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 entitled Frank Duveneck: American Master— a career retrospective from the region’s most influential painter — will be at the Cincinnati, Ohio Art Museum through May 9th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this essay by Aída Chávez in The Nation about Sen. Krysten Sinema— and how her transformation from Nader-Green Party activist … to voting for ½ of Trumpster positions … to her present stances has old associates baffled and Arizona liberals believing she forgot who helped elect her.
THURSDAY's CHILDREN are named Spike the Dog & Max the Cat— an Albertan bonded pair, with Max being the support kitteh to Spike (whose eyes had to be removed due to severe cataracts) …. who kept each other warm outdoors, then surrendered to a shelter … and have now been adopted.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay in The Atlantic on how Democrats were able to pass the ACA— by very patient, data-driven, collaborative coalition-building, helped by Maine’s (current) health commissioner — and how the GOP was not only thwarted by its internal dissension: they also had no patience for doing the necessary work (to the dismay of some former aides) …. instead, content to “remain focused on (and quite skilled at) delivering outrage to their supporters”.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Stitch the Cat— a Virginia kitteh who went missing for four months and now reunited due to his microchip …. but only after being discovered by a volunteer who looks after feral communities, startled that one of the cats in the group rubbed-up against her leg.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #3 is this essay in The American Prospect on three academic economists from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon University, demonstrating that veterans who get their care at the VA live longer during and after a medical emergency than those receiving non-VA care.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC (very UK-centered this week) ...… and the usually easier New York Times quiz.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… years ago in reading the record labels for some Chicago blues stalwarts, I kept reading the name “London” in the songwriter’s credits. When I learned that this was Mel London— a record company owner and producer — I had this image of someone working with R&B artists who claimed songwriter’s credits (whether they helped write a song or not) like the Bihari Brothers and others. It turns out this didn’t apply to him: he began as a songwriter and became an impresario on the strength of that.
He was born in Mississippi in 1932, yet little is known of him until he made the trek to Chicago (as many bluesmen from that state did). He wrote a song that was recorded by Willie Mabon (best known for his own hit I Don’t Know) that reached #7 in the R&B charts in 1954, Poison Ivy. He was noticed by Leonard Chess (head of the famous Chess Records label) who asked him to write for his own stars. This he did: writing songs for Howlin’ Wolf (Who Will Be Next?) and Muddy Waters recorded what became a classic for him, Mannish Boy in 1955 (which Mel London co-wrote with him, as well as Bo Diddley).
By 1957, Mel London felt it was time to open-up his own label, Chief Records. He released a classic song by Otis Rush I Can’t Quit You Baby (on license from Cobra Records) but his first major artist signing was with the slide guitarist Elmore James (who had a hit with London’s “Cry for Me”) followed by Junior Wells (with Little by Little and the much-covered Messing With the Kid, both written by London).
One other signing was that of slide guitarist Earl Hooker— who became Chief Records’ house guitarist, playing on many of the label’s hits. Mel London had maintained friendly ties with Leonard Chess and (via special arrangements) had Earl Hooker overdub his playing onto songs by Chess stars (notably You Shook Me, sung by Muddy Waters). In addition, Mel London sometimes recorded himself as a singer, with a calypso-flavored tune Man from the Island in 1957.
But like many other such R&B labels, Chief Records (and its subsidiaries) went under in 1964: with first internal financial troubles ... then the rise of both Motown and the British Invasion ending Mel London’s reign. He tried anew with small releases, yet never found his footing again in the rock-n-roll era.
Mel London died in May, 1975 at only age forty-three (as obscurely as his early life). During his career, he wrote (or co-wrote) forty-eight songs and produced over eighty singles by thirty-seven different performers.
One of my favorite blues songs is Elmore James’ recording of It Hurts Me Too— which has a .. complicated history. The song originated in 1940 by Hudson “Tampa Red” Whittaker and when Elmore James recorded it in 1957 for Chief Records, the writer’s credit was listed as Mel London — apparently for a change in some of the lyrics (which happened often in the blues genre). It is the performance of Elmore James that is the template for the song today, yet his Chief Records version went nowhere in the charts. A 1962 or 1963 re-working (for a different record label) heard below became an R&B hit. Regardless of the actual authorship: it is Elmore James’ playing (and Mel London’s initial production) that set the standard.