A Story of Good ForTUNE

or A Majestic Music Tale (in three verses)

It would be fairly flash of me to suggest my recent trip to America was in part a field trip to gather material towards the FMS, but that's pretty much what happened. It went like this:

On the first day at our Airbnb in New Hampshire we decided to walk the 20 minutes into the modest town centre of Conway. The first small business we entered was the Sweet Maple Cafe where Margaret picked up a free newspaper 'The Conway Daily Sun' full of local 'What's On' in the area. It had an article 'Travel the Blues Highway' at First Friday at Majestic. A former Southern radio DJ John Howell was giving a talk at 1pm in the Majestic Theatre, just along the road. We thought we'd go.

On entering we were welcomed by a bevy of volunteers keen to show us the theatre building, its Music Center history and the Majestic Cafe. Their friendly enthusiasm saw us buy tickets for that evening's Jazz night (and before we left we signed up for the following night's folk music too), but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The fascinating lunchtime talk was advertised as Bob Dylan 'Highway 61 Revisited', with that part of the talk to be on a later date. Today John Howell spoke of the Delta blues artists - Muddy Walers, Charley Patton, Son House, Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson. He showed some great videos of the these artists along with John Lee Hooker performing 'Boom Boom'. This is the actual video he showed us.

As the video mentions at the start many artists have covered this song and coincidentally, later during our stay, while browsing the book shop minutes from our Airbnb, a store brilliantly named 'The Local BOOKie', the owner had the radio tuned to a local station, and on comes a version of 'Boom Boom' by Big Head Todd & the Monsters from 1997 that actually has John Lee Hooker guesting on the track. (tune in here).

Next Verse (Part of this Tale) - coming midweek. 

  

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary.
Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out !Call it what you like
(or switch it off, if you don't like). 

As promised a couple of Rick Wakeman extras. This time not with a cast of hundreds, but solo !

1st: the famous Yes track 'And You And I' on piano. Titled by YouTube: 'The Other Side of Rick Wakeman'

2nd: from his latest piano based album, a track called 'Sea of Tranquility' - (this one is for Toni). 

  

Off this evening to see Mr Rick Wakeman CBE. Not a tribute act and billed as 'The Return of the Caped Crusader' himself. 

I have lots of previous notes and links to many tracks (mostly Yes) and more recently (the Strawbs), so what to choose was the question. Then I checked tonight's tickets, which says "Six Wives & King Arthur", so it had to be something from these records.  

I found a video from a 1975 production of Rick Wakeman in 'The Myths and Legends of King Arthur' - A Pageant on Ice - featuring his six-strong band the English Rock Ensemble (ERE), narrator Terry Taplin, conductor David Measham and the 46-strong New World Symphony Orchestra, chorusmaster Guy Protheroe and the English Chamber Choir, and the Nottingham Festival vocal group. And taking the performing personnel up to 130 or so, what the programme notes described as ‘a host of ice stars'. 
Mid-70s progressive rock had a reputation for pomposity, grandiosity and excess all areas. Rick who funded the three shows at Wembley Empire Pool, was quoted as saying "Everyone thinks I'm crackers"! Though all the shows were a sell out they ultimately lost money.

A review in music paper 'Sounds' revealed sound problems and they weren't to complimentary, feeling the ice skaters stole the show. "Guinevere looked appropriately ethereal as she gracefully navigated the arena, while ERE singers Ashley Holt and Gary Pickford Jones sang a particularly soppy ode in her honour; and nobody fell over."

The clip I found is of 'Guinevere' (Patricia Pauley skating) from King Arthur on Ice. 

Not expecting such an extravaganza this evening, but should be fun, knowing Rick.

 

FYI: I unearthed a copy of the 16 page Programme of the Show. (click to view)

As I had so many other videos I though some extras might work well this coming midweek ...

to follow

  

As this is birthday week, today's Star Track is for the birthday girl. One of Margaret's favourite tracks is 'At Last' by Etta James. 

It's a song written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren for the 1941 musical 'Sun Valley Serenade'. Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded the tune several times, with a 1942 version reaching No.2 on the US Billboard chart.

In 1960, R&B singer Etta James recorded an arrangement by Riley Hampton that improvised on Warren's original melody. It was the title track of her debut album and has become her signature song.