Season 270 - Be-Cause

John Denver was involved in a number of causes during his life. He performed at "A Gift of Song" for UNICEF in 1979 (Where he sang Rhyme and Reason), at the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 and also in the Soviet Union at a concert for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster in 1987. I've chosen Back Home Again for personal reasons. First it's one of my favourite John Denver songs and also I've been away for a week visiting my daughter and though it was lovely to see her and her family, it's also great to be "Back Home Again"
 
Radio Ga Ga - Queen, Live Aid 1985

Live Aid was, of course, not simply, about raising money for Ethiopia. For the artists and groups participating it represented a glorious showcasing opportunity.

As it turned out, however, despite the global exposure granted via LiveAid, it did very little to change the trajectory of participants' careers. Those artists who were on the way up, U2, say, or Dire Straits, continued on the way up. Those who were on the way down, The Boomtown Rats, Adam Ant, The Cars, The Hooters (who? precisely), continued on their way down.

Queen were the only band for whom Live Aid was a turning point in their careers. Of course they'd scored massive hits world-wide in the 70s, but then they'd produced a career-killing (in the US, at least) video to accompany their single "I want to break free." released in April 1984

Queen had intended it to be an affectionate tribute to their favourite soap stars. In the UK soap operas tend 1) to be gritty, blue-collar epics, 2) to be broadcast in early-evening prime-time 3) to feature indomitable women who each time they get knocked down by everything life (more precisely the feckless men in their lives) throws at them, get back up, dust themselves down and do whatever it takes to keep the family (da fahmly(!)) together. So they had the idea of staging the video in a domestic scene with them dressed up like female characters from 'Coronation Street' the longest-running and most famous of all British soaps.
This attempt at humour went right over the heads of the US networks and down like a lead balloon Stateside. MTV banned the video and despite the single reaching #3 in the UK charts and (at least top 5 in all other European charts), it got no higher than #45 in the US. Brian May later commented "After 'I want to break free', we never had another hit in the US."

When Queen got the call to participate in Live Aid, lead singer Freddie Mercury immediately realised the significance of the opportunity presented them, and drilled the band mercilessly to prepare them for the challenge – in huge contrast to the ramshackle performances put in by many participants, notably Duran Duran and Led Zeppelin. Although relatively low down the bill, their 25 minute slot in which they played "Bohemian Rhapsody","Radio Ga Ga","Hammer to Fall", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love","We Will Rock You","We Are the Champions" nonetheless stole the show, and was later named "the world's greatest rock gig" in an industry poll.

The highlight of the highlight was of course Radio Ga Ga. Freddie sings it in F. I'm a 5th lower, in B♭ ☺



They tore down the old Wembley Stadium in 2002. Construction of the new stadium dragged on and on, caused by changes in the brief, and disputes with subcontractors. Finally, the main contractors brought in my brother, David, and within 6 months, put him in charge of the whole project. Within 12 months of him taking over, he was able to hand over the new stadium to its owners, the Football Association.
#proudbrother

When David & I were little boys, our dentist was one Mr Bulsara, Freddie's uncle.
 
The first Folk Concert I ever attended was in 1970 at The Main Point. Theperformer was Michael Cooney. This concert instilled in me a passion for Folk Music that endures til this day. That night I resolved to take up the Banjo some day. The highest complement that can be paid to a Folkie is: "Knows more songs than Cooney"! In 1976 Godfrey Daniels one of the Nation's premier Folk Music venues opened for business. Six years later their landlord decided to sell the building. In order to support Godfreys several of the managers of Folk Clubs in Eastern PA put on benefit concerts to save Godfreys. At the Bothy Club I organized a concert featuring Mike Miller and Michael Cooney. In total the effort garnered over $10,000; enough for Dave Frye to make a down payment on the property. Forty-five years later Godfrey Daniels is still one of the country's premier clubs. Michael Cooney sang this song that night.

 
Another George Harrison composition.His best in my opinion.Reference to the benefit concert for Bangledesh refugees
 
In August 1921, Franklin D. Rooseveltfell ill and was diagnosed with polio. The infectious disease left him with permanent paralysis from the waist down. In 1938 as President F.D.R. started the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to combat polio. The name "March of Dimes" was coined by Eddie Cantor. After use of the polio vaccine became widespread, the foundation expanded its focus to the prevention ofbirth defects and infant mortality, and later also prevention of premature births. I contracted Polio sometime in 1954. It has effected me all my life. I have been a poster Child for both the March of Dimes and the American Red Cross. I have been an advocate of helping folks with disabilities all my Life. The Kingston Trio in its many formulations has done many benefit concerts since the late 1950s but none dearer to my heart than their support for the March of Dimesin 1959.

 
Here's that second video I promised, Linda!

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service recently (on March 5) performed a solo act in a benefit concert for Standing Rock. The proceeds went to the Water Protector Legal Collective.

We are performing "Nothing Better" by The Postal Service. We hope you enjoy it!

 
thank you for this week Linda.
following Brian's lead.
more Paul Kelly.
Sound Relief 2009.
 
Radio Ga Ga (reprise)

The last time I tried to take on Radio Ga Ga, back in 2013, I was battling a chest infection (as then, as now ☹), so I made this video instead and posted it to the Island (tina's Season 86 included a challenge to take on a Queen song). Freddie lived just a couple of blocks from me, and it's a trip from my front door to his...

I wanted to do something for austin1's Season 86, but time & germs were against me. So I did this instead. Hope you'll indulge my self-indulgence:
.


Incidentally, looking again yesterday at that sheet music you see me holding in the video, I noticed for the first time that pretty much the whole song is in Mixolydian mode (the melody goes from so to so rather than do to do – Ionian mode). The only time it switches to Ionian mode is for the last two lines of the chorus (Radio, what's new / Someone still loves you).
Code:
Radio Ga Ga (transposed into C – or to be strictly accurate: into G Mixolydian, 
with occasional modulations into C Ionian!!) 
(Queen)


C Dm7 F Dm7 F C x2 

Dm/C  C 
Rad-i-o

    C 
I'd sit alone, and watch your light
   Dm7 
My only friend, through teenage nights
    F 
And everything, I had to know
  Dm7            F    C 
I heard it on my radi-o.

    C 
You gave them all, those old time stars
        Dm7 
Through wars of worlds, invaded by Mars
    F 
You made 'em laugh, you made 'em cry
    Dm7               F        C 
You made us feel like we could fly
Dm/C  C 
Rad-i-o.

   C 
So don't become, some background noise
  Cm6/Eb 
A backdrop for, the girls and boys
    F 
Who just don't know, or just don't care
    D7/F# 
And just complain, when you're not there
    Csus4 C              Csus4 C 
You had   your time, you had   the power
       G7sus4                   G7 
You've yet to have, your finest hour
F     C  Dm/C  C 
Rad-i-o  Rad-i-o

C/Bb            F     C 
All we hear is, radio ga ga,
F     C        F     C 
Radio goo goo, radio ga ga
Csus4           F     C 
All we hear is, radio ga ga
F     C 
Radio blah blah
Bb          |F    G |
Radio what's new  
Am     Gsus4 G   Gsus2 G     C 
Radio, some- one still loves you


C 
We watch the shows, we watch the stars
   Dm7 
On videos, for hours and hours
   F 
We hardly need, to use our ears
    Dm7           F           C 
How music changes through the years

      C 
Let's hope you never, leave old friend
     Cm6/Eb 
Like all good things, on you we depend
   F 
So stick around, cause we might miss you
    D7/F# 
When we grow tired, of all this visual
    Csus4 C              Csus4 C 
You had   your time, you had   the power
       G7sus4                   G7 
You've yet to have, your finest hour
F     C  Dm    C 
Rad-i-o  Rad-i-o

N.C.
All we hear is, radio ga ga
Radio goo goo, radio ga ga
All we hear is, radio ga ga
Radio goo goo, radio ga ga
C/Bb           F     C 
All we hear is radio ga ga
F     C 
Radio blah blah
Bb          |F    G | 
Radio what's new? 
Am   G   Gsus2 G     C 
Some-one still loves you

C Dm7   F Dm7 F C 
C Cm6/D F D7 

    Csus4 C              Csus4 C 
You had   your time, you had   the power
       G7sus4                   G7 
You've yet to have, your finest hour
F     C 
Rad-i-o 

Bb           F    G 
Radio what's new? 
Am     Gsus4 G   Gsus2 G     C 
Radio, some- one still loves you
 
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In 2004 Green Day were at the peak of their powers and U2 were making a big comeback. American Idiot and How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb had a huge impact on me as a teenager and went on to shape my music tastes in a big way in the years to come. They also helped me look at the world in a different light.

Fast forward a couple years later and both bands come together to play ahead of the first NFL game at the Louisiana Superdome since Hurricane Katrina. In that set, they mashed up the folk song 'House of the Rising Sun' and The Skids' 'The Saints Are Coming'. The gig and match itself was obviously a huge relief for the people of New Orleans after 12 months of hell and they later released the song as a single which raised a lot of money for the relief effort. 14 year-old me had his mind blown. So I absolutely had to cover it for this week.

 
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Good morning and welcome to Day 5 of Season 270! It's an unseasonably cool and rainy morning here on Long Island, but my soul has been warmed listening to those songs that were contributed since I last posted here. Terrific performances, one and all.

We've 58 vids on the Playlist and what fine listening it is. Thank you all for your contributions.

I hope that in our remaining 3 days we'll continue to celebrate the fine contributions musicians have made to various causes round the world. Linda :)
 
Baby Baby - The Vibrators

Another tune covered by the pUKEs - and the final track on our album "Too Drunk To Pluck" - the Vibrators' "Baby, Baby."

A staple of our set, we've performed it on a number of occasions with the Vibrators' very own Knox Carnochan (he wrote it ☺), in support of his charity Rock & Roll Rescue, which raises funds from the sale of rock memorabilia for homeless charities in London and abroad. In this clip from December 2015, we're at London's famous Dublin Castle with Knox guesting on vocals (our sound was a bit much for the camera mic, I'm afraid).

Last September, we performed it at a fundraiser we hosted in support of the Princess Alice Hospice, who looked after Lindsay pUKE in the last months of her life - you can just see Lindsay in the video with Knox (in the clip linked above) in the flat cap far stage right.

The pUKEs play it in C. The Vibrators did it in B. I'm doing it in A.

 
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We interrupt this holiday to bring you another song. Different room, different shirt.
The Clash took this old Sonny Curtis song into the charts in 1979. They played any number of benefit gigs, most famously a huge Rock Against Racism rally at Victoria Park in 1978.
 
Season 270. Submission 3. "Tennessee Waltz" (Words and music by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King, 1948)

Well, a big part of me can't believe I'm going to try to sing this iconic song. So many phenomenal performers have covered this one. Here's a few Wikipedia facts that may be of interest:

The song became a multimillion seller via a 1950 recording – as "The Tennessee Waltz" – by Patti Page. As of 1974, it was the biggest selling song ever in Japan.

"The Tennessee Waltz" entered the Pop Music chart of Billboard dated November 10, 1950 for a 30-week chart run and peaked at number one on the December 30, 1950 chart; the track would remain at number one for a total of nine weeks.

In 1964 "Tennessee Waltz" was recorded in a rock and roll ballad style by Alma Cogan; this version was #1 in Sweden for five weeks and also reached #14 in Denmark while a German language rendering (with lyrics by Theo Hansen) reached #10 in Germany. Cogan's version served as template for the arrangement of the 1974 Danish-language rendering "Den Gamle Tennessee Waltz" by Birthe Kjær which spent 17 weeks in the Top Ten of the Danish hit parade with a two-week tenure at #1 also spending an additional eight weeks at #2. The arrangement of Cogan's version was also borrowed for remakes of "Tennessee Waltz" by Swedish singers Kikki Danielsson (Wizex (on the 1978 album Miss Decibel)[13]) and Lotta Engberg (on the 2000 album Vilken härlig dag)[14] and – with the German lyrics – by Heidi Brühl, Gitte, Renate Kern and Ireen Sheer.

Norah Jones performed "Tennessee Waltz" as an encore during a live show at the House of Blues in New Orleans on August 24, 2002. It is featured as extra material on the following DVD-release of the show.

Leonard Cohen released a live version of "Tennessee Waltz" recorded in 1985– one of the few covers he's ever cut – on his 2004 album Dear Heather; this version featured an additional verse written by Cohen himself.


And I bring it today because Kelly Clarkson has recorded this song. Here's info about a benefit she ran in 2014 (and repeated in 2016) in Nashville:

Clarkson’s first Miracle on Broadway concert took place in Music City in 2014; that year, the event raised $400,000 for the Fruition Fund, established by Clarkson through the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which then distributed funds to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the Monroe Harding Children’s Home, the Second Harvest Food Bank and Thistle Farms. In 2016, proceeds from the Miracle on Broadway will benefit Abe’s Garden, the Nashville Public Library Fund, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee and the W.O. Smith Nashville Community Music School — all charities selected by Clarkson.


 
The Wizard of Oz, (1939) by MGM was not a commercial success, in spite of its six Academy Award nominations and its revolutionary use of Technicolor!

"I'm melting! Melting! Oh, what a world!".

The 1956 broadcast television reintroduced the film to the wider public and eventually made the presentation an annual tradition, making it one of the best known films in movie history.

"Ignore the man behind the curtain!"

The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True was a 1995, benefit concert at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The concert featured guest performers including Jackson Browne as the Scarecrow, Roger Daltrey as the Tin Man, Natalie Cole as Glinda, Joel Grey as the Wizard, Jewel as Dorothy, Nathan Lane as the Cowardly Lion, Debra Winger as the Wicked Witch, and Lucie Arnaz as Aunt Em. The Boys Choir of Harlem appeared as the Munchkins, and Ry Cooder and David Sanborn performed as musicians.
"Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!"
These songlets were originally performed by: , Ray Bolger, Judy Garland, Jack Haley/Buddy Ebsen and Bert Lahr.

"Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my!"


 


Have to admit I worked backwards with this one, Linda. I wanted to do the song, so I looked back to find a benefit concert connection. As it turned out, I found more connections than I expected with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' version. Although Australian, Nick Cave lives in Brighton on the South Coast of England, which is very close to where we lived in the UK. Whilst he has performed in many benefits, the ones that stood out for me were those he has taken part in for the David Lynch Foundation. The aim of the Foundation is to ensure that any child in America who wants to learn and practise the Transcendental Meditation programme can do so. I learnt how to practise TM quite a while ago (at a TM centre in Brighton!) and although I don't do it very frequently, I can see how it would prove very beneficial to any children wishing to learn. So, herewith .... "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart"; and I apologise again for still having a cold!
 
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