WA2K Radio is now on the air

And Bob Dylan owed in his early days as a struggling poet and singer a lot to Woody Guthrie too.

Even our own Lonnie Donegan recorded a song and had a big hit with it, I think it was a Woodie Guthrie song, the "Grand Coulee Dam"

"...She tore men's boats to splinters
But she gave men dreams to dream
Of the day the Coulee Dam would cross
That wild and wasted stream...."

Skiffle was very big then.

I remember a song I liked about then, not folksy, was "Last Train to San Fernando" by Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys.

Happy days.

You know, McTag, I don't think anyone here is not open to a genre that is a wee bit off their beaten track. I was recalling Ted Heath and George Shearing. A couple of your boys, right?

http://www.swingera.net/bheath.html

I'm not certain if anyone here knows what block chords are, and it's difficult to explain.

a smile of remembrance in New York City; Birdland, named after Charlie "Bird" Parker.

Lullaby of Birdland
Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing
Lullaby of birdland, that's what
I always hear when you sigh
Never in my woodland
Could there be words to reveal
In a phrase how i feel

Have you ever heard two turtle doves
Bill and coo when they love
That's the kind of magic
Music we make with our lips
When we kiss

And there's a weepy ol' willow
He really knows how to cry
That's how i cry in my pillow
If you should tell me
Farewell and goodbye

Lullaby of Birdland whisper low
kiss me sweet & we'll go
Fliyin' high in Birdland
High in the sky up above
All because we're in love

Sweet...

HISTORY OF "IT'S ALL IN THE GAME"

CHARLES G. DAWES, vice president under Calvin Coolidge (1925-1929), was, among other things, a self-taught piano player and composer. He wrote a popular song entitled "Melody in A Major." In 1951, songwriter Carl Sigman added to Dawes's melody (the lyrics belong to Dawes) and the song became known as "It's All in the Game."

Dawes was a direct descendant of William Dawes, who rode with Paul Revere to warn that the British were coming. Born in Ohio in 1865, he served as Controller of the Currency under President William McKinley; a brigadier general during World War I and chief of procurement of supplies; and the first director of the Bureau of the Budget. He received the Nobel Prize in 1925 for devising the "Dawes Plan" to stabilize Germany's inflation-wracked economy.



TOMMY EDWARDS
Born February 17, 1922, in Richmond, Virginia.
Died October 22, 1969, in Henrico County, Virginia

Edwards was a singer-pianist with a velvety smooth vocal style in the Nat King Cole/Ivory Joe Hunter mode. He started entertaining around Richmond at age nine, and eventually played piano and sang on his own radio program.

After writing Louis Jordan's hit "That Chick's Too Young to Fry," Edwards moved to New York City in 1949, where he worked performing demos of other writers' songs and cut his first unsuccessful sides for the Top label. His move to MGM in 1950 yielded his first R&B chart entries, "All Over Again" and "The Morning Side of the Mountain."

Seven years passed without a hit, but then Edwards added a pop-rock arrangement to a song he had first recorded in 1951, "It's All in the Game." Besides being the only #1 hit ever co-written by a former U.S. Vice President (Charles Dawes, who served under Calvin Coolidge), the 1958 easy-listening single "It's All in the Game" was one of the few records of the rock 'n' roll era that both kids and parents could agree on.


IT'S ALL IN THE GAME

Many a tear has to fall
But it's all in the game
All in the wonderful game
That we know has love

You have words with him
And your future's looking kind of dim
But these things
Your heart can rise above

Once in a while he won't call
Oh but it's all in the game
Soon he'll be there at your side
With a sweet "OK"

And he'll kiss your lips
And caress your waiting fingertips
And your heart will fly away

And he'll kiss your lips
And caress your waiting fingertips
And your heart will fly away

Cisco Houston "Passing Through"

Passing through, passing through,
Sometimes happy, sometimes blue.
Glad that I ran into you;
Tell the people that you saw me passing through.

I saw Adam leave the garden
With an apple in his hand,
I said, "Now you're out
What are you gonna do?
Plant some crops and pray for rain,
Maybe raise a little Cain,
I'm an orphan and I'm only passing through."

I saw Jesus on the cross
On that hill called Calvary.
"Do you hate mankind for what they've done to you?"
He said, "Speak of love, not hate.
Things to do, it's getting late,
I've so little time and I'm just passing through."

I shivered with George Washington
One night at Valley Forge,
"Why do the soldiers freeze here like they do?"
He said, "Men will suffer, fight,
Even die for what is right,
Even though they know they're only passing through."

I was at Franklin Roosevelt's side
Just a while before he died,
He said, "One world must come out of World War Two,
Yankee, Russian, white or tan,
Lord, a man is just a man,
We're all brothers and we're only passing through

Dys, I have that one by Leonard Cohen.

me too

I always did consider him
the coward of the county

My daddy left home when I was three,
And he didn't leave much to Ma and me...
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid,
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me 'Sue'.

Well, he must o' thought that is was quite a joke,
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk.
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red,
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head.
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named 'Sue'.

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen.
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made me a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars,
And kill that man that give me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town, and my throat was dry.
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me 'Sue'.

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold,
And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do! Now you gonna die!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes,
And he went down, but, to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men,
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough,
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough,
And I know I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye.
I knew you'd have to get tough or die,
And it's that name that helped to make you strong."

He said: "Now you just fought one hell of a fight,
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you 'Sue'."

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I come away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but sue! I still hate that name!
Shel Silverstein

Ella Fitzgerald was one of my favorite female vocalist; she had the clearest voice of any singer. Erroll Garner was one of my favorite jazz pianist; he had a style nobody else could emulate. Both great artists we will all miss. Nat King Cole is up there too, and so is Karen Carpenter!

Tom DooleyThe Kingston Trio

[Lyrics as performed by The Kingston Trio, El Paso, TX, 1958]

Intro:
Throughout history
There've been many songs written about the eternal triangle
This next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful woman
And a condemned man named Tom Dooley...
When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley... must hang...

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die
I met her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Hadn't a-been for Grayson
I'd a-been in Tennessee

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley
Hangin' from a white oak tree

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Poor boy, you're bound to die
Poor boy you're bound to die
Poor boy, you're bound to die...

Good morning, from WA2K radio. We enjoyed remembering music with edgar and dys, and also appreciate C.I.'s comments on Ella and Erroll. I find it fascinating that Mr. Garner couldn't read one note of music. As one fellow musician put it: "He couldn't read a note if it were as big as a house."

News item:

They're getting smarter and smarter:

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=1165&eeid=4401262&_sitecat=214&eetype=article&render=y&ck=

Well I've been out walking
I don't do that much talking
these days

These days
These days I seem to think alot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to

And I had a lover
I don't think I'll risk another these days
These days
Now if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song

Well it's just cause I've been losing so long
I quit my scheming
I don't do all that dreaming these days
These days

These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten
Don't confront me with my failures
I have not forgotten them

Tom Rush

All morning long, I have been looking up stuff in the archives, dys. I like the lyrics to that song, and now I have to find out more about Tom Rush.

You know, WA2K'ers. The Prince is conspicuous by his absence, and now I am beginning to wonder about his ties to India. If you listeners know anything, will you give us a call in?

another Tom Rush

No Regrets
I know your leaving is too long overdue
For far too long Ive had nothing new to show to you
Goodbye dry eyes I watched your plane
Fade off west of the moon
And it felt so strange to walk away alone

No regrets no tears goodbye
Dont want you back we'd only cry again
Say goodbye again
The hours that were yours echo like empty rooms
Thoughts we used to share I now keep alone
I woke last night and spoke to you
Not thinking you were gone
It felt so strange to lie awake alone

No regrets no tears goodbye
Dont want you back we'd only cry again
Say goodbye again
Our friends have tried to turn my nights to day
Strange faces in your place can't keep the ghosts away
Just beyond the darkest hour
Just behind the dawn
Still feels so strange to lead my life alone

No regrets no tears goodbye

Dont want you back we'd only cry again
Say goodbye again

The Prince


I posted the same question last week, Letty, and no one responded. I'm also getting worried. But perhaps he is just concentrating on the condition of the effected regions of India and is too busy to post on A2K.

BBB

BBB, Walter might know. I'll see what I can glean from his repository of information.

Jelly Roll Morton is among this year's recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Recording Academy, YEAH.

Dys, I just discovered some interesting facts about Jelly Roll. He was the link between ragtime and jazz. Didn't know that, and the fact that he died before dixieland created a revival. Wow! Listeners. Jelly Roll Morton believed to the end that he died because he had a VooDoo curse put upon him.

I, too, was just thinking about the Prince. I noticed in today's celebrity birthdays that Jean Pierre Aumont is 96 years old today. Aumont was in the movie "Song of Scheherezade" which featured Rimsky- Korsakov music with the English word version of "Song of India" which the Prince was trying to find a while ago. I hope he is safe and well.

Some January 5 Birthday honorees:

1779 Zebulon Pike, Army officer and explorer (Lamberton, NJ; died 1813)
1876 Konrad Adenauer, 1st chancellor of West Germany (Cologne, Germany; died 1967)
1909 Jean-Pierre Aumont, actor (Paris, France)
1928 Walter Mondale, former Minnesota senator, vice president, and presidential candidate (Ceylon, MN)
1931 Alvin Ailey, dancer/choreographer and founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Rogers, TX; died 1989)
Robert Duvall, actor (San Diego, CA)
1932 Umberto Eco, author (Alessandria, Italy)
1938 King Juan Carlos I, king of Spain (Rome, Italy)
1942 Charlie Rose, TV personality and journalist (Henderson, NC)
1946 Diane Keaton, actress (Santa Ana, CA)
1954 Pamela Sue Martin, actress (Westport, CT)
1969 Marilyn Manson, singer (Canton, OH)