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 — a color photography exhibition by Maude Schuyler Clay entitled Mississippi History will be at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Louisiana through January 17th.
In New Orleans ‘till Jan 17thHAIL and FAREWELL to the English bassist/vocalist Greg Lake— not only an integral part of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (and whose bandmate Keith Emerson died nine months ago) but who also performed on the landmark In the Court of the Crimson King album by King Crimson — who has died at the age of 69. I have little to add to the death of John Glenn .. that has not already been said.
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Tiger the Hero Cat - who alerted a store owner (unaware of the recent approaching fires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee) to safety.
Tiger the Hero CatSPORTING NOTES — with young people in Japan not taking up the game of golf the way their elders did — courses are having to alter their approach, such as offering steep discounts to new players, relaxing stiff dress codes and allowing players to play shorter rounds.
FRIDAY's CHILD is an unnamed Hero Cat— whose intent gaze alerted police to the whereabouts (hiding in a shed) of a Pennsylvania man … who was a fugitive on an outstanding warrant for failure to pay costs and restitution in a burglary.
Pennsylvania Hero CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
IN A ODE to the famous Beatles album cover of “Sgt. Pepper” featuring the images of noted celebrities: a British Twitter user has drafted an image featuring notable celebrities who have died so far this year … along with the words Brexit and other sad items from 2016. (And it’ll probably be updated after the beginning of 2017).
SEPARATED at BIRTH — Canadian TV star Missy Peregrym (“Rookie Blue”) and Academy Award winner Hilary Swank.
Missy Peregrym (born 1982) Hilary Swank (born 1974)...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… I have written before about my early admiration for the singer Grace Slick, who achieved stardom with the Jefferson Airplane. But she fronted another band in San Francisco before joining the Airplane … and while The Great Society was not the most talented (and certainly not the most disciplined) band musically: they had an incredible sound and it was there that two songs Grace Slick made famous later on were born. Having less than a year-and-a-half of existence, they had more records released after their breakup — and so, fifty years after their dissolution: the Great Society deserves more than a footnote in history.
In August of 1961, Grace Wing married a film student named Jerry Slick — a marriage which she described as “passionless” and the result of “cultural imposition.” But it was during this marriage that she wrote her first song — a piece for one of Jerry’s film projects. She worked as a model at the I. Magnin department store, and four years later in 1965 she and Jerry attended an early Jefferson Airplane concert in San Francisco. Her conclusion was (a) they were making more money than she was, and (b) were also ... having a lot more fun.
And so she and Jerry decided to form their own band, with Jerry on drums and Grace on lead vocals (plus an occasional time on organ or the recorder). Importantly, they utilized Jerry’s brother Darby Slick on guitar — who would prove to have a major influence on the new band’s sound. The name they chose, of course, was taken after Lyndon Johnson’s national anti-poverty program.
In a sign-of-the-times in the 1960’s: they recruited as bassist Bard Dupont— who actually did not play the bass but looked like a rock star …. and he promised to learn quickly. He brought into the band his co-worker at the post office, David Miner (who did know how to play guitar). Their first gig took place in October, 1965 at a nightclub owned by radio DJ Tom Donahue (and he agreed to release recordings of them on his regional label Autumn Records).
While the band had a standard rock music base, they had a forward approach to music. Darby Slick (as like some other pop musicians of the time) had been influenced by the ragas that Ravi Shankar played, and had began experimenting with it in bands that he played with before the Great Society. That seeped into the band’s sound, along with a feel for minor keys and the use of reverb.
The band began to have a following, and in time were opening for other San Francisco bands (such as the Jefferson Airplane). They went into the recording studio, where the Autumn Records staff producer was a colleague of Tom Donahue (as a fellow Bay Area DJ). This was Sylvester Stewart, who walked out of a session after the band required 50 takes to successfully record one song. (Stewart later became world-famous as Sly Stone, head of Sly & the Family Stone).
In March of 1966, the band decided that Bard Dupont’s promise to learn to play bass was not working out … and fired him. His replacement was also someone who had not been a bassist — but Peter van Gelder had been a saxophone enthusiast, whose love for Indian ragas (plus John Coltrane’s jazz saxophone) made him a better fit … and in time he became proficient on the bass, as well as adding his jazz influences to the existing sound.
And it was during this time that the songs that Grace Slick later became renowned for had their genesis. She herself wrote White Rabbit— one of the first songs she ever wrote, with its Spanish bolero influenced by the album Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis. It was ranked as #483 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and if you’d like to hear the Great Society version of White Rabbit — an extended improvisation version, with jazz influences as well — at this link you can.
The other song was not written by Grace, but instead by her brother-in-law. Somebody to Love (which my mother liked a lot) has become Darby Slick’s old-age pension, with its emphasis on "doubt and disillusionment," as he put it. It was ranked as #279 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. While I like the Airplane’s version, I must admit I equally like the (slower) Great Society version — which at this link you can hear (and judge for yourself).
They had other songs receiving critical attention, such as “Free Advice” and Grace’s song Father Bruce— an ode to Lenny Bruce that garnered a newspaper recommendation from Ralph Gleason (who co-founded Rolling Stone in late ‘67).
By mid-1966, they received attention from Columbia Records, who wound up offering them a contract. But by the time it arrived in the mail, it was too late. David Miner left in the summer of 1966 to return to his native Texas (as a student at the University of Texas-El Paso) with two musicians joining the band briefly. And then in October, the Jefferson Airplane’s female singer Signe Anderson (who died this past January) was leaving the band expecting her first child … and they offered her spot to Grace, who saw the far larger success that the Airplane had.
While Big Brother & the Holding Company saw their fortunes change with the departure of Janis Joplin … for the Great Society, the departure of Grace Slick led to their immediate end. There have been subsequent compilation live albums that capture this band’s spirit.
With the exception of Bard Dupont (who died in January, 2005 at the age of 64) all of the longer-term musicians are still alive. Grace Slick (now age 77) has pursued an art career for more than fifteen years, her former husband Jerry later became a cinematographer, and her former brother-in-law Darby (now age 72) studied in India for several years, wrote his memoirs in 1991 and has released some recordings with his son.
David Miner (now age 72) lives in Queens, New York and after a teaching career has began recording again. And perhaps the most intriguing former bandmember has been Peter van Gelder— who stayed with Indian music and is now a sitar player, who performs and teaches in California.
Great Society publicity foto Early Great Society concert photoMy favorite recording of theirs is their rendition of the 1963 hit by a studio assembled girl group The Jaynetts— with a song that reached #2 on the pop charts, Sally Go Round the Roses. It was arranged by the noted studio producer Artie Butler for Phil Spector, who originally did not like it … until he found that Jerry Lieber & Mike Stoller would release it if he didn’t … and so, he relented.
The Great Society version is extended, with the experimental jazz and raga improvisation that (to me) more than made-up for their lack of talent and discipline. And below, you can listen and see if you concur.
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