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 week ahead.
ART NOTES — a career retrospective of the North Carolina painter Eugene Thomason is at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina thru March 27th.
Grandma Hankins with CatHAIL and FAREWELL to the last surviving American who fought in the Spanish civil war, Delmar Berg— in the Abraham Lincoln brigade against Generalissimo Francisco Franco — who has died at the age of 100 …. to the pop singer Gayle McCormick — from the late 60’s band “Smith” who had a hit cover version of Baby, It’s You — who has died at the age of 67….. and to the veteran tennis broadcaster and historian Bud Collins— whose pants spoke quite loudly, yet his knowledge of the sport spoke even louder, and who (as the tennis coach at Brandeis University from 1959-1963) had a player who achieved notoriety off-court named … Abbie Hoffman — who has died at the age of 86.
LIKE MANY PEOPLE …. I am saddened at the death of Tricia Wyse … only had a chance to meet her once (at Netroots Nation when it was held in Providence, Rhode Island) and was glad I did. As a cat lover (or couldn’t you tell?) she always kept a warm place to laugh and have fun.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Mustachio the Cat— a California kitteh abandoned outside a Salvation Army donation center …. and now adopted.
Now has a forever homeQUITE OFTEN jokes are made of rural America and the subject of in-breeding…. yet in the Middle East and north Africa, the practice has one analyst estimating that 90% of its neurological/genetic disorders result from such marriages.
CHEERS to learning that a most unique church in San Francisco — that recognizes the late jazz saxophonist John Coltrane as a saint, and whose services (one of which I attended years ago) features old-time Gospel with Coltrane’s music — has been given a 60-day reprieve in finding new space, after losing its lease for having trouble paying back rent.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Thula the Cat— an English therapy kitteh who was instrumental in helping a young autistic girl …. who is now a noted painter, with a new book now telling her story.
Thula the CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
CHEERS to seeing that the town of Sutera, Sicily— which has lost more than half of its population these past fifty years — has been rejuvenated by welcoming migrants from such nations as Gambia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Nepal.
MUSIC NOTES — the singer Anthony Gourdine — who achieved fame in Little Anthony & the Imperials— has a relatively recent autobiography and a new recording w/jazz guitarist George Benson which he says was years in the making.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame singer/songwriter Carole King.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Carole King...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… a song that Bonnie Raitt took into the Top Twenty back in 1991 has an interesting history …. and regular readers know that is irresistible for me.
It was written by a standout college football player who was a trained concert pianist then became a country musician. I Can’t Make You Love Me has since been a hit for pop singers, country singers and even jazz singers. And quite recently, it was featured in a Saturday Night Live political skit. Let’s have a look.
Mike Reid was a defensive tackle at Penn State University in the late 1960’s. He won the 1969 Outland Trophy (as best interior lineman), finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting (usually limited to offensive players) and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1987. He attended Penn State, interestingly, as a music major and graduated with a degree in it in 1969.
He then was a first-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Bengals and had a successful five seasons in the NFL, voted All-Pro. During this time, he performed as a guest pianist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and other classical venues, eager to show a different face of classical music. Injuries in his final season severely hampered his career, and he decided to retire from football and focus on music.
He began to perform with country music acts in the suburban Cincinnati area, and eventually moved to Nashville in 1980. There he found success as a performer, but even more so as a songwriter for others. He won a 1984 Grammy Award for Stranger in My House (a hit for Ronnie Milsap) and has gone on to write several musicals. At age 68 today, Mike Reid was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
Mike Reid — football player … and later as a musicianMike Reid was reading the newspaper around 1990 when he read about a man arrested for getting drunk and shooting at his girlfriend's car. The judge asked him if he had learned anything, to which he replied: "I learned, Your Honor, that you can't make a woman love you if she don't."
Reid and his songwriting partner Allen Shamblin made their efforts about a woman who knows her man has lost interest and just wants to spend one more night with him before moving on with her life. The two men thought about giving the song to one of three artists: Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler or Linda Ronstadt.
Eventually, the song made its way to Bonnie Raitt. "It was absolutely one of the most honest and original heartache songs I had ever heard," she told the Los Angeles Times. "It was a point of view that I had been on both sides of, and it struck me deeply; I knew immediately I wanted to sing it."
It provided a much-needed follow-up to her 1989 “Nick of Time” album (that had been hailed as a “comeback”) and she recorded it on her album Luck of the Draw in 1991. Produced by Don Was and featuring Bruce Hornsby on piano, I Can’t Make You Love Me it remains a concert staple of hers to this day.
Bonnie RaittThe song was named by Rolling Stone as #339 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list and it has been recorded by numerous performers, including: George Michael, Boyz II Men, jazz singer Nancy Wilson, Bonnie Tyler and more recently Adele. And just last month on Saturday Night Live, cast member Kate McKinnon reprised her sometimes role as Hillary Clinton— crooning this song to a group of restaurant diners leaning towards Bernie Sanders yet persuadable.
And below you can hear Bonnie Raitt’s classic version.
I'll close my eyes, then I won't see The love you don't feel when you're holding me Morning will come and I'll do what's right Just give me till then to give up this fight And I will give up this fight
'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't You can't make your heart feel something it won't — Here in the dark, in these final hours I will lay down my heart and I'll feel the power But you won't, no you won't 'Cause I can't make you love me, if you don't
x YouTube Video