Comments on: Rhythm & Dews: Notes on Southern music, etc.

By: Tom Baynham

Tom Baynham — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:44:51 +0000

I saw the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band play at the Music Hall several times. They were great. One of my favorite bands. I also saw Doug Kershaw, Emmy Lou Harris, Thermos Greenwood, Savoy Brown, Gregg Allman, Cowboy, Steve Martin and Martin Mull, B B King, and numerous other bands that I can’t remember. There was nothing like sitting on the pad on the floor and drinking beer out of a metal bucket or sipping wine from a glass carafe and eating soft pretzels. That was real live music.

By: Tom Baynham

Tom Baynham — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:41:04 +0000

I almost feel like I grew up at the Great Southeast Music Hall in the old Broadview Plaza. My favorite memory was the night when we called the information line at the Music Hall to find out who was playing. The recording said something about 350 pounds of the best Chicago blues. So a bunch of us drove into town and got tickets. We were too late for the 8:00 show, but went downstairs to the bowling alley and bowled a few games before the 10:30 show. I remember a friend put “Down South Jukin” by Lynnerd Skynnerd on and someone pulled the plug on the jukebox after the fourth or fifth time it played. Later we went upstairs and listened to Gove Skrivenner play with his dog on stage, followed by some of the best blues played by Willie Dixon and his band. The crowd was so small that we went up front and all shook hands with the band afterward. Willie had huge hands and they wrapped around yours twice.

By: Janet Ward

Janet Ward — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:25:31 +0000

Oh, yeah, it was bad: And if you’re quick enough to rise, you’ll catch the fleeting glimpse of someone’s fading shadow. Don’t be concerned. It will not harm you. It’s only me pursuing something I’m not sure of. Across my dreams with nets of wonder, I chase the bright, elusive butterfly of love.

Scary thing: I knew that by heart.

By: Cliff Green

Cliff Green — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:53:15 +0000

Sorry, Janet. I tried to put those lyrics out of my mind, and I apparently succeeded. At least you agree with me that it was really bad, no matter how you remember it.

By: Jeff Cochran

Jeff Cochran — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:00:05 +0000

I was at the Country Joe/Manilow show. This was a few months before he hit it big with “Mandy.” Amazingly Manilow’s performance went over quite well with the crowd. People got a kick out of his commercial jingles (“Be A Pepper,” “You Deserve A Break Today”). Actually, everything he did for the next 30 plus years was a commercial jingle, so…………….

Country Joe gave a very fine bluesy performance. He was very nice to the audience. Not only did he refrain from saying any bad words, he didn’t spell any either.

By: Janet

Janet — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:41:39 +0000

Cliff, If you’re gonna disparage the song, at least disparage it correctly. It’s “You might wake up some morning to the sound of something moving past your window in the wind…” Really, really, really bad. But I would like to offer Paul Anka’s “Having My Baby” for consideration.

As for the Great Southeast Music Hall, I saw a very young Steve Martin opening for a very young Jimmy Buffett many years ago. After the show, Martin was hanging on to one of those trees that was in the big pots around the front entrance doing a post-show show in the parking lot. Really cool.

I’ve been told that there was a double bill featuring Barry Manilow and Country Joe and the Fish. Damn, I wish I’d been there!

By: Cliff Green

Cliff Green — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:30:09 +0000

Tom: No! No! No! The worst song of all time is “Elusive Butterfly.”
“If you wake up some morning…” and remember “the canyons of your mind”? Oh God, just shoot me!

By: herc_takes_five

herc_takes_five — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:02:46 +0000

as a beatles fan, i can listen to any of these, but here’s a dozen that don’t call me back too often. most were intended as filler, crumbs tossed to ringo and george in the early days, or later druggy bits made by rich rock stars with tape recorders and too much spare time.

1. chains 2. boys 3. devil in her heart 4. roll over beethoven (great song but their version is nothing special) 5. i’m down (not the live version which is fun to watch — i like it when paul rocks, but this one gets old fast; really just a short, little richard jam, and he doesn’t sound all that “down”) 6. what goes on 7. within you without you 8. flying 9. glass onion (popular, but just an annoying rehash) 10. long, long, long 11. it’s all too much 12. dig it (i didn’t)

and if you happen to like a few of those, here’s another handful you can substitute in order to make a dozen:
13. matchbox (love ol’ carl but this is the least of their perkins’ covers) 14. dig a pony 15. maxwell’s silver hammer (many fans love it; i’m not one of them) 15. the inner light 16. revolution no. 9 (see previous post) 17. you know my name (look up the number)

By: Tom Poland

Tom Poland — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:03:10 +0000

Jeff, you are correct. I could never get through “Revolution No. 9.” I realize it was more of an artistic experiment than a song but still …. it occupied valuable grooves on my LP. Several of my Beatles era friends don’t care for “Yellow Submarine,” although I always liked to see Ringo get a little mic time. Some would say the worst Beatle songs were better than a lot of the British Invasion’s best … Herman Hermit’s “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” comes to mind. And my worst song of all time? Captain and Tennille’s “Muskrat Love.”