...and speaking of snow, we have had more than our share here in Pittsburgh. The fourth biggest snow fall in the city's history has left a beautiful, two-foot thick blanket of powdery snow.

So, I have begun to think of songs with 'snow' in the title. One site, http://www.fiql.com/playlists/songs_with_snow_in_their_title1/, has a pretty good list.

I can add Frank Zappa's "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow." http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=3480589&song=Don't+Eat+The+Yellow+Snow The song was the first Zappa song to hit the Billboard charts at #86. It was the opening track on his most commercially successful album, 1974's Apostrophe, which reached #10 on the album chart and became a gold record in 1976.

Apart from Bill Murray's Nick Winter character singing Gilda Ratner's cast "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" on Saturday Night Live, I don't know of any recorded cover versions.

I did come across a great recipe for yellow snow cupcakes!

http://aliciapolicia.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-eat-yellow-snow.html

Because in a few days, the beautiful white snow here will be yellow, too.

My friend Stan is visiting from New York City this weekend. We are snowed in here in Pittsburgh - more than 24 inches fell overnight. Beautiful. But one of the fringe benefits of a big snow storm is that, after shoveling, and hiking, you sit around the living room, drinking coffee and tea, and talking!

So, naturally conversation bounces around and includes vinyl records and this blog. I read Stan the latest entry on car stereos record players and he says, I think there was a car that had a vertical slot for records, but I'm not sure when or which car.

Is Stan dreaming or was there a car that had a slot for records?

I think I found it: it was a Phllips.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4kleuren/104338856/

Here is a link to a piece on the Chrysler's 1960 RCA 'upside down'  car record player, too.

http://www.uaw-chrysler.com/images/news/phono.htm

None of the them seem to have to have woked to well...something about bumps and skipping!

My friend Jim has satelite radio and I am seriously considering putting it in my car, too. There is so little good programming to listen to on the terrestrial radio in my area, and the music shows I listened to on satelite as we drove to our daughters' soccer game a few weeks ago had real host/djs that told real stories and played real music, good music, real music. I was impressed.

But then I thought about my vinyl record obsession and felt like a traitor. I listen to CDs and my IPod in my car already, but no records.

Of course.

But when I mentioned this to another friend, he said, "Well you know....there were cars that had turntables in them, back in the old days."

There were? There were!

Growing up, we didn't have a car. My parents didn't drive - they were true New Yorkers. I didn't learn to drive until a few years ago myself!

So, I didn't know that cars used to have turntables in them! Well, not many did, apparently.

Columbia put record players in some Chryslers in 1956.

Apparently they didn't work too well...something about bumps.

'Crave' - the gadget blog on CNET - had a good piece on Chrysler's semi-exclusive in car turntable - see photo above.
 And why do you think Motorola is called Motorola? Their first product was....(drumroll, please) ....an car stereo with a turntable!

Hence the name: Motor + Victrola = Motorola.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-9687999-1.html

Why does everything that Simon Cowell does elicit such ire?

Why does REM look so serious?

Simon has enlisted Susan Boyle and friends to record a cover of REM's 'Everybody Hurts' with the proceeds going to Haitian relief efforts. Folks are in a tizzy over his choice of song to benefit the people of Haiti. They say that it is about teenage suicide, not tragedies like this, and so is not approriate.

What song is?

Does it really matter?

Isn't the song just a  fundraising vehicle? 'Everybody Hurts' is well-known and popular and will be successful as a focal point of fundraising because of its univeral recognition.

Isn't that the point?

Take a look at yesterday's Guardian and check out what David Bowie says he is listening to. I guess we have to believe him!

It's Bowie!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jan/24/david-bowie-on-his-ipod

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/01/david-byrne-to-speak-on-congress-for-new-urbanism.html

I am always interested to discover places in the world where music and architecture converge. At the Congress for New Urbanism, legendary musician  David Byrne will be speaking about his 'bycycle diaries' and living in cities. He always wrote great songs about cities and buildings, so why not? In fact, why has it taken this long for this to happen?

David should know that the Congress for New Urbanism is a somewhat reactionary urban design organization that promotes a nostalgic version of cities that developers seem to like because it densifies suburbia - better, more urban living AND more profit. I get the density concept - but why not put your efforts into existing ciies and not minor improvements to sprawl? Or am I missing something? I don't think so.

David, watch out!

So, I am excited to learn that ex-Talking Head David Byrne  will be talking to this group about riding bikes in cities and other things he likes about cities. Might be worth checking out!

NPR (National Public Radio) (www.npr.org) is part of most mornings in our household. Driving to work and Saturday mornings, its one of our sources of news and entertainment. We are somewhat of an NPR family, I guess you could say. And the music segments, whether they come through Fresh Air (www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13) or All Things Considered (www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2) are some of our favorites.

Where else would we hear about Geoff Muldaur and his latest project, The Texas Sheiks? (www.geoffmuldaur.com).

So, I was happy to discover this in-depth interview with All SONGS Considered Host, Bob Boilen, at Paste.com: Enjoy.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/11/industry-chat-bob-boilen-of-npr-music.html

I have listened to Laura Nyro's 'Gonna Take A Miracle' for years and years. I can't remember when or where I got it - or even why - but I have long enjoyed its strange, soulful sound, Nyro's soaring lead vocals on top of Labelle's textured backing, her unusual, brassy arrangements of classic R 'n' B. It's not exactly an easy record to listen to, demanding in the way most of my favorite albums are. Not a record to put on in the background while you talk with friends or read by the fire. Not a record many of my friends - or even my wife - really enjoys listening to with me. But one full of life and originality for me at least to this day. As Barney Hoskyns wrote, "Laura is one of those artists who takes you over - one of the greatest poets pop has produced." Laura Nyro's songs are undeniable, her voice, an acquired taste reviled by some and revered by others like singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones who has admired it as 'pure emotion.'

Last year, after years  and years of listening to 'Gonna Take A Miracle,' I picked up my second Nyro album, a beautiful vintage vinyl copy of 'Eli and the 13th Confession,' one of the  albums in Laura Nyro's classic trilogy that also includes 'New York Tendaberry' and 'Christmas and the Beads of Sweat.' In these groundbreaking, prescient albums of the late 60s and early 70s, Nyro charts a new course for female, singer songwriters, out of step with its time, ahead of her time. True innovators are often misunderstood until the world catches up with them. Laura Nyro never quite got to enjoy the world's recognition of her genius and she died too young to witness her musical offspring. As Nyro fan Rickie Lee Jones has observed, "Too bad everyone waits until people are dead. She could have used that glory."

Nyro rose to top of (my) mind recently when I read Barney Hoskyn's appreciative profile in the January issue of UNCUT magazine. In his concise, but well crafted prose, Hoskyns outlines her rise and fall. A gifted and prolific songwriter, Laura Nyro wrote such timeless songs as 'Wedding Bell Blues,' 'Stoney End,' ' Eli's Coming,' and 'And When I Die,' among others. She recorded with Columbia a series of well-done to over-produced albums of songs that bridged the Brill Building song craft of Ellie Greenwich and Carole King and the 1970s Singer Songwriters.

However, Nyro's career was to be studded with ups and downs. On the strength of her first album and a powerful collection of songs, an inexperienced Nyro was invited to play Monterey Pop in 1967. In contrast to the raw emotion of fellow Monterey Pop artists like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, just emerging, Nyro seemed out of step, too East Coast slick, too produced, too traditional. Her poetry, her charm, her sincerity, all was lost on Monterey's stoned-out audience and they booed her off stage.

This disaster, for which she was miscast, would dog her for the rest of her too short life.

It was the first big gig of her career, and not the right one. Not only wasn't she ready for the 'big' stage so soon, it was the wrong stage to boot. Monterey Pop did not want what Hoskyns describes as a 'glorious hyper-pop hodge-podge of Broadway theatricality, holy rollong gospel, and streetcorner soul.'

But you may, now. 

Over the years, Nyro's influence has been great. Her intuitive mix of genres anticipates many popular contemporary artists who freely borrow from many influences and mix and a match to create a heterogenous sound. No Norah Jones without Laura Nyro. 

I like Norah Jones and I like Laura Nyro.





 

For most American music fans, Golden Earring is one perfect song, 'Radar Love.' If it comes on late night radio while you are driving it is the perfect driving song.

But, to most of us, then, Golden Earring is basically a one-hit wonder, known for one amazing song that in its relentless rhythmic drone is also practically a novelty song.

But they are so much more.

In Holland, they are prodigious hitmakers, charted hits numbering more than 40. Their albums are staples of Dutch record collections, easy to find and still very listenable.

I recently came across a clean copy of their 1972 'Together' album in Amsterdam's 'Second Life Music.' The cover looks like an invitation to hang out, the plants, candles, and hair testimony to the laid back 70s hippie rock 'n' roll lifestyle. The music is great, heavy and tuneful.

So much than just a single great song.

This is Leo Blokhuis (above). More on Leo in a moment.

First: Hello again.

I had a dream last night and it was about this blog.

You see its been a long time - 32 days to be exact - since I wrote a new entry and my conscience must have been getting the better of me.

In the dream, I wrote this amazing entry about some record I discovered which reminded me about some other record that I had discovered when I was a teenager and well it was a dream so it all didn't make any sense but it made perfect sense - in the dream at least. I knew it made sense until I woke up and then I could not remember a thing.

So, there you are.

I was traveling over the holiday, reading a lot of music magazines in airplanes and celebrating New Years in The Netherlands.

Every year, for the past ten, Holland's Radio 2 has polled its listeners to produce a Top 2000 of all time. (http://top2009.radio2.nl/) It is an interesting list; since it is so long it has many predictable results but also alot of songs you haven't heard for awhile as well. Or never heard - its Dutch!

Related to this, each night for about a week before New Years, TV host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk - charming and enthusiastic - and music expert Leo Blokhuis host a wonderful hourlong TV show called Top 2000 a Go Go. Filmed in a large cafe, with an audience of people sitting at tables drinking beer around the room, van Nieuwkerk and Blokhuis play selections form the Top 2000 list - in reverse order counting down to number 1 - interview unlikely guests, quiz even more unlikely guest, and play Leo's mini-music-documentaries. For me, they are the highlight of each show, fascinating and entertaining.

So, every night from December 26 through New Years Eve, I tuned in at 11pm to see what Leo had come up with. One night it was legendary but forgotten bass player Carol Kaye. Another night it was Lori Lieberman, composer of 'Killing Me Softly.' With my poor Dutch comprehension, I struggled to follow the proceedings, but got more than enough to want to tune in again next year. My native Dutch speaking wife bought two of Blokhuis' wonderful books - please translate thenm into English Leo - or let me try! (i'm serious, Leo....)

Leo's special fascination is covers (are covers?). He traced the Otis Redding's legendary performance of 'Try a Little Tenderness' back to a 1932 recording by England's Ray Noble!

Musically, the Top 2000 list uncovered some gems: Midnight Oil's  'Beds Are Burning'; Sniff 'n' the Tears' 'Drivers' Seat'; The Shoes, Klaus Voorman, Willy Deville, Spandau Ballet, Prince covering Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love.' The Buoy's 'Give Up Your Gun';
Golden Earring's 'Another 45 Miles'; Dr. Alban's 'It's My Life.'

For more on Blokhuis' books, check out 'Showcase': http://showcase.thebluebus.nl/soundtrack-of-my-life/october-2008/leo-blokhuis

Or go to www.leoblokhuis.nl

And say that paul Rosenblatt, your 'vinylrecordarchitect' sent you!