The story of today's Anatomy Of A Song starts with its composer, Mexican legend Consuelo Velázquez (Torres), who was often called Consuelito. She was 88 when she died in 2005, and had spun out a long and successful career as a pianist, singer, and composer. Many of the songs she wrote are still loved and … Continue reading Anatomy Of A Song – Consuelito’s Mexican Classic
I'm not a TV snob. You know, one of those people who claim they don't own a television, or that they have a small one but keep it in the closet and just bring it out to watch butterfly documentaries on PBS. In fact, the definition of 'TV snob' might have changed now because so … Continue reading Observations From An Offbeat TV Viewer
Radio City, the short-lived pirate radio station that operated off the coast of England for a while in the 60's, was mentioned recently in a post titled Tony Newman And The Crazy 60’s Music Scene, but if you want to know more about it we probably should start with some history. Pirate radio has been … Continue reading Screaming Lord Sutch And The Radio City Pirates
Are you kidding me? The movie that scared me silly when I was a kid has been remade, and get this; it won the Oscar for best picture! Well, to be fair, maybe The Shape Of Water isn't exactly a remake of Creature From The Black Lagoon, but more later about that. Let's get into … Continue reading My 11-Year-Old Self Would Be Stunned
How talented would a 16-year-old musician in the early 1940's have had to be to grab the attention of Benny Goodman? And not only that, but to then have the King of Swing offer him a job as pianist, singer, and arranger with the biggest of the big bands? That teenager was Buddy Greco, and … Continue reading Buddy Greco’s Benny Goodman Moment
On this edition of the Squeaky Wheel, the GMC Special Feature that allows me to grumble about whatever is currently bugging me, we're going to tackle the question of why they keep trying to speed up the game of baseball. You can't help but see it discussed everywhere these days, and you might think it's … Continue reading Squeaky Wheel Says: Leave Baseball Alone!
Today we're going to focus on British rock guitarist/singer Tony Newman, but don't confuse him with the drummer of the same name, a contemporary of his who had a long career that included stints with bands like T. Rex and Boxer, and also accompanied David Bowie, Eric Clapton and others. Our Tony Newman's career didn't … Continue reading Tony Newman And The Crazy 60’s Music Scene
Your first thought when reading the title of this post might be: wait -- aren't all politicians con artists? Well of course they are, but today we're going to get specific and tell the story of Dudley Joseph LeBlanc (aka 'Coozan Dud'), a huckster who became a Louisiana legislator and then made a fortune selling … Continue reading Politician + Con Artist = Super Showman
Something a little different today. (Although if you haven't been here lately you might have already noticed that the GMC itself is kind of different these days.) Regular visitors might remember that I've mentioned several times in the past that I spent a few years in the 60's working as a radio DJ. (Here's the … Continue reading Old Radio Dog Finds New Bone
How head-spinning would it have been for an unsophisticated Belgian nun in the 1960's to see herself portrayed on the movie screen by superstar Debbie Reynolds, after already experiencing the wonder of having a huge #1 hit record? We can only guess, but Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile) as she was known, would soon leave the … Continue reading The Sad Story Of The Singing Nun
Geezer Music Club 