One of my favorite quotes comes from Howard Zinn, in a documentary titled: "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train".
I paraphrase:
If you don't know history, it is as if you were born yesterday. If you were born yesterday anybody can tell you anything and you are forced to believe them.
I have noticed a shocking lack of historical knowledge since my move to the state of Utah. Let's start with the history of music. Jerry has now encountered three people who have a vague knowledge that the Beatles were some band from the sixties. I am talking about people in their thirties, not teens. It doesn't matter if you like the Beatles, but they are historically significant, in that popular music changed because of them. There are a few basics that everyone ought to know. From Symphony to Opera to Rock there are a few groundbreakers to whom everyone else conformed. To me it makes the music deeper and richer to know a little of the foundation. The Beatles in turn were influenced by their predecessors and their contemporaries.
Did you know that before the pop version of Fleetwood Mac there was Peter Greene's Fleetwood Mac? This blues band had one of the greatest guitar players of all time, Peter Greene. During a tour of Germany he was slipped a hallucinogenic drug and he was never the same again.
You can see from the videos that Peter was a jovial and friendly guy. In one interview, some American guy in a low-rent TV studio is asking Peter Greene some unbelievably stupid questions. Peter is very sweet to this guy and just answers the stupid questions as best he can.
Check out Peter Greene's Fleetwood Mac on youtube.
Albatross (John Lennon wrote Sun King after hearing this song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSZHT2XvoLM
Sun King (Beatles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy0koqi2g9o
World Keeps on turning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivS5wjwGbn8
The feel, groove, timing, and tempo on this solo piece never waiver
Oh Well (This is one of my all-time favorite songs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuHPrAA3tMA
1 comment:
Very interesting. I totally miss my music classes from my college days. Its funny how that interesting info just slips to the back of my mind with all the other stuff that just pushes it out of the way! Thanks Kathy!
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