Saturday, May 29, 2021

WABC Rewound: A Memorial Day Tradition Continues - Thank You Allan Sniffen

 

Dan Ingram Aircheck on WABC from August 1962 posted by Ellis Feaster

WABC was the premier Top 40 radio station from 1960 until 1982 when it became a talk radio station.  It featured personalities including:
  • Dan Ingram
  • Harry Harrison
  • Cousin Bruce Morrow
  • Chuck Leonard
  • Ron Lundy
  • Charlie Greer
For several years WABC broke format on Memorial Day and played airchecks from the golden age of Musicradio WABC.  After a while, WABC stopped doing this, but Allan Sniffen continued the tradition by playing recordings on WABC the entire Memorial Day weekend on Rewound Radio which usually plays oldies.  It is nice to listen to the radio the way it was while we were growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.  Thank you Allan Sniffen.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

I Received a Letter via Snail Mail from a Reader of Bruce's Journal

Bruce with Don K, Reed at Long Island Radio Day in 2010

I get very few online comments about entries in this Journal.  I always wonder what people think about this journal in general or specific entries.  Maybe people think I am too much of a Bob Dylan nut.  Anyway, yesterday I received a letter from Russell from Lancaster PA. commenting about the entry I wrote about Don K. Reed back in 2009.  Don was a radio personality on WCBS-FM who specialized in Doo Wop music.  He left the station in 2005 when WCBS-FM made the terrible switch to the dreadful Jack format.  

I certainly appreciate his taking the time to write a letter to me and using the postal service the old-fashioned way to get it to me.  If he was able to find my mailing address on the internet, he certainly could have found my email address just as easily.

Thanks, Russell.


 

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Best Covers of Bob Dylan Songs according to Rolling Stone Magazine

 

I will have to come back to this journal entry to listen to many of the 80 covers listed.  Every entry is followed by a Youtube video with the song.  The covers obviously range from the ridiculous to the sublime.  All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix was number 1 while Mr. Tambourine Man by William Shatner was #80.

My favorite Bob Dylan covers in no particular order may be found at https://www.bruceslutsky.com/2013/03/my-favorite-covers-of-bob-dylan-songs.html

Top 80 Bob Dylan Songs as Voted by Listeners of WFUV

 

I am likely much older than the average WFUV listener.  They certainly made good choices for Dylan's Top 80 songs.  Lee's favorite, Tangled Up in Blue, was voted #1 just ahead of Like a Rolling Stone.  My favorite, Maggies Farm, came in at #46.

  1. Tangled Up in Blue
  2. Like a Rolling Stone
  3. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
  4. Visions of Johanna
  5. A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
  6. Blowin' in the Wind
  7. Desolation Row
  8. Positively 4th Street
  9. Mr. Tambourine Man
  10. Hurricane
  11. Forever Young
  12. Shelter from the Storm
  13. Idiot Wind
  14. Simple Twist of Fate
  15. Highway 61 Revisited
  16. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
  17. Girl from the North Country
  18. Ballad of a Thin Man
  19. Lay Lady Lay
  20. All Along the Watchtower
  21. The Times They Are A-Changin'
  22. Just Like a Woman
  23. I Shall Be Released
  24. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
  25. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
  26. Subterranean Homesick Blues
  27. Boots of Spanish Leather
  28. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
  29. Blind Willie McTell
  30. My Back Pages
  31. It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding
  32. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
  33. Jokerman
  34. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
  35. If Not for You
  36. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
  37. I Want You
  38. Not Dark Yet
  39. Mississippi
  40. Chimes of Freedom
  41. Every Grain of Sand
  42. Make You Feel My Love
  43. Absolutely Sweet Marie
  44. Buckets of Rain
  45. It Ain't Me Babe
  46. Maggie's Farm
  47. If You See Her, Say Hello
  48. Most of the Time
  49. Things Have Changed
  50. Changing of the Guards
  51. Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
  52. When I Paint My Masterpiece
  53. Masters of War
  54. Isis
  55. Abandoned Love
  56. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
  57. Mozambique
  58. Gotta Serve Somebody
  59. Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat
  60. One More Cup of Coffee
  61. Queen Jane Approximately
  62. Brownsville Girl
  63. Black Diamond Bay
  64. Everything Is Broken
  65. Murder Most Foul
  66. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
  67. Where Are You?
  68. You're a Big Girl Now
  69. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
  70. She Belongs to Me
  71. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
  72. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
  73. Dignity
  74. Sweetheart Like You
  75. To Ramona
  76. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
  77. With God on Our Side
  78. 4th Time Around
  79. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
  80. Cold Irons Bound
     

 


Monday, May 24, 2021

What Should I Write About Bob Dylan's 80th Birthday?


 I don't know.  I have posted every other year on his non-milestone birthdays.  There is nothing new to say.  Everyone and his brother who is a fan or scholar has already written something.  So, there is no sense in repeating what they have said.

I'll just say Happy Birthday and many more.  Thanks for your songs and recordings over the decades.

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Afternoon at the Jewish Museum

 

Picture of Bob Dylan that I saw today at the Jewish Museum

Absholam Jac Lahav - American Born in Israel 1977 is the artist

I thought it was time for another museum trip as I hadn't visited one in about a month. The Jewish Museum at 5th Avenue and 92nd Street was my choice.

There were two exhibits of interest:

Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine  - It explored how photography in popular American Magazines transformed American visual culture from the 1930s through the1950s. Works by photographers including Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Lester Beall, Margaret Bourke-White, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, William Klein, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cipe Pineles, and Paul Rand were featured.

Louise Bourgeois Freuds Daughter -  It features approximately 40 artworks from throughout Bourgeois’s career, including the Personages of the late 1940s; the organic forms in plaster and latex of the 1960s; the pivotal installation The Destruction of the Father (1974). The exhibit also presents writings that explore her complex relationship with Freudian psychoanalysis.


The Destruction of the Father


Friday, May 21, 2021

Vinyl Ventures: My Fifty Years at Rounder Records by Bill Nowlin - Book Review

 


When I joined the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) I became acquainted with Bill Nowlin who is an expert on the Boston Red Sox and a prolific author of books and articles about players, games, and other baseball research topics.  When I read his essays, I am impressed by his ability to research obscure baseball players.  I coordinate fact-checking games project articles for SABR.  There are few if any errors in his contributions.

I knew a little bit about Rounder Records and that Bill was one of the founders but was not aware of the details of how the company was started and how it grew.  I just had to get hold of his recent book:

Nowlin, Bill, 1945- author. Vinyl ventures: my fifty years at Rounder Records / Bill Nowlin. Bristol: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2021.

Bill. Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton Levy founded the company in 1970.  It was described as being at the forefront of the second generation of independent labels. Its catalog of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie.  The book describes how the company grew by leaps and bounds over 50 years including many subsidiary labels. In April 2010, Los Angeles, California-based Concord Music Group acquired Rounder Records.  The three founders maintain an advisory role.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book as I read it in three sitting as I sat on park benches in Queens.  I found that the detail in Bill’s baseball publications is found in this book as well. In part, the book is autobiographical with minimal reference to his baseball interests and publications.  Bill certainly has lived a very active life in his roles in the music business and as a baseball historian.  Where did he find the time to do everything?

I read with the book with my smartphone in my pocket with the Amazon.com app.  I bought:

Rounder Records' 40th Anniversary Concert Compilation CD

True Believers: The Musical Family of Rounder Records DVD

I highly recommend this book to all interested in the music industry.  I suggest that SABR members read the book to become aware of the other side of Bill Nowlin. 




Matt Scutchfield interviews Bill Nowlin about the book


Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Will Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour Resume?

 



The Never Ending Tour began In 1988 and continued until late 2019 just before the COVID-19 pandemic.  I last saw him at the Beacon Theater in November 2019.  He scheduled a concert at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in July 2020, but that was obviously canceled.  The coronavirus vaccines seem to be working as hospitalizations and deaths declined in the United States over the past few months.  The pandemic is certainly not over, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I vaguely remember seeing concerts being scheduled for the fall.  But what will Bob Dylan do?  He will be 80 years old in a few days and may feel it is time to end touring.  Maybe he will do just a few concerts.  Who knows?

Stay tuned.




Monday, May 17, 2021

Looking forward to the Bob Dylan at 80 Virtual Conference This Weekend

 


This online conference starts on Saturday and ends on Monday, May 24th which is Dylan's 80th birthday.  The pandemic has necessitated numerous conferences to go online.  For me, the advantages of this conference going online are that I save time and money by not having to travel to Tulsa and pay for airfare, hotel, and food.  Over the past year, I have attended many 1-2 hour conferences online, but this will be the first time that I will attend a long conference with events from 9:30 AM - 10:30 PM.  Th disadvantages are:

  1. Having to sit for hours at a time at a computer screen.  I guess anyone's rear end can get sore after sitting for hours.
  2. There are always distractions while staying at home.  I will likely be tempted to leave my computer to watch the Mets or do errands that are essential
The entire event will be delivered through Microsoft Teams with almost all sessions streamed using as Microsoft Live events.  All events will be archived so they may be viewed at a future date.  I think I will take advantage of that option.

Links to the daily schedules may be found at https://dylan.utulsa.edu/dylan-80-virtual-conference/

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Marv Albert is to Retire after the NBA Playoffs

 


The New York Post reports that legendary sportscaster Marv Albert will retire after the 2021 NBA Playoffs.  He will be 80 years old in June so I think he deserves to go into the land of rest and relaxation.  He broadcast his first Knick game in 1963 as he filled in for Marty Glickman, another broadcasting legend.  He is best known as the voice of the New York Knicks from 1967-2004 on radio and television.  For many years he also did radio broadcasts for the New York Rangers and football Giants. He is currently the lead play-by-play announcer for National Basketball Association games on TNT, a position he assumed in 1999.

His honors and awards include:

  • Cable ACE Award – six times.
  • Curt Gowdy Media Award – awarded by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, 1997.
  • American Sportscasters Association Sportscaster of the Year (Play-by-Play) – 1996. Other honorees included Sportscaster of the Year (Studio Host) Chris Berman, Hall of Fame inductee Jack Whitaker, Sports Legend Joe Frazier and Honorary Sportscaster Dr. Henry Kissinger.
  • Emmy Award – for national sports: five times; for New York: three times.
  • Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame – inducted in 2006.
  • National Jewish Museum Sports Hall of Fame – inducted in 1992
  • New York State Sportscaster of the Year – twenty times.
  • National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame – inducted in 2014






Thursday, May 13, 2021

The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa Will Open In May 2022

 


 The Bob Dylan Center, announced on Wednesday, will include rare and never-before-seen lyric manuscripts, photographs, songs, and footage, alongside a new “immersive film experience” and a “recreation of an authentic studio environment.”  I am sure that my Dylan enthusiast friends will want to come on opening day next May.  I think I will wait a few months since it will likely be very crowded during the first week.  I will feel like a kid in a candy store when I do come.  Certainly, more details will become available as Opening Day approaches.  More information may be found in the New York Times.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

I Return to Citi Field as the Mets Defeat the Orioles and Matt Harvey 7-1

 


No fans were permitted in major ballparks in 2020 on account of the pandemic.  Presently Citi Field is allowed 20% capacity which would be about 8300 fans.  I was able to get a ticket at the last minute from Stub Hub and sat upstairs in the Promenade for my first game in 20 months. It was necessary for fans to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test to get in.

Matt Harvey who had pitched six seasons for the Mets was facing his former team for the first time.  He received a warm reception from the fans.  He allowed three runs in the second inning allowing four hits in a row.  He left the game after pitching 4 1/3 innings allowing 7 runs and 8 hits with 4 strikeouts.

Tijuan Walker was outstanding for the Mets allowing one run and four hits in 7 innings.

Cowbell Man was in the stadium but the man who yells after every strikeout was nowhere to be heard.  I think by the next homestand more fans will be allowed in the park with sections set aside for those already fully vaccinated.

Box Score

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK by David Krell - Book Review


As member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) I had the pleasure of speaking to David Krell on the phone about baseball.  I was attracted to his new book 1962: Baseball in America in the Time of JFK.  I was 13 years old in 1962 and was a fan of the original New York Mets and suffered through their futility in their inaugural year.  Krell stated that originally his book was to consider only the original New York Mets and Houston Colt .45s, but it was a good thing that he expanded on that.  Almost all baseball books discuss only the sport, and not how it integrated into the popular culture. Krell discusses movies, television, books, politics, and current events as he takes his readers back in time.  It certainly brought back memories for me as I was a teenager that year.  Younger readers can benefit by learning about baseball and the popular culture of that time.  I enjoyed reading about the lesser-known players on the original Mets.  One reason the book is unique is that he provides information about the original Houston Colt .45s not readily available.  I was quite impressed by the research he did by interviews and original newspaper accounts.  I am happy that he acknowledged the help he received from librarians as that was my former profession.  My only disappointment was there was very little mention of the popular music of that era.  I can read about the golden oldies in other places.


 

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Happy 75th Birthday Donovan (Leitch) on May 10

 


Donovan is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock, and world music (notably calypso).  I have followed his career since the mid-1960s and have many of his albums in my collection.

Sunny South Kensington appeared on the album called Mellow Yellow but was also the B-side of the single of the same name.  I rate it as my favorite B-Side.

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Lloyd Price, Mr. Personality, Passes Away at 88

 Variety Magazine reports that recording artist Lloyd Price has passed away at 88.  I didn't realize that he was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.  Below is his big hit Personality.  I hope Cousin Brucie plays it tonight.


Thursday, May 6, 2021

Happy 90th Birthday Willie Mays


 Willie Mays is certainly MLB's greatest living player as I salute him on his 90th birthday.  He is one of 11 players still living who played for the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.  I best remember him for finishing his Hall of Fame career for the Mets from 1972-3.  He played in the 1973 World Series.

Statistics for Wille Mays from Baseball Reference

Biography of Willie Mays from the SABR Bioproject

There are also several books that biographies of Willie Mays.




Wednesday, May 5, 2021

It Was 20 Years Ago Today - Lee's Bar Mitzvah


 It is hard to believe that Lee's Bar Mitzvah was 20 years ago today. Karen and I were proud of Lee's performance at the temple. Things have changed very much over the years.  The service was at Temple Israel of Jamaica which merged with a synagogue in New Hyde Park.  The building is now a mosque.  The reception was at a restaurant called Harper's which is now a Mexican restaurant under another name.  When I looked at the photos, I was saddened to see that so many people have passed away.

Time marches on.

Monday, May 3, 2021

Ringo Starr says that Come Together is His Favorite Beatle Song

 


Ringo Starr was interviewed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.  He explicitly stated that Come Together was his favorite Beatle song.  I am surprised that he didn't say Yellow Submarine.😀

Saturday, May 1, 2021

May 1 Visit to the Whitney Museum

I certainly have documented in this journal several trips to the Whitney Museum since 2011.  I thought today would be a good time to have a return visit.  We started out on the top floor by viewing the exhibit Dawoud Bey: An American Project.  Bey is a photographer who chronicles communities and histories that have been largely underrepresented or even unseen.

One of the photographs from that exhibit

Much of the rest of the museum was devoted to samples from the museum's rich collection.

A work by Andy Warhol


For some reason, this statue reminds me of Richard Nixon.

An exhibit was devoted to the works of JulieMehretu, an Ethiopian artist who specializes in abstract art.  She creates new forms and finds unexpected resonances by drawing from the histories of art and human civilization.
by Julie Mehretu

I'll return to the Whitney later in the year when the exhibitions change.







 
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