The Crane Pool Forum

Betty Wright cleaned up on more than just one track.

More, more Morricone:

The irony of Charlie Daniels was that the angle he originally broke through with was a-singing and a-picking and a-fiddling about the misadventures of being a hippy in the age of Nixon on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line, surrounded by abusive, close-minded folks with the mindset of ... the latter-day version of Charlie Daniels.

That was great. What a sad, dumb Obama-hatin creep he became. Charlie had a nose for where his audience kept their wallets. Went after the rock crowd at just the right moment, and really asnticipated today's Red State whitebread goons

He always gave off a vibe that he'd die young. Who doesn't love this though

Heartbreaking.

Saw him twice. First time he was a revelation. Second time he was such a mess that I felt guilty for watching.

RIP Walter Lure. 71. A true original. Kind to a fault. Known by many as the foil to Johnny Thunders

I missed the Justin Townes Earle announcement. I was a fan, though I'll admit to conflating him too often with Jason Isbell.

It's a heck of a burden to carry the names "Townes" and "Earle".

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/walter-lu ... -has-died/

Walter Lure was a founding member of the Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders, Jerry Nolan and Billy Rath

They were invited to the UK Anarchy tour with the Pistols, Clash and Damned. By all accounts they proved to be the best band in London and New York

Walter was active til his passing. He is an icon to many of the era and beyond

Let's get some pipelinin'.

https://variety.com/2020/music/news/too ... PJN3ynbBuA

January of 1985, was a freshman in college, and a bunch of us were invited to participate in a 500-member "All-American College Marching Band" that performed at a bunch of events around the Reagan inauguration week in Washington to be capped off by the parade. I was entirely too clueless to have identified principals at that point, in fact I had voted the guy in my 1st prez election two months before (via absentee ballot, mainly under pressure from my dad). The financial aid we qualified for to help pay for school was soon struck down by the guy, iirc.

Led by USC's famous band director Art Bartner (he did Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" project), we played a ton of events that week including two versions of "God Bless the USA"--one a marching band instrumental, and another one where we were to accompany a vocal performance by the real Mac Davis. They were very different pieces of music so we had to practice them both and the respective sheet music was labeled GOD BLESS THE USA and GOD BLESS THE USA-MAC DAVIS, which quickly became known by the band as GOD BLESS MAC DAVIS. Bartner was always embarrassed to ask for it by that name.

Anyway I can't remember where this was shot, it might have been the Cap Centre, but "God Bless Mac Davis" was televised with with Mac right there in front of us serenading Ronnie and Nancy. I can't believe this video exists! The band parades to the arena around 2:30. 1st time I've ever seen this. I wind up somewhere behind the stage on the left side of the screen, can remember seeing Mac's back and curly hair.



There were lots of events that week and came in pretty close contact with prez on a couple of occasions including (I think), a rehearsal for this event, or something else we did in the same venue. The big parade we were all assembled for was cancelled due to frigid weather on the morning of the inauguration. I recall my trombone slide froze out there, and so we went back to the cap Center for alternate. That night, I think, were invited to one of the Balls "The Ball for Young People"-- can't imagine the future creeps in that room--all I can recall was Ed McMahon was a host MC and introduced a Miami Sound Machine-ish band called Tobasco "They're hot!" he said.

Anyway a strange week. God Bless Mac Davis

Agent: Hey, Artie, I've got a big gig for you putting together a band to back Mac.

Art Bartner: I'd love to work with Fleetwood Mac again! Where would we be playing?!

Agent: Umm ... .

Your band should have appeared in this scene.

Davis wrote Elvis's 'IN THE GHETTO'
Not sure I'd want that one on my resume

Not for nuttin', but as cloying as "ItG" is, the King did far worse compositions, and far worse vocals. I mean, it was 1969, and compared to most of his subsequent output, that performance comes across as restrained.

It is funny, though, how Elvis rescued almost all of his drowning credibility with the comeback special and "Suspicious Minds," and then almost instantly blew it all up again with "Memories" (also by Mac) and "In the Ghetto." It almost seemed like he gave a fuck for a moment, and then, not so much. But during his run as a songwriter, Davis' compositions were really consistently in that vein, so I guess it was his sweet spot.

Addiction tends to do that.

Loved In the Getto

Btw heard Burnin Love today and decided life is worth living again

Good for you. Feed that juke box.

Steve Earle is on the social media promoting a fund for his son's family.



Dying broke and folks needing to pass the hat to help your family after you go is way too common in music. Way too common in America, for that matter.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/earle-family ... l2zhRJxQC0

Singer Tony Lewis of the Outfield, 62, "suddenly"

For a guy from London, he obviously had eyes on the states through the Great American Game. An early version of this band was known as The baseball Boys (after the Warriors movie) and albums called PLAY DEEP, BANGIN' (I always imagined this was a reference to the 88 Oakland A's) and EXTRA INNINGS (never heard of the last one), the title of the below song (Side A, song 1)

Lewis sounded a lot like Sting, vocally, but the harmonies were so good they sounded fake and the music a kind of UK-new-wavey interpretation of a heartland rock sound. Very American-esque band but not American.



Edit: I'm streaming PLAY DEEP as I write this. They share a lot of the same bright arrangements of the Hooters, who were on the same label/same era/same executive producer, Rick Chertoff. Ironically, the Hooters wound up wildly popular in Europe, and the Outfield more popular in the US than at home.

They had some catchy songs. One of the few CD's from my wife's collection that I co-opted when she moved in with me in the late 90's was "Play Deep." Most of the rest of her favorites were (and are) all terrible.