Good Morning, Musicologist! We are still upgrading and updating our musical selection on this fine Friday, so we’re lighter on the programming and heavy on the Open Stream until tomorrow!
The Byrds: McGuinn, Clark, Hillman & Crosby
Here’s today’s programming:
11:00 a.m. The Byrds: The Boarding House Reunion, San Francisco, February 9, 1978 NEW!
This was originally billed as McGuinn, Clark & Hillman, but then the ever-erratic David Crosby showed up and completed the original quartet for an actual Byrds reunion at The Boarding House in San Francisco. This was broadcast on KSAN 95.
3:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Timeless, A Tribute to Hank Williams, Various Artists
This is a great line-up here, featuring Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, Sheryl Crow, Keb’ Mo’, Mark Knopfler, Keith Richards, Beck, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams and Hank Williams III.
The rest of the day is dedicated to wide open stream again, as we continue to upgrade our rotation and add new playlists for the coming weeks. Spring is in the air. And we’re still fucking free, so get on it.
We are off to a late start today, Music Lovers, but the music is still great in spite of all that. We have a brand new album of the week, epic Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, and a great playlist later this evening.
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash got together to record during breaks in the sessions for Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline” album.
Here’s today’s line-up:
1:00 p.m. Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash, Nashville 1969
While Bob Dylan was in Nashville recording his Nashville Skyline album, he and Johnny Cash decided to get together to record some music. Only one of those songs made it to Nashville Skyline. It was Girl From The North Country. The others were released much later. We have those recordings here for you today.
5:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Timeless, An All-Star Tribute to Hank Williams NEW!
This is one sweet album of all-stars paying their respects to a counry legend, Hank Williams, Sr. There are a number of memorable performances here, especially from Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris. However, the one that stands out for me is Tom Petty’s version of You’re Gonna’ Change (Or I’m A Gonna’ Leave). Listen for it. Other contributors include Mark Knopfler, Shery Crow, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams III, and Johnny Cash.
8:00 p.m. Deb’s Stream: What’s In A Name? Various Artists
We haven’t heard this one for a while, and it’s a good one. Songs with people’s names in them, either in the title or the lyrics. Begins at 8:00 p.m. tonight with contributions from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Beatles, Jonathan Edwards, Dolly Parton, Steely Dan, Linda Ronstadt, The Velvet Underground, The Turtles and more! Don’t miss it.
Tune us in because, well, we’re here playing great music for free. We never ask for a credit card, require a “subscription” or ask for your personal information. And no. We don’t track you either. Who has time for that? Not us. We also do not accept advertising, and we run 24/7. What else do you want?
Well, we’re back up and running again. I am not sure the stamina is there to get this done every day, but I’m sure going to give it a hell of a shot.
Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash recorded together when Dylan was making Nashville Skyline. One of the songs found its way onto the album.
Here’s today’s lesson:
February 17, 1955: Little Richard sent his first audition tape to Specialty Records.
February 17, 1960: Elvis Presley received his first Gold Record for his debut album, Elvis.
Also on this day, after a string of hits on Cadence Records, The Everly Brothers sign a 10-year contract with Warner Brothers. The price is said to be a million dollars, but many think that was inflated for PR purposes.
February 17, 1962: The Beach Boys debuted on the charts with the song Surfin’.
February 17, 1964: Chad & Jeremy appear on the Patty Duke Show.
February 17, 1965: The Kinks release their single Tired of Waiting For You.
February 17, 1966: James Brown recorded It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World at Bob Gallo’s Talentmasters studio in New York. The song would eventually top the Billboard R & B chart.
Also on this day, The Beach Boys begin recording the Brian Wilson masterpiece, Good Vibrations. It would take eleven sessions and multiple layered overdubs to complete the song. Although it hit #1 around the globe and sold millions of copies, it would be the band’s last #1 for the next ten years.
February 17, 1967: The Beatles’ double A-side hit Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever was released in the US.
Also on this day, The Beatles began recording a John Lennon song, Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite. The lyrics were taken from an antique poster that Lennon bought promoting a circus performance that took place in February 1843 in Rochdale, Lancashire.
February 17, 1968: Big Brother & The Holding Company signed a recording contract with the new CBS label, Columbia Records.
February 17, 1969: Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash got together to record some duets in Nashville while Dylan was recording his Nashville Skyline album. The song Girl From the North Country finds its way onto Dylan’s album. Cash wrote the liner notes for the album. The rest of their session would be released later.
February 17, 1971: James Taylor makes his debut on ABC’s Johnny Cash Show.
February 17, 1972: Pink Floyd wrapped up a tour of the UK with the first of four shows at The Rainbow Theatre in London. They perform Eclipse at the show. A year later, it becomes The Dark Side of the Moon album.
Born On This Day
February 17, 1941: Gene Pitney, who had hits with It Hurts To Be In Love and Only Love Can Break A Heart, was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
February 17, 1972: Taylor Hawkins, who was touring drummer for Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill tour, and drummer for the Foo Fighters, was born in Fort Worth, Texas.
Well, here we are coming up on another fun year in Empire. Of course, that’s propaganda, but I can promise you one thing: It’ll be a fun year here in The Mermaid Lounge.
The Fab Four are big on January 1.
Here’s today’s lesson:
January 1, 1940: NBC begins regular FM transmission from New York’s Empire State Building on W2XDG. Edwin Armstrong, the inventor of FM (Frequency Modulation), first demonstrated the technology to RCA’s executives and engineers in 1933.
January 1, 1953: Hank Williams, only 29-years-old, died of heart failure, brought on by the abuse of pills and alcohol, on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio. Incredibly enough, Williams had the #1 song on the Country chart at the time. It was called I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.
January 1, 1956: RCA released Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel. In 1999, the song would be certified multi-platinum for a second time.
January 1, 1957: The Cavern Club in Liverpool opened its doors for the first time. It will forever be remembered as the place where The Beatles got their start.
January 1, 1960: Johnny Cash gave the first of many performances at San Quentin Prison. In the audience on this day was 19-year-old Merle Haggard who was serving 15 years for grand theft auto and armed robbery (he actually served just under three years).
January 1, 1961:Shop Around by The Miracles (soon to be Smokey Robinson & The Miracles) was #1 on the R & B chart.
January 1, 1962: The Beatles attend a New Year’s day audition for Decca Records where they record 15 songs. Decca would eventually reject the Beatles, telling Brian Epstein that guitar bands are “out.” Yeah. Kanye West is still saying that shit. Tell that to Eric Clapton, Mike Campbell, George Harrison, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, for starters.
January 1, 1964: The Beatles played two shows at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. They also received word from the U.S. that their first single, I Want To Hold Your Hand, was selling 10,000 copies an hour in New York City alone. The rest, as they say, is history.
Also on this day, The Dave Clark Five (another great British invasion band) had the #1 single in the UK with Glad All Over.
And, as if all of this wasn’t enough, The British show Top of The Pops debuted with The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, and the Dave Clark Five.
January 1, 1965: The Beatles had three albums in the Top 10 on this day: Beatles ’65 at #1, A Hard Day’s Night at #6, and The Beatles Story peaking at #7.
January 1, 1966: Simon & Garfunkel hit #1 with Sounds of Silence.
January 1, 1967: The Rolling Stones release the great song, Ruby Tuesday.
January 1, 1969: Put this on the list of shows I wish I’d been at: Creedence Clearwater Revival and early Fleetwood Mac (before Nicks & Buckingham) at The Fillmore West in San Francisco.
January 1, 1971: George Harrison had the #1 album with All Things Must Pass and the #1 song with My Sweet Lord on this day.
Meanwhile, Radio Luxembourg aired over seven straight hours of continuous Beatles music (as a band and solo) in celebration of their 10th year in music.
January 1, 1972: Three Dog Night becomes the first rock band to appear on a Tournament of Roses Parade float.
January 1, 1975: Paul McCartney & Wings arrive in New Orleans to record the album Venus & Mars.
January 1, 1988: George Harrison hits #1 with the song Got My Mind Set On You.
January 1, 1997: Singer-songwriter, tortured poet, Townes Van Zandt dies at the age of 52. His music has been covered by Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and many others. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard both covered his amazing Pancho & Lefty and had #1’s. But hands down, the most beautiful version of that song was done by Emmylou Harris.
January 1, 2019: The Renton Highlands Post Office in Seattle, Washington, is renamed the James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix Post Office. (I love this shit. I wish I lived there.)
Born on This Day
January 1, 1937: Bob Bogle, guitarist with The Ventures, was born in Wagoner, Oklahoma.
Good Morning, Music Trivialists! We here at the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge draw from our own archive of totally useless information and pour over various electronic sources to bring this to you every day. As you may expect, some sites differ from others about locations of events, timing, etc. Needless to say, research, critical thinking and weed is required to complete this task.
The Million Dollar Quartet: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Here’s today’s lesson!
December 4, 1956: Elvis Presley stopped by Sun Studios unexpectedly to find Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash watching Carl Perkins in the studio. The four would tape several songs together on that day, but it would be 25 years before that day would be immortalized on vinyl as The Million Dollar Quartet.
December 4, 1964: The Beatles release their fourth album, Beatles For Sale, which spends 11 weeks as the #1 album in the UK.
December 4, 1965:Turn, Turn, Turn would give The Byrds their second consecutive #1 hit, following up Mr. Tambourine Man.
December 4, 1969: President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and forty governors spend the day watching simulated acid trips and listening to rock music to help them understand the “generation gap.” We have been led by idiots for a very long fucking time.
December 4, 1971: Don MacLean’s eight-minute epic, American Pie, enters Billboard’s Hot 100. Before all is said and done, it will sell 3 million copies. To this day, it remains one of the most analyzed and debated songs in music history.
Also on this day, Sly & The Family Stone’s Family Affair begins a three-week run at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This will be their third and final #1 and their last song in the top 10 before the band implodes under the weight of personal issues, and falls apart. Too bad. They were a great band.
Led Zeppelin also began a two-week stint at the top of the UK Album chart with the Four Symbols album, which includes Stairway To Heaven. The album will eventually sell 11 million copies and remained on the US charts for nearly five years.
December 4, 1980: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones announce that Led Zeppelin will not continue on after the death of drummer John Bonham.
December 4, 1982: A retrospective album of John Lennon’s solo work called The John Lennon Collection, started a six-week run at #1 on he UK Album chart. The front and back covers were shot by Annie Liebovitz on December 8, 1980, just five hours before John Lennon’s murder.
December 4, 1987: Alison Krauss, just sixteen years old, releases her debut album, Too Late To Cry, with her backing band, Union Station.
December 4, 1988: Roy Orbison (aka, Lefty Wilbury) plays his final gig at The Front Row Theater in Akron, Ohio. Orbison dies of a heart attack two days later.
Born On This Day
December 4, 1942: Chris Hillman, of The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Desert Rose Band, was born in Los Angeles.
December 4, 1944: Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys was born in Inglewood, California.
And that, my friends, is as they say — all the news that’s fit to print because there are a lot of singers we simply don’t give a shit about here in The Mermaid Lounge.
Good Morning, Music Lovers Across the Globe! We’re trying to liven up your day beyond just playing great music! Today we’re starting the College of Rock n’ Roll Knowledge. There’s no tuition, and I am your professor, just as I am your programmer, researcher, music director, blog writer, and all-around music lover.
The Beatles perform at The Star Club, Germany, 1962.
Here’s today’s lesson in Rock Music History:
November 12, 1955: Fats Domino sits atop the R & B charts for the third week with his hit All By Myself.
November 12, 1957: Johnny Cash records Ballad of a Teenage Queen at Sun Studios in Memphis. The song will go to #1 on the Billboard Country charts in February of 1958.
November 12, 1962: The Beatles appeared at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, sharing the bill with none other than Little Richard.
November 12, 1965: The Velvet Underground makes its debut when it performs live at Summit High School in New Jersey. Fun fact: The band took its name from a paperback book about a secret sexual subculture in the early sixties.
November 12, 1966: Donovan’s Mellow Yellow is released. The song will go to #8 on the UK charts and to #2 in the U.S. It was originally believed that the song was about smoking banana leaves, which was rumored to be hallucinogenic. (Trust me. We tried it. It isn’t.) Later, Donovan would say that it was written about his bout with jaundice in 1966. I prefer the banana leaves story.
November 12, 1967: Jerry Lee Lewis records To Make Love Sweeter For You, which tops the Country charts in the U.S.
Thanks for joining in today. We hope you’ll join us every day here on the blog. You have no idea what you’re missing until you pay us a visit!
Good Morning, Music Lovers! Saturday is always our busiest programming day and that holds true today as well. But trust me. It’s all good, as they say.
Bertha. Lookin’ Good.
Here’s your Saturday line-up!
11:00 a.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Live on Soundstage, April 19, 2003
This 2003 performance remains one of the best recordings of any band live anywhere on the planet. I’m not the only one who shares that opinion either. The Chicago location opens up all the possibilities of a blues outing, and the band does not disappoint.
3:00 p.m. Album of the Week: Unchained by Johnny Cash FINAL AIRING!
The final airing of this great album is mid-afternoon today. Tomorrow, we’ll have a brand new album featured on the blog.
7:00 p.m. The All-Girl Revue, Volume 3: Various Artists
Tune in to nearly two hours of music with Linda Ronstadt, Phoebe Snow, Lydia Pense (a blast from the past; the lead singer of Cold Blood), The Shirelles, Dolly Parton, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, and many more!
10:00 p.m. LIVE DEAD! The Grateful Dead Live at The Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, August 13, 1975 NEW!
No two shows the same. Ever. Even on consecutive nights. That’s the legend of The Grateful Dead.
We’re pretty busy this morning. People from around the world are tuning in already. That’s good. Because tomorrow, we begin unveiling Wallflowers & All The Rest from Tom Petty. Be here or be square, as they say.
Good Morning, Musicologists and welcome to another day from The Mermaid Lounge where we offer quality programming, minimal talk, and great 24/7 streaming.
Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the best damned bands on the planet.
Here’s Thursday’s line-up:
11:00 a.m. In the Spotlight: The Music of Creedence Clearwater Revival
With the incredible John Fogerty at the helm, Creedence Clearwater Revival was one of the best damned rock n’ roll bands on the planet. That four guys from Berkeley could make that authentic Swamp Music sound was equally amazing.
3:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Unchained by Johnny Cash
We’re winding down here. We have one more airing after today, so don’t forget to tune it. It’ll be gone before you know it, and a brand new album will take its place on Sunday.
7:00 p.m. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Live at The Piazza Napoleone, Lucca, Italy, June 29, 2012
Yet another road show from the ultimate road band. I keep saying it: You don’t realize how good these guys really are until you’ve experienced them live. Luckily, I did several times, but certainly not enough.
We’ll keep saying it until someone in the U.S. listens: We’ve got listeners all over the world. You ought to figure out why. And you can only do that by listening in.
It’s another Tuesday Bluesday in The Mermaid Lounge, but that portion of the program comes a bit later. We’ve got some great music leading up to that.
The Doors live on stage, 1967
Here’s today’s line-up:
11:00 a.m. The Doors Live at The Cobo Arena, Detroit, May 8, 1970 NEW!
Brand new to The Mermaid Lounge, delivered by Elves late one evening after a mushroom party. (I made that up.) Enjoy this great concert in spite of my bad fiction.
4:00 p.m. Not The Album of The Week: Wildflowers by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
As we eagerly await the release of Wildflowers & All The Rest, it’s time to go back to the original and remember just how fucking great this album is.
7:00 p.m. Tuesday Bluesday! The Super Session (1968) NEW!
Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper (the original lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears), and Stephen Stills lay it down. This one is also new to us even though it’s been on my hard drive for years. (Hey, there’s still a ton of shit to go. Okay?)
10:00 p.m. Album of The Week: Unchained by Johnny Cash
It’s only fitting that Tom Petty and his bandmates play a role in this great album. Tom Petty had more credibility in traditional country music than any other rocker on the planet. This one won Cash a Grammy.
Well, children, this is probably a really good day to tune us in. You might like it so much that you come back tomorrow. Who knows? As my grandmother said, you won’t know until you try it. And it’s free.
Very sorry for the late post today, but we are indeed up and running great programming today here from The Mermaid Lounge!
The Sixties Rotation Starts at 4:00 p.m. EST!
Here’s today’s line-up:
11:00 a.m. Album of The Week: Unchained by Johnny Cash NEW!
This isn’t just country from Mr. Cash. It’s more like country rock as he’s backed by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and produced by Rick Rubin! Although there are some Cash compositions on this album, he also focuses on covers, including Petty’s Southern Accents. This won Johnny Cash a Grammy.
2:00 p.m. Tom Petty: Wildflowers & All The Rest: The New Releases
Once again, we play you the five new releases from the upcoming Wildflowers package, which will be released on October 16.
4:00 p.m. The Sixties Rotation, Volume Two: Various Artists
More than five hours of sixties music from a variety of artists: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, The Kinks, The Searchers, The Animals, The Chambers Brothers, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane and more!
What the hell are you all waiting for? Get your shit together.
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