Music Archives
Rock Star Deaths It's a bit sad that death is so much a part of our Boomer memories. We learned at a very early age that famous people die. We also learned, through the Vietnam war, that loved ones die. And as we kids grew up listening to and loving rock and roll...
The Birth of Rock and Roll Caught in the middle Carol, we're middle class We're middle aged We were wild in the old days Birth of rock 'n roll days Joni Mitchell's Chinese Cafe caught the early Boomer generation just as they were entering middle age back in 1983. And it reminded them that they were...
Elvis Makes a Triumphant Comeback Regular readers of I Remember JFK know where I stand on the subject of Elvis. He had as much performing talent as any one individual who was ever born, but unfortunately, he also had the naiveté to put his trust in a manipulative individual who saw nothing but dollar signs...
Herb Alpert Well, after the commentary on the previous installment of I Remember JFK, the subject of this week's column was pretty obvious. The public wants Herb Alpert! And what the public wants, it gets, at least this time. :-) Herb Alpert was born on March 31, 1935. That makes him a...
Dr. Demento There has always been a group of musicians who were just a bit off-center. When my mom was waiting for my dad to get back from the war, it was Spike Jones. Jones, a gifted musician and bandleader, used guns, whistles, pots, pans, cowbells, hammers, bird calls, klaxon horns, bricks,...
Boomers, Check This Out All Baby Boomers are familiar with Don McLean's 1971 hit American Pie. But did you ever totally figure out its meaning? The following is trimmed from writer Jim Quinn's website, The Burning Platform. I strongly suggest you browse over and read the full version. It's an eye-opener. In the meantime,...
Family Bands, Real and Fictional What a wild, strange trip was music of the 60's. On the one hand, we had Jim Morrison disrobing on a Florida stage in a drug-induced mania. On the other, we had a squeaky-clean family, complete with mom singing harmony, appearing on Sullivan and charting a couple of #2 hits....
The Rolling Stones The year was 1962. Rock and roll music had been in existence for eight years, according to a 2004 Rolling Stone article which declared (quite controversially) that Elvis's 1954 recording That's All Right Mama was the first rock and roll song. Kids were cruising the boulevard in Modesto, and George...
Flip Sides Ready for a brain cell workout? How many flipsides can YOU recall? While driving down the road the other day and listening to The Animals' Animalisms, the song "Cheating" came on. I hadn't heard that tune since I played it on a portable record player about 1970. What I vividly...
Dylan: Scratching the Surface I just had an epiphany. An epiphany is basically an awakening. My tiny little version was that I had been cranking out Boomer memories for what will be two years in a couple of months, and yet, I had never written about the poetic voice of our generation, who appeared...
Elvis Presley, Actor Colonel Tom Parker had quite a goldmine on his hands. He managed Elvis Presley, the most valuable commodity in the entertainment industry of the mid 1950's. Of course, even the most manipulative manager couldn't make his client do anything he didn't want to, at least not without getting him to...
When We Went Nuts Over a Seagull Nowadays, New Age is everywhere. Some are into nature sounds (I particularly enjoy writing while "rain" falls all around me), some into crystals, others dig reflexology. But go back to 1970 and the concept of New Age was an obscure one. Some hippies were into Yoga, but by and large...
The Day We Heard About a Bunch They Called the Harper Valley PTA September 1968 was a time of unequalled tension in the US. Our fathers, brothers, sons, and friends were dying in Vietnam. We had endured the spring and summer assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. LBJ had thrown in the towel. The Democratic national convention was marred by a...
Growing Up Alongside the Beatles I have vague memories of nursery-rhyme-type records played on our portable player. When the Beatles arrived in February, 1964, I was primed and ready to get into their music. It was lightweight, fun, and easily remembered for later singing in the side yard. My favorite early Beatles songs were "She...
When TV Show Theme Songs Mattered This column was inspired by the sad news of the death of Earle Hagen, former big-band musician who is better known for composing (and whistling) the theme to the Andy Griffith Show. He also wrote themes for a dazzling amount of other series, including I Spy, That Girl, The Dick...
American Bandstand Rock and roll music. Television. These two very potent forces of the 50's combined to create a juggernaut of a television series that possibly every single Boomer watched at least once. It was a regular Saturday afternoon ritual for me in the early 70's, until I became observant enough to...
Stereos of the 70's! The 70's was a decade known for lots of wild and crazy stuff that came and went in a flurry. I mean, what was hotter, then colder, than disco music? Other uniquely 70's crazes that appeared for a bit, shined brightly, than vanished included fondue pots, macrame, and CB radios....
Casey Kasem and the American Top 40 Countdown Thanks to popular demand (and please, keep your requests coming!), today's I Remember JFK memory is about a radio voice that is so familiar that it seems parodied, even when it's not: that of Casey Kasem. I wasn't always a Kasem fan. That's because his rise as the voice of...
Death of an Angel, Birth of a Cause Not many knew what anorexia nervosa was back in 1970. However, everyone was aware of what an angel's voice sounded like. That was the year Carpenters released their second album, Close to You. Two gold record hits sprang from the release, the title track and We've Only Just Begun. Indeed,...
The Day the Music Died You want to hear something weird? While pondering column ideas this morning, the thought of Buddy Holly popped into my head. Being a Don McLean fan, I thought "why not write about the the day the music died?" So I set out to go to work. It was after I...
The Tragic Tale of a Man They Called Stringbean Life in Anneville, Kentucky, located in the backwoods of the backwoods, was not easy in 1915, the year David Akeman was born. His family were farmers who barely scraped by. Entertainment had to be provided by the local folks themselves. Thus arose bluegrass music, which was prolific in the rural...
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Rock Star Deaths:
It's a bit sad that death is so much a part of our Boomer memories. We learned at a very early age that famous people die. We also learned, through the Vietnam war, that loved ones die. And as we kids grew up listening to and loving rock and roll...
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