CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SONG WAS BANNED BY US RADIO STATIONS?

 The Curmudgeon, in a recent post mentioned a couple of one-hit wonders that still resonate:

There are some others that I like - and, thinking of them this morning there's one song that I can't get out of my mind - 'A horse with no name' by America.

Now. I know that America had other songs and maybe hits but this song is the only one I can think they did.

Wikipedia informs me that:

"Originally called "Desert Song", "Horse" was written while the band was staying at the home of studio musician Arthur Brown, near Puddleton, Dorset. The first two demos were recorded there by Jeff Dexter and Dennis Elliott, which were intended to capture the sensation of the hot, dry desert that had been depicted in a Salvador Dali painting, and in a picture by M.C. Escher which featured a horse. Writer Dewey Bunnell also says he remembered his childhood travels through the Arizona and New Mexico desert when his family lived at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Bunnell has explained that "A Horse with No Name" was "a metaphor for a vehicle to get away from life's confusion into a quiet, peaceful place"."

OK, probably a bit too much information but for the music geeks in this blogging community - two thirds of the community at last count here's some incomprehensible music blurb:

"Blah blah blah blah blah Robert blah blah blah blah Richard blah blah bla ....."

Sorry, I was still thinking of that Gary Larson cartoon that The Curmudgeon posted - the one that Robert either didn't read or didn't understand.

Here's the Wikipedia quote I was looking for.

"Composition.

"A Horse with No Name" was recorded in E minor with acoustic guitars, bass guitar, drum kit, and bongo drums. The only other chord is a D, fretted on the low E and G strings, second fret. A 12-string guitar plays an added F♯ (second fret, high E string) on the back beat of the Em. A noted feature of the song is the driving bass line with a hammer-hook in each chorus. A "waterfall"-type solo completes the arrangement. Produced by Ian Samwell on the day of final recording at Morgan Studios, when at first the group thought it was too corny and took some convincing to actually play it. Gerry Beckley has explained in 'Acoustic Guitar' magazine (March 2007) that the correct tuning for the guitar is D E D G B D, low to high. The chord pattern that repeats throughout the entire song is: 202002 (Em), then 020202 and 000202. The tuning is unique to this song; they did not use it on any other America song."

Got that.? Maybe you should just go back and listen to the song again.

Here's a relevant cartoon I like:

 

HEY YOU!

Hey you, out there in the cold

Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?

Well, not us today. We've had a cracker of a day here - probably the hottest for a while. I know that Richard will complain about the brevity of this post but then, who's he to talk? His frequency of posting seems nowadays to be directly opposite to his frequency of urination in the middle of the night. Let's just be thankful that he doesn't blog in bed.

I must admit that this post was inspired by The Twitter Curmudgeon's new post OI YOU!

Have a nice evening.

ACCIDENTALS

 No doubt Richard and Robert, being musicians or at least musically oriented, have many stories about the silly things that they've done while playing their instruments and mistakes and disasters that have befallen them. It's only natural.

I'm not a musician, only a listener to music but I've done some silly things in album purchasing, concert attendance and choice of listening.

Here are some of them.

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Back in about 1984 I went into a record store (remember those?) in Queen street Auckland to buy two albums - Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Welcome to the Pleasuredome and Bronski Beat's The Age of Consent. The songs from these albums were hits on the radio at the time and I liked the Two Tribes song of Frankie's  and Smalltown Boy of Bronski's.

When I took these to the counter and purchased them I was aware of the shop assistant making some smart remark (which I could't hear) to his colleague and his smirking manner. I didn't think much of it at the time but later, when I discovered that both of these albums were Gay 'anthems' the penny dropped. I wish that I'd know at the time because I would have thrown them back at him and asked to cancel the sale. This would have nothing to the gay thing but everything to do with the tosser's attitude. I liked the songs and still do:

Thinking back on it I was a bit naive as to the content of the songs and albums but at the time always listened to the music stations when driving and I guess approached the music in a superficial way.

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In about 2000 The Old Girl and I went to a concert at the Bruce Mason Centre in Auckland to 'see' St Germaine play. Some friends encouraged this and bought the tickets. We'd heard the music at their place once from an album titled Tourist.

We arrived on time but it seemed to take ages for the 'band' to arrive and eventually there was just one guy, a stage hand we assumed, who came on to tinker with the electronic equipment and to do sound checks. This went on for ages as the lights dimmed. We waited and waited for the band to come on stage while this turkey did more checks and made more sounds and were getting quite indignant. After about 15 minutes, when he briefly stopped and the audience applauded did we realise that this was St Germaine. It was a 'house/Jazz' DJ thing. The guy has the stage name St Germaine. His actual name is Ludovic Navarre. After a lot more noise we eventually recognised some of the music but overall weren't impressed. We left early.

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In 2012 we had an apartment in Auckland Central close to the Town Hall. The Old Girl asked me if I wanted to go to the Lucinda Williams concert at the town hall. "Hell yeah" I answered and so she bought some good tickets in the Circle with a good view of the stage.

When we arrived, with some friends, I said to the others that The audience didn't look quite like Lucinda Williams followers. They looked at me funny. It wasn't until we went in that I realised that I didn't know anything about Lucinda Williams at all.

I had been thinking of Tracey Chapman so was very disappointed.

I didn't like Lucinda Williams. My C&W tastes run more to Bonnie Raitt and Emmy-Lou Harris both of whom I've seen in concerts.

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One of my favourite bands in the  early days was Jethro Tull so when I saw that Ian Anderson was to play in concert, again at The Auckland Town Hall I rushed to get a ticket.

Here's what happened.

THICK AS A BRICK

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Well that's a few that come to mind. There are many more, not even counting the silly stuff that I (and I guess we all) listened to when very young like The Moody Blues. If there's enough interest I'll do a follow up post later.