My obsession with following political news in excruciating detail all day during the final six months or so of the election campaign has, at last, been broken and I have time again for some old and some new interests.
Today ought to be This Week in Elder News at TGB, but with the holiday, some socializing, way too much snow and my new Eee PC, I didn’t get around to making selections. Maybe tomorrow, Sunday.
I’ve been filling some of the time I spent on election news for half a year reacquainting myself with my extensive MP3 music collection. When New Years has come and gone, schedules return to normal and for the foreseeable future, Elder News will continue on Saturdays, and Sundays (until something else comes along) will be devoted to Elder Music.
What do I mean by Elder Music? I suspect our musical tastes are set in our youth and there won’t be much that was new in the past 30 years. I stopped following new releases in the 1970’s disco era and never picked up the habit again except for favorite artists. I was fortunate to be working in radio during the most phenomenally creative period of popular music and interviewed many of the stars of Sixties music era for radio and TV shows I produced. That’s “my music” – of the pop variety.
So there will be that and some older popular music too along with jazz, some spirituals, great old country hits, classical favorites, and whatever else strikes my fancy each week limited sometimes by what’s available on YouTube, etc. When there is information of interest or personal stories to go with the songs, I’ll include those.
You will undoubtedly find some of my taste wanting and I don’t care (I probably wouldn’t like some of your music either), but maybe this feature will resurrect some memories of songs that you have neglected over the years, or remind you of others, or introduce you to something you had never heard before that you end up liking.
We’ll start today with a great Sixties band – Blood, Sweat & Tears. You can see an endless and endlessly-changing personnel roster for the band at Wikipedia, but I’m speaking of the David Clayton-Thomas era, in his first lead vocalist go 'round with BS&T.
There are any number of hits I could choose: Spinning Wheel, the Laura Nyro tune, And When I Die, You’ve Made Me So Very Happy, among others. But I got lost in Hi De Ho a few days ago.
It was composed by Gary Goffin and Carole King, and this is David Clayton-Thomas singing it not in 1972 when the song was first released by the band, but as an older man in a 1993 concert - with a bonus of And When I Die in the second half. [10:22 minutes]
Now, for another take on Hi De Ho, here it is by Straight No Chaser, a men’s a cappella group that has been a huge YouTube hit this month with some Christmas songs. This was recorded in concert during their early years in 1998. [3:35 minutes]
Today ought to be This Week in Elder News at TGB, but with the holiday, some socializing, way too much snow and my new Eee PC, I didn’t get around to making selections. Maybe tomorrow, Sunday.
I’ve been filling some of the time I spent on election news for half a year reacquainting myself with my extensive MP3 music collection. When New Years has come and gone, schedules return to normal and for the foreseeable future, Elder News will continue on Saturdays, and Sundays (until something else comes along) will be devoted to Elder Music.
What do I mean by Elder Music? I suspect our musical tastes are set in our youth and there won’t be much that was new in the past 30 years. I stopped following new releases in the 1970’s disco era and never picked up the habit again except for favorite artists. I was fortunate to be working in radio during the most phenomenally creative period of popular music and interviewed many of the stars of Sixties music era for radio and TV shows I produced. That’s “my music” – of the pop variety.
So there will be that and some older popular music too along with jazz, some spirituals, great old country hits, classical favorites, and whatever else strikes my fancy each week limited sometimes by what’s available on YouTube, etc. When there is information of interest or personal stories to go with the songs, I’ll include those.
You will undoubtedly find some of my taste wanting and I don’t care (I probably wouldn’t like some of your music either), but maybe this feature will resurrect some memories of songs that you have neglected over the years, or remind you of others, or introduce you to something you had never heard before that you end up liking.
We’ll start today with a great Sixties band – Blood, Sweat & Tears. You can see an endless and endlessly-changing personnel roster for the band at Wikipedia, but I’m speaking of the David Clayton-Thomas era, in his first lead vocalist go 'round with BS&T.
There are any number of hits I could choose: Spinning Wheel, the Laura Nyro tune, And When I Die, You’ve Made Me So Very Happy, among others. But I got lost in Hi De Ho a few days ago.
It was composed by Gary Goffin and Carole King, and this is David Clayton-Thomas singing it not in 1972 when the song was first released by the band, but as an older man in a 1993 concert - with a bonus of And When I Die in the second half. [10:22 minutes]
Now, for another take on Hi De Ho, here it is by Straight No Chaser, a men’s a cappella group that has been a huge YouTube hit this month with some Christmas songs. This was recorded in concert during their early years in 1998. [3:35 minutes]
[ At The Elder Storytelling Place today, a final Christmas story for the year from Anne Gibert: A Christmas Carol or a Christmas Fiasco. ]