Master Index of Archived Threads
Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread)
| G-Fafif Oct 11 2012 05:58 AM |
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My sadness at losing the voice behind a song I've always loved despite its absurdity is leavened by your pithy obit.
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| Edgy MD Oct 11 2012 07:20 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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"TaL,M" is one of those songs that made WCBS WCBS.
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| Frayed Knot Oct 11 2012 07:58 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Eventually, although not immediately. The song dates from 1969 (my older sister owned the single). CBS "Oldies 101" debuted I believe in 1971 and they pretty much restricted their playlist in those early years to the era starting with 'Rock Around the Clock' and going up to, but not including, the British Invasion. TaL,M would have been far too new for them in those days. But, yeah, as time went on their time brackets shifted as they started phasing out the '50s, the doo-wop, and all that early R&R that was basically their entire catalog early on and started picking up Beatles and other '60s & '70s stuff that was initially too new, too 'hard', or too controversial for them. I always got a kick, for instance, out of Janis Ian's 'Society's Child' morphing from banned to a CBS/MoR/Lite-FM staple over the years. I used to think about those early days of CBS-FM as the 'Progressive Rock' stations started to age and morph in 'Classic Rock' even as they were still trying to pass themselves off as cutting edge. CBS openly billed themselves as 'Oldies' while playing stuff that was for the most part 7-17 years old (1954-1964 in 1971). But 'Where Rock Lives' wouldn't have touched an "Oldies" label as they were playing 1964-late '80s vintage during the 1990s (stuff 5 to 30 years old with an emphasis on the 20-30 end of the spectrum) and even WLIR/DRE was hanging on to their "New Music" title as they were spinning quarter-century old Elvis Costello/Joe Jackson tunes at the turn of the century.
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| John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 11 2012 08:18 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Just goes to prove the old adage: Classic Rock Never Takes The Weekend Off.
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| Frayed Knot Oct 11 2012 08:20 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Other 'Take a Letter Maria' fun facts courtesy of Wikipedia (so you know it's true):
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| Edgy MD Oct 11 2012 08:29 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Greaves may have grown up in a very different environment from his uncle, but those pipes definitely betray the relation. "TaL,M" clearly had the same vocal DNA as "Another Saturday Night."
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| G-Fafif Oct 11 2012 08:54 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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'CBS, which celebrated its 40th anniversary as an oldies station this year, is heavily '80s- and '70s-oriented these days, maybe in that order (given the march of demographics), with only relative dollops of '60s -- and there has to be a reason to play anything from the '50s. Not the 'CBS of yore where the Five Satins' "In The Still of the Night" was permanently No. 1 on every all-time countdown, not even the 'CBS of the early 2000s, the one that flipped to the unloved (though listenable) JACK format from 2005 to 2007 before that stopped trending in radio circles. You'll still get R.B. Greaves from time to time but not very much Billy Joe Royal, to pick a similarly vintaged name out of the air.
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| John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 11 2012 09:06 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Playing 80s Rod Stewart and not 70s Rod Stewart is a problem right there.
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| sharpie Oct 11 2012 10:04 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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"Take a Letter, Maria" was a hit around the same time as "Smile a Little Smile For Me (Rose Marie)" (actually the Rose Marie part isn't in the actual title). I remember conflating the two with the two Mary-variant names sometimes playing back-to-back.
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| Frayed Knot Oct 11 2012 10:15 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Throw in the original 'Love Grows (where my Rosemary goes)' by Edison Lighthouse (released January 1970) into the set and young Sharpie's confusion might have become a lifelong debilitation.
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| sharpie Oct 11 2012 10:18 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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For some reason that one didn't addle my brain since it was the favorite song of a friend of mine at the time. "Take a Letter, Maria" and "Smile a Little Smile for Me" were no-one's favorite songs. Ranking them:
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| Chad Ochoseis Oct 11 2012 10:46 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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I never did that, but I did conflate R. B. Greaves with B. J. Thomas.
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| G-Fafif Oct 11 2012 10:55 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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I've been known to conflate B.J. Thomas and Billy Joe Royal. Either way, when it comes to humming, nothing beats a nice B.J. What?
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| John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 11 2012 11:00 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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I conflate RB Greaves (Take a Letter Maria) with BW Stevenson (My Maria).
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| G-Fafif Oct 11 2012 11:03 AM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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I hear it was B.W.'s possessiveness issues that drove Maria into R.B.'s arms. No wonder she was free for dinner tonight.
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| Swan Swan H Oct 11 2012 11:36 AM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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Say it loud and there's music playing.
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| G-Fafif Oct 11 2012 11:46 AM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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Maria gets around in song, don't she?
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| Swan Swan H Oct 11 2012 11:52 AM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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That she does, and these are just ones I have on my iPod.
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| G-Fafif Oct 11 2012 12:02 PM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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[youtube:1pp14ngz]meoDD1LqT9w[/youtube:1pp14ngz]
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| Mets – Willets Point Oct 11 2012 01:03 PM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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Maria is such a flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!
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| Frayed Knot Oct 11 2012 02:13 PM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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[youtube:1vwtgba9]FIF0_EaXRJg[/youtube:1vwtgba9]
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| seawolf17 Oct 11 2012 02:19 PM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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Seriously never heard of the Greaves tune until that post.
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| TheOldMole Oct 15 2012 10:54 AM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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[youtube:1hvrcl8j]JiSunaXPDsE[/youtube:1hvrcl8j]
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| G-Fafif Oct 19 2012 03:50 PM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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[youtube:1p5114j2]FVgUZyKXjpE[/youtube:1p5114j2]
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| Edgy MD Oct 19 2012 04:16 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012 |
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Have twice heard "Baby Jane" since arriving in Niger, the first and second time probably in twenty years. It's the only all-English song I've heard.
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| seawolf17 Oct 20 2012 07:15 AM Re: Grieving for Greaves and Maria (Split from Dead Thread) |
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How did I not think of Black 47? I love Black 47.
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