I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend.
ART NOTES - an exhibition on loan (from the esteemed Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation) entitled Life of Cats will be on display at the Japan Society of New York City (on East 47th Street), opening on March 13th and running through June 7th.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the poet and songwriter Rod McKuen - who wrote songs that were performed by Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker and Dolly Parton - who has died at the age of 81 .... plus the Australian novelist Colleen McCullough - the author of the best-selling The Thorn Birds - who has died at the age of 77 ..... and also Luke Martin Jr. - the son of an ex-slave and Civil War Union soldier, who has died — 179 years after his father was born - at age 97.
AND, OF COURSE special note should be made of our passed angel, Cedwyn - who smiled so much that (at first) I wondered if she had a mini-coat hanger stuck in her mouth (shown below at Providence). Then I quickly realized it wasn't true ... because she laughed the rest of the time.
It is difficult to think of anyone else you would meet at Netroots Nation that touched so many people than her. You may not have recalled her (unusual) name ..... yet you never forgot her. I can't say we were close friends, and never met her outside the confines of Netroots Nation ....... but that was (apparently) enough to make one a Friend of Cedwyn.
I am glad that was my fate, too.
WEDNESDAY's CHILD is
Bart the Cat - a Florida kitteh who was struck by a vehicle, lifeless in a puddle of blood and was buried in a shallow grave. Not shallow enough: adapting Mark Twain's
"The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated", Bart dug-himself up and appeared meowing for food five days later. Although he suffered a broken jaw (and will lose an eye) he is expected to fully recover.
Stephen King, call-your-office ........ Pet Semetary III is at hand.
HISTORY NOTES - Zambia's president has appointed as vice president Inonge Wina - the widow of a leader who played a pivotal role in the country’s liberation struggles in the 1950's-60's - becoming the first female to hold a high-ranking position in the nation's history.
YUK for today - I can't find a link to it, but I recall that Ronald Reagan's first attorney general (William French Smith) was overly fond of society gala, inaugural events - one often saw him photographed in a tuxedo - that some conservative activists (who felt he should have been more of an activist, like Edwin Meese) complained that he would go "to the opening ... of a door".
THURSDAY's CHILD is Chloe the Cat - an English kitteh whose family was away for six weeks, and tried to climb back into their house ... only to be stuck in a sealed-up chimney without food or water. Amazingly (after being rescued in the nick of time) her veterinarian said, "It is extraordinary. She seems to have recovered very quickly and has bounced back."
GLAD TO SEE that many European business analysts are wary of the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (or TTIP) treaty. Not for the reduction of tariffs, which enjoy wide support. Instead, it is for the rights given to investors: who would be able to challenge countries (in special international dispute settlement panels) that bypass national courts.
BUSINESS NOTES - although a 2013 survey found that residents of Switzerland believed their central bank (the Swiss National Bank) to be their most respected national institution: that may change after its (surprise) decision on January 15th to abandon the Swiss franc's cap against the euro ... which made the Swiss franc shoot up by 30%, adversely affecting exporters, tourism and other parts of the economy.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Mittens the Cat - a sickly stray cat taken in by a Canadian family who discovered it was a hermaphrodite. And although (since they already have a male cat) they asked it be made a female .... the veterinarian convinced them it would be better to have it become a male (after being spayed, neutered and having reconstructive surgery).
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
BOOK NOTES - in an upcoming book about the career of the physicist/founder of the Polaroid corporation Edwin Land - whose company's post WW-II sales sagged until the launch of his instant photography Land camera - its author argues that Land is the natural forebear to Steve Jobs, believing that Polaroid should "give people products they do not even know they want".
SEPARATED at BIRTH - human-rights lawyer and U.N. commissioner Amal Alamuddin and Academy Award-winner Anne Hathaway - who was pleasantly surprised to be told she resembles the woman who married ......... well, some other actor last year.
...... and finally, for a song of the week .............................. regular readers will know that I am fond of reporting on the back-story of famous songs ... and this tune fits-the-bill.
I can't say that I was a fan of the music of Michael Jackson (in general) and of his landmark album Thriller (in particular). Three decades ago, one heard it constantly (seven of its nine tracks made the Top Ten) and the law-of-diminishing-returns definitely applied. Suffice-it-to-say: it is the best-selling album of all time, and I just left it at that.
With one exception: one of the lesser-known tunes on the album was Human Nature - a ballad that I liked from the start; leading one reviewer to say that it "set down a blueprint for what would become known as Adult R&B". Later, when one of my jazz heroes covered it I truly felt my initial hunch was correct. And now, come-to-find-out that it has an interesting genesis ... let's have a look at it.
This song was (essentially) written by the keyboard player Steve Porcaro - one of the three Porcaro brothers who performed in the band Toto. Interesting, too, because Toto was not a band I particularly cared for, either - I mean, "Hold the line .... love isn't always on time" just didn't do it for me. In time, I came to appreciate the talent that the band members had ... it was their choice of material that left me flat.
The Porcaro brothers were the sons of the veteran drummer Joe Porcaro and following the break-up of Toto in 1986, Steve Porcaro has dedicated himself to being a session musician and composer. In recent years, the 57 year-old keyboardist has included both film scores as well as the soundtrack to the TV program Justified on the FX network.
Mention should be made of Steve's brother Jeff Porcaro - the drummer on this song (plus three other tracks on Thriller) and also, as William Ruhlmann of the All-Music Guide wrote, "was arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer in rock from the mid-'70s to the early '90s". Jeff Porcaro recorded with Steely Dan, Seals & Crofts, Boz Scaggs, Barbra Streisand, Warren Zevon, Rickie Lee Jones, Pink Floyd, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Don Henley, Randy Newman, Lionel Richie, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Dire Straits and Bonnie Raitt for starters .. and often on their magnum-opus recordings. Jeff Porcaro died in 1992 at age 38 under mysterious circumstances: his bandmates insist it was due to an allergic reaction to pesticide use at his home, but the coroner's report attributed it to hardening of the arteries caused by cocaine use.
And mention should also be made of the legendary musician and producer Quincy Jones - whose sterling career is beyond compare ... yet if he had done nothing else but produce Thriller: its eight Grammy Awards would have ensured his place in history. And he is still at work while nearing age eighty-two.
Steve Porcaro explains how Human Nature came to be:
I had written the song for my daughter Heather. Something had happened at school and it just inspired me. I wrote the song while we were mixing (the Toto recording) Africa and was just tinkering on the piano and wrote Human Nature. I had written the lyrics, which were the same verse I was singing over and over again. I had the "Why, why" chorus with the slap echo. Like most of my songs, it was an unfinished song.
During the recording of
Thriller, Steve Porcaro and bandmate David Paich were assisting Quincy Jones; adding some synthesizer work and production help. Then, an amazing
twist of fate took place, according to Steve Porcaro:
Quincy had been asking David for songs and he was sending a messenger almost every day to David's house - where I was living at the time - to pick up anything David was working on. One time, (David) had gotten a call that the messenger was on his way and he called down to me and told me to throw something we'd been working on onto a cassette.
I didn't have any blank cassettes, so I took a cassette that had Human Nature on one side and turned the B-side over, rewound it and put on these two songs of David's and then gave them to the messenger.
Quincy Jones didn't much rate the two intended songs ..... but turned the cassette over and was truly delighted with Steve Porcaro's song ...
that had not intended to be given to Quincy Jones.
Said Porcaro, "It took David half an hour to tell Quincy that it wasn't his song!" ... but Quincy Jones did note the incomplete lyrics, and asked Porcaro to complete them.
I forced myself to write the lyrics and Quincy was less than thrilled with them (so) he asked me if I would mind if he brought in John Bettis to finish them. I was completely thrilled with what John did with the lyrics.
And this would be the
John Bettis who was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame with his co-written songs performed by George Strait, Celine Dion, Madonna, Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Karen Carpenter and others.
Bettis wrote the lyrics virtually overnight. The two composers (Bettis and Porcaro) then took the song to the studio the next day, meeting with Jones and Jackson.
"We just literally sang the song for them and gave them the lyric sheets," Bettis said, calling Jackson an "immense" spirit. "Luckily, they embraced it immediately." Jackson, he said, told him in an aside that the song was "perfect" for him.
The song eventually reached #7 in the pop charts, then receded into the background as the music world moved on (although it was later recorded by Stevie Wonder, Chris Brown and John Mayer).
Then, two years later in 1985, the trumpet legend Miles Davis decided to record it on his album You're Under Arrest - along with Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" (once again, a song I loved from a performer who wasn't my cup of tea). And Miles featured both tunes in his repertoire during the remaining six years of his life.
Jeff Porcaro concludes:
My father was a jazz musician and when I was growing up, most of the music we heard in our household was classical music and jazz - Miles Davis. He was my father's hero. Miles Davis was ingrained in all of us, so I was completely thrilled. I was so honored.
I remember doing a session with the bassist Neil Stubenhaus about six months after Miles did You're Under Arrest. He just cornered me and said "Do you realize how great it is to have Miles do one of your tunes? Do you have any idea what it means?"
I certainly did. It's one of the things I'm most proud of out of everything I've done.
With that background: here once is again is the Michael Jackson (vocal) version of the Steve Porcaro/John Bettis accidental hit
below .....
Looking out
Across the nighttime
The city winks a sleepless eye
Hear her voice
Shake my window
Sweet seducing sighs
Get me out
Into the nighttime
Four walls won't hold me tonight
If this town
Is just an apple
Then let me take a bite
Reaching out
To touch a stranger
Electric eyes are everywhere
See that girl
She knows I'm watching
She likes the way I stare
If they say "Why, why?"
Tell 'em that it's human nature
"Why, why, does he do it that way?"
And here is the Miles Davis (instrumental) version of Human Nature - which later spawned instrumental covers by David Benoit, Vijay Iyer and Marcus Miller. The Miles Davis version has its detractors (at least for the studio version) and yet Rolling Stone considered it to be one of the best cover versions of Jackson's material.
Well, below you can judge for yourself.