Category Archives: Music

In Memory of Mike Longo and Eric Weissberg

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Sadly, we have to start today with some sad news.  On the 22nd, the world of music lost both Mike Longo and Eric Weissberg.

Mike Longo was 83 years old and passed away at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.  Longo, who was admitted to the hospital last Tuesday, died of COVID-19.  Tragically, he was the first American jazz casualty of the cornonavirus.  Long had a long and distinguished career as both a pianist and a composer.  Along with his own solo work, he was known for serving as Dizzy Gillepsie’s musical director.  Below is a performance of Gillespie’s band, taken from a 1968 concert in Copenhagen.  The song that their playing is a Longo composition called Ding A Ling:

Longo also had an extensive solo career and he also worked as an educator, passing on his knowledge and love for jazz to the next generation.

Eric Weissberg

Eric Weissberg was 80 and passed away in a Detroit nursing home.  He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years.  A folk musician who later became an in-demand sessions player, Weissberg was best-known as a banjo player.  With Steve Mandell, Weissberg arranged and performed the version of Dueling Banjos that is heard in the film Deliverance.

Rest in peace to both of these gentleman.  Thanks for the music.

Music Video Of The Day: Fiori di Chernobyl by Mr. Rain (2020, dir by Enea Colombi)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video of the day comes to use from Italy.

Don’t ask me to explain what all is happening in the video.  I’ll just say that it I appreciate the ominous atmopshere and the feeling of doom the permeates nearly every minute of this video.  This is a video to haunt your dreams.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: The Turn Of A Friendly Card by The Alan Parson Project (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The Turn of a Friendly Card is the title track off of the Alan Parsons Project’s 5th studio album.  On the album, the track runs for 16 minutes and it’s split into five different suites.  The version that is featured in the music video is considerably shorter.

When this video came out, MTV was very young and music videos were still viewed as being mostly a curiosity.  Like a lot of videos from that era, this is a very simple video, just some photographs of a casino in Europe and then some money and some cards.  The members of the band don’t even appear in the video.  Within a few years after the release of this video, this type of simplicity would disappear as MTV become more popular and videos became more overproduced.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Heartbreaker (At The End Of Lonely Street) by Dread Zeppelin (1990, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Yesterday’s music video of the day was Dread Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song.

Today’s music video of the day is another video from everyone’s favorite cover band.  This one is for Heartbreaker (At The End of Lonely Street).  I have no idea who directed it.  I don’t know if the song was a hit when it was released.  I don’t know if anyone but me cares.  But sometimes, you just need to see a Led Zeppelin song covered by a 300-pound Elvis impersonator.

Am I alone in this?

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Immigrant Song by Dread Zeppelin (1989, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I don’t know about you but I’m in the mood for a reggae-flavored cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, hopefully one that’s performed by a 300-pound Elvis impersonator.

Fortunately, when you get those type of cravings, you can turn to Dread Zeppelin.  Dread Zeppelin is certainly not the only band to cover Led Zeppelin but they are probably the best known.  Actually, it’s somewhat unfair to describe Dread Zeppelin as being only a Led Zeppelin cover band.  They’ve actually covered a wide variety of artists and I believe they’ve released some original material as well.  They even did a disco record at one point.

Dread Zeppelin is one of those bands where members come and go.  As of this writing, the band is still recording and touring but bassist Gary Putnam is the only member who has appeared on every recording and taking part in every tour.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Under The Boardwalk, performed by Bruce Willis and The Temptations (1987, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today is Bruce Willis’s birthday!

Everyone knows that Bruce Willis is the film star who, late in his career, turned out to be an unexpectedly good character actor.  Quentin Tarantino once said that Willis as one of the only modern stars who seemed as if he could easily step into an old gangster movie or film noir and not seem like he was out of place.  Tarantino was right.

What is often forgotten is that, early on his career, Willis also pursued musical stardom.  He released two albums of R&B covers, the best known of which was the first, The Return of Bruno.  Released by Motown, The Return of Bruno was critically dismissed as being a vanity project but Bruce got the last laugh when the album exceeded expectations commercially and Willis went on to appear in movies like Pulp Fiction and 12 Monkeys.  Meanwhile, his critics had to settle for appearing in Rolling Stone.

When the album was released in 1987, HBO aired a concert film of Willis performing.  The video above is taking from that concert film and it features Bruce singing Under The Boardwalk with The Temptations.  Willis’s cover of Under The Boardwalk did not chart in the U.S. but it was hugely popular in the UK, where it reached the second spot on the charts.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: It’s Over Goodbye by Fran O’Toole and The Miami Showband (1975, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This was from a television appearance that the band did, shortly before  lead singer Fran O’Toole, trumpeter Brian McCoy, and guitarist Tony Geraghty were murdered by members of the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force on the night of July 31st, 1975.  At the time of the murder, the band was traveling home to Dublin after having performed in Northern Ireland.

 

Music Video of the Day: Locked In by Judas Priest (1986, directed by Wayne Isham)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Since we’re all locked in for the time being, it makes sense that today’s music video of the day should be for Judas Priest’s Locked In.

This video makes about as much sense as any heavy metal band from the 80s did.  Rob Halford is being held prisoner in a medieval castle where he is apparently being tortured by a bunch of living skeletons.  The other members of Judas Priest decide to ride their motorcycles over to the castle and then break in so that they can save him.  Heavy metal videos of the 80s often feel like what you would get if the members of Monty Python had decided to follow up The Meaning of Life with Monty Python’s Mad Max.  That certainly seems to be the case here and the members of the band spend so much time mugging to the camera that there is little doubt that they were in on the joke.  David Coverdale would have taken this seriously but not the members of Judas Priest.

This video was one of the many to be directed by Wayne Isham.  According to his entry at IMDb, Wayne’s motto is “No Wayne, no pain!”

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Leader of the Pack by Twisted Sister (1985, directed by Marty Callner)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Since today is Dee Snider’s 65th birthday, it makes sense that today’s music video of the day would come to us from Twisted Sister.  It might not make as much sense for that video to be for their cover of Leader of the Pack, which is widely considered to be one of the worst covers of the 80s.  Personally, I think both the cover and the video are a good example of Snider’s sense of humor.  Watching this, it’s hard to believe that Snider and the band were once considered to be a threat to young minds.  I may be picking Leader of the Pack because I think its underrated or I might be picking it because Valerie already did the video for I Wanna Rock.  Take your pick.

The Leader Of The Pack video is from the 80s and it features something that I always love to see in videos from that era: bad green screen special effects.  The anti-Twisted Sister notes from Mom and Dad float through the video like a weatherman superimposed in front of a map of the continental United States.

The video is about a girl who apparently only has room in her heart for Twisted Sister and Leonard Nimoy.  Just check out that giant poster of Spock that she’s got in her bedroom.  Her parents are probably alright with her love of Spock but they can’t stand the thought of their daughter liking Twisted Sister, probably because they think that Tipper Gore has a point about labeling music.  As for the girl, she may be in love with the leader of the pack (Dee, of course) but that doesn’t make her a good driver.  Not only does she wreck that bulky car but she barely survives.  Was it all worth it?

Just ask Bobcat Goldthwait, who plays her boss for some reason.  Goldthwait is instantly recognizable.  I haven’t been able to find the name of the girl in the video, though she looks familiar to me.

This video was directed by Marty Callner, who directed videos for everyone.

Enjoy!