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 & Jeers. Have a fabulous rest of the weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Tales from the American West is at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas through February 21st.
from Frederic RemingtonHAIL and FAREWELL to the Canadian jazz pianist Paul Bley— an innovative player who supplanted Oscar Peterson as house pianist at a Montreal, Québec club in his youth and whose first wife (Carla Bley) later went on to her own successful career — who has died at the age of 83.
CHEERS to an excellent Cheers & Jeers meet-up yesterday at a restaurant in Maine, near the New Hampshire border. Photos will surely follow.
THURSDAY's CHILDREN are Tuxedo the Cat and his calico mother Jenny the Cat — who serve as 7th floor mascots at the Bayside, Queens nursing home (where my 90 year-old Aunt Agnes resides) ……... well, when they’re not goldbricking.
Tuxedo and Jenny the CatsATTENTION, READERS - the 2015 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 1915 (100 years ago) and another on events of 2015. 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).
At this link is this year's quiz - and no talking during the quiz! The answers will be made available in late January. Last year I got a blistering 3 correct out of 180. It's so tough that I need to channel ...... the late, great Captain Binghamton:
“I could just scream!”TECHNOLOGY NOTES — a group of African-American siblings who went through a (mistaken) rough police raid on their Georgia home have responded not through protest, but rather by developing an app called Five-O— designed to aggregate citizen scores for police force actions in a region — that the late actor Jack Lord (as Steve McGarrett) could not have imagined.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the late Arkansas high school history teacher who decided to dramatize his lessons by writing folk songs to accompany them ….. and had to leave teaching when he became famous, adopted the stage name Jimmy Driftwood and later achieved fame in both folk art (and nature) conservation.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Kuli the Cat — a one-eyed Hawaii rescue kitteh who has learned to surf after becoming used to the water after being regularly bathed to treat his condition which saw his eye removed at only four months old.
(With a human behind him)BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
END of an ERA — time was that West 48th Street in Manhattan was known as “Music Row” …. with numerous musical instrument, sound equipment and repair shops (among them Manny’s Music and Sam Ash) that had renown around the world. Now due to high rents and e-commerce the closing of (believe it or not) an accordion shop signals the end-of-an-era.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS — a business card for a renowned pianist (circa 1960) in his native Chicago, which he posted on his Facebook page today.
“Chicago 37” — zip codes did not come into being until 1963SEPARATED at BIRTH — two noted Washington figures: the neocon, Islamophobe Frank Gaffney — as well as the former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke— who hired Paul Krugman in 2000 when Bernanke ran the economics department at Princeton University.
Frank Gaffney ………….. ……… and Ben BernankeAnd finally, for a song of the week ...........................… though a cruel twist-of-fate prevented him from achieving stardom in his own right, Percy Mayfield had a distinguished R&B career, in particular as a songwriter. As the All-Music Guide’s Bill Dahl writes, "It’s a rare veteran blues artist indeed who hasn’t taken a whack at one or more Mayfield copyrights".
The Louisiana native had a knack for poetry in high school, which gave him confidence that he had a future in popular music. He began his career in Texas, then relocated to Los Angeles as 22 year-old in 1942. He performed as a singer at night, while working odd jobs during the day to pay the bills. In 1947 he wrote the song "Two Years of Torture" which he saw as perfect for the jazz/blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon.
Interestingly enough, when he brought it to Al Patrick’s Supreme Records label in Los Angeles, they liked it – but wanted Mayfield to record it himself, along with a house band that included saxophonist Maxwell Davis. And this proved to be a West Coast R&B hit over the next two years, leading to Percy Mayfield being offered a contract by Specialty Records in 1950.
A 2011 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was Art Rupe - whose Specialty Records was the premiere R&B label on the West Coast, recording the likes of Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls and Lloyd Price (who introduced Rupe at the induction ceremonies). Art Rupe (who is still alive, at the age of 98) was impressed by Percy Mayfield’s poetry at the heart of his music, leading to the contract offer and an excellent place for Mayfield’s career to take off.
And his first release for Specialty in 1950 proved to be his most enduring: the classic Please Send Me Someone to Love - with a plea against discrimination as well as romance - was not only a #1 hit for him, it has been recorded by many others (such as Sade, Fiona Apple, Gladys Knight, Simply Red and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson) over the years. The B-side "Strange Things Happen" also received airplay and his touring schedule picked-up immediately. He followed up with other R&B hits such as "Lost Love", "What a Fool I Was", "Praying for Your Return", "Cry Baby"” and "Big Question".
His subject matter was often blues ballads, and not aimed at a wider mainstream audience as others of his era were beginning to do. Indeed, with such other hits as "Life is Suicide", "The River’s Invitation"” and "Lonesome Highway" one hears the sadness in the titles alone: and he had the vocal style to pull it off, with his career in full throttle in the summer of 1952.
And then …... returning to Los Angeles from a show in Las Vegas, he was involved in a horrific traffic accident, with among his injuries some severe facial disfigurement and which affected his touring ability forever. He returned to his hometown of Minden, Louisiana for a time … yet which was still in the midst of Jim Crow, leading to the somewhat autobiographical tune "Stranger in My Own Home Town" (and which, interestingly, Elvis Presley had a hit with later). Returning to Los Angeles in 1953, he turns to songwriting and recording while still recuperating from his injuries. More than a year after the accident, he began touring (albeit on a much more limited basis) with songs such as "How Deep is the Well?" and "You Don’t Exist No More".
His sales were never the same as before, and he bounced between labels until Ray Charles took note of his songwriting abilities and signed him to his Tangerine label in 1962. Besides writing for Ray, Mayfield did have some modest record sales of his own over the years, with songs such as "My Jug and I" (recounting his battles with alcohol) and "Right On Young Americans".
But just when R&B became a much more mainstream sound in America – and with his lyrics and style, he had the potential to be a star – his time had faded, in no small part due to his accident. He had one minor 1974 hit "I Don’t Want To Be President" before fading into obscurity.
Shortly before his death in August 1984 – in fact, just one day before his 64th birthday – he was part of a filmed documentary entitled Poet Laureate of the Blues - co-produced by former Butterfield Blues Band member Mark Naftalin. Three years later, Mayfield was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame– and, one hopes, other places of honor.
A young Percy Mayfield … ……….… in his later yearsPercy Mayfield's other most famous song is one that he originally recorded as a demo for Art Rupe at Specialty Records in 1960. The following year, Ray Charles recorded Hit the Road, Jack for ABC (the label that wooed him away from Atlantic) and he brought it to #1 on the pop charts in the autumn of 1961 (and also won a Grammy with).
Fifty years later, you'll still hear hockey arenas use it whenever someone is sent to the penalty box - and Rolling Stone named it as #377 in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
You can hear Ray Charles sing it at this link - but below you can hear Percy Mayfield singing a semi-impromptu version of it in 1984 as part of the Poet Laureate of the Blues documentary (with Mark Naftalin on piano) not long before Percy Mayfield died.
Now listen, baby don't you treat me this-a-way 'Cause I'll be back on my feet some day
I don't care if you do cause it's understood: You ain't got no money, you just ain't no good
Well, I guess if you say so: I'll have to pack my things and go.
Hit the road, Jack And don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more Hit the road, Jack And don't you come back no more
x YouTube Video