Happy 70th, Neil Young!

Yesterday legendary sing-songwriter Neil Young celebrated his 70^th birthday. Despite starting his career back in 1960, he is still going strong and performing today, and most notably headlining Glastonbury Festival in 2009.

Young was born on 12^th November 1945 in Toronto, Ontario. His interested in music began to develop at the age of fifteen when his family broke up. He idolized Elvis Presley and grew up listening to people like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. He began playing in bands all throughout his schooling years, and did his first solo tour in 1965. The next year he joined Buffalo Springfield who, according to many musical sources, helped create the genre of folk rock and country rock.

The band’s success was unfortunately shortlived, and after another solo stint, Crosby, Stills & Nash, the folk super group, asked Neil to join them as a siderunner, but he refused unless he received full membership. This therefore sparked the birth of the quartet Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in 1969. But this partnership too was not to last long, as Young’s own musical direction was fighting with that of the band’s. The years that followed were to be the most successful for Young, producing albums like After The Gold Rush and Harvest.

The song I have chosen to cover is, I think, the best example of Young’s beautiful vocals and songwriting - After The Gold Rush. The beauty is in its simplicity – aside from his vocal, there are simply two instruments used on the track, a piano and a French horn (replaced by Young’s staple harmonica in live performances). In terms of the song’s meaning, it’s hard to say. Dolly Parton even asked the man himself when covering the song in the 90s, and Young answer pretty truthfully:

“Hell, I don't know. I just wrote it. It just depends on what I was taking at the time. I guess every verse has something different I'd taken.”

Well. At least he was honest. Nevertheless, enjoy!

Celebrating John Lennon's 75th Birthday

1940-1980

Seventy-five years ago, a little baby boy was born in Liverpool who, unbeknown to his mother, was to grow up to be one of the most influential figures in popular culture. What can I tell you about the life of John Lennon that you don’t already know? I’m sure you know that in 1957, at their second performance, Lennon met fellow musician Paul McCartney, and asked him to join his band The Quarrymen. I’m sure you know that, four years later, The Beatles debuted at the Cavern Club. You may know about his first wife, Cynthia, and mother to his first child Julian, and you’ll certainly know of his second wife, Yoko Ono, and son Sean. You’ll know that after The Beatles split in 1970, he carried on his political activism through both his song-writing and his public life. And you’ll know that on the 8th December 1980, Lennon was assassinated outside his home in New York.

If he were still alive today, who knows what the music scene would be like? Just imagine… Even after death, his influence lives on, so I thought it would be appropriate to hand over to some famous names, to hear their thoughts on the late, great, John Lennon.

 John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down. - Kurt Cobain

If one could have a wish, or an alternative life, I would've liked to have been John Lennon. - Gary Oldman

Lennon was a most talented man and above all, a gentle soul. John and his colleagues set a high standard by which contemporary music continues to be measured. - Frank Sinatra

He was an artist who was, in his own way, committed to wholeness and authenticity in a not dissimilar way that I am years later. - Alanis Morissette

 It's a cliche, but he is my hero. He was so rebellious, so outspoken and so publicly opinionated, and I'm someone who's so private. I suppose you admire people who have the qualities you wish you had. - Emun Elliott

There were the Beatles, and there was John. As a band, they were a great unit. But John, he was his own man. - Keith Richards

What happens when people like him die is that the landscape changes. You know, a mountain disappears; a river is gone. And I think his death was probably as significant as that. We all miss him, and I think about him every time I walk by that building. - Sting

He knew who he was, and he knew what he represented to a worldwide public. John knew he had the floor; he knew he had to parlay that into something. I think he incited and inspired a whole group of youth to speak out and say what they felt. - John Travolta


He made enemies, but he was fantastic. He was a warm man who cared a lot and with the record Give Peace A Chance helped stop the Vietnam War. He made a lot of sense. - Paul McCartney


My husband John Lennon was a very special man. A man of humble origin, he brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music. - Yoko Ono

45th Anniversary of Janis Joplin's Death

Janis Joplin, 1943 - 1970

It’s hard to believe that in the space of just 16 days, the world lost two of the most influential musicians. On Sunday 4th October 1970, just two weeks after Hendrix died in a London hotel, Janis Joplin was discovered by her road manager in her hotel room after an accidental heroin overdose. In both cases there are such sad similarities, including their age of course (they are probably the two best known members of the 27 Club). In marking her passing, let us remember what a truly unique woman Joplin was, a talent so raw it’s unlikely we will ever see someone match it again.

Born in Texas in 1943, Joplin was a very needy child, and craved individual attention from her parents despite having two other siblings. She was an outcast at school and often bullied by her school mates for being overweight and having skin prone to very bad acne, which left her scarred for the rest of her life. However, she did find comfort in music and also painting. In her early 20s she moved back and forth from San Fransisco to Texas, often staying with her parents due to her ill health (by this time she had also gained a reputation as a drug user and heavy drinker). 

In 1966 she joined the psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, with whom she was to have a large number of hits (Down on Me, Summertime, Piece of my Heart…). Cheap Thrills was their second and most successful album, and launched Joplin’s career. By 1969 she’d left Big Brother and had ventured into her solo career, again with a stream of successful songs (mainly covers), and backing bands including the Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie. Two of her most notable performances were Woodstock (although being crippled with nerves at the size of the crowds) and Madison Square Garden, both in 1969. Despite her nervous disposition, Joplin was electrifying, both on stage and in the recording studio. In interviews you can hear her cackle like a small school girl, but knowing her difficult and slightly tortured past explains all that pain and anguish which you can hear in her voice when she sings.

Pearl was to be her final solo album, which held the Number 1 spot in the States for nine weeks, despite being released three months after her death. It included songs for which she will forever be known: Cry Baby, Me and Bobby McGee, and the song I have chosen to cover, Mercedes Benz, written by Joplin along with Bob Neuwirth and Michael McClure. The song was recorded in one take, just three days before she died. I decided that in true Janis style, I too should record it in one take, completely a cappella, with no effects or tweaks (if you listen carefully you can also hear the perfectly timed car horn in the background - I so hope it was a Mercedes!). Forgive the squeaks and strains, but I hope Janis would approve.