Music Before the Money

On January 20, T-Mobile USA and Eric Clapton teamed up to promote a cell phone and it is now appearing in commercials around the T-Mobile’s world.

The hook is a Fender Stratocaster sunburst-finish design from the guitar that made Clapton famous and, conversely, was made a household name by him.

As for the mechanics the T-Mobile myTouch 3G Fender Edition has a 3.5mm headset jack and a 16GB MicroSD card. Another hook is that the unit will come loaded with Eric Clapton’s hit songs like “Wonderful Tonight,” “Layla,” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Heart” and “My Father’s Eyes.” There will also be other songs from stars such as Avril Lavigne, Wyclef Jean and Brad Paisley.

In addition, the phone will feature applications like Guitar: Solo and Musical Light, and a customized multimedia sync solution from doubleTwist, offering an intuitive interface for syncing and managing music as well as other media when linked with a Mac or a Windows PC.

The myTouch 3G Fender runs the Android 1.6 program but can be upgraded to Android 2.1 in a few months.

Many people having been posting negative comments about Clapton. The scuttlebutt is that Clapton is “selling out.” Well, sure he is. Everybody does. But at least Eric didn’t dress up in gambler’s outfit in his last tour or put out a cheesy Christmas record like Bob Dylan. And if he did, all the power to him. He’s Eric Clapton and he looks like he had fun making the commercial.

Kate McGarrigle, one-half of the great Canadian folk duo, The McGarrigle Sisters, died on January 18th of sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves and cartilage. Not only were they Canadian icons Kate was the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright, two impressive singer-songwriters.

The McGarrigle Sisters began their career in the coffee houses of Montreal in the early 1960’s. After leaving a folk group called The Mountain City Four their act was given a great bost when Lind Ronstadt used their song “Heart Like a Wheel” as the title song of her best-selling album of the same name in 1974. Other songs by the sisters were covered by Elvis Costello, Judy Collins, Emmy Lou Harris and Billy Bragg.

Their biggest Canadian hit came from a song by Wade Hemsworth called “The Log Driver’s Waltz.” This was later made into an animated feature by the National Film Board of Canada in 1979, a couple of years before videos became popular.

Later came a self-titled album that featured “The Work Song,” Cool River,” and “The Lying Song.” Although they were folk singers the McGarrigles drew their influences from all genres including rock which prevented them from being pigeon-holed in the music business.

Another attribute that the sisters had was that, although they were “Anglos,” they drew heavily from their French Canadian province and were popular in both cultures. Quebec Culture Minister said of them, “They were Anglos, in the middle of many people who were singing in French. And they were interested in singing to them in French, and to show to francophones in Quebec that English people were interested in Quebec culture, and our identity.

Kate McGarrigle was married to famous folk singer, Loudon Wainwright III famous for songs such as “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.” In 1994 she was invested with the Order of Canada for her music and her contribution to Canadian heritage.

The folk era lost another one of its icons yesterday as Mary Traverse die of leukemia. Traverse, the female energy of the famous trio Peter, Paul and Mary was hired by famous agent Albert Grossman, who also shepherded Bob Dylan’s career. In effect, Grossman invented a successful group when he “put a doll between two beat-niks.” In fact Grossman created a folk explosion that lasted well into the psychedelic era, or when most of the folk artists had hung up their banjos.

Their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary, including 500 Miles, Lemon Tree, If I Had a Hammer and Where have All the Flowers Gone? was on Billboard’s Top 10 list for 10 months and in the Top 100 for over three years. It solidified the  careers of Paul Stookey, Peter Yarrow and Mary Traverse into folk immortality.

Not only were they a popular group but their songs were taken up by causes. If I Had a Hammer was sung on Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963 as was their rendition of Bob Dylans Blowin’ in the Wind.

Leaving on a Jet Plane, written by John Denver, gave them their only #1 hit in 1969. Puff the Magic Dragon went #2 in 1963.

When they group broke up in 1970 Mary traverse and the guys went on solo careers but got back together less than 10 years later. Traverse was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 but toured until 2007.

Mary Traverse also began the “white girl look” for most of the 1960’s: straight hair with bangs.  Melanie Safka, Grace Slick, Judy Collins,  Jonie Mitchell and many others adopted this appearance. The fact that she was blonde made her all that much more attractive, especially between two guys with goatees. And Peter, Paul and Mary also were remembered above all their contemporaries in the folk era.

(Photo from peter, Paul and Mary website)

“The burst of energy that was The Mamas & The Papas was like a sun and Denny a planet orbiting it”

- Paul Ledoux, long time friend, collaborator
and writer/director of the documentary.

Most people in the world who are tied into western  music have heard Denny Doherty sing. He was, after all, the lead male voice of The Mamas and the Papas, one the key groups that defined the 1960’s. Composed also of John Phillips, “Mama” Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips, they brought a vocal explosion to radio that rivaled the best of the Motown groups. Their popularity brought them many times to that  holiest of shrines, The Ed Sullivan Show,  where it said Sullivan liked them as much as Elvis Presley.

The demise of The Mamas and the Papas came with the Monterey Pop festival in 1967 and foreshadowed the end of a new and exiting era of popular music . After a brief, but successful solo career, Cass Elliot died of a heart attack on July 29, 1974. John Phillips died of heart failure on March 18, 2001.

In 1996 Denny teamed up with writer Paul Ledoux and produced Dream a Little Dream of Me, a musical story of the Mamas and Papas backed up by a cast of excellent music performers. The stage show died on the operating table with Denny on January 19, 2007. His death was due to an abdominal aneurysm.

Long-time friend and collaborator, Paul Ledoux, has once again brought the  legend of the Mamas and Papas to life with Here I Am: Denny Doherty and the Mamas and Papas. Taking countless hours of interviews, home movies, stage performances and rehearsals Ledoux and executive-producer, Greg Jones, have created an amazing film in honor of Doherty. It is  a stunning documentary that shows Doherty as a great singer from the north end of Halifax, a man who made music history in a group that, for a short time, both rivaled and amazed The Beatles.

The World Premier of Here I Am: Denny Doherty and the Mamas and Papas takes place on September 19 @ 2:05PM in Park Lane Cinemas – Theatre 4. For more information on the show contact Executive Producer Greg Jones, at Creative Atlantic.

The Atlantic Film Festival runs from September 17th to 16th in Halifax. For tickets contact The Atlantic Film Festival.

Good morning!  . . . What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000!

-  Hugh Romney, aka “Wavy Gravy,” at Woodstock

There are certain moments in a person’s life when a chance meeting, vocalization or other incident engraves that person’s name in history forever. For famous movie star Lana Turner, it was walking into a Hollywood drug store to get a chocolate malt at the same time a film producer was there. But for Hugh Nanton Romney, a so-so funny man once managed by Lenny Bruce, this happened three times.

The first such incident came at the Texas International Pop Festival. Romney was literally lying onstage when it was announced that B.B. King was going to play next. Romney began to get up when a hand appeared on his shoulder.  It was B.B. King, himself, who asked, “Are you Wavy Gravy?” …to which Romney replied somewhat sleepily, “Yes.” “It’s OK, Wavy, I can work around you,” said King.

Romney was a funnyman and real honest-to-goodness Hippie before it became popular. His first subculture caper and second rise to fame was with The Merry Pranksters when Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), some friends and he went on the road in 1964 in a 1939 International Harvester school bus to promote Kesey’s new book. The next year when Kesey was hiding out from U.S. authorities in Mexico, Romney and his wife enrolled and 40 of their closest friends in the  Merry Pranksters and posed for a photograph for a Life magazine cover.

And of course the third incident came when he became the unofficial spokesman for 400,000 wet, weary, dopey but happy campers at Woodstock in August of 1969.

For all his craziness his actions at Woodstock with his group of friends called The Hog Farm helped to maintain peace and order at the overcrowded event by just letting the people know that they were looking out for them.

On his website he says, “Once you realize the interconnectedness of all stuff, there’s no going back. I have an old Gravy line, ‘We are all the same person trying to shake hands with our self.’ Remember that the next time you say,‘pass the gravy.’”

And for all his modern day adventures in service to his fellow man (He’s still very active) Wavy Gravy will always be known as the voice of Woodstock.

Here he is at Woodstock: Wavy Gravy