The Magnificent Goldberg

Wilbert Hogan Fred Jackson Earl van Dyke

Indeed! Shelley's about my age, maybe a few years younger, but if anybody qualifies as an "old soul", it's him. He's always played like this. He also plays more "modern", but with this same type feel. It's because he grew up in houston, and was intimate (in the non-sexual way ) with Wilkerson and Arnett Cobb from a very early age. I think he told me that he even dated Cobb's daughter for a while. Shelley can tell you stories about Don that you wouldn't believe. And he thinks of Arnett as his "father", that's how close they were. Point is, this shit is in his blood, not from a distance, or through some "love" for the music that is from afar, but because of his environment. A lot of younger guys can "play the style", but if you haven't lived it, really lived it, there's going to be something, a crucial something imo, missing. Shelley's lived it, and ain't nothing missing. All right. MG

Thanks very much SS1 - a useful site. Haven't got the book. Probably I should do so. MG

Debbie Reynolds Tab Hunter Tab Smith

Jim must have been talking to himself in the chat room. Best way to keep a secret, I reckon. MG

The Mar-Keys simply were Booker T. & The MG's combined with the Memphis Horns. The Bar-Kays were Otis Redding's backing band. The others probably used different combinations of the Mar-Keys musicians I know that Albert King did for his lone Stax LP. The original Mar-Keys had a different organist. Difficult to identify who was, in fact, on all the Mar-Keys records because the personnel was whoever was hanging around the studio on the day. The CD issue of the 2 LPs "Last night" and "Do the Popeye with the Mar-keys" has what info there is on the early Mar-key's sessions, but it is, I think, from the memories of some of the musicians involved - no records. I was wondering who bands/musicians such as The Triumphs, Eddie Kirk, Billy & the King Bees, the Vardells, the Cobras, the Baracudas, Sir Isaac & the Doo Dads (obviously Hayes but plus who?) all were. I've never come across any of them in my extensive purchases of Stax singles in the '60s. MG

Europa The bull Taurian Matador

Hot chocolate MG

Leo Parker Gene Ammons Sonny Stitt

Francis J Child The Soul Children Childe Roland

It seems I was. Those are the ones which would have to be changed and it won't happen. That's where my problem is. They play on a quality system, but sometimes fail on others, and may not be 100% future compatible. I'd like to think consumer resistance helped stop it but maybe not. Exactly my original point - there's no reason for the record companies to change anything in the unlikely event they repress. They would simply grab the glass master and send it to the factory. Just like dual disc, it was a poorly thought out product in the first place. I have my doubts about forward compatability of dual layer SACD's also (indeed, I have severe doubts about their durability also). All these are just another example of why recorded music is dying, it is that record companies became adversarial with their customers in order to 'protect' their physical product and their investment in a model which was no longer relevant, but which they had substantial interest in trying to maintain - even when it was clear that their customers wanted a service, not something they didn't want forced down their throat. Let's face it - when buying a product generally pisses off the customers, but they buy it grudgingly in the absence of a good alternative, the product is marked for extinction the minute customers find that alternative - in fact, they will pay more and compromise quality to move off it, such is their resentment. That's what's happening to physcal music, and CC is simply another symptom. It's entirely unlikely that consumer resistance had anything to do with dropping CC. The record companies are long past having any concern about their customers. It was simply the ineffectiveness of the control and an accounting decision that the cost was no longer justified. I think if I were a marketing manager in a major company, I'd reckon it worthwhile to pay a small team of statisticians to research the locations in which records were being sold - if only to focus promotion effort geographically. That should reveal a lot of US items being sold in Europe in competition with European product. The US managers wouldn't worry, but the European managers have targets and, if they weren't meeting them... MG

I already said the man's first name was Johnny It's obviously Johnny Griffin. Not THE JOhnny Griffin; A Johnny Griffin. Do I get the prize? MG

I can just imagine going into the Red Bull in Tonyrefail and asking for Ethiopian Sidamo! Where's the smiley for a boot up the arse? MG

He must have been someone working on the Duke/Peacock/Songbird staff - perhaps Dave Clark or Robey himself. MG

Leon Haywood James Booker Gonzo

Hey, that's seriously nice stuff! Loads I've never heard of in there, too. Who WERE all these other bands? MG

Just had a cup of tea (Glengettie) (Well, I AM an ex-Civil Servant!) MG

Me too - that's exactly the right solution. MG

John Haze Isaac Hayes Dzondria LaIsac (who WAS Dzondria LaIsac? You Texans should know)

Didn't he also start the Ranwood label, where the entire Lawrence Welk contingent migrated to from Dot? Or maybe that was a Dot deal? Yes - he and Welk were partners in Ranwood. The new label purchased all Welk's masters from Dot and Coral - probably there were masters of a few Welk-associated artists, too. And they continued marketing this material. Whether new material was recorded, I don't know. MG

Baden Powell Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell in the County of Essex, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, LLD, DCL (BTW I don't know what DCL means) Robert Louis Stevenson

I knew this would be a good read! Thanks folks. Will forward to some of my more peculiar friends. MG

Booker T & the MGs was an important band in the early '60s, not just a good one. "Green onions" is a tune that no one ever does badly (try Henry Mancini's big band version). The world has to be grateful just for that. And "Behave yourself"; the beautiful groove to "Comin' home baby" and "Lonely avenue" are real standouts from the first album. But it's the second that really shows the importance of the band. The B side of "Jelly bread" was imediately MUCH more attractive and interesting to me when it came out. "Aw mercy", recorded 18 months before James Brown brought out "Out of sight", moves the world towards that kind of funk with a beautiful Latin groove and preaching organ. Al Jackson, for me, is the star of the show, but only slightly. "Home grown", Plum Nellie", "Chinese checkers" and "Can't be still" all have that funk groove going on - in slightly different ways. "Can't be still" was the only one to have been recorded after "Out of sight". So "Soul dressing" is my favourite album. I don't think the band ever approached this total groove as a quartet - though The Mar-Keys did with "Honey pot", "Grab this thing", "Hummingbird" and "Angel dust". To what extent BT&MG were involved in those recordings (particularly the later ones) I don't know. But I agree with NOJ - my favourite individual track of theirs is "Summertime". MG

My MAN as far as breaking the boundaries is concerned is Michael Ayrton. Painter, sculptor (his main gig), stage & costume designer, book illustrator, poet, novellist, art historian & critic, biographer, satirist - and general good fellow to have on chat shows. He died in 1975, but I still admire the hell out of him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ayrton MG

Very true. Cost and space are about equal constraints for me, though space isn't an imminent problem; I think I've got two or three years' worth of space. MG