Michael Gray's Blog, page 20
November 28, 2012
QUAINTNESS OF THE RECENT PAST NO.22
The Beatles in Manchester, November 1963:
November 27, 2012
BOB ITEMS AT CHRISTIE'S THIS WEEK
This acetate, plus 159 other items, including a Hibbing High School Yearbook from 1958 and a watch that belonged to Elvis Presley, can be viewed at Christie's in London till 5pm tomorrow afternoon (November 28, 2012). They'll be auctioned this Thursday, November 29 at 85 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington (London SW7), at 2pm:
November 25, 2012
November 24, 2012
November 23, 2012
ROY ACUFF DIED 20 YEARS AGO TODAY
Roy Acuff, “the father of country music", died aged 89 on November 23, 1992. Here's his timeless ‘Wabash Cannonball':
VAN THE MAN: JUST LIKE A WOMAN
I've often enjoyed and admired Van Morrison's treatments of Dylan songs, starting way back when Them did a
ground-breaking and nicely spooky ‘It's All Over Now, Baby Blue',
and this, decades later, is a rather fine live version of another mid-60s Dylan song, though I don't know exactly where or when it was done:
November 22, 2012
ROB STONER'S FATHER, ARTHUR ROTHSTEIN
Rob Stoner's father was a photographer who achieved invaluable work for the US government's Resettlement Administration (a New Deal agency) during the 1930s. He's celebrated
in a video on the website for the Ken Burns film The Dust Bowl
, and I think you'll find him with Woody Guthrie in one shot - but here is another piece, a compilation of some of his work posted on YouTube three years ago:
Rothstein also took the attractive photograph of Rob Stoner as a child, with Roy Rogers, that is included in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia:
Rothstein also took the attractive photograph of Rob Stoner as a child, with Roy Rogers, that is included in The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia:
BAKED A LA SKA
Largely on the basis of what a splendid band name it is, and how niftily they mash up a David Bowie song, I offer you this, by the 11-piece British outfit Baked A La Ska:
November 15, 2012
MAP 4: HOW GREECE SEES EUROPE
You might think in present desperate circumstances there'd be some sense of solidarity between the beleaguered peoples of Greece, Spain and other states in recession, but not, apparently, as recently as last year from the Greek point of view:
November 14, 2012
BUCKWHEAT ZYDECO: 65 TODAY
Happy birthday to Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley Dural Jr.), who is 65 today. Here he is with his band (whose full name is Buckwheat Zydeco and Ils Son Partis Band), with a live TV performance of 'On A Night Like This'. The show's front man, knowing nothing, says at the end that we never heard Bob Dylan played like this; but as any fule kno, Dylan's own Planet Waves recording already vibrates, if more subtly, with just the same spirit. To put it another way, it's no surprise at all that Buckwheat Zydeco should have found this song. It was waiting for them all along:
