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Carl

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Posts posted by Carl

  1. Glen Campbell was one of the most popular and talented entertainers of his time, but his legacy might be in fostering understanding of Alzheimer's disease. When he was diagnosed in 2011, he not only went ahead with his scheduled tour, but extended it indefinitely. It was unprecedented: The audience was told of his condition and prepared for moments of forgetfulness (he used a teleprompter for lyrics). Instead of being pitied, he was celebrated, and he loved it.

    For a while, it went surprisingly well, and at times it even seemed like Campbell was improving. He pulled off an appearance on Leno and a performance at the Grammy Awards, where he was also honored. His last show was in November 2012, when he couldn't stay lucid and it became clear he could no longer perform.

    All of this was documented in the film I'll Be Me, which is a captivating look at his life with a very intimate look at the progression of his disease on his Goodbye Tour. Here's the trailer:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13AslSXg7w

  2. Bennington, a good friend of Chris Cornell, has apparently killed himself in similar fashion. At 41, Bennington left behind six children, and like Cornell, seemed fine beforehand.

    Maybe someday neuroscientists will explain how a switch could flip in the brain to trigger something like this. I always thought accomplishment delivered a sense of self-worth that could prevent this from happening, but there's a lot about brain chemistry I don't know.

    Linkin Park was one of the biggest bands on Songfacts in our early years, and as you can tell in the hundreds of comments on their pages, Bennington's words helped a lot of people through difficult times. He shared his pain so others could conquer theirs.

  3. 1960 - "Shakin' All Over" - Johnny Kidd & the Pirates
    1961 - "Stand By Me" - Ben E. King
    1962 - "Return To Sender" - Elvis Presley
    1963 - "Fingertips (Part 2)" - Stevie Wonder
    1964 - "She's Not There" - The Zombies
    1965 - "I Hear a Symphony" - The Supremes
    1966 - "Lightnin' Strikes" - Lou Christie
    1967 - "Fire" - Jimi Hendrix
    1968 - "Jumpin' Jack Flash" - The Rolling Stones
    1969 - "Kozmic Blues" - Janis Joplin
    1970 - "Big Yellow Taxi" - Joni Mitchell

    Going by release date here. A good way to find a list of songs by year is typing in the date in the search on the main site. The option for "released" will appear like this:

    Screen Shot 2017-07-19 at 12.41.42 PM.png

     

     

  4. Oh shoot. Now you're gonna make me look in the basement to see if I still have any carts lying around. These things were a huge part of my life for many years. Every piece of audio was on these, so during commercial breaks, you'd have to dance around loading them up. If you got in a jam, you'd pull one out without cuing it back up, which meant that if you forgot to put it back in and recue it, the next guy would get the dreaded silence when he played it.

    When the machines got old or if the parts got worn, they would "eat carts," resulting in a tape spaghetti. If it ate a particular song, that tune might drop out of rotation unless it was worth finding the album (or later, CD) and transferring it to another cart. Ah, analog days.

  5. Gregg Allman died yesterday (May 27) at age 69. He made it 45 years longer than his older brother Duane, who was the group's leader. Gregg kept the Allman Brothers Band going until 2014, always adhering to the highest musical standards.

    The music was rich and spacious, often wordless (as a DJ, I fielded many calls after playing "Jessica" from listeners looking for the title). The live shows were astounding, especially if you were lucky enough to catch them in the Beacon Theater, a New York venue with acoustics that seemed custom fit for the band. Gregg's musical legacy is unparalleled, as he was the top dog in the top Southern Rock band of all time.

  6. Chris Cornell was found dead last night sometime after the Soundgarden show in Detroit. Details aren't in yet, but his management described his death as "sudden and unexpected."

    Darkness was a common theme in his songwriting, as heard in tracks like "Outshined," "Black Hole Sun" and "Blow Up The Outside World." Unlike the Kurt Cobain melancholy that sometimes seemed like a cry for help, Cornell always seemed to be upturning that side of his personality to help find the light. In an odd way, these songs could make you feel better. They certainly made you feel something.

  7. Tuesday Trivia today dealt with The Beach Boys: What group had a US #1 hit in the '60s, none in the '70s, then another in the '80s?

    They are the answer thanks to "Kokomo" in 1988, but there was another "Kokomo" long before, by The Flamingoes:

     

    And then there was a composer who called himself Kokomo, who had this hit. Both came in 1961:

     

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