THE BIG BOPPER - THE CLOCK

BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS - BIG BOPPER - RITCHIE VALENS AND DION AND THE BELMONTS

At the time that I was signed by United Artists, I became friends with a group of guys who liked to hang out in diners and plan their musical careers.  The group included Dion as well as Buddy Knox and Bobby Darin.

HELLO TO BRAZIL, SOUTH KOREA, NEW ZEALAND, UKRAINE...

and FRANCE, ARGENTINA, and MALAYSIA!

PETE SEEGER : SINGER - SONGWRITER - ACTIVIST WALKED WITH TWO CANES THROUGH OCCUPY MOVEMENT CAMP

SF GATE : PETE SEEGER - SINGER SONGWRITER ACTIVIST

 A portion of the article by MICHAEL HILL and CHRIS TALBOTT, Associated Press.

 

"With his lanky frame, use-worn banjo and full white beard, Seeger was an iconic figure in folk music who outlived his peers. He performed with the great minstrel Woody Guthrie in his younger days and wrote or co-wrote "If I Had a Hammer," ''Turn, Turn, Turn," ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine." He lent his voice against Hitler and nuclear power. A cheerful warrior, he typically delivered his broadsides with an affable air and his fingers poised over the strings of his banjo.

 

In 2011, the canes kept Seeger from carrying his beloved instrument while he walked nearly 2 miles with hundreds of protesters swirling around him holding signs and guitars. With a simple gesture — extending his friendship — Seeger gave the protesters and even their opponents a moment of brotherhood the short-lived movement sorely needed..."

CHECK OUT OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ON PETE!
 

THIS VIDEO WAS MADE WHEN PETE WAS 74.

GRAMMY AWARDS 2014

GRAMMY AWARDS 2014 WINNERS

Here's the link to the winners of the 2014 Grammy Awards!

50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE WHISKY A GO GO : TICKETS SOLD OUT ?

WHISKYAGOGO.COM OFFICIAL SITE + 50th ANNIVERSARY

Well, you could try and bribe the bouncer to get in?

Here's the link to the official web site for the club that has launched a lot of bands.  Celebrations include tribute nights.

We've written about the Whisky in this blog, mostly when we're writing about Johnny Rivers.  You can use the Google search feature embedded in this blog to pull up past posts about The Whisky and Johnny Rivers.

PAUL BURCH ON THE MUSIC OF APPALACHIA Quote

"Appalachia is still, for American musicians, a kind of fountain of youth we always go back to, the old home place to a group of artists who represent the quintessence of American independence, fortitude, genius, and madness."  - Paul Burch

(56) BUDDY KNOX : AN INTELLECTUAL and A GENTLEMAN : FROM THE WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC ARCHIVES

POST (56) BUDDY KNOX : AN INTELLECTUAL and A GENTLEMAN from the WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC ARCHIVES

October 24, 2007  

Now friends, I've gone off on a tangent about Elvis returning to the United States, at a time when I was on the Buddy Knox tour. It was great to be there when Elvis got off the train, to be part of the party at Graceland TM, and to be considered an actual friend of Elvis' Presley and a few of his friends, people who made it happen for him.

But I want to tell you nothing made me prouder than to be associated with a Rockabilly Superstar like Buddy professionally. When Buddy said "You're coming on the road with me," he was including me in on the road to success.

 

As I said on an earlier post about the plane crash that killed the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly, Buddy Knox and I were forced to confront our own mortality because of it. We were grateful to have a tour that was the top of the line with a plush tour bus and a caravan of cars. We had bookings in fine dinner clubs and the best of venues to perform. They had been on buses that broke down and were only trying to make up travel time taking that plane. Jerry Lee Lewis' tour bus was a gray painted school bus, hardly plush at all, despite his success with "Great Balls of Fire."

We shared driving a car and hotel and motel rooms along the way, while the musicians lived out of the tour bus. It could be grueling, but Buddy and I, and the musicians we traveled with lived clean. We didn't do speed to stay awake, but relied on our youthful energy and zeal for entertaining. Despite the obvious stress he always treated the musicians in his band with kindness and courtesy.

Before it was all over we toured in 47 of the fifty states, skipping Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah - because the Mormons (now the Latter Day Saints) objected to Rock and Roll. We would tour for about two years, using New York City for our breaks, sharing hotel rooms along the way and in New York.
 

Buddy performed "Party Doll," "Hula Love," and a number of other songs that he had hits with. He liked to go on first, then sit back and enjoy the show. Between his performance and mine, the band played. We got people up and dancing and everyone had a great time of it.

 

Buddy Knox was an intellectual, a gentleman, and more than all that, a decent human being. He treated people from all walks of life the same and his generous spirit was always evident. He tended to leave big tips.

Sometimes he and I would walk into a diner and the waitresses would ask us if we were the Everly Brothers. (We didn't look like brothers, but brothers as singing duos were popular then.)

Buddy would say "Have you heard of Buddy Knox?"

The waitresses would say something like "Yea, He has Party Doll!"

Buddy would introduce himself, and then play a couple numbers for the whole diner, which thrilled everyone. He signed autographs and he still left big tips.

Rockin Country Style Discography - BUDDY KNOX
 

RCS DISCOGRAPHY - BUDDY KNOX
 

Link above to Buddy Knox's official site. (His great son Michael is behind this site.)

Rockabilly Hall of Fame on Buddy Knox

ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME - BUDDY KNOX PAGE - UPDATED

Living closely as we had to, Buddy Knox and I became close friends on tour. When he married my father and I attended. I was in his wedding party. I am so proud to have known Buddy Knox. He truly was one of the good guys in Rock and Roll!

 

When Buddy was dying in 1999, he said to his son Michael, "Don't let them forget me." Michael promised.

I promise too Buddy.

CHET ATKINS TRIVIA : CHET PLAYED ON EVERLY BROTHERS RECORDS AS WELL AS ELVIS' HEARTBREK HOTEL

CHET ATKINS!

ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME - CHET ATKINS INDUCTEE

When it was cut, Chet played on Heartbreak Hotel on RCA, no it wasn't The Blue Moon Boys group or Scotty Moore...

According to the Rock Hall bio, "As a studio musician, he appeared on records by Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and countless country musicians. Atkins thumb-and-fingerpicking style influenced George Harrison, Duane Eddy, the Ventures, Eddie Cochran, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, as well as innumerable country pickers. Even the likes of Ted Nugent has credited Atkins with inspiring him to take up the instrument. ‘’I think he influenced everybody who picked up a guitar,’’ said Duane Eddy."

MISTERGUITAR - CHET ATKINS OFFICIAL

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE EVERLY BROTHERS : A DOCUMENTARY

PHIL EVERLY - THE EVERLY BROTHERS on the HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME and EVERLY FAMILY FAN SITE

ARTICLE ON THEIR STAR from THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME  link

EVERLY BROTHERS NET - A FAN SITE  link (Phil spoke at the induction of BUDDY HOLLY TO THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME.

Phil Everly, as many of you know, passed away a few days ago.  In his honor, we're running some of our archived posts about Phil and Don Everly, the Kings of Harmony!

WE INTERRUPT THIS ELVIS CELEBRATION TO HONOR PHIL EVERLY!

Elvis wouldn't mind at all!



Reading around the subject, Don has said that he always thought he would go first.

Here is a link to one of our long time favorite sites on the Internet, one we respect and that is the result of long hours of volunteer work.  Rockin Country Style DISCOGRAPHY!

RCS DISCOGRAPHY - THE EVERLYS

JIM MORRISON TRIVIA : HIS FAVORITE SINGER WAS ELVIS

According to the film WHEN YOU'RE STRANGE, a film about the Doors by Tom DiCillo,  Jim Morrison's favorite singer was Elvis.  Towards the end of Jim's career, he had switched his affiliation to FRANK SINATRA! 

When You're Strange is  C 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS!

A bit of controversy over if this is actually Elvis or an impersonator singing.    Here is the definitive answer, posted on YouTube. 

 

"This was officially released on the Memphis Recording Service release Off Duty with Private Presley in 2010.  This recording was from May 1958.  On the same day, he sang Sail Along Silvery Moon/I Understand Just How I Feel, Happy, Happy Birthday Baby; Dialogue, I Can't Help It, Dialogue, Who's Sorry Now, Who's Sorry Now reprise, another five goes at Happy, Happy Birthday Baby, Dialogue, Tumblin' Tumbleweeds/Blue Moon/Don't You Know I Love You, Tomorrow Night (twice), Little Darlin' Monologue, and Just A Closer Walk With Thee.  Who's Sorry Now was done by Anita Wood with Elvis singing backup." 

THERE'S A HOUSE PARTY TONIGHT : FROM WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC ARCHIVES

Post (70) from November 13, 2007!

The first party I attended at Elvis' after moving to LA, Johnny Rivers and I drove up to Bel Air. Elvis was making the movie "Flaming Star" at 20th Century Fox. It was his 6th movie. Johnny had been over to Elvis and he said "I know he wants to see you." So we got into Johnny's car and drove up to Bel Air.

In the movie "Flaming Star," Elvis played what we referred to then as a "half breed," someone who was half Native American. It was Marlon Brando who the writers had in mind to play the part Elvis did. It wouldn't be the first or last time that a script written with James Dean or Marlon Brando in mind ended up staring Elvis Presley.

The femme fatal of the film was actress Barbara Eden, who would become known for her signature role in the television series "I Dream of Jeannie."

At the house Elvis came through the door still covered in the body makeup the studio had him wear to appear darker. (He also wore brown contact lenses to cover his naturally blue eyes.) When you look at some of the stills of the film today, you can see how unnatural it looks.

He welcomed me with a hug and told us to make ourselves at home until he got all that makeup off. It took him near an hour.

This was the beginning of my being a regular at Elvis Presley's house parties - the time of my life! Elvis' as my second home!

ELVIS SINGING AT HIS HOME ON ROCCA PLACE LOS ANGELES : IF I LOVED YOU

ELVIS loved to sing.  This video of a private recording at Rocco place appeared on YouTube and we thought you'd enjoy the informality of the occasion.

LENNONYC : JOHN LENNON and JACK DOUGLAS, MUSIC PRODUCER ON ELVIS and the EARLY ROCK AND ROLLERS

LENNONYC is a documentary put out by PBS : AMERICAN MASTERS

Jack Douglas was the music producer of Lennon's album DOUBLE FANTASY.  In this film, he talks about the song "Starting Over" and John talks about that time in his life when he was reaching back to his roots in early Rock and Roll.

JACK :  "He's doing his Elvis Impersonation... the Elvis intonation.  It brought back the feeling of early Rock and Roll."

JOHN :  "It was tongue and cheek Elvis.  It was John Lennon - American Rock and Roll - not competing but enjoying it."

John Lennon goes on to mention Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley as inspirations to him as a developing musician.

OUR ELVIS PRESLEY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION - 2014!

When we began blogging in 2007, we dedicated this effort to ELVIS PRESLEY. 

And every year we having Blogger Celebration focused on Elvis for his birthday.  Elvis was born January 8, 1935.  He'd be 79 years old if he were alive today.

This year the nature of our celebration is different because of the YouTube videos that have been posted by people who have somehow gotten their hands on HOME RECORDINGS.  Now these people may have been there (or maybe their parents were since so many of us from the early rock and roll era are senior citizens now or have passed on).  We don't know, but we think they're authentic.

We want to let you know that we're planning some Down Time in 2014.  This blog is experiencing a lot of glitches - some mystifying - that need to be resolved that will take some time and focus, as well as updating of videos and links, and we haven't given up on a good slideshow to replace the one that went down with changes at Photobucket.  (Some of our pages and posts just went poof!)

But for now relax and enjoy, and let the year begin on Elvis!

This popular publicity photo of Elvis is one of my favorites.