Hard to imagine…… another 60 years ago! The Beatles had the top 5 spots on the billboard charts. Check it out. They also had seven other hits on the same top 100 on the same day.
#1 “Can’t Buy Me Love” #2 “Twist and Shout” #3 “She Loves You” #4 “ I Want To Hold Your Hand” #5 “Please Please Me”
An improvised bass lick one week turns into a piece of Exultation the next week on nylon stringed guitars!
But before they arrived they were featured on NBC news on Nov.18th 1963… Take a listen and hear a comment like this…. “One reason for the Beatles popularity is that it’s almost impossible to hear them…” and quite a few more comments that did not age well.
Beatles First Time on American TV
While in the planning stages to “invade” America Paul recalls… “I think one of the cheekiest things we ever did was to say to Brian Epstein, We’re not going to America until we’ve got a Number One record.”
“I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the group's first American number-one entering the charts on January 18,1964 at number 45. By February 1,1964 it was number 1.
And then, 60 Years ago today the Beatles touch down at JFK Airport at 1:20 PM to scenes never seen before and proceed to take over America.
The Beatles went on to become one the most popular and arguably most experimental bands of all time.They built bridges between “classical” (concert music) and popular music as well as other genres.
What happens when ambient sound and light mix with snow?
You may be looking at something on the wall "a little sideways” while someone is talking to you "a little sideways”. Or, you may be even walking into the New Year "a little sideways". Listen to this CHILL tune anytime and everything will straighten right up!
But….sometimes things are better sideways.
You might see your best bud and yell "What's the Score"? You may be watching a game and go in the kitchen and get a snack and come back and say ... "What's the Score?" You may even ask Santa ... "WHAT'S THE SCORE?" Here's the score.... the last Fall single of 2023 from the CHILL sessions.
A KIND OF BLUE MIST
This “double” single is from an unfinished album full ambient explorations. How does blue relate to sound or for that matter how does sound relate to blue? The “Soft Blue of Your Eyes” has been through several versions and this is the single version. It is for Lauren.
“Lost In A Blue Mist” could suggest getting lost while gazing in to soft blues eyes. The much longer EP version “I Lost You In a Blue Mist” can be found here. I used different guitars and keyboards to create these pieces.
On and on with my chill guitar series. We have cruised out of September and moved into October. Drive with me up and through the canyon in my ultra chill blue ‘57 Chevy convertible! It’s still warm enough to have the top down. Let the vibes from the sonic blue strat drive your car. The gas pedal is down, the sun is just to the right!
Cool cover art by Brian Murray.
I’ve been working on my chill guitar series for about a year now. I’ve just released this “chill” single titled “A Warm but Chill September”. It evokes the subtle changes in the ambience in visuals and moods all around us. This is the soundtrack for your Pre- Fall activities. CHECK it OUT! Look for a new Fall piece by October.
I spend a lot of time at Loud Sun Studio. I’m coming very close to a full 14 piece album in what I call my “chill” sessions. Here we are trying to figure out what a sweet desert mirage sounds like….
To hear what the sweet chill character of what the other tunes will be like go to/tedmann.bandcamp.com/ and checkout the EP Factoring the Chill.
Today, May 26th 1973 “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple made it’s way to the billboard charts.
“Possibly the simplest thing Ritchie Blackmore ever did is the most popular thing he ever did…. He wasted all this time playing wild guitar solos only to have 500,000 kids play that riff in their garage.It’s the ultimate rock riff:big dumb, stupid-looking and totally beautiful.” Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne of the Melvins.
Ritchie Blackmore said it was an inversion of the iconic motif of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. That may be a joke.
"Smoke on the Water"
This is the stunning "Miserere Mei Deus” (Psalm 51), composed by the Roman Catholic priest and Italian composer of the Roman School Gregorio Allegri (c. 1582 – 17 February 1652). It has seldom if ever been performed in a more sublime manner than by the London based vocal group,Voces8
The Miserere text is traditionally used for Holy Week during Tenebrae services.The well known story and the cry for mercy from King David’s words have reverberated through history.
The humility and yearning of this psalm is amplified in the back and forth of the the chant section with the homophonic and polyphonic textures presented in a double choir format.The ascent to the high C truly reaches to heaven. The subtle changes in stage position during the performance emphasizes the layers and changes of these textures in the prayer.
There are a lot of interesting stories surrounding this sublime piece. Some musicological and some enter a mythic realm. Knowing what a genius Mozart was this one always gets me. It has been said that 14-year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived at the Vatican for Easter 1n 1770. He was in awe by St Peter’s, but perhaps unsurprisingly, the greatest impression was made on him by Gregorio Allegri’s (c. 1582 – 17 February 1652) stunning "Miserere Mei Deus”. The story is that this unpublished piece was only performed during Holy Week in St. Peters. The precocious Mozart went home and wrote down from one hearing the whole composition from memory. There are more interesting events that led to how this composition evolved and came to be. (More on that in another post).
I can't believe it's been 60 years since the first Beatle album, Please Please Me was released.
I don't remember my first Beatles song that I heard on the radio, but I remember listening to them constantly. It was probably “She Loves You”.
Around that time, (1963) I got a transistor radio. It was a little brown radio and I would take it everywhere I went. I would bring it to bed with me and put the earphones on and hide my head under the pillow at night. That's so my parents wouldn't make me turn it off, or worse take it away from me.
Of course, besides the Beatles there were so many cool songs exploding on AM radio stations.I would listen long into the night.
Soon after I heard “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”songs from Please Please Me entered the air waves. Songs such as “Twist and Shout”,“Love Me Do”,”Anna”, and more.
“I Saw Her Standing There”, the first track was a stunner though. The count off and then then the band goes into and uptempo groove and McCartney starts “Well she was just 17……..”
The album is not just nostalgia but a straight forward performance of their stage show. It’s a real document of what they actually sounded like live! Still very fresh with great originals and excellent taste in covers.
Recorded in basically one day it was the realization of a self contained band of musicians that could play and write timeless hits.
The first EP from my “CHILL” sessions is Factoring the Chill. It has “CHILL” titles like “Cool Desert Mirage” and “She Walked in the Room Like a Spy” amongst others. It drops February 3rd 2023.
I’m happy to report that the immensely talented composer, percussionist and artist Ken Topham is featured on this recording. He did the art work to my Modes of Motion recording that was released this past November. We have collaborated throughout the years and it’s never enough. He is the legendary drummer for GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! and played the percussion parts for this recording.
The artwork for the album cover is by the very uniquely talented Brian Murray. He use to sit and sketch pictures of me as I played in a local Peterborough NH venue almost 40 years ago. I always love to see and am surprised to what develops next in his work…….. So imaginative and “CHILL” !
My “chill” guitar sessions have been going on and off for about a year and a half at Loud Sun Studio with sound wizard Ben Rogers. The goal was to bring my sonic blue Fender Strat, my little Fender Vibro Champ amp and maybe some picks to the studio and be as unprepared as possible.
Well that’s slightly exaggerated.My mind wasn’t totally blank. My preparation was reminiscing about some of my favorite guitar music that involved electric guitars. Which of course would take forever to list. However,a few would be anything by the Ventures, or my very large collection of obscure instrumental surf guitar bands from the 60’s to now. Vick Flick playing the James Bond theme, Duane Eddy playing “Raunchy” and “Rebel Rouser” and so many others like these with their captivating guitar tones. I always refer to all of this music as surf, spy and psychedelic. I think that gets to the point. That’s my filing system.
An interesting album that also informed these sessions was one titled Painted Desert released in 1995 with Ikue Mori doing drum programming and Robert Quine and Marc Ribot on guitars. I loved their playing and their conjuring allusions to the sounds that are mentioned here.The drum programming always stuck out and fascinated me as well as the lack of a bass. This at first bothered me and over time I really dug it!
So getting back to the main point… Other than thinking about this music that I love I showed up in the studio each week having no idea what would happen. I just started composing and recording and waited for “CHILL” tunes to develop. It is past time to just write and not worry.
It’s easily to do a little research and see that many think the word “guitar” probably comes from the ancient Greek word κιθάρα or kithara. Mythology attributes Hermes with creating the first kithara from a tortoise shell. So much for my tree question.
Some other words and terms that are related to guitar are gittern, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar. These all have distinctive personalities. They come in different sizes but look at least like they are related to the modern guitar. Exploring these will lead to more words and terms like citole, cittern, mandore, and of course the lute . So many words to explore. I’m going to look into the gittern first, or maybe the kithara. This is so open ended.
There is a question I regularly ask my students because it’s one I ask myself. Who looked at a tree and thought it could or should be a guitar? Did you ever think about that?
Which leads to the next question: When did that happen and where?
It is said that a plucked stringed instrument that closely resembles a guitar can be seen in a picture painted around 3,000 B.C. in Egypt. That doesn’t mean that it was then first though does it? We will have to explore.
Modes of Motion is a unique five movement work that explores the world of multiphonics and harmonics implemented on the guitar.
A multiphonic is an extended technique on an instrument in which several notes are produced at once from playing only one note. This includes wind, reed, and brass instruments, the human voice....as well as strings.
This is avant-garde. This is deep ambient listening to motives and textures that morph and bend time. You might like it :). See the cover on my web page. It’s beautiful art work by Ken Topham
The world needs another blog. I will start one about music and guitars…. and more!