106
   

WA2K Radio is now on the air

 
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 12:34 pm
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 12:41 pm
Bon Voyage, Walter, and here is the song in English, I think:

Roses are shining in Picardy
In the hush of the silvery dew
Roses are flowering in Picardy
But there's never a rose like you!

And the roses will die with the summertime
And our roads may be far, far apart
But there's one rose that dies not in Picardy
'Tis the rose that I keep in my heart!

----Music by Haydn Wood with lyrics

Tell us everything when you return, Walt. <smile>
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 01:28 pm
Have a nice trip, Walter!

Our best to Mrs Walter.

Gute Erholung!

McT
0 Replies
 
yitwail
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 01:54 pm
belated thanks to tico for succeeding in doing the exact thing i tried to do & failed. Embarrassed and bon voyage to walter. Smile
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 02:14 pm
Tico doesn't make a big deal out of his willingness to help, does he, Yit. <smile>

Well, listeners, you may consider me to be cynical, but after my experience with hurricane Frances, I often wonder about the press:

Rising floodwaters bring huge humanitarian crisis to New Orleans Tue Aug 30,12:20 PM ET



NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Helicopters plucked victims from roofs and rescuers dodged submerged live power lines and spewing gas pipes as still rising floodwaters turned New Orleans into a disaster zone.



Local television reported that as conditions worsened, martial law was imposed in two areas, Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish, a day after murderous Hurricane Katrina slammed into the city.

Police were halting anyone trying to get into the city, WWL-TV said.

Authorities said New Orleans, with highways submerged, bridges washed out and even elevated expressways unsafe, was effectively cut off, and waters were devouring more and more real estate after a storm surge breached a levee.

WWL-TV reported, quoting unidentified local officials, that flood waters were still coursing into the city, and were beginning to threaten areas in the historic French Quarter and downtown which were on higher ground.

Another local station, WDSU, warned viewers that the Louisiana Superdome, which welcomed at least 10,000 evacuees on Monday, was now surrounded by three feet (one metre) of water.

Evacuees sat tight in the massive sports arena, which itself bore Katrina's scars after having much of its outer dome ripped off.

Communications with New Orleans were largely cut off and around 700,000 people were without power. Some victims had been stuck on the roofs of their homes for nearly 24 hours in a spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Water was unsafe to drink in many areas, if available at all, as the Red Cross swung a massive relief operation into action to aid a city metropolitan area population of 1.4 million.

"Our city is in a state of devastation," Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-TV "we probably have 80 percent of our city under water."

"With some sections of our city, the water is as deep as 20 feet" (seven metres).

"It's almost like a nightmare that I hope we wake up from."

With live power lines, gas pipes and debris including submerged cars floating below the surface of foul waters, it was too dangerous for rescue workers to use boats in some areas, meaning helicopters were the only choice.

Nagin declined to offer casualty figures, but warned of "significant" deaths, amid gruesome reports of bodies floating in the waters, hours after a storm surge deluged homes pummelled by massive winds.

The city's Methodist Hospital prepared to evacuate patients by air from its roof, after rising floodwaters threatened generators.

Reports said that a levee in the city's 17th Street Canal had given way, allowing the waters of Lake Pontchartrain to surge into the streets.

While the famed French Quarter and business zone of New Orleans was battered by winds of up to 150 miles an hour (240 kilometers) on Monday, residential areas north and east of downtown paid the heaviest price.

Louisiana state Governor Kathleen Blanco told CAN television that hundreds of people were pulled out of floodwaters late Monday, and hundreds more were awaiting rescue.

"We've pulled literally hundreds of people out of the waters," Blanc said.

In one rescue operation witnessed by AFP, firefighters spotted a man who had patched together a makeshift boat with wooden shipping pallets and was pushing himself toward an interstate freeway.

He was pulled into an aluminum flatbottom skiff. The firefighters then steered their way to a ramshackle white house where they picked up a soaking wet elderly man in a green shirt.

The boat then moved on to the next home.

About 30 minutes later the passenger-laden skiff pulled up to a shallow spot along the interstate where police and firefighters lowered a ladder.

"Just take your time. You're alright. I gatch now," a firefighter said as he helped a woman climb out of the boat.

The man in the green shirt was one of the last to leave the skiff.

"Can you pass me my cane?" Ronald Wood said as he steadied himself on the concrete barrier. "Iamb kind cold right now," he said as he climbed into a waiting ambulance. "I feel pretty sick."

There is no doubt in my mind that there are people hurting and in psychological pain, but after The Red Cross billed me for one shot of valium to calm my husband, and after reading that much of the money donated to tsunami victims never reached them, I am a wee bit skeptical.

As to this date, I have received no communication from FEMA. and I know there are others who have not been helped.
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 05:07 pm
Just a brief message, WA2K.

Katrina has decimated the gulf states. New Orleans is under water, and the world falls silent in grief. It makes our petty problems seem so insignificant.
0 Replies
 
djjd62
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 06:43 pm
New Orleans Is Sinking
Tragically Hip

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smokey blue-green
I can't forsake a dixie dead-shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim

Colonel Tom, What's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey north you're south shut your big mouth,
You gotta do what you feel is real"
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby, she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above
And said, "Hey man thanks"
Sometimes I fell so good, I gotta scream
She said Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said, I swear to god she said...
My memory is muddy what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim


here's hoping it doesn't get any worse
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 07:06 pm
dj, you are unbelievable, right listeners? Tragically hip is a perfect name.

somehow, folks, this is a majestic song that also seems appropriate.



John B. Dykes (1823-1876) Words: Will­iam Whit­ing, 1860. He wrote the lyr­ics as a po­em for a stu­dent about to sail for Amer­i­ca.

Music: "Melita," John B. Dykes, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1861 (MI­DI, score). Dykes fit­ting­ly named the tune af­ter a lo­cale as­so­ci­at­ed with a Bib­li­cal ship­wreck. Mel­i­ta was the isl­and the Apos­tle Paul reached af­ter his ship went down (Acts 28:1); to­day we know it as the isle of Mal­ta.

William Whiting (1825-1878)

In America, "Eternal Father" is oft­en called the "Na­vy Hymn," be­cause it is sung at the Na­val Acad­e­my in An­na­po­lis, Ma­ry­land. It is al­so sung on ships of the Brit­ish Roy­al Na­vy and has been trans­lat­ed in­to French. It was the fa­vor­ite hymn of U.S. Pres­i­dent Frank­lin Roo­se­velt and was sung at his fun­er­al in Hyde Park, New York, Ap­ril 1945. The Na­vy Band played it in 1963 as U.S. Pre­si­dent John Ken­ne­dy's bo­dy was car­ried up the steps of the U.S. Cap­i­tol to lie in state. Roo­se­velt served as Sec­re­ta­ry of the Na­vy, and Ken­ne­dy was a PT boat com­mand­er in World War II.




Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who biddest the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy Word,
Who walked on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!
Our family shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect us wheresoever we go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

goodnight, my friends

From Letty with love.
0 Replies
 
djjd62
 
  1  
Reply Tue 30 Aug, 2005 07:15 pm
they're a big, little band from kingston, ontario, canada

i've posted this before on this thread, but this is possibly my favourite tragically hip song

Bobcaygeon
Tragically Hip

I left your house this morning about a quarter after nine
coulda been the Willie Nelson coulda been the wine
when I left your house this morning
it was a little after nine
it was in Bobcaygeon I saw the constellations
reveal themselves one star at a time

Drove back to town this morning with working on my mind
I thought of maybe quitting
thought of leaving it behind
went back to bed this morning
and as I'm pulling down the blind
the sky was dull and hypothetical
and falling one cloud at a time

That night in Toronto with its checkerboard floors
riding on horseback and keeping order restored
til the men they couldn't hang
stepped to the mic and sang
and their voices rang with that Aryan twang

I got to your house this morning just a little after nine
in the middle of that riot
couldn't get you off my mind
so I'm at your house this morning
just a little after nine
cause it was in Bobcaygeon where I saw the constellations
reveal themselves one star at a time



some more hip

Poets
Tragically Hip

Spring starts when a heartbeat's poundin'
When the birds can be heard above the reckonin' carts doing some final accounting
Lava flowin' in Super Farmer's direction
He's been gettin' reprieve from the heat in the frozen-food section (yaa-Aa)

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
Don't tell me that they're talkin' tough
Don't tell me that they're anti-social
Somehow not anti-social enough, all right

And porn speaks to it's splintered legions
To the pink amid the withered corn stalks in them winter regions (euyeaaah)
While aiming at the archetypal father
He said with such broad and tentative swipes why do you even bother (yeeaaah)

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
Those Himalayas of the mind
Don't tell me what the poets been doing
In the long grasses over time

{ Instra }

Don't tell me what the poets are doing
On the street and the epitome of vague
Don't tell me how the universe is altered
When you find out how he gets paid, all right
If there's nothing more that you need now
Lawn cut by bare-breasted women
Beach bleached towels within reach for the women gotta make it that'll make it by swimmin'

(Guitar, drum ends)


Blow at High Dough
Tragically Hip

They shot a movie once, in my hometown
Everybody was in it, from miles around
Out at the speedway, some kinda Elvis thing
Well I ain't no movie star
But I can get behind anything
Yea I can get behind anything

Get it out, get it all out
Yea stretch that thing
Make it last, make it all last
At least until the supper bell rings
Well the taxi driver likes his rhythm
Never likes the stops
Throes of passion, throes of passion
When something just threw him off
Chorus
Sometimes the faster it gets
The less you need to know
But you gotta remember,
The smarter it gets
The further it's gonna go
When you blow at high dough
When you blow at high dough

Whoa baby I feel fine
I'm pretty sure it's genuine
It makes no sense, no it makes no sense
But I'll take it free any time
Whoever fits her usually gets her
It was the strangest thing
How'd she move so fast, move so fast
Into that wedding ring

Chorus

Out at the speedway, same Elvis thing
Well I can't catch her, but I can get behind anything
Yea I can get behind anything
Well I can get behind anything

Chorus

Out at the speedway, same Elvis thing
0 Replies
 
RexRed
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 12:21 am
The Silver Cross

Chapter 5

Charlie Jenkins was a troubled youth. His parents doctors had misdiagnosed him as a youngster with attention deficit hyperactive disorder so they pumped him full of Ritalin till the side effects over time gave him seizures and uncontrollable shakes. Had they only known that his only problem was that he was an artistic exuberant independent child. Yet the damage was done after years of excessive drug treatment. By the time he had reached his twelfth birthday he was diagnosed with mild schizophrenia. When the Ritalin was no longer effective in settling his nervous twitching and sudden outbursts of anger the doctors prescribed a litany of other medications that only ended up in creating severe bipolar mood swings and psychotic episodes that could last for several weeks.

By the time Charlie had reached his sixteenth birthday he was institutionalized and bounced from shrinks to nerve specialists and back again in hopes of reversing the drug side effects that had nearly eclipsed his mental condition. By the age of eighteen he had been thrown out onto the streets and basically abandoned by his family and anyone else who had had a hand in his demise. He was societies child now and it was society that would pay for his rage.

Charlie had a lazy eye as a four year old and the optometrist told his parents that surgery could correct this condition. Yet the surgery was a complete failure and after three more tries the eye was worse that it had been when they started. This only added to the impediments that made life nearly impossible for Charlie. This made learning to read nearly impossible. Even so, Charlie was a fairly attractive young man aside from the nervous twitching and the lazy eye.

Charlie was now a permanent resident of the Glenville homeless shelter. His social worker had once gotten Charlie an apartment of his own and his disability check kept the rent paid. Charlie had never learned the responsibility or the ways of living on his own. One day Charlie invited a number of his friends that he had met at the city shelter to his apartment and agreed to let them crash there. All went well for a week till he left them there a couple of days while he hitch hiked to a Phish concert. When he returned his landlord had paddle locked his apartment door and Charlie was evicted.

It turned out the people he had left in his apartment had stolen his TV, his boom box and anything else that wasn't nailed down. They also spray painted graffiti all over the walls and put out numerous cigarettes butts on the living room carpet. So Charlie was back in the shelter again. Charlie hated the shelter. It was full of men who didn't bathe and would come in drunk burping booze and farting all night.

Charlie's sister Susan would let him crash on her couch when he would call her and tell her he could not stand another night at the city shelter. Yet she lived alone and had a young child and worried that Charlie might have one of his episodes and think her baby was an alien or some other crazy fantasy. It seemed Charlie was destined to be a permanent resident of the city's homeless shelter...

After so long people become complacent in this lifestyle and forget to dream of anything better. Charlie was a victim of an imperfect world and a product of it's calamity. Charlie would often think of just taking a bus out to California or Nevada and starting a new life out there yet he was aware enough that he would just be bringing the same problems with him. His problems were not the kind of problems that you could just run out on and leave them all behind...

To be continued... here on WA2K

Eric Pedersen(rexred)
Copyright 2005

http://rexred.com/thesilvercross.html
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 02:25 am
GODFREY, ARTHUR
Born in New York City, U.S., 31 August 1903

U.S. Variety Show Host

Arthur Godfrey ranks as one of the important on-air stars of the first decade of American television. Indeed prior to 1959 there was no bigger TV luminary than this freckled faced, ukelele playing, host/pitchman. Through most of the decade of the 1950s Godfrey hosted a daily radio program and appeared in two top-ten prime time television shows, all for CBS. As the new medium was invading American households, there was something about Godfrey's wide grin, his infectious chuckle, his unruly shock of red hair that made millions tune in not once, but twice a week.

To industry insiders, Godfrey was television's first great master of advertising. His deep, microphone-loving voice delivery earned Arthur Godfrey a million dollars a year, making him one of the highest paid persons in the United States at the time. He blended a Southern folksiness with enough sophistication to charm a national audience measured in the millions through the 1950s. For CBS-TV in particular, Godfrey was one of network television's most valuable stars, generating millions of dollars in advertising billings each year, with no ostensible talent save being the most congenial of hosts.

After more than a decade on radio, Godfrey ventured onto primetime TV in December 1948 by simply permitting the televising of his radio hit Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The formula for Talent Scouts was simple enough. "Scouts" presented their "discoveries" to perform live before a national radio and television audience. Most of these discoveries were in fact struggling professionals looking for a break, and the quality of the talent was quite high. The winner, chosen by a fabled audience applause meter, often joined Godfrey on his radio show and on Arthur Godfrey and His Friends for some period thereafter.

Through the late 1940s and 1950s Godfrey significantly assisted the careers of Pat Boone, Tony Bennett, Eddie Fisher, Connie Francis, and Patsy Cline. An institution on Monday nights at 8:30 P.M., Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts always functioned as Godfrey's best showcase and through the early 1950s was a consistent top-ten hit.

A month after the December 1948 television debut of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts came the premiere of Arthur Godfrey and His Friends. Here Godfrey employed a resident cast which at times included Julius La Rosa, Frank Parker, Lu Ann Simms, and the Cordettes. Tony Marvin was both the announcer and Godfrey's "second banana," as he was on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The appeal of Arthur Godfrey and His Friends varied depending on the popularity of the assembled company of singers, all clean cut young people lifted by Godfrey from obscurity. Godfrey played host and impresario, sometimes singing off key and strumming his ukulele, but most often leaving the vocals to others.

As he had done on radio, Godfrey frequently kidded his sponsors, but always "sold from the heart," only hawking products he had actually tried and/or regularly used. No television viewer during the 1950s doubted that Godfrey really did love Lipton Tea and drank it every day. He delighted in tossing aside prepared scripts and telling his audience: "Aw, who wrote this stuff? Everybody knows Lipton's is the best tea you can buy. So why get fancy about it? Getcha some Lipton's, hot the pot with plain hot water for a few minutes, then put fresh hot water on the tea and let it just sit there."

Godfrey perfected the art of seeming to speak intimately to each and every one of his viewers, to sound as if he was confiding in "you and you alone." Despite all his irreverent kidding, then, advertisers loved him. Here was no snake oil salesman hawking an uneeded item, merchandise not worth its price. Here was a friend recommending the product. This personal style drove CBS efficiency experts crazy. Godfrey refused to simply read his advertising copy in the allocated 60 seconds. Instead he talked--for as long as he felt it necessary to convince his viewers of his message, frequently running over his allotted commercial time.

CBS owner William S. Paley detested Godfrey but bowed to his incredible popularity. CBS president Frank Stanton loved Godfrey because his shows were so cheap to produce but drew consistently high ratings. In 1955 when Disneyland cost $90,000 per hour, and costs for a half hour of The Jack Benny Show totalled more than $40,000, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts cost but $30,000. This figure was more in line with the production of a cheap quiz program than fashioning a pricey Hollywood-based show on film. n his day Godfrey accumulated a personal fortune that made it possible for him to own a vast estate in the Virginia horse country, maintain a huge duplex apartment in Manhattan, and fly back and forth in his own airplanes. In 1950 he qualified for a pilot's license; the following year he trained to fly jets. Constantly plugging the glories of air travel, Arthur Godfrey, according to Eddie Rickenbacker, did more to boost aviation than any single person since Charles Lindbergh.

As much as the termination of any live anthology drama from New York, Godfrey's end symbolized the close of the era of experimental, live television. But Arthur Godfrey should be remembered for more than his skill in performing for live television. Perhaps even more significant is that he taught the medium how to sell. In terms of the forces of that have shaped and continue to shape the medium of television, Arthur Godfrey's career perfectly illustrates the workings of the star system. Here was a person who seemed to have had "no talent," but was so effective that through most of the 1950s he was "everywhere" in the mass media. In the end times and tastes changed. In 1951 that Arthur Godfrey stood as the very center of American television. Eight years later he was back on radio, a forgotten man to all but the few who listened to the "old" medium.

-Douglas Gomery

ARTHUR GODFREY. Born in New York City, U.S., 31 August 1903. Educated at Naval Radio School, 1921; Naval Radio Materiel School, 1929; various correspondence courses. Married: 1) name unknown, children: Richard; 2) Mary Bourke, 1938, children: Arthur Michael, Jr. and Patricia Ann. Served in the U.S. Navy, receiving radio training and becoming a radio operator on destroyer duty, 1920-24; served in the U.S. Coast Guard acquiring additional radio training, 1927-30. Radio announcer and entertainer for WFBR in Baltimore, Maryland, 1930; staff announcer for NBC in Washington, D.C., 1930-34; freelance radio entertainer from 1934; joined CBS Radio, 1945; CBS television host of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, 1948-58; television host of Arthur Godfrey & His Friends, 1949-59; national radio host of Arthur Godfrey Time, 1960-72; starred in films Four For Texas, 1963, The Glass Bottom Boat, 1966, Where Angels Go...Trouble Follows, 1968. Member of ASCAP, National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere, and Citizen's Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. Died in New York City, 16 March 1983.

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/G/htmlG/godfreyarth/godfreyarth.htm
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 02:33 am
0 Replies
 
bobsmythhawk
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 02:41 am
Van Morrison
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

George Ivan Morrison (born August 31, 1945) is a Northern Irish singer/songwriter originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Morrison first rose to prominence as the lead singer of the British/Irish band Them, penning their seminal 1966 hit "Gloria." A few years later, Morrison left the band for a successful solo career.

Morrison has pursued an idiosyncratic musical path. Much of his music is tightly structured around the conventions of American soul and R&B (such as the seminal singles "Brown-Eyed Girl", "Moondance" and "Domino"). An equal part of his catalogue consists of lengthy, loosely connected, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence Celtic and jazz, such as his classic album Astral Weeks.

Morrison's career spanned some four decades, and has influenced many popular musical artists. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2000, Morrison ranked number 25 on American cable music channel VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Rock and Roll.

Early History

Growing up in Belfast, Morrison was exposed to music from an early age, as his father collected American jazz and blues albums, and his mother was a singer. His father's taste in music was passed on to him, he grew up listening to artists such as Ray Charles, Leadbelly and Solomon Burke. In a 2005 Rolling Stone article he said that "Those guys were the inspiration that got me going. If it wasn't for that kind of music, I couldn't do what I'm doing now. [1]"

60s

Morrison left home at age 15 to pursue a music career. He played in several local skiffle and rock n roll bands before joining the group The Monarchs and touring across Europe. He then formed the group Them, in 1964 and came to prominence fronting the band. The band had a number of chart hits, most notably the rock standard, "Gloria," subsequently covered by many artists, including Shadows of Knight.

Morrison became unhappy with increasing emphasis on the use of studio musicians, and left the band after a U.S. tour in 1966. He returned to Belfast, intending to quit the music business. Them's producer, Bert Berns, persuaded him to return to New York and record solo for the Bang Records label. From these early sessions emerged one of his best-known songs, "Brown Eyed Girl" (which reached #10 in the US in 1967). Master session drummer Gary Chester played on that song. It was revealed in 2005 that the song is on George W. Bush's iPod and is one of his favourites [2]. The album that came from those sessions was Blowin' Your Mind!. Morrison later admitted he wasn't pleased with the results, claiming in a Rolling Stone interview in 1969, "It came out wrong and they released it without my consent." Recordings from these sessions were occasionally re-released by Bang and in bootleg form, under various names. The complete recordings were repackaged in 1991 as the Bang Masters. These include an alternate take of "Brown Eyed Girl" as well as early versions of "Beside You" and "Madame George", songs that appear with slightly different chord changes, instrumentation, and lyrics on Morrison's second album.

After Berns's death in 1967, Morrison moved to Boston, Massachusetts. He was soon confronted with personal and financial problems. He had entered an alcohol-aided depression and had trouble finding gigs. However, through the few gigs he could find, he regained his professional footing and started recording with the Warner Bros. label. His first album for them was Astral Weeks (which he had already performed in several clubs around Boston), a loose song cycle considered by many to be his best work. Released in 1968, the album was critically acclaimed, but received an indifferent response from the public. Morrison, in a Rolling Stone interview in 1970, described the album as a rock opera with a definite story line.

70s

Morrison then moved to California and released his next album, Moondance in 1970, which reached #29 on the Billboard charts. The style of this album was in great contrast to that of Astral Weeks. Astral Weeks was a sorrowful and vulnerable album, Moondance on the other hand was a much more optimistic and cheerful affair. The title track, though never released in the US as a single, was heavily played in many radio formats. The evocative track "Into the Mystic" has also gained a wide following over the years. He produced the album himself because he felt no one knew what he was looking for except himself.

Over the next few years, he released several acclaimed albums (particularly 1970's His Band and the Street Choir, 1971's Tupelo Honey and 1972's St. Dominic's Preview), which spawned the hits "Domino" (#9 in the US in 1970), "Wild Night", and "Tupelo Honey."

By 1972, despite being a performer for nearly 10 years, he soon began experiencing stage-fright when performing in front of large audiences, in front of thousands of people as opposed to the hundreds he had experienced in his early career. He would get anxious on stage and have difficulty establishing eye-contact with the audience. He once said on an interview about performing on stage, "I dig singing the songs but there are times when it's pretty agonizing for me to be out there" [3].

After a brief break from music, he started performing in clubs and regained his ability to perform live, albeit with a smaller audience. He then formed the group, The Caledonia Soul Orchestra and ventured on a 3 month US tour with them. This tour was captured for posterity on the live double-Lp, It's Too Late To Stop Now, widely regarded as one of the great live albums in rock history.

In 1973 Morrison disbanded the Caledonia Soul Orchestra and divorced his wife of 7 years, the violinist Janet Planet, with whom he had a daughter. He then released the introspective and poignant album Veedon Fleece in 1974. Though it attracted little attention at the time of its release, its critical stature has grown over the years, and Veedon Fleece is now considered one of Morrison's best works. Morrison would not release a follow-up album for the next 3 years. During this time, he was able to write and record a number of new songs, and in a KSAN radio interview in 1974, Van indicated plans to release a new album, Mechanical Bliss, a mere 4-5 months after Veedon Fleece. The projected February 1975 street date came and went without a release as Morrison continued to work on the album. During this time, the album title underwent a number of changes (at one time, it was to be called Stiff Upper Lip, another time it was retitled Naked In The Jungle), and the painter Zox was even commissioned to create the sleeve-artwork. The project was ultimately abandoned, and much of the work done would have to wait until 1998's Philosopher's Stone to see official release. (Zox's painting was later incorporated into the cover art to The Royal Scam, a Steely Dan album released in 1976.) [4]

In 1976, Morrison performed at the farewell concert for The Band, which took place on Thanksgiving Day. It was his first live performance in quite some time, and Morrison considered skipping his appearance up until the very last minute. He did not skip it and performed two songs, one of them being "Caravan", from his 1970 album, Moondance; many consider that performance to be the high point of the concert. The concert was filmed and later issued in Martin Scorsese's 1978 film, The Last Waltz, which is widely considered a landmark concert film.

In 1977, Morrison finally released A Period of Transition, a collaboration with Dr. John, who also appeared at the The Last Waltz. Universally dismissed as subpar work, it did begin a very prolific period of song making. The following year, Morrison released Wavelength; it, too, was dismissed as subpar work, but the engaging title track became a modest hit. The opening track, "Kingdom Hall" (about Morrison's own childhood experience around Jehovah's Witnesses), also foreshadowed the religious turn in Morrison's next album, Into The Music.

Released in 1979, Into The Music was hailed as a masterpiece. "An erotic/religious cycle of songs that culminates in the greatest side of music Morrison has created since Astral Weeks," (Dave Marsh, The Rolling Stone Album Guide, 2nd Edition) it's arguably Morrison's last great album.

80s

Much of the music Morrison released throughout the 80s continued to focus on themes of spirituality and faith as Morrison's compositions steered towards New Age territory. "Summertime In England" from Common One, "Cleaning Windows" from Beautiful Vision, "Rave On, John Donne" from Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart (a concert highlight), and "Tore Down A La Rimbaud" from A Sense Of Wonder are perhaps the best examples of his work during this relatively uneven period of his career.

A resurgence began with 1986's No Guru, No Method, No Teacher; that album and its successor, 1987's Poetic Champions Compose, were greeted with Morrison's best reviews in years. In 1988, he released Irish Heartbeat with the Irish group, The Chieftains; a popular-selling record, the album featured a collection of traditional Irish folk songs. In 1989, Morrison released an even more popular seller, Avalon Sunset, which featured the hit duet with Cliff Richard, "Whenever God Shines His Light"; and the ballad, "Have I Told You Lately." A critical and commercial success, Morrison was able to capitalize on its success with the release of The Best of Van Morrison. Not to be mistaken with a similarly-titled compilation released in 1967 (and long out-of-print), this was the first collection ever to survey his entire career. Compiled by Morrison himself and focusing on his hit singles, it became a multi-platinum success and remains the most popular item in Van Morrison's catalogue.

90s

In 1990 Morrison also joined many other guests for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, in which he sang "Comfortably Numb" with Roger Waters, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko.

Morrison would go on to collaborate with many other artists for many years to come. As mentioned, he performed a duet with Cliff Richard on Morrison's 1989 album, Avalon Sunset, but he also performed with singer Tom Jones on the 1999 album Reload and with musical legend Ray Charles on his 2004 album Genius Loves Company. In 1997, Morrison collaborated with blues legend John Lee Hooker on Hooker's album, Don't Look Back. The title track from the album would go on to win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 1998. This was not the first time the two had worked together; Morrison appeared on both Hooker's Never Get Out of These Blues Alive and Chill Out previously.

Though Morrison's commercial success would continue throughout the 1990's, the critical reception to his work began to decline. 1990's Enlightenment yielded one hit single, "Real Real Gone" (first recorded ten years earlier), and 1991's double-CD Hymns To The Silence was one of his most ambitious works, but 1993's Too Long In Exile, 1995's Days Like This, and others were less and less impressive. The live performances were still considered good (as heard on 1994's A Night In San Francisco), and there were other acclaimed moments throughout the decade ("I Cover The Waterfront" with John Lee Hooker, "Ancient Highway" from Days Like This), but the albums grew more and more uneven.

This period was also marked by a number of side projects, including the live, jazz performances of 1996's How Long Has This Been Going On, 1997's Tell Me Something: The Songs Of Mose Allison, and 2000's The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast, all of which found Morrison paying tribute to his long-time favourites.

In 1997, Morrison released The Healing Game, arguably his best album of the 90s. The following year, Morrison finally released some of his unissued studio recordings in a warmly received two-disc set, The Philosopher's Stone. His next release, 1999's Back On Top, was a modest success, being his highest charting album since 1978's Wavelength.

2000s

Van Morrison continued to record and tour in the 2000s, performing two or three times a week. Playing fewer of his well-known songs in concert than almost any other artist from his era, Morrison refused to be relegated into a nostalgia act.

In 2000, Morrison released a collaboration with (Jerry Lee Lewis's sister) Linda Gail Lewis, You Win Again. Another side project, this time focusing on r&b and country-and-western standards, Lewis proved to be an excellent duet partner, and the project set the stage for Morrison's next album, Choppin' Wood. Clinton Heylin's book, Can You Feel The Silence?, discusses this period in great detail, but due to legal issues surrounding the matter, not everything could be divulged. By the end of 2000, the album was essentially finished when Lewis and Morrison had a falling out.
The cover of the May 2005 edition of Wavelength, a magazine dedicated to Van Morrison


As a result, Morrison went back a re-recorded and/or remixed most of the tracks, removing Lewis's contributions in the process. A few songs were removed from the final running order and more new ones were added in. The result was released in 2002 as Down The Road. Arguably Morrison's strongest release since Avalon Sunset, Heylin contends that the original version, Choppin' Wood, would've been a true return to form. It's doubtful if that notion will ever be put to the test because the original recordings have yet to circulate, privately or publicly.

In 2003, Morrison released What's Wrong With This Picture? on the legendary jazz record label, Blue Note Records.

In 2004, his song "Bright Side of the Road," off his 1979 album, Into The Music was featured in the UNESCO ads for the World Press Freedom Day.

Morrison still remains popular with the public; his latest album, Magic Time debuted at #25 on the US Billboard charts upon release in May 2005, some 40 years after first entering the public's eye as the frontman of Them.

Influence

Morrison's influence can be readily seen in the music of many major artists, including U2 (much of The Unforgettable Fire), Bruce Springsteen ("Spirit in the Night", "Backstreets"), Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Patti Smith (her poetic-proto-punk "Gloria" most explicitly), Graham Parker, Thin Lizzy, Dexys Midnight Runners, and numerous others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Morrison

Brown Eyed Girl
( Van Morrison )

Hey where did we go, days when the rains came?
Down in the hollow, playin' a new game
Laughing and a running hey, hey! Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with our hearts a thumpin' and you ...
My brown eyed girl
You, my brown eyed girl

Whatever happened to Tuesday and so slow?
Going down the old mine with a transistor radio
Standing in the sunlight laughing, hiding behind a rainbow's wall
Slipping and sliding, baby, all along the water fall, with you ...
My brown eyed girl
You, my brown eyed girl

Do you remember when we used to sing?
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da
... la te da

So hard to find my way, now that I'm all on my own
I saw you just the other day, my, how you have grown!
Cast my memory back there, Lord, sometimes I'm overcome thinking 'bout
Making love in the green grass, behind the stadium with you ...
My brown eyed girl
You, my brown eyed girl

Do you remember when we used to sing?
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da
Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da
0 Replies
 
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 04:27 am
Soft as a raindrop,fresh as the sea
Warm as the sunshine shining on me
This was my love,
This was my love.

Light was her laughter,few were her tears
Gentle her beauty,tender her years
This was my love
This was my love.

So young,so fair,such bright golden hair
A smile always on her face
No other love can ever compare
No other can take her place.

Others may cherish fortune or fame
I will forever cherish her name
This was my love
This was my love.
0 Replies
 
Raggedyaggie
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 06:39 am
Thanks for the bios, Bob. I love Lerner & Lowe's Brigadoon, Camelot and one of my stage favorites, Paint Your Wagon (Not the movie). I was not aware that Lerner had so many personal probems.

I see no mention of the Godfrey incident that made him quite unpopular with his regular listeners for some time.

IMDb trivia: "Made headlines in 1953 when Godfrey, whose public image was mellow and laid-back but who was notorious for his offstage crankiness and short temper, fired singer Julius LaRosa in the middle of the show - which was broadcast live - on the air." (Maybe someone here will remember. I think it was because LaRosa was dating one of the McGuire Sisters, regulars on Godfrey's show.)

Today's birthdays:

12 - Gaius Caligula, Roman Emperor (d. 41)
161 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (d. 192)
1663 - Guillaume Amontons, French physicist and instrument maker (d. 1705)
1811 - Theophile Gautier, French poet and novelist (d. 1872)
1834 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (d. 1886)
1870 - Maria Montessori, Italian educator (d. 1952)
1878 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (d. 1933)
1879 - Alma Mahler, wife of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel (d. 1964)
1880 - Queen Wilhelmina I of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
1885 - DuBose Heyward, American playwright (d. 1940)
1897 - Fredric March, American actor (d. 1975)
1903 - Arthur Godfrey, American television host (d. 1983)
1907 - William Shawn, American editor (d. 1992)
1907 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of the Philippines (d. 1957)
1908 - William Saroyan, American novelist and playwright (d. 1981)
1914 - Richard Basehart, American actor (d. 1984)
1916 - Daniel Schorr, American journalist
1918 - Alan Jay Lerner, American composer (d. 1986)
1924 - Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (d. 2003)
1928 - James Coburn, American actor (d. 2002)
1931 - Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
1935 - Frank Robinson, baseball player and manager
1935 - Eldridge Cleaver, American political activist (d. 1998)
1938 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
1945 - Van Morrison, Irish musician
1945 - Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist
1948 - Lowell Ganz, American screenwriter
1948 - Rudolf Schenker, German guitarist (Scorpions)
1949 - Richard Gere, American actor
1949 - H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1956 - Masashi Tashiro, Japanese television performer
1958 - Edwin Moses, American athlete
1968 - Todd Carty, British actor
1970 - Deborah Gibson, American singer
1971 - Sheri Yocum, American home maker extrordinaire
1972 - Chris Tucker, American actor
1977 - Craig Nicholls, Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist (The Vines)
1977 - Jeff Hardy, American professional wrestler

http://www.thegoldenyears.org/fredric_march.jpghttp://www.statetheatrenj.org/images/pic_05_04_30_Perlman.jpghttp://www.einsiders.com/features/images/jcoburn.jpg

http://www.farandulas.com/archives/gere2.jpg
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 06:48 am
Good morning, WA2K radio fans and contributors.

We here certainly do appreciate all the information that enlightens and informs.

Thanks, dj, for those unusual and thought provoking songs. You never fail to amaze us with your music.

Bob, Once again you have reminded us of the genius in the music business. Your follow up to the bios with the popular tunes of the day, completes the picture, Boston. Thanks.

Rex, This chapter of your book adds yet another facet to the typical child who has slipped through the cracks in our "medicate 'em" society. Well written, buddy, and thanks.

Well, my goodness! Welcome back, spendius, and with such a lovely and wistful song of love. Thanks, Brit.
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 07:01 am
Well, good morning, Raggedy. You are faster than a speeding bullet with your bulletins on the celebs. <smile> I believe that I recall Arthur's confrontation with Julius, but I certainly was not aware that it had to do with the McGuire sisters.

When was it that payola became a problem?

I think all of our listeners are quite aware of your celebs in photos, PA. I believe that the last movie that I saw in which Richard Gere starred was Chicago. I think that was it, but it may have had to do with "all that jazz", <smile>.

This is not my best time of day today. I was too concerned with those people in the Gulf states to think articulately, so forgive me if I have slighted any of our contributors.
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 07:38 am
This is only a test; were it an emergency, our listeners would have been directly notified. <smile>

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050831/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_katrina

In the interest of brevity, I am taking under advisement advice from a poster on another thread. Let's see if this reference works.
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 07:54 am
Hmmm. I would appreciate some feedback on this rather odd situation.

Another test, listeners:

Dylan looks back with PBS documentary, CDs, books By Chris Morris
Tue Aug 30, 9:53 PM ET



LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Bob Dylan's back pages will open wide in the next month as a torrent of retrospective product precedes the PBS premiere of Martin Scorsese's documentary about the celebrated and heretofore inscrutable singer-songwriter.


"No Direction Home," Scorsese's two-part, 3 1/2-hour film, airs September 26-27 as part of the public television network's "American Masters" series. The feature includes revealing new interviews with Dylan and a bounty of rare and unseen historical footage.

Reference to entire article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050831/music_nm/dylan_dc
0 Replies
 
Letty
 
  1  
Reply Wed 31 Aug, 2005 07:58 am
Confused
0 Replies
 
 

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