GA Russell

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,5203954.story Irish singer Liam Clancy dies With his brothers, he inspired the rise of U.S. folk music. Bob Dylan called him 'the best ballad singer I'd ever heard in my life.' Associated Press December 4, 2009 | 5:40 p.m. Irish balladeer Liam Clancy, last of the Clancy Brothers troupe whose feisty, boozy songs of old Ireland struck a sentimental chord worldwide, died Friday in a Cork hospital, his manager said. He was believed to be 74. Clancy for years had incurable pulmonary fibrosis, the same lung-destroying disease that killed one of his older singing brothers, Bobby, in 2002. Ireland's arts minister, Martin Cullen, led nationwide tributes to Clancy, praising his "superb singing, warm voice and gift for communicating in a unique storytelling style." Clancy, the youngest of 11 children in a County Tipperary household filled with folklore and song, immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 to join two elder brothers, Tom and Patrick, who were singing on the side as they pursued budding careers as Broadway actors. After recording a 1956 album of Irish rebel songs, they built a New York following as musicians and formed a partnership with Northern Ireland immigrant Tommy Makem. Scouts for the Ed Sullivan Show spotted them performing in Greenwich Village's White Horse Tavern, and their 16-minute TV appearance in March 1961 -- extended because of the last-minute cancellation of another act -- turned them into an Irish American folk phenomenon. Their agent cultivated a schmaltzy appeal to Irish emigrants worldwide, encouraging the Clancy Brothers and Makem to perform in hand-knitted cream-white Aran wool sweaters as well as tweed fishermen's caps. But their up-tempo resurrection of traditionally slow, sad Irish songs made a deeper impression on much of America's emerging folk artist movement, including Bob Dylan, who paid tribute to Liam Clancy as "the best ballad singer I'd ever heard in my life." The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem performed at Carnegie Hall; toured Ireland, Britain, Australia and the U.S.; and recorded more than a dozen albums before breaking up in 1974. Liam Clancy, broke amid unpaid tax demands, retreated to his in-laws in Calgary, Canada, before making a comeback on Canadian television and in a new singing partnership with Makem. In the 1980s and 1990s, he and other Clancy brothers combined with a range of other Irish traditional musicians on tours of North America, Europe and Australia, but brotherly feuds kept shaking up the band's lineup. Tom Clancy died of stomach cancer in 1990, Patrick Clancy of lung cancer in 1998 and Makem of cancer in 2007.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,5676500.story Aaron Schroeder dies at 83; prolific songwriter for Elvis Presley and others The music industry veteran, whose career began in the 1940s, wrote more than 2,000 songs, including 'It's Now or Never' and 'A Big Hunk o' Love.' By Dennis McLellan December 4, 2009 | 2:00 p.m. Aaron Schroeder, a songwriter, independent music publisher and record producer who co-wrote 17 songs for Elvis Presley, including “It’s Now or Never,” has died. He was 83. Schroeder, who had a rare form of dementia for about 18 years, died of heart failure Wednesday night at the Lillian Booth Actors Fund Home in Englewood, N.J., said his wife, Abby. In a songwriting career that began in the late 1940s, Schroeder wrote more than 2,000 songs and was the composer, lyricist and/or producer on more than 1,500 recordings. He co-wrote five No. 1 songs for Presley, including "Stuck on You," "Good Luck Charm," "A Big Hunk o' Love," "I Got Stung" and "It's Now or Never," the last of which ranked No. 92 in Billboard magazine's 2008 list of the "Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs." Schroeder also co-wrote songs such as the Perry Como hit "Mandolins in the Moonlight," Frank Sinatra's "French Foreign Legion," Carl Perkins' "Glad All Over," Bobby Vee's "Rubber Ball," Barry White's "Love Theme," Johnny Duncan's "She Can Put Her Shoes Under My Bed Anytime" and the Staple Singers' "Hammer and Nails." Among the other artists who recorded Schroeder's songs are Tony Bennett, Roy Orbison, Pat Boone, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole and Dionne Warwick. "He was known first as a lyricist, but he collaborated on melody much of the time with many of the collaborators," his wife said. In 1960, Schroeder went into the music publishing business. Around the same time, he launched the Manhattan-based Musicor Records. Musicor had its biggest success with Gene Pitney, for whom Schroeder produced his early hits, including "Only Love Can Break a Heart" and "Town Without Pity." He also managed and wrote songs with Pitney. Schroeder sold Musicor Records around 1965. "He wanted to concentrate more on the writers that were coming to us like Barry White, Randy Newman and Jimi Hendrix," said Abby Schroeder, who worked with her husband. "He was dedicated to helping young writers succeed," she said. "We'd be their publishers and support them. Aaron groomed them and spent a lot of time teaching them the art and the craft of writing." Schroeder also was the international music representative for Hanna-Barbera Productions and provided music, singers and songs for "The Banana Splits" and "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!"

On his Misty album, Groove Holmes introduced a style (which he soon abandoned) which Chris Albertson referred to as the dripping faucet. I would have enjoyed an album of Christmas standards by Groove using that style.

Here's an article about Blue Rodeo's halftime performance. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...978171-sun.html

The price is coming down! I got it last year for Christmas from an Amazon Marketplace retailer. I think the price was $13.99 plus $2.99 shipping.

Lala: John Coltrane - Side Steps, disc 5

This was nominated for a Grammy yesterday in the Best Classical Crossover category.

Lala: Cy Coleman - Playboy's Penthouse Introducing The Beau Brummels

The guys in the Canadian league don't face these temptations because they don't make any money!

Great news that you're feeling so well, paps!

I think of Bob Keane in association with the surf guitar bands like The Lively Ones. In 1996 quite a number of Del-Fi surf guitar records were re-released, and I picked up a couple. Here's his LA Times obituary. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,2711217.story Bob Keane dies at 87; discovered Ritchie Valens A musician in his own right, Keane founded L.A. label Del-Fi Records and helped nurture the budding career of the young rocker Valens. He also worked with Bobby Fuller, Frank Zappa and Barry White. Bob Keane, right, is credited with discovering and nurturing young Latino musical sensation Ritchie Valens, left, whose life was cut short by a plane crash in 1959. (Del-Fi Records) By Dennis McLellan November 30, 2009 | 7:33 p.m. Bob Keane, who founded the West Coast independent label Del-Fi Records in the 1950s and is best known for discovering and recording rock legend Ritchie Valens, has died. He was 87. Keane, who survived non- Hodgkins lymphoma diagnosed when he was 80, died of renal failure Saturday in an assisted living home in Hollywood, said his son, Tom Keane. "He was like the original independent record man in those days," said Tom Keane, a songwriter and record producer. "He was the guy going out and finding talent and developing it and getting it out to the masses." A clarinet player who once led his own 18-piece orchestra, Keane briefly headed Keen Records in 1957 and released Sam Cooke's No. 1 hit single "You Send Me" before launching Del-Fi Records. In May 1958, Keane heard about Valens, a 17-year-old Mexican American singer and guitar player from Pacoima. "I saw him at a little concert in a movie theater," Keane recalled in a 2001 Times interview. "There he was, a Latino kid doing just a few riffs and a couple of songs. But I was very impressed by his stage demeanor. The girls were going crazy, screaming." Keane invited Valens, born Richard Valenzuela, to record demos at his home studio. "We horsed around for a while and he started singing 'Come On, Let’s Go,' " Keane told the Times in 1980. "All he had was this title -- he kept playing the same riff over and over. . . . I helped him put an ending and a beginning to it and added lyrics. Then we took it into Gold Star [Recording Studios] and recorded it." With his name shortened by Keane, Valens was on his way. "Come On, Let's Go" peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard chart and was followed by " at No. 2 and “La Bamba” at No. 22. "I promoted the hell out of him," Keane said. "The key in those days was to get the [radio] jocks. We took care of them, made friends with them. I took Ritchie out on hops for free. That way, the jocks could charge a head charge and made some dough, then they'd turn around and play our records. "In August, I took Ritchie back East for an 11-city tour and got him on 'American Bandstand.' " In his autobiography "The Oracle of Del-Fi," Keane wrote that Valens "needed my guidance, and I needed his unpolished musical talent to help us both learn and go forward. We needed each other to complete the circuit." Their working relationship, however, did not last long. On Feb. 3, 1959, while on tour, Valens was killed in a plane crash in Iowa that also took the lives of Buddy Holly and J.P. " The Big Bopper" Richardson. "I still miss him," Keane told The Times in 1994. "He was like a son to me." Keane, who was played by Joe Pantoliano in "La Bamba," the 1987 film biography of Valens, went on to record artists including Little Caesar and the Romans, Brenda Holloway, Johnny Crawford, Frank Zappa, Barry White, and surf bands including the Impacts, the Sentinels, Bruce Johnston's Surfing Band, the Lively Ones and Dave Myers & the Surftones. Keane also had success in the '60s with the Bobby Fuller Four, which recorded "I Fought the Law" and other songs for Keane's Mustang Records. That association ended with Fuller's mysterious death in 1966. "After that happened, I was kind of burned out," Keane told The Times in 1994. Keane folded his labels in 1970 and later worked with his young sons, Tom and John -- the Keane Brothers -- as they launched their careers as performers. He revived Del-Fi in 1993 to issue new compilation albums by Valens and the Bobby Fuller Four. He was born Robert Kuhn on Jan. 5, 1922, in Manhattan Beach -- he changed his last name to Keen before changing it to Keane -- and started playing the clarinet at age 5. At 14, he was a guest star with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He was leading his first band locally at 17 when he was signed by MCA, which promoted him as "The World's Youngest Bandleader." After serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, he returned to Los Angeles and led his own orchestra. He later took over Artie Shaw's band and had his own TV variety show on Channel 2 in Los Angeles in the early '50s. In addition to his son Tom, Keane is survived by his wife, Dina; his other sons Bob and John; his daughter, Chanelle Keane; his brother, Walker Kuhn; and seven grandchildren. No memorial service will be held.

My parents were happily married. Yet my father refused to do anything for Valentine's Day. He thought it was a racket. And he refused to do anything for my mother on Mother's Day. That was my job, because she was my mother, not his.

It's been 24 hours since the end of the game, and I'm just starting to relax. ***** Despite its being on cable television, the Grey cup game enjoyed its largest television audience ever, and will once again be the #1 Canadian television program of the year. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...1985821-cp.html

Kenny, Let's Get Together was We Five's follow-up to You Were On My Mind. Late '64 as I recall, or was it late '65? Anyway, I've always considered their recording to be the original hit, not a cover. (Of course, it was written by that guy Dino from Quicksilver Messenger Service, so it may not have been the first recording, but to my knowledge it was the first that got radio airplay.) PS - OK, I've now read the Wikipedia article, and it says 1965.

Thank you for saying that, paps. I lost all respect for Brent Musberger when I kept hearing him say the following two years that USC was the national champion that year.

Notre Dame has fired Charlie Weis. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,578088...test=latestnews

Here's a Jim Beam commercial from a year ago that I bet this group will enjoy. The YouTube thread is so long that I wouldn't bet the ranch that it hasn't already been posted some time. If so, enjoy it again!

CDs to riverrat, Noj and king ubu are in the postman's hands!

Brad, yes. A few years ago the retail industry noticed that it had a very good day with online sales the Monday following Thanksgiving. They came up with the hypothesis that people spent the weekend in the stores, and then on Monday, the first day back at work, they do their shopping online while at work. So ever since they have been promoting the concept of Cyber Monday as if it is an undisputed fact. Kind of like wishing will make it so. And maybe it will. But the last couple of years I have read that the peak of sales during the Christmas season is actually around Dec. 11-15. So I think that the whole Cyber Monday thing is an invention rather than a description of the habits of the American customers.

Congratulations Noj! For his prize for winning the Grey Cup contest, Noj has chosen the Sam Cooke. Any other takers, since I'm going to the post office?

2009 Grey Cup Montreal Alouettes 28....Saskatchewan Roughriders 27 http://64.246.64.33/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=s...aspx?id=4270670 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/mont...article1381842/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/foot...article1382051/ http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gre...973361-sun.html I'm still too exhausted from listening to the end of the game to write my thoughts about it. Tomorrow I'll post some more links about the game if I can find some good ones (and I expect that I will). Suffice it to say, there's a reason I consider Canadian rules football to be the greatest game in the world.

And the winner of our contest is...(for the second year in a row)...Noj!!!!! The tiebreaker is 55, and Noj nailed it! Congratulations Noj! PM me your CD selection and your address, and I'll get your prize out to you.

2009 Grey Cup game final score Montreal Alouettes 28....Saskatchewan Roughriders 27 Damon Duval kicked the winning field goal on the last play of the game! What a game!

end of 3rd quarter Saskatchewan Roughriders 20....Montreal Alouettes 10

halftime: Saskatchewan Roughriders 17....Montreal Alouettes 3