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#1— an exhibition entitled The Imaginative Worlds of M.C. Escher— the largest private collection of the Dutch artist’s works in the world, which includes woodcuts, lithographs, drawings, and mezzotints — will be at the Columbia, South Carolina Museum of Art through June 6th.
YOUR WEEKEND READS#1 and #2 are these essays on freight railroads: a brief look at railroad mergers (and their effect on competition for shippers) and a more extensive look at how drastic cuts in employees and maintenance (in order to increase profits) could find the industry ... “ending up like Boeing”.
ART NOTES#2— at an auction in Madrid the other day, a 17th Century painting (attributed to Spanish artist José de Ribera) had a listed opening bid price of $1,800 …. until the Spanish government blocked the sale, as experts believe that it may be a long-lost masterpiece by the Italian Renaissance artist Caravaggio.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Norman the Cat— an English kitteh who found himself stuck in a 15-foot road drain … before being freed by the local fire and rescue service.
YOUR WEEKEND READ#3 is this essay in The American Prospect on the state of Nebraska— a nuanced look at how a state that used to send Ben Nelson and Bob Kerrey to the Senate has gone far more red (although not in every single way).
MUSIC NOTES— this summer, there will be a posthumous album release from Prince— recorded in 2010 (yet never released) — with eleven originals and a cover of Soul Asylum’s “Stand Up and B Strong”.
FRIDAY's CHILD is among a group of feral cats living around the Colorado Rockies baseball stadium in downtown Denver … although this is one (of only a few) who actually ran onto the field during a game, last week.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly had a post mentioning that last month, the GOP here in New Hampshire scheduled as its keynote speaker for a dinner this coming August …. one Matt Gaetz— and as late as Thursday, that event was listed in its on-line events calendar. Yet on Friday morning — although there has still not been any formal announcement ….. that event was 404’d from its online events calendar.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (no common questions).
REVOLUTIONARY FATHER-SON?— suggested by Monsieur Georges (and others) — Cuba’s Fidel Castro ……………….. and Calgary’s Rafael “Ted” Cruz.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… another entry from the “You may not know their name, but” file — is Dewey “Spooner” Oldham, who became known as both a songwriter as well as a sideman. And in my mind, someone who became a first-call session musician at three different cities known for major studio works. His sound crosses soul, rock and country, hence he was always a first-call musician … with an interesting story.
Born in Sheffield, Alabama in 1943, his nickname came from a tragedy — as a spoon dislodged severely damaged his right eye as a child. Yet piano lessons helped him find work as a teenager in bands, with his attending classes at the University of North Alabama soon giving way … to his hanging out at the relatively new studio founded by Rick Hall, Florence Alabama Music Enterprises (with its more familiar acronym FAME). He soon became a member of the studio’s house band, performing on recordings by Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin. It was also in Florence where he met Dan Penn, who would become a songwriting partner in years to come. They wrote for Percy Sledge (“It Tears Me Up”, “Out of Left Field”) and Solomon Burke (“Take Me Just as I Am”) among others.
One of his most famous keyboard performances came on a song he and Penn did not write — playing the church-like Farfisa organ on Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves a Woman, not recorded at FAME but at yet a different studio (Norala). It was ranked by Rolling Stone as #53 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In late 1967, Oldham and Penn relocated to another musical hub in Memphis, where he worked for Chips Moman’s American Studios. They wrote songs for Janis Joplin (“A Woman Left Lonely”), and the Box Tops (Cry Like a Baby). They also wrote tunes covered by other artists, including Charlie Rich.
In August 1969, Oldham married and decided to relocate to yet another music hub, Los Angeles (due in part to the rising tensions in Memphis following the assassination of Dr. King) and here, the number of musicians he backed-up multiplied. To name a few: Bob Dylan, Willy DeVille, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Seger, J.J. Cale and Joe Cocker.
In addition to studio work, he has been a long-time collaborator with Neil Young: recording on Harvest Moon, appearing on tour with him (and CSNY in their 2006 reunion tour). The following year he toured with the Drive-by Truckers.
Spooner Oldham will turn age seventy-eight in June, and has made his mark. In 2009, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in their former “Sideman” category, under a different name today) and in 2014 into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Later this year — although I do not see any history of him being a major, sustained part of its music scene — he will also be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Yet it is the breadth of performers he has worked that will be his true legacy:. Besides the names listed before: add Jackson Browne, Shelby Lynne, Rita Coolidge, John Prine, Jewel, Sheryl Crow, Maria Muldaur and Keith Richards.
Another famous performance of his (on Wurlitzer electric piano) — came from accompanying Aretha Franklin on her 1967 hit, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) written by songwriter Ronnie Shannon. Oldham said that the riff he created caught-on with the others, and to me is the perfect accent to Aretha’s voice. Rolling Stone ranked it as #189 in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
You're a no-good heartbreaker You're a liar and you're a cheat And I don't know why I let you do these things to meMy friends keep telling me That you're no good But oh, they don't know That I'd leave you ... if I could
I guess I'm uptight And I'm stuck like glue Because I never I never, I never (loved a man) (The way that I, I love you)