Songs’, singers’, songwriters’ and your stories

[bukra]

sandawa said:

I think the Godfather's theme was written by Italian musician Nino Rota, and the lyrics (Speak Softly Love) by Larry Kusik in 1972. The hit version was done by Andy Williams I think.

nagustuhan ko yung sa godfather3 eksensa guitar and vocal performance ng "anak" ni godfather/al pacino.

[sandawa]

Another trivia, I met that actor who played "Anthony Corleone", Al Pacino's son, in Godfather 3. His name is Frank D'Ambrosio. In 1995, I had the chance to watch "Phantom of the Opera" in Curran Theatre in San Francisco and after performance was able to meet in person Frank who took the lead role in that play.

By the way, that young girl Mary Corleone who fell in love with her cousin, played by Andy Garcia, the new Godfather, was Sofia Coppola.

[Lordfoo]

When I was a young teenager, Neil Young, was my guy. I played his LPs in our sala, his tapes in my room, and also his 8-track cassettes in our car(s).

I spent hours listening to his guitar performances. Last night i relieved those memories listening to his songs. Some of them i had to download as MP3 from the net and burn in CDs.

I had a Buffalo Springfield LP back then. You can hear Neil Young's high voice shining out in the LP.

Then came his first solo record. "Neil Young". I wasn't a fan yet. But when his next albjum, "Everbody this is nowhere", this time with Crazy Horse, came out, I got hooked on Down By the river and Cowgirl in the sand. I listened to these songs again last night and was again mesmerized by his guitar playing. Those tracks really came alive when played using my Sansui Aud707xdecade and NS1000 monitors. I threw in a pair of AR2a speakers (the ones with two midranges) and Neil Young's guitar licks soared supreme.

Afte the 2nd album, Neil Y teamed up with Crosby Stills Nash, (to be the Y in CSN & Y). They came up as I remember with such albums as Deja Vu and 4-way street. I bought their albums in those days...recently I picked up these albums again. The covers were so dilapated though and I hope to get better versions in time.

I recall a song, Ohio, written after a massacre of students in a US University in OHIO. "four-dead in ohio" , the song goes. Young wrote the song "Ohio" after David Crosby gave him the Newsweek magazine cover with pictures from the infamous Kent State shootings in 1970.

I read in winikipedia that Neil young now dedicate Ohio to the chinese students killed in Tianenmen Square...(a very very dark chapter in Chinese History. someday I pray that justice will given for all those studens crushed by tanks in Tianenmen.)

There was also the performances in Woodstock. (yeah buhay na o ako noon) We should talk about our favourite track in the Woodstock album (i noted a release in DVD of this concert with some previously unreleased tracks).

Then came AFter the gold rush which became my favourite LP for all time for a long long time. Andun yung "southern man" where Neil, condemned Racism. Lynyrd Skynrd reacted to Neil's barbs in their song Sweet Home alabama. Here's a pictire of Skynyrd's van zant with neil young picture on his shirt.

www.thrasherswheat.org/2006/04/ronnie-van-zant-and-neil-young-rebels.html


For more Neil Young history, read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young

[sandawa]

Thanks for mentioning Buffalo Springfield, my favorite vintage folk-rock band before Poco. That group was among the first true superbands: Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay and even had Jim Mesina and David Crosby (post Byrds).

If I could still recall, there was a trade between two recording companies when Graham Nash, the Hollies' most talented member, wanted to join Stills and Crosby for the original CSN. That deal sealed CSNY while Furay and Mesina formed the group Poco with Rusty Young and Paul Cotton.

I still have a couple of Buffalo Springfield vinyls with me including the original versions of songs that Stills and Young re-released in succeeding CSNY albums. While CSNY was hitting the charts, Furay left Poco and Mesina joined his friend Kenny Logins.

[krisces]

sandawa said:

Last weekend, I was having a chat with my wife on the greatest Pinoy pop singers ever and three names, all women, came out: Katie dela Cruz, Sylvia Latorre and Lea Salonga. Who's Katie dela Cruz, you may ask? She's a post-war (?) jazz artist that my parents used to listen to a lot. She was also our neighbor on L. Gruet St. in San Juan when we moved to Manila from Davao in early '70s. She was already in her '60s at that time.

I wish I could hear Katie's songs again, ranging from jazz standards of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to local folk classics sung complete with scats. If you've heard "Waray Waray" sung by Eartha Kitt in the Crescendo album "Eartha Kit in Person at the (New York) Plaza" done in early '60s, that version was done Katie's style. I'm lucky to have several Eartha Kitt albums, including that one. In the '90s, I remember, a stage play starring Mitch Valdez was mounted at the CCP as a tribute to Katie.

Sir Sandawa,

I heard that album by Eartha Kitt singing Waray waray and it was so funny that a respectable and prominent US singer is singing a dialect song of the Philippines. She even mentioned it in the album that this song was a dialect called "bisaya"?. How I wish I could get hold of this album. Do you know of other famous US singers who sang a filipino song?

[southpeak]

One sunny Sunday morning when I was still a kid, I went with my mother to a wedding. During the ceremony, I heard this very friendly voice singing a very beautiful song. di ko pa naiintindihan yung lyrics pero nagandahan na ko. i whispered to my mother asking who was singing and she whispered back “it’s Diomedes Maturan” with a smile on her face and the song was “The Rose Tatoo”. I will never forget that Sunday. It was the first and last time I’ll ever hear that song performed live.

How I wish mr. maturan could have sung this song on my wedding day..



The Rose Tattoo
He wore the rose tattoo,
To prove his love was true . . .
But hearts can lie, so why deny,
That roses fade and love can die . . .

She'll wait her whole life through,
Like fools an' dreamer's do . . .
She'll go on caring for one who's wearing,
The rose . . . the rose tattoo . . .

< instrumental verse >

She'll wait her whole life through,
Like fools an' dreamer's do . . .
She'll go on caring for one who's wearing,
The rose . . . the rose tattoo . . .

[sandawa]

krisces said:

I heard that album by Eartha Kitt singing Waray waray and it was so funny that a respectable and prominent US singer is singing a dialect song of the Philippines. She even mentioned it in the album that this song was a dialect called "bisaya"?. How I wish I could get hold of this album. Do you know of other famous US singers who sang a filipino song?

Bodjie,

We never covered rarities during our conversations here, I could have burned that CD for you. I'll be in Manila Nov. or Dec., I'll make sure you'll have a copy of that live album.

Eartha Kitt actually said the song was in "To-galog" the dialect of the Philippine Islands, she added. She had a lot of ad-libs in between songs, including side comments -- very positive for Filipinos, while singing "Waray Waray." Very funny.

Ben,

Inabutan ko rin si Diomeng, pero "Rose Tatoo" lang din ang alam kong kanta niya. Basta ang natatandaan ko, yung Tatay at Nanay ko ang description sa kanya "Perry Como of the Philippines"! Sabi nga ng Tatay ko, sa lamig daw ng boses niyan, pag itinapat mo ang bote ng beer sa speaker mag-yeyelo ;D

[Lordfoo]

DIOMEDES MATURAN

As a young boy, i used to hear my DAD mention Domeng as a great singer who won the Tawag Ng Tanghalan (1958). Rose Tatoo was also my Dad's favorite. I guess its also partly because he's "capampangan" like Diomedes. (I've also often wondered if my Dad's loyalty to Diosdado Macapagal, and now Pres. GMA was due to the fact that they were also "Capampangang".)

However, I first heard and saw Diomedes Maturan in an old black and white film. I don't recall the film but it was a war film. (he starred in 25 films). Diomedes was so thin then, and very "dark". He sang bayan ko during a lull in war hostilities. I don't particularly recall the movie, just that it was a dark and sad part of the Philippine History. That was the first time I realized how good Filipinos can be as singers. Later, In my own small way, I was to sing that song in countless street actions trying to help move our country out of another dark and sad part of our history. I would often hear Freddie Aguilar's version of Bayan Ko in the streets and in the airwaves, but my mind always goes back to the version sung by Domeng.

Domeng (the local Perry Como) died last April, 2002 of a heart attack. He had just come from a party where he sang, "Rose Tatoo."

EARTHA KITT

Regarding Eartha Kitt, its a coincidence that last week while picking up a clone cartridge i bought from boytoy (from another local audio forum), it chanced that he was playing that exact album for the first time. I was hearing a foreigner singing a local song so i just had to ask who it was.

REDENTOR ROMERO

You guys should listen to the violin virtuosity of Redentor Romero in his LPs. He's fantastic!.

[bukra]

sir lordfoo,
csn&y 's fourway street's one of my all-time fave live album. esp. yung extended version southern man. btw kayangkaya "plakahin" ng gapo bands like horoscope ang southernman. pero bihira tugtugin sa gapo "white" clubs mas hit doon ang Freebird at Sweet home alabama ng Lynyrd Skynyrd.

galing talaga ng pinoy ....manggaya

[sandawa]

I'm currently listening to a re-issued "Historic Hot Tuna" album. Hot Tuna's leaders are guitarists Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassady, both key members of the original Jefferson Airplane. Hot Tuna was among the legendary Bay Area-Haight Asbury bands of San Francisco, that included the Grateful Dead.

Roger Sarmiento, the CEO of the Sarmiento Group, if anyone would have a chat with him, has a lot of stories about San Francisco's Haight Asbury area and those bands. He was a student there during the days of San Francisco - "wear some flowers in your hair."

Going back to Hot Tuna, Jorma, the son of a US state dep't official who was stationed here during the Vietnam War years, enrolled for at least a year at UP Diliman, learned to eat "balut" and even "bagoong". I think that was in between Jefferson Airplane and the re-grouping of Hot Tuna. When I entered the State U in the '70s, the overstaying guys there would tell me tales of Jorma in denim shorts and rubber sandals.

[sandawa]

Just posting again the first Filipino group, known as the Rocky Fellers, to make it to Billboard's Top 20 in 1963. Found new data from the web. The group's hit song "Killer Joe" was #16 on the 1963 list. It was written by Bert Russell (Bert Berns), Bob Elgin, and Phil Medley

A lyrics website said "The Feller family's first and only Top 40 hit, featuring Manila-born Mindanao 'Pop' Feller and his four sons. The melody for part of this song is extremely similar to that of Mickey & Sylvia's 1957 R&B hit 'Love Is Strange.' Killer Joe was covered by The Kingsmen as a minor single in 1966."

Here's a review I found on the net (hi-hi-hi!):

"Killer Joe by The Rocky Fellers on Fontana. Five Asians, four of them teenagers and one who looks about seventy-four. The Rocky Fellers were clearly Martians in a former life, and they have foreheads you could show movies on to prove it. They sound like they are on 45 when they are played on 33, which is quite an achievement. Interestingly on the back of the sleeve there are only four of them, and this time, one has glasses. All of which suggest they could also be The Residents. They do mainly 60s cliche pop badly."

Photos of the group (ang kakapal ng pomada):

[bukra]

sandawa said:

Photos of the group (ang kakapal ng pomada):

gone are the days of SUPERMAN, 3FLOWERS, TANCHO-TIQUE? MIKADO? ....yung mga pomada na parang stick deodorant or sachet ng mantika sa lucky pancit canton - pagbukas spread sa magkabilang palad sabay paste sa buhok. parang fly-trap ang ulo mo ;D ;D ;D

[bukra]

nani,
medyo fastforward tayo para maki-join naman mga ibang young-at-heart.
90s- fave bands ko ERASERHEADS, YANO (banal na aso,santong kabayo) AFTERIMAGE (tama ba yung leadsinger ay si wency "habang may buhay" cornejo).

kayo p0h?

[sandawa]

Sabi nga nung Tisay na promo girl sa TV nuon: "Kahit hindi pogi, basta Tancho yari."

If I would have the time, I'll do further internet search on the Rocky Fellers, check if anyone is still around through emails, and probably write a story-tribute for them in a nationally circulated newspaper. Dami tayo ngayong mga bandang gaya-gaya ngayon still dreaming to make it on Billboard kahit Hot 100 lang and yet, back in 1963, these promdi-looking guys already made it there at #16. They're achievers and they deseve proper credit.

[sandawa]

Eraserheads are good. The Yano guys, I think, know me since some of their close firends worked under me in Manila. I know their stories well, kaya lang some are personal hindi dapat ikuwento at this time. Eric Gancio is from Davao by the way. The reason I hardly cover the new bands here is to give a chance to younger guys to contribute what they know about those bands and their music, or how they relate to their songs.

[bayonic]

lordfoo said:

When I was a young teenager, Neil Young, was my guy. I played his LPs in our sala, his tapes in my room, and also his 8-track cassettes in our car(s).

Neil's the man ! ...
the first pop song i learned to memorize is his "Heart Of Gold"
incidentally , that is also the title of a new documentary by Jonathan Demme about the life and music of the man.

that song was played by our friendly neighborhood hippies who I vaguely recall were acting rather silly ... and laughing their wits out for no apparent reason. i also recall that they had to hide from the cops who at the time were accosting people with long hair and giving them free haircuts.

years later , it was my turn to act silly after smoking those "funny cigarettes" ... ang tripping to Neil's " Sugar Mountain " and "Cortez The Killer "
i can still remember imagining the taste of the ' candy floss you had with your mother and your dad ' ... and picturing myself as a valiant coca leaf chewing Aztec warrior repelling the invading Spanish conquistadores .

i was unlucky to have missed the chance of seeing him perform live ... the first time in Las Vegas and a few years ago when he came to Hongkong to play .

he had surgery to remove a brain aneurysm recently so I guess I may still have a chance.

[bayonic]

after Neil Young , Jackson Browne is my next fave singer-songwriter .

my favorite JB albums are the early ones ; The Pretender , Late For The Sky , and the classic Running On Empty .

however, one song that stick to my mind the most is a song he wrote and performed with the Irish folk group ; The Chieftains , on their 1991 album The Bells Of Dublin. it is included in his greatest hits compilation " the next voice you hear "

the song is " The Rebel Jesus "

All the streets are filled with laughter and light

And the music of the season

And the merchants' windows are all bright

With the faces of the children

And the families hurrying to their homes

As the sky darkens and freezes

They'll be gathering around the hearths and tables

Giving thanks for all god's graces

And the birth of the rebel Jesus

|

Well they call him by the prince of peace

And they call him by the savior

And they pray to him upon the seas

And in every bold endeavor

As they fill his churches with their pride and gold

And their faith in him increases

But they've turned the nature that I worshipped in

From a temple to a robber's den

In the words of the rebel Jesus

|

We guard our world with locks and guns

And we guard our fine possessions

And once a year when christmas comes

We give to our relations

And perhaps we give a little to the poor

If the generosity should seize us

But if any one of us should interfere

In the business of why they are poor

They get the same as the rebel Jesus

|

But please forgive me if I seem

To take the tone of judgment

For I've no wish to come between

This day and your enjoyment

In this life of hardship and of earthly toil

We have need for anything that frees us

So I bid you pleasure

And I bid you cheer

From a heathen and a pagan

On the side of the rebel Jesus.

[bayonic]

another favorite Jackson Browne song of mine is the title track of his 1986 album " Lives In The Balance ".

it was written about the political situation in Central America during the Reagan years ... twenty years later , it also applies to the situation in Iraq.

I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headline
and the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to her people
And a country is drifting to war

And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interests run

On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say their names

They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us everything from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire




you can watch the video here ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFowNFvmUxw

[sandawa]

I'm getting a kick rersearching about the Rocky Fellers. Here's another review I got today from the net:

Rocky Fellers Could Rock AND Sing!, May 7, 2004

Reviewer: Randy Russi (Sanford, FL USA)

"Before the music scene heard of Michael Jackson, the Jackson 5,
the Sylvers, or even the Five Stairsteps, the fabulous Rocky
Fellers rocked the American shores by way of the Far East.
These four Filipino brothers along with their dad jolted the
audiences of American television and nightclubs from coast to
coast.

"It is ten year old Albert's lead vocals that could only
be compared to the likes of Frankie Lymon, Little Anthony, or
even Ronnie Spector's. KILLER JOE is the big hit, but give a
good listen to WE GOT LOVE and SANTA SANTA (featuring eight
yr. old Eddie on lead), both early Neil Diamond compositions.

"LIKE THE BIG GUYS DO is the most notable follow-up to the
hit, but there's plenty a-good gems in this collection--BYE
BYE BABY, where the harmonies really shine, HEY LITTLE DONKEY,
and "little" Albert's incredible rendition of MY PRAYER.
As vocalists there's no question this group could rival the
best of the boy-bands then or now. As performers the Rocky

Fellers played everywhere from the famed Apollo Theatre in
Harlem, NY to the prestigious Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami
Beach. The Fellers also hold the distinction of being the
first act from the Philippines to score a hit on the Billboard
Top 100.

"The only downershere areScepter Records recording the group on
tracks previously used by the Shirelles (Will You Love Me To-
morrow just doesn't seem to work) and the Isley Bros., although
they do quite a workout on TWIST AND SHOUT. And from the un-
released vaults--LITTLE DARLIN' is just tailor-made for the
group with young Eddie staying perfectly on key for the high
parts.

"The real downer is an unlisted track (School Bells Are
Ringing) that is actually sung by Carole King. It was a single
by her in 1962 on Dimension. It could be it was sent to Scepter
to consider for the Fellers, but never recorded by them."

[sandawa]

"Lives In the Balance" is also my favorite Jackson Browne song. I have about a dozen of Browne's albums including two virgin vinyls bought in Tokyo in 1984. His "Running On Empty" album in the '80s was considered among sonic show-offs, or demo vinyls for audiophiles, released by a regular record label.

His song "Take It Easy" was incomplete when Glen Frey asked him for it one day. Frey added just a few lines and was immediately recorded by the Eagles. It became a monster hit. Browne did his own version, the better version as far as I'm concerned, in his "For Everyman" album. BTW, the song "For Everyman" was written by Browne for David Crosby, in response to the CSNY hit "Wooden Ships.