were starting to spread that Johnson had got his guitar-playing skills by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads at midnight, but that would have been all they knew when they recorded their filler track for Elektra: [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] Either way, the Powerhouse lineup only lasted for that one session -- the group eventually decided that a simple trio would be best for the music they wanted to play. Clapton had seen Buddy Guy touring with just a bass player and drummer a year earlier, and had liked the idea of the freedom that gave him as a guitarist. The group soon took on Robert Stigwood as a manager, which caused more arguments between Bruce and Baker. Bruce was convinced that if they were doing an all-for-one one-for-all thing they should also manage themselves, but Baker pointed out that that was a daft idea when they could get one of the biggest managers in the country to look after them. A bigger argument, which almost killed the group before it started, happened when Baker told journalist Chris Welch of the Melody Maker about their plans. In an echo of the way that he and Bruce had been resigned from Blues Incorporated without being consulted, now with no discussion Manfred Mann and John Mayall were reading in the papers that their band members were quitting before those members had bothered to mention it. Mayall was furious, especially since the album Clapton had played on hadn't yet come out. Clapton was supposed to work a month's notice while Mayall found another guitarist, but Mayall spent two weeks begging Peter Green to rejoin the band. Green was less than eager -- after all, he'd been fired pretty much straight away earlier -- but Mayall eventually persuaded him. The second he did, Mayall turned round to Clapton and told him he didn't have to work the rest of his notice -- he'd found another guitar player and Clapton was fired: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, "Dust My Blues"] Manfred Mann meanwhile took on the Beatles' friend Klaus Voorman to replace Bruce. Voorman would remain with the band until the end, and like Green was for Mayall, Voorman was in some ways a better fit for Manfred Mann than Bruce was. In particular he could double on flute, as he did for example on their hit version of Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann "The Mighty Quinn"] The new group, The Cream, were of course signed in the UK to Stigwood's Reaction label. Other than the Who, who only stuck around for one album, Reaction was not a very successful label. Its biggest signing was a former keyboard player for Screaming Lord Sutch, who recorded for them under the names Paul Dean and Oscar, but who later became known as Paul Nicholas and had a successful career in musical theatre and sitcom. Nicholas never had any hits for Reaction, but he did release one interesting record, in 1967: [Excerpt: Oscar, "Over the Wall We Go"] That was one of the earliest songwriting attempts by a young man who had recently named himself David Bowie. Now the group were public, they started inviting journalists to their rehearsals, which were mostly spent trying to combine their disparate musical influences --