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.
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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 Thanksgiving.
ART NOTES — a museum-wide exhibition entitled Tahoe: A Visual History will be at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno through January 10th.
Lake TahoePROGRAMMING NOTE — as yours truly will be travelling next week to visit family/friends over the long Thanksgiving weekend, there will not be an edition of Odds & Ends (neither in C&J, nor in a Sunday diary). I hope that Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for you-and-yours ….. and that dinner itself does not turn into a right-wing fest (due to certain relatives).
HAIL and FAREWELL to two of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen of WW-II: the flight instructor Milton Pitts Crenchaw — who helped establish an aviation program at Philander Smith College in Arkansas after the war - who has died at the age of 96 ……. and to Mal Whitfield — who won three Olympic track-and-field gold medals after the war and is the father of CNN news anchor Fredricka Whitfield — who has died at the age of 91.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Brian the Cat— an English three-eared kitteh who was caught by an animal shelter’s (humane) trap after the animal set off security alarms at a nearby business and — if unclaimed — will soon be placed up for adoption.
Two ears (on the right).TIME MARCHES ON — the northwestern Italian town of Gorreto is the oldest city in Europe — with an average age of 65 and who eagerly welcomed a Romanian immigrant family (whose daughter was their first birth in a decade).
CHEERS to the Nigerian scholar Dr. Opeyemi Enoch, who has successfully resolved the 156 year-old mathematics Riemann Hypothesis — one of the mathematics dilemmas designated as the Seven Millennium Prize Problems by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Massachusetts — which will earn Dr. Enoch a $1 million prize for his efforts.
FRIDAY's CHILD is one of fifteen kittehs who rule-the-roost at the Bag of Nails pub in Bristol, England — a popular stop for students and office workers — and which is the next logical progression step from cat cafés.
“I’ll have a Grey Goose and a grey tiger, please”.BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THIS COMING SUNDAY I will feature Odds & Ends - a wrap-up diary of my postings, circa noon Eastern (9 AM Pacific). I hope you'll vote in the "Who Lost the Week?!?" poll (a mirror image of the one Bill posts here). Dang, there are already bushel baskets of misfits lined-up for your review (such as Charlie Sheen, Martin Shkreli, Bobby Jindal, Jared Fogel and Josh Duggar) .... and the week's not over yet.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — two veteran acoustic musicians: the recently-deceased bluegrass banjo star Bill Keith and the folksinger Tom Paxton …... who, thankfully, is still very-much-with us.
Bill Keith Tom Paxton...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… a few days after his death, a look at the early promising musical career of the singer/songwriter P.F. Sloan and wonder “What might have been?” as well as “What a body of work he left behind, huh?”. He wrote songs (which others made famous) that have stood the test-of-time, and had his own album releases that (as the All-Music Guide’s Jason Ankeny noted), “remain folk-rock cult classics”. That he did not become a household name did not prevent him from being admired by Bob Dylan and being the subject of a song written by an even greater songwriter (Jimmy Webb). If not in life, he deserves posthumous recognition.
Born as Philip Gary Schlein in NYC in 1945, his entrepreneur father moved the family to Los Angeles and changed the last name to Sloan after encountering discrimination from local authorities. Amazingly, as a twelve year-old he got an impromptu guitar lesson from Elvis Presley (whom he met at a music store) and even more amazingly: as a fourteen year-old, he was able to record/release a single ("All I Want Is Loving") for a label that shortly went bust.
Yet at age sixteen, he was hired as a staff songwriter for publishing house Screen Gems (seeking a teenager’s input). He was paired with a somewhat older Steve Barri (who eventually became a major record producer) and together they wrote songs and also performed (in their spare time) as a surf-rock duo. At that point, Lou Adler decided to leave Screen Gems to set-up his own shop (Dunhill Records) and offered Sloan and Barri double their present salaries to come work for him.
It was their songwriting, though, that made them famous. They composed "You Baby" and "Let Me Be" (recorded by The Turtles); "A Must to Avoid" and "Hold On!" ( by Herman's Hermits); "Take Me For What I'm Worth" (by The Searchers) and “Where Were You When I Needed You?” (by the Grass Roots). That last band began as a studio effort by Sloan and Barri …. a “grass roots” effort. Later, an actual touring band was recruited, who became the band (led by the late singer Rob Grill) that toured for many years.
Yet it was a song that Sloan wrote by himself that became the signature tune for the singer Barry McGuire. Eve of Destruction— a 1965 protest song (reaching #1 in the charts) that has stood the test of time (fifty years) — used the word “coagulating” … which was not the sort of lyrics one saw in pop music of that era. With approval from Bob Dylan (an obvious influence) it encouraged Sloan to try his hand at a solo career.
His 1965 debut album release Songs of our Time garnered some positive reviews (and contained both "Take Me For What I'm Worth" and “Eve of Destruction” ) yet had two strikes against it. The folk-rock community dismissed Sloan as little more than a studio hack jumping on the latest commercial trend and the album’s most gripping tune "Sins of a Family" (about teen prostitution) was banned by many radio stations. His 1966 follow-up album did little better, and Sloan blamed Dunhill’s management for not promoting his career (afraid of losing him as a staff songwriter, he charged).
He sought (and received) a release from his Dunhill contract, but which came at a price: forced to sign away all songwriting royalties past, present, and future. He did secure a contract from Atco and with Tom Dowd as a producer: released Measure of Pleasure in 1968 (which I saw promoted on the paper sleeves on Atlantic Records album releases). Yet though it also received some favorable reviews (and more promotion) it also did not chart well. The nonpareil songwriter Jimmy Webb even wrote a song named P.F. Sloan as a tribute - about the costs and disappointments of being a creative groundbreaker.
After a disappointing 1972 album release he seemed to disappear from the public eye. He suffered from both depression and catatonia, and also from drug use. Finally in the late 80’s that he began to re-emerge with some club dates.
Yet it was not until 2006 until Sloan decided to re-enter the recording studio. Sailover featured guest performances by Lucinda Williams and featured new tunes as well as modern re-workings of his old hits — and this time it garnered some favorable reviews. Last year he released a pop album with shades of Beethoven and he did more touring than he had in many years at the dawn of this decade ... yet still had recurring health problems.
P.F. Sloan died earlier this week of pancreatic cancer at the age of 70. He released his memoirs just last year and there is a 1993 compilation album that covers much of his best work.
In the 1960’s ……… …… and here in 2014.While “Eve of Destruction” is his magnum opus, his other major song of note was Secret Agent Man - originally intended simply as an intro to a TV show imported from England (“Danger Man”, starring Patrick McGoohan) which was re-titled “Secret Agent” for US television from 1964-1966. As Lou Adler was also the manager of Johnny Rivers, it was he who was chosen to sing the intro and — when it became quite popular — sang the full-length version that P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri chose to write.
That legendary guitar intro was P.F. Sloan’s idea, and became an integral part of the song. Johnny Rivers’ version reached #3 on the US charts in 1966, and has been covered by performers as diverse as Devo, Mel Tormé, Blues Traveler and The Ventures. You can hear the hit single version by Johnny Rivers at this link — and below, you can hear a solo, acoustic guitar version by P.F. Sloan himself, just last year.
There's a man who leads a life of danger To everyone he meets: he stays a stranger With every move he makes: another chance he takes Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow
Beware of pretty faces that you find A pretty face can hide an evil mind Ah, be careful what you say Or you'll give yourself away Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow
Secret agent man, secret agent man They've given you a number, and they've take away your name
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