Let us celebrate the memory of another fine musician, who somehow have been forgotten. The English singer and songwriter Kevin Ayers would have turned 80 today, if he hadn’t passed away in 2013 aged 68. Starting out in the Soft Machine in 1968, he went solo the year after, releasing albums until the early 90’s.
Kevin Ayers could have made it in music. He had it all. He was a skilled songwriter, a good singer with a distinct voice and he had the rockstar looks. So why didn’t he make it? The general consensus today is that he didn’t really care. He was just in it to have some fun. After his “retirement” from the music industry, he lived the good life in France, with food and fine ■■■■.
Still I’d like to draw attention to Kevin Ayers. He could be rather patchy at times, yet in his discography there’s several excellent songs deserving to be remembered. To celebrate his memory, here’s two examples of that. So let us raise our glasses to a man who loved the good life. To Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers - Shouting In a Bucket Blues
Kevin Ayers - May I?
If anyone thinks the bass player in the second video looks familiar, you may be correct. It is Mike Oldfield. He sometimes played with Kevin Ayers before Tubular Bells.
For those who want to take a break from regular, quality music, here’s a cover of Final Countdown done by a guy named Pockets. He does covers on his own invention, the kazookeylele, a combination of a toy piano, a kazoo and a ukulele. Enjoy.
(BTW yes, I genuinely enjoy what this guy is doing )
Happy Birthday to American singer and songwriter Maria McKee, who is turning 60 today. She started out in the country rock band Lone Justice in the mid 1980’s. The band had considerable success among critics with their first album, but failed to do much commercially.
After their second album, Lone Justice broke up and Maria McKee went solo, releasing her first album in 1989. She is a great talent, with a voice sometimes described as a cross between Janis Joplin and Emmylou Harris. However her talent hasn’t really blossomed into fruition. Perhaps she’s happy with having a more low-key career. She has only released seven albums since her debut in 1989.
To celebrate Maria McKee’s birthday, here’s one song by Lone Justice and one from her debut solo album. Happy Birthday to Maria
Lone Justice - Ways To Be Wicked
Maria McKee - Breathe
I have seen Maria McKee live twice, once with Lone Justice (87ish) and once solo (90ish). The second one especially is a very fond musical memory for me.
Edit - Breathe features the great Richard Thompson on guitar
Let us celebrate the memory of Keith Moon who would have turned 78 today. Here is a promo video of The Who recording the title track from their 1978 album. The video was recorded on the 4. of May, and Keith Moon is having a good time here, looking so happy. Four months later he passed away at the age of 32. To the memory of one of the greatest drummers of them all
Edit - Just some trivia to go with this. Keith Moon passed away in the same apartment where Cass Elliot passed four years earlier. She was also 32. Now one of the finest female singers of them all got a mention here too
100% hit! Cool dance! Good luck!
Сегодня отдыхали на природе , танцевали , кто то включил эту песню и она у меня засела в голове , классная танцевальная
Let us celebrate the memory of Arthur William "Big Boy " Crudup, yet another musician who doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He wrote That’s All Right Mama, which was Elvis Presley’s first single. Elvis also recorded My Baby Left Me and So Glad You’re Mine, both written by Arthur.
Also Elvis is quoted saying: “If I had any ambition, it was to be as good as Arthur Crudup.” In addition, Arthur Crudup’s songs have been recorded by among others Slade, Elton John and Rod Stewart.
In spite of all this, Arthur Crudup did not do well finacially, He stopped recording alredy in 1950, and began a dispute over royalties that lasted the rest of his life. Instead he settled for a domestic life with family, working as a field labourer, with a little bootlegging on the side. He sold moonshine to local establishments, where he also sometimes performed.
Arthur Crudup is quoted saying this in 1970: “I was born poor, I live poor, and I am going to die poor”. He passed away in 1974 aged 68. Today it’s 119 years since he was born. I raise my glass to the memory a man who deserved so much more
This is something totally different then what we normally see here. This is a small edit i made from a show of DJ Michael Canitrot. He uses some stunning lightning effects in his shows. I had to reduce the quality so i could upload it here.
I want to congratulate Elvis Costello who turns 70 today! Does anyone remember the movie "Notting Hill’ from 1999? The title song was performed by Costello. Just some nice memories.
Randomly passed by this one today. Pink Military was a new wave/post-punk band from Livepool, from the same crowd as Echo & The Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes. Damn fine indie pop, that holds up pretty well after almost 45 years. I still have this 7" single
Happy Birthday to Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, who is turning 78 today. The Bee Gees is one of the most successful band’s in the history of pop music, with a career starting over 60 years ago. The three brothers are probably best known today for their huge disco hits from the latter part of the 1970’s, but they also did some excellent pop music a decade prior to that.
Barry Gibb is the oldest of the Gibb brothers, yet he is the only one still alive. To celebrate his birthday, I’ve picked one of the Bee Gees best known songs from the 60s. To Love Somebody has been covered by Janis Joplin, Eric Burdon & The Animals and Nina Simone, but here is Barry himself singing the song, Happy Birthday!
The Bee Gees - To Love Somebody
While we’re at it, when doing some research for this post, I came upon this. It’s a young version the Bee Gees from 1963, doing a cover of the Bob Dylin song Blowin’ In the Wind. And this is two years before Dylan himself went electric!
The Bee Gees - Blowin’ in the Wind
If anyone’ missing the characteristic falsetto, it came later. Here’s the story behind it.
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