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 and week ahead.
ART NOTES - the first major retrospective exhibition of paintings by the Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo in an exhibition sub-titled The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. thru May 3, 2015.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the guitarist for Big Brother and the Holding Company, Sam Andrew - who recruited Janis Joplin to be their singer, oversaw the music for the Joplin musical Love, Janis and whose bandmates brought out the music of Joplin better (I felt) than the musicians Janis hired later on - who has died at the age of 73 ...... and also to long-time radio TV and film announcer Gary Owens - one of only four people to appear on every episode of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (besides Dan Rowan & Dick Martin themselves, as well as Ruth Buzzi) - who has died at the age of 80.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Louis the Cat - an Ohio kitteh found in an abandoned box near a state park farm .... who is doing well and up for adoption.
ALTHOUGH the right-wing prime minister of Australia has survived an internal party leadership vote (at least for now) ...... his decision to award an Australian knighthood to Britain's Prince Philip caused many analysts to compile a list of the Prince's numerous gaffes - do have a look, and you'll see there are quite-a-few clunkers there.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Sherman the Cat - a Bay Area kitteh whom people lined-up for the chance to adopt. And that is because Sherman is a rare male calico - a 1 in 3,000 chance of happening - and the second link explains the genetic aspect.
A FORMER POLICEMAN in China has now become the nation's leading online gay matchmaker - and for something which was not decriminalized until 1997.
SCIENCE NOTES - as it grows economically (especially with closer ties to the US), the pollution levels of the nation of India are dangerously high ... yet India also has some advantages that might allow it to escape the fate that China finds itself in now.
SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV/film star Lori Triolo (Karen Truss on "Fringe", and the 2007 film "We're So Screwed") and Dutch film star Famke Janssen (Jean Grey/Phoenix in "X-Men" series).
...... and finally, for a song of the week ........................... ............ though he has seldom been in the headlines much recently, the 50+ year career of José Feliciano is a fascinating one: a quite dexterous acoustic guitarist and one of the few performers who have been equally successful with both Spanish and English recordings. He burst into popular consciousness with a 1968 event that seems comical today yet which created quite a false impression that took years to overcome .. but which he has.
Born in Puerto Rico in 1945, he was born blind due to congenital glaucoma and his family relocated to New York's Spanish Harlem in 1950. After being given a guitar by his grandfather, he spent hours practicing each day, listening not only to classical music's Andrés Segovia but also Wes Montgomery the jazzman. His first performance was at age nine at the Bronx's El Teatro Puerto Rico and later had an appearance on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. He left high school in 1962 (at age seventeen) to join the folk revival era of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez; even performing at the legendary Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. He was signed in 1963 by RCA Victor and after a novelty song "Everybody Do the Click" delved into folk/pop/flamenco music with "The Voice and Guitar of José Feliciano" and A Bag Full of Soul which led to an appearance at 1964's Newport Jazz Festival.
After a 1966 performance at a festival in Argentina, he recorded several albums in Spanish on RCA Victor International (with several charted hits). In 1967 he was dismayed when British authorities wouldn't allow his guide dog into the country (which led to his song "No Dogs Allowed") but did gain some airplay in the UK during his visit.
His break-out year was 1968 when he moved to Los Angeles and released the album Feliciano! with former Jefferson Airplane producer Rick Jarrard. Detecting the flamenco influences in Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger's hit single the previous year: he emphasized that in his cover of Light My Fire that reached #3 on the US pop charts (and a cover of the R&B tune "High Heel Sneakers" reached #25). The album reached Gold status, he won a Grammy for "Best Pop Song of the Year", plus his three(!) albums recorded in 1969 led to a "Best New Artist" Grammy.
Yet it was a performance - of a single song - that made him a household name. At the 1968 baseball World Series Game #5 in Detroit, Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell chose Feliciano to sing that night's Star Spangled Banner. And while his Latin-jazz styled version sounds mild today: back then (and especially when the pro-war and anti-war fever was running high) - both Feliciano and Harwell were condemned as Communists - after his not strictly-traditional rendition (my conservative father was none-too-pleased, I can assure you). As a result, many radio stations refused to play his songs, and his career momentarily stalled (although a recording of his version actually reached #50 on Billboard).
But he surfaced with a Christmas album in 1970 - and every year, Feliciano's Feliz Navidad re-appears, with ASCAP declaring it to be among the 25 most popular Yuletide songs. Later in the 1970's, he re-focused his attention on Spanish tunes (and even some in Italian). His last hit single in the US was the 1975 theme song to the TV show Chico and the Man that he wrote and sang (although he later had a #1 in Austria with The Sound of Vienna from 1987).
Throughout the 1970's, he continued to record, appeared on many other musicians' albums (Rock & Roll by John Lennon and Court & Spark by Joni Mitchell to name but two) and he also wrote for and appeared in TV roles such as "Kung Fu" and "McMillan & Wife" (as well as a cameo role years later in the 1996 film "Fargo").
He was the first performer signed to the new Motown Latin division in 1981, although his output began to slow down later on. Much more recently: in 2009 he released Djangoisms - dedicated to the Belgian gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt - a 2012 Elvis Presley tribute album, plus two recent Spanish-language albums: one an ode to México as well as a 2014 Duets album.
Although he was tagged with the "Communist" label back in 1968: José Feliciano describes himself both as a proud Puerto Rican and proud American, telling CBS's Sunday Morning program in 2006 that "only in the United States could my success have been possible".
And although he does not appear to be overtly political, some websites have his name listed as being that of a Republican. Yet that hasn't shielded him from experiencing some red-meat nativism: in 2009, a musical parody of "Feliz Navidad" was posted on the rightwing Human Events website (with remarks about Latinos with alcoholism and the plague). Mercifully, the magazine's website editor yanked it that day with an apology. In addition: his last English-language album of (all-original) material, The Soundtrax of My Life from 2007 features a song that the All-Music Guide essayist Al Campbell considers "a candidate for the most direct anti-war sentiment during the last half of the Bush administration" - entitled Killing's Not the Answer.
And talk about coming full-circle! - after the death of Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell in 2010, José Feliciano returned to Detroit to sing the national anthem forty-two years later ... which was requested by Ernie Harwell himself as he approached death. José was always grateful to Ernie - after all, it was Ernie who introduced José to his future wife and mother of their three kids.
José has received many honors over the years for his work: several Guitar Player magazine reader awards, a 1987 star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, PS #155 in his old Spanish Harlem neighborhood in 1995 was re-named the José Feliciano Performing Arts School and he has eight Grammy Awards to his credit (plus a Lifetime Achievement award).
José Feliciano will turn age 70 this coming September, and after a show in NYC - later this month, he will embark upon a European tour beginning in March. Doesn't seem as if retirement is looming anytime soon.
Of all of his work, it's his cover of the song Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying that is my favorite. And this song falls into that category of a song having different versions (and different lyrics) with the same title.
ASCAP lists a composer by the name of "Sean Patrick Sennett" and jump blues star Louis Jordan sang a version in 1946 (credited to "Joe Green") with Ray Charles singing a (further) modified version of it in 1960.
But José sings the version most familiar to modern listeners: the 1964 recording by Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers. And on Valentine's Day weekend, it seems apropos for some who are not in a positive frame of mind.
And below you can listen to it.
Don't let the sun catch you crying
The night's the time for all your tears
Your heart may be broken tonight
But tomorrow in the morning light
Don't let the sun catch you crying
We know that crying's not a bad thing
But stop your crying when the birds sing
It may be hard to discover
That you've been left for another
But don't forget that love's a game
And it can always come again, so
Don't let the sun catch you crying