Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a "Who Lost the Week?" poll)

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.

THIS STORY needs no explanation … the best four minutes of your day, methinks.

ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Corita Kent: There Should Be New Rules Next Week— from a Catholic nun (1918-1986) who created politically charged pop art in the 1960’s — will be at the Olson Gallery at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota through March 29th.

TRANSPORTATION NOTES— the small European nation of Luxembourg— which was a popular arrival destination for budget travelers decades ago as Icelandair’s transatlantic destination on the Continent — will now become the first in the world to make public transport free (other than in first class sections).

THURSDAY's CHILD is named Bruno the Cat— a Toronto, Ontario kitteh who was found stranded atop a telephone pole this week, now reunited with his family.

EUROPE’s LARGEST STEELWORK PLANT in southern Italy — whose deadly pollution has vexed both government officials, union leaders and its new management —  has hopes riding now on a new agreement forward to replace the old one that the previous government (led by the M5S party) had scuttled.

FRIDAY's CHILD is named Ari the Cat— a Washington state kitteh in a standoff (captured on video) with a bobcat before a family member scared off the bobcat.

BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.

HAIL and FAREWELL to the veteran jazz pianist McCoy Tyner— who had been the last surviving member of John Coltrane’s “classic” Quartet — who has died at the age of eighty-one.

SEPARATED at BIRTH— former advertising executive Theresa Barnwell, who left the day-job to be a full-time impersonator of HRC many years ago.

...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… someone who is entering his sixth decade in the music business (with nine Top Ten hits and seventeen Top Forty hits from 1964-1977) is Johnny Rivers— one of the few US performers to have success in the early days of the British invasion. Although he wrote comparatively few of his hit songs, he had further success as a producer and label owner — a good deal of which happened before age twenty-five.

Born as John Ramistella in NYC in 1942, his family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana at age five, where he absorbed all of the country and R&B sounds of the region. He played in local bands and (as a junior high student) sat in with bandleader Dick Holler& his Rockets (who later composed both Snoopy vs. the Red Baron as well as Abraham, Martin & John that Dion popularized).

In 1958, simply by standing in a doorway he managed to get a meeting with DJ Alan Freed, who recommended a name change to Rivers (one account said it was due to the Mississippi River flowing through Baton Rouge) and arranged a recording date … which didn’t sell. In 1959, he met Hank Williams’ first wife, who convinced him to try songwriting in Nashville, working alongside Roger Miller. 

He had not given up performing, and Louisiana DJ Merle Kilgore got him a spot in the waning days of the Louisiana Hayride radio show, where he met guitarist James Burton, who then backed-up Ricky Nelson. And so Johnny Rivers’ first success was having Nelson record his song “I’ll Make Believe” in 1960.

In 1961 (at age eighteen) he relocated to Los Angeles, finding work as a songwriter and studio musician. It was in 1963 when his breakthrough came: as a popular restaurant/nightclub (Gazzarri’s) had a house jazz band that quit abruptly, and its manager asked Johnny to fill-in. His uptempo rock songs suddenly became a big hit (attracting large crowds), which led to his meeting future music impresario Lou Adler, who became Rivers’ manager. This led to Adler signing a contract for Rivers to be among the early performers when the Whiskey a Go-Go opened in January, 1964 (just three days before “I Want to Hold Your Hand” entered the Top 100. Again, his shows became quite popular.

Lou Adler arranged for a live recording at the Whiskey, which was rejected by every record label in Los Angeles … until Liberty Records agreed to release it on a newly-acquired subsidiary label (which if it flopped, would not reflect poorly on the parent label). Instead, Johnny Rivers Live at the Whiskey a Go-Go reached #12 in the album charts, with his cover of Chuck Berry’s Memphis reaching #2 on the singles charts. A follow-up live release saw a cover of Maybellene to #12.

And for the next several years, Johnny Rivers had more success covering others’ material than his own work — partly as Chuck Berry had been in jail for a time, and others such as Dion had trouble being heard in the post-Beatles era.

In 1966 he began his own record label Soul City and heard a demo of the song By the Time I Get to Phoenix— which Frank Sinatra later called “the greatest torch song ever written”— and located its songwriter, Jimmy Webb. I had previously noted that Webb had been turned down (at age eighteen) as a songwriter by all of the music companies … except Motown West. Yet while he had some success there, it was not the best fit. Johnny Rivers bought-out his contract with Motown and arranged to have him work with the 5th Dimension — with a breakthrough for them with “Up, Up and Away”. The band went on to have two #1 hits on Johnny Rivers’ label, “Aquarius” and “Wedding Bell Blues”.

Johnny Rivers and Lou Adler were among those who helped put together the legendary 1967 Monterey Pop Festival (at which Rivers was a performer). Throughout the 60’s, Johnny had at least minor hits with a wide variety of songs: blues (Willie Dixon’s “Seventh Son”, #7 in 1965), folk (Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, #26 in 1965 as well as the the former Mugwumps singer James Hendrick’s “Summer Rain”, a #14 in 1968) and Motown (“Baby, I Need Your Love” and “Tracks of My Tears”, #3 and #7 in 1967).

His performing career began to wind down in the 1970’s, with a #6 hit with “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” and recording the theme song to the music TV show Midnight Special. He left the recording field for fifteen years in 1983 after the release of Not a Through Street and turned more to producing.

He did re-emerge in 1998 with the album Last Train to Memphis and participated in a 2004 tribute album for Buddy Holly’s back-up band The Crickets.

In recent years: he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009, does some limited touring (with three shows in April), has several compilation albums of his 1964-1977 reign, in 2017 performed solo at the memorial service for Chuck Berry and told his fans that he expects to record some new songs in 2020. At age seventy-seven, his final chapter is yet to be written.

I’d like to include two songs of his — one is a hit song that (uncommonly) he himself wrote (and also uncommonly a ballad) called Poor Side of Town— that became his only #1 hit in 1966.

How can you tell me how much you miss me When the last time I saw you, you wouldn't even kiss me That rich guy you've been seeing Must have put you down So welcome back baby To the poor side of town

To him you were nothing but a little plaything Not much more than an overnight fling To me you were the greatest thing this boy had ever found And girl it's hard to find nice things On the poor side of town

I can't blame you for trying I'm trying to make it, too I've got one little hang-up baby I just can't make it without you

With you by my side This world can't keep us down Together we can make it, baby From the poor side of town

Whenever his obituary is written: the first (or second) paragraph will cite his most enduring song. In 1963, he began working with songwriting team P.F. Sloan/Steve Barrie to compose music for an upcoming US broadcast of a UK television series (starring Patrick McGoohan). Secret Agent went on-air in 1965, and demand came in from radio stations: seeking a single version of the Sloan/Barrie-written theme song after listener requests.

And with P.F. Sloan’s signature guitar riff: Johnny Rivers’ recording of Secret Agent Man reached #3 in 1966.

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 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 taken away your name