When I started at Berklee, I got a job in the jazz department at Tower Records. This was before iPods, before MySpace, and at a time when people were still asking what we had on cassette. The jazz department was up on the third floor, and nobody wandered in there unintentionally. As such, it was somewhat remote, and it gave the employee ample time to discover great music. As a new Berklee kid, I...
RockGeek Fact of the Day #0420
There’s 1 for you 19 for me …
The music for “Taxman” was inspired by the theme song for the popular 1960s TV series Batman, which was recorded by the Surf Rock group The Marketts earlier in 1966 and hit #17 in the US. George was a big fan of the show. Thwap! Kapow! Bam!
From the Beatles cartoons, 1967 ….
And this … with Eric Clapton, Live in Japan 1994.
RockGeek Fact of the Day #237
Two very cool people have birthdays today: Leon Russell and Marvin Gaye. Both geniuses, and both worth sharing a couple clips from. Leon Russell just finished recording an album with Elton John. Elton has often declared Leon to be “a god.” Marvin Gaye was a brilliant songwriter and performer who met an untimely demise at the hands of his own father 26 years ago (yesterday). These are...
RockGeek Fact of the Day #769
On this day, in the year 62 (!), a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck the city of Pompeii, Italy. While this doesn’t directly cause the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79, it does provide an excuse to offer up a clip from Pink Floyd’s “Live at Pompeii” …
P.S. This totally breaks the site, but watching this in the HD option is totally worth it … 🙂
RockGeek Fact of the Day #1508
Today would have been George Harrison’s 67th birthday. On (my favorite George Harrison tune) “The Art of Dying,” soon-to-be Genesis drummer/singer Phil Collins plays congas. As a kid, Collins was an extra in the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night. While Collins wasn’t credited on the original album, he’s thanked in the liner notes on the 2000 re-release...
RockGeek Fact of the Day #812
RockGeek Fact of the Day #0026
RockGeek Fact of the Day #33433
Happy 49th Birthday to Michael Stipe of REM! Listen to the song “Driver 8” and see if it sounds familiar. There’s a series of minor chords that guitarist Peter Buck would use again on “The One I Love,” “Losing My Religion,” and “Bang and Blame,” among others. Talking about “Driver 8” recently, Stipe said, “It’s like...