What music are you listening to currently?

While not my normal fare, the Seekers were a favorite of my step-mother who was a quintessential 50's-60's folkie, After graduating from the University of Indiana in 1955 she moved to NYC to change the world. Of course living right on Washington Square didn't hurt either. She became friends with Dave Van Ronk, The Village Stompers and others who would show up once in a while for dinner, much to the displeasure of my father who would put on his headphones and listen to classical music while guitars and bongos would be going on in the living room. He did get back at her by having her listen to Alan Ginsburg read his poetry (my father was a HUGE beat poetry fan) or himself read Rimbaud in the original French. And people wonder why I left home at 15.

Back to the Seekers. They were an Australian group that formed in 1962. After becoming faily popular for their live show they were offered a recording contract. What was unusual is that ‎Judith Durham the lead singer took itupon herself to send demos to major record companies in England on hope of building enough interest to get them out of just the Australian market. It worked...sort of. There was interest but nobody wanted to pay to either fly or sail the group to England so the band made arrangements to play on a cruise ship in exchange for passage. Foruneatly there was a record producer on board who thought they had some potential and after hearing of their plight booked them some free time in the studio on their 2nd or 3rd day after arriving in England. That interest coupled with the demos sent from Oz finally lead to a recording contract a few days before they were set to leave. And fortunate it was because in 1964 they palced and many songs in the UK charts and the Stones and the Kinks albeit a little lower down. In any case they rode the folk revival both here in the UK and Australia with their returning home concert supposedly drawing almost 200,000 people or over 1.5% of the entire population at the time.

So in small doses it can bring back fond memories but I can only handle about an hour of it.

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Came the other day. It's nice to hear Dylan singing rather than crooning, but I'm not sure if I like this album or not.

Doc
 
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Before my time but maybe Doc remembers it. American Bandstand went national on this date in 1957.

Freddy Cannon appeared a record 110 times
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AVB said:
Before my time but maybe Doc remembers it. American Bandstand went national on this date in 1957.

Freddy Cannon appeared a record 110 times
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Unfortunately, I do. I never missed that show. Ah, Poodle skirts; fond memories. Saturday afternoons at four, I think. Didn't know Freddy Cannon was on that much, though. Deservedly so; he was the real deal. Long live big beat R&R.
 
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29 years after their last album I present The Psychedelic Furs - Made Of Rain
3.75/5 IMO
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Devil Doc said:
Unfortunately, I do. I never missed that show. Ah, Poodle skirts; fond memories. Saturday afternoons at four, I think. Didn't know Freddy Cannon was on that much, though. Deservedly so; he was the real deal. Long live big beat R&R.
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Yeah, like Doc, came home from school, parked the books and turned on AB. It is was good to see happy kids, no cares and just having fun to the music of our times. Enjoyed those moments. Not forgotten, even today.
 
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AVB said:
Paul Butterfield - Better Days
If you are a blues fan you better own it.

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I just saw a short documentary about him. I never realized how well respected he was by the greats in the Jazz community...what a harp player. He made it sound more like rock...yet he had the blues running through his veins. Everyone should own this album.
 
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Digging way deep into the collection I played Akiko Yano's first album Japanese Girl from 1976. Akiko is one of the best known Japanese singers of her generation. She started as piano prodegy at 5 and was best known for her jazz stylings. She has been compared to Kate Bush in her singing style.
This album is different as it was recorded in Japan and LA with some of the best studio musicians from both. Side A was recorded in Japan with member of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Hello and other well know (in Japan) players. When the recording moved to LA the studio band was Little Feat. Certainly more funky than Side A but I have no idea what she is actually singing about. Over the course of her career she has recorded with Swing Out Sister, Pat Metheny, The Chieftains and many more.

If you just gotta have it you can find it on Amazon.
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