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 Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — the first major survey on Sri Lankan art by a U.S. museum (with over 250 items) in an exhibition entitled The Jeweled Isle will be at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California through June 23rd.
LA County Museum of ArtHAIL and FAREWELL to the rather old-fashioned yet landmark Boston restaurant Durgin Park— a Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market original known for its avant-garde dishes such as … pot roast and baked beans — which is now scheduled to close (after 192 years in operation) next week, although the restaurant chain that owns it says it is still open to offers.
TALK of the TOWN — this is the topic of conversation here in my city of Keene — with local Keene State College students snapping-up t-shirts with this logo.
xThe "Pho Keene Great" restaurant plans to start selling Vietnamese soup in March, but the play on words in their name has the owners in hot water. https://t.co/5nXXVz4f8N
— WTHR.com (@WTHRcom) January 4, 2019THURSDAY's CHILD is named Mirielle the Cat— a British Columbia kitteh (born with deformed legs) that has raised kittens on the street, and for which AlleyCats Alliance is now hoping to have her adopted.
Mirielle the CatATTENTION, READERS - this year's quiz from King William's College (a prep school located on the UK's Isle of Man) - with said quiz known as its General Knowledge Paper officially - is now available.
It consists of 18 groups of 10 questions - with one section on events from 1918 (100 years ago) and another section on events of 2018. All questions are cryptic.
Hint: each group has a common theme (although perhaps not immediately recognizable) that helps if you can answer at least one of that group's questions ... thus giving slight hints about other answers. It is among the most difficult general knowledge quizzes on earth (quite British literature-laden, as you might well imagine). I usually achieve a sizzling 2 (or 3) correct.
At this link is this year's quiz - and no talking during the quiz! The answers will be available a few weeks from now.
FRIDAY's CHILDREN are named Libby the Cat & Gizmo the Dog— a Tyler, Texas bonded pair who are up for adoption.
Libby the Cat and Gizmo the DogBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
xAs this Congress begins, a bit of advice for new Members that I received back in 1955:For the next six months you're going to wonder how the hell you got here. Then one day you'll come on to the House floor, look around, and wonder how in the hell all the other fools got here.
— John Dingell (@JohnDingell) January 3, 2019YUK for TODAY — comes from University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack — who has a Twitter thread on why (compared to other rich folks whose charities may have had some self-serving purposes) he saw no redeeming qualities at all in our First Family. Read the whole thread at this link— below is a money quote:
xTrump's tone-deaf billionaire comportment weirdly reminds me of Rod Blagojevich. Old-style machine politics weren't always pretty, but there were niceties and rules. You didn't shake down the children's hospital for campaign cash. That's what the concrete contractor was for.
— Harold Pollack (@haroldpollack) December 20, 2018OLDER-YOUNGER-BROTHERS? — old-time TV/film actors: Jerome Thor (Planet of the Apes) and Anthony Eisley (The Young Philadelphians, Hawaiian Eye).
Jerome Thor (1915—1993) Anthony Eisley (1925-2003)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… someone who is not a household name as a musician, yet whose advertising jingles are famous … and Jake Holmes is the actual songwriter of a rock classic that was the subject of a lawsuit earlier this decade. More on that later …. first, an interesting career bio.
Born in December, 1939 in San Francisco, he joined his then-wife in a folk music boom/comedy duo called Allen & Grier— with an album release Better to be Rich than Ethnic— then appeared as the one musical part of a comedy trio with Jim Connell and Joan Rivers — yes, that Joan Rivers — in 1964.
Jim, Jake & Joan (Rivers) in 1964After spending time in the military, he began a more music-oriented career. His 1967 debut album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes was a quirky folk-rock trio, with an acid-jazz lead guitarist named Ted Irwin. One song on the album will be addressed later, the other was “Genuine Imitation Life” — which was overheard at a performance at the Greenwich Village club The Bitter End by a founder of the Four Seasons, Bob Gaudio — who went on to stardom as a producer and member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame— and would work with Holmes thereafter.
A 1968 offering Letter to Katherine December was even more quirky, with some orchestral influences and a minor hit Leaves Never Break. The trip split after Holmes was offered a solo recording contract by Polydor, with two albums recorded in Nashville that injected yet another influence (country) into his mix, with a 1970 album yielding his only minor hit So Close— reaching #49 on the pop charts. His 1972 album How Much Time was his last for thirty years, where Dangerous Times was more of a record release for personal fulfillment in 2002.
Jake Holmes (circa 1969-70)Befriended by Bob Gaudio, he was recruited to help write for a 1970 album by Frank Sinatra — although Watertown was a poor-selling album at a low point in his career — yet which still placed some songs on the Adult Contemporary charts. That album helped Holmes’ subsequent career, as one of the songs “For a While” was later recorded by Nina Simone, and when Lena Horne sang “It’s Always Somewhere Else” with Harry Belafonte in 1970, it led to Holmes asked to write for Harry Belafonte over the years … and on Belafonte’s final 1988 album Paradise in Gazankulu, he wrote (or co-wrote) every song.
To others, Jake Holmes is best known for his writing numerous memorable TV commercial jingles, as his solo career sputtered in the late 70’s. Just a sample: the US Army’s “Be … All that You You Can Be”, plus “Aren’t You Hungry … for Burger King Now”, “Come See the Softer Side of Sears” and for Dr. Pepper, “Be a Pepper”.
Jake Holmes just turned age 79, performs sporadically and in addition to that 2001 recording, he even returned to his folk-era roots with some protest songs in 2007 … including, ahem, Mission Accomplished.
Jake Holmes more recentlyFrom his 1967 first trip album, he included a moody tune called Dazed & Confused— which was released as a single, yet did not chart. As you can hear further on, it was a folk song with a descending tone and reflects the desperation of someone in a very unstable relationship. Jake Holmes has always performed it, and twenty-five years later a film was made with that very name.
Single released in 1967In August 1967, this sign shows that Jake Holmes was the opening act for two more well-known bands …. and this was the final line-up of the UK blues band The Yardbirds, with previous members Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck …. which had yet another interstellar guitarist during this final period named … Jimmy Page.
Village Theater, NYC: August 25th, 1967 billingAccording to the Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty— who today leads a re-formed version of the band— here was his recollection from that night:
I remember going to look at Jake from side stage, you know, as you did — sometimes you watched the support band. I thought it was quite a folky sort of group, and then all of a sudden he went into the “Dazed and Confused” riff. I thought, ‘That’s a very moody riff, sort of thing that would suit us.’ I went down to Greenwich Village the next day and bought his album. And so we had the song, and we did our own version.
The Yardbirds would break-up a year later, and never had a studio recording of it (although a 1968 live performance did appear on a bootleg). Jimmy Page took the song — which he re-worked musically (especially the chord riff in-between verses) — with him to his new band, Led Zeppelin. It appeared on their self-titled first album, solely credited to Jimmy Page — though the song is close to the original.
Jake Holmes wrote to the band, asking for credit in 1970, yet received no reply and let the matter drop. It was a 2009 lawsuit that re-kindled Holmes’ interest, as former Procul Harum organist Matthew Fisher successfully sued for a share of the future royalties for the song “A Whiter Shade of Pale” — also from 1967 — that had previously been credited only to bandmembers Gary Brooker and Keith Reed.
I am glad that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were acquitted of plagiarism for Stairway to Heaven two years ago — it was a weak case brought against them. One reason why it was probably brought was that Led Zeppelin did have a track record of “borrowing” old blues songs (which later resulted in some financial arrangements) from their breakthrough 1969 second album. If you recall their hit Whole Lotta Love— have a listen to the Willie Dixon written—Muddy Waters performed song You Need Love from 1963. Add to that a 1966 Willie Dixon-Sonny Boy Williamson song Bring It on Home, then the Lemon Song based on the 1964 classic Killing Floor by Chester “Howlin’ Wolf” Burnett … there is a track record.
Jake Holmes filed suit in 2010, and a settlement was reached out-of-court monetarily: today the song is credited to Jimmy Page (inspired by Jake Holmes). Below is Led Zeppelin’s version from their 1968 debut album, then Jake Holmes’.
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