I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition of prints by Patty Carroll entitled Still / Life is at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri through May 20th.
Kemper Museum in KCA TALE of TWO PRESIDENTS — hearing the words of you-know who at the recent Gridiron dinner: “Who’s going to be the next to leave, Steve Miller or Melania?” … That is terrible honey, but you love me, right?”— while she was sitting at the dais — would be offensive coming from my favorite elected official, let alone him.
Contrast that with the day forty-four years ago when Richard Nixon resigned. I was at the public library where I had a work-study job — and a TV set was brought into our break room at lunchtime so that I and my (mostly female) colleagues could see Gerry Ford’s inaugural speech. And while most people remember the "long national nightmare" line from his inaugural address: for me, the money quote was this, as he noted that he never sought the presidency:
"I am indebted to no man, and to only one woman – my dear wife – as I begin this very difficult job".Instinctively, I looked at the faces of the adult women in the room ... and nearly all had a lump in their throats … so did I.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named T2 the Cat— a Florida kitteh who went missing during the aftermath of Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 .. then was reunited (fourteen years later) with his family due to his microchip.
T2 the CatGEOGRAPHICAL NOTES — the one landlocked country in South America is Bolivia— and frustrated by the lack-of-progress towards obtaining a corridor to the Pacific Ocean from Chile (whom it accuses of taking land during the War of the Pacific in the late 19th century) it has taken its case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
FRIDAY's CHILD is a Kansas kitteh, hiding in a hole on a bridge that was about to be filled with concrete … before a work crew rescued him, with his microchip allowing him to be reunited with his family.
KS Kitteh, here he comes ….THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at a track star from Ireland with strong USA ties … yet Eamonn Coghlan had to confront his son’s orientation in the run-up to Ireland’s landmark 2015 marriage referendum.
YESTERDAY I did not attend a rally, as I was travelling yesterday to a (long-planned) family dinner in Manhattan, with my four siblings and some of their kids. Bad news: one sister could not attend. Good news: she is an incredibly picky eater, so we suddenly had more choices (and found a good place).
However, I did catch-a-glimpse of one: as my Amtrak route stops in Hartford, Connecticut and then passes-by the state capitol …. and this photo showed the crowd that gathered.
xInspiring day by @march_ct. #MarchForOurLivesCT#MarchForOurLivespic.twitter.com/91vYA66QNE
— Vicki Veltri (@VickiVeltri) March 24, 2018BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — Star Wars actor Mark Hamill and singer Michael “Meat Loaf” Aday.
Mark Hamill (born in 1951) ‘Meat Loaf’ Aday (b 1947)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… in trying to draw a line from the first bluesman who cranked up his guitar amp to create a distorted sound - to the Hendrix/Page/Townshend power chord guitarists - that line must certainly pass thru Link Wray, who - if he never recorded another song than Rumble fifty years ago - would have a place in music history. And while he never scaled those heights again: he had a career worth noting.
Frederick Lincoln Wray (who had part Shawnee ancestry) was born in Dunn, North Carolina in 1929, with his family eventually settling in Maryland. Link served in the Korean War where he suffered from tuberculosis (eventually losing a lung). He concentrated on his guitar work and formed Lucky Wray and the Palomino Ranch Hands, a western-swing band in the mid-1950's.
This later evolved into the Ray Men when they became the house band on a Washington, D.C. TV show. Backing others (such as Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson) they became a more instrumental band (as Link's vocal abilities were limited due to the loss of that lung).
Then while backing-up The Diamonds in 1958, Link Wray improvised a 12-bar blues instrumental titled "Oddball" which had a distorted sound when Wray poked holes in his amplifier's speakers (much as Ike Turner's dropped-and-damaged amp delivered a sound on Rocket 88 he came to believe was advantageous). It was an audience hit, yet Cadence Records producer Archie Bleyer was unimpressed.
But his daughter loved it, telling Bleyer it reminded her of the rumble scenes in "West Side Story" and the song was renamed Rumble - which, while primitive: doesn't sound dated (released sixty years ago this week). And guitarists from Jimmy Page to Bob Dylan to Jimi Hendrix all cited the song as an influence. The Who's Pete Townshend went further: stating in liner notes (for a 1970 Link Wray album) that, but for that tune: "I would never have picked up a guitar". Some radio stations banned it (as 'encouraging teen violence') —possibly the only instrumental song to meet that fate — but which only increased record sales.
Link and the Ray Men followed it up over the next few years with "Rawhide" and "Jack the Ripper" but then settled into an on-again-off-again remainder of his career. One reason is that record companies thought that - if they could dress him up and not be a juvenile delinquent poster child - he'd sell more records. Yet Link Wray was not cut out for playing "Claire de Lune"(!) as he did in 1960, and eventually Swan Records gave him room to stretch out. There were also periods of retirement, as well.
I recall him teaming up with rockabilly singer Robert Gordon throughout the 1970's and he eventually married and relocated to Denmark, as his audience as a solo performer increasingly shifted across the Atlantic. One band-member for a time in the 1980's was Anton Fig, who later joined Paul Shaffer's "Late Show" band. His last album was Barbed Wire from 2000 and his music was featured on such films as "Pulp Fiction", "Breathless" and John Waters' "Pink Flamingos".
Link Wray died in Copenhagen, Denmark in November, 2005 at the age of 76. Former Maryland Governor Erlich declared January 15, 2006 as Link Wray Day, and he was voted #45 on the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone.
And soon the public will hear a previously unreleased track made public: Son of Rumble, a sequel that long remained in Link Wray’s archives, with the Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound label set to release the track in April.
Wray has also been inducted into two Halls of Fame: those for Native American Music ... and for Rockabilly after his death. Rhino has a compilation album of note, and as long as guitarists want a sound that is anything-but-clean: the music of Link Wray will have a place.
Link Wray in the 1950’s …. …. and then in the 1990’sFor a song with lyrics and even vocals by Link Wray: here is his 1979 version of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - which below you can listen to.
You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast Yonder stands your orphan with his gun, Crying like a fire in the sun Look out, the saints are coming through And it's all over now, Baby BlueThe highway is for gamblers, better use your sense Take what you have gathered from coincidence The empty-handed painter from your streets Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets This sky, too, is folding under you And it's all over now, Baby Blue
x xYouTube Video