This is Mike Oliver's My Vinyl Countdown opinion column.
Nat King Cole
Yes, Nat King Cole, born in Montgomery, came to Birmingham in 1956 to perform as he was quickly becoming a worldwide star, appealing to all races.
He had already had his share of experiences with the ugliness of racism. In Los Angeles in the 1950s he bought into a white neighborhood and had a cross burned in his yard, according various accounts compiled by Wikipedia.
In Birmingham in 1956, he was attacked by three men belonging to the North Alabama Citizens Council who tried to kidnap him, according to the Birmingham News and other sources. He was toppled from his bench and hurt his back. He never again played the South. However, he did continue to play segregated audiences drawing the 'Uncle Tom' label from Thurgood Marshall, then lawyer for the NAACP. Marshall said Cole should play with a banjo.
Cole did contribute to the Montgomery Bus boycott and sued northern hotels that refused to serve him.
Meanwhile, the superb music continued to flow as noted in the review below - along with my four other reviews and an NP as My Vinyl Countdown continues another week spreading the news about Lewy body dementia.
Remember these reviews are culled from my blog where some exist in slightly longer or different versions.
Van Cliburn - 582-581
ALBUMS: Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1; Rachmaninoff, Concerto No. 3
The US has long been the 'team to beat' in the world. Ideally we are also the role model, or should be.
An honest striving for excellence leads us to our exceptionalism mindset. Obviously that can be for good or ill.
Racing to be first.
I suppose we should all be pushing toward being the best we can be, without hurting ourselves or others. (Gosh I'm starting to sound like Joan Baez or Melanie here.)
Good old competition can open eyes and push forward the truth.
Alabama native Jesse Owens won four gold medals, including the 100 meters and 200 meters in the 1936 Olympics, shattering German leader Adolf Hitler's definition of Aryan superiority.
The Space Race with the U.S. landing on the moon i n 1969, shot the US ahead of the Soviets in one dramatic leap and pushed both sides to advance the technology.
A 23-year-old, 6-foot-4-inch Texan, blew away the competition in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958, getting a Russian standing ovation in the middle of the Cold War.
It's interesting that Owens and Van Cliburn made their statements on the road in front of dumbfounded but appreciative witnesses, in Berlin and in Moscow.
The judges had to run it by Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev on whether to give the first prize to an American, according to Wikipedia citing the Washington Post and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
"Is he the best?" Khrushchev asked the judges. Yes, they replied.
"Then give him the prize!" he said.
ALBUMS: The Harder They Come (Cliff and others, soundtrack) (1973); We All are One (12-inch single, 1983)
Jimmy Cliff mon. If somebody walked up to me right now and said they don't know anything about reggae music and wanted to buy something, relatively cheap, to see if they like this genre, I'd waver on a recommendation.
It's a tough one to choose between Bob Marley's 'Natty Dread' and the Jimmy Cliff vehicle soundtrack 'The Harder They Come."
'Natty Dread' was my introduction many years ago and 'No Woman No Cry' is in my Top 10 song list (It is? Ok for now it is.) And when I first heard Marley sing in Rebel Music: "Hey Mr. Cop, I ain't got no birth-surf-a-ticket on me now," I thought it was the coolest thing. I still pronounce birth certificate like that to this day.
But as much as I love that album, I might steer this newby to the Cliff album. Esteemed and sometimes demeaned Rock Critic Robert Christgau, whom I cite a lot in my musical meanderings, called this the best rock movie soundtrack ever or the soundtrack to the best rock movie or the best rock compilation...Oh you read it, I can't keep jumping back to Christgau's Consumer Guide, he'll think I'm plagiarizing him.
The soundtrack featuring Cliff and others is indeed excellent. Cliff's 'Many Rivers to Cross' is on my Top 10 list of great songs, and so is the Melodians 'Rivers of Babylon. OK my list is going to need some work pruning and expansion. But the above two songs prove if you got rivers you got good reggae.
Let the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart
Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
By the rivers of babylon, there we sat down
Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered Zion
And there's 'Johnny Too Bad,' which UB40 did a great cover later. And the Toots and the Maytals classic 'Pressure Drop' which the Clash made their own on my recently reviewed Sandinista!
I also have from 10 years later a promotional single. I distinctly remember buying this from Charlemagne Records in Birmingham probably 1983 or so. (I also bought a 12-inch single by Niles Rogers, which I hope to find and review when I get to the 'R's.).
We all are one (We all)
We are the same person (Same person)
I'll be you, you'll be me (I'll be me, you'll be you)
We all are one (We all), same universal world
I'll be you, you'll be me
\The only difference I can see
Is in the conscience
And the shade of our skin
Doesn't matter, we laugh, we chatter
We smile, we all live for
ALBUM: World of Wonders (1986)
Cockburn, a Canadian folk singer, is smart, a great musician, serious, not so much the life of the party. A self-proclaimed Christian, Cockburn writes melodic dirges, melodic folk/country and melodic rants. Much is about politics.
Put another way, Cockburn is a dude who reads the NY Times and listens to NPR every morning and absorbs it.
He's smart and he's pissed.
To be fair he has also traveled extensively on various human rights causes.
Look and listen to the lyrics of "And They Call it Democracy.'
North, south, east, west
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery
I-M-F dirty M-F
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
See the paid off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies, shake hands with the fellows
And it's open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
Have you heard of any other pop artists write songs railing against the International Monetary Fund?
I have to say as much as I admire his writing and Berklee College of Music training, I don't and/or haven't listened to this album much. It's in mint condition. It is packed full of polemics and politics, good music, great guitar playing, but little humor or warm feelings. Kinda makes me want to put on a Kinks album.
ALBUM: Just One of Those Things (1958)
It was a different time, a timeless time.
Nat King Cole was a smooth guy. Frank Sinatra-like in Cole's crooning phase. My father tells me Cole was a big jazz guy with a trio in his earlier days. This album with a few pops and snaps has the brass blasting and retreating behind universal themed lyrics of love lost and found. "A Cottage for Sale" sets the tone with its title.
My favorite is 'These Foolish Things Remind Me of You,' partly because it is a great song but also because I had heard Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music do it. So I had familiarity going in.
A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
Still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you
A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumblin' words that told you what my heart meant
A fair ground painted swings
These foolish things remind me of you
Ahh, timeless stuff. And you followers of my blog know I have spent some time thinking about time.
Cole was a great piano player and singer. He became in the late '50s the first black host of a TV series, a variety show.
He was born in Montgomery, yes, Alabama. But his family moved to Chicago when he was a tyke of 4.
As stated above, Cole dealt with his share of racism in the 1950s and 60s including the incident in Birmingham where he was performing in 1956.
ALBUM: For the Collector Vol. 2 (4-record Laurie compilation)
What a treasure trove. Here are 64 songs from 50s, 60s and 70s. Many that you know you know. Others you know but didn't know you knew. Others you wish you didn't know.
You know? What I mean?
Like right now I'm listening to Jimmy Curtiss sing "Laughing at the Rain." I know this song but didn't know I knew it.
This collection has a lot of Dion (8 songs) and a lot of singers that sound like Dion. But that's OK, I love Dion (and the Belmonts). Most known artists like Del Shannon get two or three spots. But lots of one-hit wonderfuls, like 'Doctor' by the Five Discs, 'Western Movies' by the Olympics, and 'The Normal Ones' by the Brooklyn Boys. I believe it was a bargain special when it came out, but now I see it listed for $50 on eBay and it seems to be scarce.
Then you have the Chiffons singing 'He's So Fine,' AND 'My Sweet Lord' - the song they sued and won a landmark decision against former. Beatle George Harrison over his song "My Sweet Lord.' Listening now. Yes, they sound quite alike in melody. He's so fine. My sweet Lord. I wish he were mine. I really want to see you.
Guess the Chiffons wanted to show how alike the two songs are.
On the last record, the record compilers couldn't resist bringing in Snoopy v. Red Baron by that great band the Royal Guardsmen. You know the Guardsmen, the RG baby. Never heard of them but I do remember the song, it was my favorite at 4-years-old.
PS I checked real quick Wikipedia on the Guardsmen. Let's just say they had a hit with the Snoopy Red Baron thing and rode that dog for as long as they could. Here's what Wiki wrote:
The Royal Guardsmen are an American rock band, best known for their 1966 hit single Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, The Return of The Red Baron", "Snoopy For President", and the Christmas follow up "Snoopy's Christmas."
I wonder where Vol . 1 is?
For my NP (Now Playing) I have Jose Feliciano, who broke down some barriers with his version of the Star Spangled Banner, long before Marvin Gaye did. Also, we have Freddy Fender, a U.S. Marine, ex-convict, lovable Tex-Mex singer with a golden voice.
Read more about these two on my blog.