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The Ledge

The Ledge Experience

The Ledge brings an exhilarating new experience to the Skydeck. At 1,353 feet up, The Ledge’s glass boxes extend out 4.3 feet from the skyscraper’s Skydeck on the 103rd floor, providing never-before-seen views of the city. An unmatched view is not all the Skydeck offers. From the moment visitors arrive they enjoy interactive and educational attractions that not only highlight the iconic landmark, but also celebrate Chicago’s sports, architecture, pop-culture, history, food, music and people.

For more information visit http://www.theskydeck.com/theledge.asp

From The Ledge to The Edge…………………

Marley & Me

I read the original version of the book Marley & Me: Life and Love With The World’s Worst Dog, it was later revised to deem it suitable for the kids market, several years ago as the first dog I ever had was a yellow labrador called Blaze who I got when I was 10 years old.

I can still remember picking him up from a farm in Lanark and going back to my grandparents house in Bellshill and watching in awe as he drank a plate of milk.

He was my constant companion until he died of cancer in 1983.

Since then I have had Bergan a Springer Spaniel who was given 6 months to live when he was 2 but lasted until he was 11.

Blue came next the first of two Wiemeraners followed by Bonnie who sadly pased away at the young age of 5 very recently, leaving Blue & Me against the world.

As for the film well as usual I didn’t think it was as good as the book, not necessarily a big criticism as the same applied for both “Fever Pitch” and “High Fidelity” which deal with my other passions relating to football and music.

The film is both funny and sad with the expected tearful ending which was a bit close for comfort given my recent experience with Bonnie.

It did however concentrate the mind on how valuable each day you have with your dog is, after all unlike “Quadrophenia” as a record and Dumbarton FC as club, your dog will not be there forever.

One smal point I really could not deal with Jennifer Aniston as to me she is and always will be Rachel from Friends.

To buy Marley & Me product click HERE

Blast From The Past – Rodriguez

Photograph by Zohar Lindenbaum

On listening to the recent Paolo Nutini album at length it struck me how even the acoustic driven tracks had a soulfulness about them that went beyond the normal singer[songwriter vibe.

It reminded me of the early 70’s cult artist Rodriguez and his output which transgressed, folk, rock, and R&B. His music was somewhere between Richie Havens and the tail end of the Psychedelic era.

His first album “Cold Fact” from 1970 is a particular favourite.

Here is an extract from a biography from a great tribute site to him www.sugarman.org

It seems it generally takes the world around forty years to find out about and recognise some long-neglected Detroit musical legends.

In 2003 this happened when the film called ‘Standing In The Shadows Of Motown’ introduced the world to the Funk Brothers. Never heard of them? Well, this esteemed group of the finest Detroit session musicians of the day was recruited by Berry Gordy as the Motown house band in the ’60’s and played on many of the hits from the Motown label’s Detroit era. In fact, the Funk Brothers played on “…more Number One hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and The Beatles combined” to quote that release’s liner notes.

The Funk Brothers were also linked to another little-known Detroit musical cult figure. In 1969, Bob Babbitt, the bass player for the Funk Brothers, joined other Detroit production luminaries like Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, to help produce ‘Cold Fact’, the debut album by a young Detroit singer-songwriter called Rodriguez. Bob Babbitt is therefore the man responsible for the immortal bassline for ‘I Wonder’. You know … the one that goes duh-duh-duh-duh-da-da-da-dum, duh-duh-duh-duh-da-da-da-dum…

Rodriguez first appeared on the Detroit music scene in 1967 when he released ‘I’ll Slip Away’ on the Impact label, which was incorrectly credited to “Rod Riguez”. In 1969 he went back into the studio and the ‘Cold Fact’ album was completed and released in March 1970 on the Sussex label. With its outspoken lyrics, unforgettable tunes and trippy vibe, it was ahead of its time in many ways with the ‘Sugar Man’ psychedelic trip-out section pre-dating Zeppelin’s similar excursion in ‘Whole Lotta Love’ a year or so later.

Although Rodriguez’ second album, ‘Coming From Reality’, was recorded in London and released two years later with high hopes, both albums soon disappeared off the US radar due to financial problems with his label. With the songs registered to either Jesus Rodriguez (Rodriguez’ brother Jesse) or Sixth Prince (his English alias derived from the Spanish “Sixto Diaz”, Rodriguez’ forenames), the possibility of fame and fortune from the resulting royalties mostly evaporated, leaving Rodriguez’ career finished before it had even started.

But in finest Hollywood style an Australian enthusiast searched out the singer and his albums and established his growing following in both that country and New Zealand. The albums also arrived in Southern Africa where local pressings germinated quickly and strong followings developed in the region. But from the early ’70’s to the late ’90’s Rodriguez was mostly invisible, apart from two successful tours to Oz in 1979 and 1981, which none of his South African fans were aware of. The rest of those years saw Rodriguez working in Detroit, raising his family and running for public office on an independent ticket.

By the ’80’s, many homes in South Africa that had a turntable and a taste for quality pop-rock from artists like Dylan and The Beatles, had a copy of ‘Cold Fact’. Rodriguez first came to fans’ attention through the shock that greeted the line in ‘I Wonder’ that asked: “I wonder how many times you’ve had sex”. That song and that specific lyric were considered very controversial and provocative in those dark, conservative years in ’70’s Apartheid-era South Africa. This situation ensured that his songs received no radio play, but copies of ‘Cold Fact’ sold consistently, hooking new fans to this strange folk singer.

Rodriguez’ music and lyrics had also become a guiding light and inspiration to a generation of South African youth caught up in the Apartheid-era army conscription and subsequent Southern African Border wars. The music and message of ‘Cold Fact’ had become as important to them as that of Jimi Hendrix to the US troops in Vietnam.

Along with the unrequited desire for any information about this new artist came the many rumours about Rodriguez’ demise, all unsubstantiated due to a total lack of facts about him in any of the available pop-rock reference books or magazines of the time. Those who sought information on Rodriguez turned up nothing. But that was before the advent of the Internet and the international pooling of immediately accessible and available knowledge, which is still one of the blessings of the Web.

I was just another South African Rodriguez fan as well and had the added privilege of being nicknamed “Sugar Man” (or just “Sugar”) for a number of reasons, including its similarity to my surname. Living in the Johannesburg suburb called Emmarentia, I often wondered if this mysterious artist had snuck back into South Africa and was possibly that dude who ran El Arish, the pinball cafe on the corner, living off the royalties accumulating from SA sales of his albums.

But generally Rodriguez just remained an unsolved mystery.

In 1994 I had a chance conversation on a Cape Town beach about the surprising unavailability of international copies of the ‘Cold Fact’ CD, which reignited my interest in Rodriguez and sent me searching for the second Rodriguez album, ‘Coming From Reality’. That album had been released in South Africa under the title ‘After The Fact’, but I had never seen or heard it.

The LP copy that I found at a friend’s house was instrumental in the first CD release of that second album and I was commissioned with (Mad) Andy Harrod to write the liner notes for that album. In those liner notes we pondered the whereabouts of Rodriguez and asked if there were “any Musicologist detectives out there” willing to help find this elusive man. Up in Johannesburg a journalist called Craig Bartholomew (Strydom) read those words, contacted me, and we met a while later in Cape Town and agreed to launch a joint search to find Rodriguez.

The search was successful due mainly to the Internet, which offered Craig far more immediate information than before and also due to the website, which we set up, called ‘The Great Rodriguez Hunt’. Through ‘Cold Fact’ producer Mike Theodore, Craig discovered that Rodriguez was alive and well and still living in Detroit. Through the website we connected with Rodriguez’ daughter, Eva, who filled in many of the blanks for us.

Unbeknown to Rodriguez and his family, he had accumulated a huge following in Southern Africa and Australasia through the ’80’s, and on an even broader international scale around the world during the ’90’s due to the mass emigration from SA and the consequent spreading of his music to countries where it had not yet been released.

The increasing demand for copies of the two Rodriguez albums (as well as a SA-only compilation called ‘The Best Of Rodriguez’, and an Australian-only compilation called ‘At His Best’) was helped by the release of ‘Cold Fact’ on CD in Oz in 1986 and then in SA in 1991. In 1996 the ‘After The Fact’ CD was released in SA, followed by the release of ‘Live Fact’, a CD document of Rodriguez’ first SA tour in 1998.

When the Rodriguez story first broke and his first tour to South Africa was approaching in 1998, I met Brian Currin who became my partner in establishing Rodriguez internationally, especially through the Internet. Brian established the official Rodriguez website, then called ‘Climb Up On My Music’, and began populating it with all available Rodriguez information. Brian eventually incorporated ‘The Great Rodriguez Website’, which was the new name for the ‘Great Rodriguez Hunt’, into his site and Rodriguez now had a comprehensive and official website at www.sugarman.org.

The sugarman.org website has subsequently become the central open source online repository where one can find all the Rodriguez accumulated history, info, song lyrics, sheet music, album covers and a place where fans can now buy new versions of all the Rodriguez CD’s. One of the most important features of the website is the Forum section, which is where Rodriguez’ worldwide devotees can share their experiences, thoughts and stories with other fans all over the world.

It has now been 10 years since that chance conversation on the beach about ‘Cold Fact’ which began my part of the Rodriguez story. Since 1994 we have seen Rodriguez returning to South Africa (and Namibia) four times for live concerts. We have also seen all his albums released on CD and made available to his fans all over the world. Rodriguez has featured in a television documentary called ‘Dead Men Don’t Tour’, which was a filmed record of his first SA tour in 1998, and was also the subject of a short feature film called ‘Looking For Jesus‘, which has received numerous showings on satellite TV.

There have also been articles about Rodriguez and ‘Cold Fact’ in Mojo magazine and many other UK publications, but still none to date in Rolling Stone magazine or any major US publications. More recently Rodriguez worked with UK producer David Holmes and the Free Association on a new version of ‘Sugar Man’ in New York. During 2004, he played his first gig in Namibia and a few more in the Cape in South Africa, where his daughter Eva and her South African husband and child now live.

There is no doubt that Rodriguez is currently the world’s biggest cult musician with fans all over the world.

Stephen “Sugar” Segerman,
October 2004

Here are a couple of tracks from that debut album.

“I Wonder” – Rodriguez

I wonder how many times you’ve been had
And I wonder how many plans have gone bad
I wonder how many times you had sex
And I wonder do you know who’ll be next
I wonder I wonder wonder I do

I wonder about the love you can’t find
And I wonder about the loneliness that’s mine
I wonder how much going have you got
And I wonder about your friends that are not
I wonder I wonder wonder I do

I wonder about the tears in children’s eyes
And I wonder about the soldier that dies
I wonder will this hatred ever end
I wonder and worry my friend
I wonder I wonder wonder don’t you?

I wonder how many times you been had
And I wonder how many dreams have gone bad
I wonder how many times you had sex
And I wonder do you know who’ll be next
I wonder I wonder wonder I do

“Rich Folks Hoax” – Rodriguez

The moon is hanging in the purple sky
Baby’s sleeping while its mother sighs
Talking ’bout the rich folks
Rich folks have the same jokes
And they park in basic places

The priest is preaching from a shallow grave
He counts his money, then he paints you saved
Talking to the young folks
Young folks share the same jokes
But they meet in older places

So don’t tell me about your success
Nor your recipes for my happiness
Smoke in bed
I never could digest
Those illusions you claim to have going

The sun is shining, as it’s always done
Coffin dust is the fate of everyone
Talking ’bout the rich folks
The poor create the rich hoax
And only late breast-fed fools believe it

So don’t tell me about your success
Nor your recipes for my happiness
Smoke in bed
I never could digest
Those illusions you claim to have going

To buy the music of Rodriguez click HERE

Blue Monday – Jimmy Reed

Here is another from the great Jimmy Reed, this time one of my all time favourite songs “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” recorded in 1956

“Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” – Jimmy Reed

 

I know I love you baby
I know I love you baby
I know I love you baby
But you don’t even know my name

Yeah listen to me baby, what I say is right,
I could leave home in the morning baby
I won’t stay out all night.
Ain’t that loving you baby
Ain’t that loving you baby
Ain’t that loving you baby
But you don’t even know my name

Yeah listen to me baby, tell you what I’m gonna do
I’m gonna find out if my baby’s all right
And come home to you
Ain’t that loving you baby
Ain’t that loving you baby
Ain’t that loving you baby
But you don’t even know my name

Well baby, you kill me baby, grab me just like you do
I’m gonna travel the railroad across the land
and come on home to you
Ain’t that loving you baby
Ain’t that loving you baby
Ain’t that loving you baby
But you don’t even know my name

Sunday Jazz – Aretha Franklin

No your eyes didn’t deceive you…….yes Aretha Franklin is featured today in Sunday Jazz.

Partly to make up for me bending the genres yesterday to include Louis Jordan in Saturday Soul as the song “Old Age” was appropriate for my birthday I hereby re-address the balance by adding a touch of soul into Sunday Jazz.

Aretha was and remains the Queen of Soul, however, in 1964 she recorded an album called “Unforgettable A Tribute to Dinah Washington” and like Dinah Washington hereself it was a varied collection including a cover of Hank Williams “Cold Cold Heart”  stretching the boundaries of R&B, Blues and Jazz and remains a must have album, though often neglected within Aretha’s vast bounty of recordings.

As Aretha said on the original sleeve notes “I hope this album will give people some idea of the way I felt and will always feel about Dinah”

Here is the title track

“Unforgettable” – Aretha Franklin

To buy the music of Aretha Franklin click HERE

 

To buy the music of Dinah Washington click HERE

Saturday Soul – Old Age

Today I am officially 12 months away from the big 50

Here is Louis Jordan

“Old Age!” – Louis Jordan

To buy the music of Louis Jordan click HERE

circa 1969

Fiona Friday – Rachel Sweet

Fiona just loved Rachel Sweet and by co-incidence I had bought her 1978 debut album “Fool Around” when it was released as it was a picture disc.

However, I was suprised by how much I enjoyed it and four tracks still feature on my iPod here are Fiona’s two favourites.

Cuckoo Clock -  Rachel Sweet

Stay Awhile – Rachel Sweet

 

To buy the music of Rachel Sweret click HERE

Click HERE to visit Bobby Shred’s great Rachel Sweet Tribute Page

Neil Young at Hyde Park

Neil Young’s headlining performance at London’s Hyde Park on Saturday was given an extra special jolt of energy when Paul McCartney unexpectedly joined Young onstage for a rendition of The Beatles‘ psychedelic opus A Day In The Life.

Young has been closing his arena set with the Lennon/McCartney masterpiece for the last 12 months.

Watch McCartney surprise Young onstage below. Punching the air, swaying from side-to-side and even throwing the odd thumbs-up into the air – this really is None More Macca…

 

Original Source www.mojo4music.com

Imelda May – Rockabilly Lives

I am really enjoying the music of Imelda May.

Having fallen in love with rockabilly and the blues as a nine-year-old in Dublin – the only kid in her class who wasn’t into a-Ha and Wet Wet Wet – she’s turned them into a cool, swinging fusion that’s both classic and oddly modern.

Her debut album, “Love Tattoo,” is lusciously retro, but as fresh as 2009.

Visit her website HERE

“Love Tattoo” – Imelda May

To buy the music of Imelda May click HERE

Now whether she is as good as the great Wanda Jackson remains to be seen.

To buy the music of Wanda Jackson click HERE