Category Archives: Pop culture

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor

On November 27 1936, the movie ‘Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor’ was released. The movie has brought me quite a bit of childhood trauma. It was used to facilitate a lie. I was told that if I would follow the diet of Popeye I too would get his superhuman powers. But I never did .

Ok, joking aside who wasn’t told that if you would eat spinach you’d become as strong as Popeye?

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a 1936 two-reel animated cartoon short subject film in the Popeye Color Feature series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936 by Paramount Pictures.[3] It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Dave Fleischer, with the title song by Sammy Timberg. The voice cast includes Jack Mercer as Popeye and J. Wellington Wimpy, Mae Questel as Olive Oyl and Gus Wickie as Sindbad the Sailor.

In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

This short was the first of the three Popeye Color Specials, which, at over sixteen minutes each, were billed as “A Popeye Feature.” It was also the first Popeye color cartoon in general. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was nominated for the 1936 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, but lost to Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony The Country Cousin. Footage from this short was later used in the 1952 Famous Studios Popeye cartoon Big Bad Sindbad, in which Popeye relates the story of his encounter with Sindbad to his 3 nephews.

The Popeye Color Specials, also including Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves, and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (both of which were also adapted from a story featured in One Thousand and One Nights) are in the public domain, and are widely available on home video and DVD, often transferred from poor quality, old, faded prints. A fully restored version with the original Paramount mountain logo opening and closing titles is available on the Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938, Volume 1 DVD set from Warner Bros.

Producer and special effects artist Ray Harryhausen stated in his Fantasy Film Scrapbook that Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor was a major influence on his production of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

In 1994, the film was voted #17 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked Fleischer Studios cartoon in the book.

sources

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsSindbadTheSailor

https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs00068306/

ROCKTOBER-Edge of Seventeen

It is very hard for artists, who are part of an iconic band, to breakthrough as a solo artist. Stevie nicks was able to handle it(maybe that’s what Destiny’s child meant when they asked “Can you handle it?}

Stevie Nicks only became a singer for Fleetwood Mac by chance. The band as looking for a new guitarist after Peter Green left, and they approached Lindsey Buckingham. He agreed provided his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, could join too. The rest is Rock N Roll history.

When she went solo in earnest 40 years ago, the woman who had been integral to Fleetwood Mac’s transformation into the world’s biggest band carved out an identity as a star in her own right. She didn’t just make a chart-topping album, Bella Donna, but came up with a stunning anthem that only seems to grow more popular with age.

“Edge of Seventeen” was released as the third single from the album on February 4, 1982.The lyrics were written by Nicks to express the grief resulting from the death of her uncle Jonathan and the assassination of John Lennon during the same week of December 1980. The song features a distinctive, chugging 16th-note guitar riff, drum beat and a simple chord structure typical of Nicks’ songs. The song’s title for the single release was “Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)”. In the United States, “Edge of Seventeen” just missed out on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 11. Despite this, it became one of Nicks’ most enduring and recognizable songs and has been covered by several artists.

The most successful rendition was done by the aforementioned ‘Destiny’s Child’ The distinctive riff from the song was sampled in their 2001 hit single “Bootylicious”, with Nicks making a cameo appearance in the accompanying music video.

sources

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210820-edge-of-seventeen-an-anthem-that-stuns-each-new-generation

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/stevie-nicks/edge-of-seventeen

ROCKTOBER-In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

I have to be honest but “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” would not be one of my favourite Rock songs. However it is a classic Rock song nonetheless.

A friend once asked me if I knew the song “In the Garden of Eden” . He had heard it in the 1986 film “Manhunter” I corrected him and told him that the title was in fact “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly.

It was only later that I discovered that we were both technically correct, in relation to the title.

One of the most blissfully indulgent rock songs, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is animal-instinct rock and roll, playing out for 17:05 in its unabridged form and taking up an entire album side. The mysterious title is one of the great legends in rock. You might think it has a deep, mystical meaning, but it’s really a translation error.

Released in 1968, “In a Gadda Da Vida” is Iron Butterfly’s one and only hit. And this 17-minute song was recorded when the singer was not completely sober. The words ‘in a gadda da vida’ occur at the beginning and the end — in the middle it’s mostly instrumental. Which is a good thing because apparently the singer was drunk or high or both, and slurred the words ‘in the garden of eden.’ What you’re hearing, in fact, wasn’t supposed to be recorded, it was only meant as a soundcheck. The producer hadn’t arrived and the band was just kind of messing in the studio, but the engineer was rolling tape. At the end of it he decided it was actually pretty good. Their record company was OK with the title because it sounds exotic and Eastern spirituality was big at the time, with The Beatles going to India and The Rolling Stones experimenting with Indian instruments.

As for the meaning of the song, it’s just a guy affirming his love for his special girl.

“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” was Iron Butterfly’s only song to reach the top 40, reaching number 30,though the album containing the full-length song was far more successful, reaching number four on the album chart and selling over a million copies. An 8-minute-20-second edit of the song was included in the soundtrack to the 1986 film Manhunter, the first movie to feature the character Hannibal Lecter. In 2009, it was named the 24th-greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. It is also often regarded as an influence on heavy metal music and one of the firsts of the genre.[

My favourite version of the song featured in a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, “Bart Sells His Soul”, in which Bart Simpson tricks Reverend Lovejoy’s church into singing the song as an opening hymn by handing out sheet music titled “In the Garden of Eden” by “I. Ron Butterfly”. Lovejoy describes the hymn as “sounding like rock and/or roll”. The church organist, an elderly woman, collapses after playing for the entire seventeen minutes.

sources

https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-06/gadda-da-what-accidental-inspiraton-these-six-hit-songs

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/iron-butterfly/in-a-gadda-da-vida

[simple-payment id=”47270}

Hey Jude- F**king hell

I have to admit I am a bit skeptical about this story. Not so much about the words that were uttered, but more to who uttered them.

I was listening to a golden oldie show earlier this week. The presenter mentioned a bit of trivia in relation to the famous Beatles song, “Hey Jude” arrogant little so and so, me, assumed immediately that he was going to say that Hey Jude was written by Paul McCartney for John Lennon’s oldest son, Julian Lennon.

However it turned out that my judgement of the bit of trivia was misplaced. While recording Hey Jude ,Paul McCartney allegedly made a mistake and shouted out “Whoa” followed by “Fucking Hell”

2.58 minutes into the epic song you can hear these words in the back ground. I am just not sure of it is actually Paul McCartney, it sounds more like John Lennon to me. But that doesn’t really matter, it is still a great bit of trivia on one of the best songs ever written.

Geoff Emerick, The Beatles’ longtime sound engineer, wrote in his memoir Here, There, and Everywhere that it was Paul McCartney reacting to a botched note. Emerick claims that John Lennon insisted they leave the swear buried in the final mix. “Paul hit a clunker on the piano and said a naughty word,” Lennon said. “Most people won’t ever spot it … but we’ll know it’s there.”

Ending of course with that great, and my favorite Beatles song. So listen out for it at 2.58 minutes.

source

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jamesgrebey/hidden-sounds-that-made-it-into-famous-songs#:~:text=1.,%22%20in%20%22Hey%20Jude.%22&text=About%20halfway%20through%20%22Hey%20Jude,reacting%20to%20a%20botched%20note.

Just Cool

When I look at some actors and other celebrities nowadays and lsiten to them preach to us, I wonder is it because they are just very bland?

Whatever happened to just being cool like the stars from days of yor. These are just some of them. I won’t put any names down, that is your homework for today to find that out, You will know most of them though.

Only fools and horses work

Today is the 81st birthday of David Jason, known for TV series like ‘ A touch of Frost; Porridge; Open all Houra’ but also for his voice in the 1989 film adaption of The BfG and many other movies and TV Shows.

However the part that will always be associated with him is the part of Derek Trotter, aka Del Boy of Trotter independent traders in one of the best(if not the best ) British Sitcoms ‘Only fools and horses’ below are just some of the best movies of that show.

Happy Birthday Del Boy

Genesis- the Singers.

genesisThis is a slight deviation from my usual blogs. Because music has always played a major role in my life. It is nice to acknowledge that every once in a while.

When you think of classic Rock bands, Genesis is usually not a band which springs to mind, strange in a way because that is basically what they are a classic Prog Rock band.

Their rise to fame was a bit of a strange one. although they had some successes in the early years but nothing really noteworthy.

They started off in 1967  with Peter Gabriel as their singer and front man, and their music was slightly psychedelic . Gabriel was only 17 at the time. I think the reason why they didn’t have any real success with him as a singer is because their music and appearance might have been a bit to extravagant.

2

In 1975/76 Phil Collins took over the reign as a singer. He had been the drummer until then. And it was with Phil Collins they got their biggest successes and turned out to become a major global band. Their first big hit was ‘Follow You, Follow me’ from the album “.. and there there were three” after guitarist Steve Hackett left , leaving only Collins,Banks and Rutherford in the band

Aside his career as the singer of Genesis ,Phil Collins also was a vert successful solo artiste. As was the former singer Peter Gabriel, both men sold millions of albums as solo artists.

In 1996 Collins thought it was better to leave the band. After 25 years in the band he thought  it was  time to change direction in his musical life and wanted to focus on music for movies and jazz.

This left Banks and Rutherford with a problem. They wanted to continue the band but had no singer. They auditioned several singer, including Francis Dunnery who had worked with Robert Plant before and had been in the prog rock band It Bites, who had  a hit with ‘Calling all the heroes’ in 1986.

Another contender was Nick Van Eede who had been the lead singer of Cutting Crew an  anEnglish rock band formed in London in 1985 and are best remember by their debut single, which became a massive global hit’ “(I just) died in your arms tonight”

They also auditioned David Longdon a British multi-instrumentalist and singer byt eventually they settled for Ray Wilson a Scottish singer and guitarist who had been the lead singer with the Rock Band “Stitskin” who had a hit with the song “Inside” which was used in a Levi’s  501 jeans ad.

The band disbanded in 1996 which gave Ray Wilson to join Genesis. In 1997 Wilson was announced as the new lead singer of  Genesis. Although Banks and Rutherford had already finished writing the album “Calling all stations”  Wilson was still able to make some contributions to to the album which included writing the lyrics to “Small Talk” and riffs on “Not About Us”

Although the albuM did reasonably well in the UK and Europe it only reached the number 54 spot in the US charts.

In 1998 the band decided to take a prolonged break.

In 2014, Gabriel, Banks, Rutherford, Collins and Hackett reunited for Genesis: Together and Apart, a BBC documentary.

On 4 March 2020, Collins,Banks and Rutherford  announced their reformation and The Last Domino? Tour. It is great to see them back again.

domino

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

$2.00

sources

You Tube

Blackstar- Elvis and David Bowie

2020-01-08.png

January 8 is a significant date in music history. On this day 3 musical legends and Icons were born.

I wont’t go too much into their lives because there is very little I can add.

Aside from being tow extraordinary artists , there is another connection to these 2 musical giants.

In 1960 Elvis released a country and western style song called “Black Star” and it was to be used in a  Western. However the song title was changed to Flaming Star. It is not clear to me why it was changed.

Like most children of the 1950s and indeed later decades , David Bowie considered Elvis a mythical figure. The two men  who would go on to share a record label, RCA, in the 1970s, also happened to be born on the same day. “I couldn’t believe it,” David  Bowie said. “He was a major hero of mine. And I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something”

On January 8 2016, on David Bowie’s 69th Birthday and 2 days before his death he released his last album, and I nearly would day his best album, titled Black Star.

The title of that album was aed back to Elvis. by the philosopher Simon Critchley, whose book “Bowie” was released in 2014,  He pointed to the rare Elvis song “Black Star,”

Maybe it was David Bowie’s tribute to Elvis.

These are the lyrics of the Elvis song. They are very poignant.

Every man has a black star
A black star over his shoulder
And when a man sees his black star
He knows his time, his time has come

Black star don’t shine on me, black star
Black star keep behind me, black star
There’s a lot of livin’ I gotta do
Give me time to make a few dreams come true, black star

David Bowie’s Blackstar sounds completely different of course

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

$2.00

Sources

YouTube

Mew York Times

The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore- Musician who died in 2019

captain

The Captain” of Captain and Tennille, died on January 2nd aged 76.

talk

Mark Hollis, lead singer and songwriter of Talk Talk, has died at the age of 64 on February 25th.

flint

On March 4th, Keith Flint, the singer of The Prodigy, took his life at the age of 49.

Dick Dale

Richard Anthony Monsour aka Dick Dale the “King of Surf Guitar died on March 17, aged 81.

Noel Scott Engel aka Scott Walker American-born, British singer Scott Walker, formerly of The Walker Brothers, died on March 22,age 76.

spyro

David Alan Samuels, American percussionist for Spyro Gyra died on April 22, aged 70.

Doris Day

On May 13, legendary singer and actress Doris Day died aged 97.

cassius

Grammy-winning producer Philippe Zdar (half of  French house duo Cassius) fell off a building in Paris, France and died at the age of 52, on June 19.

art

On July 22, Art Neville, the founding member of The Neville Brothers and The Meters (and later renamedThe Funky Meters),  died at the age of 81.

ian

Ian Gibbons was an English keyboardist, most notably known for playing with The Kinks.He died on August 1 at the age of 67.

ric

Ric Ocasek, was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and painter. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and songwriter for the rock band the Cars.He passed away on September 15, aged 75.

Baker

Peter Edward “Ginger” Baker or simply Ginger Baker was an English drummer and a co-founder of the rock super band Cream. He died on October 6th at the age of 80.

wake

Wake Self American rapper died on November 5 in a fatal traffic collision, he was aged 30.

roxette

Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson has died on December 9th at the age of 61, following a long battle with cancer.

These were just some of the musicians who died in 2019. There is quite a band forming beyond those pearly gates/ May they all rest in peace.

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

$2.00

Sources

YouTube

WeHeartMusic

The Look- Roxette’s accidental break through.

the look

It is getting near to the 2nd anniversary of the death of Roxette singer Gun-Marie Fredriksson who died after a 17-year long battle with cancer.

Roxette were very successful in the late 80s and early 90s , in fact at some stage they were the biggest band in the world. But this success may never have been if it wasn’t for a young American exchange student Dean Cushman.

Roxette had already been quite successful in their native Sweden. The Look was the 4th single from their second album. It was actually their Christmas song “It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)”  released in December 1987,which had not been included on any of their albums. that had been their biggest selling single to date

The song  became a top five hit in Sweden. In 1990 it was re-released for the movie “Pretty Woman” leaving out the Christmas for the Broken Hearted bit of the original title.

“The Look” was released as the  fourth single of their 2nd album “Look Sharp” in January 1989,=reaching the top 10 in Sweden. American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, had been an exchange student in Sweden where he bought the album and brought it home to the US., giving a copy of it to his local Top 40 radio station, KDWB 101.3 FM. “The Look” soon became very popular, and the station began distributing the track to their sister radio operations. EMI America had previously rejected the duo as unsuitable for the American market, and Roxette didn’t have a recording contract in the US.

“The Look” had already entered the top fifty of the Billboard Hot 100 before the duo began official promotion. It would go on to peak at number one eight weeks later. It gradually became a global hit over the next year, topping the charts in 25 countries.

To put things in perspective,their debut album Pearls of Passion which was only released in Scandinavia and Canada sold 800,000 copies(this number includes the sales of th remastered version released in 1997) Where “Look Sharp” sold 9,000,000 copies worldwide.

RIP Marie- You always had the look.

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

$2.00

Sources

EMI

YouTube