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Category Archives: Ray Charles

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:September 2,1992-RAY CHARLES /BB KING/BLUES FEST@Jones BEACH w/BUDDY GUY,Dr. JOHN, FABULOUS T-BIRDS

02 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in #BuddyGuy, Buddy Guy, Dr. John, Jones Beach, Ray Charles, Rock music, Ticket Stubs, Uncategorized, Vinyl Records

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TICKETS TORN IN HALF:September 2,1992-RAY CHARLES /BB KING/BLUES FEST@Jones BEACH w/BUDDY GUY,Dr. JOHN, FABULOUS T-BIRDS

There is no way I am going to miss seeing RAY CHARLES heading a bill with BUDDY GUY.This was the only show I desired tickets for in quite some time and good ones I got, great seats up front in the newly re-designed amphitheater known as JONES BEACH. This place has come along way since GUY LOMBARDO used to stage musicals 6 nights a week. More seating and a bit more comfortable but still outside an some of inside is a “no fun zone”.

We arrived late and missed some of the T-Birds who were nearly finished with their set. Seems they went on early. DR. JOHN was wonderful as always. BUDDY GUY on fire followed by BB who was bluesy to say the least and I cried when Ray sang GEORGIA and GOD BLESS AMERICA. “What a night,” as Dr. John would sing.

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD- CHAPTER 28: TWO WEEKS BEFORE WOODSTOCK

06 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in #WhiteBoyBlues, Albert Grossman, Bethel Woods, Canned Heat, Cat Mother, Creedence, CSNY, Fillmore East, Grateful Dead, Kevin Patrick, Ray Charles, Rita Coolidge, Rock music, Ten Years After, Uncategorized

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ROCK’S IN MY HEAD- CHAPTER 28: TWO WEEKS BEFORE WOODSTOCK

Not much happening on the concert circuit as the FILLMORE was closing down in anticipation of WOODSTOCK. My first festival, not WOODSTOCK, was a one night event called the LONG ISLAND ROCK FESTIVAL @ Freeport Race Track, August 6,1969 (2 weeks before Woodstock) featuring CANNED HEAT, TEN YEARS AFTER, CAT MOTHER AND THE ALL NIGHT NEWSBOYS, and a Boston band ORPHEUS. TEN YEARS AFTER was the tease for me. In total after all is said and done, I have seen TYA eighteen times with this being the first time. Prior to attending this “festival” I put in a full day at work and a short visit to the doctor. While working the “hi-lo”moving skids filled with boxes from the floor to the high shelving area I inadvertently almost cut off two fingers. Slightly bleeding but breaking the skin to the bone, the nurse in the factory took care of the wound and suggested a shot from the doctor. Tetanus and novocaine were administered, and I was given the rest of the day off, big deal 15 minutes. At home, I quickly dressed for the show hoping to get out of the house before my parents saw my bandaged fingers. And I did.

ORPHEUS was good with a nice version of their hit record CAN’T FIND THE TIME. CAT MOTHER, a New York ensemble did their hit GOOD OLE ROCK AND ROLL and finally TEN YEARS AFTER, the band I really wanted to see. They were unbelievably good, remember this is two weeks before their legendary performance at Woodstock. They played SPOONFUL, GOOD MORNING LITTLE SCHOOL GIRL, HOBBIT (drum solo), I CAN’T KEEP FROM CRYING, HELP ME, and I’M GOING HOME.

After an extensive intermission CANNED HEAT, the full ensemble with the Blind Owl in tow, closed the show. A 45 minute boogie was a bit much for me as the novocaine didn’t work any longer. I nodded off while laying on a blanket with my girlfriend. TYA made my night.

A few nights later the evening news showed horrific scenes depicted later to be labeled as the TATE-LOBIANCA murders, aka Charles Manson and family.

IT’S BEAUTY THAT KILLED THE BEAST: It’s a week before those “3 Days of Arts, Music and Fun” aka WOODSTOCK that Fillmore East hosts JEFFERSON AIRPLANE and JOE COCKER. SPONTANEOUS SOUND, a one man percussionist (if that’s what he was) ran amok on the stage, banging, hitting cymbals, drums, bells, the works, with his long hair flowing and having no shirt on; What an idiot, I thought.  After his fifteen minutes of fame was over I was both confused and amused.  Joe Cocker was up next and having had his first LP on heavy rotation in my room, Cocker turned out to be not what I expected at all. He was a visual experience with hands gesturing wildly as he sung, yet this British white dude sounded a bit like Ray Charles. Familiar cover songs he introduced and as they were played each seemed to take on a new persona, they became Joe Cocker tunes: LET’S GO GET STONED, FELLIN’ ALRIGHT, BYE BYE BLACKBIRD and of course WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS.

The AIRPLANE was a trip, really a trip. I had been waiting a long time to see these guys, back since that NEWSWEEK article and that conversation with my neighbor many months ago. Now here I was. As the final scene from the King Kong movie played behind the band, they tuned up and  “It wasn’t the airplane, it was beauty that killed the beast” and away we went with Ballad of You, Me and PoohNeil with The Glenn Mc Kay Headlights behind the band projecting images on the screen.The amps were cranked up, three vocalists sang, a bass player stalked around the stage,  while the drummer who with his cowboy hat looked like a sheriff meshed with a guitarist who was making the strangest feedback. Was I high or where they THAT good? They were that good.

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 14-SWEET SOUL MUSIC

26 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by MICHAEL C. HODGKISS in Aretha Franklin, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Monterey Pop 67, MOTOWN, Otis Redding, R&B, Ray Charles, Rock music, rock music trivia, Sam Cooke, Steve Cropper

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Do you like good music

That sweet soul music

Just as long as it’s swingin’

Oh yeah, oh yeah

SWEET SOUL MUSIC (Conley/Redding)

How I love that song, presently as well as when it was first released, and I also love the tune it was directly “sampled “ from, “YEAH MAN” by Sam Cooke. The horns blasting, the call and response, the spiritual flavor, the danceability of both songs, and SWEET SOUL MUSIC sings out the history of soul music circa 1967. Hey, I even danced to it which a sight to behold.

Thank goodness I was born in the early fifties and with a kid brother two years younger in tow we got to listen to some great music; me with THE sounds of The BRITISH INVASION and he loving The 4 Seasons harmonies, girl groups and “soul” music. Our record collection was amazing and add to that the AM radio blasting the hits on WMCA, WABC, WINS, WWRL. The sounds,oh my,and our parents were in denial to our obsession with music.

Soul music evolved from the R&B tunes of the 50’s, gained wide spread acceptance (white audiences) in the SIXTIES and lasted into the 70’s.

The R&B hits of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles transformed rock and roll to another dimension. Soon “white” popular music virtually disappeared leaving rock and soul music in the forefront, standing shoulder to shoulder on the charts as they became the new leaders in popular music.

Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, James Brown, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Al Green merged gospel with R&B to create a new sound, “soul”. As the subsequent years raged on soul and rock became more political, a message to the masses in the tumult sixties.

Mentioned a few times in other chapters, music is the result of the combination and innovations of previous styles. In the case of soul music one can hear the blending of the “sacred” and the “profane”, that being gospel and the blues thus becoming a new art form.

Soul music ruled the “black” charts throughout THE SIXTIES with hits by Aretha Franklin and James Brown. MOTOWN joined in with MARVIN GAYE, THE SUPREMES, THE FOUR TOPS, THE TEMPTATIONS and a youngster named LITTLE STEVIE WONDER. Soon these hits were played on “mainstream” radio.

One of my favorites was OTIS REDDING: My Dad’s friend gave me an OTIS REDDING album “The Soul Album(1966). He gave it up because he didn’t like it. Geez, it was a gem with 634-5789, TREAT HER RIGHT, CHAIN GANG, NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT on it, I loved it. A few years later I saw the film MONTEREY POP and WOW, Otis was THE MAN. Unfortunately, he died a few months after MONTEREY and before completing his posthumous hit (Sittin’On The) DOCK OF THE BAY- the whistling part at the end was to be re-dubbed after his return from the tragic event.

“Otis had the softness of Sam Cooke and the harshness of Little Richard, and he was his own man,” Booker T. & the MGs guitarist Steve Cropper told Rolling Stone in 2004.  “He was also fabulous to be around, always 100 percent full of energy. So many singers in those days, with all due respect, had just been in the business too long. They were bitter from the way they were treated. But Otis didn’t have that. He was probably the most nonprejudiced human being I ever met. He seemed to be big in every way: physically, in his talent, in his wisdom about other people. After he died, I was surprised to find out I was the same age as he was, because I looked up to him as an older brother.”

(2018) The recently released “Otis Redding LIVE AT THE WHISKY A GO GO 1966” was added to my collection. Another gem to say the least.

ARETHA FRANKLIN, originally a COLUMBIA RECORDS artist spent years making jazz records. Upon leaving for ATLANTIC RECORDS a new approach was taken by recording Otis Reddings’ tune RESPECT. It was stardom from then on.

See you next time….Chapter15: THE FUZZ BOX and TECHNO THINGS. Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

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