Sunday Morning Music Trivia

No time this morning for research, so enjoy this great live performance of "White Riot" by The Clash.

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Well, Sunday Evening - So shoot me.  MC Solaar was born Claude M'Barali In Senegal to Chadian parents. When he was six months old his parents emigrated to France where they eventually settled in the Paris suburb of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. He studied languages at the Jussieu university campus, and was a post-graduate in philosophy. As a rapper MC Solaar is known for his complexity, which relies on word play, lyricism, and philosophical inquiry. Critic Dan Gennoe attests to Solaar's "flow et vocabulaire" by noting "the flow of his words is staggering, as are the low-slung grooves that they roll to; deftly vaulting all language barriers." Indeed, I can't begin to translate his output, but in the end it is almost not relevant; The stunning flow itself transcends mere language. 
MC Solaar - La Vie Est Belle

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Syd Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006), born Roger Keith Barrett, was  a founding member of  band Pink Floyd. He left the group in 1968 amidst speculations of mental illness exacerbated by heavy drug use. Through late 1967 and early 1968, Barrett's behaviour became increasingly erratic and unpredictable, partly as a consequence of his reported heavy use of psychedelic drugs, notably LSD.
There are many stories about Barrett's bizarre and intermittently psychotic behavior, some known to be true. According to Roger Waters, Barrett came into what was to be their last practice session with a new song he had dubbed "Have You Got It, Yet?". The song seemed simple enough when he first presented it to his bandmates, but it soon became impossibly difficult to learn and they eventually realized that while they were practicing it, Barrett kept changing the arrangement. He would then play it again, with the arbitrary changes, and sing "Have you got it yet?". Eventually they realized they never would and that they were simply bearing the brunt of Barrett's idiosyncratic sense of humor.

 ^{Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett) - See Emily Play}

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

French Legend Jacques Dutronc has been making music as long as I have been alive. Of his music from the 60's, All Music Guide said, "Dutronc's early hits were rough but clever exercises in European garage rock, with Dutronc and his band laying out a simple, tough vamp as he sneered his witty, pointed lyrics about a life lived amidst the chaos of the '60s with all the sweet venom he could muster... like Dutronc's role models Bob Dylan and Ray Davies, he could write melodies strong enough to work even without their excellent lyrics, and his band had more than enough energy to make them fly (and the imagination to move with the musical times as psychedelia and hard rock entered the picture at the end of the decade)" He is also known in France for his long and varied acting career. Here he sings cuttingly about political opportunism in the 60's:

Je suis pour le communisme, 

je suis pour le socialisme
Et pour le capitalisme 

parce que je suis opportuniste.

Jacques Dutronc - L'Opportuniste

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975, after the breakup of Rocket From the Tombs, (Other members of RFTT went on to become The Dead Boys) Pere Ubu was at the forefront of the punk rock / new wave movement. Taking their name from a character in a French play, (Roi Ubu by Alfred Jarry), Pere Ubu created an eclectic, revolutionary sound they called "Avant-Garage". Lead singer David Thomas says the term was "a joke invented to have something to give journalists when they yelp for a neat soundbite or pidgeonhole."
Of their second single, "Final Solution" (backed with "Cloud 149"), one scribe wrote that Ubu's "call for a 'final solution' was the cry of teen angst run down in the decaying rust belt of America, and unlike the British punks who were looking around England the same year, seeing no future, and hating what they saw, Ubu reveled in it." (They would rarely perform this song after some listeners misinterpreted it as being associated with the Nazi final solution.)

Pere Ubu: Final Solution

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Cockney Rebel was formed in London in 1972. Almost from the beginning the bands lead singer, Steve Harley, alienated the press and his fellow band mates with his relentless self-aggrandizement. In 1974 they did their one and only UK tour, after which the tensions in the band tore it apart. Re-emerging as "Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel", Steve Harley achieved his greatest success with this surprisingly bitter send off to his former band mates. Here he performs "Come Up And See Me" with studio musicians on TOTP in 1975. Enjoy.

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

Original Buzzcocks singer, Howard Devoto, Formed the band Magazine in Manchester in early 1977. There first album, Real Life, is considered one of the most influential albums of all time, and was a seminal influence for many bands. The line up changed many times with band members leaving to join, Ultravox, Siouxie and the Banshees, Visage, The Birthday Party and The Mekons. Magazine disbanded before the release of their third album, "Magic, Murder and the Weather", in 1981. Here they perform "Give Me Everything" on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1978

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

The Last Poets arose from the civil rights and black nationalist struggles of the late '60's. Taking their name from a poem by the South African revolutionary poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who believed he was in the last era of poetry before guns would take over, The Last Poets are generally considered the progenitors of Hip Hop. Formed on Malcolm X's birthday in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem in 1968, Their self titled first album went top ten and their second album, "This is Madness" earned them a spot on Nixon's COINTELPRO list. Surviving members have recently collaborated with Common and Kanye West. Here is an updated version of the song "This is Madness" Enjoy.

Sunday Morning Music Trivia

From the album "Jazz From Hell", G-Spot Tornado was originally composed and performed on a Synclavier, and Frank Zappa felt it could not be performed by humans. It was eventually performed live by Ensemble Modern. "Jazz From Hell" is the only instrumental album in history to be labeled with the Parental Advisory sticker, most likely in retaliation for Zappa's congressional testimony against the RIAA.