Posted on
December 06, 2010 by
Jennib And Friends
The founding years
The name “Grass Roots” originated in 1965 as the name of a band project by the Los Angeles, California songwriter and producer duo of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, Dunhill Records to cash in on the budding folk rock movement. One of these songs was “Where Were You When I Needed You,” which was recorded by Sloan and Barri and a now forgotten line-up of studio musicians. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar. The song was released under “The Grass Roots” name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.
When moderate interest in this new band arose, Sloan and Barri went to look for a group that could incorporate The Grass Roots name. They found one in a San Francisco group named “The Bedouins” and cut a new version with that band’s lead vocalist, Willie Fulton. In 1965, the Grass Roots got their first official airplay on Southern California radio stations, such as KGB(AM) in San Diego and KHJ in Los Angeles with a version of the Bob Dylan song, “Mr. Jones (Ballad Of A Thin Man)”. For some months, The Bedouins were the first “real” Grass Roots but the partnership with Sloan and Barri broke up when the band demanded more space for their own more blues rock-oriented material (which their producers were not willing to give them). Willie Fulton, Denny Ellis, and David Stensen went back to San Francisco, with drummer Joel Larson the only one who remained (he was to become a member of a later Grass Roots line-up, as well). In the meantime, the second version of “Where Were You When I Needed You” peaked in the top 40 in mid-1966; an album of the same name sold poorly, probably because there were no Grass Roots anymore to promote it at the time of its release.
The years of success
The group’s third and by far most successful incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band,
Incoming search terms:
Share and Enjoy with Music and song:
Tags: 13th Floor ElevatorAirplayall.'Ballad Of A Thin ManBedouinsBlues RockBob Dylan SongCalifornia Radio StationsChristmasGrassGrass RootsKgbKhjModerate InterestMusicOriented MaterialP F SloanRootsSan Francisco BaySan Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco GroupSouthern California RadioStensenSteve BarriStudio MusiciansTestweb
Category
Song
Posted on
December 06, 2010 by
Jennib And Friends
Early years
Bobby Darin was born to a poor, working-class Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York. The person thought to be his father (who was actually his grandfather) died in jail a few months before he was born. It was the height of the Great Depression, and he once remarked that his crib was a cardboard box, then later a dresser drawer. He was initially raised by his mother Polly and his sister Nina, subsisting on Home Relief until Nina later married and started a family with her new husband Charlie Maffia. It was not until Darin was an adult that he learned Nina, who was 17 years his senior, was in fact his birth mother, and that Polly, the woman he thought was his mother, was really his grandmother. He was never told the identity of his real father, other than being told that his birth father had no idea Nina was pregnant, and thus never knew that Bobby was even born. Polly mothered him well, despite her own medical history resulting in her addiction to morphine. It was Polly who took the young Bobby to what was left of the old vaudeville circuit in New York, places like the Bronx Opera House, and the RKO Jefferson in Manhattan, where he received his first showbiz inspiration, and where he saw performers like Sophie Tucker, whom he loved.
Darin was frail and sickly as an infant and, beginning at the age of 8, was stricken with multiple recurring bouts of rheumatic fever. The illness left him with a seriously weakened heart. Overhearing a doctor tell his mother he would be lucky to reach the age of 16, Darin lived with the constant knowledge that his life would be short, which further motivated him to use his talents. He was driven by his poverty and illness to make something of his life and, with his innate talent for music, by the time he was a teenager he could play several instruments, including piano, drums and guitar. He later added harmonica and xylophone.
Incoming search terms:
Share and Enjoy with Music and song:
Tags: Adultall.'Birth FatherBirth MotherBobbyBobby DarinBoutsBronx High SchoolBronx High School Of ScienceBronx New YorkCardboard BoxChristmasDarinDresser DrawerGreat DepressionHigh School Of ScienceHusband CharlieInnate TalentItalian American FamilyMusicOpera HousePrestigious BronxRheumatic FeverRkoshellSophie TuckerTestunknownVaudeville CircuitWest
Category
Song
Posted on
December 05, 2010 by
Jennib And Friends
Early years
Roger Harry Daltrey was born in the Hammersmith area of London, but was raised in Acton, the same working class suburban neighborhood that produced fellow Who members Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. He was one of three children born to parents Irene and Harry Daltrey, and grew up with two sisters, Gillian and Carol. Harry Daltrey worked for a water closet manufacturer, and Irene Daltrey was told she would be unable to have children because of losing a kidney in 1937. Nevertheless, she went into labour during a World War II air raid and gave birth to her son at the nearby Hammersmith Hospital, West London. At the age of three, the young Roger swallowed a rusty nail which had to be surgically removed, leaving a visible scar. At the age of five, the rust from the nail caused an ulcer in his stomach which required him to be hospitalised.
Daltrey attended Victoria Primary School and then Acton County Grammar School for boys along with Pete Townshend and John Entwistle. He showed academic promise in the English state school system, ranking at the top of his class on the eleven plus examination that led to his enrollment at the Acton County Grammar School. His parents hoped he would eventually continue on to study at the university, but Daltrey turned out to be a self-described “school rebel” and developed a dedicated interest in the emerging rock and roll music scene instead.
He made his first guitar from a block of wood and formed a skiffle band called The Detours. When his father bought him an Epiphone guitar in 1959, he became the lead guitarist for the band and soon afterward was expelled from school for smoking. Describing the post-war times, Pete Townshend wrote in his autobiography, “Until he was expelled, Roger had been a good pupil. Then he heard Elvis and transmogrified into a Teddy Boy with an electric guitar and a dress-sneer. Was it simply rock roll? It was obvious to a young man as intelligent as
Incoming search terms:
Share and Enjoy with Music and song:
Tags: all.'ChristmasClassicDaltreyLargelolaMusicNew YearRogerTestthewhowebWest
Category
Song