Long John Baldry • Cuckoo & Baldry's Out

From his time as a handsome Pop star in the 1960s, to fronting a couple of bands, Long John Baldry eventually found his way to singing the Blues in the 1970s. It was the music he loved, and where he felt the most comfortable. But even in the 1960s, when he was hitting the UK Pop charts with hits like "Let The Heartache Begin", he was laying down his blue-eyed-soul vibe down like few could. That would include on his 1966 recording "Cuckoo",  which I love. I have it on the album 'Looking at Long John: The UA Years', a yummy collection, by the way. Please enjoy his recording of "Cuckoo".

Between the 1960s and the 1970s, Long John changed up his style and his look a bit. His matinee idol headshots were replaced by pictures of a Blues man, someone with a career aimed at touring clubs, not scheduling an appearance on 'Top of the Pops'. Hell, I think he looks good either way. His voice had a more pronounced rasp, giving is more of an edge than he had earlier. Could have been spending all that time in clubs, I suppose.

I wanted to get the week off to a rousing start with a little bit of boogie-woogie, Long John style. In 1979, he released 'Baldry's Out', a tongue-in-cheek album title that not only referenced the title track, but also the fact the singer had been an out and proud gay man for some time already. There is a saucy feel to the album, which combined a few classics, like his version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", the Righteous Brothers classic written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. Long John sang it as a duet with Kathi MacDonald, and it made it on the charts in both the United States and Canada. It was a surprise hit in Australia, where the song went to #2 on the Pop charts. Bill Medley, of the Righteous Brothers, classed this the best remake of the song. But like I said, I wanted to have a bit of boogie, so here is the title track, "Baldry's Out".

Unfortunately, neither album is available on online in the US. You can find it one music stores, like Amazon, as an import. Have a swinging week!

K Anderson • The Overthinker

Don't be fooled by the picture above, for it proves that like some other things, plenty of yummy items can come in brown paper wrapping. And I learned that only recently, when I happened across a new talent who blows me away. And, oddly enough, I discovered it two years almost to the date of the release, showing I am not nearly as on top of things as I was hoping I was. But enough about me and my shortcomings. What I had managed to do was to happen across the music of this London-based singer/songwriter, and it was most certainly my lucky day. I was so infatuated by the album, The Overthinker, I went right back to the store to purchase his equally delightful EP, Foxes. And I learned of K. Anderson's preoccupation with the animal, which includes wearing a furry costume. In which he looked pretty damn good, I might add...

The first cut off The Overthinker is "This Changes Everything", a bluesy rocker that had me drooling ever more than the pictures of the sexy Brit. His throaty growl was perfectly showcased, showing K can bring it on with a soft touch, or turn up the volume and apply for the role as my next ex-boyfriend. Or any other position he would agree to...

The album has a certain charm, filled with a delightful mix of honesty, humor, plenty of rock. I was particularly fond of "Bulletproof Kids", "Shrug", "Foxes" and the delicious "Boys In Pearls". Really, I can't recommend this album any higher. If you would like to learn more about K Anderson, visit his official website. You can also 'follow' him on Twitter and 'like' him on Facebook. You can purchase The Overthinker on iTunes and Amazon. And while I so very excited about this new addition to my collection, I was even more excited when I heard from the artist himself, telling me new music would be coming soon. It is in moments like this when I think there just might be a God, and he has great taste in music. And men...

Blues Great Long John Baldry

I have to begin this by saying that I had no idea who John William Baldry was until his death in 2005. This makes me angry, still to this day? By then, he was better known by his stage name, Long John Baldry. Of course, upon first hearing that name, I was given to thoughts that were less than chaste, to be sure. But then I learned it was because the British-born performer was 6'7", a tall drink of water to be sure. And handsome. But what made me mad was that even in the 1960s, when there were laws on the books making homosexuality illegal and punishable by time in prison, Long John was an out and proud gay man, making a career in music. I wasn't too familiar with him music until reading about his death, and his truly brave life.



In fact, he is thought of by many as the father of the British Blues, the first to bring the Blues to the UK, which gave him a pretty amazing group of friends. I will begin with a 1964 performance of "Got My Mojo Workin'", featured on the television special "Around The Beatles". The song was written in 1956 by Preston Foster, and first sung by Ann Cole. The popularized by Muddy Waters in 1957, whose version Baldry had heard, and persuaded him to cover. While Long John was out front singing, the background vocals were supplied by the Beatles, who invited Baldry to be on the show, and another popular group, the Rolling Stones. Nice friends, indeed.



Not only had he inspired the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, he also worked with Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones, aka The Rolling Stones. Later he also fronted a band that included Rod Stewart and Elton John. He also worked with Eric Clapton, a young musician looking to learn more about the Blues. It was also long-rumored that he had an affair with Dave Davies, lead guitarist for The Kinks, who later came out as a bisexual. If that weren't enough, Baldry topped the charts in the UK in 1967 with "Let The Heartache Begin", a song written by Tony Macaulay and John Macleod. In fact, Macaulay was quoted as saying "Long John Baldry sings it extraordinarily well, thanks to three-quarters of a bottle of Courvoisier." Here is Long John performing the song on a show in 1968.



In 1971, Long John released an amazing album, It Ain't Easy. It was produced by two friends, both of whom had worked with Baldry, wanting to learn about the blues from him. You might be familiar with them, their names were Rod Stewart and Elton John. In fact, 'legend' has it that Reginald Dwight was working with Baldry during a dark point in his life. A relationship with a woman had gone wrong, and Dwight tried to take his own life. Baldry and another young songwriter, Bernie Taupin, were their to pick up the pieces, and told the young man he was not in love with that woman, but instead with his writing partner, Taupin. When Dwight was coming up with a stage name, he chose Elton John, the last name an homage to Baldry. In 1975, John wrote "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" about that event with Long John Baldry. On the album 'It Ain't Easy', Long John sang an early song written by Taupin and Elton, "Rock Me When He's Gone". Unfortunately, the video was taken down, but here is his great recording of "Midnight Hour Blues".



In truth, the album had songs written by song of the biggest names of the day. They included Elton and Bernie, Leadbelly, Randy Newman, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Lane. The title track from the album was written by Ron Davies, an American Country writer. In fact, "It Ain't Easy" had been recorded not only by Davies, but also by the American group Three Dog Night, and British Rocker David Bowie on his historic album, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.



Long John Baldry continued to make music up until the time he died. He had left England and moved to Canada. Baldry died on 21 July 2005, in Vancouver General Hospital, of a lung infection. He was survived by his partner, Felix "Oz" Rexach. They had been together some 30 years. After reading about him in 2005, I started finding him music, and realizing what a gifted man he was. And hot. And gay. I'm still angry I didn't know earlier, but so very glad I can celebrate the man's music today. To learn more about Long John Baldry, you can visit the official site dedicated to his memory. You can find much of his music on both iTunes and Amazon. I now have a bunch of it in my collection, and I don't think you can go wrong.

The Sounds of 1937

Clockwise: Fred Astaire; Robert Johnson; Bing Crosby; Count Basie; and Benny Goodman.

You know, I was just in a random mood when I was writing this post, and so I randomly picked a year, and researched what were the top five songs. The year was 1937, and I was a bit surprised by what I discovered. I thought it would be the combination of swing music and some of the great ladies from the big band era. Well, I was close on one call, and could not be more wrong with the other. There was a bit of swing in the music, but not as much as I would have guessed. And I didn't realize that one of the top songs of the years would be a blues classic from one of the great blues guitarists of all time, Robert Johnson. Johnson, often thought of as the king of the Mississippi Delta Blues, made amazing music in 1936 and 1937, and died in August of 1938. His death is shrouded in mystery, for legend said he was poisoned with a bottle of whiskey, although the story doesn't truly match up with the events. Johnson was 27 when he died. This is the 5th most popular song of the year, Hellhound On My Trail, also known as the Hellhound Blues.



I hadn't even thought of how movies would be influencing the music of the time, yet is most certainly did. Take, for example, the #4 song on the list, by the one and only Mr. Fred Astaire. In 1937, he had a movie in the theaters costarring the wonderful Ginger Rogers, Swing Time. The musical featured a song written by the great George and Ira Gershwin, They Can't Take That Away From Me. The song was an instant hit, and continues to be a part of the Great American Songbook. Here is Astaire singing They Can't Take That Away From Me.



Th #3 song on the list was from another film, one I am afraid to say I don't think I ever really saw. That surprises me, since I still love catching old movies on the television, and just eating them up like jellybeans. The song was featured in the 1937 film, Waikiki Wedding. The movie starred Bing Crosby, Shirley Ross, Bob Burns, and Martha Raye, a formidable cast indeed. Sweet Leilani was written by Harry Owens, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was also a huge hit for Crosby. Here he is, singing Sweet Leilani.



I knew it would be impossible to go through this list of the top songs and not to have a bit of swing on it. Now, it seems almost insane for me to think there is anyone who cares for music who doesn't know Benny Goodman, but just in case that might be true, Goodman was a bandleader and clarinet player who not only played great Big Band songs, but also grabbed hold of Jazz, and in particular Swing music, and brought it to the forefront. To put that in some perspective, you could say that Swing was the Disco of the 1930s. It was joyful, energetic, just an explosion of emotion. Check it out when Benny Goodman plays with music greats Gene Krupa, Harry James, and Lionel Hampton on Louis Prima's popular Sing, Sing, Sing.



The #1 song of 1937 was the elegant Count Basie with his orchestra playing One O'Clock Jump. Basie wrote and recorded the song in New York City in 1937, utilizing the saxophone work of Herschel Evans and Lester Young, trumpet by Buck Clayton, Walter Page on bass. Count Basie himself on piano, and with that, a jazz classic was born. Enjoy One O'Clock Jump.



All the music on this post can be found on iTunes and Amazon.

Big Mama Thornton

It is hard to imagine anyone not knowing who Willie Mae Thornton, although some might know her by her nickname, Big Mama Thornton. She began singing in bars in the 1940s, and soon had a career of her own. She sang solo or a part of bands, and often joined in on harmonica or drums when she could. She was a large, formidable woman, earning the nickname of Big Mama. However, she was often seen wearing men's clothing on stage, and was rumored to have had many relationships with other women. It is generally accepted Big Mama was a proud member of the LGBT community. And like many artists of the time, Big Mama was chased by her demons during her life, in her case the demon was alcohol.

Big Mama recorded a little known song by now-legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. Hound Dog was a big hit, but was moved to obscurity when it was released by Elvis Presley in 1956. But it is hard to listen to Big Mama's version and not see her influence on Presley.



Ball 'N' Chain was written and recorded by Big Mama in 1969. It was a hit for Janis Joplin in 1968, on the Cheap Thrills album. As was often the case for songwriters back then, especially if they might be a minority, Big Mama was denied any royalties from the Joplin recording of her song. It did, however, give her a new audience of blues fans looking for great music.



Big Mama recorded Summertime, the great song by George Gershwin with lyrics are by DuBose Heyward for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. It was also recorded by Joplin, also on the 1968 album, Cheap Thrills. Big Mama's version is quite wonderful.



For the final clip of the post, I offer up Rock Me Baby, a blues standard recorded by BB King, who had a hit with it in 1964. It was perfect for Big Mama, who could play the harmonica for it.



Big Mama's health was not good for the latter stages of her life, with her weight, diabetes, and injuries from a car accident all took a toll. And, of course, the drinking. It was said Big Mama survived the later years on a diet of gin-spiked milk, and lost a great deal of weight. She died somewhat destitute in Los Angeles in 1984, just 57 years old. You can find a great collection of her music on iTunes and Amazon.

Worth Another Listen - Michael Johnson

The year was 1978, the year I completed my education at Smyrna High School. One of the songs of the summer was by a folk/rock singer with a bit of a jazz twist to his music. Michael Johnson made a startling move on the charts with his first single, Bluer Than Blue, from his eponymous fourth album. Maybe it was all the teenage hormones, or just the trauma and drama of high school, but we all loved the song. Johnson's debut made it to #12 on the Billlboard Pop chart, as well as topping the Adult Contemporary chart. Here is Bluer Than Blue.



That was not the only song of Johnson's to hit the Top 20 on the Pop chart. There was one other, and it was the first single from Dialogue. This Night Won't Last Forever was released in 1979, and made it to #19 on the Pop chart, and #5 on Adult Contemporary.



The second single off the album, and perhaps my favorite song on the album, was Johnson's reworking of a classic Lerner & Loewe from the 1947 Broadway show Brigadoon. The cover of Almost Like Being In Love had a sweet yet sexy jazz flavor, propelling it to #32 on the Pop chart, and #4 on Adult Contemporary.



Johnson was never able to recapture that success on the Pop charts, but by the mid-80s, had taken to a country sound, and was rewarded with several hits on the Country chart. He had five Top Ten songs on the charts, including the lovely The Moon Is Still Over Her Shoulders,one of his two #1 songs.



To find out more about Michael Johnson, check out his official website here.

Great Women - Julie London

Honestly, I first came to know Julie London as Nurse Dixie on the TV series Emergency! in the early 70s, at least that is what I thought. Turns out, on of my Mother's favorite torch singers was Ms. London, and she had an LP I had listened to, just didn't realize they were one and the same! So in honor of my mother, the next in my series on great women singers is Julie London.



Ms. London sang the lost-a-love blues with a hint of smoke and self-amusement in her voice, a true jazz stylist. And she was quite the sexpot! She passed away after a long illness in 2000 at the age of 74.