R R F- To Our Children's Children's Children The Moody Blues

The record that I pulled today for Random Record Friday is To Our Children's Children's Children by English rock band The Moody Blues. This will be my first time  listening to a Moody Blues album even though I have had this album along with Every Good Boy Deserves Favor for several years. I have only heard a few of their songs on the radio but besides that I know nothing about them. One interesting fact about them is that they are all still alive and performing which is rare for groups of the 60's and 70's.


This album which was in 1969 has many references to space travel. Mnay English artists of the time were singing about space travel in their songs  like David Bowie and The Rolling Stones.  Being  some what psychedelic rock album it is of very strange sounding especially Eyes of a Child which I like because it is one of the only rock songs to feature the harp as a main instrument something I have not heard before in a rock group. The cover art is great because now days you do not see many painted covers. Their 60's and 70's albums were designed by Philip Travers   I liked the album it was very relaxing and puts you in a good mood.    

This is so amazing words cannot describe.

Some photos of Bonnie

A Young Bobby "Blue" Bland

Bill Boggs interveiws Little Richard in 1985

Random Record Friday- Back To Back The Mar-Keys/Booker T. and the MG'S

I am starting something new tonight and it's called Random Record Friday. Every Friday I will go downstairs to my +250 record collection and pull out a random record. I will then play it and talk about it on this blog. It is  important to note that both bands on this record have had a member die this year bass player Donald Duck Dunn of Booker T. and The MG'S and tenor saxophone player Andrew Love of The Mar-Keys. Booker T. and The MG'S also turn 50 years old this year as does their hit song Green Onions. The group of musicians on this recording were the main backing musicians for Stax artists like Albert King, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Sam and Dave. Another thing to remember is that in the year of this recording Stax would lose one one of it's biggest stars Otis Redding in a plane crash. 

The record being from 1967 and having come from my grandma's basement may be  scratched  but it still sounds good.  The album is all live material from the Stax/Volt 1966 tour of Europe.  When you listen to the first track which is Green Onions you will then know why Donald Dunn is one of the best bass players in all of music. Up to this point you have probably never heard the names of most of these musicians only their sound.  This album is all instrumentals. I have never actually heard Jones sing and don't need to because his organ does the singing for him.  Not only did they play the music but Booker T. and The MG'S also wrote most of the songs on this album with the exception of  Gimme Some Lovin", "Philly Dog" which was written by another Stax artist  Rufus Thomas and Last Night written by The Mar-Keys. The Mar-Keys and their other horn section The Memphis horns are in my opinion the greatest horn sections in the history of music. If you want an album with groove and feeling then you should listen to Back To Back.

My mom reckons I'm going to be a star. And stars don't fall from the sky.

I recently watched the film La Bamba about Ritchie Valens. It was released in 1987 and stars Lou Dimond Phillips as Ritchie Valens. The film does a good job of showing the effect Ritchie's career in the music business has on his family and his girlfriend Donna Ludwig played by Danielle von Zerneck. It shows the struggles he must face during his path to becoming a musician. Everyone knows how the movie ends with a plane crash killing three, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens the youngest of the three victims at the age of seventeen. The film ends with Ritchie's family and friends hearing the news on the radio and his brother running to a bridge and yelling RITCHIEEEEE!!!!!!!!!. The part when Bob yells is the most powerful part of the movie. The Buddy Holly Story does not go into the effects the crash has on the other characters in the movie. The film stayed mostly true to the life of Valens in part because his mother who died later that year was on set along with Bob Morales to make sure that their characters were portrayed accurately. The part that they did not get right was the coin toss between Valens and Buddy Holly guitarist Tommy Allsup. According to Allsup the coin toss did not take place at the airport but at the Surf where the coin was flipped by radio DJ Bob Hale not Buddy Holly. The music for the film was preformed by Los Lobos who I know little about, they also make a cameo in the film as does Brian Brian Setzer who portrays Eddie Cochran.  Who knows what he would have done if he'd lived longer.

September Lineup at the Blues Club