Sorry about last week’s slight outburst about “if people
were reading this,” it can just be disheartening to post positivity and try to
show as much compassion as possible and still see the world unchanged from how
callous and hateful it can get. I was
taught at a young age that believing and acting were enough to create a noted
positive difference in the world. While
I might be making someone or even some people happier, they’re not talking to
me often enough to offset how harsh and despicable I hear people can be, which
causes me to get crippling self-doubt and painful fear that this is all vain
spitting in the wind. My last post
actually got likes on Facebook from two of my Aunts and one of my Cousins, so I feel that’s a step
in the right direction and I do look forward to sharing the other 25 entries as
the month goes on.
No real “surprises” last week, which isn’t too much of a
shock for me because there were so many immense releases I already knew were
coming. In addition to the Def Leppard
and Vandenberg releases, Rush released a 40th anniversary re-release
of “Permanent Waves” with Live Performances recorded mainly in Manchester. This was a posthumous release due to the
death of drummer Neil Peart at the start of the year, which also canceled sales
of their Funko Pop triple pack so businesses wouldn’t feel like they were
exploiting the death of a famous musician to make a profit (this may not be the REAL reason, but it’s
what makes the most sense to me). Lady
Gaga’s new album featured a duet with Elton John, who you can read about in the
next Pride Month bio group, coming Saturday (Night’s All Right For
Fighting). An interesting fact not
listed there is that at the 2010 Grammys, Lady Gaga and Elton John gave a duet
and both played their own grand piano, so a duet between the two was a natural
step that I’m surprised took ten years to accomplish. The biggest out of nowhere reveal was a
release of a mini-album of re-recordings by John Fogerty, entitled, “Fogerty’s
Factory” (the cover art stylized after CCR’s “Cosmo’s Factory”) released last
week, featuring new versions of “Centerfield,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Down on the
Corner” and “Fortunate Son,” as well as a couple others. John
Fogerty also recently turned 75 and spent his birthday playing “Centerfield” in
Dodger Stadium’s Centerfield.
Without further ado, here are the releases I’m most looking
forward to this week. This is a week for
the Blues. No, I actually mean that.
Dion-Blues With Friends: Since I got into Spotify, I was
surprised how well-tied some of my favorite rock bands like Led Zeppelin,
Lynyrd Skynyrd and all the projects of Eric Clapton were tied into the Blues
genre. Robert Plant even once said, “The
Blues had a baby called Rock and Roll.” Dion
was a late 60s blues rocker who is still going today, and this album features
blues musicians who can cross over into hard rock much like Zeppelin, Skynyrd
and Clapton. There’s Jeff Beck, a close
friend of Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, the guitarist
for Glenn Hughes’ project Black Country Communion, Sonny Landreth, a blues
musician who teamed with Peter Frampton on his swan song Blues album (he's only retired, he's not dead), Samantha
Fish, a Caucasian blues lady with mean guitar skills, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top
fame and even appearances by Bruce Springsteen and our other main album release
artist this week.
Joe Louis Walker-Blues Comin’ On: This album is the first I
heard of Joe Louis Walker, and seriously, people, we need to change that. I was thinking that before last week, but
ESPECIALLY in the wake of last week, it’s imperative people are made aware of
the blues people who are constantly being buried. Blues is an almost unsung genre, primarily
because it’s mainly made up of African-Americans from the South, which is the
definition of ignoring a genre out of racism!
Little Milton, Eric Gales, Keb’ Mo’, Willie Dixon, B.B. King, each of
these has a unique musical perspective that most don’t know or if they do, they
only do because Led Zeppelin brought the song to Rock and Roll fame. I can list right now Keb’ Mo’ and Eric Gales
are guests on this album, Gales being one of my more favorite blues musicians
today. Keb’ Mo’ entered my field of view
when I was rather young, around 9-10 years old, his song “Follow Me Up” on the
soundtrack to the TV show Touched By An Angel.
Touched By An Angel taught me to be antiracist, it had very unflinching
displays of the hatred that could be seen, juxtaposed against heroes and heroines
like Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali. There
was even an episode that partially took place in the past, with Jazz Singer
Billie Holiday deciding to sing “Strange Fruit.” The Irish Angel Monica, played by Roma
Downey, clapped for her, the only one to do so.
While it’s sad that the humans in that club lacked the guts to
acknowledge the terror of lynching, it shows God approves of nonviolent
protests against injustice. It also ties
back to Gales, he sang a duet of “With A Little Help From My Friends” (yes, The
Beatles classic, but done in the style of the Joe Cocker cover) with Beth Hart,
a blues singer who dared to cover “Strange Fruit” with Joe Bonamassa and got
some cheers. Gales has also covered
Cream and Hendrix and teamed up with the more metal blues Gary Clark Jr.,
responsible for the cover of “Come Together” from the Justice League movie end
credits and one of my favorite African-American bluesmen of all time due to how
blunt he can be (check out his song “This Land” for some well-stated anger at
white supremacy, though if you’re put off by “N” words spoken by
African-Americans, you may not like it first time through), as well as metal
guitarist Zakk Wylde, most famous for his work with Ozzy Osbourne and his band
Black Label Society.
That was a bit longer than usual, and to be honest, I started
work during Blackout Tuesday this week because I figured since I wasn’t going
to be posting, I might as well get a head start. I didn’t realize the blues were going to
strike such a nerve, but when your country is at the point you can’t even watch
a Scotsman wrestle an African-American on Monday Night Raw without feeling a
pang of personal guilt, why WOULDN’T two connections to Billie Holiday’s
“Strange Fruit” make me go to pieces?
What’s really sad is there’s not enough GOOD people in media in the right positions that you could
make another show like “Touched By An Angel,” it’d either become totally
non-serious or a right-wing feedback loop.
That’s all for this week’s releases, but tune in next week when I talk
about a covers album I pre-ordered last month.
And come back Saturday to see the second pack of Pride Month mini-bios,
which will cover Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Doug Pinnick (boosted in the
rankings due to current events, as was this next man), Billy Preston, Vicky
Beeching and a couple others. And if the
only name you recognized there was Elton John, you’ll really want to come back
so you can learn about a lesbian country singer from Seattle, a lesbian CCM
singer from Kent, England and a few other prominent musicians in the LGBTQ+
community, including two African-American ones, one in heavy metal and one who
worked with none other than The Beatles.
You’ll also learn who Dr. Winston O’Boogie really was.
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