This weekend's musical treat

[Oldspartan]

Going in a different direction this weekend.

The first recording of Me & Bobby McGee in the studio. Janis sounds amazing and completely nails it in one take. Is raw and unedited - features studio conversations at beginning. Enjoy!


Willie Nelson and Ray Charles- Seven Spanish Angels


And to finish, Hobo Bill's Last Ride · Doc & Merle Watson. I did the sound for a show with them. It was recorded by PBS in Hartford, CT. They took their sound from our mixing board.
(Play this one in High Def.)

Saw Joplin twice -- 1969 at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, (SPAC), and of course at Woodstock. One of my all-time favorites who died much too young.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I saw Jimi in1967 aand he is gone. I saw Lowell and Little feat Multiple times and he is gone. I saw the Dead several time including my 1st with Pig Pen. Too many of them are gone. I did sound for Doc and Merle Watson at a concert in Hartford. They are both gone. We did the sound for free at a benefit show in Hartford with featured Jackie McClain on sax and Max Roach on drums. They are both gone. We did a show with Donald Byrd and the Black Byrds (I think I did the sound board for that). He is gone. We did an afternoon show at a UCON branch with the Persuasions. Four of the five founding members are gone. We did a show with Ryo Kawasaki a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer, and software programmer. He is gone. I saw the Stones in Baltimore in 69 a few months after they booted Brian Jones and added Mick Taylor. Brian Jones, Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts are all gone. We did 2 shows with Muddy Waters. He is gone.

I better stop here before folks think I am a death curse on many of the musicians and bands I have seen and/or worked with.

 

[Oldspartan]

I saw Jimi in1967 aand he is gone. I saw Lowell and Little feat Multiple times and he is gone. I saw the Dead several time including my 1st with Pig Pen. Too many of them are gone. I did sound for Doc and Merle Watson at a concert in Hartford. They are both gone. We did the sound for free at a benefit show in Hartford with featured Jackie McClain on sax and Max Roach on drums. They are both gone. We did a show with Donald Byrd and the Black Byrds (I think I did the sound board for that). He is gone. We did an afternoon show at a UCON branch with the Persuasions. Four of the five founding members are gone. We did a show with Ryo Kawasaki a Japanese jazz fusion guitarist, composer, and software programmer. He is gone. I saw the Stones in Baltimore in 69 a few months after they booted Brian Jones and added Mick Taylor. Brian Jones, Ian Stewart and Charlie Watts are all gone. We did 2 shows with Muddy Waters. He is gone.

I better stop here before folks think I am a death curse on many of the musicians and bands I have seen and/or worked with.

You have no death curse --- just old like me.

 

[GaryE]

It's not a curse, although it can be a source of the blues. I'm of the musical scene about ten years after yours, in the late Seventies into the Eighties, mainly. I know there's something about the music we've heard at various stages of our lives that seems more powerful than other art forms - sound, like smell, has such associations in my brain. I think of a live show and suddenly I can feel myself in a shabby club again. A couple of years ago, I had the weird experience of finding a recording of a band in a small club way back in 1979. I had been in the audience (that's me clapping on track 3) and it was a night that changed my approach to music for the rest of my life. The recording showed my memory of a band I had never heard before that night to be very exact - I knew the sequence of songs without reading it. The mind is weird with what it stores, and what it connects to emotions.
I consider myself lucky that I haven't locked into one sound or one period. I just keep finding great music. But I know what is no longer there. I saw Joe Strummer playing with Shane McGowan. Malcolm Owen. Peter Tosh. Toots Hibbert. Fela Kuti. Andy Gill. These were all major musicians in my life, and I've outlived them.
That's the way it goes. In a world of opiates, AIDS, COVID, smoking, boozing and just living, the losses pile up. It's when you're driving distance at night and you realize that the last seven songs on your playlist have been the voices of ghosts that it gets spooky. But then you think of how brilliant they were, and how good their gift to the world was, and you just enjoy it. I like this idea that an 18 year old can sample online music from the 1920s until now and enjoy such a wide range of artists as if everything were fresh - they can jump from Louis Armstrong's Hot Five to Fontaines DC in one smooth sequence. It's ongoing, mutating, evolving - like everything else.
When it comes to Spotify-type algorithms, I'm very misunderstood though. Tech can steer us away from discovery. It's like fish - do a little reading and you can do an end run around the ones who think they can choose your tastes for you.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I should say that I listen to old blues, ragtime, New Orleans jazz certain R&B, big band jazz and rock. I am not a fan of opera and only like minimal classical as well. I started listening to music in the 1950s as a boy. I also like some Gospel and some acapella.

I mostly listen to music via YouTube. My PC has a decent set of speakers and a graphic equalizer app.

As a boy when we took family trips in the car my dad, who had a decent voice, used to sing song from his youth. Back then there was only A.M. radio.

"Polly Wolly Doodle" is a traditional American children's song. It was sung by Dan Emmett's Virginia Minstrels, who premiered the song at New York's Bowery Amphitheatre in February 1843,[1] and is often credited to Emmett (1815–1904)


This was one of my dad's favorite to sing:
"The Gang That Sang Heart of My Heart" is a popular song. The music and lyrics were written by Ben Ryan (1892–1968) in 1926. It reminisces about being in a youthful quartet, singing "Heart of My Heart".

 

[GaryE]

My grandmother used to sing "Barney Google, with his great big googly eyes".

My grandfather thought everything recorded was an abomination, and had been a mandolin player in his youth. He also sang, but really old tin pan alley songs. My Dad was all swing, and my Mom liked the jump blues. When one of my grandfathers died, I inherited a shirt, a penknife and 2 Hank Williams records.

Fish and music...

 

[TwoTankAmin]

This weekend I will feature a single group from the 1960s. They lasted in some form into the 80s but drugs and other issues spelled their demise. From Wiki

Sly and the Family Stone was an American funk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966 and active until 1983. They are considered to be pivotal in the development of funk, soul, R&B, rock, and psychedelic music. Their core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and included Stone's brother and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone, sister and singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham. The band was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup.

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
(play it in 1080p)


Stand
(play it in 1080p)


One of my favorites-
Life
(play it in 1080p)


Everyday People
(play it in 1080p)

 

[TwoTankAmin]

In case you had difficulty understanding the words to Life above,

Sly & The Family Stone Lyrics​

"Life"

[All:]
Life, Life
Past the clouds
You don't have to come down

Life, Life
Tell it like it is
You don't have to die before you live

[Larry:]
You might get angry some times
But don't let it turn you around
All you gotta do
Is get your livin' down

Life, Life
Tell it like it is
You don't have to die before you live

[Sly:]
You might be scared of somethin' - look at Mr. Stewart!
He's the only person he has to fear
He'd only let himself get near
He don't trust nobody
If he stopped bein' so shady
He could have a nice young lady

Life, Life
Tell it like it is
You don't have to die before you live

[Freddie:]
You're gonna be sad sometime
You might wake up to find your pet is gone
But maybe
He's tired of bein' alone
Dog gets hip, it has to go
If you're lovin' you can't be sad no more

Life, Life
Tell it like it is
You don't have to die before you live