Names Behind the Music: Hip Hop’s Clive Campbell aka DJ Kool Herc

 Rap is defined as talking in rhyme to a beat while hip hop is referred to as the culture that embraces rap, graffiti, dancing and that whole urban lifestyle rooted on the streets. 

 

Talking to a beat is not new (from African griots to poetry slams) but the advent of rap as it’s known today began as a kind of backlash against the disco era. While there is no true originator, Clive Campbell or DJ Kool Herc has been dubbed the godfather of hip hop or one of its founding fathers. In 2007, the address where it all began, 1520 Sedgwick in the Bronx, was officially recognized by New York State as the birthplace of hip hop.

 

Herc is short for Hercules, a nickname tied his athletic ability as well as his commanding height of six feet five inches. The oldest of six children, Campbell emigrated with his family from Kingston, Jamaica in 1967 when he was twelve. They joined other Jamaican transplants in the Bronx, one of New York City’s poorest boroughs with neighborhood gangs and a high crime rate. 

 

Using records from his father’s collection and memories from Jamaica of banks of speakers set up for parties, Herc merged the two at a sister’s party. This was his first DJ gig. He rigged the speakers to make the sound louder and began using two turntables with duplicate records. That way he could extend the breaks or beat section that the dancers liked. What began as rec room parties moved on to the outdoors where Herc would “borrow” power for his turntables and speakers from any handy electrical source.  He also brought in his friend Coke La Roc to act as MC and keep the crowd energized with responses to his calls during the breaks. He went on to DJ at more parties, parks, school events and eventually clubs. His first professional gig was at the Twlight Zone in 1973. 

 

Herc became the B-Boy, the B standing for Beat, Break or Bronx. Since he played a mix of funk, soul, jazz, even disco records, focusing on the break of each, he also had a role in the beginning of sampling.  

 

But he was not the one to make the first rap record. It gets complicated. Some say that honor goes to Harlem rapper King Tim III by Fatback. He would also do the call and response during Fatback’s breaks.  Or the first was “Rappers Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang or “Superrappin’” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Grandmaster Flash did release the “The Message” in 1982, the lyrics chronicling real life in the slums. There is also no doubt that rap received a big boost when Run DMC recorded “Walk This Way” with rock band Aerosmith in 1986, bringing the genre into the mainstream where it remains today, far from its humble beginnings in the Bronx. 

 

In 2011, DJ Kool Herc underwent surgery paid for by donations since the hip hop pioneer had no health insurance. FYI he was born in April, 1955 if you want to calculate his age.

 

Acclaimed Documentary Chronicles the Legacy of the Sound City Recording Studio

The list of recordings on the Sound City Website sadly ends in 2011. That’s when the famous commercial studio that opened its doors in 1969 closed for good (the space is currently under private tenancy). On this incredible list are the who’s who of artists from the era: Neil Young, Dr. John, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, Rick Springfield, Santana, Pat Benatar, Nirvana, Blind Melon, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Crowes, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, the Foo Fighters, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, etc. etc. etc. Those are just some of the artists who recorded in analog on the studio’s equally famous Neve Console. 

Studio City is where Nirvana recorded the “Nevermind” album that catapulted the band to fame. Dave Grohl was the Nirvana drummer and when Cobain died, he went on to form the Foo Fighters. He not only produced and directed the two-hour documentary that honors this legendary studio but also rescued the Neve in 2011 and installed it at his own studio. Then he brought together many of the Sound City artists to record cuts as the Sound City Players including Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, his Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic, Rick Springfield and Fear singer Lee Vin.

The film debuted at Sundance in 2013 and initially made the theatre rounds, airing recently on the cable network Palladia TV. In this digital age, digital being ultimately responsible for the demise of Sound City, the footage recalls the joy of a band working live together in the studio, the creativity, the energy captured in these recordings. Only with players feeding off each other do mistakes or new ideas suddenly intrude on plans and become a memorable part of the final mix. Watching the show with its sound bites from artists, engineers and studio staff, comments from the filmmaker and historical footage kept me so engrossed that I didn’t take notes. To me, that’s less important than applauding Grohl for caring enough to bring the Sound City story to anyone who works in or loves music. As a songwriter, I cherish the experience of being in the studio with musicians and singers. These days, instruments can be recorded separately, sometimes from great geographic distances, so it’s possible for contributors to a recording to never even meet. It’s true that digital has made it easier and affordable to create recordings. Ergo, the “Sound City” decades may be permanently gone but luckily, thanks to Grohl, not forgotten.You can read more about the documentary, titled "Sound City," in a Billboard article. 

Names Behind the Song: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Some music lovers may or may not be familiar with songs such as Stormy Weather, I’ve Got the World on a String, April in Paris or a musical called Finian’s Rainbow. But these titles are like unknowns compared to the most famous work to come from the collaboration of Harold Arlen and lyricist E. Y. “Yip” Harburg: Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The correct title is actually Over the Rainbow.

The duo had already individually achieved success in popular music, Broadway and Hollywood when they signed a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer to score The Wizard of Oz. Although the film, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, was released in 1939 (75 years ago in 2014), it remains an ongoing family favorite.

It’s hard to believe that there was a fight to keep the song in the picture. In fact, while the original novel from 1899 is in public domain, Warner Brothers currently owns the rights to the film and battles over copyright infringement still happen in court today.

Arlen Wanted to Be a Singer

A surviving brother of twins born in Buffalo in 1905, Chaim Arlook chose Harold Arlen as his showbiz name when he worked as a piano player in Vaudeville. He performed as a vocalist as well as keyboard player with various bands in the 1920s to the mid 1930. His first popular song, Get Happy, led to a 1929 contract for Arlen and his then partner Ted Koehler. From there, the two began an association with the Cotton Club. They wrote Stormy Weather in 1933, the year that brought an end to prohibition and the same year that Arlen moved on to the movies, writing Let’s Fall in Love with Yip Harburg. It’s interesting that his friend and former roommate was Ray Bolger who played Scarecrow in the Oz film.

In the 1950s, Arlen teamed with Ira Gershwin to write music for A Star is Born and the song The Man That Got Away for Judy Garland. He continued to work in Hollywood and New York until his wife died in 1970. After that event, he apparently withdrew from social contact until he died of cancer in 1986 at the age of 81. A member of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, his catalog is listed on seven pages.

Harburg Was Among the Blacklisted

Yip Harburg, born in 1896 to a poor Jewish family on the lower east side of Manhattan, was a writer of lyrics, poems and books. As a champion of “democratic socialism,” his work often centered on related themes. Yip was a nickname, a shortened version of Yipsel, the Yiddish word for squirrel.

After college, Harburg worked briefly as a journalist and then ran an electrical appliance company until the stock market crash of 1929. That year, his long time friend from student days, Ira Gershwin, introduced him to his first collaborator, Jay Gorney. They wrote for Broadway and Hollywood, penning one of the Depression’s big songs, Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? The partnership ended when Gorney became involved with and eventually married Harburg’s wife.

 In 1932, Harburg cowrote April in Paris with composer Vernon Duke. In 1933, he and Arlen teamed up for their first hit song: It’s Only A Paper Moon. Although Arlen became a major music partner, Harburg also collaborated with other composers including Burton Lane (Old Devil Moon and Finian’s Rainbow). As for the Oz film, his contribution extended beyond lyrics to all the songs; as script editor, he also worked on some dialogue.

In 1951 came McCarthyism. The Un-American Activities Committee blacklisted Harburg for his political views. He even lost his passport. Unable to work in Hollywood, he focused on Broadway stage productions and worked with a variety of composers before the blacklisting ended and he was able to return to the film industry.

Along with Arlen, he is also a member of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and his list of songs takes up six pages. Yip died in 1981 of a heart attack at the wheel of his car, in Los Angeles, a month short of his 85th birthday.

Composer Richard Strauss: The Last of the Romantics

A black and white photograph of Richard Strauss in 1918 shows a somewhat handsome man with a direct gaze and an authoritative air in his expression. A band of white hair frames the back of his head, a thick mustache sits above his lip, and a bowtie puts a neat finish on the white collared shirt and vested suit. He would have been 54 that year, his life spanning both the 19th and 20th centuries from 1864 to 1949, the year of his 85th birthday.  He must have had a sense of humor for he is quoted as a conductor saying, "Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them." His father Franz was a French horn player in his birth city of Munich.

Strauss’ career took him from the heights of fame and fortune to bankruptcy at the end of the Second World War. Known for his tone poems and operas, Richard Georg Strauss is referred to as the last of the great Romantics in German music. He wrote his first work at age six and had his Symphony in D Minor performed in 1880, the year he turned 16. His tone poem “Don Juan” first brought him into the spotlight in 1889. He would have been 23. It’s reported that the audience both cheered and booed at the premiere when they first heard the dramatic work. The melodic motif played by soaring violins can still make you catch your breath today. The work happened to coincide with his courtship of a soprano, Pauline Maria de Ahna, who would become his wife.

Symphonic tone poems, first created by Franz Liszt, are defined as “an orchestral composition based on literature or folk tales” and often programmatic, that is, instruments imitating the sound of something real. You may not even realize you know Strauss’ music because the opening of his tone poem “Also Sprach Zarathustra” became familiar as the theme from the Stanley Kubrick film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

After a succession of tone poems including “Death and Transfiguration,” “Till Eulensiegel’s Merry Pranks” and “Don Quixote,”Strauss moved on to opera. His “Salome” shocked Dresden audiences of 1905. Because the soprano at the premiere found the work “distasteful and obscene,” a ballerina performed the first “Dance of the Seven Veils.” The opera required a huge orchestra and presented a major challenge to the leading role that Strauss envisioned for “a 16-year-old princess with the voice of an Isolde.” The public outcry when “Salome” opened at the Metropolitan Opera in New York led to a close after only one performance. Other operas followed including “Elektra” and “Der Rosenkavalier.” He next took over the conductor’s role with the Berlin Philharmonic, remaining in that post for twelve years.

It’s reported that his wife ruled Strauss’ household and allotted him only an allowance from his considerable income. But there was some controversy in his personal life because he worked in Germany under the Nazis. His daughter-in-law and grandchildren (he had one son in Franz born in 1897) were Jewish and he used his influence to protect them. But, when he wrote the opera “The Silent Woman” with Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig, the Reich removed him from conducting, although he did remain in Germany to the end of the war. You can read details on his personal life at the Richard Strauss website.

References: 

http://www.classicalcdreview.com/salome.html

http://people.famouswhy.com/richard_strauss/

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Richard_Strauss

From Obscurity to Grammy and Oscar Winner: Singer/Songwriter Ryan Bingham.

He’s a slender guy, not very tall, with a trim moustache/beard. To look at Ryan Bingham, you’d hardly expect vocals like his to come out of that slight build. He sounds like he has gravel in his throat and that makes his voice unique and unforgettable. What kind of music? Some say country. But not like country out of Nashville. Add a little folk, a little rock, a little blues and you’ve nailed it.

He and his original band The Dead Horses (Elijah Ford on bass, Corby Schaub on guitar and Matthew Smith on drums) were still selling self-produced albums (and tees) when I saw them at a local Nashville club, 3rd & Lindsley, the singer/songwriter on stage with his guitar, his face buried in a big black hat. Fast forward from back then to 2010, the release date of their third album titled Junky Star on Lost Highway Records. That’s not counting the Crazy Heart soundtrack featuring The Weary Kind, the theme song that won Bingham and his co-writer T Bone Burnett a Grammy as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Bingham also had a little on camera time in the movie that gave a well-deserved Oscar to star Jeff Bridges.

Would you believe he also spent his teenage years on the rodeo circuit as a bull rider? Born in 1981 in New Mexico, Bingham didn’t even start playing the guitar until he was around 17. Quoting him from a biography on GAC: “We lived in so many different towns (rural Texas) and even when we stayed in one town, we'd move to different houses. Something would happen, the bills wouldn't get paid and we'd get evicted. After a while, I'd get to where I wouldn't even unpack my stuff.” His mother eventually died of alcoholism and his father commited suicide.

He first played in public at the urging of friends. That led to a regular gig and ultimately to his “overnight” rise to fame. In addition to vocals, Bingham plays acoustic, electric and slide guitars along with harmonica. And he writes.

In 2015, he released his fifth album, “Fear and Saturday Night” on Axter Bingham Records. According to an article in Rolling Stone, he wrote most of the songs in a trailer with no power or phone service. This album, produced by Jim Scott, also features a new band.

With success came the first home of his own in California, but his road days are obviously far from over. He returns to Nashville on his 2015 U.S. tour but this time, to the Ascend Amphitheater. Then he’s off to Europe in the fall. Funny aside. The name of George Clooney’s character in the movie Up in the Air also happened to be Ryan Bingham.