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ROCKOLLECTIONS: SALUTE TO MOTHERS PT.4

After playing songs about Good Mothers last chapter, I promised you Bad Mothers.
And this is a Salute, lol?
Yes, Good, Bad, it takes all kinds.
I’ll start with the most notorious Bad Mother I could think of- and this Mom is from one of the most successful albums around.
After that, two songs I will undoubtedly be introducing you to.
If you recall, during my Psychotherapy series last summer I played a pair of strange, but well-received by listeners, songs by Janis Ian and Dory Previn.
This time we’ll flip-flop the artists and start with Previn, and her sad and spooky tale.
They are from vinyl LP’s and sound like it, but that’s the only way I have them.
The common thread connecting these Bad Mothers is that they are manipulative, and most especially possessive.
Not wanting their child to ever leave them!
You’ll hear what I mean.
After that, a song by the Who I CHOSE to play from the vinyl- I heard the CD version and found it to be so lacking in sparkle and life it was no contest…the old vinyl copy wins.
And that Mother in the Who song goes beyond Bad into insane, I mean what the…?
I’ll close this episode out with an interesting change in direction regarding Mothers- one that is not often talked about, never mind playing songs about.
I hope you enjoy this Part 4, as it is a curious mix of known and unknown!
And with so many Mother songs left, I will continue with them next week for two final installments.
Hey, it’s free-form radio, and I pick the music, lol!
You should trust me by now!

Mike

Tags: Bad Mothers, Dory Previn, Free-form Radio, Good Mothers, Janis Ian, Psychotherapy, The Who, Trust, Vinyl LP's

ROCKOLLECTIONS: PSYCHOTHERAPY LEFTOVERS PT.1

Well well, August 25 is the 12th Anniversary of my being at the same station.
12 years…those people there REALLY need Psychotherapy!
These are some of the Psychotherapy Leftovers we never got to in the other chapters, and I must tell you, this is one of the strangest half hours of musical selections I have ever done.
Certainly the most somber in those 12 years!
I just went where the free-form Muse took me, and that was a weird place.
So you are forewarned, and the next and Final episode will be much different, more normal.
I started with a song for me, one that has been an old friend for many years.
Then, for some reason last week, I flashed back to a time in 1970 or 1971 when Scott Muni, then with the 2-7PM slot and also the Program Director at WNEW-FM, chose to replace for a day Jonathan Schwartz who couldn’t make it for his 10AM-2PM show.
Scott was unbelievable that day, maybe because it was a different time with possibly a different audience.
He played fantastic old sets he had done in the past where the music went together perfectly, plus terrific new ones.
It was great Radio!
And another of those defining moments that set the stage for how I present music.
One 2-song set stayed with me for all these years, an incredible segue that I will re-create here.
Janis Ian’s “Insanity Comes Quietly To The Structured Mind” into Dory Previn’s “Mr.Whisper”.
One a song about a ledge-jumper suicide, the other dealing with a Mr. Whisper who has an “apartment” in a lady’s head!
Normally I don’t tell you what I am going to play and ruin the surprises, but in this case I figure no one will know those songs anyway, so what the hell, lol?
That’s it, I am tired of writing, so you are on your own.
But I cordially invite you to hear undeniably the oddest, but not the worst, first half of a show I have ever done!
And that’s saying something for me, lol!
There is a Darkness here, and I DARE you to listen!

Mike

Tags: 12th Anniversary, 1970, 1971, Darkness, Dory Previn, Insanity Comes Quietly To The Structured Mind, Janis Ian, Jonathan Schwartz, Leftovers, Mr.Whisper, Program Director, radio, Scott Muni, The Free-Form Muse, WNEW-FM

ROCKOLLECTIONS: THE CYCLE OF LIFE PT.7

Getting near the end of The Cycle Of Life, as we reach and take a musical look at Old Age.
That pretty much is how it works in real life, right?
One song about growing old I was not familiar with was suggested by a listener named Eve.
And it does fit in here nicely, done by quite the collection of ladies- Janis Ian, Phoebe Snow and Odetta.
So thank you Eve, for thinking like I do.
Also included is a song I always play for my birthday, been doing it for decades now.
And I will close this next-to-last-episode out with 3 of the finest songs I know about Old Age.
All brilliant, all gems!
Two of them done by guys who were close friends in Chicago, John Prine and Steve Goodman.
Prine’s masterpiece about that bane of Old Age, loneliness.
And Goodman doing Michael Smith’s classic about senility and love.
Leading into maybe the most poignant of all, with that fear we all share.
After all, you should be able to guess what’s coming next.
But first let’s have some fun and Grow Old Together! 

Mike

Tags: chicago, Janis Ian, John Prine, Loneliness, Love, Michael Smith, Odetta, Old Age, Phoebe Snow, Senility, Steve Goodman

ROCKOLLECTIONS: BILLY PRESTON, UNOFFICIAL 5TH BEATLE PT.2 END

Did you know Billy Preston did a duet with Isaac Hayes?
I’ll play it. Nice and bluesy- to get you In The Mood.
Then back to the Concert For George and another of those magnificent performances.
I like the way Eric Clapton starts the song, then hands off to Billy.
Gotta thank my good old friend, Mike Hennessy, for those concert CD’s.
After that it’s another duet, this one a big hit that reached # 4 I had forgotten about- yes, it happens to me too. One beautiful song!
I’ll have some interesting Preston trivia- like he was, with Janis Ian, the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live back on its debut.
Next, Billy doing a Beatle song from the horrid Sgt. Pepper movie- in which he played Sgt. Pepper (hate to bring back the memory of that flick, lol!).
Followed by a # 1 song everyone should recall and sing along with- it’s all mathematics.
After receiving a kidney transplant, Billy’s health continued to deteriorate, and I was shocked to discover he was in a coma from November 2005 until his death in June 2006!
Finally, we will end with yet another thing you may not have known.
Billy Preston co-wrote a song that was a huge hit for Joe Cocker.
Maybe for the first time, you’ll hear his own version.
And I hope you enjoy it, as well as this entire episode.

Mike

Tags: Beatles, Concert For George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Isaac Hayes, Janis Ian, Joe Cocker, Mike Hennessy, Saturday Night Live, Sgt. Pepper Movie