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— an exhibition by Shaun Leonardo entitled The Breath of Empty Space— drawings centered around police brutality towards people of color, and which had a February showing in Ohio cancelled — will be at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams until December 20th.
LITERARY NOTES— this month is the 100th birthday anniversary of Agatha Christie’s legendary Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot— with this reviewer describing him as “Pompous, vain and often quite annoying, but endowed with enormous empathy and a powerful understanding of human nature”, whose investigative philosophy was that ... “the simplest explanation is always the most likely”.
THURSDAY's CHILD is purring with contentment, after having read a Psychology Today essay suggesting that orange kittehs may deserve their reputation as being friendlier due to in part to being more apt to living in rural areas.
IN A NATIONAL REFERENDUM voters in Italy (by a 70% to 30% margin) approved reducing the size of both houses of its parliament (630 to 400, and 315 to 200 respectively), bringing its ratio more in line with other parts of Europe … and in regional elections, right-wing parties were unable to achieve expected big gains.
BELATED CONGRATULATIONS to the relatively new Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland (a largely ceremonial post) Hazel Chu— born there after her parents emigrated from Hong Kong in the 70’s, and is the first non-white to hold the office.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Nala the Cat— whom a Scottish man encountered on his cross-European bike tour in Bosnia, where she adopted him…. and not being micro-chipped: she has now travelled 10k miles with him in a basket on his bicycle, drawing attention wherever they go (even generating a free pint of beer).
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, non-UK centered New York Times quiz. (There is one common question between the two).
A NOTE on TODAY’S POLL — there are no coronavirus choices here, as I am hoping for a recovery, leading to an election defeat (that cannot be blamed on it) and ultimately indictments. (Besides, there are too many other choices this week).
FATHER-SON?— former TV host Chris Matthews and current UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… far from a household name, the All Music Guide’s Steve Kurutz describes the songwriter, producer and performer Don Nix as “one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock” yet has been influential for several decades and deserves more recognition.
Born in Memphis in 1941 (and whose brother became a recording engineer himself), Nix attended high school along with Steve Cropper and (the late) Duck Dunn — who years later were to become ½ of Booker T & the MG’s. After a stint in the US Army, he returned to Memphis to become a saxophonist in the Mar-Keys (along with Cropper and Dunn).
Their 1961 (largely) instrumental hit Last Night featured the band’s brass section prominently, and the band went on the road to capitalize on it. Yet success was elusive, and Nix left to become a session musician for Stax Records. (The Mar-Keys eventually morphed into the Booker T & the MG’s house band at Stax, before they eventually also became stars in their own right).
In the mid-60’s, he became friends with Leon Russell, who secured him a spot in Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, backing such bands as Gary Lewis & the Playboys. Russell also recommended him as a record producer, which enabled him to oversee recording sessions by bluesmen Freddie King, Charlie Musselwhite and Albert King. He also got more into songwriting, with some bands recording them.
In 1970, he signed as a recording artist by Leon Russell and released two albums In God We Trust as well as Living by the Days a year later. Neither sold well, although he did become popular with other musicians. His 1973 album Hoboes, Heroes and Street Corner has two songs (Black Cat Moan and Sweet, Sweet Surrender) that Jeff Beck recorded with his band Beck, Bogert & Appice in December 1972. Throughout the 1970’s, Nix became an in-demand producer — helping to produce George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh— yet largely left the music business in the 1980’s.
He relocated to Nashville in the 1990’s and began working again as a producer. In this century he began recording again, with musicians such as Brian May (of Queen) and his old bandmate Steve Cropper on a 2002 album. His most album is from 2008, Passing Through.
Don Nix turned age seventy-nine last week and has sadly been undergoing a loss of vision in saying last year, "I just bought me an 82-inch TV, and if I sit about five feet in front of it I can almost make out what's going on,but I can't drive or read or use the internet. But I don't care because I've seen it all, already."
In 1997 he published his memoirs Road Stories & Recipes as well as a follow-up in 2015, Memphis Man: Living High, Laying Low and last year had an exhibit of his many photographs (of famous musicians) at the Stax Records Museum in Memphis (which is an excellent place to visit). Besides the songs performed by others, it is the breadth of those whom he has produced that may be his greatest claim-to-fame. Besides those already noted, it includes: Delaney & Bonnie, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Eric Clapton, John Mayall and Lonnie Mack, for starters.
His most famous song (written in the late 1960’s) has become a rock & roll standard. Going Down was first recorded by the band Moloch in 1969. Among those covering it (either on record or live) are Deep Purple, Freddie King, Bryan Ferry, Pearl Jam, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Sammy Hagar and the Rolling Stones — and is also the title of a fifteen-minute career documentary.
Two versions here: first, Don Nix’s own 2002 recording w/Brian May, and my favorite: by the Jeff Beck Group, with this live performance from 1972.
Max Middleton’s piano intro (Bobby Tench/vocals, the late Cozy Powell on drums).