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I have a deep affection for the 5th Dimension’s Billy Davis, Jr. and Marilyn McCoo. They are highly underrated, and the whole group — which introduced many of Laura Nyro and Jimmy Webb’s classic songs — should be in the Rock Hall and Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Questlove of the Roots just featured them in his documentary, “Summer of Soul,” and rightly so. They were pioneers of pop R&B with amazing voices.
Marilyn and Billy have just recorded an album of songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, a great idea called “Blackbird: Lennon-McCartney Icons.” Their first single, for Valentine’s Day, is “Silly Love Songs.” Billy really gets to show off his still amazing tenor. The rest of the album is coming this spring with some leads of course by Marilyn, one of the great pop singers of all time.
You know, the 5th Dimension was like the flipside to the Mamas and vice versa. Only the 5th D actually was more successful.
Stay tuned for rest of this album, it’s going to be a great one.
And what a Valentine this is! Marilyn and Billy have been happily married for 51 — yes FIFTY ONE — years!!!!
Chick Corea, the jazz great, has died at age 79 from what his family says is a rare form of cancer. Chick was heavily into Scientology so we always hope he was getting the proper treatment.
There are dozens of Chick Corea albums and projects but my favorite were with Return to Forever. I was lucky to see them a few years ago at the Blue Note. Altogether he won 23 Grammy Awards, and was a favorite at the Grammy show every year. They were all deserved. Check out the video below. An immense talent.
His family’s Facebook post is here:
“It is with great sadness we announce that on February 9th, Chick Corea passed away at the age of 79, from a rare form of cancer which was only discovered very recently.
Throughout his life and career, Chick relished in the freedom and the fun to be had in creating something new, and in playing the games that artists do.
He was a beloved husband, father and grandfather, and a great mentor and friend to so many. Through his body of work and the decades he spent touring the world, he touched and inspired the lives of millions.
Though he would be the first to say that his music said more than words ever could, he nevertheless had this message for all those he knew and loved, and for all those who loved him:
“I want to thank all of those along my journey who have helped keep the music fires burning bright. It is my hope that those who have an inkling to play, write, perform or otherwise, do so. If not for yourself then for the rest of us. It’s not only that the world needs more artists, it’s also just a lot of fun.
“And to my amazing musician friends who have been like family to me as long as I’ve known you: It has been a blessing and an honor learning from and playing with all of you. My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly—this has been the richness of my life.”
Chick’s family will of course appreciate their privacy during this difficult time of loss.”
The Impeachment trial is doing great things for MSNBC.
Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell are still still trouncing Fox News’ Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham at night. Handily.
Last night, Maddow had 4.453 million viewers vs. a lowly 2,782,000 for Hannity at 9pm. In the hour following, O’Donnell continued the lead with 3,185,000 vs Laura Ingraham’s 2,321,000.
This is so great but completely the inverse of what it was a year ago. Or even six months ago. With Trump out of the White House, and his real crimes exposed, Fox News is drifting away.
The numbers were similar for Monday and Tuesday, and all of last week as well.
Figures for daytime show MSNBC leading the Impeachment coverage ahead of CNN and all other networks. Fox doesn’t cover the trial very well, and often cuts away to talk about butterflies and dog food and whether Jon Scott is a real person.
Meantime, Suzanne Scott re-signed as head of news, scotching the rumors that David Rhodes would take over. The signal is that Fox News will double down on fantasy and keep losing viewers until Rupert Murdoch can be neutralized by his sons.
UPDATE: “Love Story” will be available beginning at midnight tonight followed by the full “Fearless” album with six new songs from the vault. This should pose a massive problem for Shamrock Capital, the investment fund that spent $300 million on the original masters, buying them from Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta.
Earlier:
Get ready, Swifties.
Taylor Swift is making a special announcement on “Good Morning America” Thursday between 7 and 9am.
Her fans expect that she is dropping the first of her re-records, possibly “Love Story” from 2008’s “Fearless” album. It’s possible the whole album is done.
Swift is retaliating against her old record label, Big Machine, which kept her master recordings and sold them to hedge fund rather than sell them to her. So she’s embarked on a mission to re-record all her records up through 2019’s “Lover” album. The fans will buy them all up, the streaming services will offer them side by the side with the originals, and the people who bought the masters from Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun will turn around and sue them for not understanding that their $300 million has burst into flames.
Anyway, that’s the plan. So stand by and set your alarms. This is called Swift Justice.
PS Yes, this is the same Taylor Swift who had the two biggest selling albums of 2020 with “Folklore,” “Evermore,” and their spin-offs.
Michael Jackson fans know all too well the saga of how Michael bought what was called ATV Music from Sir Lew Grade in the 1980s. ATV’s biggest asset was Northern Songs, aka the Beatles catalog that consisted of 250 or more Lennon and McCartney songs.
In 1995, needing money after spending lavishly for years and making settlements over accusations of child molestation, Michael’s lawyers cut a deal to merge with what was known as Sony Music. Michael turned that deal into a piggy bank from which he borrowed and leveraged over and over until he lost control of everything.
Sadly, Michael died in 2009. In 2016, Sony acquired the Michael Jackson estate’s 50% share of Sony/ATV, making it a wholly owned Sony company.
And now, Sony is dropping the ATV part of the name. They own the Beatles catalog, mission accomplished. They got the goose that lays the golden egg. Sir Lew Grade is but a memory, as is Dick James, who owned Northern Songs with the Beatles until it was sold to Grade in 1969. Did Sir Lew and Dick know that the Beatles would become the combined Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart of pop music? That six decades later, music publishers would desire their catalog as if it were the Ring in Lord of the Rings?
UPDATEThe Asbury Park Press reports that Bruce’s blood alcohol level was extremely low– 0.02– a quarter of the limit. The legal threshold indicating intoxication for driving purposes in New Jersey is .08, which calls into question why Springsteen was even charged with driving while intoxicated, their source wondered.
EARLIER
Jeep has pulled their two and a half minute Bruce Springsteen commercial. It’s the fallout from the news that Springsteen was arrested for a DWI in November 2020.
There were three charges involving driving drunk in an enclosed area, Gateway National Park in New Jersey. The park was closed, there was presumably no one around. But Springsteen has to answer the charges in court before the end of this month.
I wrote earlier that the whole incident was much ado about nothing, and I believe that as far as Bruce is concerned. Luckily, no actual harm was done.
It pains me to say this but there will be questions raised now about the commercial. Did Springsteen’s management tell Jeep when they signed the contract that Bruce had been arrested? Would Jeep have gone through with the deal knowing their spokesman had a DWI to plead?
And how much did Jeep pay for Bruce’s sponsorship? I wondered a few days ago if the number could be $20 million? Whatever it is, will it be rescinded?
“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on the details of a matter we have only read about and we cannot substantiate,” a spokesman for Jeep said in a statement. “But it’s also right that we pause our Big Game commercial until the actual facts can be established,” she said. “Its message of community and unity is as relevant as ever. As is the message that drinking and driving can never be condoned.”
The fact that Jeep seems to know nothing about all of this is very alarming. It’s hard to believe that Bruce et al didn’t tell them about the arrest, but that seems to be the case, at least for now.
Bruce Springsteen has always been a model public citizen. I’ve seen him do so many heroic and menschy things over the years, I can only extend him the benefit of the doubt. I hope everyone else will do that, too. But he may not receive free maintenance on his Jeeps anytime soon.
Madonna’s kids are growing up and going to school, some have graduated or least made their way through a curriculum.
The Material Mom must have been happy that daughter Lourdes, aka Lola, went to the State University of New York at Purchase. She donated $50,000 to the Purchase Foundation in 2018.
Lola attended the school between 2016-19 and was in the dance program. Recently she signed with Creative Artists Agency.
The SUNY Purchase donation turned up in Madonna’s 2018 tax filing for her Ray of Light Foundation. In addition the school donation, Madonna also gave the Lycee Francaise on Manhattan’s Upper East Side a little bonus of $10,000. She’s been doing that for years, and sending her kids there. I’m sure they say, Merci beaucoup.
Madonna’s still heavily involved in the shady Kabbalah Center. She donated $160,000 to them. Madonna’s given Kabbalah millions and millions over the years despite the group’s scandals and financial investigations.
All together, the very generous singer donated $725,000 to various charities including $5,000 to her friend, Rosie O’Donnell’s Broadway Kids (she should give more there, frankly), plus $200,000 to a group called Creating Hope International in Dearborn, Michigan. They describe themselves as assisting local organizations that work at the grass roots level in Afghanistan and India.
Taylor Swift and every female singer songwriter working today for the last five decades should be observing this week as a holy holiday. Fifty years ago today, Carole King released “Tapestry.” Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary release of Carly Simon’s first of many hits, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be.”
In April, we’ll have have the 50th celebration of Joni Mitchell’s “Blue.”
1971 was a watershed year for pop composers. The entire year consisted of classic after hit, on the singles and album charts. The year began with George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass.” The other Beatles followed suit with Paul McCartney’s “Ram” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” all over the radio. The man who connected Carole, Carly and Joni, James Taylor, would hit in May with “Mud Slide Slim” and his own version of Carole’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”
What a time! And those lists don’t include the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” or Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World”– a song we just heard day and night in commercials– or Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On'” or Rod Srewart’s “Maggie May.” Almost the entire foundation for the popular music we know was laid in 1971.
“Tapestry” was released in February, but didn’t make it to number 1 right away. But when it did, the run was extraordinary. Carole took number 1 on June 19th. “Tapestry” stayed there until September 25th. It wasn’t like Carole came out of nowhere. For seven weeks a little earlier in the year, Janis Joplin’s “Pearl” had had an incredible run at number 1, spurred by the performer’s death the previous fall and a monster hit single, “Me and Bobby McGee.”
When “Tapestry” took off, Joni Mitchell was already a well known quantity. She’d written the Judy Collins hit, “Both Sides Now.” She was a sucess d’estime with songs like “The Circle Game.” Everyone knew her from “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock.” Joni wouldn’t be a commercial success until 1974, and “Court and Spark.”
No, at that moment in February 1971, it was all about Carole and Carly. While “It’s Too Late” and “I Feel the Earth Move” went up the charts as a double A-side– two sides of a single getting number radio play simultaneously — Carly Simon came floating up on the air on a cloud. “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be” was so confessional and autobiographical, it seemed, everything stopped when it played. You literally said to people, “Listen to this,” when it came on the radio.
The “Carly Simon” album is good, but it’s not the best one Simon released in 1971. Like Taylor Swift now, Carly was prolific and determined. In late summer she issued “Anticipation,” maybe 2,000 times better than its predecessor with the title track hit and ten other endlessly memorable songs like “Legend in Your Own Time.”
It was still 1971. Before the year ended, Carole rejoindered with her excellent “Music” album and the game was on. For the next six or seven years, Carly, Carole and Joni, and many others created the canon of singer songwriters. A year later, Simon would drop “No Secrets” with “You’re So Vain,” and turn a corner into blockbuster-hood. Produced by Richard Perry, it remains the signature single of the 70s. The lyrics are still be debating. The production equals the best of Phil Spector and Wagner.
Here’s something you may not know. Carly told me when I interviewed her in 1989 that she and Carole almost made an album together. Carly wrote the lyrics but nothing came of it in the end.
I’d like to say I heard about all this, or read it somewhere. But I must admit, I was there. I was turning 14 and music was literally flowing from everywhere. Did we know it would become classic? Yes, I think so, instantly, we knew we had this run of quality and adventure and experiment not just with these people but with Santana, and Eric Clapton and Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway, not to mention two Aretha Franklin albums, and so many more. It was a magical time in creativity.
The Academy Awards are going to be very different this year, as they should.
“In this unique year that has asked so much of so many, the Academy is determined to present an Oscars like none other, while prioritizing the public health and safety of all those who will participate,” an Academy spokesperson said. “To create the in-person show our global audience wants to see, while adapting to the requirements of the pandemic, the ceremony will broadcast live from multiple locations, including the landmark Dolby Theatre. We look forward to sharing more details soon.”
With Zoom available, and actors scattered all over the world, this makes sense. Plus Steven Soderbergh is one of the producers, he knows how to do this, and Stacey Sher can execute any plan. It’s very possible to imagine multiple locations like New York, London, Australia, etc. Maybe even from Nomadland! The foreign language nominees could actually be at home and accept their awards.
Awards shows are going to be forever changed by the pandemic. I think, in a good way. The Oscars embrace a global gestalt already. This will really make them worldwide. Alas, no after parties. Vanity Fair will have to settle for a Zoom event. Madonna will, too. Those, however, won’t work so well.
The Oscars are on ABC April 25th live from the Dolby Theater and everywhere!
Bruce Springsteen was ticketed for a DWI back in November. What was he doing? He was driving around Gateway National Park in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The park is closed.
TMZ is delighting in this scoop. But it’s much ado about nothing. Bruce is human, he probably had cabin fever like everyone else. A closed parking lot is the perfect place to let off steam.
Did Jeep know about it? I’ve no doubt that Springsteen and management told the car marker and ad agency what happened before they taped their Super Bowl commercial. I doubt Jeep cares. What Bruce got caught for sounds like a Jeep thing to do, really.
More importantly, Bruce will be appearing virtually this weekend on Facebook Live for the Light of Day Foundation. He’s joining Joe Grushecky and special guests Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. The date is Saturday. Here’s the link.
