Quincy Jones sat in the Tenafly, New Jersey den of 16-year-old vocal student Lesley Gore,
playing demo after demo, looking for the right song to cut for her first record. Out of over 200 tapes, Jones and Gore had moved only one to the "maybe" pile, and so that song,
It's My Party, was recorded on March 30, 1963 in a Manhattan studio. After the session Mercury president Irving Green warned Gore not to get her hopes up, but Gore gratefully told him that it had been a great experience anyway, and it was okay if he didn't want to release it. However, later that evening Jones learned that
Phil Spector had just recorded "It's My Party" for
The Crystals, so Jones rushed back to the studio to press 100 test copies of the single and immediately mailed them to key radio stations across the country.
[more inside]
posted by swift
on Sep 13, 2011 -
69 comments
A favorite of
John Cage and Gyorgy Ligeti, the latter describing his music as "so utterly original, enjoyable, perfectly constructed but at the same time emotional...the best of any composer living today,"
Conlon Nancarrow's
musical ideas were nevertheless too complex and technically demanding for human performers, and his political ideas too radical and leftist for McCarthy-era America. Expatriated to Mexico, the Texarkana-born avant-gardeist
lived most of his life in isolation, in a cluttered, dusty
studio surrounded by records, piles of books, empty Vodka bottles, newspapers, cigarette cartons, and the tools of his trade: 2 old player pianos and a custom-built
piano roll press.
[more inside]
posted by swift
on Feb 15, 2010 -
16 comments
185. "Revolution 9"
Shortly after recording "Revolution 9", John Lennon allegedly went around telling friends that his new song was the music of the future. Well, here we are, 40 years later, and I don’t see the pop charts filled with experimental song collages featuring recording engineers, chanting football crowds, mangled orchestras, and bizarre non-sequiturs. [...]
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posted by swift
on Jan 20, 2009 -
116 comments
Pinetop Perkins survived being hit by a train.
Bukka White was a
professional boxer, a
Negro League pitcher, and
hobo.
Sunnyland Slim was a hustler.
Johnny Shines toured with Robert Johnson, and
Honeyboy Edwards saw Johnson poison himself.
Skip James was a
laborer and
bootlegger.
Son House started out as a preacher but went to prison for
killing a man.
R.L. Burnside also killed someone, but said "
I didn't mean to kill nobody, I just meant to
shoot the sonofabitch in the head."
Big Boy Crudup's songs were stolen by Elvis Presley.
Mississippi Fred McDowell did not
play no
rock 'n roll. To get more recording contracts,
John Lee Hooker also called himself
John Lee Cooker,
John Lee Booker,
Texas Slim,
Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar,
Delta John and
Sir John Lee Hooker. Big Joe Williams was
King of the 9 String Guitar.
Snooky Pryor began his musical career as an Army bugler.
Mississippi John Hurt learned to play guitar in secret.
Paul Pena wrote Jet Airliner, knew
Tuvan, and could
throat sing. After a severe case of polio,
Cedell Davis learned to play guitar left-handed using a kitchen knife.
Earl Hooker was so good he never had
a day job.
Hound Dog Taylor, who was
born with six fingers on each hand but
cut off one of the extras with a razor blade, said his epitath should be "
He couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!"
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posted by swift
on Dec 31, 2008 -
37 comments
