Randy Newman recently gave listeners a sneak peek at his next album with the release of the song “Putin.” Newman, who has always been skilled at finding the humor in the powerful, came up with the idea of the song when he saw a photo of a shirtless Vladimir Putin riding a horse or a tractor.
Newman explained to the Washington Post, “A person with that much extraordinary amount of power, doing things like that is disturbing but also kind of amusing.” Newman also noted that the song has nothing to do with current presidential candidate Donald Trump’s apparent fondness for the Russian leader.
Newman attempts to humanize Putin the song to some extent, revealing that the leader may have some doubt about his abilities. The songwriter realizes that the world is not black and white and that Putin is still a human being. Check it out.
The photo of the shirtless Putin was not the only thing that helped inspire the song. Newman explained to the post how he loves the song “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’,” which is a 1943 Willie Johnson song recorded by the gospel group The Golden Gate Quartet.
The World War II song praises Joseph Stalin and the Russian people for their stand against Adolf Hitler and his army. Check out “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin'” below.
Randy Newman’s upcoming album is in the mixing stage. Newman explained that some of the songs feature more than one character and that he tries to bring in everything he has learned into the new album. We can’t wait. What do you think of “Putin”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via www.kremlin.ru
In 1975, Charlie Rich announced the “Entertainer of the Year” award at the Country Music Association Awards show, confusing everyone by setting fire to the card announcing winner John Denver.
Charlie Rich was at the center of one of the most fascinating moments in award show history. Today, people still wonder about why the singer burned an award card announcing the winner as John Denver.
In the early 1970s, Rich, who had a long career of making great music, suddenly found himself with a huge hit album with the 1973 release of Behind Closed Doors. The title track was one of the most popular songs of the time. And it was followed by the equally popular hit, “The Most Beautiful Girl.”
The Country Music Association named him Entertainer of the Year in 1974. But it would be his return to the CMA Awards stage the following year that many would most remember.
The Burning
The following year on October 13, 1975, Rich returned to the Country Music Association Awards show to pass the torch to the new “Entertainer of the Year.” After Rich announced the nominees, which included a bit of rambling, he opened the envelope. After picking up the dropped announcement of the winner, he set it on fire. After a brief pause, he said the winner’s name, “My friend, Mr. John Denver.”
Then, John Denver appeared via satellite, apparently unaware of what just happened. But when the camera returned to the stage, host Glen Campbell looked a little confused.
Why Did Rich Do It?
Many regarded Rich’s actions as a protest against giving the award to Denver. Some speculated that Rich thought Denver was not “country” enough.
That reasoning does not seem quite right, as Rich himself was not a traditionalist, having started out with rock music at Sun Records. Further, his previous year’s success came from an album with a non-traditional country “Countrypolitan” sound based on a suggestion from producer Billy Sherill.
Rich himself never claimed that the act was one of protest. If one watches the video, one sees the more logical explanation: Rich was drunk and/or on drugs. His speech sounds slurred, he rambles at times, and he struggles to open the envelope. Further, there does not seem to be much time for reflection between clumsily opening the envelope and pulling out his lighter. Thus it does not seem to be a reaction to John Denver’s name but something he was going to do no matter what (although one might argue that maybe he knew the winner ahead of time).
Rich’s son has offered a similar explanation of the night. On his website, Charlie Rich Jr. explains how his dad was not one to judge other musicians and he also was friends with John Denver. He believes his father lit the announcement on fire out of a combination of bad judgment and believing it would be funny. Charlie Rich Jr. explains that his father was on pain medication for a foot injury and was also drinking gin and tonics that night.
He continues: “I know the last thing my father would have wanted to do was set himself up as judge of another musician. He felt badly that people thought it was a statement against John Denver.” Charlie Rich Jr. remembers his father later unsuccessfully trying to meet up with John Denver while on a trip to Colorado. But he does not know if his father ever got to explain things to Denver.
Years later, when asked, Rich explained he had no ill-will toward Denver and did not intend his act to make any kind of rebellious statement regarding Denver or country music in general. He simply called it “a mistake,” reflecting on his own “anxiety-panic disorder” while being at the awards show. He also reflected that during that time he had been overworked, and maybe unconsciously it was a way of saying he wanted to try something else with his career and not be pigeonholed as a country music artist.
Viewers still debate the meaning of Rich’s act. One commentator has speculated maybe it was a combination of all of the theories, thinking “the gesture was partly a joke, partly the result of mixing meds and booze, and partly a sincere expression of annoyance at the notion of John Denver as a country music legend.”
Rich’s Later Career
Unfortunately, Rich’s fire-lighting act before a large audience and the country music industry helped send his career into another slump. And the CMA banned him from future shows.
Rich eventually did record some great songs again. But he never again reached the level of the hits from Behind Closed Doors. Additionally, he had some bit parts in movies.
Rich’s last record was a wonderful jazz-influenced album released in 1992, Pictures and Paintings. He died in his sleep in 1995 of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 62.
Charlie Rich is one of my favorite artists of all time. If you only know him from his hit country songs in the 1970s, you should check out other parts of his catalog.
One of my favorite songs of his is “I Feel Like Going Home,” which appears in a jazzy version on Pictures and Paintings. But I especially love the demo version that features only the piano and that voice. The first time I heard this song, I was driving in my car and I had to pull over to listen to it. Here, it is a perfect bookend to the discussion of his fire at the CMAs.
Surprisingly, Charlie Rich is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame. For more information about lending your voice to supporting his membership, check out the Charlie Rich website. He also deserves to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2016, Memphis International Records released Feel Like Going Home (The Songs of Charlie Rich), a tribute album of Charlie Rich songs recorded by artists such as Jim Lauderdale, Will Kimbrough, Susan Marshall, Shooter Jennings, and Charlie Rich, Jr.
What is your favorite Charlie Rich song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
American Band, the new album by Drive-By Truckers, immediately signals the songs are about to tackle issues in contemporary America with the first words of the first song. In the opening track, “Ramon Casiano,” the first lines proclaim, “It all started with the border,/ And that’s still where it is today.”
The Killing of Ramón Casiano
Casiano was a 15-year-old Mexican teen killed in 1931 in Laredo, Texas. The killing occurred after the 17-year-old Harlon Carter returned home from school and his mother told him about three Latinos hanging around the family’s property.
Carter took his shotgun and found Casiano and two friends at a nearby swimming hole. Carter insisted the three go with him to his home to answer questions, but Casiano refused and pulled out a knife. Reportedly, after Casiano laughed off Carter’s attempts to take the young men, Carter shot Casiano in the chest and killed him.
Harlon Carter’s Career
The incident would have long been forgotten except for Carter’s career after his trial and appeal. Initially, a court convicted Carter of the homicide and sentenced to three years in prison. But later, an appeals court reversed the conviction because of an incorrect jury instruction on self defense.
After the prosecution was eventually dropped, Carter went to work for the U.S. Border Patrol starting in 1936. Eventually, he rose to leadership positions within the National Rifle Association.
In 1977, Carter led a revolt within the NRA that led to his election as NRA Executive Vice President. Under his leadership, the NRA moved from its focus on issues like hunting to take a more hard-line stance against any laws limiting ownership of guns.
Carter’s killing of Ramón Casiano, however, laid buried in his past for a long time. After denying his involvement in the killing for some time, Carter finally admitted it in 1981.
The Song
The killing of Casiano echoes in our time, with links to the killing of Trayvon Martin, who is more explicitly referenced in another song on the album, “What It Means.” “Ramon Casiano” also connects to the current presidential election’s focus on immigration.
Songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley of Drive-By Truckers tackle a number of issues making the album relevant today while also making great music. In “Ramon Casiano,” which was written by Cooley, the chorus indicts Casiano’s killer and several of today’s leaders.
He had the makings of a leader, Of a certain kind of men, Who need to feel the world’s against him, Out to get ’em if it can.
Men whose trigger pull their fingers; Of men who’d rather fight than win, United in a revolution, Like in mind and like in skin.
“Ramon Casiano” is biting commentary, all the more relevant because it comes from a southern band. The Houston Press asserts that the band’s new album American Band “reclaim[s] Southern rock for the good guys.” Meanwhile, Slateaffirms that on the album, “[w]ith songs about racism, police shootings, and immigration, the Southern group is making rock great again.” NPR concludes, “American Band lives up to its name in how it digests, understands and challenges the notions of what it means to be American.”
The praise being heaped on American Band is a heavy weight for it to carry. One album cannot atone for the sins of a country or lift up everyone. The new songs did not have to reside on YouTube long before angry comments appeared.
But even if one song cannot change things, it can reach some people and educate a little bit. If nothing else, the song makes one wonder what kind of man Ramon Casiano might have grown into had he been given a chance, even if we already know how things turned out for his killer. “It all started with the border,/ And that’s still where it is today.”
Recently I have been reacquainting myself with Elton John’s 1970 concept album Tumbleweed Connection. In that album, John and and Bernie Taupin delved into country and Americana themes. Although the album included the single “Country Comfort,” many of the songs on Tumbleweed Connection are not among the singer’s most well-known.
I always enjoy going back to lesser-known songs by music icons. It helps you re-discover their talent in a new way, separate from the songs that you already know and take for granted.
Tumbleweed Connection opens with the nearly 5-minute long “Ballad of a Well-Known Gun.” The song creates the Western setting of much of the album by chronicling the tale of a fugitive who is finally caught (“Now they’ve found me / At last they’ve found me.”). Instead of being proud of his reputation, the singer laments, “I’m tired of hearing / There goes a well-known gun.”
The duo Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley recently dusted off “Ballad of a Well-Known Gun” and gave it a Bluegrass twist on their album, The Country Blues. Like Elton John, they use the track to open the record.
Ickes and Hensley had worked separately as session musicians for a number of Nashville’s big names while making other recordings before teaming up. Ickes first discovered Hensley’s vocal talent when he heard Hensley’s scratch vocal for an album that Ickes’s band Blue Highway was making. The band had planned to use a guest vocal but liked Hensley’s voice so much they used him for the released version of the song.
After that, Hensley moved to Nashville and has been working with the older Ickes. In 2015, the two released Before the Sun Goes Down, which was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album Grammy.
Their recent album The Country Blues features covers like the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” as well as an original track. If you are a fan of bluegrass music, check it out.
On September 29 in 1954, Willie Mays made one of the greatest and most famous catches in baseball history. During the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Cleveland Indians player Vic Wertz hit a drive that centerfielder Mays chased toward the wall of the Polo Grounds to make an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track.
“The Catch” prevented two runs from scoring in a tie game. Mays’s throw also kept the runners from advancing. And the Giants went on to win the game in the tenth inning. Then, the team completed a sweep of the World Series. The win was the Giants’ last championship in New York.
The Season
Mays’s catch and the Series helped cap a great season for Mays. During the year, he hit 41 home runs and led the league with a .345 batting average.
What makes the season even more amazing is that Mays had not played Major League Baseball the previous season or for most of 1952. Mays, who started his professional career in the Negro Leagues, had his rookie year in Major League Baseball in 1951 after a short stint in the Minor Leagues. But in May 1952, the United States Army drafted Mays during the Korean War. He missed most of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season, although he did play some baseball while in the Army.
“Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)”
There is another reason 1954 was a big year for Willie Mays. Early in the season he became a part of one of the greatest baseball songs of all time, “Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song).”
When Mays returned from the army, a New York public relations man, Ted Worner, thought it would be a good idea to have a song about the player known as the “Say Hey Kid.” So Worner arranged for columnist Dick Kleiner to write some lyrics and then for Jane Douglass create the music and the chorus.
Epic Records liked the song and gave it to the R&B group The Treniers, but insisting that Mays participate in the recording. Mays agreed, and he ended up adding some dialogue to the song. Quincy Jones produced the recording.
“Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)” did not become a hit that summer, perhaps because it had to compete with at least three other songs about Willie Mays. But like few other baseball songs, “Say Hey” would live on as one of the most popular baseball songs of all time.
Say hey, say who? Say Willie, That Giants kid is great.
Randy Newman recently gave listeners a sneak peek at his next album with the release of the song “Putin.” Newman, who has always been skilled at finding the humor in the powerful, came up with the idea of the song when he saw a photo of a shirtless Vladimir Putin riding a horse or a tractor.
, a tribute album of Charlie Rich songs recorded by artists such as Jim Lauderdale, Will Kimbrough, Susan Marshall, Shooter Jennings, and Charlie Rich, Jr.
American Band, the new album by Drive-By Truckers, immediately signals the songs are about to tackle issues in contemporary America with the first words of the first song. In the opening track, “Ramon Casiano,” the first lines proclaim, “It all started with the border,/ And that’s still where it is today.”
is a heavy weight for it to carry. One album cannot atone for the sins of a country or lift up everyone. The new songs did not have to reside on YouTube long before angry comments appeared.
features covers like the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” as well as an original track. If you are a fan of bluegrass music, check it out.
