Strange Fruit was written as a poem by Abel Meeropol in 1937 under the pseudonym Lewis Allan, named after his two still born children. After changing the title from “Bitter Fruit” and setting it to music, the song was performed in New York by Meeropol’s wife Laura Duncan as a Protest song against lynchings. An […]
As I sit in the archive listening to the soft rain fall outside, the autumn approaching, a chill in the air, I have been playing Frank Sinatra’s beautiful 1955 album, In The Wee Small Hours. Here Sinatra sings a song from the album, I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes), to perfection at […]
I once spoke to Kim Fowley on the phone, he was in Chicago, I was on the other side of the world. “Can you play the guitar, can you sing – then get over here right now”. That about sums him up although his reach extended way beyond the realms of ordinary men. His 1968 album […]
Just days after posting a piece on Pleasant Valley Sunday, the song’s lyricist Gerry Goffin has died age 75. Along with his first wife composer Carole King, Goffin wrote the lyrics to some of the most memorable songs of the modern pop era – Will You Love Me Tomorrow, The Loco-Motion, It Might As Well […]
Today January 9th would have been my Mum’s 87th birthday so in honour of her passionate love of music, today’s Album Of The Day is a Glenn Miller collection. There’s been so many, repackaged and reissued records since Miller’s plane was lost over the English channel in 1944, (never to be found) and you can buy […]
It’s said that when two voices blend together as beautifully as this it has to be in the DNA and Phil and Don Everly’s voices were certainly special. Their harmonies, moved you, demanded your attention, a magic combination. They inspired Simon And Garfunkel, Lennon And McCartney, The Mamas and The Papas, Dave Edmunds and Nick […]