I am absolutely ashamed to say that, until his death yesterday, I had never heard of the great talent that visited this earth for the past 68 years, not getting his music "out there" until 2011, when he was 62 years old.
I'll be up front with you. Mr. Bradley moves my soul when he sings. Go here while reading this tribute and listen to AIN'T IT A SIN while you're reading this humble prose. We'll start with that one. I know it's gonna make you forget all about this blog post you're reading.
I'll wait until you cue it up. There. Got the volume right? Have you ever heard anything like this voice in your life, other than perhaps the likes of the late Robert Johnson, the late Louis Armstrong and other great blues talents that long ago left our realm.
These great blues singers, they had one thing in common apparently, from the video interviews with Mr. Bradley on YouTube and the articles I've read online about him. They had a real bad upbringing and perhaps, a troubled continuing life. Indeed, if there is a modern face of a soulful blues singer, it was Mr. Bradley.
That is not the defining fact of a man. The good Lord above gave Mr. Bradley an ability to sing that forged Mr. Bradley's unique sound that fell somewhere in between Al Green and the late James Brown.
I hate that I'm writing the phrase "the late" so many times already.
As the lead singer of an late 1980's original Houston blues band that I played drums for, Joyce Bradshear once intro'd a song at a gig by stating, and I'm paraphrasing here..."That it's funny how something so sad can make you so happy. People listen to the blues when they're down, when they're troubled about something, and the whole grieving process of the song just somehow make you in your situation feel better about your blues". That quote doesn't do her justice.
About now you should be ready for another gem of Mr. Bradley, and this one was a real surprise. Although I'm in my fifties, and spent the mid 60's until now just obsessed with lots of different kinds of music, I'm not the biggest Black Sabbath fan. Yes, there are a few songs like Paranoid and Iron Man that I like somewhat, but it was really the songs like Crazy Train from Ozzy's solo career that were more accessible musically to me.
So I discover yesterday that one of Mr. Bradley's cover tunes was called Changes and was done originally in 1972 to an awful and dreary musically composed tune by BLACK SABBATH. Mr. Bradley takes CHANGES and makes it a totally new song.
Mr. Bradley has 3 albums that he released in this short period of being a professional bluesman. I'll give Mr. Bradley the honor of mentioning his loyalty to his excellent band. He kept the same band over the last 7 years, and that's something a lot of rising star singers and guitarists often don't do.
They get more famous, more experienced musicians to play with them. I'd actually be surprised if his management and label had not at some point had a run made at them by any number of experienced musicians, wanting to start a band with Mr. Bradley singing. Old guys, guys that have been playing the blues for a living for as long as Mr. Bradley's band has been alive.
If that didn't happen, with regional stars or former semi-major blues musicians looking for that next great gig while he was alive, it certainly would've happened soon as his immense talent was being heard daily by so many others.
Mr. Bradley's story reminds me of my good friend CAROLYN WONDERLAND a blues siren and songstress herself and of her persistence in the music business in Austin.
A talented blues guitarist as well as trumpeter, I've been watching and waiting for the rest of the world to notice her intense talent since she was 15 and busing tables at the Monday Night Blues Jam at the now defunct Dan Electro's blues bar in Houston, Texas.
That would be exactly 29 or 30 years ago. As the drummer for the house band on many of those nights for the last several years of my law school days, Carolyn would get up and sit in on a tune with the band. You knew one day she'd be noticed and be famous.
If memory serves, after one of her regular appearances at the Harley festival in Stugis, she was hired by and did a tour playing guitar with none other than Bob Dylan.
For a taste of Carolyn's music that you'll come back to at Christmastime, go to BLUE LIGHTS, song written by the man who taught me how to blues drum beginning in 1984, when I was first in one of his bands, the legendary Kenneth Blanchet, or "Little Screaming Kenny" as he's known.
Screamin' thought my drumming was too busy., "too cymbally", he said. And he was right, it was. Way too busy.
He complimented my rock sensibilities, and then handed me a stack of old blues albums and told me to take them home and tape them and bring them back and listen A LOT to them to learn how to play blues drums. Screaming taught me that less is more, many times musically speaking.
But that's the fellow who wrote Blue Lights, and I sure would have liked to have heard Mr. Bradley belt out that number.
You can find several albums of tunes out there from Mr. Bradley. Rest in Peace, sir. I will continue to listen to your legacy.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Friday, September 15, 2017
R.I.P. HARRY DEAN STANTON-YOUR MUSIC TOUCHED THE DIVINE
I stole part of the above title from a comment on a great Harry Dean performance of the classic Jim Reeves song "He'll Have to Go" at his 80th birthday party.The audio is not so great on it.
But the audio is pretty dang good on a wide variety of other Harry Dean Stanton Band tunes available on youtube. My favorite is this version of LOVE POTION #9. Looks like some Hollywood studio pros backing him, especially the trumpet player. I'd love to know who he is, as his playing sounds very familiar. In any event, the trumpet solo starting at about 1:35 is just absolutely awesome.
That day that always comes for all of us arrived for Harry Dean Stanton. Living to 91 is a damn great thing, particularly when you remained active in your art until it was your time to go.
I wrote some eight years ago about Harry Dean and my great admiration for him HERE and told some of my stories about chasing him all over Hollywood. To keep up with Harry's gigs in those pre-internet days, friends would send me the gig pages from the Los Angeles Chronicle and I subscribed to a magazine called Music Connection for a number of years, which covered the music scene in general in LA.
Ah, Harry Dean, you brought so many of us so much pleasure with your acting and your singing and your art.
Although I am a musician, I'm not an actor, yet the fact that Harry Dean's acting career really didn't take off big time until he was 58 years old, after decades of character actor roles, gives me hope that I'll shoot off into the stratosphere SOON on my future ventures, since I'm nearing that age.
Harry Dean kept a low profile personal life. Off the top of my head, I recall that at some point after moving to LA, he and Jack Nicholson roomed together for several years, in a remote house in one of the beautiful canyons and hills overlooking Hollywood. You can't tell me those guys didn't have some fun in that house!
He served our country in the U.S. Navy as a cook and was in the Battle of Okinawa. Do you think that experience was what drove Harry to acting? Even as a cook, men you've gotten to know disappeared and died. You saw the disfigured. Maybe that was what led him to leave his studies in Kentucky and head to Pasadena to study acting, as did other of his day that were WWII and Korean War vets.
Harry was 7 years older than my late mom and dad. He took a chance. A big chance. While my parents successfully pursued the American Dream, guys like Harry were still doing character parts.
When El Fisho Jr. was much younger, in elementary school, like his dad he developed an interest in U.S. military history. We watched Kelley's Heroes many many many many times, an extremely safe movie nowadays and hardly violent at all. Heavy on dialog. It captivated me as a child when it was on T.V.
I made a point to indicate who Harry Dean was and tell him of some of my fascination with his acting and his music. Over the years, he's seen several movies and shows with Harry Dean, but he's not the fan I am. My wife is a big fan, but again, apart from a few good friends spread throughout The Great State of Texas and a few other places, there are few I've met that share my fascination with Harry Dean.
It is said Harry's passing was peaceful. I've been in that same hospital that he passed in many times for various medical testing.
I'll always remember seeing him play music. As great as his acting abilities, he always touched a subtle nerve in the music he played. Go to YouTube and do a search on his name. I've provided a few links about, and Love Potion #9 remains a big favorite. I'll get it going on the phone bluetoothing to the car stereo driving down the road and hitting repeat a few times. I really need to find out who that trumpet player was as I'd like to hear some more of his stuff.
I'll write some more soon about Harry Dean. He made the world a better place. He made me laugh and feel different feelings and his music levitated me to a joy that certain bands do. He has charisma in his musical delivery.
I'll close with one of my favorite clips from the movie Repo Man,
where Harry Dean is schooling his protege Emilio Estavez on the CODE OF THE REPO MAN It's so hard to believe this clip was from a movie that released 33 years ago. Man, it just seems like yesterday we rented that on VHS and cracked up. It was one of those outstanding movies of that time, along with Paris, Texas and Taxi Driver and so many great masterpieces.
Here's THE CODE from the CODE OF THE REPO MAN:
An ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations.
Bud: [doing speed with Otto] Never broke into a car, never hotwired a car. Never broke into a truck. 'I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm' It's what I call the Repo Code, kid!
Don't forget it--etch it in your brain. Not many people got a code to live by anymore.
To some, Repo Man might not be on the level of more dramatic movies. There is all kinds of stuff going on in Repo man, with Emilio stuck in a highly dysfunctional family and as a former punk rocker, just looking for his place in life.
I hope your spirit is happy and free, Harry Dean.
But the audio is pretty dang good on a wide variety of other Harry Dean Stanton Band tunes available on youtube. My favorite is this version of LOVE POTION #9. Looks like some Hollywood studio pros backing him, especially the trumpet player. I'd love to know who he is, as his playing sounds very familiar. In any event, the trumpet solo starting at about 1:35 is just absolutely awesome.
That day that always comes for all of us arrived for Harry Dean Stanton. Living to 91 is a damn great thing, particularly when you remained active in your art until it was your time to go.
I wrote some eight years ago about Harry Dean and my great admiration for him HERE and told some of my stories about chasing him all over Hollywood. To keep up with Harry's gigs in those pre-internet days, friends would send me the gig pages from the Los Angeles Chronicle and I subscribed to a magazine called Music Connection for a number of years, which covered the music scene in general in LA.
Ah, Harry Dean, you brought so many of us so much pleasure with your acting and your singing and your art.
Although I am a musician, I'm not an actor, yet the fact that Harry Dean's acting career really didn't take off big time until he was 58 years old, after decades of character actor roles, gives me hope that I'll shoot off into the stratosphere SOON on my future ventures, since I'm nearing that age.
Harry Dean kept a low profile personal life. Off the top of my head, I recall that at some point after moving to LA, he and Jack Nicholson roomed together for several years, in a remote house in one of the beautiful canyons and hills overlooking Hollywood. You can't tell me those guys didn't have some fun in that house!
He served our country in the U.S. Navy as a cook and was in the Battle of Okinawa. Do you think that experience was what drove Harry to acting? Even as a cook, men you've gotten to know disappeared and died. You saw the disfigured. Maybe that was what led him to leave his studies in Kentucky and head to Pasadena to study acting, as did other of his day that were WWII and Korean War vets.
Harry was 7 years older than my late mom and dad. He took a chance. A big chance. While my parents successfully pursued the American Dream, guys like Harry were still doing character parts.
When El Fisho Jr. was much younger, in elementary school, like his dad he developed an interest in U.S. military history. We watched Kelley's Heroes many many many many times, an extremely safe movie nowadays and hardly violent at all. Heavy on dialog. It captivated me as a child when it was on T.V.
I made a point to indicate who Harry Dean was and tell him of some of my fascination with his acting and his music. Over the years, he's seen several movies and shows with Harry Dean, but he's not the fan I am. My wife is a big fan, but again, apart from a few good friends spread throughout The Great State of Texas and a few other places, there are few I've met that share my fascination with Harry Dean.
It is said Harry's passing was peaceful. I've been in that same hospital that he passed in many times for various medical testing.
I'll always remember seeing him play music. As great as his acting abilities, he always touched a subtle nerve in the music he played. Go to YouTube and do a search on his name. I've provided a few links about, and Love Potion #9 remains a big favorite. I'll get it going on the phone bluetoothing to the car stereo driving down the road and hitting repeat a few times. I really need to find out who that trumpet player was as I'd like to hear some more of his stuff.
I'll write some more soon about Harry Dean. He made the world a better place. He made me laugh and feel different feelings and his music levitated me to a joy that certain bands do. He has charisma in his musical delivery.
I'll close with one of my favorite clips from the movie Repo Man,
where Harry Dean is schooling his protege Emilio Estavez on the CODE OF THE REPO MAN It's so hard to believe this clip was from a movie that released 33 years ago. Man, it just seems like yesterday we rented that on VHS and cracked up. It was one of those outstanding movies of that time, along with Paris, Texas and Taxi Driver and so many great masterpieces.
Here's THE CODE from the CODE OF THE REPO MAN:
An ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations.
Bud: [doing speed with Otto] Never broke into a car, never hotwired a car. Never broke into a truck. 'I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm' It's what I call the Repo Code, kid!
Don't forget it--etch it in your brain. Not many people got a code to live by anymore.
To some, Repo Man might not be on the level of more dramatic movies. There is all kinds of stuff going on in Repo man, with Emilio stuck in a highly dysfunctional family and as a former punk rocker, just looking for his place in life.
I hope your spirit is happy and free, Harry Dean.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
