Swing for the fences

C'mon people now, it's time to Rock for Kids (or another favorite charity).

We hadn't even heard of Rock for Kids before today, and already we're swinging for the fences with a chance to help a worthy cause.  The non-profit's mission is to "provide music education to underserved children in Chicago, sparking creativity and passion, teaching critical thinking, supporting academic achievement and enriching young lives." All well and good, so once we learned this does not aid the Chicago Cubs in any way we were all in.

Here's the deal: State Farm has launched a Go to Bat promotion that offers participants a chance to win a trip to the 2011 World Series (hopefully for the first time at Miller Park).  The real winners are the 44 participating charities, including Rock for Kids which we chose for its connection to the Sanctuary's overarching goal of saving the world through music. (What, you didn't know we had an overarching goal?)

Here's a link to the game, which you can play three times each day:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/sweepstakes/y2011/state_farm/gotobat/index.jsp?utm_source=mlb&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=confirmation

We hit 20 home runs in our first 30 pitches -- a nifty .606 clip -- but the Week 3 standings show Rock for Kids mired in 28th place. With your help we can move up the standings and maybe spread some musical love along the way.  Just swing for the fences with us -- and watch out for that high cheese.

John, Paul, George and ... Jimmy?

It looks like a "doctored" photograph, but that's really
Jimmy Nicol taking the place of Ringo. Too weird.

When Ringo Starr fell ill with tonsilitis and was hospitalized in early June of 1964, the Beatles had a problem.  They could cancel the start of their tour, which was to begin in Scandanavia. Or they could hire a replacement drummer.

George Harrison voted to bag the tour, reportedly saying "if Ringo's not going, then neither am I. You can find two replacements." But Beatlemania was running rampant, and manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin decided it was better to have an unhappy Beatle than a disgruntled fan base.

So Nicol, a session drummer who would later form the Shubdubs, filled in and played nine gigs before Ringo rejoined the group. 

Nicol -- who turns 72 today -- wound up making a lasting imprint on the Beatles' music, though not as a drummer. When members of the band would ask Nicol how he was doing, he always answered "it's getting better."  Which is a line Paul McCartney remembered when he began writing "Getting Better," a song that John Lennon collaborated on (adding "it can't get no worse") for Sgt. Pepper.

Along came sunshine pop

Someone commenting on a different "Along Comes Mary" video wondered if 'Mary' referred to marijuana. Another replied that this was The Association, forget about drugs.

The clean-cut California band brought "sunshine pop" to the Sixties with hits like "Windy," "Cherish" and "Never My Love." We are not embarrassed at all to say we enjoyed their peppy music and sweet harmonies.  And we were as surprised as anyone to learn that bass player Brian Cole died of a heroin overdose on this day in 1972. He was 29.

Who would have figured?

What's cool about this video from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour is that the intro has been included. And that intro, corny as it was, consists of Cole introducing the band members as musical robots. (He introduces himself as a "consisent low range modulator.")  So we actually get to see the bass player we're writing about. How rare.

Pressed on the tiny Valiant label, "Along Comes Mary" put The Association on the map, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard chart in 1966.  And, whether it references the evil weed or not (it probably does), it's our favorite song by the band.

Red necks and red lips

Today is the 30th anniversary of MTV. We're nearly speechless.

We were already grizzled newspaper editors by 1981, which only meant that we had a natural dislike for everything, especially anything new.  Showing music videos on TV was actually a cool concept, but we hardly noticed because we were working 80 hours a week and the rest of our time was spent watching sporting events, tuning into Sports Center -- which was only 2 years old -- and drinking heavily. Hey, we had reputations to uphold.

And MTV did just fine without us.  They had an instant audience for "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles, which was how the network chose to pop its cherry. We don't remember the launch, much less what followed. If forced to declare our favorite MTV videos we'd settle on a couple of classics from 1985: "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" by the Georgia Satellites and Robert Palmer's exquisite  "Addicted to Love,"  which couldn't be more different.

The truth is, those are the only ones we remember.

Plugging in to Newport

By Al Tays

Paste this link into a new window and listen up: http://www.npr.org/series/newport-folk-festival/

Join Al Tays for the first Sunday
at the Sanctuary "Name That
Acronym" contest. Hint: Newport
Folk Festival won't win. Clue:
What words might be used to
declare a fiddle ban.

Never made it to either Newport, R.I., music festival, Folk or Jazz, despite growing up near Boston, just a hop, skip and an ungodly traffic jam away. Didn't appreciate jazz until much later in life (thank you, Herbie Mann) and by 1971, when I was a senior in high school and just starting to venture beyond the local concert scene in Boston and Cambridge, the Newport Folk Festival closed up shop for several years, reopening in 1985.

Newport, with its beautiful harbor brimming with sailboats, is a wonderful place to do almost anything on a summer day, but listening to great roots music is one of the best things.

Unfortunately, Newport is best known for one of its darker days: the occasion in 1965 when Dylan had the audacity to play an electric set, backed by some members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

On Saturday, watching the live feed of this year's Newport Folk Festival on NPR.org (it continues through today), I noticed that some people are STILL angry about electric instruments being used. Hey, I was part of the Dylan-is-a-heretic movement back in the day, but we all evolve. What was it the "Willie Brown" character said to Ralph Macchio's acoustic-guitar-playing "Eugene Martone" character in "Crossroads"? "You got it all wrong. Muddy Waters invented electricity!"

Anyway, it's great to catch up with this venerable music celebration after all these years. Even if you've never seen it, it's worth a look. Check out that link if you haven't already.

10 cheers for beers

According to a new Gallup Poll the popularity of beer is at a record low.  Now you certainly wouldn't agree with the pollsters if you spent any time on a bar stool at Walter's on North in Wauwatosa, where the luminaries and cognoscentes of our fine community meet regularly to discuss topics of great interest. And to drain kegs and kegs of beer.

Positioned on our perches at Walter's we discuss the budget crisis, consider the plight of teachers, fret about Rickie Weeks' ankle injury and celebrate with great anticipation another Super Bowl run by our beloved Packers. But worry about the future of beer? Trust us, it's in good hands. Every day at Walter's is a celebration of what made Milwaukee famous.

So Gallup this: 10 of our favorite beer gulping songs (sorry, this is confined to BEER music):

1. There's a Tear in My Beer, Hank Williams
2. Beer Barrel Polka, Frankie Yankovic
3. What's Made Milwaukee Famous, Jerry Lee Lewis
4. Pop a Top, Alan Jackson
5. (Lookin' For) The Heart of Saturday Night, Tom Waits *
6. Red Necks, White Sox and Blue Ribbon Beer, Stonewall Jackson
7. A Six Pack to Go, Hank Thompson
8. In Heaven There is No Beer, Polkaholics
9. A Couple of Beers Ago, Dale Watson
10. I Hardly Ever Sing Beer Drinking Songs, Johnny Cash

* Since he was "cruisin' with six" it's obvious what was being consumed in that Oldsmobile

We hardly knew her

Amy Winehouse: A talented, tortured soul.

When Amy Winehouse burst onto the music scene in 2006 we weren't paying attention, even though her sophomore album Back to Black possessed just the sort of kinetic energy and musical alchemy that should have won us over.

But we couldn't see the talent for the tabloid headlines. If you believed what was being written -- and much of it apparently was true --Winehouse was more than a trainwreck waiting to happen; she rarely stayed on the tracks at all.

Now that she's gone -- the newest member of the ghoulish 27 Club -- perhaps the most amazing detail to consider is that despite the remarkable commercial and critical success of Back to Black she never made another album. All that talent and just two albums in eight years.

Of the dozens and dozens of videos online, we recommend this clip of "Valerie" which captures the raw beauty of Winehouse's voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6JRttxTBC8&feature=player_embedded

The opening words to "He Can Only Hold Her" from Back to Black provide a haunting farewell to an artist we never really knew:

He can only hold her for so long
The lights are on, but no one's home
She's so vacant, her soul is taken