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Little Star
The Elegants

[Words and Music by Vito Picone and Arthur Venosa]


Where are you little star
(Where are you)

Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh
Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder where you are
Wish I may, wish I might
Make this wish come true tonight
Searched all over for a love
You're the one I'm thinkin' of

Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh
Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder where you are
High above the clouds somewhere
Send me down a love to share

Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh
Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh

Whoa-uh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Oh there you a-a-re
High ab-o-ove
Oh-oh sta-a-ar
Send me a lo-o-o-o-ove
Oh there you a-a-re
Li-i-ighting u-up the sky
I need a lo-o-o-ove
Oh me-oh, me-oh, my-y-y-y

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder where you are
Wish I may, wish I might
Make this wish come true tonight

Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh
Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh

Oh ra, ta, ta
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
There you are little star (ooh)

A big thanks to our Raggedy for reminding us of "lust in the dust" because our erstwhile turtle, M.D. is off to visit the mainland and search for that lust dust. (golly, I wasn't supposed to tell)

edgar, thanks for all three of your songs, Texas. Know Jackie Wilson, buddy.

I recall now that Francis Scott Key and F.Scott Fitzgerald are kin. Here is an unusual song from a group that took their name from an F. Scott novel.

Why We Fight
Artist(Band):Gatsby's American Dream


so we beat on
our boats against the current
so we beat on...
these waters are uncharted bravely we sail alone
riding the storm
clutching honor bearing pride
ocean salt that burns our wounds only this immortal ship will prevail
the sun sinks into distant waters in the west and off to the east the green light shimmers
admist the fog
it stands desolate and harbors broken dreams
which we will defend.

Fact for today. If you wash your car, it's certain to rain.

The Drunken Boat

As I was floating down unconcerned Rivers
I no longer felt myself steered by the haulers:
Gaudy Redskins had taken them for targets
Nailing them naked to coloured stakes.

I cared nothing for all my crews,
Carrying Flemish wheat or English cottons.
When, along with my haulers those uproars were done with
The Rivers let me sail downstream where I pleased.

Into the ferocious tide-rips
Last winter, more absorbed than the minds of children,
I ran! And the unmoored Peninsulas
Never endured more triumphant clamourings

The storm made bliss of my sea-borne awakenings.
Lighter than a cork, I danced on the waves
Which men call eternal rollers of victims,
For ten nights, without once missing the foolish eye of the harbor lights!

Sweeter than the flesh of sour apples to children,
The green water penetrated my pinewood hull
And washed me clean of the bluish wine-stains and the splashes of vomit,
Carring away both rudder and anchor.

And from that time on I bathed in the Poem
Of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk,
Devouring the green azures; where, entranced in pallid flotsam,
A dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down;

Where, suddenly dyeing the bluenesses, deliriums
And slow rhythms under the gleams of the daylight,
Stronger than alcohol, vaster than music
Ferment the bitter rednesses of love!

I have come to know the skies splitting with lightnings, and the waterspouts
And the breakers and currents; I know the evening,
And Dawn rising up like a flock of doves,
And sometimes I have seen what men have imagined they saw!

I have seen the low-hanging sun speckled with mystic horrors.
Lighting up long violet coagulations,
Like the performers in very-antique dramas
Waves rolling back into the distances their shiverings of venetian blinds!

I have dreamed of the green night of the dazzled snows
The kiss rising slowly to the eyes of the seas,
The circulation of undreamed-of saps,
And the yellow-blue awakenings of singing phosphorus!

I have followed, for whole months on end, the swells
Battering the reefs like hysterical herds of cows,
Never dreaming that the luminous feet of the Marys
Could force back the muzzles of snorting Oceans!

I have struck, do you realize, incredible Floridas
Where mingle with flowers the eyes of panthers
In human skins! Rainbows stretched like bridles
Under the seas' horizon, to glaucous herds!

I have seen the enormous swamps seething, traps
Where a whole leviathan rots in the reeds!
Downfalls of waters in the midst of the calm
And distances cataracting down into abysses!

Glaciers, suns of silver, waves of pearl, skies of red-hot coals!
Hideous wrecks at the bottom of brown gulfs
Where the giant snakes devoured by vermin
Fall from the twisted trees with black odours!

I should have liked to show to children those dolphins
Of the blue wave, those golden, those singing fishes.
- Foam of flowers rocked my driftings
And at times ineffable winds would lend me wings.

Sometimes, a martyr weary of poles and zones,
The sea whose sobs sweetened my rollings
Lifted its shadow-flowers with their yellow sucking disks toward me
And I hung there like a kneeling woman...

Almost an island, tossing on my beaches the brawls
And droppings of pale-eyed, clamouring birds,
And I was scudding along when across my frayed cordage
Drowned men sank backwards into sleep!

But now I, a boat lost under the hair of coves,
Hurled by the hurricane into the birdless ether,
I, whose wreck, dead-drunk and sodden with water,
neither Monitor nor Hanse ships would have fished up;

Free, smoking, risen from violet fogs,
I who bored through the wall of the reddening sky
Which bears a sweetmeat good poets find delicious,
Lichens of sunlight [mixed] with azure snot,

Who ran, speckled with lunula of electricity,
A crazy plank, with black sea-horses for escort,
When Julys were crushing with cudgel blows
Skies of ultramarine into burning funnels;

I who trembled, to feel at fifty leagues' distance
The groans of Behemoth's rutting, and of the dense Maelstroms
Eternal spinner of blue immobilities
I long for Europe with it's aged old parapets!

I have seen archipelagos of stars! and islands
Whose delirious skies are open to sailor:
- Do you sleep, are you exiled in those bottomless nights,
Million golden birds, O Life Force of the future? -

But, truly, I have wept too much! The Dawns are heartbreaking.
Every moon is atrocious and every sun bitter:
Sharp love has swollen me up with heady langours.
O let my keel split! O let me sink to the bottom!

If there is one water in Europe I want, it is the
Black cold pool where into the scented twilight
A child squatting full of sadness, launches
A boat as fragile as a butterfly in May.

I can no more, bathed in your langours, O waves,
Sail in the wake of the carriers of cottons,
Nor undergo the pride of the flags and pennants,
Nor pull past the horrible eyes of the hulks.

- As translated by Oliver Bernard: Arthur Rimbaud, Collected Poems (1962).

How about a little Doris Day?
A Guy Is A Guy sung by Doris Day

I walked down the street like a good girl should
He followed me down the street like I knew he would
Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be
So listen and I'll tell you what this fella did to me

I walked to my house like a good girl should
He followed me to my house like I knew he would
Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be
So listen while I tell you what this fella did to me

I never saw the boy before
So nothin' could be sillier
At closer range his face was strange
But his manner was familiar

So I walked up the stairs like a good girl should
He followed me up the stairs like I knew he would
Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be
So listen and I'll tell you what this fella did to me

I stepped to my door like a good girl should
He stopped at my door like I knew he would
Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be
So listen while I tell you what this fella did to me

He asked me for a good-night kiss
I said, "It's still good day"
I would have told him more except
His lips got in the way

So I talked to my ma like a good girl should
And Ma talked to Pa like I knew she would
And they all agreed on a married life for me
The guy is my guy wherever he may be

So I walked down the aisle like a good girl should
He followed me down the aisle like I knew he would
Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be
And now you've heard the story of what someone did to me

And that's what he did to me

My, God, edgar. Do you want to give us nightmares with that Drunken Boat song? Those were very, and I mean VERY "come to life lyrics", Texas.

Victor, your song was a silver foil to that of edgar's. Thanks, buddy. I think I had rather dream about a guy being a guy than a leviathan rotting in the reeds.

Well, the fireworks show was canceled here because of high winds. I think we'll survive it.

My goodnight song will be about a ship of pearl, folks.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes


Goodnight, my friends

From Letty with love

There's A Moon Out Tonight
The Capris

[Words and Music by Al Striano, Joe Luccisano and Al Gentile]

There's a (moon out tonight) whoa-oh-oh ooh
Let's go strollin'
There's a (girl in my heart) whoa-oh-oh ooh
Whose heart I've stolen
There's a moon out tonight (whoa-oh-oh ooh)
Let's go strollin' through the park (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)

There's a (glow in my heart) whoa-oh-oh ooh
I never felt before
There's a (girl at my side) whoa-oh-oh ooh
That I adore
There's a glow in my heart I never felt before (ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh)

Oh, darlin'
Where have you been
I've been longin' for you all my life

Whoa-uh-oh baby, I never felt this way before
I guess it's because there's a moon out tonight

There's a (glow in my heart) whoa-oh-oh ooh
I never felt before
There's a (girl at my side) whoa-oh-oh ooh
That I adore
There's glow in my heart
I guess it's because

There's a moon out tonight
Moon out tonight
Moon out tonight
Moon out tonight
There's a moon out tonight

Good morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

What a defunct celebration we had here, folks. Nothing but rain and lack of light.

As a matter of fact, edgar, there was...


No moon at all, what a night
Even lightnin' bugs have dimmed their lights
Stars have disappeared from sight
And there's no moon at all

Don't make a sound, it's so dark
Even Fido is afraid to bark
What a perfect chance to park
And there's no moon at all

Should we want atmosphere for inspiration, dear
One kiss will make it clear
That tonight is right and bright moonlight might interfere

No moon at all way up above
This is nothin' like they told us of
Just to think we fell in love
And there's no moon at all

Should we want atmosphere for inspiration, dear
One kiss will make it clear
That tonight is right and bright moonlight might interfere

No moon at all up above
Aww, this is nothin' like they told us of
Just to think we fell in love
And there's no moon at all

Aww, there's no moon at all
There is no moon at all
No moon at all


The sun is up, however, and maybe today can be saved.

P. T. Barnum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 - April 7, 1891), was an American showman who is best remembered for his entertaining hoaxes and for founding the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Barnum is the title of an award winning Broadway musical based on P. T. Barnum's life and exploits. He is also represented in the Hollywood film "Gangs Of New York."





Barnum the showman

Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut, the son of inn- and store-keeper Philo Barnum (1778-1826) and third great grandson of Thomas Barnum (1625-1695), the immigrant ancestor of the Barnum family in North America. Barnum first started as a store-keeper, and was also involved with the lottery mania then prevailing in the United States. After failing in business, he started a weekly paper in 1829, The Herald of Freedom, in Danbury, Connecticut. After several libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in imprisonment, he moved to New York City in 1834. In 1835 began his career as a showman with his purchase and exhibition of a blind and almost completely paralyzed African-American slave woman, Joice Heth, claimed by Barnum to have been the nurse of George Washington, and to be over a hundred and sixty years old.

With this woman and a small company he made well-advertised and successful tours in America until 1839, though Joice Heth died in 1836, when her age was proved to be not more than eighty. After a period of failure he purchased Scudder's American Museum, at Broadway and Ann Street, New York City, in 1841. Renamed "Barnum's American Museum" with a considerable addition of exhibits, it became one of the most popular showplaces in the United States. He made a special hit in 1842 with the exhibition of Charles Stratton, the celebrated midget "General Tom Thumb", as well as the Fiji Mermaid which he exhibited in collaboration with his Boston counterpart Moses Kimball. His collection also included the original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker. In 1843 Barnum hired the traditional Native American dancer Do-Hum-Me. During 1844-45 Barnum toured with Charles Stratton in Europe and met with Queen Victoria. A remarkable instance of his enterprise was the engagement of Jenny Lind to sing in America at $1,000 USD a night for one hundred and fifty nights, all expenses being paid by the entrepreneur. The tour began in 1850, and was a great success for both Lind and Barnum.


Barnum retired from the show business in 1855, but had to settle with his creditors in 1857, and began his old career again as showman and museum proprietor. In 1862 he discovered the giantess Anna Swan but on July 13, 1865, Barnum's American Museum burned to the ground. Barnum quickly reestablished the Museum at another location in New York City, but this too was destroyed by fire in March 1868. In Brooklyn, New York in 1871 with William Cameron Coup, he established "P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome", a traveling amalgamation of circus, menagerie and museum of "freaks", which by 1872 was billing itself as "The Greatest Show on Earth". It went through a number of variants on these names: "P.T. Barnum's Travelling World's Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome and Greatest Show On Earth", and after an 1881 merger with James Bailey and James L. Hutchinson, "P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth, And The Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal British Menagerie and The Grand International Allied Shows United", soon shortened to "Barnum & London Circus". He and Bailey split up again in 1885, but came back together in 1888 with the "Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth", later "Barnum & Bailey Circus", which toured around the world. The show's primary attraction was Jumbo, an African elephant he purchased in 1882 from the London Zoo.

Barnum built four mansions in Bridgeport, Connecticut during his life: Iranistan, Lindencroft, Waldemere and Marina. Iranistan was the most notable: a fanciful and opulent splendor with domes, spires and lacy fretwork, inspired by the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, England. This mansion was built 1848 but burned down in 1857.

Barnum died on April 7, 1891 and is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut. A statue in his honor was erected in 1893 at Seaside Park, by the water in Bridgeport. Barnum had donated the land for this park in 1865. His circus was eventually sold to Ringling Brothers on July 8, 1907 for a price of $400,000 USD.


Barnum the author and debunker

Barnum wrote several books, including The Humbugs of the World (1865), Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and The Art of Money-Getting (1880).

Mass publication of his autobiography was one of Barnum's more successful methods of self-promotion. The autobiography was so popular that some people made a point of acquiring and reading each edition. Some collectors were known to boast they had a copy of every edition in their library. Barnum eventually gave up his claim of copyright to allow other printers to publish and sell inexpensive editions. At the end of the 19th century the number of copies printed of the autobiography was second only to the number of copies of the New Testament printed in North America.

Often referred to as the "Prince of Humbugs", Barnum saw nothing wrong in entertainers or vendors using hype (or "humbug", as he termed it) in their promotional material, just as long as the public was getting good value for its money. However, he was contemptuous of those who made money through fraudulent deceptions, especially the spiritualist mediums popular in his day. Prefiguring illusionists Harry Houdini and James Randi, Barnum publicly exposed "the tricks of the trade" used by mediums to deceive and cheat grieving survivors. In The Humbugs of the World, he offered a $500 reward to any medium who could prove their claimed power to communicate with the dead without trickery.


Barnum the politician and reformer

Barnum was significantly involved in the politics surrounding race, slavery, and sectionalism in the period leading up the American Civil War. As mentioned above, he had some of his first success as an impresario through his slave Joice Heth. Around 1850, he was involved in a hoax about a weed that would turn black people white.

Barnum was involved (both as performer and promoter) in blackface minstrelsy. According to Eric Lott, Barnum's minstrel shows were often more double-edged in their humor than most at this period. While still replete with racist stereotypes, Barnum's shows also satirized white racial attitudes, as in a stump speech in which a black phrenologist (like all performers in the show, actually a white man in blackface) made a dialect speech paralleling and parodying lectures given at the time to "prove" the superiority of the white race: "You see den, dat clebber man and dam rascal means de same in Dutch, when dey boph white; but when one white and de udder's black, dat's a grey hoss ob anoder color." (Lott, 1993, 78)

Promotion of minstrel shows led indirectly to his sponsorship in 1853 of H.J. Conway's politically watered-down stage version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin; the play, at Barnum's American Museum, gave the story a happy ending, with Tom and various other slaves freed. The success of this Uncle Tom led, in turn, to his promotion of a production of a play based on Stowe's Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp. By 1860, Barnum had become a Republican.

While he claimed "politics were always distasteful to me," Barnum was elected to the Connecticut legislature in 1865 as the Republican representative for Fairfield and served two terms. In the debate over slavery and African-American suffrage with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Barnum spoke eloquently before the legislature and said, in part, "A human soul is not to be trifled with. It may inhabit the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab or a Hotentot - it is still an immortal spirit!" He ran for the United States Congress in 1867 and lost. In 1875, Barnum was elected mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut for a one year term and worked vigorously to improve the city water supply, bring gaslighting to the streets, and strictly enforce liquor and prostitution laws. Barnum was instrumental in starting Bridgeport Hospital, founded in 1878, and served as its first president. P.T. Barnum died in 1891.

Warren Oates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Warren Oates (July 5, 1928 - April 3, 1982) was an American character actor.


Biography

Born and raised in Depoy, Kentucky near Greenville in Muhlenberg County, he enlisted in the Marines in the 1950s. He became a successful character actor in Westerns, including several directed by Sam Peckinpah including Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), and The Wild Bunch (1969). In 1962, he appeared as "Ves Painter" in the short-lived TV Series Stoney Burke.

Other popular films he appeared in were In the Heat of the Night (1967), Dillinger (1973), and Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973). He appeared in the Sherman Brothers musical version of Tom Sawyer as "Muff Potter" the town drunk. He was in Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and Stripes (1981). He is now mostly known for his roles in several movies which have acquired cult status, including The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), The Hired Hand (1971), and four Monte Hellman films: The Shooting (filmed in 1965, released in 1968), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), Cockfighter (1974), and China 9, Liberty 37 (1978).

He died of a sudden heart attack in Los Angeles, California on April 3, 1982. His last two films, Blue Thunder and Tough Enough (both released in 1983), were posthumously dedicated to him. Oates was 53 years old.

Shirley Knight
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Shirley Enola Knight
Born July 5, 1936 (1936-07-05) (age 71)
Goessel, Kansas, USA
Other name(s) Shirley Knight Hopkins
Years active 1959-present
Spouse(s) John Hopkins 1969-1998
Gene Persson 1959-1969
Notable roles Phyllis Van De Kamp, Desperate Housewives
Mrs. Ashboro, Ghost Cat
Elenora Davis, Angel Eyes
Emmy Awards

Outstanding Supporting Actress - Miniseries or a Movie
1995 Indictment: The McMartin Trial
Tony Awards

Best Featured Actress in a Play
1976 Kennedy's Children

Shirley Enola Knight (born July 5, 1936, Goessel, Kansas) is an American actress who made her film debut in 1959. The following year she was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, and again, in 1962, for her role as Paul Newman's sweetheart in Sweet Bird of Youth.

She also appeared in Sidney Lumet's The Group (1966), Richard Lester's Petulia (1968) and Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People (1969).

In the 1960s she abandoned Hollywood in favor of the Broadway stage, but she has since returned to film as Helen Hunt's mother in As Good As It Gets, and to television in a number of programs, including as Faith Ford's mother in Ford's failed sitcom Maggie Winters, and on series such as Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Desperate Housewives as Bree Van De Kamp's mother-in-law Phyllis Van De Kamp.

She has two daughters, Kaitlin Hopkins and Sophie Hopkins, by two different marriages, both are also actors. Sophie is daughter of the writer John Hopkins.

Robbie Robertson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born 5 July 1943
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genre(s) Folk-rock
Country rock
Affiliation(s) The Band
Label(s) Geffen
Years active 1958 - Present
Official site Artist Website at Capitol Records

Robbie Robertson (born Jaime Robert Robertson, 5 July 1943, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known for his membership in The Band.




Biography

Early life

Born to a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother, (he took his stepfather's last name after his mother remarried), Robertson had his earliest exposure to music at Six Nations 40, Ontario, where he spent summers with his mother's family. He studied guitar from his youth and was writing songs and performing from his teen years.

By 1958, Robertson was performing in various groups around Toronto. By 1959 he had met singer Ronnie Hawkins, who headed up a band called The Hawks (after relocating to Canada). In 1960 he joined the group, which toured often, before splitting from Hawkins in 1963.

The quintet styled themselves as The Canadian Squires and Levon and the Hawks [1], but (after rejecting such tongue-in-cheek names as The Honkies and The Crackers), ultimately called themselves The Band.


The Band

Bob Dylan hired The Band for his famed, controversial tours of 1965 and 1966, his first wide exposure as an electrified rock and roll performer rather than his earlier acoustic folk sound. Robertson's distinctive guitar sound was an important part of the music; Dylan famously praised him as "the only mathematical guitar genius I've ever run into who doesn't offend my intestinal nervousness with his rearguard sound."

From their first album, Music from Big Pink (1968), The Band was praised as one of rock music's preeminent groups. Rolling Stone magazine praised The Band and gave its music extensive coverage. Robertson sang only a few songs with The Band, but was the group's primary songwriter, and was in the later years of the Band often seen as the de facto bandleader.

In 1976, Robertson decided to break up The Band, reporting that he was exhausted by nearly sixteen years touring with them. In the Martin Scorsese film The Last Waltz (1978) he noted that he had been playing live rock and roll music almost since rock and roll began. Also, as the band's chief song-writer, he was able to live off the song royalties, and no longer needed to tour. The Band reformed in 1983 without Robertson.


Solo Career

From 1987 onwards, Robertson released a series of four solo albums that began with a self-titled album. In 1990, he contributed to Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto's album Beauty.

On 9 February 2002, Robertson performed "Stomp Dance (Unity)" as part of the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

At the 2003 commencment ceremonies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Robertson delivered an address to the graduating class and was awarded an honorary degree by the university. In 2006, he announced plans to write his autobiography.

In 2003, Robertson was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Robertson has three children and has been married to Québécoise Dominique Bourgeois since 1968 - despite a two-and-a-half year separation when he and Last Waltz director Martin Scorsese lived a "bachelor" lifestyle in Scorsese's Mulholland Drive house (during editing on "The Last Waltz.")


Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese was hired to direct The Last Waltz based on his use of music in Mean Streets. The two lived together during the editing of Waltz and became friends. Scorsese had later admitted that during the editing process, the two of them were under heavy drug use. Scorsese hired Robertson to compose the musical score for his 1980 film Raging Bull. Robertson would later work on Scorsese's movies The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Casino and The Departed, and act as executive music director for Gangs of New York.

Huey Lewis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Background information
Birth name Hugh Anthony Cregg III
Also known as Robbie Lewis
Lew Welch
Huey Cregg
Kid Lewis
Born July 5, 1950 (1950-07-05) (age 57)
Origin San Francisco, California, United States
Genre(s) Rock
Pop
Blue-eyed soul
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) Harmonica
Vocals
Years active 1967 - Present
Label(s) Chrysalis
EMI America
Elektra
Jive
Capitol
Associated
acts Clover, Thin Lizzy, Ray Parker Jr., Orleans, King Harvest
Website hln.org
Notable instrument(s)
Acoustic Guitar
Arp
Harmonica

Huey Lewis (born Hugh Anthony Cregg, III on July 5, 1950) is an American musician and occasional actor. He sings lead vocals and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis & The News, a rock group based in San Francisco, California that was the highest-selling American band of the 1980s by singles.[citation needed] The band is perhaps best remembered in American popular culture by their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future, as well as Bret Easton Ellis' 1991 novel American Psycho, which devotes an entire chapter to the band. Huey Lewis also played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.




Biography

Lewis was born in San Francisco and raised in Marin County, California, attending Strawberry Point Elementary School (where he skipped second grade) and Edna Maguire Junior High School in Mill Valley. His mother, Magda Cregg, was the girlfriend of poet Lew Welch, and his maternal grandfather had gained some success as the inventor of the red wax protective sealant used on certain varieties of cheese. When he was 13, his parents divorced and he was sent to an East Coast prep school instead of going to Tamalpais High School with his classmates. He graduated from Lawrenceville School (N.J.) in 1967 with a perfect score of 800 on the math portion of the SAT.[1] Lewis applied to and was accepted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In an interview with David Letterman,[2] Lewis talked about hitchhiking across the country to New York and how he learned to play the harmonica while waiting for rides. He talked about hanging out at the airport for three days until he stowed away on a plane to Europe. In Europe, Lewis became an accomplished blues player and he hitchhiked around and supported himself by busking with his harmonica. He gave his first concerts in Europe, earning enough money to buy a plane ticket back to the USA.

On his return, Lewis entered Cornell University, joining the engineering program. While there, he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen, who later played with Orleans and King Harvest. Lewis soon lost interest in college, however. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm, and in December 1969, during his junior year, he dropped out of Cornell, moving back to the San Francisco area. His aim was to continue playing music, but along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry and natural foods.

In 1971, Lewis joined the Bay Area band Clover. Around this time he took the name Huey Lewis. The Lewis is for his mother Magda Cregg's boyfriend, Beat Generation poet Lew(is) Welch, whom he considered his stepfather. Sean Hopper joined the band in 1972; other members of the band were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Mickey Shine and Marcus David. Lewis played harmonica with the band and only sang lead vocals on a few tunes. Clover's main rival band (which developed into a friendly rivalry) was Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Mario Cipollina, and Bill Gibson were band members).

In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to Los Angeles. They had their "big break" in a club there when their act was caught by Nick Lowe, who convinced Clover to travel to Britain with him. However, Clover was not successful in Britain, and the band arrived just as their folk-rock sound (known as pub rock in Britain) was being replaced by punk rock. They recorded two albums for the British Phonogram label; both albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, but they both bombed.

While Huey went on vacation, the rest of Clover backed Elvis Costello on his debut album My Aim is True. The band returned to California, McFee joined the Doobie Brothers, and Clover disbanded.

Huey Lewis played harmonica on Thin Lizzy's 1978 landmark album Live and Dangerous. That same year, Lewis was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club in Corte Madera, California, doing the 'Monday Night Live' spot, along with future members of the News. After recording the song "Exo-Disco" (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus), Huey landed a 'singles contract' from Phonogram Records, and Bob Brown became his manager. Huey Lewis and the American Express formed in 1979, with the same line-up as the News. The band played a few gigs (including an opening for Van Morrison), but on Brown's advice, they changed their name again. Huey Lewis and the News became their moniker.

After a failed self-titled debut in 1980, the band finally broke through to Top 40 success with the gold album Picture This (1982) riding to #13 on the Albums chart thanks to the Mutt Lange-penned "Do You Believe In Love" (#7), which became the band's first hit.

The band's third LP, the #1 Sports (1983), is one of the best-selling pop releases of all time. It has sold ten million copies in the US alone.[3] It was followed up by Fore! (1986), another #1 multi-platinum smash.

Huey Lewis successfully sued Ray Parker, Jr. over similarities between Parker's theme for the 1984 movie Ghostbusters and Lewis' own "I Want A New Drug".

Lewis produced Nick Lowe's 1985 cover of "I Knew The Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)". Huey Lewis and the News provided backup vocals and played on the song. He and his bandmates also performed on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single "We Are the World", and spent the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s adding to an impressive string of 14 Top-20 Billboard Hot 100 hits and releasing two more hit albums: Small World (1988) #11 and Hard At Play (1991) #27. By the time the band released their critically-acclaimed album of cover songs Four Chords & Several Years Ago (1994) #55, their chosen lower profile and lack of promotion from new label Elektra saw their Top 40 appeal dip for good, yet they have endured as one of America's top drawing live acts[citation needed] and have continued to have the occasional hit on adult contemporary radio.

As well as singing lead vocals and playing harmonica with the band, Lewis also writes or co-writes many of the band's songs.

Huey Lewis has sung with Umphrey's McGee at several shows beginning with the 2005 Jammys and is featured on two tracks of their album Safety In Numbers.

The band, now in self-proclaimed semi-retirement, still plays 80+ U.S. dates a year, with an occasional European tour. The average fee for Huey Lewis & The News to play a private college-sized show is around US$200,000, considerably more than a lot of more recent top 40 artists.

On February 13, 2007, Huey was interviewed on the podcast series "Stuck in the 80s," during which he revealed that the band has written several new songs that they plan to record next year, though he states that, given how much the industry has changed since their last album, he's unsure at this point how they will sell the new material.[4]


Acting

Lewis has made appearances in several movies. The first was a cameo in Back to the Future (1985), as a judge in the Hill Valley High School band audition. The band also recorded two songs for the soundtrack, including the hit "The Power of Love". Huey's second movie appearance was in Short Cuts (1993), in which Lewis had a much more significant role.

Lewis also made an appearance in the music video for Reba McEntire's 1992 single 'Is There Life Out There' as Reba's husband.

In addition, Lewis appeared in the first few minutes of the movie Sphere (1998) as the helicopter pilot. After that role, he had a large part in Shadow of a Doubt (1998) which appeared on Showtime. He had an uncredited role in Dead Husbands (1998) as the husband killed during the opening credits. He did not appear in Die Hard (1988), although Dennis Hayden, the actor who plays one of the terrorists (the one who poses as the Nakatomi lobby security guard) bears a striking resemblance to Lewis and is often mistaken for the singer.

Duets (2000) was probably Lewis' largest role in a major Hollywood feature film. In it, he played Gwyneth Paltrow's father, Ricky Dean, a karaoke hustler. Duets led to the smash-hit duet "Cruisin'" (a cover of the Smokey Robinson classic) with Paltrow. Unreleased as a single, the song nevertheless reached the top spot on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Chart. Next, he appeared in a film, .com for Murder, starring Nastassja Kinski.

Most recently Huey made his Broadway debut in the six-time Tony award-winning musical Chicago, starring as attorney Billy Flynn.


Personal life

He has been married to Sidney Conroy since 1984, and resides in Ross, California. He has two children: Kelly (born 1983) and Austin (born 1985). His interests include golf, baseball, fishing, owning a Racing car, and a Harley Davidson.

Important Thoughts Occur to Me

- If "What goes up, must come down," then why's my bathroom scale lying to me?

- If the auto repairman can't fix your brakes, maybe he should make your horn louder!

- If "A fool and his money are soon parted," then how to explain Bill Gates and Donald Trump?

- When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane!!!

- Why do we only celebrate fools on April 1?

- 58.3 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

- How much deeper would the ocean be without all those sponges?

- Remember, half the people you know are below average.

- He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

Good morning, Boston Bob. Thanks again for the great bio's, and hope that you and Nair had a great celebration in honor of Independence Day.

Loved your little reminders, hawkman, especially the April fools observation.

Well, listeners, until our Raggedy arrives with her famous faces, here is a great song from Robbie Robertson.

He was born in the belly of the country
Over east of Eden
Confused by the big city blues
He didn't know whose life he's leading
Put yourself behind the wheel

See if you can get that feel
Move faster by night
Move faster by night
The windows were all shattered
And the body was all battered

American Roulette
Stake your life upon it
American Roulette
Same eyes, same eyes
American Roulette

Take that body and put him in a mansion
Paint the window black
Give him all the women that he wants
Put a monkey on his back
All of your so called friends
Take you where the sidewalk ends
Can't sleep at night
Can't sleep at night
Lord please save his soul
He was the king of Rock and Roll

American Roulette
Stake your life upon it
American Roulette
Same eyes, same eyes
American Roulette

They said she didn't have a chance in hell
For the American Dream
There's a thousand young blondes out there
Trying to make it to the silver screen
She had the walk, the look, the talk
That shook the world (Read about it)
Some like it hot
Some like it cool
Too much to her to handle
Another scandal, she burnt the candle

American Roulette
Stake your life upon it
American Roulette
Same eyes, same eyes
American Roulette

Say a prayer for the lost generation
Who spin the wheel out of desperation

American Roulette
Stake your life upon it
American Roulette
Same eyes, same eyes
American Roulette

haven't found any dust yet, but came across lots of snacks i shouldn't eat.

M.D., Welcome back. Just glad that you ain't dust in the wind.

What are those, Yit? French fried potato chips? Well, here's one for you by Cheryl Wheeler.

They're red, they're white, they're brown
They get that way underground
There can't be much to do
So now they have blue ones too

We don't care what thay look like we'll eat them
Any way they can fit on our plate
Every way we can conjure to heat them
We're delighted and think they're just great

Refrain
Poh tay toe Poh tay toe Poh tay toe Poh--
Tay toe poh Tay toe poh Tay toe poh Tay--
Toe poh tay Toe poh tay Toe poh tay Toe--
Poh tay toe Poh tay toe Poh tay toe!

Sometimes we ditch the skin
To eat what it's holding in
Sometimes we'd rather please
Have just the outside with cheese

They have eyes but they do not have faces
I don't know if their feelings get hurt
By just hanging around in dark places
Where that only can stare at the dirt

Refrain

I guess the use is scant
For other parts of the plant
But that which grows in view
Is eating potato too

I imagine them under their acres
Out in Idaho and up in Maine
Maybe wondering if they'll be bakers
Or knishes or latkes or plain

Refrain


.

Here's one by the original leader of the Drifters.


Clyde Mcphatter & Drifters - A Lover's Question

Does she love me, with all her heart
should I worry, when we're apart
it's a lover's question, I'd like to know.

Does she need me, as she pretends
is this a game, well then will I win
it's a lover's question, I'd like to know

I'd like to know when she's not with me
if she's still true to me
I'd like to know when we're kissing
does she feel just what I feel,
and how am I to know it's really real.

Oh, tell me where, the answer lies
is it in her kiss or in her eyes
it's a lover's question I'd like to know.

I'd like to know when she's not with me
if she's still true to me
I'd like to know when we're kissing
does she feel just what I feel,
and how am I to know it's really real.

Oh, tell me where, the answer lies
is it in her kiss or in her eyes
it's a lover's question I'd like to know.

I luvs Marty Robbins.

Ride, cowboy, ride
Don't ride too slow
Tucson's a mighty long way yet to go
He started his long ride in Prescott
The sun was a hundred or more
On down he rode at full gallop
Into the flat desert floor
Driving the big herd to Flagstaff
In Prescott the letter was there
Happiness soon would be sorrow
Sad news the letter did bear
Ride, cowboy, ride
Don't go too slow
Ride, cowboy, ride
You've a long way to go
Your darlin' now lies on her deathbed
Racked by fever and pain
Reaching for you at her bedside
At each breath she's callin' your name
Forward he leaned in the saddle
Pushing through misquete and sage
His head never raised for a reading
As he passed the Wickenburg stage
Ride, cowboy, ride
Don't ride too slow
Tucson's a mighty long way to go
In Phoenix he traded horses
Now on the back of this roan
He could see visions of Tucson
His darlin' and their lovely home
Ride, cowboy, ride
Don't ride too slow
There's still a hundred and twenty to go
In through the ranch gate he galloped
And without breaking his stride
He bounded out of the saddle
And rushed to his sweet darlin's side
Then as the dyin' girl saw him
A smile came over her face
Holding her hand as it tightened
Barely had he won the race
Ride, cowboy, ride
On through the blue
Ride, cowboy, ride
She'll be waiting for you
Ride, cowboy, ride
On through the blue
Ride, cowboy, ride
She'll be waiting for you