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 Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — works by Titian, Tintoretto and Velázquez in an exhibition entitled Splendor, Myth, and Vision: Nudes from the Prado is at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts through October 10th.
In western MassachusettsHAIL and FAREWELL to the Canadian-born TV host at ESPN, John Saunders— who (before NBC obtained hockey coverage, and the NHL had to use the unknown Outdoor Life/Versus network) said, "Just to find the All-Star game on US television: I needed a private eye, two bloodhounds and a psychic" — who has died at the age of 61 …. and to the folksinger Glenn Yarbrough— who came into fame during the early 60’s folk revival and had a #12 hit in 1965 with "Baby, the Rain Must Fall") … who has died at the age of 84.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Whiskers the Cat— a Florida kitteh (seemingly) thrown out of a truck on a bridge in the Tampa-St. Pete area, now rescued … and recuperating well.
Whiskers the CatTRAVEL NOTES — some crowded European city downtowns are fighting to stem the rapid rise of tourist apartments— that are leading to the crowding-out of traditional neighborhood haunts in favor of chains.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named El Gato the Cat— the kitteh of Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbin, who was concerned that El Gato might be a secret Tory … due to a "disappointing individualism and lack of concern for others" … but whom Corbin more recently senses a “gentler kind of politics .. coming out of El Gato."
El Gato the Labour Party CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at a slang expression long confined to baseball fanatics ….. but now, use of The Mendoza Line has been applied to popular TV shows, business news … even presidential politics.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — film stars Zachary Quinto (“Star Trek into Darkness” and Eli Roth (“Inglorious Basterds”).
Zachary Quinto Eli Roth...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… of all of the acoustic blues guitarists who came out of the South in the first part of the 20th Century, few were as admired for their advanced finger-picking (as compared to their singing or songwriting ability) as the Reverend Gary Davis– who became a street busker as an adult, a minister after age forty and later a guitar teacher to many a modern guitarist.
Gary Davis was born in 1896 in Laurens, South Carolina and lost his sight as a young child. Raised by his grandmother, he was self-taught on guitar and mastered the Ragtime music of his youth – Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag was a song he played for much of his life. As a teenager, his family moved to Greenville where he learned from Willie Walker and Sam Brooks. By the time he settled in Durham, North Carolina in his twenties: he was a full-time street musician, working with other noted guitarists such as Blind Boy Fuller.
In the 1930’s, a store manager who championed local musicians did so to the owner of the American Record Company label – and so that was the first recordings Davis made. But in a familiar occurrence of the time: payments for his work were inadequate and he became a street performer again.
In 1937, he became an ordained minister and decided to switch his musical focus away from the blues and towards spirituals. In practice, though, his songs were not all that different in style from the blues. In the late 1940’s, he and his wife Annie moved to the New York area (after the music scene in Durham began to fade) where his Piedmont fingerstyle playing first garnered him some notice.
It wasn’t until the mid-1950’s when he began to gain some popularity – first, recording with Moe Asch’s Folkways label, and then with Orrin Keepnews’ Riverside jazz label. Finally, he became a star with white audiences during the folk music revival of the late 50’s-mid 60’s (in the second photo he is shown with the late folksinger Phil Ochs' daughter Megan).
He became a popular performer at the Newport Folk Festival, with Peter, Paul & Mary later popularizing Samson & Delilah - his signature song and one which Dave Van Ronk pressed him to copyright the song, ensuring financial success after many years of struggle. And his tours in Europe were quite popular with fans.
As noted, he was not only an inspiration to many an aspiring guitarist, he gave lessons to several - who recorded several songs he either wrote or popularized. Among them were Roy BookBinder and Ramblin' Jack Elliott ("Candy Man"), David Bromberg ("I Belong to the Band", "Tryin’ to Get Home"), Dave Van Ronk ("Lovin’ Spoonful"), Stefan Grossman ("Cincinnati Flow Rag", "Twelve Sticks"), the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir ("Samson & Delilah") and Ry Cooder ("Twelve Gates to the City"). And he was a big influence on the Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen ("Hesitation Blues" plus Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning) as well as Townes Van Zandt and the modern bluesman Keb’ Mo.
The Reverend Gary Davis died in May 1972, just a week after his 76th birthday and is buried in Lynbrook, New York (just a few miles from where I grew up). His wife Annie maintained his church services in storefront locations in New York City and stayed in touch with his former pupils. She died in 1997 at the age of 103.
For someone whose success did not arrive until he was nearing age 70, his legacy seems assured. There is an excellent compilation album of his most important works, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame , there is a documentary of his time as a Harlem Street Singer and just last year, NYC radio station WNYC unearthed a 1966 studio interview/performance tape with several of his hits performed. His work is not only well-known to blues purists – there are many folk singers who owe more than a debt of gratitude to the Reverend Gary Davis.
The Reverend Gary Davis + Phil Och’s daughter MeganOf all of his work: it is the song Death Don’t Have No Mercy that I find the most compelling (and the partial lyrics below never stayed the same in each performance). Among those who have performed the song: on the Grateful Dead’s 1969 Live Dead album the song is played as almost a dirge, but Jorma Kaukonen in Hot Tuna performed a more uptempo version. And below you can hear the Reverend Gary Davis sing it himself.
Death don't have no mercy in this land …. He'll come to your house and he won't stay long …. You'll look in the bed and you'll find your mother gone …. Death don't have no mercy in this land
Death will go in any family in this land …. He'll come to your house and he won't stay long …. You'll look in the bed and you'll find your father gone …. Death will go in any family in this land
Death will leave you standin' and cryin' in this land …. He'll come to your house and he won't stay long …. You'll look in the bed and find everybody gone …. Death don't have no mercy in this land
x YouTube Video