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 holiday weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Hannah Wilke: Art for Life’s Sake— a career retrospective featuring over one hundred works of sculpture, photography, video, and works on paper from a feminist perspective — will be at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, Missouri to January 22nd, 2022.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this story ... that the maternal great-great-grandmother of Elvis Presley was … a Jewish woman named Nancy Burdine, whose family emigrated (from what is now Lithuania) around the time of the American Revolution. She was born in Mississippi in 1826 and died in 1887.
SPORTING NOTES— this week will see the semi-final matches for Euro 2020(1) — the mini-World Cup for European nations — with Italy taking on Spain (on Tuesday) and England vs. Denmark (Wednesday) with both matches on ESPN at 3:00 PM Eastern. The winners of those two matches will meet next Sunday for the championship (also on ESPN at 3:00 PM Eastern).
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Brutiss the Cat— an English kitteh found abandoned as a kitten (due to brain damage that results in tremors and trouble keeping her balance) … who now has her own wheelchair to help her walk without wobbling.
NAUTICAL NOTES— the National Geographic Society recently classified a “new” ocean: the 30m-year-old Southern Ocean, from Antarctica to a latitude of 60° south, will now be given the same status (and typeface in maps) as the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this essay in The American Prospect by Robert Kuttner— how summer resort destinations are especially having trouble finding workers due to the reluctance of the affluent to ensure adequate housing.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Babi the Cat— a South African kitteh who had ingested anti-freeze (being wintertime in the Southern Hemisphere) yet veterinarians were able to help him recover by having him drink …. vodka , which nullified the effects of anti-freeze in his kidneys.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #3 is this fascinating Twitter thread by one of the authors of a Cambridge University report analyzing neither Democratic nor Republican voters ….. but instead Trump voters.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz (a tough one this week). One of the BBC questions will supply the answer to one on the NYT quiz.
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS?— two Englishmen: Kevin Keegan (former England World Cup team manager) and John Bercow (former UK Parliament Speaker).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… coming of age in the late 60’s-early 70’s, one of the blues-rock bands I first took to were the Yardbirds — a band that had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page as its guitarists over the years. They also had well-crafted pop songs to go alongside its blues renditions — and I later learned that several were written by Graham Gouldman, who later found fame in the band 10cc (and who is its only founding member performing with it today). With over 350 songs written: his career deserves a look.
Born in the north of England in 1946, he joined several bands in-and-around Manchester in the mid-to-late 60’s. Several of them worked with a musician later to play an important role in 10cc: The Whirlwinds (1963-64) worked with guitarist Laurence (Lol) Creme, in 1964-66 The Mockingbirds (with drummer Kevin Godley) and in 1968 The Mindbenders (with guitarist Eric Stewart). For a brief time in 1966, he was part of High Society— with future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.
The Mockingbirds were signed by various record labels which released a few Gouldman-written songs yet rejecting ... For Your Love. Gouldman later saw the Yardbirds perform it on Top of the Pops— becoming a big hit for them — with Graham feeling awkward about it. That song was the last straw for Eric Clapton’s tenure in the band: as he was a blues purist at that time, felt that For Your Love was too much a concession to pop music and joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
In the mid-to-late 60’s, he wrote several other songs that became hits for other UK bands: Evil Hearted You (the Yardbirds), Look Through Any Window and Bus Stop (the Hollies), No Milk Today (Herman’s Hermits), and Tallyman (Jeff Beck).
In the late 60’s-early 70’s, he worked on-and-off as a songsmith in New York: writing for a ‘hits factory’ that yielded singles for the bubblegum band Ohio Express (of “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” fame), with Gouldman writing “Sausalito” and “Tampa Florida”. While productive, he felt exhausted and returned to the UK.
The band later to become 10cc had come together originally as the session band for Neil Sedaka on his two 'comeback' albums of the early 70's, before Gouldman and Eric Stewart decided they should see if they could make it on-their-own, rather than be sidemen. And during their original run (1972-1983) they did produce three #1 singles in the UK (two being I’m Not in Love and The Things We Do for Love) plus five Top Ten albums.
Gouldman went on to write the title track for the 1979 Farrah Fawcett — Charles Grodin film Sunburn, in 1981 he produced the Ramones album Pleasant Dreams and formed a project named Wax with US singer Andrew Gold. In the 1990’s, he worked as a duo with the UK singer Kirsty MacColl (the daughter of folksinger Ewan MacColl) before her death in the year 2000. And in 2018, he performed in that year’s version of Ringo Starr’s All-Stars touring band— with members of Toto, Men at Work and Santana joining him.
At age seventy-five: he still leads a version of 10cc and has a 2017 compilation album (of mostly others recording his songs from 1964-2005). Besides the others originally performing his songs (already mentioned): when you add to that those that were covered by the likes of Nils Lofgren, the Four Tops, Chris Isaak, Petula Clark, the Pretenders, Tori Amos, Queen Latifah and many others …. small wonder that in 2014, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Of all of his work: my favorite is one that he wrote for the Yardbirds back in the 1960’s, Heart Full of Soul. You can hear the Yardbirds (with Jeff Beck on guitar) play it at this link… below is his own rendition.
Sick at heart and lonely Deep in dark despair Thinking one thought only: "Where is she, tell me where?"
She's been gone such a long time Longer than I can bear But if she says she wants me Tell her that I'll be there
And if she says to you She don't love me Just give her my message Tell her of my plea:
And I know: if she had me back again I would never make her sad I've got a heart full of soul