Weekend Music -- Our Last Back Pages

 

Indulge us one final time as we continue to visit the blog's music attic to relive some musical joys from years past -- some well known, others not -- that we liked then and now.  

We're providing the date and the link to when the songs originally appeared in Hackwhackers.  Hope you enjoy.

Wussy (2020)

 

Belle and Sebastian (2011)

 

Allah-Las (2019)

 

Lisa Hannigan (2011)

Cream (2018)

  

George Harrison (2017)

Weekend Musical Threefer

 

The late great bassist Jack Bruce and fellow Scottish- born rocker David Byrne share today as a birthday, Bruce in 1943, Byrne in 1952.  We also want the note the birthday yesterday of the great Stevie Wonder (b. 1950).  

Bruce, who died in 2014, is regarded as one of the best bassists of the rock era, and his songwriting skills were particularly important to Cream's success ("Sunshine of Your Love," "White Room," etc.).  We're featuring a largely overlooked Bruce-Pete Brown composition from "Disraeli Gears," the ecstatic "Dance the Night Away," featuring the only time a 12- string guitar would appear on a Cream album, with stirring, cascading crescendos played, of course, by Eric Clapton(who shares vocals with Bruce), and Ginger Baker's driving beat.  A forgotten gem.

Byrne is also an accomplished songwriter who was in the vanguard of the evolution of the music video.  The Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life" won the Best Group Video in 1987, and features parodies of other rockers like Billy Idol, King Creole, Prince, Madonna, Joe Jackson and Meat Loaf (some portrayed by Talking Heads band member Jerry Harrison).  Fun and very New Wave.

It's impossible to pick a Stevie Wonder song that represents the scope of his iconic career -- so we're opting not to. We're picking his soulful version of Dylan's civil rights anthem, "Blowin' In The Wind," from 1966, co- sung by his mentor Clarence Paul, which hit number one on the R&B charts.  Hope you enjoy.

 

  

 

Mid-Week Memorial Song

We noted Cream bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce's passing last Saturday.  Along with legendary guitarist Eric Clapton and master drummer Ginger Baker, Bruce's tenor voice carried the melody on nearly all of the supergroup's songs.  Their second album, "Disraeli Gears," is a true rock classic, and today's song from that album showcases Bruce's beautiful tenor, with Clapton's soaring guitar and Baker's driving percussion:  "Dance the Night Away."  R.I.P.

Weekend Birthday Song

Tomorrow (the 30th) is Eric Clapton's 68th birthday.   The celebrated "Slowhand" who, along with Jimi Hendrix, is considered one of the ultimate rock guitarists, composed this song with his friend George Harrison, and recorded it with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker (a.k.a., Cream).  Here's Harrison's recollection of how the song got it's name, "Badge":

"I helped Eric write 'Badge' you know. Each of them had to come up with a song for that Goodbye Cream album and Eric didn't have his written. We were working across from each other and I was writing the lyrics down and we came to the middle part so I wrote 'Bridge.' Eric read it upside down and cracked up laughing-- 'What's BADGE?' he said. After that, Ringo walked in drunk and gave us that line about the swans living in the park."

Enjoy the song and your Easter weekend.

UK Recognizes Druidry as Religion

Druidry - the worship of the natural world and its forces, which dates back to the Iron Age - is now officially recognized as a religion in the UK! Congrats! As an aside, we hope that this has opened the door for the long-awaited recognition of the Greco-Roman gods (if "By Jove!" isn't as British as kidney pie, we don't know what is!).

To honor Druids everywhere, we would like to offer this evocative, dazzle-worthy musical piece by Britain's ultimate Druid band - Ginger-root Baker, Jack Spruce, and Eric Thunderclapton - a.k.a., Cream: