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Saturday, April 6, 2013
David Bowie - This Is Not America HD
"This Is Not America" is a song by jazz fusion band Pat Metheny Group and rock singer David Bowie, taken from the soundtrack for the film The Falcon and the Snowman. The instrumental, written by Metheny and Lyle Mays, is itself a song called "Chris" and was also included on the soundtrack for the film. "This Is Not America" adds additional drums courtesy of a Linn drum machine as well as Bowie's vocal performance. Metheny later noted that Bowie's words were "profound and meaningful -- and absolutely perfect for the film."
The song, a midtempo ballad, was released as a single which reached #14 in the UK, and #32 in the US. The instrumental found on the single is not the song "Chris", but a true instrumental of "This Is Not America". The song later appeared on Bowie's greatest hits compilation Best of Bowie, appearing on all but the Australian and Japanese pressings of that album.
Clannad - I Will Find You HD
Clannad (Irish pronunciation: [kl̪ˠan̪ˠad̪ˠ]) are an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, traditional Irish, Celtic and New Age, often incorporating elements of an even broader spectrum of smooth jazz and Gregorian chant. After twelve years of success in the folk music industry, they shot to international recognition in 1982 with the release of the "Theme from Harry's Game", becoming the most successful band in the Celtic music genre. They subsequently went on to bridge the gap between traditional Celtic music and pop music in the 1980s and 1990s with albums such as Macalla and Anam. Their records usually consist of traditional Gaelic ballads, New Age tracks that carry the group's trademark of haunting vocal harmonies, mellow harp-based instrumentals and often upbeat pop-flavoured numbers. During their career they toured the world extensively and gained fans in every major territory. They have recorded in six different languages, most notably in Irish, and their record sales have exceeded the 15 million mark. They are also widely regarded as the band which, for the first time, put Irish traditional music and the Irish language on the world stage and paved the way for many other Irish artists. They have won several notable awards throughout their career, including a Grammy, a BAFTA, an Ivor Novello and a Billboard Music Award.
Clannad are a family band composed of siblings Moya Brennan (Irish: Máire Ní Bhraonáin), Ciarán Brennan (Irish: Ciarán Ó Braonáin), Pól Brennan (Irish: Pól Ó Braonáin, who left in 1990 and rejoined in 2011) and their twin uncles Noel Duggan (Irish: Noel Ó Dúgáin) and Pádraig Duggan (Irish: Pádraig Ó Dúgáin). Their sister/niece Enya (Irish: Eithne Ní Bhraonáin) left the group in 1981 to pursue a solo career. Ten years after "taking a break", the five original members of Clannad reunited on stage at the Celtic Connections Festival in February 2007 in Glasgow, Scotland. Moya, Ciarán, Noel and Pádraig embarked on their first UK tour in over 10 years in March 2008, starting in Gateshead. In 2012, it was announced that the band were recording a new album to be released in September 2012. The original line up have scheduled their first North American tour in almost twenty years. The tour begins with several Canadian dates in September 2012.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Dr Hook - Better Love Next Time HD
Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, shortened in 1975 to Dr. Hook, was an American rock band, formed around Union City, New Jersey. They enjoyed considerable commercial success in the 1970s with hit singles including "Sylvia's Mother", "The Cover of the Rolling Stone", "A Little Bit More" and "When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman". In addition to their own material, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show performed songs written by the poet Shel Silverstein.
The band had eight years of regular chart hits, in both the U.S. and the UK, and greatest success with their later gentler material, as Dr. Hook.
The founding core of the band consisted of three Southerners who had worked together in a band called "The Chocolate Papers", George Cummings, Ray Sawyer and Billy Francis. They had played the South, up and down the East Coast, and into the Midwest, before breaking up. Cummings, who moved to New Jersey with the plan of forming a new band, brought back Sawyer to rejoin him. They then took on future primary vocalist, Jersey native Dennis Locorriere, at first as a bass player. Francis, who had returned South after the Chocolate Papers broke up, returned to be the new band's keyboardist.
When told by a club owner that they needed a name to put on a poster in the window of his establishment, Cummings made a sign: "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul". The "Hook" name was inspired by Sawyer's eyepatch and a reference to "Captain Hook" of the Peter Pan fairy tale, though, humorously, because Captain Hook was neither a doctor or wore an eyepatch. The "medicine show" and "doctor" (referring to the shows common in the 19th century) were intended as tongue-in-cheek warning against drug abuse. Ray Sawyer lost an eye in a near-fatal car crash in Oregon in 1967, and has worn an eyepatch ever since. To this day, Sawyer is mistakenly considered Dr. Hook because of the eyepatch he wears.
The band played for a few years in New Jersey, first with drummer Popeye Phillips (who had also been in "The Chocolate Papers"), who went on to be a session drummer on The Flying Burrito Brothers' first album, The Gilded Palace of Sin. Citing musical differences, Popeye returned home to Alabama and was replaced by local drummer Joseph Olivier. When the band began recording their first album, Olivier left in order to spend more time with his family, and was replaced by session player, John "Jay" David, who was asked to join the band full time in 1968.
In 1970, their demo tapes were heard by Ron Haffkine, musical director on the planned Herb Gardner movie, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?. The songs for the film were written by the cartoonist, poet and songwriter Shel Silverstein, who determined that Dr. Hook was the ideal group for the soundtrack. The group recorded two songs for the film: Locorriere sang the lead on both "The Last Morning," the movie's theme song, later re-recorded for their second album, Sloppy Seconds, and "Bunky and Lucille," which the band can be seen performing in the film. The film, released in 1971 by National General Pictures, received mixed critical reviews and did only modestly at the box office, but it helped Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show secure their first recording contract.
Clive Davis, CBS Records head, had a meeting with the group, described in Davis's autobiography. Drummer David used a wastepaper basket to keep the beat, and while Sawyer, Locorriere and Cummings played and sang a few songs, Francis hopped up and danced on the mogul's desk. This meeting secured the band their first record deal. Subsequently the band went on to international success over the next twelve years, with Haffkine as the group's manager, as well as producer of all the Dr. Hook recordings.
Their 1971 debut album Doctor Hook featured lead vocals, guitar, bass and harmonica by Locorriere, guitarist Cummings, singer Sawyer, drummer David, singer/guitarist, and keyboard player Billy Francis. The album included their first hit, "Sylvia's Mother."
Silverstein wrote the songs for many of Dr. Hook's early albums (including their entire second album), such as "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball", "Sylvia's Mother", "Everybody's Makin' It Big But Me", "Penicillin Penny", "The Ballad of Lucy Jordon", "Carry Me Carrie", "The Wonderful Soup Stone" and more, some of which were co-written with Locorriere and/or Sawyer.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-Three - HD
"Thirty-Three" is a song by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It was the fifth and final single from their third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It was also the first single released after the firing of Jimmy Chamberlin and death of Jonathan Melvoin. The song peaked at 39 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1996.
About the song, Billy Corgan said it was "A simple song in a country tuning" and was the first song written by Corgan after the Siamese Dream tour. The guitars recorded in the song are tuned to EGBGBE half a step down. The drum machine track is exactly the same track Corgan recorded when he laid down the demo version of the song, because he "couldn't remember how to recreate it".
Corgan joked on an August 24, 2000 taping of VH1 Storytellers that he planned on making "33", "66", and "99", but only finished "33".
When the band released their greatest hits collection in 2001, Thirty-Three made neither the international nor the US version. It was included, however, for the Greatest Hits Video Collection.
From 2012 reissue: "Before it all falls apart there is a moment where you feel alright with not knowing where you will land; knowing that by standing at a crossroads you invite whatever just conclusion may come, be it failure or success. I'd take these walks through my old neighborhood, my collar pulled up not just to brace away the cold but so that I could save myself the embarrassment of being recognized near where I lived. I longed for a privacy I'd gladly given away in my rush towards Olympus, and my home, painted a camouflaged shade of purple, had become a target for late-night teens feeling the need to drunkenly scream my name as I slept. I was fine with the idea of never-growing up, but death seemed unavoidable; the death of youth, the death of innocence." -Billy Corgan.
At the time of its release, the plan to release the song as the album's final single was a point of disagreement for insiders. Sources close to the band claim that "Muzzle" was in fact due to be released as the final single, as is evidenced by the fact that a promotional single for the song was issued to radio stations worldwide. Some have gone on to say that a music video was actually filmed for "Muzzle" with Chamberlin, but was never released. Billy Corgan has, however, denied this. The band went on to perform "Muzzle" for their next television appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien with replacement drummer,
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Ray Stevens - Everything Is Beautiful
"Everything is Beautiful" is a song by Ray Stevens. It has appeared on many of Stevens' albums, including one named after the song, and has become a pop standard and common in religious performances. The children heard singing the chorus of the song, using the hymn, "Jesus Loves the Little Children", are from the Oak Hill Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. This group includes Stevens' two daughters. The singer arranged and tape recorded the impromptu session himself for inclusion in the song.
The song was responsible for two wins at the Grammy Awards of 1971: Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Ray Stevens and Grammy Award for Best Inspirational Performance for Jake Hess. Ray Stevens' recording was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in the spring of 1970. The song also spent three weeks atop the adult contemporary chart. Many country stations played the song, peaking it at #39 on Billboard's chart. The song includes anti-racist and pro-tolerance lyrics such as "We shouldn't care 'bout the length of his hair / Or the color of his skin".
This song was a major departure for Stevens, as "Everything is Beautiful" is a more serious and spiritual tune, unlike some of his earlier ("Gitarzan" and "Ahab the Arab") and later ("The Streak") recordings which were more in the style of comedy/novelty songs.
The Smashing Pumpkins also released a cover of the song in their Live Smashing Pumpkins album series.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
3 Doors Down - Let Me Be Myself
Music video by 3 Doors Down performing Let Me Be Myself. (C) 2008 Universal Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Ring Flash Portraiture - LIVE Photoshoot
Ringflash is not just for macro - and not just on camera. You can create a great beauty dish type effect too. Here I show using the Orbis Ringflash on a manual Yong Nuo flash.
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Featuring Tina Yong
Find out about the Orbis here: http://enlightphotopro.com
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Friday, March 8, 2013
Ray Charles - A Song For You (Photo Slideshow) HD
Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 -- June 10, 2004) was an American musician known as Ray Charles (to avoid confusion with champion boxer Sugar Ray Robinson). He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records. He also helped racially integrate country and pop music during the 1960s with his crossover success on ABC Records, most notably with his Modern Sounds albums. While with ABC, Charles became one of the first African-American musicians to be given artistic control by a mainstream record company. Frank Sinatra called Charles "the only true genius in show business," although Charles never believed that about himself.
The influences upon his music were mainly jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and country artists of the day such as Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Louis Armstrong. His playing reflected influences from country blues, barrelhouse and stride piano styles.
Rolling Stone ranked Charles number ten on their list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" in 2004, and number two on their November 2008 list of "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In honoring Charles, Billy Joel noted: "This may sound like sacrilege, but I think Ray Charles was more important than Elvis Presley.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
R.E.M. - Losing My Religeon (Black & White Photography Slideshow) HD
"Losing My Religion" is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. The song was released as the first single from the group's 1991 album Out of Time. Based around a mandolin riff, "Losing My Religion" was an unlikely hit for the group, garnering heavy airplay on radio as well as on MTV due to its critically acclaimed music video. The song became R.E.M.'s highest-charting hit in the United States, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and expanding the group's popularity beyond its original fanbase. It was nominated for several Grammy Awards, and won two for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Short Form Music Video.
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wrote the main riff and chorus to the song on a mandolin while watching television one day. Buck had just bought the instrument and was attempting to learn how to play it, recording the music as he practiced. Buck said that "when I listened back to it the next day, there was a bunch of stuff that was really just me learning how to play mandolin, and then there's what became 'Losing My Religion', and then a whole bunch more of me learning to play the mandolin."
Recording of the song started in September 1990 at Bearsville Studio A in Woodstock, New York. The song was arranged in the studio with mandolin, electric bass, and drums. Bassist Mike Mills came up with a bassline inspired by the work of Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie; by his own admission he could not come up with one for the song that was not derivative. Buck said the arrangement of the song "had a hollow feel to it. There's absolutely no midrange on it, just low end and high end, because Mike usually stayed pretty low on the bass." The band decided to have touring guitarist Peter Holsapple play acoustic guitar on the recording. Buck reflected, "It was really cool: Peter and I would be in our little booth, sweating away, and Bill and Mike would be out there in the other room going at it. It just had a really magical feel." Singer Michael Stipe's vocal was recorded in a single take. Orchestral strings, arranged by Mark Bingham, were added to the song by members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Soundscape Studios in Atlanta, Georgia in October 1990.
The Birds - Turn! Turn! Turn! (Photo Slideshow) HD
"Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)", often abbreviated to "Turn! Turn! Turn!", is a song adapted entirely from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible (with the exception of the last line) and put to music by Pete Seeger in 1959. Seeger waited until 1962 to record his own version of it, releasing the song on his The Bitter and the Sweet album on Columbia Records.
The song became an international hit in late 1965 when it was covered by the American folk rock band The Byrds, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #26 on the UK Singles Chart. Many biblical scholars believe that Ecclesiastes 1:1 implies King Solomon (born c. 1011 BC) as the book's author[citation needed], but regardless of its precise origins, The Byrds' version of the song easily holds the record for the number 1 hit with the oldest lyrics.
The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the Book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible[2](Ecclesiastes 3:1), though the sequence of the words was rearranged for the song. Ecclesiastes is traditionally ascribed to King Solomon.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sow; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things: laughter and sorrow, healing and killing, war and peace, and so on. The lines are open to myriad interpretations, but as a song they are commonly performed as a plea for world peace, with an emphasis on the closing line: "a time for peace, I swear it's not too late." This line and the title phrase "Turn! Turn! Turn!" are the only parts of the lyric written by Seeger himself.
The song is notable for being one of a few instances in popular music in which a large portion of scripture is set to music, other examples being The Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon", Sister Janet Mead's "The Lord's Prayer", and U2's "40".
The song was published in illustrated book form by Simon & Schuster in September 2003, with an accompanying CD which contained both Seeger and The Byrds recordings of the song (ISBN 0689852355 & ISBN 978-0-689-85235-0). Wendy Anderson Halperin created a set of detailed illustrations for each set of opposites which are reminiscent of mandalas. The book also includes the Ecclesiastes text from the King James version of the Bible.
Handwritten lyrics to the song were among the documents donated to New York University by the Communist Party USA in March 2007.
45% of the royalties for the song are donated to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, because, in Seeger's own words, "[in addition to the music] I did write six words."
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