I Researched Beatles Producer George Martin at the Performing Arts Library of NYPL

On an impulse, I decided to research Beatles producer George Martin at NYPL.  It certainly beats suffering through a New Jersey Transit delay.  I found this marvelous book that answered all my questions:

Martin, G. (2002). Playback: An illustrated memoir. Guildford: Genesis.

Since this was a rare book with only 2000 copies signed by the author it was held in the Special Collections of the Research Library

He was born in 1926 and self-learned music.  He actually wrote his first musical piece at age 8.  He later attended the Guilford School of Music.  He entered Abby Road studios in 1950 when he produced classical music for EMI.  In addition, he produced the recordings of the London Baroque Ensemble and later made children's records for the HMV label.

He first met Brian Epstein in February 1962 when he signed the Beatles to EMI/Parlophone after several record labels rejected them. In June of that year, he rejected Pete Best as the drummer and hired Ringo Starr.  When he recorded Please, Please, Me in 1963 he realized that this group was going to be something special.

Other groups, he recorded included:

• Cilla Black
• Billy J. Kramer
• Cilla Black
• Shirley Bassey
• Gerry and the Pacemakers
• The Fourmost
• Neil Sedaka (later in his career)

He admitted that his biggest mistake was to record Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever as a double-A side.  With 20/20 hindsight George felt that those two songs should have been included on the Sgt. Pepper album.

I could have spent hours reading this book and taking notes, but I had to skim through much of the book.  There were fantastic photos of the Fab Four that I had never seen.

I also listened to an album called  Off the Beatle Track, a collection of instrumental versions by the George Martin Orchestra.

I Supported WFUV Today

I have been a loyal listener of WFUV since the early 1990s.  When I listen I never know what they will be playing.  They are not bound by the formatics of commercial radio stations.  I am only familiar with some of the artists they play.  I increased my monthly donation from $12 to $15 so I also receive a digital subscription to the New York Times in addition to the yearly CD that is offered to subscribers.  Keep up the good work!

Happy Birthday Cousin Bruce Morrow

The video as seen above is Cousin Bruce Morrow on WABC radio in the 1960s.  I salute him today which is his 83rd birthday.  I hope that all of us are as active and vibrant as he is when we reach that age.  He is heard on SiriusXM 60s on 6 Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings and sounds as great as ever.  This show has brought him to a national audience.

Happy birthday, Cuz and many many more to you.

All About Steve - Good Cast but Poor Movie

It was a rainy day so instead of going to the local multiplex, I stayed in and watch a movie on HBO from 2009 called All About Steve.  I was attracted to it by Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper who are excellent actors.  The movie was quite silly as the Bullock character worked for a newspaper writing crossword puzzles.  She was set up on a blind date with the Bradley Cooper character (Steve) who worked as a cameraman for a nation TV new network.  She was fired and then stalks Steve as he covered stories over the country.

At least I didn't have to pay to see it.

Red Grooms and Michael Moore all in 1 Day

Early in September, I read an article in the New York Times about an exhibition about the pop artist Red Grooms coming to the Marlborough Contemporary Gallery on West 25th Street.  In preparation for my visit, I did some research about him in the New York Public Library last week which I reported in this journal.

Grooms is best described as an interpreter of American pop culture.  This exhibit covers a sample of his works from 1955 to the present. I perused through three of his exhibition catalogs at the library but I especially enjoyed seeing his 3-dimensional works at the gallery.  My favorite work was a  view in the Strand Bookstore at 12th Street and Broadway.  There was also a picture of Roger Clemens with the Yankees, but he was wearing uniform #10 which belonged to Phil Rizzuto and was retired.

From there I took the subway uptown to the Lincoln Square Cinema at Broadway and 68th Street.  Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 was only showing at a few theaters so I wanted to see it before it went away.  He made many caustic observations about the presidential election of 2016, actions of Donald Trump before and after the election, the water supply situation in Flint, MI, and the general political situation in America today.  Some critics felt that it is Moore's best work.  I enjoyed it, but just felt it could have shortened a bit due to some redundancies,

Working on SABR's Baseball Index Project

When I was at the SABR annual meeting in Pittsburgh I found out about the Baseball Index Project,  It is an ongoing effort to catalog all baseball literature. The Baseball Index is a database for finding out what has been written on any baseball subject, from the earliest days of baseball to the present.  I have to take "all" with a grain of salt as it is impossible for any database to be absolutely exhaustive.  Even in baseball, there must be much grey literature and ephemera that are difficult to locate.  Currently, the database includes over 250,000 articles.

I volunteered to index about 1000 articles from SABR's Games Project.  I have written 5 articles for them and coordinate the fact-checking for articles that were submitted an edited.  I have already indexed 600 articles and will finish this phase of the project in about 6 weeks.

Steven Green - Facebook Friend of the Day

Some months ago I reported that I have never met about 150 of my 530 Facebook friends, but today I met radio enthusiast Steven Green for the first time after seeing his posts on Facebook and various radio message boards.  I would usually post his picture in this journal entry, but there is a cat on his Facebook page.  I supposed Steve is camera shy.

Steve lives in Austin, Texas but visits NYC for extended visits.  Since he will not be here in November I met him in Manhattan at Ben's Deli for a mini Oldies Meet and Greet,  He is a walking encyclopedia on oldies music and oldies radio stations both on the air and on the internet.  He recommended a few internet stations that I did not know.  He is an avid collector of radio airchecks on tape.  I wonder how he finds the time to listen to them. It would take him countless hours to digitize them.  Last week he appeared on Bob Radil's 60s 70s show.

After we finished lunch we took a little walk downtown and sat down in a plaza by Madison Square Garden and kept talking.  Steve is also a big Mets fan and talked about several games from the 60s and 70s.

It was a very pleasant afternoon.