Jeopardyrecently devoted a whole category to questions about Bruce Springsteen. Additionally, all of the category names were related to the singer: “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Glory Days,” “Cover Me,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and “The ‘E’ Street Band.” Fans hoping for a whole board related to Springsteen, though, were disappointed to find out only the Springsteen category really had questions about the New Jersey rocker. For example, “E Street Band” contained clues related to words beginning the letter E.
This video puts together the questions from the “Bruce Springsteen” category. Most long-time fans should find themselves doing pretty well with the clues, such as one about a Springsteen song that mentions suicide and was proposed as the New Jersey state song in 1980. Check it out.
Bill Withers had his first hit song with “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a recording which was released as a B-side to “Harlem.”
Singer-songwriter Bill Withers was born William Harrison Withers, Jr. in West Virginia on July 4 in 1938. Although he has recorded a number of hits, his first big hit, “Ain’t No Sunshine,” climbed the charts by surprise.
After the release of his first album, his first single, “Harlem,” received little airplay on the radio. But disc jockeys recognized something special on the other side of the record and began paying the B-side, a song Withers had written called “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
“Ain’t No Sunshine”
The song got a boost with a British TV appearance too. Around 1971 or 1972, Withers appeared on British television following the release of his first album, Just As I Am (1971). On this British TV show, Withers introduced the B-side song, “Ain’t No Sunshine.”
According to a New Yorker article, as Withers introduced the song on the show, he explained, “Men have problems admitting to losing things. . . So, once in my life, I wanted to forgo my own male ego and admit to losing something, so I came up with. . .” Then he broke into the song. (Sasha Frere-Jones, “As Is,” The New Yorker, 8 March 2010: 76.)
Withers, who had been working making toilets for airplanes, was in his early 30s when he earned his first gold record and a Grammy Award for “Ain’t No Sunshine,” thanks to the disc jockeys who recognized the brilliance of the B-side.
Withers would write and perform other hits. These included “Lean on Me,” “Just the Two of Us,” and “Use Me.”
Walking Away From Recording
But following disputes with his record company, by 1985 he gave up recording. As of 2009, he was living in Los Angeles and had not completely given up on music, as recounted in a 2009 documentary about Withers, Still Bill.
It is too bad for us that Withers did not produce more music, but what he did produce was pretty great. The A-side to “Ain’t No Sunshine” should have been a hit too. Check out this performance of “Harlem.”
After this post was first published, Bill Withers was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in April 2015. Stevie Wonder presented the induction. Later that year in October 2015, Withers attended a Carnegie Hall tribute concert in his honor. Although he spoke on stage, he did not perform.
Bill Withers passed away from heart complications on March 30, 2020 at the age of 81.
{Note: Although the source of the “Ain’t No Sunshine” video is not labeled, it appears to be that British TV performance described in The New Yorker article, which mentioned Withers’s orange turtleneck.}
What is your favorite Bill Withers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On July 2 in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The important act, which had survived heated discussion in the Senate and the House of Representatives, made racial segregation in public places illegal.
The law had an even broader impact. It also prohibited discrimination on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in schools and in employment.
The Signing
President Johnson, who worked hard to push through the legislation after President John F. Kennedy’s death, used more than 75 pens to sign the legislation. He gave out the pens to many people who helped with the bill, including Martin Luther King, Jr. King later said the pen was one of his most cherished possessions.
The video below features President Johnson giving the pen to King. It also includes some of Johnson’s speech before the signing.
“We Shall Overcome”
One of the songs that played a significant role in the civil rights movement was “We Shall Overcome.” The song developed from an African-American hymn first used as a protest song by striking tobacco workers in 1945.
“We Shall Overcome” grew to help inspire changes that shook the world. Many continue to recognize its importance. In recognition of the song’s role in the civil rights movement, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, members of Congress joined hands and sang the song.
The video below is from a recording by a number of artists — including John Legend, Joss Stone and The Blind Boys of Alabama — for Soundtrack for a Revolution (2011), an album of songs from the civil rights movement.
One of the artists who helped popularize the song was folksinger Pete Seeger. In this video, Seeger explains the history behind the song.
Of course, the Civil Rights Act did not end racial discrimination. But it was an important step in the ongoing process.
One of the reasons “We Shall Overcome” is a great song is its timelessness. It is not a song of “we have overcome” about past accomplishments. It is a song that reminds us that there are always more struggles ahead of us to overcome. And we shall.
Chimesfreedom has written a few posts about being sad about the demise of rootsy musical group The Cash Brothers, confirmed by Andrew Cash‘s election to Parliament in Canada. But other brother Peter Cash is still making music and has been touring with his old band Skydiggers (a band he helped start) on their “Slow Burnin’ Fire” tour.
The Skydiggers recently released a new performance of a song that Peter wrote called “Ramblin’ On.” On the new version, the band is joined by singer Jessy Bell Smith. Check it out.
Meanwhile, brother Andrew does what he can to stay in touch with his musical roots. He recently made a statement in Parliament about the importance of music education.
Long live The Cash Brothers. Leave your two cents in the comments.
On June 28, 1927, F. Sherwood Rowland was born in Delaware, Ohio. You may not recognize the name, but you should. He helped save the earth.
Rowland was a chemist at the University of California-Irvine several decades ago when he attended a talk on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). At the time, CFCs appeared as refrigerants, as propellants in aerosol cans, and in other uses.
Rowland began thinking about the effects that CFCs might have in the atmosphere when they broke down. Eventually, his studies confirmed that CFCs did break down at high altitudes. And the released chlorine atoms worked to destroy the ozone layer that protects the earth from ultraviolet radiation.
He and a colleague, Mario Molina, published the results in the journal Naturein 1974. For a more technical explanation, here is a 2-minute video about the effects of CFCs.
How Rowland’s Work Saved the World
After Rowland published the findings, corporations attacked the study. Some of Rowland’s colleagues shunned him. No chemistry department in the U.S. invited him to give a lecture for most of a decade after the article appeared.
But eventually other scientists discovered that Rowland’s conclusions were accurate. Rowland worked to get CFCs banned, and the discovery in the mid-1980s of an ozone hole above the South Pole helped persuade politicians to act.
At the time of the treaty and years afterwards, several songs invoked the growing concerns about the disappearing ozone layer. Public Enemy had one of the earliest songs mentioning the ozone layer, when they referenced it on “Public Enemy No. 1” on 1987’s Yo! Bum Rush the Show.
Public Enemy also used the words a few years later on “Fear of a Black Planet” from the 1990 album of the same name: “I’m just a rhyme sayer/ Skins protected ‘gainst the ozone layers.”
Neil Young has one of the most famous songs mentioning the ozone layer with “Rockin’ in the Free World” from 1989’s Freedom album (“Got Styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer”). In 1989 in “Sick of You” on his New York album, Lou Reed sang, “The ozone layer has no ozone anymore/ And you’re gonna leave me for the guy next door.”
Dire Straits sang “Don’t talk to me about ozone layer” on “My Parties” from On Every Street (1991). On “Run Straight Down” from Traverse City (1991), Warren Zevon sang, “Fluorocarbons in the ozone layer/ First the water and the wildlife go.”
Don McLean wrote about the ozone layer within around three years after the publication of Rowland’s initial study. In 1977, he released “Prime Time” on the album of the same name, singing, “The weather will be fair, forget the ozone layer.”
In more recent years, artists continue to sing about the ozone layer. David Lee Roth mentioned it on “You’re Breathin’ It” (not available on YouTube) from Your Filthy Little Mouth (1994).
Eminem claimed some credit for damaging the ozone layer in “Role Model” on 1999’s The Slim Shady LP, “I’m not a player just a ill-rhyme sayer/ That’ll spray an aerosol can up in the ozone layer.”
The Cranberries took a more environmental approach in “Time is Ticking Out” from 2001’s Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. In the song, they conclude, “Looks like we screwed up the ozone layer/ I wonder if the politicians care.”
Remembering Sherwood Rowland and Others
It is funny that I knew the names of all of these artists who mentioned the ozone layer, but I did not know the name of the people who saved it. I also do not know of any song that mentions Sherwood Rowland or Mario Molina by name.
Rowland, who died on March 10, 2012, did receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 with Molina and Paul Crutzen of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. But they deserve much more, including our thanks and that we remember their work.
Photo of aerosol pollution over Northern India and Bangladesh via public domain.
(2011), an album of songs from the civil rights movement.
, singing, “The weather will be fair, forget the ozone layer.”
(1994).
, “I’m not a player just a ill-rhyme sayer/ That’ll spray an aerosol can up in the ozone layer.”
