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The Greatest

By Cat Power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItHkO-giOdE


Once I wanted to be the greatest
No wind of waterfall could stall me
And then came the rush of the flood
Stars of night turned deep to dust

Melt me down
Into big black armour
Leave no trace of grace
Just in your honour
Lower me down
To culprit south
Make 'em wash a space in town
For the lead
And the dregs of my bed
I've been sleepin'
Lower me down
Pin me in
Secure the grounds
For the later parade

Once I wanted to be the greatest
Two fists of solid rock
With brains that could explain
Any feeling

Lower me down
Pin me in
Secure the grounds
For the lead
And the dregs of my bed
I've been sleepin'
For the later parade

Once I wanted to be the greatest
No wind of waterfall could stall me
And then came the rush of the flood
Stars of night turned deep to dust
[The Greatest Lyrics on

Good morning, WA2K listening audience.

Amigo, what a great song. It does read like poetry, and I particularly like the line "...dregs of my bed." Thanks, buddy for the Cat Power.

It is COLD here in Florida, folks, and it should be, right?

It seems that one of my favorite poets was born on this day, so lets begin the day with one of his poems.

FLOWERS IN WINTER

by: John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

HOW strange to greet, this frosty morn,
In graceful counterfeit of flower,
These children of the meadows, born
Of sunshine and of showers!

How well the conscious wood retains
The pictures of its flower-sown home,
The lights and shades, the purple stains,
And golden hues of bloom!

It was a happy thought to bring
To the dark season's frost and rime
This painted memory of spring,
This dream of summertime.

Our hearts are lighter for its sake,
Our fancy's age renews its youth,
And dim-remembered fictions take
The guise of present truth.

A wizard of the Merrimac,--
So old ancestral legends say,--
Could call green leaf and blossom back
To frosted stem and spray.

The dry logs of the cottage wall,
Beneath his touch, put out their leaves;
The clay-bound swallow, at his call,
Played round the icy eaves.

The settler saw his oaken flail
Take bud, and bloom before his eyes;
From frozen pools he saw the pale
Sweet summer lilies rise.

To their old homes, by man profaned
Came the sad dryads, exiled long,
And through their leafy tongues complained
Of household use and wrong.

The beechen platter sprouted wild,
The pipkin wore its old-time green,
The cradle o'er the sleeping child
Became a leafy screen.

Haply our gentle friend hath met,
While wandering in her sylvan quest,
Haunting his native woodlands yet,
That Druid of the West;

And while the dew on leaf and flower
Glistened in the moonlight clear and still,
Learned the dusk wizard's spell of power,
And caught his trick of skill.

But welcome, be it new or old,
The gift which makes the day more bright,
And paints, upon the ground of cold
And darkness, warmth and light!

Without is neither gold nor green;
Within, for birds, the birch-logs sing;
Yet, summer-like, we sit between
The autumn and the spring.

The one, with bridal blush of rose,
And sweetest breath of woodland balm,
And one whose matron lips unclose
In smiles of saintly calm.

Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!
The sweet azalea's oaken dells,
And hide the banks where roses blow
And swing the azure bells!

O'erlay the amber violet's leaves,
The purple aster's brookside home,
Guard all the flowers her pencil gives
A live beyond their bloom.

And she, when spring comes round again,
By greening slope and singing flood
Shall wander, seeking, not in vain
Her darlings of the wood.

Brrrrrrr!

The Inner Light

Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth
Without looking out of my window
I could know the ways of heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth
Without looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Arrive without travelling
See all without looking
Do all without doing

George Harrison

edgar, thanks for the reminder of George, and I especially like the line, "....without going out of my door, I can know all things on earth..."

In another area of our forum, edgar just announced that Dan Fogelberg has died. My son will be sad, I'm afraid, as am I.

Song of the Sea

Broken clouds along the blue horizon
The sun is setting and the wind is dying down
Outward bound, there is music all around
Can you hear it, its the song of the sea

Soundings taken at the edge of darkness
The widest silences the heart can ever hear
You can steer to the stars along your lee
Set you bearings to the, the song of the sea

Oh and the song is as ancient as the days
And the winds upon the waves
Let it carry you away, so far away

Trim my sails to greet the breaking morning
Past the headlands to the rolling open sea
And it comes to me, I have never felt so free
As when Im listening to the, the song of the sea

Oh and the song is as ancient as the days
And the winds upon the waves
Let it carry me away, so far away

Some were meant to watch the world from windows
And never look beyond the road beneath their feet
But for me, I was always meant to be
One forever chasing the song of the sea

The song of the sea
The song of the sea

Appropriate for Dan and may he be on that sea still singing.

Good morning WA2K.

Feeling sad about Dan Fogelberg. I have a cassette recording of a dear friend, who passed away a few years ago, my daughter and I singing along with Dan's record, "Run for the Roses", our favorite. Also loved "Leader of the Band", "Longer" and "Same Old Lang Syne.

Recalling:
"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" from Whittier's "Maud Miller"

"'Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, / But spare your country's flag!' she said." from Whittier's "Barbara Frietchie"

and Wishing Happy Birthday to:

Eugene Levy, (61) Canadian Emmy- and Grammy Award-winning actor, television director, producer, musician and writer (SCTV and Second City Toronto); Wes Studi, ( 60) U.S. actor/director of Native American descent (Geronomo, Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves, et al; and Bill Pullman, (50) American actor (Ruthless People, Spaceballs, While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day, et al.)





Missing Bobsmythhawk's bios. Hope all is well.

John Greenleaf Whittier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born December 17, 1807
Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States
Died September 7, 1892
Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, United States
Occupation Writer

John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 - September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and forceful advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States.





Life and work

He was born to John and Abigail (Hussey) at the rural homestead in Haverhill, Massachusetts on December 17, 1807. He grew up on the farm in a household with his parents, a brother and two sisters, a maternal aunt and paternal uncle, and a constant flow of visitors and hired hands for the farm. During the winter term, he attended the district school, and was first introduced to poetry by a teacher.

Whittier became editor of a number of newspapers in Boston and Haverhill, as well as the New England Weekly Review in Hartford, Connecticut, the most influential Whig journal in New England. His first two published books were Legends of New England (1831) and the poem Moll Pitcher (1832). In 1838, a mob burned Whittier out of his offices in the antislavery center of Pennsylvania Hall in Philadelphia.[1]

Highly regarded in his lifetime and for a period thereafter, he is now largely remembered for his patriotic poem Barbara Frietchie and for a number of poems turned into hymns. Although Victorian in style, his hymns exhibit sentimentality, imagination and universalism which differ from other 19th century hymns[citation needed]. Another widely known piece is Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, taken from his poem The Brewing of Soma. Whittier's Quaker beliefs are illustrated by the hymn that begins:


Broadside publication of Whittier's Our Countrymen in Chains

O Brother Man, fold to thy heart thy brother:
Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there;
To worship rightly is to love each other,
Each smile a hymn, each kindly word a prayer.

Also shown in his poem "To Rönge" in honour of Johannes Ronge, the German religious figure and rebel leader of the 1848 rebellion in Germany:

Thy work is to hew down. In God's name then:
Put nerve into thy task. Let other men;
Plant, as they may, that better tree whose fruit,
The wounded bosom of the Church shall heal.

Whittier died on September 7, 1892 in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He is buried in Amesbury, Massachusetts.[citation needed]


Legacy

A bridge named for Whittier, built in the style of the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges spanning Cape Cod Canal, carries Interstate 95 from Amesbury to Newburyport over the Merrimack River. The city of Whittier, California, the community of Whittier, Alaska, the Minneapolis neighborhood of Whittier and the town of Greenleaf, Idaho were named in his honor. Both Whittier College and Whittier Law School are also named after him. In addition, an elementary school in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Berkeley, California bear his name. From 1922 to 2007, there was also a Whittier Elementary in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Whittier's hometown of Haverhill, Massachusetts has named many buildings and landmarks in his honor including J.G. Whittier Middle School, Greenleaf Elementary, and Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School. Whittier's family farm, John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead also called "Whittier's Birthplace" is now a historic site open to the public as is the John Greenleaf Whittier Home, his residence in Amesbury for 56 years.

The alternate history story P.'s Correspondence (1846) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, considered the first such story ever published in English, includes the notice "Whittier, a fiery Quaker youth, to whom the muse had perversely assigned a battle-trumpet, got himself lynched, in South Carolina". The date of that event in Hawthorne's invented timeline was 1835.

Ray Noble
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information

Birth name Raymond Stanley Noble
Born December 17, 1903
Origin Brighton, England, USA
Died April 3, 1978
Genre(s) Jazz
Occupation(s) Bandleader, Composer, Arranger, Actor
Associated
acts Al Bowlly

Ray Noble (December 17, 1903 - April 3, 1978) was a British bandleader, composer, arranger and actor. Noble studied music at the Royal Academy of Music and became leader of the HMV Records studio band in 1929. The band, known as the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day. The most popular vocalist with Noble's studio band was Al Bowlly.

The Bowlly/Noble recordings achieved popularity in the United States. Union bans prevented Noble from taking British musicians to America so he arranged for Glenn Miller to recruit American musicians. The American Ray Noble band had a successful run at the Rainbow Room in New York City with Bowlly as principal vocalist.

Bowlly returned to England but Noble continued to lead bands in America, moving into an acting career portraying a stereotypical upper-class English idiot. His last major successes as a bandleader came with Buddy Clark in the late 1940s.

Noble wrote both lyrics and music and contributed "Love Is The Sweetest Thing" and "Cherokee" to the rolls of great popular music. His song "The Very Thought Of You" is among the greatest of all popular songs and the recording by Al Bowlly with Noble's studio orchestra is incomparable. Another significant recording of the song was made by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, on her 1961 album Ella Swings Gently with Nelson.

Ray Noble was also an arranger who scored a lot of record hits in the 1930s: "Easy to Love" (1936), "Mad About the Boy" (1932), "Paris in the Spring" (1935).

Noble and Bowlly's 1934 recording of "Midnight, the Stars and You" was prominently featured on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining in 1980.

For another sample of a Noble/Bowlly classic, the 1931 song "Guilty" can be found on the Amélie film soundtrack.

Noble played the piano but seldom did so with his orchestra. In a movie short from the 1940s featuring Ray Noble and Buddy Clark (one of his most popular band singers), Ray Noble is asked by the announcer to play one of his most popular hits. He sits down at the piano and plays "Goodnight Sweetheart" ("Goodnight sweetheart, 'til we meet tomorrow. Goodnight sweetheart, parting is such sorrow"). This is the song that once seemed to be played at the end of every high school and college prom, the end of every party featuring live music, and the last song played by a dance band to signal the end of the evening.

Although Noble was no singer, he did appear twice as an upper crust Englishmen on 2 of his more popular New York records, 1935's Top Hat and 1937's Slumming on Park Avenue.

Noble also provided music for many radio shows like The Charlie McCarthy Show and Burns and Allen, where in addition to leading the band he played a somewhat "dense" character who was in love with Gracie Allen. His catchphrase was "Gracie, this is the first time we've ever been alone together."

Eugene Levy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born December 17, 1946 (1946-12-17) (age 61)
Hamilton, Ontario
Spouse(s) Deborah Divine (1977-)
[show]Awards
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program
1982, 1983 SCTV Network
Grammy Awards
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
2004 A Mighty Wind
Other Awards
NYFCC Award for Best Supporting Actor
2003 A Mighty Wind

Eugene Levy (born December 17, 1946) is a Canadian Emmy- and Grammy Award-winning actor, television director, producer, musician and writer. He is known for his work in Canadian television series, American movies and television movies.




Biography

Early life

Levy was born to a Jewish family[1] in Hamilton, Ontario, the son of a homemaker mother and an automobile plant foreman father. He went to Westdale Secondary School, and attended McMaster after his graduation. He studied film at Connecticut College and graduated in 1969. He was vice president of the McMaster Film Board, a student film group where he met moviemaker Ivan Reitman.


Career

An alumnus of both Second City Toronto and the classic sketch comedy series SCTV, Levy often plays unusual supporting characters with nerdish streaks. Perhaps his best known role on SCTV was as the dimwitted Earl Camembert, a news anchor for the "SCTV News". Celebrities impersonated by Levy on SCTV include: Perry Como, Ricardo Montalban, Alex Trebek, Sean Connery, Howard Cosell, Henry Kissinger, Menachem Begin, Bud Abbott, Milton Berle, Gene Shalit, Jack Carter, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Tony Dow, James Caan, Lorne Greene, Rex Reed, Ralph Young (of Sandler and Young), F. Lee Bailey, Ernest Borgnine, former Ontario chief coroner Dr. Morton Schulman, Norman Mailer and Howard McNear as "Floyd the Barber".

Other memorable Levy characterizations were serious comic Bobby Bittman, scandal sheet entrepreneur Dr. Rawl Withers, "report on business" naïf Brian Johns, 3-D horror auteur Woody Tobias Jr., cheerful Leutonian accordionist Stan Schmenge, lecherous dream interpreter Raoul Wilson, hammer-voiced sports broadcaster Lou Jaffe, diminutive union patriarch Sid Dithers, fey current-events commentator Joel Weiss, buttoned-down panel show moderator Dougal Currie, smarmy Just for Fun emcee Stan Kanter, energetic used car salesman Al Peck and inept dance show host Rockin' Mel Slirrup.

Though he has been the "above the title" star in only two films, 1986's Armed and Dangerous and 2005's The Man, he has featured prominently in many films. He is the co-writer and frequent cast member of Christopher Guest's mockumentary features, particularly A Mighty Wind, where his sympathetic performance as a brain-damaged folksinger won kudos. In the 1980s, he appeared in Splash, National Lampoon's Vacation, Club Paradise, Stay Tuned and other comedies. Levy was the creator of Maniac Mansion, a television sitcom based on the LucasArts video game of the same name.

His career received a tremendous boost in 1999, when he was cast as the clueless but loving dad in the sleeper blockbuster American Pie. He reprised the role for the film's two sequels, and starred in three straight-to-video sequels, becoming something of a cult hero in the process. Levy has since worked with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah in Bringing Down the House, and most recently appeared with Martin in Cheaper by the Dozen 2.

Levy (along with Christopher Guest and Michael McKean) was awarded the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media for music they composed for A Mighty Wind. Levy appeared in the corner of a poster hanging outside the movie theatre in Springfield in the "See Homer Run" episode of The Simpsons. (The poster was advertising for Rockstar Princess and featured a girl with an electric guitar, with Levy in the corner wearing a royal crown. A liner note under him read "Eugene Levy as the King").

In March 2006, it was announced that he would receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2002, the entire cast of SCTV was given a group star, and although Levy is not mentioned on the actual star, he was still inducted as a part of the group. This makes him one of only three two-time honourees, alongside fellow SCTV alumni John Candy and Martin Short.

Levy has won five Canadian Comedy Awards, including two for Best Writing (Best In Show in 2001 and A Mighty Wind in 2004) and three for Best Male Performer (Best in Show, American Pie 2 in 2002 and A Mighty Wind).


Personal life

His son, Dan Levy, is one of the hosts of Canada's MTV Live, and his nephew, Shawn Levy is a film producer and director.

Levy was a close friend of John Candy. He is an advocate for autism treatment.

Wes Studi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Wesley Studie
Born December 17, 1947 (1947-12-17) (age 60)
Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, USA
Years active 1988-present
Spouse(s) Maura Dhu

Wesley "Wes" Studi (born December 17, 1947) is a U.S. actor of Native American descent.

Born in Nofire Hollow, Oklahoma, Studi was schooled at Chilocco Indian Boarding School in Northern Oklahoma. Until he attended grade school, he spoke only Cherokee. In 1967, he was drafted into the Army and served 18 months in Vietnam. After his discharge, Studi studied at Tulsa Junior College.

He is best known for his roles as both brave and vicious Indians, such as the Pawnee warrior in Dances with Wolves and Magua in The Last of the Mohicans (1992). In 2002, Studi brought to life the legendary Tony Hillerman character Lt. Joe Leaphorn, for a series of PBS movies produced by Robert Redford.

In 2005, he portrayed a character inspired by the Powhatan warrior Opechancanough in The New World, a 2005 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Terrence Malick, and starring Colin Farrell. The historical adventure is set during the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia settlement and includes other characters inspired by historical figures, notably Captain John Smith (Farrell) and Pocahontas. Much of the film was shot at locations in James City County and Charles City County, not far from where the first permanent English colony in the New World was established at Jamestown beginning on May 14, 1607.

In addition to acting, Studi is a stone carver, an author of two children's books, and plays bass in a local band.

Bill Pullman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born December 17, 1953 (1953-12-17) (age 54)
Hornell, New York

William Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American film and television actor.





Biography

Early life

Pullman was born in Hornell, New York, the son of Johanna (née Blaas), a nurse, and James Pullman, a physician. His father's family descends from England and his maternal grandparents were immigrants from Holland.[1] After graduating from Hornell High School in 1971, he attended the State University of New York at Delhi and the State University of New York at Oneonta in the 1970s. He eventually received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Pullman taught theater at SUNY Delhi and Montana State University. When he was 28, he moved to New York City to pursue an acting career.


Career

During the 1980s, he primarily worked with theatre companies around New York and Los Angeles, California. His first prominent movie role was in the film Ruthless People (which starred Danny DeVito and Bette Midler). Other notable films included the lead in Spaceballs (1987), The Serpent and the Rainbow (opposite Zakes Mokae), While You Were Sleeping (1995), Independence Day (1996), and Lost Highway (1997). Pullman continues to act in both theatre and in movies, independent and big budget. His more recent films have been The Grudge and Scary Movie 4 (the latter ironically heavily spoofing "The Grudge" though Pullman's part spoofed The Village.)

From February 2001 until February 2002, Pullman starred, with Mercedes Ruehl, in Edward Albee's play The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? on Broadway. The play won several awards: 2002 Tony Award[2] for Best Play; 2002 Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play; 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Pullman was nominated, but did not win, the 2002 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actor in a Play. He will co-star with Val Kilmer in the new Lewis and Clark movie. Currently, Pullman can be seen in Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry, at Off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre in New York.

In addition to acting, Pullman is a writer. His first play, Expedition 6, is about the International Space Station mission Expedition 6 that was in orbit at the time that the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed on reentry, grounding the U.S. space shuttle program, which was to provide the vehicle for the crew's return to earth. The play opened at San Francisco's Magic Theater in September 2007.[3]

Pullman is also a Jury Member for the on going Filmaka amateur short film contest.



Personal life

Pullman is married to dancer Tamara Hurwitz, and has three children, Daughter Maisa (born 1988), and sons Jack (born 1989), and Louis (born 1993). He lost his sense of smell in college after an injury left him in a coma for two days. Pullman co-owns a cattle ranch with his brother in Montana.[4]

Pullman is the godfather of Van Halen's front-man David Lee Roth's eldest son.

American cultural critic Greil Marcus used Pullman as a major piece of his argument in the book "The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice". In the chapter entitled "American Berserk: Bill Pullman's Face", Marcus argued that many different aspects of American culture could be clearly seen in Pullman's facial expressions in various films.

Hunting attorneys for sport has lately become somewhat of a past time for people. Enough so that the government has stepped in with new laws limiting such things as who can hunt them, how many can be hunted, and by what means...

1. Any person with a valid State hunting license may harvest attorneys.

2. The taking of attorneys with traps or deadfalls is permitted. The use of currency as bait is prohibited.

3. The killing of attorneys with a vehicle is prohibited. If accidentally struck, remove road kill to roadside, then proceed to nearest car wash.

4. It is unlawful to chase, herd, or harvest attorneys from a helicopter or other aircraft.

5. It shall be unlawful to shout, "whiplash," "ambulance!" or, "Free Perrier!" for the purposes of trapping attorneys.

6. It shall be unlawful to use cocaine, young boys, $100 bills, prostitutes, or vehicle accidents to attract attorneys.

7. It shall be unlawful to hunt attorneys within 200 yards of whorehouses, health spas, ambulances, or hospitals.

8. If an attorney is elected to government office, there will be a $500 bounty on the pelt.

9. Stuffed or mounted attorneys must have a state health department inspection for rabies, vermin and contagious diseases.

10. It shall be illegal for a hunter to disguise himself as a reporter, drug dealer, pimp, female law clerk, sheep, accident victim, bookie, or tax accountant for the purposes of hunting attorneys.

Attorney Bag Limits:

Yellow-Bellied Sidewinder = 5
Hairless Civil Libertarian = 7
Skinny-Assed Ambulance Chaser = 12
Horse or Cattle Rustler Defender = 20
Silver-Tongued Murderer Defender = 50
Jack-Legged Divorce Litigator = No limit
Honest Attorney = Extinct

Good morning, Raggedy and BioBob. (good to see you back, hawkman)

Loved the photo trio, PA.

er Bob, more lawyer jokes may incur the wrath of Clarence, and we know that he got Loeb and Leopold off with a mere life sentence.

Here's one from A Mighty Wind, folks.

A Mighty Wind

As I travel down the back roads, of this home I love so much,
Every carpenter and cowboy, every lame man on a crutch..
They're all talking about a feeling, or a taste that's in the air,
They're all talking about this mighty wind, that's blowing everywhere,

Oh a mighty winds a blowin', it's kickin' up the sand,
It's blowin' out a message to every woman, child and man
Yes a mighty winds a blowin', cross the land and cross the sea,
It's blowin' peace and freedom, it's blowin' equality.

(The Folksmen)
From a lighthouse in Barr Harbor, to a bridge called Golden Gate,
From a troller down in Shreveport, to the shore of one great lake,
There's a star on the horizon, and it's burning like a flame,
It's lighting up this mighty wind, that's blowin' everywhere,

Oh a mighty winds a blowin', it's kickin' up the sand,
It's blowin' out a message to every woman, child and man
Yes a mighty winds a blowin', cross the land and cross the sea,
It's blowin' peace and freedom, it's blowin' equality.

(Mitch & Mickey)
When the blind man sees the picture, when the deaf man hears the word,
When the fisherman stops fishing, when the hunter spares the herd,
We'll still hear the wondrous story, of a world where people care,
The story of this mighty wind that blowin' everywhere

Oh a mighty winds a blowin', it's kickin' up the sand,
It's blowin' out a message to every woman, child and man
Yes a mighty winds a blowin', cross the land and cross the sea,
It's blowin' peace and freedom, it's blowin' equality.
Yes it's blowin' peace and freedom, it's blowin' you and me…

Hmmm. Is that the answer to Blowin' in the Wind

good evening listeners !
here's an old johnny mercer tune sung by ella fitzgerald - but played by benny goodman on my cd - no matter , it's enjoyable either way
hbg

hbg, It's difficult to ruin a Johnny Mercer song, buddy. I know that one and have sung it, too.

When I was in undergrad school, I chose Johnny as a research project for my music appreciation class.

Here's one that I love, folks.

Gather round me everybody
Gather round me while I preach some
Feel a sermon coming on here
The topic will be sin
And that's what I'm agin'
If you wanna hear my story
Then settle back and just sit tight
While I start reviewing
The attitude of doing right

You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with mister inbetween

You got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
And have faith, or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark,
What did they do, just when everything looked so dark?
Man, they said, we better

Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with mister inbetween

No don't mess with mister inbetween

You got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
And have faith, or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

You got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive
E-lim-i-nate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with mister inbetween

No don't mess with mister inbetween

Well, all. It's time for me to say goodnight. I think of what Erma Bombeck once observed. "The saddest thing in the world is to wake up on Christmas morning, and not be a child."

From The Fab Four

Now it's time to say good night
good night sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
good night sleep tight
Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you

Close your eyes and I'll close mine
Good night sleep tight
Now the moon begins to shine
Good night sleep tight
Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you
Mm, mm, mm

Close your eyes and I'll close mine
Good night sleep tight
Now the sun turns out his light
Good night sleep tight
Dream sweet dreams for me
Dream sweet dreams for you
Goodnight, good night everybody
everybody everywhere.

From Letty with love

Oh, You Crazy Moon
Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra

When they met, the way they smiled
I saw that I was thru
Oh you crazy moon, what did you do
When they kissed, they tried to say
That it was just in fun
Oh you crazy moon, look what you've done
Once you promised me, you know
That it would never end
You should be ashamed to show
Your funny face, my friend
There they are, they fell in love
I guess you think you're smart
Oh you crazy moon, you broke my heart

Good morning, WA2K radio audience. edgar, the moon is crazy but I think that the person watching it may be a little crazier.

As we have already observed, folks, the moon governs the tide and I found this song that reflects the idea.

The Rolling Stones.

Yes, star crossed in pleasure the stream flows on by
Yes, as we're sated in leisure, we watch it fly yeh

And time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me
And time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me

Time can tear down a building or destroy a woman's face
Hours are like diamonds, don't let them waste

Time waits for one, no favours has he
Time waits for one, and he wont wait for me, yeh

Men, they build towers to the passing yes, to their fame everlasting
Here he comes chopping and reaping, hear him laugh at their cheating

And time waits for no man, and it won't wait for me
Yes, time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me

Drink in your summer, gather your corn
The dreams of the night time will vanish by dawn

And time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me
Time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me

No no no, not for me
nooo not for me.....

Quote for today: Time and tide wait for no man
Geoffrey Chaucer

Saki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born December 18, 1870(1870-12-18)
Akyab, Myanmar
Died November 14, 1916 (aged 45)

Occupation Author
Nationality United Kingdom

Hector Hugh Munro (December 18, 1870 - November 14, 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, was a British writer, whose witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window" may be his most famous, with a closing line ("Romance at short notice was her speciality") that has entered the lexicon.

In addition to his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was the custom of the time, and then collected into several volumes) he also wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a Parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland), and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, an early alternative history. He was influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, and himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse[1]





Name

The name Saki is often thought to be a reference to the cupbearer in the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, a poem mentioned disparagingly by the eponymous character in "Reginald on Christmas Presents" and alluded to in a few other stories. It may, however, be a reference to the South American primate of the same name, "a small, long-tailed monkey from the Western Hemisphere" that is a central character in "The Remoulding of Groby Lington" and that, like Munro himself, hid a vicious streak beneath a gentle exterior.


Biography

H. H. Munro was born in Akyab, Burma (now known as Sittwe, Myanmar), the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general for the Burmese police when that country was still part of the British Empire. His mother, the former Mary Frances Mercer, died in 1872, killed, essentially, by a runaway cow. It charged at her and the shock caused her to miscarry. She never recovered and soon died[2]. It was an incident that may have influenced the sometimes deadly animals of Saki's later stories. He was brought up in England with his brother and sister by his grandmother and aunts in a straitlaced household whose comic side he appreciated only later in life. He used the severity of these domestic arrangements in many stories, notably "Sredni Vashtar", in which a young boy keeps a pet polecat ferret without the knowledge of his spiteful and domineering female guardian who is eventually killed by the animal, to the boy's great satisfaction.

Munro was educated at Pencarwick School in Exmouth and at Bedford Grammar School. When his father retired to England, he travelled on a few occasions with his sister and father between European watering holes (fashionable society drinking venues) and tourist resorts. In 1893 he followed in his father's footsteps by joining the Indian Imperial Police, where he was posted to Burma (as, coincidentally, was another acerbic and pseudonymous writer a generation later: George Orwell}. Two years later, failing health forced his resignation and return to England, where he started his career as a journalist, writing for newspapers such as the Westminster Gazette, Daily Express, Bystander, Morning Post, and Outlook.

In 1900 Munro's first book appeared: The Rise of the Russian Empire, a historical study modelled upon Edward Gibbon's magnum opus The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

From 1902 to 1908 Munro worked as a foreign correspondent for The Morning Post in the Balkans, Warsaw, Russia (where he witnessed Bloody Sunday), and Paris; he then gave that up and settled in London. Many of the stories from this period feature the elegant and effete Reginald and Clovis, young men-about-town who take heartlessly cruel delight in the discomfort or downfall of their conventional, pretentious elders. In addition to his well-known short stories, Saki also turned his talents for fiction into novels. Shortly before the Great War, with the genre of invasion literature selling well, he published a "what-if" novel, When William Came, subtitled "A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns", imagining the eponymous German emperor conquering Britain. (The novel titled Mrs. Elmsley, published in 1911 under the name "Hector Munro," is by a different author.)

At the start of World War I, although 43 and officially over age, Munro joined the Army as an ordinary soldier, refusing a commission. More than once he returned to the battlefield when officially still too sick or injured to fight. He was sheltering in a shell crater near Beaumont-Hamel, France in November 1916 when he was killed by a German sniper. His last words, according to several sources, were "Put that damned cigarette out!" After his death, his sister Ethel destroyed most of his papers and wrote her own account of their childhood.

Munro never married. A. J. Langguth in his biography produces strong evidence to support the hypothesis that Munro was homosexual. Sexual activity between men was a crime, and the Cleveland Street scandal in 1889, followed by the downfall and disgrace of Oscar Wilde, convicted in 1895 after cause celebre trials, meant that "that side of [Munro's] life had to be secret"[3].

In recognition of his contribution to literature, a blue plaque has been affixed to a building in which he once lived on Mortimer Street in central London. One of his social-climber young characters lived in a similar "roomlet which came under the auspicious constellation of W" [4] (i.e. within the postal district of the West End of London, where the fashionable set lived in Edwardian times).


Controversy

Some believe that Munro wrote misogynistic and anti-Semitic stories.[citation needed] See, for example, "The Unrest-Cure", in which Clovis perpetrates a hoax to the effect that the local bishop is going to massacre every Jew in the neighbourhood. Compared with such contemporaries as Belloc or Chesterton, Munro appears mild.[citation needed]

Rather than the blanket term 'misogyny', it might be more correct to say that he disliked and disapproved of childless women, probably from his own negative experience of growing up in the care of his strict aunts.[citation needed] Some stories give voice to his irritation with aspects of female psychology, such as the middle-class conventionality epitomised by the ceremony of afternoon tea, or the inability to shop efficiently. He was persistently and derisively anti-suffragette.[citation needed]

Despite his lampooning of suffragettes and aunts, several of his stories feature sympathetic portrayals of admirably cool and self-possessed schoolgirls. Others feature strong-willed, independent women in a positive manner. One of his best childhood friends was his sister Ethel, who also never married, and they remained close until his death - a sign of Munro's personal forbearance, as she had a powerful and difficult personality.


Short stories

Saki's world contrasts the effete conventions and hypocrisies of Edwardian England with the ruthless but straightforward life-and-death struggles of nature. Nature generally wins in the end.

Saki's work is now in the public domain, and all or most of these stories are on the Internet.

Some of his best-known short stories are listed below.


"The Interlopers"

"The Interlopers" is a story of two men, Georg Znaeym and Ulrich von Gradwitz, whose families have fought over a forest in the eastern Carpathian Mountains for generations. Ulrich's family legally owns the land, but Georg - feeling it truly belongs to him - hunts there anyway. One winter night, Ulrich catches Georg hunting in his forest. The two would never shoot without warning and soil their family's honor, so they hesitate to acknowledge one another. As an "act of God," a tree branch suddenly falls on them, trapping the men next to each other under the log. Gradually, they realize the futility of their quarrel and become friends to end the family feud. They call out for their men's assistance, and after a brief period, Ulrich makes out ten figures approaching over a hill. The story ends with Ulrich's realization that the "interlopers" on the hill are actually wolves.


"The Schartz-Metterklume Method"

At a railway station, an arrogant and overbearing woman mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta for the governess she expected. Lady Carlotta, deciding not to correct the mistake, presents herself as a proponent of "the Schartz-Metterklume method" of making children understand history by acting it out themselves, and chooses a rather unsuitable historical episode for her first lesson.


"The Toys of Peace"

Rather than giving her young boys gifts of toy soldiers and guns, their mother instructs her brother to give the children "peace toys" as an Easter present. When the packages are opened, young Bertie shouts "It's a fort!" and is disappointed when his uncle replies "It's a municipal dust-bin". The boys are initially baffled as to how to obtain any enjoyment from models of a school of art and a public library, or from little toy figures of John Stuart Mill, poetess Felicia Hemans, and astronomer Sir John Herschel. Youthful inventiveness finds a way, however.


"The Storyteller"

"The Storyteller" is a cynical antidote to crude didacticism. An aunt is traveling by train with three of her nieces and nephews; a bachelor is sitting opposite. The aunt starts telling a story, but is unable to satisfy the curiosity of the children. The bachelor intervenes and tells a different kind of story which feeds their curiosity and imagination. The central character is unbearably good and in the end is devoured by a wolf, much to the delight of the bored children in the railway carriage.


"The Unrest-Cure"

Saki's recurring hero Clovis Sangrail, a sly young man, overhears the complacent middle-aged Huddle complaining of his own addiction to routine and aversion to change. Huddle's friend makes the wry suggestion of the need for an "unrest-cure" (the opposite of a rest cure) to be performed, if possible, in the home. Clovis takes it upon himself to "help" the man and his sister by involving them in an invented outrage that will be a "blot on the twentieth century".


"Esmé"

In a hunting story with a difference, the Baroness tells Clovis of a hyena she and her friend Constance encountered alone in the countryside, who cannot resist the urge to stop for a snack. The story is a perfect example of Saki's delight in setting societal convention against uncompromising nature.

The wailing accompaniment was explained. The gypsy child was firmly, and I expect painfully, held in his jaws.
The child is shortly devoured.

Constance shuddered. "Do you think the poor little thing suffered much?" came another of her futile questions.
"The indications were all that way,' I said; 'on the other hand, of course, it may have been crying from sheer temper. Children sometimes do."

"The Open Window"

A man with the unlikely name of Framton Nuttel comes to a country village for some peace and rest. He calls upon a lady his sister used to know; for a few minutes he is left alone with her niece, who has quite an active imagination. She tells Framton a story about the tragedy of the lady's husband and two younger brothers, who had gone hunting one day three years earlier and never returned. The bodies were never found, and because of this the window from which they left is always kept open. When indeed they do return that very night, Framton, who has suffered from nerves in the past, runs out of the house, and the niece explains his sudden departure to her relatives with an equally imaginative fiction.


"Sredni Vashtar"

The story of a young, sickly child, Conradin. His aunt, Mrs. De Ropp, "would never... have confessed to herself that she dislike Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him for 'his own good' was duty which she did not find particularly irksome." When she finds Conradin's beloved Houdan hen and pet polecat/ferret, which he reveres as "Sredni Vashtar", she calls the exterminator to get rid of the pets. On the morning of the dreaded visit, Mrs. DeRopp enters the shed in which the ferret lies in his hutch, in full view of Conradin. As the time slips by without a stirring from the shed, Conradin begins to pray to Sredni Vashtar ?- and receives his darkest wish.


"Tobermory"

At a country house party a visiting professor announces to the guests that he has perfected a procedure to teach animals human speech. He demonstrates this on his host's cat. Soon it is clear that he omitted to teach the animal to be silent about certain facts...


"The East Wing"

A 're-discovered' short story, previously cited as a play and therefore less well known. A house party with its typical social mix of bumbling Major Boventry, the precious Lucien Wattleskeat, the wordy Canon Clore and a breathless hostess, Mrs Gramplain, is beset by a fire in the middle of the night in the east wing of the house. Begged by their hostess to save "my poor darling Eva - Eva of the golden hair," Lucien demurs on the grounds that he has never even met her. It is only on discovering that Eva is not a flesh and blood daughter, but Mrs Gramplain's painting of the daughter that she wished that she had had and which she has faithfully updated with the passing years, that Lucien declares a willingness to forfeit his life to rescue her, since "death in this case is more beautiful," a sentiment endorsed by the Major. As the two men disappear into the blaze, Mrs Gramplain recollects that she "sent Eva to Exeter to be cleaned." Thus the two men have lost their lives for nothing. (Compare with Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.)


Quotes

From "Reginald on Besetting Sins":

The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went.
The stage, with all its efforts, can never be as artificial as life.
From "Reginald on the Academy":

"To have reached thirty," said Reginald, "is to have failed in life."
To die before being painted by Sargent is to go to Heaven prematurely.
From "The Jesting of Arlington Stringham":

Eleanor hated boys, and she would have liked to have whipped this one long and often. It was perhaps the yearning of a woman who had no children of her own.
From "Reginald on Christmas Presents":

People may say what they like about the decay of Christianity; the religion that produced Green Chartreuse can never really die.
From "The Square Egg"- (In the short story; "Clovis On The Alleged Romance Of Business"):

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation.
From "Reginald at the Carlton":

"Hors d'oeuvres have always had a pathetic interest for me," said Reginald, "they remind me of one's childhood that one goes through, wondering what the next course is going to be like ?- and during the rest of the menu one wishes one had eaten more of the hors d'oeuvres."
The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. It's only the middle-aged who are really conscious of their limitations ?- that is why one should be so patient with them. But one never is.
From "Reginald's Choir Treat":

I always say beauty is only sin deep.
From various other short stories:

""There are more ways of killing a cat than by choking it with cream,' he quoted, ?'but I'm not sure,' he added, ?'that it's not the best way."
"Forbidden fizz is the sweetest."
He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.
Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts.
Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretions of other people.
Every reformation must have its victims. You can't expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal's return.

Betty Grable
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Birth name Elizabeth Ruth Grable
Born December 18, 1916(1916-12-18)
St. Louis, Missouri
Died July 2, 1973 (aged 56)
Santa Monica, California
Other name(s) Frances Dean
Spouse(s) Harry James
Jackie Coogan

Betty Grable (December 18, 1916 - July 2, 1973) was an American dancer, singer, and actress.

Her iconic bathing suit photo became the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in Life 100 Photos that Changed the World.

Grable's legs were famously insured by her studio for $1,000,000 per leg at Lloyds of London.




Early life

She was born Elizabeth Ruth Grable in St. Louis, Missouri to John C. Grable (1883-1954) and Lillian Rose Hofmann (1889-1964). She was the youngest of three children.

Most of Grable's recent ancestors were American, but her distant heritage included Dutch, Irish, German and English.[1][2] She was propelled into acting by her mother. For her first role, as a chorus girl in the film Happy Days (1929), Grable was only 13 years old (legally underage for acting), but, because the chorus line performed in blackface, it was impossible to tell how old she was. Her mother soon gave her a make-over which included dying her hair platinum blonde.


Career

For her next film, her mother got her a contract using a false identification. When this deception was discovered, however, Grable was fired. Grable finally obtained a role as a 'Goldwyn Girl' in Whoopee! (1930), starring Eddie Cantor. Though Grable received no billing, she led the opening number, "Cowboys." Grable then worked in small roles at different studios for the rest of the decade, including the Academy Award-nominated The Gay Divorcee (1934), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

In the 1940s - after small parts in over 50 Hollywood movies throughout the 1930s - Grable finally gained national attention on stage for her role in the Cole Porter Broadway hit Du Barry Was a Lady (1939).

In 1940, Grable obtained a contract with 20th Century Fox, becoming their top star throughout the decade, with Technicolor movies such as Down Argentine Way (1940), Moon Over Miami (1941) (both with Don Ameche), Springtime in The Rockies (1942), Coney Island (1943) with George Montgomery , Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943) with Robert Young, Pin Up Girl (1944), Diamond Horseshoe (1945) with Dick Haymes, The Dolly Sisters (1945) with John Payne and June Haver, and her most popular film Mother Wore Tights (1947), with favorite costar Dan Dailey.

It was during her reign as box office champ (in 1943) that Grable posed for her iconic pinup photo, which (along with her movies) soon became escapist fare among GIs fighting in World War II. The image was taken by studio photographer Frank Powolny, who died in 1986. [3] Despite solid competition from Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Veronica Lake, Carole Landis and Lana Turner, Grable was indisputably the number one pinup girl for American soldiers. She was wildly popular at home as well, placing in the top 10 box office draws each year for 10 years. By the end of the 1940s Grable was the highest-paid female star in Hollywood.

Her postwar musicals included: That Lady in Ermine (1948) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948) again with Dailey, Wabash Avenue (1950) (a remake of Grable's own Coney Island) with Victor Mature, My Blue Heaven (1950), and Meet Me After the Show (1951). Studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck lavished his number one star with expensive Technicolor films, but also kept her busy ?- Grable made nearly 25 musicals and comedies in 13 years. Grable's last big hit for Fox was How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe.

Grable's later career was marked by feuds with studio heads. At one point, in the middle of a fight with Darryl F. Zanuck, she tore up her contract and stormed out of his office. Gradually leaving movies entirely, she made the transition to television and starred in Las Vegas. In 1967, she took over the lead in the touring company of Hello, Dolly, and in 1973 starred in a new musical called Belle Starr in London. The play was savaged by critics, and soon folded.


Personal life

In 1937, Grable married another famous former child-actor, Jackie Coogan. He was under considerable stress from a lawsuit against his parents over his earnings, however, and the couple divorced in 1940.

In 1943, she married jazz trumpeter and big band leader Harry James. The couple had two daughters, Victoria and Jessica. They endured a tumultuous 22-year-long marriage that was plagued by alcoholism and infidelity. The couple divorced in 1965. Grable soon entered into a relationship with a dancer, Bob Remick, several years her junior. Though they didn't marry, their romance lasted until the end of Grable's life.


Death

Grable died of lung cancer at age 56 in Santa Monica, California. Her funeral was held July 5, 1973, 30 years to the day after her marriage to Harry James -- who, in turn, died on what would have been his and Grable's 40th anniversary, July 5, 1983. She is interred in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.


Posthumous recognition

Grable has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6525 Hollywood Boulevard. She also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy noted on National Public Radio's Morning Edition on April 23, 2007, in an interview with Terry Gross that Grable was his inspiration for founding the Playboy empire.

Keith Richards
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Background information

Also known as Keith Richard
Born December 18, 1943 (1943-12-18) (age 64)
Dartford, Kent, England
Genre(s) Rock n' Roll, Blues, Country, Reggae, Rhythm and Blues
Occupation(s) Musician, Songwriter, Music producer
Instrument(s) Guitar, Vocals, Piano, Bass, Percussion
Years active 1962 - present
Label(s) Decca, Rolling Stones Records, Virgin
Associated
acts The Rolling Stones, X-Pensive Winos
Website keithrichards.com
Notable instrument(s)
1952 Fender Telecaster
Gibson Les Paul
Gibson ES-345
Dan Armstrong
Fender Stratocaster

Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, producer and founding member of The Rolling Stones. With songwriting partner and Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger, he has written and recorded hundreds of songs. As a guitarist Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 Richards ranked 10th on Rolling Stone Magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[1]





Early life

Richards, the only child of Bert Richards and Doris Dupree, was born in Dartford, Kent. His father was a factory labourer slightly injured during World War II, and Richards' paternal grandparents were socialists and civic leaders. His maternal grandfather (Augustus Theodore Dupree), who toured Britain in a jazz big band called Gus Dupree and his Boys, influenced Richards' musical ambitions. Richards' mother introduced him to the music of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. As a boy soprano, Richards sang in Westminster Abbey with a choir in front of the Queen.[2]

Richards attended Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, and then Sidcup Art College where he devoted more time to playing guitar than his proper studies. His parents divorced about the time Richards was expelled from Sidcup. As an adolescent, Richards was a teddy boy who played in various skiffle groups. Richards left college and moved into a flat with Jagger and Brian Jones, the Stones' founder, in 1962.


Musical career

Guitar playing

Richards has derived inspiration from Chuck Berry throughout his career. While The Rolling Stones were conceived by Jones as a rhythm and blues band, both Jagger and Richards were responsible for bringing the rock 'n' roll songs of Bo Diddley and Berry to the band. With Stones founding member and guitarist Brian Jones, Richards developed a two-guitar style of interwoven leads and rhythms. Jones was replaced by guitarist Mick Taylor (1969 - 1974), who contributed to some of the group's most well-regarded records. Taylor's addition also led to a pronounced separation in the duties of lead and rhythm guitar. Taylor's replacement in 1975 was the more rhythmically-oriented Ron Wood. Richards feels the years with Wood to be his most musically satisfying period in the Stones.

Richards often uses guitars with open tunings which allow for syncopated and ringing I-IV chording that can be heard on "Start Me Up" and "Street Fighting Man." A five-string variant of the open G (borrowed from Don Everly of the Everly Brothers) which uses GDGBD unencumbered by a rumbling, lower 6th string, is prominent on "Honky Tonk Women," "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up". Though he still uses standard tunings, Richards claimed that his adoption of open tunings in the late sixties led to a musical "rebirth". Jones' declining contributions left Richards to record all guitar parts on many tracks - including slide guitar. After Taylor and later Wood, both accomplished slide players, joined the Stones, Richards rarely played slide.

Richards - who has over 1000 guitars, some of which he has not played but was simply given - is often associated with the Fender Telecaster, but his main guitar of late appears to be an ebony Gibson ES-355, and he has often played Fender Stratocasters. In Guitar World he joked that no matter what make of guitar, they always sound the same in his hands. On The Stones "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Richards recorded the first top ten hit to feature a guitar fuzz effect which has since become commonplace.[3] Though in the 1970s and early 1980s he used guitar effects frequently, since then he has rarely used effects. Richards considers the acoustic guitar as the basis for his playing [4], and many Stones hits including "Not Fade Away", "Satisfaction", "Street Fighting Man" and "Brown Sugar" feature acoustic guitar parts.

Richards' backing vocals appear on every Stones album, and since 1969's Let It Bleed, most Stones' releases contained a Richards lead vocal. He has often played bass and occasionally keyboard parts. Richards has always been active in record production for the Stones and for himself, often in tandem with Mick Jagger (as the Glimmer Twins) and outside producers.


Songwriting

Richards and Jagger began writing songs following the example of the Beatles' Lennon/McCartney and the encouragement of Stone's manager Oldham, who saw little future for a cover band. The Stones had many hits with Jagger/Richards-penned songs; 1965's "Satisfaction" was their first international #1 recording. Jagger/Richards songs reflected the influence of blues, R&B, and rock 'n' roll, and later incorporated soul, folk, pop, country, gospel, psychedelia, and the social commentary that Bob Dylan made prominent on Top 40 radio. Their work in the 1970s and beyond has incorporated elements of funk, disco, reggae, and punk. Since 1980 with "All About You", Richards has frequently written and recorded slow, torchy ballads.

All Rolling Stones albums have mostly consisted of songs credited to Jagger/Richards regardless of how much collaboration occurred. For solo recordings, Richards always credits a songwriting partner, frequently drummer and co-producer Steve Jordan.

Richards was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.[5]


Solo recordings

Richards released his first solo single "Run Rudolph Run" in late-1978, and toured with The New Barbarians in 1979, consisting of Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, bassist Stanley Clarke and Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste. Nonetheless Richards resisted sustained ventures outside of the Stones. Consequently his solo recordings are fewer than those of Jagger, Charlie Watts, and even Ronnie Wood.

When Jagger refused to tour behind Dirty Work, Richards actively pursued solo work. He formed Keith Richards and the X-pensive Winos in 1988 (first named Organised Crime) with Steve Jordan, who had drummed on the Stones' "Dirty Work" and on Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll, a documentary of Chuck Berry's 60th birthday concert organised, produced and hosted by Richards.

Besides Steve Jordan, the X-pensive Winos featured Sarah Dash, Waddy Wachtel, Ivan Neville, Charley Drayton and Bernie Worrell. Their first release, Talk Is Cheap produced no Top 40 hits, though it went gold and has remained a consistent seller. It spawned a brief U.S. tour - one of only two that Richards has done as a solo artist. The first tour is documented on the Virgin release Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988. In 1992 Main Offender was released, and the Winos toured again through North and South America as well as Europe.


Recordings with other artists

Richards rarely recorded or appeared outside The Rolling Stones during the 1960s. Exceptions were Richards singing with Mick Jagger and several guests on The Beatles' TV broadcast of "All You Need Is Love" and playing bass with John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell as The Dirty Mac for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus TV special. In the 1970s Richards played on, and helped produce, John Phillips' solo recording Pay, Pack & Follow, (released in 2001). He also appeared on some of Ronnie Wood's recordings in the 1970s. From the 1980s on Richards has more frequently appeared as a guest artist. He duetted with country legend George Jones on the Bradley Barn Sessions, singing "Say It's Not You" as an homage to deceased friend Gram Parsons, and on a Hank Williams tribute album Timeless ("You Win Again"). He has also appeared on veteran blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin's About Them Shoes, singing lead vocal on "Still a Fool". He contributed guitar and vocals, and co-produced Johnnie Johnson's release "Johnny B. Bad". In the 1990s Richards played and produced a recording of Jamaican Rastafarians, The Wingless Angels releasing the collaboration on his own label, Mindless Records. He has also recorded with Tom Waits, playing guitar on several songs on Rain Dogs (1985), and playing on, singing and co-writing "That Feel" on Bone Machine (1992). Richards also played with Toots & the Maytals on the song Careless Ethiopians for their 2004 album True Love.


Rare and unreleased recordings

The Stones recently released Rarities 1971-2003 (2006), which includes sixteen rare and limited-issue recordings. Richards has described the released output of the Stones as the "tip of the iceberg." Many unreleased songs and studio jam sessions including their BBC recordings from the early 1960s are widely bootlegged. Many bootlegs feature Richards singing, include the post-bust 1977 Canadian studio sessions, 1981 studio sessions, 1983 wedding tapes, among others. Since unreleased recordings often appear as post-career or posthumous releases - and also due to tangled legal complexities with past management - many of these recordings are available only as bootlegs - often as MP3 files on peer-to-peer sharing programs.


Public image and private life

Richards, who has been frank about his habits, has earned notoriety for his drug-related decadent outlaw image. Two famous arrests came ten years apart, the first in 1967 with Jagger and friends at Redlands, Richards' Sussex estate, which placed him in custody and trial before the court of public opinion and Her Majesty. The Times editorial "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" portrayed the trial as persecution and helped turn public sentiment against the conviction which was quashed after two days of imprisonment. The case also began a succession of drug arrests for Richards that continued until the late 1970s.

More threatening was the arrest in February 1977 at Toronto's Harbour Castle Hotel (Regina v. Richards) when Richards was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for "22 grams of heroin"[6] and was charged with importing narcotics, an offence with a minimum sentence of seven years imprisonment according to the Criminal Code of Canada.

For the next three years, Richards lived under threat of criminal sanction as he sought medical treatment in the U.S. for heroin addiction. During this period, The Rolling Stones released their biggest-selling album (eight million copies), Some Girls, which included their last North American number-one pop chart single, "Miss You". After the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld Richards' original sentence, he paid his debt to society by performing two benefit concerts for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind at Oshawa Civic Auditorium on April 22, 1979. Both concerts featured The Rolling Stones and The New Barbarians, a band Ron Wood had formed to promote his album Gimmie Some Neck.


Later in 1979, Keith met future wife and model Patti Hansen. They married 18 December 1983, Richards' 40th birthday, and have two daughters, Theodora and Alexandra.

Richards continues cordial relations with Anita Pallenberg, the mother of his first three children, and often refers to having two wives, although he never officially married Pallenberg. Together they have a son, Marlon Richards (named after the actor Marlon Brando[7]), and another daughter, Angela (nee Dandelion). Their third child, a boy Tara (named after Keith's close friend Tara Browne), died several weeks after his birth in 1976.


Recent news

Doris Richards, Keith's 91-year-old mother died of cancer in England on April 21, 2007. In an official statement released by a Richards representative, it was said Richards, her only child, kept a vigil by her bedside during her last days.[8][9]

In an April 2007 interview conducted by the British music journalist Mark Beaumont for the music magazine NME, Richards told other musicians not to follow his example when it comes to drug use, claiming he is lucky to be alive after his years of substance abuse[10].

When Beaumont asked him to complete the sentence "The worst time on drugs I've had is..." to which Richards responded by relating an anecdote about once having his drugs spiked with strychnine before admitting that the strangest thing he ever snorted was

" My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared, he didn't give a ****. It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive.[11] "

Afterwards, Richards' manager pointed out that the statement was untrue and was "said in jest".[12] However, on August 6, 2007, Richards confirmed in another interview with NME that he had, in fact, snorted his father's ashes--with no cocaine mixed in.[13] Beaumont confessed to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme[1] that he believed Richards had been speaking truthfully, adding that "He did seem to be quite honest about it. There were too many details for him to be making it up."

Musician Ozzy Osbourne made the following comment in Guitar World magazine in reference to Richard's snorting his father's ashes: "I was knocked out when Keith Richards came out and said he snorted his father. I thought, Well, somebody's gotta do something insane while I'm taking a break, you know? Thank God he was joking. I've already snorted a line of ants. I don't need to try to top that!"[14]

Back stage at the March 12, 2007 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, Richards was asked about another possible solo album and tour with the X-pensive Winos. He stated that "the guys are calling me up, I have a feeling something might be bubbling. Once again it's all up in the air, but I'd love to do it."[15]


Richards made a cameo appearance as the father of Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp), Captain Teague in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[16] Depp has stated that he based Sparrow's mannerisms on Richards.

In September 2006, Richards claimed he has quit taking drugs, not for health reasons, but because they were not strong enough anymore.[17]

In August 2006 Richards was granted a pardon by Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, and Republican Presidential candidate, for a 1975 reckless driving citation.[18]

On 27 April 2006, Richards, while in Fiji, suffered a head injury after falling out of a tree. On May 22, an official press release confirmed that Richards had returned to his home in Weston, Connecticut.[19] The Rolling Stones announced a revised tour schedule on June 2, which included a brief statement from Richards apologising for "falling off his perch". The band toured Europe in mid-2007 to make up for the lost dates.

Richards won the award for Best Celebrity Cameo at the 2007 Spike Horror Awards, he gave his acceptance letter via a recording.